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Panic buying has been globally observed, leading to substantial stock-outs and supply chain disruptions, thus inducing additional panic buying. Regarding panic buying behavior as an intuitive over-protective measure during the strict lockdown and seal-off management in China, this study presented a synthetic conceptual model by integrating the protective action decision model (PADM). We examined inductively the relationships among media exposure, cognitive-affective risk perception, stakeholder perception, protective perception, and panic buying behavior using a survey of 517 participants who experienced panic buying during the Omicron epidemic in China. Results suggest that traditional media exposure could attenuate people’s affective risk perception, whereas social media exposure increases the degree of cognitive and affective aspects of risk perception. Furthermore, we detect that cognitive and affective risk perceptions positively affect people’s panic-buying behaviors. The effects of stakeholder and protective perceptions on panic buying were also examined.

The ultimate aim of psychological research is to disentangle everyday human functioning. Achieving this goal has always been limited by the necessity of balancing experimental control and ecological validity. Recent technical advances, however, reduce this trade-off immensely, perhaps even rendering it void: Sophisticated virtual reality (VR) systems provide not only high experimental control but also multidimensional and realistic stimuli, tasks, and experimental setups. Yet prior to applying VR as a standalone experimental method, an empirical foundation for its application needs to be established. To this end, this dissertation aims to shed light on whether and which changes in cognitive-affective standard findings result from increasing the ecological validity by means of VR paradigms. The four empirical studies included in this dissertation focus either on the affective or mnemonic processes and mechanisms occurring under immersive VR conditions compared to conventional laboratory setups. Study 1.1 investigated whether the electrophysiological correlates of the approach/avoidance dimension differ depending on the mode of presentation, i.e., immersive VR footage or a virtual 2D desktop. Study 2 was extended by a behavioral component. Full-body responses were enabled within this paradigm to examine holistic fear responses and to put to the test whether the respective electrophysiological responses translate from keystrokes to natural responses. With respect to the retrieval of such immersive experiences, Study 1.2 aimed to replicate the memory superiority effect found for VR conditions compared to conventional conditions. The generalizability of this effect will be examined using complex, multimodal scenes. Going one step further, Study 3 differentiated the retrieval mechanisms underlying VR-based or conventional laboratory engrams on the electrophysiological level. The well-established theta old/new effect served as a benchmark to check whether cognitive processes obtained under conventional conditions translate to VR conditions. The results of these studies are discussed with respect to whether and how increasing ecological validity alters the standard findings expected on the basis of the previous research background. Special attention will be paid to the differences between conventional laboratory setups and sophisticated VR setups with the aim to identify possible sources of the obtained deviations from standard findings. Such changes in the findings that overlap and exceed all studies beyond their primary focus, whether emotional or mnemonic, are discussed in terms of embodied simulations and the predictive coding hypothesis. A shared mental 3D default space is proposed as a possible source of fundamental differences between conventional and VR-based research outcomes. In particular, it will be demonstrated that conventional research approaches and findings may not only be amplified but fundamentally altered when translated to VR paradigms.

Este trabajo se propuso analizar los procesos cognitivos y socio-afectivos implicados en elaprendizaje del canto coral en niños de educación primaria en una escuela pública venezolana.El estudio se realizó con 7 niñas y 3 niños de los 4º, 5º y 6º grados de educación primaria. Lastécnicas de investigación fueron la observación participante, interrogatorios colectivos y laentrevista con apoyo en un cuestionario, grabaciones de audio y video; así mismo se usaroninstrumentos musicales como el cuatro venezolano y el piano. El análisis de contenido de lainformación recolectada mediante las observaciones y los diálogos con los alumnosparticipantes en el estudio develan el uso tanto de procesos cognitivos (percepción, memoria,descripción, imitación y evaluación) como de procesos sociales (sentido de grupo,solidaridad, etc.) y afectivos (satisfacción, responsabilidad, constancia y respeto). Elreconocimiento de la presencia de todos estos procesos proporcionó una mayor calidad a lasactividades de enseñanza- aprendizaje del canto coral a estudiantes de educación básica.Además, haciendo las adaptaciones adecuadas, los resultados de esta pesquisa podrían serutilizados en la educación musical en general en diversos niveles educativos., Este trabalho teve como objetivo analisar os processos cognitivos e socioafetivos envolvidosna aprendizagem do canto coral em crianças de escolas primárias de uma escola públicavenezuelana. O estudo foi realizado com 7 meninas e 3 meninos da 4ª, 5ª e 6ª séries do ensinofundamental. As técnicas de investigação foram a observação participante, interrogatórioscoletivos e a entrevista com suporte em questionário, gravações em áudio e vídeo; da mesmaforma, instrumentos musicais como o cuatro venezuelano e o piano foram usados. A análisede conteúdo das informações coletadas por meio de observações e diálogos com os alunosparticipantes do estudo revela o uso de processos cognitivos (percepção, memória, descrição,imitação e avaliação) e processos sociais (senso de grupo, solidariedade, etc.) e afetivos(satisfação, responsabilidade, perseverança e respeito). O reconhecimento da presença detodos esses processos proporcionou maior qualidade às atividades de ensino-aprendizagem docanto coral aos alunos do ensino fundamental. Além disso, ao fazer as devidas adaptações, osresultados desta pesquisa podem ser utilizados no ensino da música em geral em vários níveiseducacionais., This work aimed to analyze the cognitive and socio-affective processes involved in thelearning of choral singing in children from primary schools in a Venezuelan public school.The study was carried out with 7 girls and 3 boys from the 4th, 5th and 6th grades ofelementary school. The investigative techniques were participant observation, collectiveinterrogations and the interview supported by a questionnaire, audio and video recordings;similarly, musical instruments like the Venezuelan cuatro and the piano were used. Thecontent analysis of the information collected through observations and dialogues with thestudy’s participating students reveals the use of cognitive processes (perception, memory,description, imitation and evaluation) and social processes (sense of group, solidarity, etc.)and affective (satisfaction, responsibility, perseverance and respect). The recognition of thepresence of all these processes offers higher quality to the teaching-learning activities ofchoral singing to elementary school students. In addition, when making the necessaryadaptations, the results of this research can be used in the teaching of music in general atvarious educational levels.

There has been an increasing interest in understanding the personality processes that interact with the environment and lead to trait-manifesting behaviour. Researchers have noted that combining trait and cognitive-affective-motivational approaches to personality can lead to a greater understanding of trait expressions, the identification of moderators of trait expressions, and the development of new interventions to change personality and individual differences (Baumert & Schmitt, 2012). However, thus far, the research has primarily focused on the traits of neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness, and have not included the trait of conscientiousness. This is despite the known relationship between conscientiousness and important outcomes, such as academic performance. Alongside this limitation to previous research, attempts to link cognitive-affective processes to other personality traits, that are presumed to have substantial affective components, such as extraversion and neuroticism, have been mixed. These mixed results may be partly due to methodological limitations, such as the use of broadly valenced stimuli that do not necessarily have specific personal relevance to the participants in the study. Consequently, the research reported in this thesis focused upon the question, “How are personality traits, and conscientiousness in particular, related to cognitive-affective processes for relevant stimuli?” It was expected that the results of the studies in the thesis would further the understanding of the affective core of conscientiousness, and provide insight into the relationship between traits and how associated cognitive-affective processes interact with the environment to lead to trait-manifesting behaviour. In line with this question and expectations, the current research had four purposes:  Firstly, to see whether conscientiousness was associated with cognitive-affective processes for academic-related stimuli, in the categories of academic-approach, academic-avoidance, performance-evaluative, and academic-neutral, among samples of university students.  Secondly, to see whether extraversion and neuroticism were associated with the cognitive-affective processes of these academic-relevant stimuli, which would have personal relevance/significance to the student participants in the studies.  Thirdly, to see whether the situational context (week-of-semester in which the study was conducted) moderated the relationships between traits and cognitive affective processes.  Finally, to see whether cognitive-affective processes were related to intention to commit academic-conscientious behaviour in the coming week. These main aims were investigated across three studies and three different cognitive-affective processes: chronic accessibility, attentional bias, and appraisals. Study 1 investigated chronic accessibility (how accessible and readily activated a concept is) using a lexical decision task with 85 undergraduate students. The results indicated that conscientiousness was positively associated with chronic accessibility of academic-neutral words. Furthermore, extraversion was positively and neuroticism was negatively associated with chronic accessibility of academic-approach words. Week-of-semester in which the study was conducted moderated the relationship between neuroticism and chronic accessibility of academic-avoidance stimuli, although the simple slopes were not significant. Study 2 investigated attentional bias (the preferential attention of one category of stimuli over another) in 120 undergraduate students, using the dot-probe task across two stimulus durations: 100ms, which should capture relatively automatic attentional processing; and 500ms, which should capture more controlled attentional processing. The results indicated that conscientiousness was positively associated with attentional bias for performance-evaluative stimuli at both 100ms and 500ms. Additionally, intention to commit academic-conscientiousness behaviours (e.g., “Show up for a class more than 5 minutes early”) in the next week was associated with attentional bias for performance-evaluative stimuli at 100ms. Neuroticism was positively associated with attentional bias for academic-avoidance stimuli at both 100ms and 500ms. The relationship between neuroticism and attentional bias for academic-avoidance stimuli at 100ms was moderated by week-of-semester, in that the relationship was only significant later in the semester. Study 3 investigated the relationship between traits and the appraisal (the cognitive categorisation of stimuli) of pleasantness and relevance/significance of stimuli in 120 undergraduate students. Conscientiousness had a medium to strong relationship with both appraisal types (i.e., pleasantness- and relevance/significance-appraisals) across all stimulus categories, except for pleasantness-appraisals of academic-avoidance stimuli. Overall, stimulus-appraisals accounted for 35% of the variance in conscientiousness, and 43% of the variance in achievement striving. Pleasantness-appraisals of academic-neutral stimuli mediated the relationship between conscientiousness and intentions to commit conscientious academic behaviours in the next week. Neuroticism was associated with the relevance/significance, but not pleasantness, appraisals of academic-avoidance stimuli, and extraversion was associated with the pleasantness, but not relevance/significance, appraisals of academic-approach stimuli. The results of these studies have important implications for understanding personality and cognitive-affective processes. Firstly, the results of these studies indicate that conscientiousness is associated with the cognitive-affective processing of trait-relevant/significant stimuli. This calls into question the assumption that conscientiousness is a trait which primarily reflects self-regulation, and is unrelated to the affective processing of stimuli. Secondly, the finding that relevance/significance appraisals are important in explaining the relationships between traits and the stimuli indicates that future research may benefit from explicitly considering stimuli relevance/significance when designing cognitive-affective research. Investigations of stimuli relevance/significance may be more useful than broader stimuli-valence when seeking to investigate the affective core of traits. Thirdly, the finding that week-of-semester moderated the relationship between neuroticism and cognitive-affective processes provides initial evidence that naturally occurring situational contexts moderate the relationship between Big Five traits and cognitive-affective processes. Finally, it is expected that this research may have practical implications for a new generation of game-based personality assessments, which measure personality traits through cognitive or cognitive-affective tasks.