DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0361622 ISSN: 1932-6203

Frontal alpha asymmetry and instructed satisfaction-rating changes after price presentation: An exploratory pilot study

Passavorn Limmeechokchai, Bu-nga Chaisuwan, Yodchanan Wongsawat, Jetsada Arnin
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This exploratory pilot study asked whether frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) recorded while a price is displayed varies with the satisfaction-rating change a consumer then makes. Twenty-one participants completed two blocks of 30 trials: view a product, give a pre-price rating (1–9), see the price, give a post-price rating, which they were instructed to change except at the scale limits. The change is described by its direction and magnitude (

| Δ |
, provisionally labeled Decision Momentum), two descriptions of one difference score. FAA was computed from relative alpha power at F3/F4 over 0–3 s after price onset on average-referenced data. Inference rests on 19 participants and 820 trials. The primary pooled test of the direction
×
magnitude interaction was inconclusive (
β = − 0.051
, 95% CI
[ − 0.111 , 0.009 ]
, p  = 0.093). An exploratory block-stratified analysis found an interaction in the first block (
β = − 0.087 , 95% CI
[ − 0.152 , − 0.021 ] , p  = 0.010), although neither of its two component slopes differed clearly from zero. Support varied across specifications, and five alternative operationalizations of FAA did not reproduce it. The same model applied to the window before price onset, where the predictors cannot yet reflect the price, produced an interaction of comparable or larger size pooled and in the second block. In the first block, the direct comparison did not establish a difference between windows, and adjusting for pre-price FAA left the first-block estimate unchanged ( p  = 0.008); in the second block, the two windows did differ ( p  = 0.021), the association being present before the price and not after it. Single-trial classification of change direction showed modest performance with uncertain generalizability (ROC AUC 0.538; participant bootstrap 95% CI [0.476, 0.564]). The association is reported as hypothesis-generating; attributing it specifically to price-related processing is not supported by these data.

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