Shared Planning Time: A Novel Context for Studying Teachers' Discourse and Beliefs about Learning and Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gill, Michele Gregoire; Hoffman, Bobby

2009-01-01

Background/Context: Although teachers' core instructional beliefs are difficult to accurately measure, they provide a framework for understanding the thinking that underlies important curricular and pedagogical decisions made in the classroom. Previous research has primarily used self-report to study teacher beliefs, but self-report is better for…

Context Fear Learning Specifically Activates Distinct Populations of Neurons in Amygdala and Hypothalamus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trogrlic, Lidia; Wilson, Yvette M.; Newman, Andrew G.; Murphy, Mark

2011-01-01

The identity and distribution of neurons that are involved in any learning or memory event is not known. In previous studies, we identified a discrete population of neurons in the lateral amygdala that show learning-specific activation of a c-"fos"-regulated transgene following context fear conditioning. Here, we have extended these studies to…

Context Switching with Multiple Register Windows: A RISC Performance Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Konsek, Marion B.; Reed, Daniel A.; Watcharawittayakul, Wittaya

1987-01-01

Although previous studies have shown that a large file of overlapping register windows can greatly reduce procedure call/return overhead, the effects of register windows in a multiprogramming environment are poorly understood. This paper investigates the performance of multiprogrammed, reduced instruction set computers (RISCs) as a function of window management strategy. Using an analytic model that reflects context switch and procedure call overheads, we analyze the performance of simple, linearly self-recursive programs. For more complex programs, we present the results of a simulation study. These studies show that a simple strategy that saves all windows prior to a context switch, but restores only a single window following a context switch, performs near optimally.

When three is not some: on the pragmatics of numerals.

PubMed

Shetreet, Einat; Chierchia, Gennaro; Gaab, Nadine

2014-04-01

Both numerals and quantifiers (like some) have more than one possible interpretation (i.e., weak and strong interpretations). Some studies have found similar behavior for numerals and quantifiers, whereas others have shown critical differences. It is, therefore, debated whether they are processed in the same way. A previous fMRI investigation showed that the left inferior frontal gyrus is linked to the computation of the strong interpretation of quantifiers (derived by a scalar implicature) and that the left middle frontal gyrus and the medial frontal gyrus are linked to processing the mismatch between the strong interpretation of quantifiers and the context in which they are presented. In the current study, we attempted to characterize the similarities and differences between numbers and quantifiers by examining brain activation patterns related to the processing of numerals in these brain regions. When numbers were presented in a mismatch context (i.e., where their strong interpretation did not match the context), they elicited brain activations similar to those previously observed with quantifiers in the same context type. Conversely, in a match context (i.e., where both interpretations of the scalar item matched the context), numbers elicited a different activation pattern than the one observed with quantifiers: Left inferior frontal gyrus activations in response to the match condition showed decrease for numbers (but not for quantifiers). Our results support previous findings suggesting that, although they share some features, numbers and quantifiers are processed differently. We discuss our results in light of various theoretical approaches linked to the representation of numerals.

RESISTANCE TO EXTINCTION AND RELAPSE IN COMBINED STIMULUS CONTEXTS

PubMed Central

Podlesnik, Christopher A; Bai, John Y. H; Elliffe, Douglas

2012-01-01

Reinforcing an alternative response in the same context as a target response reduces the rate of occurrence but increases the persistence of that target response. Applied researchers who use such techniques to decrease the rate of a target problem behavior risk inadvertently increasing the persistence of the same problem behavior. Behavioral momentum theory asserts that the increased persistence is a function of the alternative reinforcement enhancing the Pavlovian relation between the target stimulus context and reinforcement. A method showing promise for reducing the persistence-enhancing effects of alternative reinforcement is to train the alternative response in a separate stimulus context before combining with the target stimulus in extinction. The present study replicated previous findings using pigeons by showing that combining an “alternative” richer VI schedule (96 reinforcers/hr) with a “target” leaner VI schedule (24 reinforcers/hr) reduced resistance to extinction of target responding compared with concurrent training of the alternative and target responses (totaling 120 reinforcers/hr). We also found less relapse with a reinstatement procedure following extinction with separate-context training, supporting previous findings that training conditions similarly influence both resistance to extinction and relapse. Finally, combining the alternative stimulus context was less disruptive to target responding previously trained in the concurrent schedule, relative to combining with the target response trained alone. Overall, the present findings suggest the technique of combining stimulus contexts associated with alternative responses with those associated with target responses disrupts target responding. Furthermore, the effectiveness of this disruption is a function of training context of reinforcement for target responding, consistent with assertions of behavioral momentum theory. PMID:23008521

Measuring reward assessment in a semi-naturalistic context

PubMed Central

Machado, Christopher J.; Bachevalier, Jocelyne

2007-01-01

Studying the neural mechanisms underlying complex goal-directed behaviors, such as social behavior, reward seeking or punishment avoidance, has become increasingly tractable in humans, nonhuman primates and rodents. In most experiments, however, goal-directed behaviors are measured in a laboratory setting, which is vastly different from the context in which these behaviors naturally occur. This study adapted a reward assessment paradigm, previously conducted with nonhuman primates in the controlled environment of a WGTA (Machado and Bachevalier, 2007), to a more naturalistic context. We used this new paradigm to examine the effects of bilateral amygdaloid, hippocampal or orbital frontal cortex lesions on established food and nonfood preferences. Behavioral modification following reinforcer devaluation was also measured. Consistent with our previous study, none of the lesions produced changes in preference for palatable foods relative to pre-surgery, but animals with amygdala lesions displayed heightened preference for unpalatable foods that control or other operated animals typically avoided. In contrast to several previous WGTA-based experiments, nonfood preference was not affected by any of the lesions. Finally, animals with orbital frontal cortex lesions continued to select preferred foods after satiation, but those with amygdala, hippocampal or sham lesions altered their foraging behavior appropriately and selected less of the sated food. These findings parallel food devaluation results obtained with these same animals when tested in the WGTA. Overall, this study stresses the importance of testing context when measuring decision-making abilities in nonhuman primates with selective brain lesions. PMID:17693034

Controlled Retrieval of Specific Context Information in Children and Adults.

PubMed

Lorsbach, Thomas C; Friehe, Mary J; Teten, Amy Fair; Reimer, Jason F; Armendarez, Joseph J

2015-01-01

This study adapted a procedure used by Luo and Craik (2009) to examine whether developmental differences exist in the ability to use controlled retrieval processes to access the contextual details of memory representations. Participants from 3 age groups (mean ages 9, 12, and 25 years) were presented with words in 3 study contexts: with a black-and-white picture, with a color picture, or alone without a picture. Six recognition tests were then presented that varied in the demands (high or low) placed on the retrieval of specific contextual information. Each test consisted of a mixture of words that were old targets from 1 study context, distractors (i.e., previously studied words from a different context), and completely new words. A high-specificity and a low-specificity test list was paired with each test question, with high and low specificity being determined by the nature of the distractors used in a test list. High-specificity tests contained words that were studied in similar contexts: old targets (e.g., words studied with black-and-white pictures) and distractors (e.g., words studied with color pictures). In contrast, low-specificity tests contained words that were studied in dissimilar contexts: old targets (e.g., words studied with black-and-white pictures) and distractors (e.g., words previously studied without a picture). Relative to low-specificity tests, the retrieval conditions of high-specificity tests were assumed to place greater demands on the controlled access of specific contextual information. Analysis of recollection scores revealed that age differences were present on high-but not low-specificity tests, with the performance of 9-year-olds disproportionately affected by the retrieval demands of high-specificity tests.

The Controlled Retrieval of Specific Context Information in Children and Adults

PubMed Central

Lorsbach, Thomas C.; Reimer, Jason F.; Friehe, Mary J.; Armendarez, Joseph J.; Teten, Amy Fair

2017-01-01

The present study adapted a procedure used recently by Luo and Craik (2009) in order to examine whether developmental differences exist in the ability to use controlled retrieval processes to access the specific contextual details of memory representations. Participants from three age groups (Mean ages: 9, 12, and 25 years) were presented with words in three study contexts: with a black-and-white picture, with a color picture, or alone without a picture. Six recognition tests were then presented that varied in the demands (high or low) placed on the retrieval of specific contextual information. Each test consisted of a mixture of words that were old targets from one study context, distractors (i.e., previously studied words from a different context), and completely new words. A “high specificity” and a “low specificity” test list was paired with each test question, with “high” and “low” specificity being determined by the nature of the distractors used in a test list. High specificity tests contained words that were studied in similar contexts: old targets (e.g., words studied with black-and-white pictures) and distractors (e.g., words studied with color pictures). In contrast, low specificity tests contained words that were studied in dissimilar contexts: old targets (e.g., words studied with black-and-white pictures) and distractors (e.g., words previously studied without a picture). Relative to low specificity tests, the retrieval conditions of high specificity tests were assumed to place greater demands on the controlled access of specific contextual information. Analysis of recollection scores revealed that age differences were present on high, but not low specificity tests, with the performance of 9-year olds being disproportionately affected by the retrieval demands of high specificity tests. PMID:26219173

The Formation of the South Korean Identity through National Curriculum in the South Korean Historical Context: Conflicts and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

So, Kyunghee; Kim, Jungyun; Lee, Sunyoung

2012-01-01

This study explores how the South Korean identity has been formed and transformed by examining the Korean national curriculum in its historical context. The study first examines how the Korean identity, previously formed by traditional ethnic values, has been transformed during the period of national modernization. It then describes the efforts to…

Putting Students' Views of School Safety into Context: A Comparison of Adolescent Personal Safety across Locations in Israel

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yablon, Yaacov Boaz; Addington, Lynn A.

2010-01-01

While previous research suggests that students feel safe at school, little attention has been given to studying adolescent feelings of safety in various locations. Such direct comparisons would provide a context for evaluating and better understanding students' perceptions of safety at school. The present study examines this issue by comparing…

Validating a Culturally-Sensitive Social Competence Training Programme for Adolescents with ASD in a Chinese Context: An Initial Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Raymond Won Shing; Leung, Cecilia Nga Wing; Ng, Denise Ching Yiu; Yau, Sania Sau Wai

2018-01-01

Previous studies on social skills training on ASD were done almost exclusively in the West with children as the main subjects. Demonstrations of the applicability of social interventions in different cultures and age groups are warranted. The current study outlined the development and preliminary evaluation of a CBT-context-based social competence…

The social context moderates the relationships between neighborhood safety and adolescents’ physical activities

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Background. Previous studies of neighborhood safety and physical (in)activity have typically neglected to consider the youth’s peer context as a modifier of these relationships. Objective. Test the independent and interactive effects of perceived neighborhood safety and time spent with friends and p...

Loss and persistence of implicit memory for sound: evidence from auditory stream segregation context effects.

PubMed

Snyder, Joel S; Weintraub, David M

2013-07-01

An important question is the extent to which declines in memory over time are due to passive loss or active interference from other stimuli. The purpose of the present study was to determine the extent to which implicit memory effects in the perceptual organization of sound sequences are subject to loss and interference. Toward this aim, we took advantage of two recently discovered context effects in the perceptual judgments of sound patterns, one that depends on stimulus features of previous sounds and one that depends on the previous perceptual organization of these sounds. The experiments measured how listeners' perceptual organization of a tone sequence (test) was influenced by the frequency separation, or the perceptual organization, of the two preceding sequences (context1 and context2). The results demonstrated clear evidence for loss of context effects over time but little evidence for interference. However, they also revealed that context effects can be surprisingly persistent. The robust effects of loss, followed by persistence, were similar for the two types of context effects. We discuss whether the same auditory memories might contain information about basic stimulus features of sounds (i.e., frequency separation), as well as the perceptual organization of these sounds.

Semantic contextual cuing and visual attention.

PubMed

Goujon, Annabelle; Didierjean, André; Marmèche, Evelyne

2009-02-01

Since M. M. Chun and Y. Jiang's (1998) original study, a large body of research based on the contextual cuing paradigm has shown that the visuocognitive system is capable of capturing certain regularities in the environment in an implicit way. The present study investigated whether regularities based on the semantic category membership of the context can be learned implicitly and whether that learning depends on attention. The contextual cuing paradigm was used with lexical displays in which the semantic category of the contextual words either did or did not predict the target location. Experiments 1 and 2 revealed that implicit contextual cuing effects can be extended to semantic category regularities. Experiments 3 and 4 indicated an implicit contextual cuing effect when the predictive context appeared in an attended color but not when the predictive context appeared in an ignored color. However, when the previously ignored context suddenly became attended, it immediately facilitated performance. In contrast, when the previously attended context suddenly became ignored, no benefit was observed. Results suggest that the expression of implicit semantic knowledge depends on attention but that latent learning can nevertheless take place outside the attentional field. Copyright 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Marking and Feedback Provision on Essay-Based Coursework: A Process Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomas, Carmen

2014-01-01

Research on the marking process has focused mainly on judgement and strategy use. Previous studies have depicted the marking process as a monolithic sequence of marking single scripts, and primarily in examination marking contexts. The present study investigated the marking process encompassing aspects relatively neglected in previous research:…

Neural Differentiation of Incorrectly Predicted Memories.

PubMed

Kim, Ghootae; Norman, Kenneth A; Turk-Browne, Nicholas B

2017-02-22

When an item is predicted in a particular context but the prediction is violated, memory for that item is weakened (Kim et al., 2014). Here, we explore what happens when such previously mispredicted items are later reencountered. According to prior neural network simulations, this sequence of events-misprediction and subsequent restudy-should lead to differentiation of the item's neural representation from the previous context (on which the misprediction was based). Specifically, misprediction weakens connections in the representation to features shared with the previous context and restudy allows new features to be incorporated into the representation that are not shared with the previous context. This cycle of misprediction and restudy should have the net effect of moving the item's neural representation away from the neural representation of the previous context. We tested this hypothesis using human fMRI by tracking changes in item-specific BOLD activity patterns in the hippocampus, a key structure for representing memories and generating predictions. In left CA2/3/DG, we found greater neural differentiation for items that were repeatedly mispredicted and restudied compared with items from a control condition that was identical except without misprediction. We also measured prediction strength in a trial-by-trial fashion and found that greater misprediction for an item led to more differentiation, further supporting our hypothesis. Therefore, the consequences of prediction error go beyond memory weakening. If the mispredicted item is restudied, the brain adaptively differentiates its memory representation to improve the accuracy of subsequent predictions and to shield it from further weakening. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Competition between overlapping memories leads to weakening of nontarget memories over time, making it easier to access target memories. However, a nontarget memory in one context might become a target memory in another context. How do such memories get restrengthened without increasing competition again? Computational models suggest that the brain handles this by reducing neural connections to the previous context and adding connections to new features that were not part of the previous context. The result is neural differentiation away from the previous context. Here, we provide support for this theory, using fMRI to track neural representations of individual memories in the hippocampus and how they change based on learning. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/372022-10$15.00/0.

Semantic Processing in the Production of Numerals across Notations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herrera, Amparo; Macizo, Pedro

2012-01-01

In the present work, we conducted a series of experiments to explore the processing stages required to name numerals presented in different notations. To this end, we used the semantic blocking paradigm previously used in psycholinguist studies. We found a facilitative effect of the semantic blocked context relative to the mixed context for Arabic…

Incidental and Context-Responsive Activation of Structure- and Function-Based Action Features during Object Identification

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Chia-lin; Middleton, Erica; Mirman, Daniel; Kalenine, Solene; Buxbaum, Laurel J.

2013-01-01

Previous studies suggest that action representations are activated during object processing, even when task-irrelevant. In addition, there is evidence that lexical-semantic context may affect such activation during object processing. Finally, prior work from our laboratory and others indicates that function-based ("use") and structure-based…

Integration Processes Compared: Cortical Differences for Consistency Evaluation and Passive Comprehension in Local and Global Coherence.

PubMed

Egidi, Giovanna; Caramazza, Alfonso

2016-10-01

This research studies the neural systems underlying two integration processes that take place during natural discourse comprehension: consistency evaluation and passive comprehension. Evaluation was operationalized with a consistency judgment task and passive comprehension with a passive listening task. Using fMRI, the experiment examined the integration of incoming sentences with more recent, local context and with more distal, global context in these two tasks. The stimuli were stories in which we manipulated the consistency of the endings with the local context and the relevance of the global context for the integration of the endings. A whole-brain analysis revealed several differences between the two tasks. Two networks previously associated with semantic processing and attention orienting showed more activation during the judgment than the passive listening task. A network previously associated with episodic memory retrieval and construction of mental scenes showed greater activity when global context was relevant, but only during the judgment task. This suggests that evaluation, more than passive listening, triggers the reinstantiation of global context and the construction of a rich mental model for the story. Finally, a network previously linked to fluent updating of a knowledge base showed greater activity for locally consistent endings than inconsistent ones, but only during passive listening, suggesting a mode of comprehension that relies on a local scope approach to language processing. Taken together, these results show that consistency evaluation and passive comprehension weigh differently on distal and local information and are implemented, in part, by different brain networks.

Punish the Perpetrator or Compensate the Victim? Gain vs. Loss Context Modulate Third-Party Altruistic Behaviors.

PubMed

Liu, Yingjie; Li, Lin; Zheng, Li; Guo, Xiuyan

2017-01-01

Third-party punishment and third-party compensation are primary responses to observed norms violations. Previous studies mostly investigated these behaviors in gain rather than loss context, and few study made direct comparison between these two behaviors. We conducted three experiments to investigate third-party punishment and third-party compensation in the gain and loss context. Participants observed two persons playing Dictator Game to share an amount of gain or loss, and the proposer would propose unfair distribution sometimes. In Study 1A, participants should decide whether they wanted to punish proposer. In Study 1B, participants decided to compensate the recipient or to do nothing. This two experiments explored how gain and loss contexts might affect the willingness to altruistically punish a perpetrator, or to compensate a victim of unfairness. Results suggested that both third-party punishment and compensation were stronger in the loss context. Study 2 directly compare third-party punishment and third-party compensation in the both contexts, by allowing participants choosing between punishment, compensation and keeping. Participants chose compensation more often than punishment in the loss context, and chose more punishments in the gain context. Empathic concern partly explained between-context differences of altruistic compensation and punishment. Our findings provide insights on modulating effect of context on third-party altruistic decisions.

The Decay of Motor Memories Is Independent of Context Change Detection

PubMed Central

Brennan, Andrew E.; Smith, Maurice A.

2015-01-01

When the error signals that guide human motor learning are withheld following training, recently-learned motor memories systematically regress toward untrained performance. It has previously been hypothesized that this regression results from an intrinsic volatility in these memories, resulting in an inevitable decay in the absence of ongoing error signals. However, a recently-proposed alternative posits that even recently-acquired motor memories are intrinsically stable, decaying only if a change in context is detected. This new theory, the context-dependent decay hypothesis, makes two key predictions: (1) after error signals are withheld, decay onset should be systematically delayed until the context change is detected; and (2) manipulations that impair detection by masking context changes should result in prolonged delays in decay onset and reduced decay amplitude at any given time. Here we examine the decay of motor adaptation following the learning of novel environmental dynamics in order to carefully evaluate this hypothesis. To account for potential issues in previous work that supported the context-dependent decay hypothesis, we measured decay using a balanced and baseline-referenced experimental design that allowed for direct comparisons between analogous masked and unmasked context changes. Using both an unbiased variant of the previous decay onset analysis and a novel highly-powered group-level version of this analysis, we found no evidence for systematically delayed decay onset nor for the masked context change affecting decay amplitude or its onset time. We further show how previous estimates of decay onset latency can be substantially biased in the presence of noise, and even more so with correlated noise, explaining the discrepancy between the previous results and our findings. Our results suggest that the decay of motor memories is an intrinsic feature of error-based learning that does not depend on context change detection. PMID:26111244

Willingness to Communicate in English as a Second Language as a Stable Trait or Context-Influenced Variable: Case Studies of Iranian Migrants to New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cameron, Denise

2013-01-01

Whether Willingness to Communicate (WTC) is a permanent trait or is modified by situational context has previously been investigated in various studies (e.g. Cao & Philp, 2006; Kang, 2005; MacIntyre & Legatto, 2011). However, most research into WTC has been quantitative or conducted in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or Study…

The Mechanisms of Interpersonal Privacy in Social Networking Websites: A Study of Subconscious Processes, Social Network Analysis, and Fear of Social Exclusion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hammer, Bryan

2013-01-01

With increasing usage of social networking sites like Facebook there is a need to study privacy. Previous research has placed more emphasis on outcome-oriented contexts, such as e-commerce sites. In process-oriented contexts, like Facebook, privacy has become a source of conflict for users. The majority of architectural privacy (e.g. privacy…

Interaction between the Basolateral Amygdala and Dorsal Hippocampus Is Critical for Cocaine Memory Reconsolidation and Subsequent Drug Context-Induced Cocaine-Seeking Behaviorin Rats

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wells, Audrey M.; Lasseter, Heather C.; Xie, Xiaohu; Cowhey, Kate E.; Reittinger, Andrew M.; Fuchs, Rita A.

2011-01-01

Contextual stimulus control over instrumental drug-seeking behavior relies on the reconsolidation of context-response-drug associative memories into long-term memory storage following retrieval-induced destabilization. According to previous studies, the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and dorsal hippocampus (DH) regulate cocaine-related memory…

The Mediating Effect of Context Variation in Mixed Practice for Transfer of Basic Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kulasegaram, Kulamakan; Min, Cynthia; Howey, Elizabeth; Neville, Alan; Woods, Nicole; Dore, Kelly; Norman, Geoffrey

2015-01-01

Applying a previously learned concept to a novel problem is an important but difficult process called transfer. Practicing multiple concepts together (mixed practice mode) has been shown superior to practicing concepts separately (blocked practice mode) for transfer. This study examined the effect of single and multiple practice contexts for both…

Effects of Extinction Context and Retrieval Cues on Renewal of Alcohol-Cue Reactivity Among Alcohol-Dependent Outpatients

PubMed Central

Stasiewicz, Paul R.; Brandon, Thomas H.; Bradizza, Clara M.

2013-01-01

Pavlovian conditioning models have led to cue-exposure treatments for drug abuse. However, conditioned responding to drug stimuli can return (be renewed) following treatment. Animal research and a previous study of social drinkers indicated that extinction is highly context dependent but that renewal could be reduced by the inclusion of a cue from the extinction context. This study extends this research to a clinical sample. Alcohol-dependent outpatients (N = 143) completed an extinction trial to reduce craving and salivation responses to alcohol cues. They were then randomized to renewal tests in either the same context as extinction, a different context, the different context containing an extinction cue, or the different context with cue plus a manipulation to increase the salience of the cue. Contrary to predictions, the different context did not produce the expected renewal effect. Although the generalization of extinction effects beyond the cue-exposure context is a positive clinical finding, it is inconsistent with basic research findings on the context dependence of extinction. Possible explanations for this inconsistency are discussed. PMID:17563145

Effects of extinction context and retrieval cues on renewal of alcohol-cue reactivity among alcohol-dependent outpatients.

PubMed

Stasiewicz, Paul R; Brandon, Thomas H; Bradizza, Clara M

2007-06-01

Pavlovian conditioning models have led to cue-exposure treatments for drug abuse. However, conditioned responding to drug stimuli can return (be renewed) following treatment. Animal research and a previous study of social drinkers indicated that extinction is highly context dependent but that renewal could be reduced by the inclusion of a cue from the extinction context. This study extends this research to a clinical sample. Alcohol-dependent outpatients (N = 143) completed an extinction trial to reduce craving and salivation responses to alcohol cues. They were then randomized to renewal tests in either the same context as extinction, a different context, the different context containing an extinction cue, or the different context with cue plus a manipulation to increase the salience of the cue. Contrary to predictions, the different context did not produce the expected renewal effect. Although the generalization of extinction effects beyond the cue-exposure context is a positive clinical finding, it is inconsistent with basic research findings on the context dependence of extinction. Possible explanations for this inconsistency are discussed.

Educational privilege: The role of school context in the development just world beliefs among Brazilian adolescents.

PubMed

Thomas, Kendra J; Napolitano, Patricia H

2017-12-01

The purpose of this study is to understand the development of Brazilian adolescents' justice perceptions across different contexts of educational privilege. Past research has found that, in adolescence, the belief in a just world (BJW) differentiates between personal and general and declines. However, prior research has not included adolescents from various socioeconomic statuses, samples in Latin America, or focused on the role of the educational context on the developmental trajectory. Participants were 385 adolescents from 3 schools (private, public and military) in Southern Brazil between 9th and 11th grade. Students completed the personal and general BJW survey. Results revealed a significant interaction of school and grade level of adolescents' personal BJW. Contrary to previous research, personal and general BJW was not always lower in higher grades. Among privileged educational contexts, data indicated that personal BJW may even increase, with the decrease notable in the lower resourced school. In contrast, general BJW was relatively consistent across all Brazilian adolescents. Results provide important insight into the role that privilege and education play across adolescents' development of BJW. This research questions the generalizability of previous studies on the development of BJW and indicates that the trajectory may be dependent upon educational and cultural context. © 2016 International Union of Psychological Science.

An Intact Social Cognitive Process in Schizophrenia: Situational Context Effects on Perception of Facial Affect

PubMed Central

Lee, Junghee; Kern, Robert S.; Harvey, Philippe-Olivier; Horan, William P.; Kee, Kimmy S.; Ochsner, Kevin; Penn, David L.; Green, Michael F.

2013-01-01

Background Impaired facial affect recognition is the most consistent social cognitive finding in schizophrenia. Although social situations provide powerful constraints on our perception, little is known about how situational context modulates facial affect recognition in schizophrenia. Methods Study 1 was a single-site study with 34 schizophrenia patients and 22 healthy controls. Study 2 was a 2-site study with 68 schizophrenia patients and 28 controls. Both studies administered a Situational Context Facial Affect Recognition Task with 2 conditions: a situational context condition and a no-context condition. For the situational context condition, a briefly shown face was preceded by a sentence describing either a fear- or surprise-inducing event. In the no-context condition, a face was presented without a sentence. For both conditions, subjects rated how fearful or surprised the face appeared on a 9-point Likert scale. Results For the situational context condition of study 1, both patients and controls rated faces as more afraid when they were paired with fear-inducing sentences and as more surprised when they were paired with surprise-inducing sentences. The degree of modulation was comparable across groups. For the no-context condition, patients rated faces comparably to controls. The findings of study 2 replicated those from study 1. Conclusions Despite previous abnormalities in other types of context paradigms, this study found intact situational context processing in schizophrenia, suggesting that patients benefit from situational context when interpreting ambiguous facial expression. This area of relative social cognitive strength in schizophrenia has implications for social cognitive training programs. PMID:22532704

Crafting in context: Exploring when job crafting is dysfunctional for performance effectiveness.

PubMed

Dierdorff, Erich C; Jensen, Jaclyn M

2018-05-01

Job crafting theory purports that the consequences of revising one's work role can be simultaneously beneficial and detrimental. Previous research, however, has almost exclusively emphasized the beneficial outcomes of job crafting. In the current study, we proposed dysfunctional consequences of crafting for performance-related outcomes in the form of a U-shaped relationship between job crafting and performance effectiveness (managerial ratings of job proficiency and peer ratings of citizenship behavior). We further predicted that elements of the task context (autonomy and ambiguity) and the social context (interdependence and social support) moderate these curvilinear relationships. Consistent with previous research, job crafting displayed positive and linear effects on work-related attitudes (job satisfaction and affective commitment). Consistent with our predictions, moderate levels of crafting were associated with dysfunctional performance-related outcomes and features of work context either exacerbated or dissipated these dysfunctional consequences of job crafting for individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Functional inactivation of the orbitofrontal cortex disrupts context-induced reinstatement of alcohol seeking in rats.

PubMed

Bianchi, Paula Cristina; Carneiro de Oliveira, Paulo Eduardo; Palombo, Paola; Leão, Rodrigo Molini; Cogo-Moreira, Hugo; Planeta, Cleopatra da Silva; Cruz, Fábio Cardoso

2018-05-01

The high rate of relapse to drug use remains a central challenge to treating drug addiction. In human and rat models of addiction, environmental stimuli in contexts associated with previous drug use can provoke a relapse of drug seeking. Pre-clinical studies have used the ABA renewal procedure to study context-induced reinstatement of drug seeking. In the current study, we studied the role of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in context-induced reinstatement to alcohol. We trained male and female rats to self-administer alcohol in context A, extinguished drug-reinforced responding in a distinct context B, and assessed context-induced reinstatement in context A or B (control group). Next, we determined the effect of context-induced renewal of alcohol-seeking behavior on the expression of Fos (a neuronal activity marker) in the OFC. Finally, we determined the effect of reversible inactivation by GABAa and GABAb receptor agonists (i.e., muscimol and baclofen, respectively) in the OFC. There were no differences between male and female rats in context-induced reinstatement of alcohol-seeking behavior. Re-exposure to Context A, but not Context B, reinstated alcohol-seeking behavior and increased expression of the neural activity marker Fos in the OFC. Reversible inactivation of the OFC with muscimol and baclofen attenuated context-induced reinstatement. Our data indicated that the OFC mediates context-induced reinstatement of alcohol-seeking behavior. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Feeling close and doing well: the prevalence and motivational effects of interpersonally engaging emotions in Mexican and European American cultural contexts.

PubMed

Savani, Krishna; Alvarez, Ayme; Mesquita, Batja; Markus, Hazel Rose

2013-01-01

Two studies investigate whether interpersonally engaging emotions--those that bring the self closer to others (e.g., affection, shame)--are central to the model of self and relationships prevalent in Mexican cultural contexts. Study 1 demonstrated that compared to people in European American contexts, people in Mexican contexts were more likely to report experiencing interpersonally engaging emotions and less likely to report experiencing interpersonally disengaging emotions. Study 2 found that interpersonally engaging emotions had a substantial influence on performance motivation in Mexican contexts--Mexican participants solved more word search puzzles after recalling instances in which they experienced positive interpersonally engaging emotions, and fewer after recalling negative interpersonally disengaging emotions; in contrast, there were no differences by condition for European Americans. These findings significantly extend previous research by documenting the implications of relational concerns (e.g., simpatia, personalismo) for emotion and motivation in Mexican contexts, and are the first to demonstrate the motivational effects of interpersonally engaging emotions.

Punish the Perpetrator or Compensate the Victim? Gain vs. Loss Context Modulate Third-Party Altruistic Behaviors

PubMed Central

Liu, Yingjie; Li, Lin; Zheng, Li; Guo, Xiuyan

2017-01-01

Third-party punishment and third-party compensation are primary responses to observed norms violations. Previous studies mostly investigated these behaviors in gain rather than loss context, and few study made direct comparison between these two behaviors. We conducted three experiments to investigate third-party punishment and third-party compensation in the gain and loss context. Participants observed two persons playing Dictator Game to share an amount of gain or loss, and the proposer would propose unfair distribution sometimes. In Study 1A, participants should decide whether they wanted to punish proposer. In Study 1B, participants decided to compensate the recipient or to do nothing. This two experiments explored how gain and loss contexts might affect the willingness to altruistically punish a perpetrator, or to compensate a victim of unfairness. Results suggested that both third-party punishment and compensation were stronger in the loss context. Study 2 directly compare third-party punishment and third-party compensation in the both contexts, by allowing participants choosing between punishment, compensation and keeping. Participants chose compensation more often than punishment in the loss context, and chose more punishments in the gain context. Empathic concern partly explained between-context differences of altruistic compensation and punishment. Our findings provide insights on modulating effect of context on third-party altruistic decisions. PMID:29234295

Why Are Verbs so Hard to Remember? Effects of Semantic Context on Memory for Verbs and Nouns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Earles, Julie L.; Kersten, Alan W.

2017-01-01

Three experiments test the theory that verb meanings are more malleable than noun meanings in different semantic contexts, making a previously seen verb difficult to remember when it appears in a new semantic context. Experiment 1 revealed that changing the direct object noun in a transitive sentence reduced recognition of a previously seen verb,…

Organizing Project-Based Learning in Work Contexts: A Cross-Cultural Cross Analysis of Data from Two Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poell, Rob F.; Yorks, Lyle; Marsick, Victoria J.

2009-01-01

The authors describe research aimed at developing a more comprehensive framework for project-based learning in work contexts. This grows out of a cross-cultural reanalysis of data from two previous studies using two different frameworks: actor-centered learning network theory and a critical pragmatist lens on action reflection learning. Findings…

Correlates and Outcomes Associated with Aggression and Victimization among Elementary-School Children in a Low-Income Urban Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pouwels, J. Loes; Cillessen, Antonius H. N.

2013-01-01

Previous research suggests that the prevalence of aggression is high among low-income urban youth who have to cope with a number of psychological stressors. Less is known about the early development and consequences of aggression and peer victimization prior to adolescence in these contexts. This study examined the correlates, interplay, and…

The Relationships between Parenting Stress, Parenting Behaviour and Preschoolers' Social Competence and Behaviour Problems in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anthony, Laura Gutermuth; Anthony, Bruno J.; Glanville, Denise N.; Naiman, Daniel Q.; Waanders, Christine; Shaffer, Stephanie

2005-01-01

Young children develop social and emotional competence through interactions with others in the two major contexts in which they spend time: home and preschool. This study examined whether parenting stress in the home context is related to the children's behaviour while in preschool. Previous research has suggested that parenting stress negatively…

Virtually justifiable homicide: the effects of prosocial contexts on the link between violent video games, aggression, and prosocial and hostile cognition.

PubMed

Gitter, Seth A; Ewell, Patrick J; Guadagno, Rosanna E; Stillman, Tyler F; Baumeister, Roy F

2013-01-01

Previous work has shown that playing violent video games can stimulate aggression toward others. The current research has identified a potential exception. Participants who played a violent game in which the violence had an explicitly prosocial motive (i.e., protecting a friend and furthering his nonviolent goals) were found to show lower short-term aggression (Study 1) and show higher levels of prosocial cognition (Study 2) than individuals who played a violent game in which the violence was motivated by more morally ambiguous motives. Thus, violent video games that are framed in an explicitly prosocial context may evoke more prosocial sentiments and thereby mitigate some of the short-term effects on aggression observed in previous research. While these findings are promising regarding the potential aggression-reducing effects of prosocial context, caution is still warranted as a small effect size difference (d = .2-.3), although nonsignificant, was still observed between those who played the explicitly prosocial violent game and those who played a nonviolent game; indicating that aggressive behavior was not completely eliminated by the inclusion of a prosocial context for the violence. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The effect of scene context on episodic object recognition: parahippocampal cortex mediates memory encoding and retrieval success.

PubMed

Hayes, Scott M; Nadel, Lynn; Ryan, Lee

2007-01-01

Previous research has investigated intentional retrieval of contextual information and contextual influences on object identification and word recognition, yet few studies have investigated context effects in episodic memory for objects. To address this issue, unique objects embedded in a visually rich scene or on a white background were presented to participants. At test, objects were presented either in the original scene or on a white background. A series of behavioral studies with young adults demonstrated a context shift decrement (CSD)-decreased recognition performance when context is changed between encoding and retrieval. The CSD was not attenuated by encoding or retrieval manipulations, suggesting that binding of object and context may be automatic. A final experiment explored the neural correlates of the CSD, using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Parahippocampal cortex (PHC) activation (right greater than left) during incidental encoding was associated with subsequent memory of objects in the context shift condition. Greater activity in right PHC was also observed during successful recognition of objects previously presented in a scene. Finally, a subset of regions activated during scene encoding, such as bilateral PHC, was reactivated when the object was presented on a white background at retrieval. Although participants were not required to intentionally retrieve contextual information, the results suggest that PHC may reinstate visual context to mediate successful episodic memory retrieval. The CSD is attributed to automatic and obligatory binding of object and context. The results suggest that PHC is important not only for processing of scene information, but also plays a role in successful episodic memory encoding and retrieval. These findings are consistent with the view that spatial information is stored in the hippocampal complex, one of the central tenets of Multiple Trace Theory. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Recognising the differences in the nurse consultant role across context: a study protocol

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The advanced practice role of the Nurse Consultant is unique in its capacity to provide clinical leadership across a range of contexts. However, the Nurse Consultant role has been plagued with confusion due to lack of clarity over function and appropriateness for purpose within health organisations across contexts. Changing health service delivery models are driving the emergence of new nursing roles, further clouding the waters related to role positioning and purpose. There is an urgent need for evidence of impact and demonstration of how Nurse Consultants contribute to health care outcomes. This study aims to gain a clearer understanding of the Nurse Consultant role and its impact in metropolitan and rural New South Wales (NSW) Australia. Design The proposed study employs a sequential mixed method design, underpinned by Realistic Evaluation, to explore how Nurse Consultants contribute to organisational outcomes. The ‘context – mechanism – outcome’ approach of realistic evaluation provides a sound framework to examine the complex, diverse and multifaceted nature of the Nurse Consultant’s role. Method Participants will be stakeholders, recruited across a large Local Health District in NSW, comprising rural and metropolitan services. A modified and previously validated survey will be used providing information related to role characteristics, patterns and differences across health context. Focus groups with Nurse Consultant’s explore issues highlighted in the survey data. Focus groups with other clinicians, policy makers and managers will help to achieve understanding of how the role is viewed and enacted across a range of groups and contexts. Discussion Lack of role clarity is highlighted extensively in international and Australian studies examining the role of the Nurse Consultant. Previous studies failed to adequately examine the role in the context of integrated and complex health services or to examine the role in detail. Such examination is critical in order to understand the significance of the role and to ascertain how Nurse Consultants can be most effective as members of the health care team. This is the first Australian study to include extensive stakeholder perspectives in order to understand the relational and integrated nature and impact of the role across metropolitan and rural context. PMID:25320563

Lack of habituation to shocking words: the attentional bias to their spatial origin is context free.

PubMed

Bertels, Julie; Kolinsky, Régine; Morais, José

2012-01-01

Following a suggestion made by Aquino and Arnell (2007), we assumed that the processing of emotional words is influenced by their context of presentation. Supporting this idea, previous studies using the emotional Stroop task in its visual or auditory variant revealed different results depending on the mixed versus blocked presentation of the stimuli (Bertels, Kolinsky, Pietrons, & Morais, 2011; Richards, French, Johnson, Naparstek, & Williams, 1992). In the present study, we investigated the impact of these presentation designs on the occurrence of spatial attentional biases in a modified version of the beep-probe task (Bertels, Kolinsky, & Morais, 2010). Attentional vigilance to taboo words as well as non-spatial slowing effects of these words were observed whatever the mixed or blocked design, whereas attentional vigilance to positive words was only observed in the mixed design. Together with the results from our previous study (Bertels et al., 2010), the present data support the reliability of the effects of shocking stimuli, while vigilance to positive words would only be observed in a threatening context.

Negation in context: Evidence from the visual world paradigm.

PubMed

Orenes, Isabel; Moxey, Linda; Scheepers, Christoph; Santamaría, Carlos

2016-01-01

Literature assumes that negation is more difficult to understand than affirmation, but this might depend on the pragmatic context. The goal of this paper is to show that pragmatic knowledge modulates the unfolding processing of negation due to the previous activation of the negated situation. To test this, we used the visual world paradigm. In this task, we presented affirmative (e.g., her dad was rich) and negative sentences (e.g., her dad was not poor) while viewing two images of the affirmed and denied entities. The critical sentence in each item was preceded by one of three types of contexts: an inconsistent context (e.g., She supposed that her dad had little savings) that activates the negated situation (a poor man), a consistent context (e.g., She supposed that her dad had enough savings) that activates the actual situation (a rich man), or a neutral context (e.g., her dad lived on the other side of town) that activates neither of the two models previously suggested. The results corroborated our hypothesis. Pragmatics is implicated in the unfolding processing of negation. We found an increase in fixations on the target compared to the baseline for negative sentences at 800 ms in the neutral context, 600 ms in the inconsistent context, and 1450 ms in the consistent context. Thus, when the negated situation has been previously introduced via an inconsistent context, negation is facilitated.

Recombinative Generalization: An Exploratory Study in Musical Reading

PubMed Central

Perez, William Ferreira; de Rose, Julio C

2010-01-01

The present study aimed to extend the findings of recombinative generalization research in alphabetical reading and spelling to the context of musical reading. One participant was taught to respond discriminatively to six two-note sequences, choosing the corresponding notation on the staff in the presence of each sequence. When novel three- and four-note sequences were presented, she selected the corresponding notation. These results suggest the generality of previous research to the context of musical teaching. PMID:22477462

Gene function prediction with gene interaction networks: a context graph kernel approach.

PubMed

Li, Xin; Chen, Hsinchun; Li, Jiexun; Zhang, Zhu

2010-01-01

Predicting gene functions is a challenge for biologists in the postgenomic era. Interactions among genes and their products compose networks that can be used to infer gene functions. Most previous studies adopt a linkage assumption, i.e., they assume that gene interactions indicate functional similarities between connected genes. In this study, we propose to use a gene's context graph, i.e., the gene interaction network associated with the focal gene, to infer its functions. In a kernel-based machine-learning framework, we design a context graph kernel to capture the information in context graphs. Our experimental study on a testbed of p53-related genes demonstrates the advantage of using indirect gene interactions and shows the empirical superiority of the proposed approach over linkage-assumption-based methods, such as the algorithm to minimize inconsistent connected genes and diffusion kernels.

Respective Role of the Dorsal Hippocampus and the Entorhinal Cortex during the Recombination of Previously Learned Olfactory-Tactile Associations in the Rat

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boisselier, Lise; Ferry, Barbara; Gervais, Rémi

2017-01-01

The hippocampal formation has been extensively described as a key component for object recognition in conjunction with place and context. The present study aimed at describing neural mechanisms in the hippocampal formation that support olfactory-tactile (OT) object discrimination in a task where space and context were not taken into account. The…

A Survey on the Influence of Titles on the Visitor's Interpretation and Learning in Art Galleries: An Iranian Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samanian, Kouros; Nedaeifar, Hoda; Karimi, Ma'soumeh

2016-01-01

As previous studies suggest, titles of works of art have generally proven to be influential elements in reading and interpretation of the artworks. In the exhibition context, titles can be considered as a physical component of the museum or art gallery's space. According to the relatively new approaches, learning, being a subcategory of…

Challenges of Teaching Mathematics within the Frame of a Story - A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Björklund, Camilla; Pramling Samuelsson, Ingrid

2013-01-01

This article will focus on early childhood education and pedagogy in the new millennium. The context is Sweden and Swedish preschool, where a change in the school law a few years ago also resulted in a revision of the preschool curriculum. "Teaching" is one of the new notions that has not previously been used in the preschool context. In…

The Use of a Context-Based Information Retrieval Technique

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-07-01

provided in context. Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) is a statistical technique for inferring contextual and structural information, and previous studies...WAIS). 10 DSTO-TR-2322 1.4.4 Latent Semantic Analysis LSA, which is also known as latent semantic indexing (LSI), uses a statistical and...1.4.6 Language Models In contrast, natural language models apply algorithms that combine statistical information with semantic information. Semantic

Ambiguity produces attention shifts in category learning

PubMed Central

Orgaz, Cristina; Luque, David; Nelson, James Byron

2016-01-01

It has been suggested that people and nonhuman animals protect their knowledge from interference by shifting attention toward the context when presented with information that contradicts their previous beliefs. Despite that suggestion, no studies have directly measured changes in attention while participants are exposed to an interference treatment. In the present experiments, we adapted a dot-probe task to track participants’ attention to cues and contexts while they were completing a simple category learning task. The results support the hypothesis that interference produces a change in the allocation of attention to cues and contexts. PMID:26980780

Second Language Use Facilitates Implicit Emotion Regulation via Content Labeling

PubMed Central

Morawetz, Carmen; Oganian, Yulia; Schlickeiser, Ulrike; Jacobs, Arthur M.; Heekeren, Hauke R.

2017-01-01

Previous studies reported that negative stimuli induced less affect in bilinguals when stimuli were presented in bilinguals’ second, weaker language (L2) than when they were presented in their native language (L1). This effect of L2 use was attributed to increased emotional distance as well as to increased levels of cognitive control during L2 use. Here we investigated how explicit (cognitive reappraisal, i.e., reinterpreting the meaning of the emotional stimulus to alter its emotional impact) and implicit (content labeling, i.e., categorizing the content of the image; and emotion labeling, i.e., naming the emotion induced by the emotional stimulus) emotion regulation strategies are altered in an L2 (English) context in German native speakers with medium to high proficiency in their L2. While previous studies used linguistic stimuli, such as words, to induce affect, here we used images to test whether reduced affect could also be observed for non-linguistic stimuli when presented in an L2 context. We hypothesized that the previously implicated increase in emotional distance and cognitive control in an L2 would result in an L2 advantage in emotion regulation (i.e., leading to less negative emotions compared to an L1 context), by strengthening the effect of linguistic re-evaluation on the evoked emotions. Using a classic emotion regulation paradigm, we examined changes in subjective emotional state ratings during reappraisal, emotion labeling and content labeling in a L1 and L2 context. We found that the strength of evoked affective responses did not depend on the language context in which an image was presented. Crucially, content labeling in L2 was more effective than in L1, whereas emotion labeling did not differ between languages. Overall, evoked responses were regulated most effectively through explicit emotion regulation (reappraisal) in L1 and L2 context. These results demonstrate an L2 advantage effect for emotion regulation through content labeling and suggest that L2 context alters sub-processes implicated in content labeling but not emotion labeling. PMID:28360873

When Best Intentions Go Awry: The Failures of Concrete Representations to Help Solve Probability Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beitzel, Brian D.; Staley, Richard K.; DuBois, Nelson F.

2011-01-01

Previous research has cast doubt on the efficacy of utilizing external representations as an aid to solving word problems. The present study replicates previous findings that concrete representations hinder college students' ability to solve probability word problems, and extends those findings to apply to a multimedia instructional context. Our…

Context effects: the role of collectivism as a moderator.

PubMed

Puente-Díaz, Rogelio

2011-02-01

Social cognition experts have shown that participants' answers to research questions can be influenced by previous questions, something known as context effects. It has been suggested that participants from collectivist cultures pay more attention to the context, resulting in larger context effects. The present investigation examined context effects in an experiment that involved manipulating the order in which two questions, one about satisfaction with life as a whole and one about satisfaction with romantic life, were answered by a representative sample of participants from Mexico City. The results were consistent with other investigations that used samples from collectivistic cultures. Participants' responses to questions about satisfaction are influenced by a previous question, and country of origin affects the amount of attention given to the context. The implications of these results are discussed.

Mental reinstatement of encoding context improves episodic remembering.

PubMed

Bramão, Inês; Karlsson, Anna; Johansson, Mikael

2017-09-01

This study investigates context-dependent memory retrieval. Previous work has shown that physically re-experiencing the encoding context at retrieval improves memory accessibility. The current study examined if mental reconstruction of the original encoding context would yield parallel memory benefits. Participants performed a cued-recall memory task, preceded either by a mental or by a physical context reinstatement task, and we manipulated whether the context reinstated at retrieval overlapped with the context of the target episode. Both behavioral and electrophysiological measures of brain activity showed strong encoding-retrieval (E-R) overlap effects, with facilitated episodic retrieval when the encoding and retrieval contexts overlapped. The electrophysiological E-R overlap effect was more sustained and involved more posterior regions when context was mentally compared with physically reinstated. Additionally, a time-frequency analysis revealed that context reinstatement alone engenders recollection of the target episode. However, while recollection of the target memory is readily prompted by a physical reinstatement, target recollection during mental reinstatement is delayed and depends on the gradual reconstruction of the context. Taken together, our results show facilitated episodic remembering also when mentally reinstating the encoding context; and that such benefits are supported by both shared and partially non-overlapping neural mechanisms when the encoding context is mentally reconstructed as compared with physically presented at the time of retrieval. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Development of Symbolic Uses of Objects in Infants in a Triadic Context: A Pragmatic and Semiotic Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palacios, Pedro; Rodríguez, Cintia

2015-01-01

In this study, we address the construction of the first symbolic uses of objects in contexts of triadic interaction (adult-child-object). We assume that symbolic productions are based on public rules of the use of objects previously agreed by the community. The first symbols are not rooted in any literal, evident reality, but in shared rules of…

Item and source memory for emotional associates is mediated by different retrieval processes.

PubMed

Ventura-Bort, Carlos; Dolcos, Florin; Wendt, Julia; Wirkner, Janine; Hamm, Alfons O; Weymar, Mathias

2017-12-12

Recent event-related potential (ERP) data showed that neutral objects encoded in emotional background pictures were better remembered than objects encoded in neutral contexts, when recognition memory was tested one week later. In the present study, we investigated whether this long-term memory advantage for items is also associated with correct memory for contextual source details. Furthermore, we were interested in the possibly dissociable contribution of familiarity and recollection processes (using a Remember/Know procedure). The results revealed that item memory performance was mainly driven by the subjective experience of familiarity, irrespective of whether the objects were previously encoded in emotional or neutral contexts. Correct source memory for the associated background picture, however, was driven by recollection and enhanced when the content was emotional. In ERPs, correctly recognized old objects evoked frontal ERP Old/New effects (300-500ms), irrespective of context category. As in our previous study (Ventura-Bort et al., 2016b), retrieval for objects from emotional contexts was associated with larger parietal Old/New differences (600-800ms), indicating stronger involvement of recollection. Thus, the results suggest a stronger contribution of recollection-based retrieval to item and contextual background source memory for neutral information associated with an emotional event. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The neural components of empathy: predicting daily prosocial behavior.

PubMed

Morelli, Sylvia A; Rameson, Lian T; Lieberman, Matthew D

2014-01-01

Previous neuroimaging studies on empathy have not clearly identified neural systems that support the three components of empathy: affective congruence, perspective-taking, and prosocial motivation. These limitations stem from a focus on a single emotion per study, minimal variation in amount of social context provided, and lack of prosocial motivation assessment. In the current investigation, 32 participants completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging session assessing empathic responses to individuals experiencing painful, anxious, and happy events that varied in valence and amount of social context provided. They also completed a 14-day experience sampling survey that assessed real-world helping behaviors. The results demonstrate that empathy for positive and negative emotions selectively activates regions associated with positive and negative affect, respectively. In addition, the mirror system was more active during empathy for context-independent events (pain), whereas the mentalizing system was more active during empathy for context-dependent events (anxiety, happiness). Finally, the septal area, previously linked to prosocial motivation, was the only region that was commonly activated across empathy for pain, anxiety, and happiness. Septal activity during each of these empathic experiences was predictive of daily helping. These findings suggest that empathy has multiple input pathways, produces affect-congruent activations, and results in septally mediated prosocial motivation.

The neural components of empathy: Predicting daily prosocial behavior

PubMed Central

Rameson, Lian T.; Lieberman, Matthew D.

2014-01-01

Previous neuroimaging studies on empathy have not clearly identified neural systems that support the three components of empathy: affective congruence, perspective-taking, and prosocial motivation. These limitations stem from a focus on a single emotion per study, minimal variation in amount of social context provided, and lack of prosocial motivation assessment. In the current investigation, 32 participants completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging session assessing empathic responses to individuals experiencing painful, anxious, and happy events that varied in valence and amount of social context provided. They also completed a 14-day experience sampling survey that assessed real-world helping behaviors. The results demonstrate that empathy for positive and negative emotions selectively activates regions associated with positive and negative affect, respectively. In addition, the mirror system was more active during empathy for context-independent events (pain), whereas the mentalizing system was more active during empathy for context-dependent events (anxiety, happiness). Finally, the septal area, previously linked to prosocial motivation, was the only region that was commonly activated across empathy for pain, anxiety, and happiness. Septal activity during each of these empathic experiences was predictive of daily helping. These findings suggest that empathy has multiple input pathways, produces affect-congruent activations, and results in septally mediated prosocial motivation. PMID:22887480

False memory for context activates the parahippocampal cortex.

PubMed

Karanian, Jessica M; Slotnick, Scott D

2014-01-01

Previous studies have reported greater activity in the parahippocampal cortex during true memory than false memory, which has been interpreted as reflecting greater sensory processing during true memory. However, in these studies, sensory detail and contextual information were confounded. In the present fMRI study, we employed a novel paradigm to dissociate these factors. During encoding, abstract shapes were presented in one of two contexts (i.e., moving or stationary). During retrieval, participants classified shapes as previously "moving" or "stationary." Critically, contextual processing was relatively greater during false memory ("moving" responses to stationary items), while sensory processing was relatively greater during true memory ("moving" responses to moving items). Within the medial temporal lobe, false memory versus true memory produced greater activity in the parahippocampal cortex, whereas true memory versus false memory produced greater activity in the hippocampus. The present results indicate that the parahippocampal cortex mediates contextual processing rather than sensory processing.

Mood-congruent memory in depression - the influence of personal relevance and emotional context.

PubMed

Wittekind, Charlotte E; Terfehr, Kirsten; Otte, Christian; Jelinek, Lena; Hinkelmann, Kim; Moritz, Steffen

2014-03-30

The investigation of veridical mood-congruent memory (MCM) in major depressive disorder (MDD) has been subject of many studies, whereas mood-congruent false memory has received comparatively little attention. The present study examined the influence of valence, personal relevance and the valence of the context of the learning material on true and false MCM in 20 inpatients with MDD and 20 healthy controls. Sixty positive, negative, neutral or personally relevant nouns were either combined with a positive, negative or neutral adjective. Word pairs were presented to participants in a learning trial. In a recognition task, participants had to identify the previously studied word pairs. A MCM effect could not be found for hits. However, in exploratory analyses, word pairs containing personally relevant nouns were more rated towards old by the patient relative to the control group. Furthermore, depressed patients tended to rate items more towards old than controls when the words were presented in a negative new context. Results are in line with previous findings in depression research emphasizing the role of mood-congruent false memories for mood disorders. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Intelligent databases assist transparent and sound economic valuation of ecosystem services.

PubMed

Villa, Ferdinando; Ceroni, Marta; Krivov, Sergey

2007-06-01

Assessment and economic valuation of services provided by ecosystems to humans has become a crucial phase in environmental management and policy-making. As primary valuation studies are out of the reach of many institutions, secondary valuation or benefit transfer, where the results of previous studies are transferred to the geographical, environmental, social, and economic context of interest, is becoming increasingly common. This has brought to light the importance of environmental valuation databases, which provide reliable valuation data to inform secondary valuation with enough detail to enable the transfer of values across contexts. This paper describes the role of next-generation, intelligent databases (IDBs) in assisting the activity of valuation. Such databases employ artificial intelligence to inform the transfer of values across contexts, enforcing comparability of values and allowing users to generate custom valuation portfolios that synthesize previous studies and provide aggregated value estimates to use as a base for secondary valuation. After a general introduction, we introduce the Ecosystem Services Database, the first IDB for environmental valuation to be made available to the public, describe its functionalities and the lessons learned from its usage, and outline the remaining needs and expected future developments in the field.

Divided multimodal attention sensory trace and context coding strategies in spatially congruent auditory and visual presentation.

PubMed

Kristjánsson, Tómas; Thorvaldsson, Tómas Páll; Kristjánsson, Arni

2014-01-01

Previous research involving both unimodal and multimodal studies suggests that single-response change detection is a capacity-free process while a discriminatory up or down identification is capacity-limited. The trace/context model assumes that this reflects different memory strategies rather than inherent differences between identification and detection. To perform such tasks, one of two strategies is used, a sensory trace or a context coding strategy, and if one is blocked, people will automatically use the other. A drawback to most preceding studies is that stimuli are presented at separate locations, creating the possibility of a spatial confound, which invites alternative interpretations of the results. We describe a series of experiments, investigating divided multimodal attention, without the spatial confound. The results challenge the trace/context model. Our critical experiment involved a gap before a change in volume and brightness, which according to the trace/context model blocks the sensory trace strategy, simultaneously with a roaming pedestal, which should block the context coding strategy. The results clearly show that people can use strategies other than sensory trace and context coding in the tasks and conditions of these experiments, necessitating changes to the trace/context model.

Change Blindness as a Means of Studying Expertise in Physics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feil, Adam; Mestre, Jose P.

2010-01-01

Previous studies examining expertise have used a wide range of methods. Beyond characterizing expert and novice behavior in different contexts and circumstances, many studies have examined the processes that comprise the behavior itself and, more recently, processes that comprise training and practice that develop expertise. Other studies, dating…

Hippocampal damage causes retrograde but not anterograde memory loss for context fear discrimination in rats.

PubMed

Lee, Justin Q; Sutherland, Robert J; McDonald, Robert J

2017-09-01

There is a substantial body of evidence that the hippocampus (HPC) plays and essential role in context discrimination in rodents. Studies reporting anterograde amnesia (AA) used repeated, alternating, distributed conditioning and extinction sessions to measure context fear discrimination. In addition, there is uncertainty about the extent of damage to the HPC. Here, we induced conditioned fear prior to discrimination tests and rats sustained extensive, quantified pre- or post-training HPC damage. Unlike previous work, we found that extensive HPC damage spares context discrimination, we observed no AA. There must be a non-HPC system that can acquire long-term memories that support context fear discrimination. Post-training HPC damage caused retrograde amnesia (RA) for context discrimination, even when rats are fear conditioned for multiple sessions. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the role of HPC in long-term memory. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Framing matters: contextual influences on interracial interaction outcomes.

PubMed

Babbitt, Laura G; Sommers, Samuel R

2011-09-01

Previous studies indicate that interracial interactions frequently have negative outcomes but have typically focused on social contexts. The current studies examined the effect of manipulating interaction context. In Study 1, Black and White participants worked together with instructions that created either a social focus or a task focus. With a task focus, interracial pairs were more consistently synchronized, Black participants showed less executive function depletion, and White participants generally showed reduced implicit bias. Follow-up studies suggested that prejudice concerns help explain these findings: White participants reported fewer concerns about appearing prejudiced when they imagined an interracial interaction with a task focus rather than a social focus (Study 2a), and Black participants reported less vigilance against prejudice in an imagined interracial interaction with a task focus rather than a social focus (Study 2b). Taken together, these studies illustrate the importance of interaction context for the experiences of both Blacks and Whites.

Placing the face in context: cultural differences in the perception of facial emotion.

PubMed

Masuda, Takahiko; Ellsworth, Phoebe C; Mesquita, Batja; Leu, Janxin; Tanida, Shigehito; Van de Veerdonk, Ellen

2008-03-01

Two studies tested the hypothesis that in judging people's emotions from their facial expressions, Japanese, more than Westerners, incorporate information from the social context. In Study 1, participants viewed cartoons depicting a happy, sad, angry, or neutral person surrounded by other people expressing the same emotion as the central person or a different one. The surrounding people's emotions influenced Japanese but not Westerners' perceptions of the central person. These differences reflect differences in attention, as indicated by eye-tracking data (Study 2): Japanese looked at the surrounding people more than did Westerners. Previous findings on East-West differences in contextual sensitivity generalize to social contexts, suggesting that Westerners see emotions as individual feelings, whereas Japanese see them as inseparable from the feelings of the group.

Immediate effects of form-class constraints on spoken word recognition

PubMed Central

Magnuson, James S.; Tanenhaus, Michael K.; Aslin, Richard N.

2008-01-01

In many domains of cognitive processing there is strong support for bottom-up priority and delayed top-down (contextual) integration. We ask whether this applies to supra-lexical context that could potentially constrain lexical access. Previous findings of early context integration in word recognition have typically used constraints that can be linked to pair-wise conceptual relations between words. Using an artificial lexicon, we found immediate integration of syntactic expectations based on pragmatic constraints linked to syntactic categories rather than words: phonologically similar “nouns” and “adjectives” did not compete when a combination of syntactic and visual information strongly predicted form class. These results suggest that predictive context is integrated continuously, and that previous findings supporting delayed context integration stem from weak contexts rather than delayed integration. PMID:18675408

Exploring and Developing Graduate Teaching Assistants' Pedagogies via Lesson Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dotger, Sharon

2011-01-01

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) teach many undergraduates in introductory science courses in the USA. Previous literature suggests that GTAs would prefer more context-dependent opportunities to learn to teach more effectively. This study explores the impact of participation in a lesson study cycle with GTAs responsible for an undergraduate…

Microblog sentiment analysis using social and topic context.

PubMed

Zou, Xiaomei; Yang, Jing; Zhang, Jianpei

2018-01-01

Analyzing massive user-generated microblogs is very crucial in many fields, attracting many researchers to study. However, it is very challenging to process such noisy and short microblogs. Most prior works only use texts to identify sentiment polarity and assume that microblogs are independent and identically distributed, which ignore microblogs are networked data. Therefore, their performance is not usually satisfactory. Inspired by two sociological theories (sentimental consistency and emotional contagion), in this paper, we propose a new method combining social context and topic context to analyze microblog sentiment. In particular, different from previous work using direct user relations, we introduce structure similarity context into social contexts and propose a method to measure structure similarity. In addition, we also introduce topic context to model the semantic relations between microblogs. Social context and topic context are combined by the Laplacian matrix of the graph built by these contexts and Laplacian regularization are added into the microblog sentiment analysis model. Experimental results on two real Twitter datasets demonstrate that our proposed model can outperform baseline methods consistently and significantly.

Putting Short-Term Memory into Context: Reply to Usher, Davelaar, Haarmann, and Goshen-Gottstein (2008)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kahana, Michael J.; Sederberg, Per B.; Howard, Marc W.

2008-01-01

The temporal context model posits that search through episodic memory is driven by associations between the multiattribute representations of items and context. Context, in turn, is a recency weighted sum of previous experiences or memories. Because recently processed items are most similar to the current representation of context, M. Usher, E. J.…

Motivation and social contexts: a crossnational pilot study of achievement, power, and affiliation motives.

PubMed

Xu, Xiaoyan; Xu, Yangang; Mellor, David; Duan, Liqiong

2012-01-01

Previous research suggests that there is a relationship between social contexts (e.g., economic growth, engagement in wars) and motives within populations. In particular, high achievement motive is associated with subsequent economic growth, which in turn increases power motive. Increased national achievement and power motives have been argued to precede social changes that lead to decreased affiliation motives, and engagement in wars. The present study aimed to examine differences in achievement, power, and affiliation motives between 266 college students in China (a nation with sustained high economic growth) and 255 college students in the USA (a nation with previously strong but now slowing economic growth, and engaged in war). Analysis of personal strivings suggested that Chinese college students showed significantly higher levels of achievement motive than the American college students, but American college students showed significantly higher levels of affiliation motive than Chinese college students. Overall, males exhibited higher achievement motivation than females. No significant interaction effects were found for gender by location for any of the three motives. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research.

Not just for consumers: context effects are fundamental to decision making.

PubMed

Trueblood, Jennifer S; Brown, Scott D; Heathcote, Andrew; Busemeyer, Jerome R

2013-06-01

Context effects--preference changes that depend on the availability of other options--have attracted a great deal of attention among consumer researchers studying high-level decision tasks. In the experiments reported here, we showed that these effects also arise in simple perceptual-decision-making tasks. This finding casts doubt on explanations limited to consumer choice and high-level decisions, and it indicates that context effects may be amenable to a general explanation at the level of the basic decision process. We demonstrated for the first time that three important context effects from the preferential-choice literature--similarity, attraction, and compromise effects--all occurred within a single perceptual-decision task. Not only do our results challenge previous explanations for context effects proposed by consumer researchers, but they also challenge the choice rules assumed in theories of perceptual decision making.

Why Are Verbs So Hard to Remember? Effects of Semantic Context on Memory for Verbs and Nouns.

PubMed

Earles, Julie L; Kersten, Alan W

2017-04-01

Three experiments test the theory that verb meanings are more malleable than noun meanings in different semantic contexts, making a previously seen verb difficult to remember when it appears in a new semantic context. Experiment 1 revealed that changing the direct object noun in a transitive sentence reduced recognition of a previously seen verb, whereas changing the verb had little impact on noun recognition. Experiment 2 revealed that verbs exhibited context effects more similar to those shown by superordinate nouns rather than basic-level nouns. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the degree of meaning change in a target word resulting from changes in semantic context influenced the magnitude of context effects, but context effects remained larger for verbs than for nouns even when the degree of meaning change was similar for nouns and verbs. These results are discussed with respect to the imageability and grammatical roles played by nouns and verbs in a sentence. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Disentangling Metaphor from Context: An ERP Study.

PubMed

Bambini, Valentina; Bertini, Chiara; Schaeken, Walter; Stella, Alessandra; Di Russo, Francesco

2016-01-01

A large body of electrophysiological literature showed that metaphor comprehension elicits two different event-related brain potential responses, namely the so-called N400 and P600 components. Yet most of these studies test metaphor in isolation while in natural conversation metaphors do not come out of the blue but embedded in linguistic and extra-linguistic context. This study aimed at assessing the role of context in the metaphor comprehension process. We recorded EEG activity while participants were presented with metaphors and equivalent literal expressions in a minimal context (Experiment 1) and in a supportive context where the word expressing the ground between the metaphor's topic and vehicle was made explicit (Experiment 2). The N400 effect was visible only in minimal context, whereas the P600 was visible both in the absence and in the presence of contextual cues. These findings suggest that the N400 observed for metaphor is related to contextual aspects, possibly indexing contextual expectations on upcoming words that guide lexical access and retrieval, while the P600 seems to reflect truly pragmatic interpretative processes needed to make sense of a metaphor and derive the speaker's meaning, also in the presence of contextual cues. In sum, previous information in the linguistic context biases toward a metaphorical interpretation but does not suppress interpretative pragmatic mechanisms to establish the intended meaning.

The linguistic context effects on the processing of body-object interaction words: An ERP study on second language learners.

PubMed

Xue, Jin; Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando; Pei, Xuna

2015-07-10

Embodied theories of cognition argue that the processing of both concrete and abstract concepts requires the activation of sensorimotor systems. The present study examined the time course for embedding a sensorimotor context in order to elicit sensitivity to the sensorimotor consequences of understanding body-object interaction (BOI) words. In the study, Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects performed a sentence acceptability task. Target BOI words were preceded by rich or poor sensorimotor sentential contexts. The behavioural results replicated previous findings in that high BOI words received a response faster than low BOI words. In addition to this, however, there was a context effect in the sensorimotor region as well as a BOI effect in the parietal region (involved in object representation). The results indicate that the sentential sensorimotor context contributes to the subsequent BOI processing and that action-and perception-related language leads to the activation of the same brain areas, which is consistent with the embodiment theory. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Self-face recognition in social context.

PubMed

Sugiura, Motoaki; Sassa, Yuko; Jeong, Hyeonjeong; Wakusawa, Keisuke; Horie, Kaoru; Sato, Shigeru; Kawashima, Ryuta

2012-06-01

The concept of "social self" is often described as a representation of the self-reflected in the eyes or minds of others. Although the appearance of one's own face has substantial social significance for humans, neuroimaging studies have failed to link self-face recognition and the likely neural substrate of the social self, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). We assumed that the social self is recruited during self-face recognition under a rich social context where multiple other faces are available for comparison of social values. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined the modulation of neural responses to the faces of the self and of a close friend in a social context. We identified an enhanced response in the ventral MPFC and right occipitoparietal sulcus in the social context specifically for the self-face. Neural response in the right lateral parietal and inferior temporal cortices, previously claimed as self-face-specific, was unaffected for the self-face but unexpectedly enhanced for the friend's face in the social context. Self-face-specific activation in the pars triangularis of the inferior frontal gyrus, and self-face-specific reduction of activation in the left middle temporal gyrus and the right supramarginal gyrus, replicating a previous finding, were not subject to such modulation. Our results thus demonstrated the recruitment of a social self during self-face recognition in the social context. At least three brain networks for self-face-specific activation may be dissociated by different patterns of response-modulation in the social context, suggesting multiple dynamic self-other representations in the human brain. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Sadness enhances the experience of pain and affects pain-evoked cortical activities: an MEG study.

PubMed

Yoshino, Atsuo; Okamoto, Yasumasa; Onoda, Keiichi; Shishida, Kazuhiro; Yoshimura, Shinpei; Kunisato, Yoshihiko; Demoto, Yoshihiko; Okada, Go; Toki, Shigeru; Yamashita, Hidehisa; Yamawaki, Shigeto

2012-07-01

Pain is a multidimensional phenomenon. Previous psychological studies have shown that a person's subjective pain threshold can change when certain emotions are recognized. We examined this association with magnetoencephalography. Magnetic field strength was recorded with a 306-channel neuromagnetometer while 19 healthy subjects (7 female, 12 male; age range = 20-30 years) experienced pain stimuli in different emotional contexts induced by the presentation of sad, happy, or neutral facial stimuli. Subjects also rated their subjective pain intensity. We hypothesized that pain stimuli were affected by sadness induced by facial recognition. We found: 1) the intensity of subjective pain ratings increased in the sad emotional context compared to the happy and the neutral contexts, and 2) event-related desynchronization of lower beta bands in the right hemisphere after pain stimuli was larger in the sad emotional condition than in the happy emotional condition. Previous studies have shown that event-related desynchronization in these bands could be consistently observed over the primary somatosensory cortex. These findings suggest that sadness can modulate neural responses to pain stimuli, and that brain processing of pain stimuli had already been affected, at the level of the primary somatosensory cortex, which is critical for sensory processing of pain. We found that subjective pain ratings and cortical beta rhythms after pain stimuli are influenced by the sad emotional context. These results may contribute to understanding the broader relationship between pain and negative emotion. Copyright © 2012 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Caregiver Protective Behavior, Toddler Fear and Sadness, and Toddler Cortisol Reactivity in Novel Contexts

PubMed Central

Hutt, Rachel L.; Buss, Kristin A.; Kiel, Elizabeth J.

2012-01-01

Previous research has shown that caregiver protective behavior may exacerbate toddler distress in specific contexts. The current study sought to extend this work to examine associations between these variables and toddler cortisol reactivity. Ninety-three 24-month-old toddlers were observed across six novel contexts designed to elicit distress. Toddlers were asked to give saliva samples at the beginning and end of the laboratory procedure. Toddler sadness, toddler fear, and caregiver protective behavior were coded. Results indicate that caregiver protective behavior accounted for the association between toddler sadness and cortisol reactivity where higher levels of protective behavior were associated with higher cortisol reactivity. The current study showed that caregiver protective behavior, which functions to prevent a child from interacting with a novel stimulus, is an important mechanism to consider when understanding toddler stress responses during novel contexts. PMID:24659922

Digitisation of Local Heritage: Local Studies Collections and Digitisation in Public Libraries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Lucy; Rowley, Jennifer

2012-01-01

This study explores the application of digitisation in the context of public library local studies services. Since there has been limited previous research on digitisation and local studies collections, this research makes an important contribution in profiling the current situation, and highlighting the extent to which progress is limited in the…

Automatic Identification of Nutritious Contexts for Learning Vocabulary Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mostow, Jack; Gates, Donna; Ellison, Ross; Goutam, Rahul

2015-01-01

Vocabulary knowledge is crucial to literacy development and academic success. Previous research has shown learning the meaning of a word requires encountering it in diverse informative contexts. In this work, we try to identify "nutritious" contexts for a word--contexts that help students build a rich mental representation of the word's…

Unequal effects of speech and nonspeech contexts on the perceptual normalization of Cantonese level tones.

PubMed

Zhang, Caicai; Peng, Gang; Wang, William S-Y

2012-08-01

Context is important for recovering language information from talker-induced variability in acoustic signals. In tone perception, previous studies reported similar effects of speech and nonspeech contexts in Mandarin, supporting a general perceptual mechanism underlying tone normalization. However, no supportive evidence was obtained in Cantonese, also a tone language. Moreover, no study has compared speech and nonspeech contexts in the multi-talker condition, which is essential for exploring the normalization mechanism of inter-talker variability in speaking F0. The other question is whether a talker's full F0 range and mean F0 equally facilitate normalization. To answer these questions, this study examines the effects of four context conditions (speech/nonspeech × F0 contour/mean F0) in the multi-talker condition in Cantonese. Results show that raising and lowering the F0 of speech contexts change the perception of identical stimuli from mid level tone to low and high level tone, whereas nonspeech contexts only mildly increase the identification preference. It supports the speech-specific mechanism of tone normalization. Moreover, speech context with flattened F0 trajectory, which neutralizes cues of a talker's full F0 range, fails to facilitate normalization in some conditions, implying that a talker's mean F0 is less efficient for minimizing talker-induced lexical ambiguity in tone perception.

Age-related deficits in selective attention during encoding increase demands on episodic reconstruction during context retrieval: An ERP study.

PubMed

James, Taylor; Strunk, Jonathan; Arndt, Jason; Duarte, Audrey

2016-06-01

Previous event-related potential (ERP) and neuroimaging evidence suggests that directing attention toward single item-context associations compared to intra-item features at encoding improves context memory performance and reduces demands on strategic retrieval operations in young and older adults. In everyday situations, however, there are multiple event features competing for our attention. It is not currently known how selectively attending to one contextual feature while attempting to ignore another influences context memory performance and the processes that support successful retrieval in the young and old. We investigated this issue in the current ERP study. Young and older participants studied pictures of objects in the presence of two contextual features: a color and a scene, and their attention was directed to the object's relationship with one of those contexts. Participants made context memory decisions for both attended and unattended contexts and rated their confidence in those decisions. Behavioral results showed that while both groups were generally successful in applying selective attention during context encoding, older adults were less confident in their context memory decisions for attended features and showed greater dependence in context memory accuracy for attended and unattended contextual features (i.e., hyper-binding). ERP results were largely consistent between age groups but older adults showed a more pronounced late posterior negativity (LPN) implicated in episodic reconstruction processes. We conclude that age-related suppression deficits during encoding result in reduced selectivity in context memory, thereby increasing subsequent demands on episodic reconstruction processes when sought after details are not readily retrieved. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effects of Organizational Cynicism on Community Colleges: Exploring Concepts from Positive Psychology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnes, Lenora Lacy

2010-01-01

This study tested the negative relationships between organizational cynicism and organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior, and the positive relationship between organizational cynicism and turnover intention within the context of higher education. Going beyond previous research efforts, this study identified how these…

Effects of reward context on feedback processing as indexed by time-frequency analysis.

PubMed

Watts, Adreanna T M; Bernat, Edward M

2018-05-11

The role of reward context has been investigated as an important factor in feedback processing. Previous work has demonstrated that the amplitude of the feedback negativity (FN) depends on the value of the outcome relative to the range of possible outcomes in a given context, not the objective value of the outcome. However, some research has shown that the FN does not scale with loss magnitude in loss-only contexts, suggesting that some contexts do not show a pattern of context dependence. Methodologically, time-frequency decomposition techniques have proven useful for isolating time-domain ERP activity as separable processes indexed in delta (< 3 Hz) and theta (3-7 Hz). Thus, the current study assessed the role of context in a modified gambling feedback task using time-frequency analysis to better isolate the underlying processes. Results revealed that theta was more context dependent and reflected a binary evaluation of bad versus good outcomes in the gain and even contexts. Delta was more context independent: good outcomes scaled linearly with reward magnitude and good-bad differences scaled with context valence. Our findings reveal that theta and delta are differentially sensitive to context and that context valence may play a critical role in determining how the brain processes feedback. © 2018 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Ambiguity produces attention shifts in category learning.

PubMed

Vadillo, Miguel A; Orgaz, Cristina; Luque, David; Nelson, James Byron

2016-04-01

It has been suggested that people and nonhuman animals protect their knowledge from interference by shifting attention toward the context when presented with information that contradicts their previous beliefs. Despite that suggestion, no studies have directly measured changes in attention while participants are exposed to an interference treatment. In the present experiments, we adapted a dot-probe task to track participants' attention to cues and contexts while they were completing a simple category learning task. The results support the hypothesis that interference produces a change in the allocation of attention to cues and contexts. © 2016 Vadillo et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

Working memory capacity predicts the beneficial effect of selective memory retrieval.

PubMed

Schlichting, Andreas; Aslan, Alp; Holterman, Christoph; Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T

2015-01-01

Selective retrieval of some studied items can both impair and improve recall of the other items. This study examined the role of working memory capacity (WMC) for the two effects of memory retrieval. Participants studied an item list consisting of predefined target and nontarget items. After study of the list, half of the participants performed an imagination task supposed to induce a change in mental context, whereas the other half performed a counting task which does not induce such context change. Following presentation of a second list, memory for the original list's target items was tested, either with or without preceding retrieval of the list's nontarget items. Consistent with previous work, preceding nontarget retrieval impaired target recall in the absence of the context change, but improved target recall in its presence. In particular, there was a positive relationship between WMC and the beneficial, but not the detrimental effect of memory retrieval. On the basis of the view that the beneficial effect of memory retrieval reflects context-reactivation processes, the results indicate that individuals with higher WMC are better able to capitalise on retrieval-induced context reactivation than individuals with lower WMC.

Contributions of Medial Temporal Lobe and Striatal Memory Systems to Learning and Retrieving Overlapping Spatial Memories

PubMed Central

Brown, Thackery I.; Stern, Chantal E.

2014-01-01

Many life experiences share information with other memories. In order to make decisions based on overlapping memories, we need to distinguish between experiences to determine the appropriate behavior for the current situation. Previous work suggests that the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and medial caudate interact to support the retrieval of overlapping navigational memories in different contexts. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans to test the prediction that the MTL and medial caudate play complementary roles in learning novel mazes that cross paths with, and must be distinguished from, previously learned routes. During fMRI scanning, participants navigated virtual routes that were well learned from prior training while also learning new mazes. Critically, some routes learned during scanning shared hallways with those learned during pre-scan training. Overlap between mazes required participants to use contextual cues to select between alternative behaviors. Results demonstrated parahippocampal cortex activity specific for novel spatial cues that distinguish between overlapping routes. The hippocampus and medial caudate were active for learning overlapping spatial memories, and increased their activity for previously learned routes when they became context dependent. Our findings provide novel evidence that the MTL and medial caudate play complementary roles in the learning, updating, and execution of context-dependent navigational behaviors. PMID:23448868

Critical Contexts for Biomedical Research in a Native American Community: Health Care, History, and Community Survival

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahota, Puneet Chawla

2012-01-01

Native Americans have been underrepresented in previous studies of biomedical research participants. This paper reports a qualitative interview study of Native Americans' perspectives on biomedical research. In-depth interviews were conducted with 53 members of a Southwest tribal community. Many interviewees viewed biomedical research studies as a…

Designing Tasks to Promote and Assess Mathematical Transfer in Primary School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Julie; Page, Shaileigh; Thornton, Steve

2013-01-01

This study aims to design learning situations and tasks that promote and assess the capacity of primary school children to transfer mathematical knowledge to new contexts. We discuss previous studies investigating mathematical transfer, and particularly the strengths and limitations of tasks used to assess transfer in these studies. We describe…

Student Engagement with Computer-Generated Feedback: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Zhe

2017-01-01

In order to benefit from feedback on their writing, students need to engage effectively with it. This article reports a case study on student engagement with computer-generated feedback, known as automated writing evaluation (AWE) feedback, in an EFL context. Differing from previous studies that explored commercially available AWE programs, this…

The Philosophy of Local Studies in the Interactive Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reid, Peter H.; Macafee, Caroline

2007-01-01

The authors examine strategic priorities for local studies libraries in the context of the interactive Web. They examine the implications for access, investigations and the needs of different users. The philosophy that has previously guided local studies is articulated as a number of maxims, taking into account also social inclusion and lifelong…

Metamemory in a Familiar Place: The Effects of Environmental Context on Feeling of Knowing

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments are judgments of future recognizability of currently inaccessible information. They are known to depend both on the access to partial information about a target of retrieval and on the familiarity of the cue that is used as a memory probe. In the present study we assessed whether FOK judgments could also be shaped by incidental environmental context in which these judgments are made. To this end, we investigated 2 phenomena previously documented in studies on recognition memory—a context familiarity effect and a context reinstatement effect—in the procedure used to investigate FOK judgments. In 2 experiments, we found that FOK judgments increase in the presence of a familiar environmental context. The results of both experiments further revealed still higher FOK judgments when made in the presence of environmental context matching the encoding context of both cue and its associated target. The effect of context familiarity on FOK judgment was paralleled by an effect on the latencies of an unsuccessful memory search, but the effect of context reinstatement was not. Importantly, the elevated feeling of knowing in reinstated and familiar contexts was not accompanied by an increase in the accuracy of those judgments. Together, these results demonstrate that metacognitive processes are shaped by the overall volume of memory information accessed at retrieval, independently of whether this memory information is related to a cue, a target, or a context in which remembering takes place. PMID:27280853

Metamemory in a familiar place: The effects of environmental context on feeling of knowing.

PubMed

Hanczakowski, Maciej; Zawadzka, Katarzyna; Collie, Harriet; Macken, Bill

2017-01-01

Feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments are judgments of future recognizability of currently inaccessible information. They are known to depend both on the access to partial information about a target of retrieval and on the familiarity of the cue that is used as a memory probe. In the present study we assessed whether FOK judgments could also be shaped by incidental environmental context in which these judgments are made. To this end, we investigated 2 phenomena previously documented in studies on recognition memory-a context familiarity effect and a context reinstatement effect-in the procedure used to investigate FOK judgments. In 2 experiments, we found that FOK judgments increase in the presence of a familiar environmental context. The results of both experiments further revealed still higher FOK judgments when made in the presence of environmental context matching the encoding context of both cue and its associated target. The effect of context familiarity on FOK judgment was paralleled by an effect on the latencies of an unsuccessful memory search, but the effect of context reinstatement was not. Importantly, the elevated feeling of knowing in reinstated and familiar contexts was not accompanied by an increase in the accuracy of those judgments. Together, these results demonstrate that metacognitive processes are shaped by the overall volume of memory information accessed at retrieval, independently of whether this memory information is related to a cue, a target, or a context in which remembering takes place. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Student Conceptions of Ionic Bonding: Patterns of thinking across three European contexts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taber, Keith S.; Tsaparlis, Georgios; Nakiboğlu, Canan

2012-12-01

Previous research has reported that students commonly develop alternative conceptions in the core topic of chemical bonding. Research in England has reported that students there commonly demonstrate an alternative 'molecular' conceptual framework for thinking about ionic bonding: in terms of the formation of molecule-like ions pairs through electron transfer, which are internally bonded, but not bonded to other ions. The present study reports the use of translated versions of a diagnostic instrument to elicit the conceptions of bonding in NaCl (commonly used as the teaching example of an ionic compound) from two samples of students setting out on university courses in Greece and Turkey. The study reports that students in these two contexts displayed high levels of support for statements based upon the alternative conceptual framework identified in the English context. Students commonly develop similar alternative conceptions of ionic bonding in these three different educational contexts. The study also found some quite large differences in the specific response patterns across these three contexts, some of which could reflect specific features of the different curriculum contexts. The study reinforces the cross-national nature of the challenge of effectively teaching the abstract models of chemistry at the submicroscopic level. It also provides intriguing suggestions that a close study of the interactions between specific curriculum contexts and specific patterns in students' thinking offers much potential for identifying particular aspects of subject pedagogy that either support or impede the learning of accepted scientific models.

Assessment Intelligence in Small Group Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xing, Wanli; Wu, Yonghe

2014-01-01

Assessment of groups in CSCL context is a challenging task fraught with many confounding factors collected and measured. Previous documented studies are by and large summative in nature and some process-oriented methods require time-intensive coding of qualitative data. This study attempts to resolve these problems for teachers to assess groups…

Reconsidering Hispanic Gang Membership and Acculturation in a Multivariate Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Holly Ventura; Barnes, J. C.; Hartley, Richard D.

2011-01-01

Previous qualitative research has suggested that Hispanic gang membership is linked to the process of acculturation. Specifically, studies have indicated that those who are less assimilated into mainstream American or "Anglo" society are at greater risk for joining gangs. Building on these observations, this study examines the relationship between…

Popularity in the Peer Group and Victimization within Friendship Cliques during Early Adolescence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Closson, Leanna M.; Watanabe, Lori

2018-01-01

Victimization has been primarily studied within the broader peer group, leaving other potentially important contexts, such as friendship cliques, unexplored. This study examined the role of popularity in identifying protective factors that buffer against victimization within early adolescents' (N = 387) friendship cliques. Previously identified…

Superposition: New Solutions from Known Solutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Charles E.

2003-01-01

This note contains material to be presented to students in a first course in differential equations immediately after they have completed studying first-order differential equations and their applications. The purpose of presenting this material is four-fold: to review definitions studied previously; to provide a historical context which cites the…

How to Facilitate Teachers' Understanding of Hypotheses and Predictions?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Niaz, Mansoor

2011-01-01

The objective of this study was to facilitate inservice high school and university teachers' understanding of the difference between the terms "hypothesis" and "prediction." The context for understanding these terms was Columbus's discovery of America (as in the previous study). Control group teachers (N = 94) were evaluated before the discussion…

Context-specific adaptation of the gain of the oculomotor response to lateral translation using roll and pitch head tilts as contexts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shelhamer, Mark; Peng, Grace C Y.; Ramat, Stefano; Patel, Vivek

2002-01-01

Previous studies established that vestibular and oculomotor behaviors can have two adapted states (e.g., gain) simultaneously, and that a context cue (e.g., vertical eye position) can switch between the two states. The present study examined this phenomenon of context-specific adaptation for the oculomotor response to interaural translation (which we term "linear vestibulo-ocular reflex" or LVOR even though it may have extravestibular components). Subjects sat upright on a linear sled and were translated at 0.7 Hz and 0.3 gpeak acceleration while a visual-vestibular mismatch paradigm was used to adaptively increase (x2) or decrease (x0) the gain of the LVOR. In each experimental session, gain increase was asked for in one context, and gain decrease in another context. Testing in darkness with steps and sines before and after adaptation, in each context, assessed the extent to which the context itself could recall the gain state that was imposed in that context during adaptation. Two different contexts were used: head pitch (26 degrees forward and backward) and head roll (26 degrees or 45 degrees, right and left). Head roll tilt worked well as a context cue: with the head rolled to the right the LVOR could be made to have a higher gain than with the head rolled to the left. Head pitch tilt was less effective as a context cue. This suggests that the more closely related a context cue is to the response being adapted, the more effective it is.

Uninformative contexts support word learning for high-skill spellers.

PubMed

Eskenazi, Michael A; Swischuk, Natascha K; Folk, Jocelyn R; Abraham, Ashley N

2018-04-30

The current study investigated how high-skill spellers and low-skill spellers incidentally learn words during reading. The purpose of the study was to determine whether readers can use uninformative contexts to support word learning after forming a lexical representation for a novel word, consistent with instance-based resonance processes. Previous research has found that uninformative contexts damage word learning; however, there may have been insufficient exposure to informative contexts (only one) prior to exposure to uninformative contexts (Webb, 2007; Webb, 2008). In Experiment 1, participants read sentences with one novel word (i.e., blaph, clurge) embedded in them in three different conditions: Informative (six informative contexts to support word learning), Mixed (three informative contexts followed by three uninformative contexts), and Uninformative (six uninformative contexts). Experiment 2 added a new condition with only three informative contexts to further clarify the conclusions of Experiment 1. Results indicated that uninformative contexts can support word learning, but only for high-skill spellers. Further, when participants learned the spelling of the novel word, they were more likely to learn the meaning of that word. This effect was much larger for high-skill spellers than for low-skill spellers. Results are consistent with the Lexical Quality Hypothesis (LQH) in that high-skill spellers form stronger orthographic representations which support word learning (Perfetti, 2007). Results also support an instance-based resonance process of word learning in that prior informative contexts can be reactivated to support word learning in future contexts (Bolger, Balass, Landen, & Perfetti, 2008; Balass, Nelson, & Perfetti, 2010; Reichle & Perfetti, 2003). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Taiwanese and Sri Lankan students' dimensions and discourses of professionalism.

PubMed

Monrouxe, Lynn V; Chandratilake, Madawa; Gosselin, Katherine; Rees, Charlotte E; Ho, Ming-Jung

2017-07-01

The definition of medical professionalism poses a challenge to global medical educators. This is especially pronounced in settings where professionalism frameworks developed in the west are transferred into different cultures. Building upon our previous study across Western contexts, we examine Taiwanese and Sri Lankan medical students' conceptualisations of professionalism in terms of what professionalism comprises (i.e. dimensions) and how it is linguistically framed (i.e. discourses). A qualitative group interview study was undertaken comprising 26 group interviews with 135 participants from one Taiwanese (n = 64; Years 4-7) and one Sri Lankan medical school (n = 71; Years 2-5). Through thematic framework analysis we examined the data for explicit dimensions of professionalism. Through discourse analysis we identified how participants constructed professionalism linguistically (discourses). Thirteen common dimensions across Taiwanese and Sri Lankan talk were identified, with the dimensions (contextual, integration and internalised self) being identified only in Sri Lankan data. Professionalism as knowledge and patient-centredness were dominant dimensions in Taiwan; in Sri Lanka, attributes of the individual and rules were dominant dimensions. Participants in both countries used four types of discourses previously identified in the literature. Individual and interpersonal discourses were dominant in Taiwanese talk; the collective discourse was dominant in Sri Lankan talk. Findings were compared with our previous data collected in Western contexts. Despite some overlap in the dimensions and discourses identified across both this and Western studies, Taiwanese and Sri Lankan students' dominant dimensions and discourses were distinct. We therefore encourage global medical educators to look beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to professionalism, and to recognise the significance of context and culture in conceptualisations of professionalism. © 2017 The Authors. Medical Education published by Association for the Study of Medical Education and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Context-specific attentional sampling: Intentional control as a pre-requisite for contextual control.

PubMed

Brosowsky, Nicholaus P; Crump, Matthew J C

2016-08-01

Recent work suggests that environmental cues associated with previous attentional control settings can rapidly and involuntarily adjust attentional priorities. The current study tests predictions from adaptive-learning and memory-based theories of contextual control about the role of intentions for setting attentional priorities. To extend the empirical boundaries of contextual control phenomena, and to determine whether theoretical principles of contextual control are generalizable we used a novel bi-dimensional stimulus sampling task. Subjects viewed briefly presented arrays of letters and colors presented above or below fixation, and identified specific stimuli according to a dimensional (letter or color) and positional cue. Location was predictive of the cued dimension, but not the position or identity. In contrast to previous findings, contextual control failed to develop through automatic, adaptive-learning processes. Instead, previous experience with intentionally changing attentional sampling priorities between different contexts was required for contextual control to develop. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Performance and Symptom Validity Testing as a Function of Medical Board Evaluation in U.S. Military Service Members with a History of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

PubMed

Armistead-Jehle, Patrick; Cole, Wesley R; Stegman, Robert L

2018-02-01

The study was designed to replicate and extend pervious findings demonstrating the high rates of invalid neuropsychological testing in military service members (SMs) with a history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) assessed in the context of a medical evaluation board (MEB). Two hundred thirty-one active duty SMs (61 of which were undergoing an MEB) underwent neuropsychological assessment. Performance validity (Word Memory Test) and symptom validity (MMPI-2-RF) test data were compared across those evaluated within disability (MEB) and clinical contexts. As with previous studies, there were significantly more individuals in an MEB context that failed performance (MEB = 57%, non-MEB = 31%) and symptom validity testing (MEB = 57%, non-MEB = 22%) and performance validity testing had a notable affect on cognitive test scores. Performance and symptom validity test failure rates did not vary as a function of the reason for disability evaluation when divided into behavioral versus physical health conditions. These data are consistent with past studies, and extends those studies by including symptom validity testing and investigating the effect of reason for MEB. This and previous studies demonstrate that more than 50% of SMs seen in the context of an MEB will fail performance validity tests and over-report on symptom validity measures. These results emphasize the importance of using both performance and symptom validity testing when evaluating SMs with a history of mTBI, especially if they are being seen for disability evaluations, in order to ensure the accuracy of cognitive and psychological test data. Published by Oxford University Press 2017. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

Balance across contexts: importance of balanced need satisfaction across various life domains.

PubMed

Milyavskaya, Marina; Gingras, Isabelle; Mageau, Geneviève A; Koestner, Richard; Gagnon, Hugo; Fang, Jianqun; Boiché, Julie

2009-08-01

Self-determination theory posits that satisfaction of three basic psychological needs-autonomy, competence, and relatedness-are required for psychological well-being, and a recent study showed that the balance in the satisfaction of these three needs independently affects well-being. The present investigation builds on these findings by examining the balance of adolescents' need satisfaction across distinct life contexts. The results of three studies show that adolescents who experience a balance of need satisfaction across important life contexts, including at school, at home, with friends, and in part-time jobs, reported higher well-being and better school adjustment. This finding emerged consistently across four countries and across multiple measures of school adjustment, including teacher reports. Together, these results support previous research that highlights the importance of consistency for psychological functioning.

Genre and Literacy-Modeling Context in Educational Linguistics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, James R.

1992-01-01

Complements review in previous volume concerning Australian literacy (in first- and second-language) initiatives that drew on systemic functional linguistics, highlights ongoing research within the same theoretical framework, and focuses on the question of modeling context in educational linguistics. The discussion includes modeling context as…

Development, awareness and inductive selectivity.

PubMed

Hayes, Brett K; Lim, Melissa

2013-05-01

Two studies examined whether adults and children could learn to make context-dependent inferences about novel stimuli and the role of awareness of context cues in such learning. Participants were trained to match probes to targets on the basis of shape or color with the relevant dimension shifting according to item context. A selective induction test then examined context-dependent responding in a more complex matching task. Awareness of the role of context was assessed using a behavioral task and explicit questions. Experiment 1 showed that after training with the procedure described by Sloutsky and Fisher (2008), only a minority of adults showed evidence of context-dependent responding in the selective induction test. Experiment 2 used a modified training protocol that promoted attention to context cues. This led to reliable selective induction in a majority of adults and a sizeable proportion of 4- to 6-year-olds. Crucially, in both age groups, selective induction was dependent on awareness of context. Hence, children as young as 4 can learn to make selective inferences about novel stimuli, but only when they are aware of the relevant context cues. These results challenge previous claims that selective induction in children is the product of implicit learning.

Disentangling Metaphor from Context: An ERP Study

PubMed Central

Bambini, Valentina; Bertini, Chiara; Schaeken, Walter; Stella, Alessandra; Di Russo, Francesco

2016-01-01

A large body of electrophysiological literature showed that metaphor comprehension elicits two different event-related brain potential responses, namely the so-called N400 and P600 components. Yet most of these studies test metaphor in isolation while in natural conversation metaphors do not come out of the blue but embedded in linguistic and extra-linguistic context. This study aimed at assessing the role of context in the metaphor comprehension process. We recorded EEG activity while participants were presented with metaphors and equivalent literal expressions in a minimal context (Experiment 1) and in a supportive context where the word expressing the ground between the metaphor's topic and vehicle was made explicit (Experiment 2). The N400 effect was visible only in minimal context, whereas the P600 was visible both in the absence and in the presence of contextual cues. These findings suggest that the N400 observed for metaphor is related to contextual aspects, possibly indexing contextual expectations on upcoming words that guide lexical access and retrieval, while the P600 seems to reflect truly pragmatic interpretative processes needed to make sense of a metaphor and derive the speaker's meaning, also in the presence of contextual cues. In sum, previous information in the linguistic context biases toward a metaphorical interpretation but does not suppress interpretative pragmatic mechanisms to establish the intended meaning. PMID:27199799

Deep Belief Networks Learn Context Dependent Behavior

PubMed Central

Raudies, Florian; Zilli, Eric A.; Hasselmo, Michael E.

2014-01-01

With the goal of understanding behavioral mechanisms of generalization, we analyzed the ability of neural networks to generalize across context. We modeled a behavioral task where the correct responses to a set of specific sensory stimuli varied systematically across different contexts. The correct response depended on the stimulus (A,B,C,D) and context quadrant (1,2,3,4). The possible 16 stimulus-context combinations were associated with one of two responses (X,Y), one of which was correct for half of the combinations. The correct responses varied symmetrically across contexts. This allowed responses to previously unseen stimuli (probe stimuli) to be generalized from stimuli that had been presented previously. By testing the simulation on two or more stimuli that the network had never seen in a particular context, we could test whether the correct response on the novel stimuli could be generated based on knowledge of the correct responses in other contexts. We tested this generalization capability with a Deep Belief Network (DBN), Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) network, and the combination of a DBN with a linear perceptron (LP). Overall, the combination of the DBN and LP had the highest success rate for generalization. PMID:24671178

Effects of emotional context on memory for details: the role of attention.

PubMed

Kim, Johann Sung-Cheul; Vossel, Gerhard; Gamer, Matthias

2013-01-01

It was repeatedly demonstrated that a negative emotional context enhances memory for central details while impairing memory for peripheral information. This trade-off effect is assumed to result from attentional processes: a negative context seems to narrow attention to central information at the expense of more peripheral details, thus causing the differential effects in memory. However, this explanation has rarely been tested and previous findings were partly inconclusive. For the present experiment 13 negative and 13 neutral naturalistic, thematically driven picture stories were constructed to test the trade-off effect in an ecologically more valid setting as compared to previous studies. During an incidental encoding phase, eye movements were recorded as an index of overt attention. In a subsequent recognition phase, memory for central and peripheral details occurring in the picture stories was tested. Explicit affective ratings and autonomic responses validated the induction of emotion during encoding. Consistent with the emotional trade-off effect on memory, encoding context differentially affected recognition of central and peripheral details. However, contrary to the common assumption, the emotional trade-off effect on memory was not mediated by attentional processes. By contrast, results suggest that the relevance of attentional processing for later recognition memory depends on the centrality of information and the emotional context but not their interaction. Thus, central information was remembered well even when fixated very briefly whereas memory for peripheral information depended more on overt attention at encoding. Moreover, the influence of overt attention on memory for central and peripheral details seems to be much lower for an arousing as compared to a neutral context.

Effects of Emotional Context on Memory for Details: The Role of Attention

PubMed Central

Kim, Johann Sung-Cheul; Vossel, Gerhard; Gamer, Matthias

2013-01-01

It was repeatedly demonstrated that a negative emotional context enhances memory for central details while impairing memory for peripheral information. This trade-off effect is assumed to result from attentional processes: a negative context seems to narrow attention to central information at the expense of more peripheral details, thus causing the differential effects in memory. However, this explanation has rarely been tested and previous findings were partly inconclusive. For the present experiment 13 negative and 13 neutral naturalistic, thematically driven picture stories were constructed to test the trade-off effect in an ecologically more valid setting as compared to previous studies. During an incidental encoding phase, eye movements were recorded as an index of overt attention. In a subsequent recognition phase, memory for central and peripheral details occurring in the picture stories was tested. Explicit affective ratings and autonomic responses validated the induction of emotion during encoding. Consistent with the emotional trade-off effect on memory, encoding context differentially affected recognition of central and peripheral details. However, contrary to the common assumption, the emotional trade-off effect on memory was not mediated by attentional processes. By contrast, results suggest that the relevance of attentional processing for later recognition memory depends on the centrality of information and the emotional context but not their interaction. Thus, central information was remembered well even when fixated very briefly whereas memory for peripheral information depended more on overt attention at encoding. Moreover, the influence of overt attention on memory for central and peripheral details seems to be much lower for an arousing as compared to a neutral context. PMID:24116226

Distinct brain activity in processing negative pictures of animals and objects --- the role of human contexts

PubMed Central

Cao, Zhijun; Zhao, Yanbing; Tan, Tengteng; Chen, Gang; Ning, Xueling; Zhan, Lexia; Yang, Jiongjiong

2013-01-01

Previous studies have shown that the amygdala is important in processing not only animate entities but also social information. It remains to be determined to what extent the factors of category and social context interact to modulate the activities of the amygdala and cortical regions. In this study, pictures depicting animals and inanimate objects in negative and neutral levels were presented. The contexts of the pictures differed in whether they included human/human parts. The factors of valence, arousal, familiarity and complexity of pictures were controlled across categories. The results showed that the amygdala activity was modulated by category and contextual information. Under the nonhuman context condition, the amygdala responded more to animals than objects for both negative and neutral pictures. In contrast, under the human context condition, the amygdala showed stronger activity for negative objects than animals. In addition to cortical regions related to object action, functional and effective connectivity analyses showed that the anterior prefrontal cortex interacted with the amygdala more for negative objects (vs. animals) in the human context condition, by a top-down modulation of the anterior prefrontal cortex to the amygdala. These results highlighted the effects of category and human contexts on modulating brain activity in emotional processing. PMID:24099847

Context-dependent lexical ambiguity resolution: MEG evidence for the time-course of activity in left inferior frontal gyrus and posterior middle temporal gyrus.

PubMed

Mollo, Giovanna; Jefferies, Elizabeth; Cornelissen, Piers; Gennari, Silvia P

An MEG study investigated the role of context in semantic interpretation by examining the comprehension of ambiguous words in contexts leading to different interpretations. We compared high-ambiguity words in minimally different contexts (to bowl, the bowl) to low-ambiguity counterparts (the tray, to flog). Whole brain beamforming revealed the engagement of left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and posterior middle temporal gyrus (LPMTG). Points of interest analyses showed that both these sites showed a stronger response to verb-contexts by 200 ms post-stimulus and displayed overlapping ambiguity effects that were sustained from 300 ms onwards. The effect of context was stronger for high-ambiguity words than for low-ambiguity words at several different time points, including within the first 100 ms post-stimulus. Unlike LIFG, LPMTG also showed stronger responses to verb than noun contexts in low-ambiguity trials. We argue that different functional roles previously attributed to LIFG and LPMTG are in fact played out at different periods during processing. Crown Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Facial emotion processing in pediatric social anxiety disorder: Relevance of situational context.

PubMed

Schwab, Daniela; Schienle, Anne

2017-08-01

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) typically begins in childhood. Previous research has demonstrated that adult patients respond with elevated late positivity (LP) to negative facial expressions. In the present study on pediatric SAD, we investigated responses to negative facial expressions and the role of social context information. Fifteen children with SAD and 15 non-anxious controls were first presented with images of negative facial expressions with masked backgrounds. Following this, the complete images which included context information, were shown. The negative expressions were either a result of an emotion-relevant (e.g., social exclusion) or emotion-irrelevant elicitor (e.g., weight lifting). Relative to controls, the clinical group showed elevated parietal LP during face processing with and without context information. Both groups differed in their frontal LP depending on the type of context. In SAD patients, frontal LP was lower in emotion-relevant than emotion-irrelevant contexts. We conclude that SAD patients direct more automatic attention towards negative facial expressions (parietal effect) and are less capable in integrating affective context information (frontal effect). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Testing the Main Determinants of Teachers' Professional Well-Being by Using a Mixed Method

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yildirim, Kamil

2015-01-01

Measuring the perception of professional well-being appears as a problematic issue in past studies. Literature reviews show that previous studies have not yet reached an agreement on measures of teachers' professional well-being. Furthermore, when we consider the cultural context, a research gap becomes clearer. The aim of this study was to…

An fMRI Study of Sentence-Embedded Lexical-Semantic Decision in Children and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore-Parks, Erin Nicole; Burns, Erin L.; Bazzill, Rebecca; Levy, Sarah; Posada, Valerie; Muller, Ralph-Axel

2010-01-01

Lexical-semantic knowledge is a core language component that undergoes prolonged development throughout childhood and is therefore highly amenable to developmental studies. Most previous lexical-semantic functional MRI (fMRI) studies have been limited to single-word or word-pair tasks, outside a sentence context. Our objective was to investigate…

A Review on Studies of Phrasal Verb Constructions in ESL Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jahedi, Maryam; Mukundan, Jayakaran

2015-01-01

This paper aims to give an overview of studies on phrasal verbs in three decades to present the theoretical and methodological issues, as well as the findings of research. Moreover, this review reveals the developments and paradigm shifts occurred in this area. Previous studies have shown that the research findings have not been incorporated into…

Context specificity of inhibitory control in dogs

PubMed Central

MacLean, Evan L.; Hare, Brian A.

2014-01-01

Across three experiments, we explored whether a dog's capacity for inhibitory control is stable or variable across decision-making contexts. In the social task, dogs were first exposed to the reputations of a stingy experimenter that never shared food and a generous experimenter who always shared food. In subsequent test trials, dogs were required to avoid approaching the stingy experimenter when this individual offered (but withheld) a higher-value reward than the generous experimenter did. In the A-not-B task, dogs were required to inhibit searching for food in a previously rewarded location after witnessing the food being moved from this location to a novel hiding place. In the cylinder task, dogs were required to resist approaching visible food directly (because it was behind a transparent barrier), in favor of a detour reaching response. Overall, dogs exhibited inhibitory control in all three tasks. However, individual scores were not correlated between tasks, suggesting that context has a large effect on dogs' behavior. This result mirrors studies of humans, which have highlighted intra-individual variation in inhibitory control as a function of the decision-making context. Lastly, we observed a correlation between a subject's age and performance on the cylinder task, corroborating previous observations of age-related decline in dogs' executive function. PMID:23584618

The Effects of Gender and Relationship Context Cues on Responsive Sexual Desire in Exclusively and Predominantly Androphilic Women and Gynephilic Men.

PubMed

Timmers, Amanda D; Dawson, Samantha J; Chivers, Meredith L

2018-04-20

Sexual desire may be "responsive," emerging from sexual arousal to sexually competent cues. Cues that elicit sexual arousal and desire differ, however, by gender and direction of sexual attractions. Further, relationship context cues are thought to be important for responsive desire, but this has not been tested directly. The current study examined gynephilic men's (n = 27) and exclusively (n = 23) and predominantly (n = 17) androphilic women's dyadic and solitary responsive sexual desire, as well as genital and self-reported arousal, to audio narratives varying by gender (male, female) of the sexual partner and relationship context (stranger, friend, long-term relationship). Consistent with previous literature, gynephilic men's solitary and dyadic desire were gender-specific (greater to female than to male sexual partners). Exclusively androphilic women's dyadic desire differentiated less to cues of gender than gynephilic men's, and their solitary desire did not differentiate by gender cues at all, replicating previous research. Androphilic women with some gynephilia reported a gender-nonspecific pattern of dyadic and solitary desire (i.e., responsive desire to both male and female narratives). No effect of relationship context was found for any groups. Results suggest that responsive sexual desire may be more closely associated with self-reported than genital arousal patterns.

Physical Education Teachers' Career-Long Professional Learning: Getting Personal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Makopoulou, Kyriaki; Armour, Kathleen M.

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to build upon previous PE-CPD (Physical Education Continuing Professional Development) research by exploring Greek case study physical education (PE) teachers' engagement in professional learning. It is argued that in the contemporary European context, where the teaching profession is viewed as central to achieving wider…

Factors That Influence Communication about Sexuality between Parents and Adolescents in the Cultural Context of Mexican Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rouvier, Mariel; Campero, Lourdes; Walker, Dilys; Caballero, Marta

2011-01-01

Sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy among adolescents are important public health issues that can be tackled through the implementation of effective education strategies. Previous studies have documented the importance and effectiveness of parents as primary educators for their adolescents. A qualitative study based on grounded…

Disadvantaged Youth Report Less Negative Emotion to Minor Stressors When with Peers: An Experience Sampling Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uink, Bep Norma; Modecki, Kathryn Lynn; Barber, Bonnie L.

2017-01-01

Previous Experience Sampling Method (ESM) studies demonstrate that adolescents' daily emotional states are heavily influenced by their immediate social context. However, despite adolescence being a risk period for exposure to daily stressors, research has yet to examine the influence of peers on adolescents' emotional responses to stressors…

Students' Mathematical Reasoning and Beliefs in Non-Routine Task Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jäder, Jonas; Sidenvall, Johan; Sumpter, Lovisa

2017-01-01

Beliefs and problem solving are connected and have been studied in different contexts. One of the common results of previous research is that students tend to prefer algorithmic approaches to mathematical tasks. This study explores Swedish upper secondary school students' beliefs and reasoning when solving non-routine tasks. The results regarding…

Contextual Effect in People with Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsu, Ching-Fen; Tzeng, Ovid J.-L.

2011-01-01

This study was aimed at investigating the semantic integration ability of people with WS in building up a coherent and gist theme from the context of presented sentences. Previous studies have indicated rich lexical semantic knowledge and typical semantic priming in this clinical group, but atypical brainwave patterns have been reported in studies…

Studying the Water Cycle in an Environmental Context: The "Blue Planet" Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ben-zvi-assaraf, Orit; Orion, Nir

The Blue Planet program aims to develop an understanding of and insight into the environment among students by introducing environmental problems such as pollution. This paper presents a study investigating junior high school students' previous knowledge and understanding of environmental issues and perceptions on the nature of the water cycle.…

An Australian Study of Possible Selves Perceived by Undergraduate Engineering Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Dawn; Male, Sally A.

2017-01-01

In this study, we worked with second-year engineering students at an Australian university to examine previously identified threshold concepts within the theoretical framework of Possible Selves. Using workshops as the context for intensive work with students, students were encouraged to consider their future lives and work, including their…

Processing of Japanese Cleft Constructions in Context: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yano, Masataka; Tateyama, Yuki; Sakamoto, Tsutomu

2015-01-01

Numerous studies have found "subject gap preference" in relative clauses and cleft constructions in English, French, and other languages. In contrast, previous studies have reported "object gap preference" in cleft constructions in Japanese. However, the effect of integrating a filler and its gap may be influenced by the effect…

Astrobiology and the Basaltic Plains in Gusev Crater

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

DesMarais, D. J.; Clark, B. C.; Crumpler, L. S.; Farmer, J. D.; Grotzinger, John P.; Haskin, Larry A.; Knoll, Andrew H.; Landis, Geoffrey A.; Moersch, Jeffrey; Schroeder, Christian

2005-01-01

This report assesses the availability of nutrient elements, energy and liquid water on the plains surrounding Columbia Memorial Station by evaluating observations by the MER rover Spirit in the context of previous Mars missions, Earth-based studies of martian meteorites and studies of microbial communities on Earth that represent potential analogs of martian biota.

Developmental Alcohol-Specific Parenting Profiles in Adolescence and Their Relationships with Adolescents' Alcohol Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koning, Ina M.; van den Eijnden, Regina J. J. M.; Verdurmen, Jacqueline E. E.; Engels, Rutger C. M. E.; Vollebergh, Wilma A. M.

2012-01-01

Previous studies on general parenting have demonstrated the relevance of strict parenting within a supportive social context for a variety of adolescent behaviors, such as alcohol use. Yet, alcohol-specific parenting practices are generally examined as separate predictors of adolescents' drinking behavior. The present study examined different…

Context Matters: Increasing Understanding with Interactive Clicker Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lundeberg, Mary A.; Kang, Hosun; Wolter, Bjorn; delMas, Robert; Armstrong, Norris; Borsari, Bruno; Boury, Nancy; Brickman, Peggy; Hannam, Kristi; Heinz, Cheryl; Horvath, Thomas; Knabb, Maureen; Platt, Terry; Rice, Nancy; Rogers, Bill; Sharp, Joan; Ribbens, Eric; Maier, Kimberly S.; Deschryver, Mike; Hagley, Rodney; Goulet, Tamar; Herreid, Clyde F.

2011-01-01

Although interactive technology is presumed to increase student understanding in large classes, no previous research studies have empirically explored the effects of Clicker Cases on students' performance. A Clicker Case is a story (e.g., a problem someone is facing) that uses clickers (student response systems) to engage students in understanding…

How Virtual Community Participation Influences Consumer Loyalty Intentions in Online Shopping Contexts: An Investigation of Mediating Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pai, Pei-Yu; Tsai, Hsien-Tung

2011-01-01

Extant studies generally recognise that virtual community building is an effective marketing programme for forging deep and enduring affective bonds with consumers. This study extends previous research by proposing and testing a model that investigates key mediating processes (via trust, satisfaction and identification) that underlie the…

Gavagai Is as Gavagai Does: Learning Nouns and Verbs from Cross-Situational Statistics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monaghan, Padraic; Mattock, Karen; Davies, Robert A. I.; Smith, Alastair C.

2015-01-01

Learning to map words onto their referents is difficult, because there are multiple possibilities for forming these mappings. Cross-situational learning studies have shown that word-object mappings can be learned across multiple situations, as can verbs when presented in a syntactic context. However, these previous studies have presented either…

Two are not better than one: Combining unitization and relational encoding strategies.

PubMed

Tu, Hsiao-Wei; Diana, Rachel A

2016-01-01

In recognition memory, recollection is defined as retrieval of the context associated with an event, whereas familiarity is defined as retrieval based on item strength alone. Recent studies have shown that conventional recollection-based tasks, in which context details are manipulated for source memory assessment at test, can also rely on familiarity when context information is "unitized" with the relevant item information at encoding. Unlike naturalistic episodic memories that include many context details encoded in different ways simultaneously, previous studies have focused on unitization and its effect on the recognition of a single context detail. To further understand how various encoding strategies operate on item and context representations, we independently assigned unitization and relational association to 2 context details (size and color) of each item and tested the contribution of recollection and familiarity to source recognition of each detail. The influence of familiarity on retrieval of each context detail was compared as a function of the encoding strategy used for each detail. Receiver operating characteristic curves suggested that the unitization effect was not additive and that similar levels of familiarity occurred for 1 or multiple details when unitization was the only strategy applied during encoding. On the other hand, a detrimental effect was found when relational encoding and unitization were simultaneously applied to 1 item such that a salient nonunitized context detail interfered with the effortful processing required to unitize an accompanying context detail. However, this detrimental effect was not reciprocal and possibly dependent on the nature of individual context details. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Context factors in consultations of general practitioner trainees and their impact on communication assessment in the authentic setting.

PubMed

Essers, Geurt; van Dulmen, Sandra; van Es, Judy; van Weel, Chris; van der Vleuten, Cees; Kramer, Anneke

2013-12-01

Acquiring adequate communication skills is an essential part of general practice (GP) specialty training. In assessing trainee proficiency, the context in which trainees communicate is usually not taken into account. The present paper aims to explore what context factors can be found in regular GP trainee consultations and how these influence their communication performance. In a randomly selected sample of 44 videotaped, real-life GP trainee consultations, we searched for context factors previously identified in GP consultations and explored how trainee ratings change if context factors are taken into account. Trainee performance was rated twice using the MAAS-Global, first without and then with incorporating context factors. Item score differences were calculated using a paired samples t-test and effect sizes were computed. All previously identified context factors were again observed in GP trainee consultations. In communication assessment scores, we found a significant difference in 5 out of 13 MAAS-Global items, mostly in a positive direction. The effect size was moderate (0.57). GP trainee communication is influenced by contextual factors; they seem to adapt to context in a professional way. GP specialty training needs to focus on a context-specific application of communication skills. Communication raters need to be taught how to incorporate context factors into their assessments. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The "Wallpaper Effect" Revisited: Divergent Findings on the Effects of Intergroup Contact on Attitudes in Diverse Versus Nondiverse Contexts.

PubMed

Schmid, Katharina; Wölfer, Ralf; Swart, Herman; Christ, Oliver; Al Ramiah, Ananthi; Vertovec, Steven; Hewstone, Miles

2017-09-01

This article reexamines the so-called "wallpaper effect" of intergroup contact, which contends that for minority group members living in areas more densely populated by majority group members, intergroup contact fails to reduce prejudice. We tested this claim in five studies, using data from five countries, two types of contexts, a range of measures, and involving different minority versus majority groups. Using multilevel cross-level interaction models, we considered whether effects of contact on outgroup attitudes were moderated by relative outgroup size. Results failed to replicate the previously reported findings, revealing, by and large, nonsignificant cross-level moderation effects; instead, we witnessed consistent positive contact effects on attitudes. Findings are discussed against the backdrop of recent research on the consequences of diversity, as well as context-based considerations regarding minority versus majority constellations. We also discuss some exceptions to our findings that emerged for some respondent groups and contexts across the five studies.

Contextual information renders experts vulnerable to making erroneous identifications.

PubMed

Dror, Itiel E; Charlton, David; Péron, Ailsa E

2006-01-06

We investigated whether experts can objectively focus on feature information in fingerprints without being misled by extraneous information, such as context. We took fingerprints that have previously been examined and assessed by latent print experts to make positive identification of suspects. Then we presented these same fingerprints again, to the same experts, but gave a context that suggested that they were a no-match, and hence the suspects could not be identified. Within this new context, most of the fingerprint experts made different judgements, thus contradicting their own previous identification decisions. Cognitive aspects involved in biometric identification can explain why experts are vulnerable to make erroneous identifications.

Context shapes social judgments of positive emotion suppression and expression.

PubMed

Kalokerinos, Elise K; Greenaway, Katharine H; Casey, James P

2017-02-01

It is generally considered socially undesirable to suppress the expression of positive emotion. However, previous research has not considered the role that social context plays in governing appropriate emotion regulation. We investigated a context in which it may be more appropriate to suppress than express positive emotion, hypothesizing that positive emotion expressions would be considered inappropriate when the valence of the expressed emotion (i.e., positive) did not match the valence of the context (i.e., negative). Six experiments (N = 1,621) supported this hypothesis: when there was a positive emotion-context mismatch, participants rated targets who suppressed positive emotion as more appropriate, and evaluated them more positively than targets who expressed positive emotion. This effect occurred even when participants were explicitly made aware that suppressing targets were experiencing mismatched emotion for the context (e.g., feeling positive in a negative context), suggesting that appropriate emotional expression is key to these effects. These studies are among the first to provide empirical evidence that social costs to suppression are not inevitable, but instead are dependent on context. Expressive suppression can be a socially useful emotion regulation strategy in situations that call for it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Context-dependent decision-making: a simple Bayesian model.

PubMed

Lloyd, Kevin; Leslie, David S

2013-05-06

Many phenomena in animal learning can be explained by a context-learning process whereby an animal learns about different patterns of relationship between environmental variables. Differentiating between such environmental regimes or 'contexts' allows an animal to rapidly adapt its behaviour when context changes occur. The current work views animals as making sequential inferences about current context identity in a world assumed to be relatively stable but also capable of rapid switches to previously observed or entirely new contexts. We describe a novel decision-making model in which contexts are assumed to follow a Chinese restaurant process with inertia and full Bayesian inference is approximated by a sequential-sampling scheme in which only a single hypothesis about current context is maintained. Actions are selected via Thompson sampling, allowing uncertainty in parameters to drive exploration in a straightforward manner. The model is tested on simple two-alternative choice problems with switching reinforcement schedules and the results compared with rat behavioural data from a number of T-maze studies. The model successfully replicates a number of important behavioural effects: spontaneous recovery, the effect of partial reinforcement on extinction and reversal, the overtraining reversal effect, and serial reversal-learning effects.

Context factors in general practitioner-patient encounters and their impact on assessing communication skills--an exploratory study.

PubMed

Essers, Geurt; Kramer, Anneke; Andriesse, Boukje; van Weel, Chris; van der Vleuten, Cees; van Dulmen, Sandra

2013-05-22

Assessment of medical communication performance usually focuses on rating generically applicable, well-defined communication skills. However, in daily practice, communication is determined by (specific) context factors, such as acquaintance with the patient, or the presented problem. Merely valuing the presence of generic skills may not do justice to the doctor's proficiency.Our aim was to perform an exploratory study on how assessment of general practitioner (GP) communication performance changes if context factors are explicitly taken into account. We used a mixed method design to explore how ratings would change. A random sample of 40 everyday GP consultations was used to see if previously identified context factors could be observed again. The sample was rated twice using a widely used assessment instrument (the MAAS-Global), first in the standard way and secondly after context factors were explicitly taken into account, by using a context-specific rating protocol to assess communication performance in the workplace. In between first and second rating, the presence of context factors was established. Item score differences were calculated using paired sample t-tests. In 38 out of 40 consultations, context factors prompted application of the context-specific rating protocol. Mean overall score on the 7-point MAAS-Global scale increased from 2.98 in standard to 3.66 in the context-specific rating (p<0.00); the effect size for the total mean score was 0.84. In earlier research the minimum standard score for adequate communication was set at 3.17. Applying the protocol, the mean overall score rose above the level set in an earlier study for the MAAS-Global scores to represent 'adequate GP communication behaviour'. Our findings indicate that incorporating context factors in communication assessment thus makes a meaningful difference and shows that context factors should be considered as 'signal' instead of 'noise' in GP communication assessment. Explicating context factors leads to a more deliberate and transparent rating of GP communication performance.

Impact of scaffolding and question structure on the gender gap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dawkins, Hillary; Hedgeland, Holly; Jordan, Sally

2017-12-01

We address previous hypotheses about possible factors influencing the gender gap in attainment in physics. Specifically, previous studies claim that scaffolding may preferentially benefit female students, and we present some alternative conclusions surrounding this hypothesis. By taking both student attainment level and the degree of question scaffolding into account, we identify questions that exhibit real bias in favor of male students. We find that both multidimensional context and use of diagrams are common elements of such questions.

Not in the mood? Men under- (not over-) perceive their partner's sexual desire in established intimate relationships.

PubMed

Muise, Amy; Stanton, Sarah C E; Kim, James J; Impett, Emily A

2016-05-01

Men's sexual overperception bias-where men tend to perceive greater sexual interest in women's behavior than actually exists-is a well-documented finding in previous research. All of the existing research, however, has tested this effect in the context of initial encounters or for fictitious or unknown targets. No research currently exists on how people perceive their romantic partner's sexual desire in the context of ongoing, intimate relationships. In 3 dyadic studies, we provide evidence that men in established romantic relationships err in the direction of the opposite bias and underperceive their romantic partner's sexual desire. We also demonstrate that this underperception bias is functional (particularly for men) in that it is associated with their partner feeling more satisfied and committed to the relationship. In addition, people are particularly likely to underperceive their partner's desire on days when they are motivated to avoid sexual rejection, and men's underperception bias is, in part, accounted for by men's higher general levels of sexual desire than women. The current studies extend previous findings on sexual perceptual biases and demonstrate the important role of context in men's judgments of a partner's sexual interest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Standardized observation of neighbourhood disorder: does it work in Canada?

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background There is a growing body of evidence that where you live is important to your health. Despite numerous previous studies investigating the relationship between neighbourhood deprivation (and structure) and residents' health, the precise nature of this relationship remains unclear. Relatively few investigations have relied on direct observation of neighbourhoods, while those that have were developed primarily in US settings. Evaluation of the transferability of such tools to other contexts is an important first step before applying such instruments to the investigation of health and well-being. This study evaluated the performance of a systematic social observational (SSO) tool (adapted from previous studies of American and British neighbourhoods) in a Canadian urban context. Methods This was a mixed-methods study. Quantitative SSO ratings and qualitative descriptions of 176 block faces were obtained in six Toronto neighbourhoods (4 low-income, and 2 middle/high-income) by trained raters. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted with the quantitative SSO ratings. Content analysis consisted of independent coding of qualitative data by three members of the research team to yield common themes and categories. Results Factor analysis identified three factors (physical decay/disorder, social accessibility, recreational opportunities), but only 'physical decay/disorder' reflected previous findings in the literature. Qualitative results (based on raters' fieldwork experiences) revealed the tool's shortcomings in capturing important features of the neighbourhoods under study, and informed interpretation of the quantitative findings. Conclusions This study tested the performance of an SSO tool in a Canadian context, which is an important initial step before applying it to the study of health and disease. The tool demonstrated important shortcomings when applied to six diverse Toronto neighbourhoods. The study's analyses challenge previously held assumptions (e.g. social 'disorder') regarding neighbourhood social and built environments. For example, neighbourhood 'order' has traditionally been assumed to be synonymous with a certain degree of homogeneity, however the neighbourhoods under study were characterized by high degrees of heterogeneity and low levels of disorder. Heterogeneity was seen as an appealing feature of a block face. Employing qualitative techniques with SSO represents a unique contribution, enhancing both our understanding of the quantitative ratings obtained and of neighbourhood characteristics that are not currently captured by such instruments. PMID:20146821

Bilingualism and Enhanced Attention in Early Adulthood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stafford, Catherine A.

2011-01-01

This exploratory study investigated executive attention during nonverbal and verbal processing among adults with a range of bilingual experience. Previous research has found that bilingual children control their attention better than their monolingual peers and that superior attentional control in some processing contexts persists into adulthood…

Hypnotic suggestibility predicts the magnitude of the imaginative word blindness suggestion effect in a non-hypnotic context.

PubMed

Parris, Benjamin A; Dienes, Zoltan

2013-09-01

The present study investigated how the magnitude the word blindness suggestion effect on Stroop interference depended on hypnotic suggestibility when given as an imaginative suggestion (i.e. not post-hypnotic suggestion) and under conditions in which hypnosis was not mentioned. Hypnotic suggestibility is shown to be a significant predictor of the magnitude of the imaginative word blindness suggestion effect under these conditions. This is therefore the first study to show a linear relationship between the imaginative word blindness suggestion effect and hypnotic suggestibility across the whole hypnotizability spectrum. The results replicate previous findings showing that highs respond to the word blindness suggestion to a greater extent than lows but extend previous work by showing that the advantage for those higher on the hypnotizability spectrum occurs even in a non-hypnotic context. Negative attitudes about hypnosis may not explain the failure to observe similar effects of the word blindness suggestion in less hypnotizable individuals. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Valence modulates source memory for faces.

PubMed

Bell, Raoul; Buchner, Axel

2010-01-01

Previous studies in which the effects of emotional valence on old-new discrimination and source memory have been examined have yielded highly inconsistent results. Here, we present two experiments showing that old-new face discrimination was not affected by whether a face was associated with disgusting, pleasant, or neutral behavior. In contrast, source memory for faces associated with disgusting behavior (i.e., memory for the disgusting context in which the face was encountered) was consistently better than source memory for other types of faces. This data pattern replicates the findings of studies in which descriptions of cheating, neutral, and trustworthy behavior were used, which findings were previously ascribed to a highly specific cheater detection module. The present results suggest that the enhanced source memory for faces of cheaters is due to a more general source memory advantage for faces associated with negative or threatening contexts that may be instrumental in avoiding the negative consequences of encounters with persons associated with negative or threatening behaviors.

Revisiting Higgs inflation in the context of collapse theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez, Saul; Sudarsky, Daniel

2018-03-01

In this work we consider the Higgs inflation scenario, but in contrast with past works, the present analysis is done in the context of a spontaneous collapse theory for the quantum state of the inflaton field. In particular, we will rely on a previously studied adaptation of the Continuous Spontaneous Localization model for the treatment of inflationary cosmology. We will show that with the introduction of the dynamical collapse hypothesis, some of the most serious problems of the Higgs inflation proposal can be resolved in a natural way.

Associations between Adolescents' Weight and Maladjustment Differ with Deviation from Weight Norms in Social Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sutter, Carolyn; Nishina, Adrienne; Witkow, Melissa R.; Bellmore, Amy

2016-01-01

Background: In line with the reflected self-appraisal hypothesis, previous research finds associations between weight and maladjustment are strongest when there is a mismatch between individuals' weight and the weight norm of their social contexts. However, research has not considered associations in more proximal social contexts. We examined…

User Experience Design of History Game: An Analysis Review and Evaluation Study for Malaysia Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Seng Yue; Ghavifekr, Simin

2018-01-01

User experience (UX) and user interface design of an educational game are important in enhancing and sustaining the utilisation of Game Based Learning (GBL) in learning history. Thus, this article provides a detailed literature review on history learning problems, as well as previous studies on user experience in game design. Future studies on…

Sociocultural Analysis of Second Language Learner Beliefs: A Qualitative Case Study of Two Study-Abroad ESL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Jin-Suk; Kim, Tae-Young

2011-01-01

Framed in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory (SCT) of mind, this paper explores second language (L2) learning beliefs in study-abroad (SA) contexts. Previous research on learner beliefs has relied mostly on survey methods, while regarding belief as a static, internal representation of experience that is resistant to change. Due to the concern…

Social Factors for Code-Switching in Tunisian Business Companies: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baoueb, Lamia Bach

2009-01-01

Although the literature on CS between Arabic and French in different bilingual speech communities is wide, few studies have dealt with the Tunisian context and no previous work has ever been done on the Tunisian business sector as a specific group using more than one pair of languages to communicate. This case study investigates the variety of…

False memory for context and true memory for context similarly activate the parahippocampal cortex.

PubMed

Karanian, Jessica M; Slotnick, Scott D

2017-06-01

The role of the parahippocampal cortex is currently a topic of debate. One view posits that the parahippocampal cortex specifically processes spatial layouts and sensory details (i.e., the visual-spatial processing view). In contrast, the other view posits that the parahippocampal cortex more generally processes spatial and non-spatial contexts (i.e., the general contextual processing view). A large number of studies have found that true memories activate the parahippocampal cortex to a greater degree than false memories, which would appear to support the visual-spatial processing view as true memories are typically associated with greater visual-spatial detail than false memories. However, in previous studies, contextual details were also greater for true memories than false memories. Thus, such differential activity in the parahippocampal cortex may have reflected differences in contextual processing, which would challenge the visual-spatial processing view. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we employed a source memory paradigm to investigate the functional role of the parahippocampal cortex during true memory and false memory for contextual information to distinguish between the visual-spatial processing view and the general contextual processing view. During encoding, abstract shapes were presented to the left or right of fixation. During retrieval, old shapes were presented at fixation and participants indicated whether each shape was previously on the "left" or "right" followed by an "unsure", "sure", or "very sure" confidence rating. The conjunction of confident true memories for context and confident false memories for context produced activity in the parahippocampal cortex, which indicates that this region is associated with contextual processing. Furthermore, the direct contrast of true memory and false memory produced activity in the visual cortex but did not produce activity in the parahippocampal cortex. The present evidence suggests that the parahippocampal cortex is associated with general contextual processing rather than only being associated with visual-spatial processing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This person is saying bad things about you: The influence of physically and socially threatening context information on the processing of inherently neutral faces.

PubMed

Klein, Fabian; Iffland, Benjamin; Schindler, Sebastian; Wabnitz, Pascal; Neuner, Frank

2015-12-01

Recent studies have shown that the perceptual processing of human faces is affected by context information, such as previous experiences and information about the person represented by the face. The present study investigated the impact of verbally presented information about the person that varied with respect to affect (neutral, physically threatening, socially threatening) and reference (self-referred, other-referred) on the processing of faces with an inherently neutral expression. Stimuli were presented in a randomized presentation paradigm. Event-related potential (ERP) analysis demonstrated a modulation of the evoked potentials by reference at the EPN (early posterior negativity) and LPP (late positive potential) stage and an enhancing effect of affective valence on the LPP (700-1000 ms) with socially threatening context information leading to the most pronounced LPP amplitudes. We also found an interaction between reference and valence with self-related neutral context information leading to more pronounced LPP than other related neutral context information. Our results indicate an impact of self-reference on early, presumably automatic processing stages and also a strong impact of valence on later stages. Using a randomized presentation paradigm, this study confirms that context information affects the visual processing of faces, ruling out possible confounding factors such as facial configuration or conditional learning effects.

Enhancing Effects of NMDA-Receptor Blockade on Extinction Learning and Related Brain Activation Are Modulated by BMI

PubMed Central

Golisch, Anne; Heba, Stefanie; Glaubitz, Benjamin; Tegenthoff, Martin; Lissek, Silke

2017-01-01

A distributed network including prefrontal and hippocampal regions is involved in context-related extinction learning as well as in renewal. Renewal describes the recovery of an extinguished response if the context of extinction differs from the context of recall. Animal studies have demonstrated that prefrontal, but not hippocampal N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonism disrupted extinction learning and processing of task context. However, human studies of NMDAR in extinction learning are lacking, while NMDAR antagonism yielded contradictory results in other learning tasks. This fMRI study investigated the role of NMDAR for human behavioral and brain activation correlates of extinction and renewal. Healthy volunteers received a single dose of the NMDAR antagonist memantine prior to extinction of previously acquired stimulus-outcome associations presented in either identical or novel contexts. We observed better, and partly faster, extinction learning in participants receiving the NMDAR antagonist compared to placebo. However, memantine did not affect renewal. In both extinction and recall, the memantine group showed a deactivation in extinction-related brain regions, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, while hippocampal activity was increased. This higher hippocampal activation was in turn associated with the participants' body mass index (BMI) and extinction errors. Our results demonstrate potentially dose-related enhancing effects of memantine and highlight involvement of hippocampal NMDAR in context-related extinction learning. PMID:28326025

Eye Movements while Reading Biased Homographs: Effects of Prior Encounter and Biasing Context on Reducing the Subordinate Bias Effect

PubMed Central

Leinenger, Mallorie; Rayner, Keith

2013-01-01

Readers experience processing difficulties when reading biased homographs preceded by subordinate-biasing contexts. Attempts to overcome this processing deficit have often failed to reduce the subordinate bias effect (SBE). In the present studies, we examined the processing of biased homographs preceded by single-sentence, subordinate-biasing contexts, and varied whether this preceding context contained a prior instance of the homograph or a control word/phrase. Having previously encountered the homograph earlier in the sentence reduced the SBE for the subsequent encounter, while simply instantiating the subordinate meaning produced processing difficulty. We compared these reductions in reading times to differences in processing time between dominant-biased repeated and non-repeated conditions in order to verify that the reductions observed in the subordinate cases did not simply reflect a general repetition benefit. Our results indicate that a strong, subordinate-biasing context can interact during lexical access to overcome the activation from meaning frequency and reduce the SBE during reading. PMID:24073328

Electrophysiological and behavioral measures of the influence of literal and figurative contextual constraints on proverb comprehension.

PubMed

Ferretti, Todd R; Schwint, Christopher A; Katz, Albert N

2007-04-01

Proverbs tend to have meanings that are true both literally and figuratively (i.e., Lightning really doesn't strike the same place twice). Consequently, discourse contexts that invite a literal reading of a proverb should provide more conceptual overlap with the proverb, resulting in more rapid processing, than will contexts biased towards a non-literal reading. Despite this, previous research has failed to find the predicted processing advantage in reading times for familiar proverbs when presented in a literally biasing context. We investigate this issue further by employing both ERP methodology and a self-paced reading task and, second, by creating an item set that controls for problems with items employed in earlier studies. Our results indicate that although people do not take longer to read proverbs in the literally and proverbially biasing contexts, people have less difficulty integrating the statements in literal than figurative contexts, as shown by the ERP data. These differences emerge at the third word of the proverbs.

Exemplary Care as a Mediator of the Effects of Caregiver Subjective Appraisal and Emotional Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Grant M.; Durkin, Daniel W.; Allen, Rebecca S.; DeCoster, Jamie; Burgio, Louis D.

2011-01-01

Purpose: Exemplary care (EC) is a new construct encompassing care behaviors that warrants further study within stress process models of dementia caregiving. Previous research has examined EC within the context of cognitively intact older adult care recipients (CRs) and their caregivers (CGs). This study sought to expand our knowledge of quality of…

Influences That Undermine Learners' Perceptions of Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness in an Online Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hartnett, Maggie

2015-01-01

Online learning has grown considerably in recent years. However attrition rates from online courses indicate that not all learners are successful in such settings, and various factors have been identified as crucial to learner persistence. Research evidence suggests that motivation is one such factor. This study builds on previous studies by using…

Current reclamation practices after oil and gas development do not speed up succession or plant community recovery in big sagebrush ecosystems in Wyoming

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Reclamation is an application of treatment(s) following disturbance to promote succession and accelerate the return of target conditions. Previous studies have framed reclamation in the context of succession by studying its effectiveness in re-establishing late-successional plant communities. Re-est...

Future Orientation, School Contexts, and Problem Behaviors: A Multilevel Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Pan; Vazsonyi, Alexander T.

2013-01-01

The association between future orientation and problem behaviors has received extensive empirical attention; however, previous work has not considered school contextual influences on this link. Using a sample of N = 9,163 9th to 12th graders (51.0% females) from N = 85 high schools of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the…

Strong Ties, Weak Ties, and Human Capital: Latino Immigrant Employment outside the Enclave

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pfeffer, Max J.; Parra, Pilar A.

2009-01-01

This study focuses on the role of social ties and human capital in the integration of Latino immigrants into the local economy. This analysis extends earlier research by focusing on more rural contexts with limited labor-market opportunities and less access to social resources provided by coethnics. We reconsider conclusions of previous studies by…

Visual Context Enhanced: The Joint Contribution of Iconic Gestures and Visible Speech to Degraded Speech Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drijvers, Linda; Ozyurek, Asli

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study investigated whether and to what extent iconic co-speech gestures contribute to information from visible speech to enhance degraded speech comprehension at different levels of noise-vocoding. Previous studies of the contributions of these 2 visual articulators to speech comprehension have only been performed separately. Method:…

Student Connectedness and the Perception of Community of Inquiry Presences in Online Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sharp, Jennie

2014-01-01

This study examined student perceptions of effective online instruction, by means of the levels of student connectedness, within the context of the Community of Inquiry model. Both the Online Student Connectedness Survey (OSCS) and the Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey have been previously used to study student connectedness and student perception…

An exploration of human territoriality in forest recreation

Treesearch

Harry C. Zinn; Laurlyn K. Harmon; Brijesh Thapa; Deborah L. Kerstetter; Alan R. Graefe

2002-01-01

Previous studies in human territoriality have focused largely on behavior in urban settings. It is only recently that researchers are examining this construct in the context of forest settings. This study was designed to assess the territorial responses of visitors to Bald Eagle State Forest in central Pennsylvania and explore the structure and predictive validity of a...

Understanding Relations among Early Family Environment, Cortisol Response, and Child Aggression via a Prevention Experiment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Neal, Colleen R.; Brotman, Laurie Miller; Huang, Keng-Yen; Gouley, Kathleen Kiely; Kamboukos, Dimitra; Calzada, Esther J.; Pine, Daniel S.

2010-01-01

This study examined relations among family environment, cortisol response, and behavior in the context of a randomized controlled trial with 92 children (M = 48 months) at risk for antisocial behavior. Previously, researchers reported an intervention effect on cortisol response in anticipation of a social challenge. The current study examined…

The Sequence of Study Changes What Information Is Attended to, Encoded, and Remembered during Category Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carvalho, Paulo F.; Goldstone, Robert L.

2017-01-01

The sequence of study influences how we learn. Previous research has identified different sequences as potentially beneficial for learning in different contexts and with different materials. Here we investigate the mechanisms involved in inductive category learning that give rise to these sequencing effects. Across 3 experiments we show evidence…

Teacher Evaluation in China: Latest Trends and Future Directions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Shujie; Zhao, Decheng

2013-01-01

With the implementation of teacher performance pay in 2009 in China, teacher performance evaluation has become a heated topic. This research study follows up on two previous studies of teacher evaluation in China and continues the dialog by analyzing the latest trends in the context of teacher performance pay. There were two sources of information…

Characterizing the Use of Research-Community Partnerships in Studies of Evidence-Based Interventions in Children's Community Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frazee-Brookman, Lauren; Stahmer, Aubyn; Stadnick, Nicole; Chlebowski, Colby; Herschel, Amy; Garland, Ann F.

2015-01-01

This study characterized the use of research community partnerships (RCPs) to tailor evidence-based intervention, training, and implementation models for delivery across different childhood problems and service contexts using a survey completed by project principal investigators and community partners. To build on previous RCP research and to…

Vectors, Change of Basis and Matrix Representation: Onto-Semiotic Approach in the Analysis of Creating Meaning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montiel, Mariana; Wilhelmi, Miguel R.; Vidakovic, Draga; Elstak, Iwan

2012-01-01

In a previous study, the onto-semiotic approach was employed to analyse the mathematical notion of different coordinate systems, as well as some situations and university students' actions related to these coordinate systems in the context of multivariate calculus. This study approaches different coordinate systems through the process of change of…

Effects of a Community Toxic Release on the Psychological Status of Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greve, Kevin W.; Bianchini, Kevin J.; Stickle, Timothy R.; Love, Jeffrey M.; Doane, Bridget M.; Thompson, Matthew D.

2007-01-01

This study sought to determine the emotional effects of a major community toxic release on children in the exposed community while controlling for the potential effects of response bias. Controlling for the response bias inherent in litigated contexts is an advance over previous studies of toxic exposure in children. A randomly selected…

The Use of Monolingual Mobile Dictionaries in the Context of Reading by Intermediate Cantonese EFL Learners in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zou, Di; Xie, Haoran; Wang, Fu Lee

2015-01-01

Previous studies on dictionary consultation investigated mainly online dictionaries or simple pocket electronic dictionaries as they were commonly used among learners back then, yet the more updated mobile dictionaries were superficially investigated though they have already replaced the pocket electronic dictionaries. These studies are also…

Learning by Doing: The Affordances of Task-Based Pragmatics Instruction for Beginning L2 Spanish Learners Studying Abroad

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Kimberly Jane

2017-01-01

The study abroad (SA) context is often assumed to foster pragmatic development in a second language (L2), yet previous scholarship confirms that pragmatic norms are culturally-shaped and often remain imperceptible to uninstructed SA students (Bataller, 2010; Cohen & Shively, 2007; Shively, 2010). Because pragmatics is not traditionally taught…

Perceptual context effects of speech and nonspeech sounds: the role of auditory categories.

PubMed

Aravamudhan, Radhika; Lotto, Andrew J; Hawks, John W

2008-09-01

Williams [(1986). "Role of dynamic information in the perception of coarticulated vowels," Ph.D. thesis, University of Connecticut, Standford, CT] demonstrated that nonspeech contexts had no influence on pitch judgments of nonspeech targets, whereas context effects were obtained when instructed to perceive the sounds as speech. On the other hand, Holt et al. [(2000). "Neighboring spectral content influences vowel identification," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 108, 710-722] showed that nonspeech contexts were sufficient to elicit context effects in speech targets. The current study was to test a hypothesis that could explain the varying effectiveness of nonspeech contexts: Context effects are obtained only when there are well-established perceptual categories for the target stimuli. Experiment 1 examined context effects in speech and nonspeech signals using four series of stimuli: steady-state vowels that perceptually spanned from /inverted ohm/-/I/ in isolation and in the context of /w/ (with no steady-state portion) and two nonspeech sine-wave series that mimicked the acoustics of the speech series. In agreement with previous work context effects were obtained for speech contexts and targets but not for nonspeech analogs. Experiment 2 tested predictions of the hypothesis by testing for nonspeech context effects after the listeners had been trained to categorize the sounds. Following training, context-dependent categorization was obtained for nonspeech stimuli in the training group. These results are presented within a general perceptual-cognitive framework for speech perception research.

Perceptual context effects of speech and nonspeech sounds: The role of auditory categories

PubMed Central

Aravamudhan, Radhika; Lotto, Andrew J.; Hawks, John W.

2008-01-01

Williams [(1986). “Role of dynamic information in the perception of coarticulated vowels,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Connecticut, Standford, CT] demonstrated that nonspeech contexts had no influence on pitch judgments of nonspeech targets, whereas context effects were obtained when instructed to perceive the sounds as speech. On the other hand, Holt et al. [(2000). “Neighboring spectral content influences vowel identification,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 108, 710–722] showed that nonspeech contexts were sufficient to elicit context effects in speech targets. The current study was to test a hypothesis that could explain the varying effectiveness of nonspeech contexts: Context effects are obtained only when there are well-established perceptual categories for the target stimuli. Experiment 1 examined context effects in speech and nonspeech signals using four series of stimuli: steady-state vowels that perceptually spanned from ∕ʊ∕-∕ɪ∕ in isolation and in the context of ∕w∕ (with no steady-state portion) and two nonspeech sine-wave series that mimicked the acoustics of the speech series. In agreement with previous work context effects were obtained for speech contexts and targets but not for nonspeech analogs. Experiment 2 tested predictions of the hypothesis by testing for nonspeech context effects after the listeners had been trained to categorize the sounds. Following training, context-dependent categorization was obtained for nonspeech stimuli in the training group. These results are presented within a general perceptual-cognitive framework for speech perception research. PMID:19045660

Spontaneous attention to faces in Asperger syndrome using ecologically valid static stimuli.

PubMed

Hanley, Mary; McPhillips, Martin; Mulhern, Gerry; Riby, Deborah M

2013-11-01

Previous eye tracking research on the allocation of attention to social information by individuals with autism spectrum disorders is equivocal and may be in part a consequence of variation in stimuli used between studies. The current study explored attention allocation to faces, and within faces, by individuals with Asperger syndrome using a range of static stimuli where faces were either viewed in isolation or viewed in the context of a social scene. Results showed that faces were viewed typically by the individuals with Asperger syndrome when presented in isolation, but attention to the eyes was significantly diminished in comparison to age and IQ-matched typical viewers when faces were viewed as part of social scenes. We show that when using static stimuli, there is evidence of atypicality for individuals with Asperger syndrome depending on the extent of social context. Our findings shed light on the previous explanations of gaze behaviour that have emphasised the role of movement in atypicalities of social attention in autism spectrum disorders and highlight the importance of consideration of the realistic portrayal of social information for future studies.

Jocks, Gender, Binge Drinking, and Adolescent Violence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Kathleen E.; Melnick, Merrill J.; Farrell, Michael P.; Sabo, Donald F.; Barnes, Grace M.

2006-01-01

Previous research has suggested a link between athletic involvement and elevated levels of adolescent violence outside the sport context. The present study expanded on this literature by positing differences in the sport-violence relationship across dimensions of athletic involvement (athletic participation vs. jock identity), type of violence…

Anxiogenic Patterns in Mother-Child Interactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvison, Kyle W.; Chapman, L. Kevin; Ballash, Natalie G.; Woodruff-Borden, Janet

2008-01-01

The current study examined psychosocial variables associated with the development of anxiety in children. While previous literature has established parental affectionless control as an important contributor to the development of anxiety in children, few have examined this construct within the dynamic context of parent-child interaction. In the…

The Cognitive Context of Argument.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hample, Dale

A study focusing on argument as a receiver-contained phenomenon assessed the differential importance of (new) arguments stimulated by a message, as opposed to (old) arguments previously integrated. Data were collected from 207 college students in a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest design. The subjects provided information on their attitudes…

Ambiguity Produces Attention Shifts in Category Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vadillo, Miguel A.; Orgaz, Cristina; Luque, David; Nelson, James Byron

2016-01-01

It has been suggested that people and nonhuman animals protect their knowledge from interference by shifting attention toward the context when presented with information that contradicts their previous beliefs. Despite that suggestion, no studies have directly measured changes in attention while participants are exposed to an interference…

Videogames: Multisensory Incentives Boosting Multiple Intelligences in Primary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

del Moral-Pérez, Mª Esther; Fernández-García, Laura Carlota; Guzmán-Duque, Alba Patricia

2015-01-01

Introduction: Our research focused on studying the extent to which the planned, systematic use of educational videogames can result in the generation of learning contexts conducive to developing Multiple Intelligences (MIs) amongst schoolchildren. Methodology: A twofold methodological approach was adopted: a) qualitative: previous assessment and…

The effect of exercise on carbohydrate preference in female rats.

PubMed

Keeley, R J; Zelinski, E L; Fehr, L; McDonald, R J

2014-02-01

Exercise has a myriad of health benefits, including positive effects against heart disease, diabetes, and dementia. Cognitive performance improves following chronic exercise, both in animal models and humans. Studies have examined the effect of exercise on feeding, demonstrating a preference towards increased food consumption. Further, sex differences exist such that females tend to prefer carbohydrates over other macronutrients following exercise. However, no clear effect of exercise on macronutrient or carbohydrate selection has been described in animal or human studies. This research project sought to determine the effect of voluntary exercise on carbohydrate selection in female rats. Preference for a complex (starch) versus a simple (dextrose) carbohydrate was assessed using a discriminative preference to context paradigm in non-exercising and voluntarily exercising female rats. In addition, fasting blood glucose and performance in the Morris water task was examined in order to verify the effects of exercise on performance in this task. Female rats given access to running wheels preferred a context previously associated with starch, whereas females with no running wheel access preferred a context previously associated with dextrose. No changes in blood glucose were observed. However, cognitive differences in the Morris water task were observed such that voluntary exercise allowed rats to find a new location of a hidden platform following 4 days of training to an old platform location. These results suggest that voluntary exercise may decrease preservative behaviors in a spatial navigation task through the facilitation of plasticity mechanisms. This study is the first of its kind to demonstrate the influence of exercise on taste preference for complex and simple carbohydrates with this context conditioning paradigm. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The emotional harbinger effect: poor context memory for cues that previously predicted something arousing.

PubMed

Mather, Mara; Knight, Marisa

2008-12-01

A key function of memory is to use past experience to predict when something important might happen next. Indeed, cues that previously predicted arousing events (emotional harbingers) garner more attention than other cues. However, the current series of five experiments demonstrates that people have poorer memory for the context of emotional harbinger cues than of neutral harbinger cues. Participants first learned that some harbinger cues (neutral tones or faces) predicted emotionally arousing pictures and others predicted neutral pictures. Then they studied associations between the harbinger cues and new contextual details. They were worse at remembering associations with emotional harbingers than with neutral harbingers. Memory was impaired not only for the association between emotional harbingers and nearby digits, but also for contextual details that overlapped with or were intrinsic to the emotional harbingers. However, new cues that were inherently emotionally arousing did not yield the same memory impairments as the emotional harbingers. Thus, emotional harbinger cues seem to suffer more from proactive interference than do neutral harbinger cues, impairing formation of new associations with cues that previously predicted something arousing. 2008 APA, all rights reserved

The emotional harbinger effect: Poor context memory for cues that previously predicted something arousing

PubMed Central

Mather, Mara; Knight, Marisa

2009-01-01

A key function of memory is to use past experience to predict when something important might happen next. Indeed, cues that previously predicted arousing events (emotional harbingers) garner more attention than other cues. However, the current series of five experiments demonstrates that people have poorer memory for the context of emotional harbinger cues than of neutral harbinger cues. Participants first learned that some harbinger cues (neutral tones or faces) predicted emotionally arousing pictures and others predicted neutral pictures. Then they studied associations between the harbinger cues and new contextual details. They were worse at remembering associations with emotional harbingers than with neutral harbingers. Memory was impaired not only for the association between emotional harbingers and nearby digits but also for contextual details that overlapped with or were intrinsic to the emotional harbingers. However, new cues that were inherently emotionally arousing did not yield the same memory impairments as the emotional harbingers. Thus, emotional harbinger cues seem to suffer more from proactive interference than do neutral harbinger cues, impairing formation of new associations with cues that previously predicted something arousing. PMID:19102596

Context and Time Matter: Effects of Emotion and Motivation on Episodic Memory Overtime

PubMed Central

Sun, Qing; Gu, Simeng

2018-01-01

Previous studies have shown that compared with neutral cues, stimuli with positive and negative/stressful contexts or reward and punishment cues are remembered better. However, it is unclear whether the enhanced effect differs in emotion or motivation dimensions and the passage of time. We addressed these issues by manipulating different contextual cues for neutral words at different time intervals. In experiment 1, subjects were asked to learn words with picture contexts in positive, negative/stressful, and neutral valences and were tested by old/new word recognition and contextual judgment 10 min, 1 day, and 1 week later. In experiment 2, the reward and punishment motivations were manipulated by monetary cues during learning. Word recognition and contextual judgment were assessed 10 min, 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month after the study. Compared with negative and punishment conditions, the words in positive and reward contexts were recognized better at shorter intervals, which was associated with recollection process. In contrast, the words in negative and punishment contexts were recognized better at longer intervals, which was mainly associated with familiarity process. These results clarified how different dimensions of emotional and motivational contexts influence memory at short and long intervals and highlighted the role of contextual features in memory formation and consolidation. PMID:29849564

Context and Time Matter: Effects of Emotion and Motivation on Episodic Memory Overtime.

PubMed

Sun, Qing; Gu, Simeng; Yang, Jiongjiong

2018-01-01

Previous studies have shown that compared with neutral cues, stimuli with positive and negative/stressful contexts or reward and punishment cues are remembered better. However, it is unclear whether the enhanced effect differs in emotion or motivation dimensions and the passage of time. We addressed these issues by manipulating different contextual cues for neutral words at different time intervals. In experiment 1, subjects were asked to learn words with picture contexts in positive, negative/stressful, and neutral valences and were tested by old/new word recognition and contextual judgment 10 min, 1 day, and 1 week later. In experiment 2, the reward and punishment motivations were manipulated by monetary cues during learning. Word recognition and contextual judgment were assessed 10 min, 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month after the study. Compared with negative and punishment conditions, the words in positive and reward contexts were recognized better at shorter intervals, which was associated with recollection process. In contrast, the words in negative and punishment contexts were recognized better at longer intervals, which was mainly associated with familiarity process. These results clarified how different dimensions of emotional and motivational contexts influence memory at short and long intervals and highlighted the role of contextual features in memory formation and consolidation.

A Preliminary Study on the Reliability of the Malay Version of PedsQL™ Family Impact Module among Caregivers of Children with Disabilities in Kelantan, Malaysia

PubMed Central

Rahman, Azriani Ab; Mohamad, Norsarwany; Imran, Musa Kamarul; Ibrahim, Wan Pauzi Wan; Othman, Azizah; Aziz, Aniza Abd; Harith, Sakinah; Ibrahim, Mohd Ismail; Ariffin, Nor Hashimah; Van Rostenberghe, Hans

2011-01-01

Background: No previous study has assessed the impact of childhood disability on parents and family in the context of Malaysia, and no instrument to measure this impact has previously been available. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the reliability of a Malay version of the PedsQL™ Family Impact Module that measures the impact of children with disabilities (CWD) on their parents and family in a Malaysian context. Methods: The study was conducted in 2009. The questionnaire was translated forward and backward before it was administered to 44 caregivers of CWD to determine the internal consistency reliability. The test for Cronbach’s alpha was performed. Results: The internal consistency reliability was good. The Cronbach’s alpha for all domains was above 0.7, ranging from 0.73 to 0.895. Conclusion: The Malay version of the PedsQL™ Family Impact Module showed evidence of good internal consistency reliability. However, future studies with a larger sample size are necessary before the module can be recommended as a tool to measure the impact of disability on Malay-speaking Malaysian families. PMID:22589674

Transfer of Old ‘Reactivated’ Memory Retrieval Cues in Rats

PubMed Central

Briggs, James F.; Riccio, David C.

2008-01-01

The present studies examined whether the retrieval of an old ‘reactivated’ memory could be brought under the control of new contextual cues. In Experiment 1 rats trained in one context were exposed to different contextual cues either immediately, 60 min, or 120 min after a cued reactivation of the training memory. When tested in the shifted context, subjects exposed shortly after reactivation treated the shifted context as the original context. This transfer diminished with longer post-reactivation delays. Experiment 2 replicated the basic finding and demonstrated that the transfer of the old retrieval cues was specific to the contextual cues present during exposure. These findings are consistent with previous research (i.e., Briggs, Fitz, & Riccio, in press) showing the transfer of retrieval cues for a new memory, and demonstrating a similarity (in this case) between newly acquired and old reactivated memories. PMID:19190707

Context matters: the benefits and costs of expressing positive emotion among survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

PubMed

Bonanno, George A; Colak, Deniz M; Keltner, Dacher; Shiota, Michelle N; Papa, Anthony; Noll, Jennie G; Putnam, Frank W; Trickett, Penelope K

2007-11-01

Positive emotions promote adjustment to aversive life events. However, evolutionary theory and empirical research on trauma disclosure suggest that in the context of stigmatized events, expressing positive emotions might incur social costs. To test this thesis, the authors coded genuine (Duchenne) smiling and laughter and also non-Duchenne smiling from videotapes of late-adolescent and young adult women, approximately half with documented histories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), as they described the most distressing event of their lives. Consistent with previous studies, genuine positive emotional expression was generally associated with better social adjustment two years later. However, as anticipated, CSA survivors who expressed positive emotion in the context of describing a past CSA experience had poorer long-term social adjustment, whereas CSA survivors who expressed positive emotion while describing a nonabuse experience had improved social adjustment. These findings suggest that the benefits of positive emotional expression may often be context specific.

The Benefit of Being Naïve and Knowing It: The Unfavourable Impact of Perceived Context Familiarity on Learning in Complex Problem Solving Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beckmann, Jens F.; Goode, Natassia

2014-01-01

Previous research has found that embedding a problem into a familiar context does not necessarily confer an advantage over a novel context in the acquisition of new knowledge about a complex, dynamic system. In fact, it has been shown that a semantically familiar context can be detrimental to knowledge acquisition. This has been described as the…

Sense Making in the Context of Algebraic Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palatnik, Alik; Koichu, Boris

2017-01-01

This article concerns student sense making in the context of algebraic activities. We present a case in which a pair of middle-school students attempts to make sense of a previously obtained by them position formula for a particular numerical sequence. The exploration of the sequence occurred in the context of two-month-long student research…

Context-dependent decision-making: a simple Bayesian model

PubMed Central

Lloyd, Kevin; Leslie, David S.

2013-01-01

Many phenomena in animal learning can be explained by a context-learning process whereby an animal learns about different patterns of relationship between environmental variables. Differentiating between such environmental regimes or ‘contexts’ allows an animal to rapidly adapt its behaviour when context changes occur. The current work views animals as making sequential inferences about current context identity in a world assumed to be relatively stable but also capable of rapid switches to previously observed or entirely new contexts. We describe a novel decision-making model in which contexts are assumed to follow a Chinese restaurant process with inertia and full Bayesian inference is approximated by a sequential-sampling scheme in which only a single hypothesis about current context is maintained. Actions are selected via Thompson sampling, allowing uncertainty in parameters to drive exploration in a straightforward manner. The model is tested on simple two-alternative choice problems with switching reinforcement schedules and the results compared with rat behavioural data from a number of T-maze studies. The model successfully replicates a number of important behavioural effects: spontaneous recovery, the effect of partial reinforcement on extinction and reversal, the overtraining reversal effect, and serial reversal-learning effects. PMID:23427101

Stress before extinction learning enhances and generalizes extinction memory in a predictive learning task.

PubMed

Meir Drexler, Shira; Hamacher-Dang, Tanja C; Wolf, Oliver T

2017-05-01

In extinction learning, the individual learns that a previously acquired association (e.g. between a threat and its predictor) is no longer valid. This learning is the principle underlying many cognitive-behavioral psychotherapeutic treatments, e.g. 'exposure therapy'. However, extinction is often highly-context dependent, leading to renewal (relapse of extinguished conditioned response following context change). We have previously shown that post-extinction stress leads to a more context-dependent extinction memory in a predictive learning task. Yet as stress prior to learning can impair the integration of contextual cues, here we aim to create a more generalized extinction memory by inducing stress prior to extinction. Forty-nine men and women learned the associations between stimuli and outcomes in a predictive learning task (day 1), extinguished them shortly after an exposure to a stress/control condition (day 2), and were tested for renewal (day 3). No group differences were seen in acquisition and extinction learning, and a renewal effect was present in both groups. However, the groups differed in the strength and context-dependency of the extinction memory. Compared to the control group, the stress group showed an overall reduced recovery of responding to the extinguished stimuli, in particular in the acquisition context. These results, together with our previous findings, demonstrate that the effects of stress exposure on extinction memory depend on its timing. While post-extinction stress makes the memory more context-bound, pre-extinction stress strengthens its consolidation for the acquisition context as well, making it potentially more resistant to relapse. These results have implications for the use of glucocorticoids as extinction-enhancers in exposure therapy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Beliefs, Behaviors, and Contexts of Adolescent Caffeine Use: A Focus Group Study.

PubMed

Ludden, Alison B; O'Brien, Elizabeth M; Pasch, Keryn E

2017-07-29

Caffeinated products are widely available to adolescents, and consumption of caffeine products-energy drinks and coffee in particular-is on the rise in this age group (Branum, Rossen, & Schoendorf, 2014). Yet, little is known about the psychosocial context of caffeine use. Previous studies on adolescent caffeine use have focused on caffeine's acute physiological effects, rather than the psychosocial contexts and beliefs regarding different types of caffeinated beverages (e.g., coffee, energy drinks, soda). The current research examines the contexts and beliefs associated with adolescents' use of caffeinated beverages (e.g., coffee, energy drinks, soda) using a focus group approach. Eleven focus group interviews (49 total participants) addressed adolescents' motivations for and patterns of caffeine use; they were transcribed and axial coding was used to identify common themes. Coffee and energy drinks were perceived to be the most popular caffeinated beverages. Reasons for consuming caffeine included the effect of caffeine as a stimulant, the pleasant feelings experienced when drinking it, and the fact that caffeine was available. As for contexts, coffee was consumed in more diverse social contexts than other caffeinated beverages. Friends and sports were the most popular contexts for energy drink use. The present findings inform adolescent health promotion efforts and provide researchers and practitioners alike detailed information in adolescents' own words about how and why they use caffeine. Adolescents' beliefs about caffeinated products are not uniform; the reasons adolescents articulate regarding their use of coffee, soda, and energy drinks are different across contexts and beverage type.

Effects of Semantic Context and Fundamental Frequency Contours on Mandarin Speech Recognition by Second Language Learners.

PubMed

Zhang, Linjun; Li, Yu; Wu, Han; Li, Xin; Shu, Hua; Zhang, Yang; Li, Ping

2016-01-01

Speech recognition by second language (L2) learners in optimal and suboptimal conditions has been examined extensively with English as the target language in most previous studies. This study extended existing experimental protocols (Wang et al., 2013) to investigate Mandarin speech recognition by Japanese learners of Mandarin at two different levels (elementary vs. intermediate) of proficiency. The overall results showed that in addition to L2 proficiency, semantic context, F0 contours, and listening condition all affected the recognition performance on the Mandarin sentences. However, the effects of semantic context and F0 contours on L2 speech recognition diverged to some extent. Specifically, there was significant modulation effect of listening condition on semantic context, indicating that L2 learners made use of semantic context less efficiently in the interfering background than in quiet. In contrast, no significant modulation effect of listening condition on F0 contours was found. Furthermore, there was significant interaction between semantic context and F0 contours, indicating that semantic context becomes more important for L2 speech recognition when F0 information is degraded. None of these effects were found to be modulated by L2 proficiency. The discrepancy in the effects of semantic context and F0 contours on L2 speech recognition in the interfering background might be related to differences in processing capacities required by the two types of information in adverse listening conditions.

Using Sarcasm to Compliment: Context, Intonation, and the Perception of Statements with a Negative Literal Meaning.

PubMed

Voyer, Daniel; Vu, Janie P

2016-06-01

The present study extended findings of contrast effects in an auditory sarcasm perception task manipulating context and tone of voice. In contrast to previous research that had used sarcastic and sincere statements with a positive literal meaning, the present experiment examined how statements with a negative literal meaning would affect the results. Eighty-four undergraduate students completed a task in which an ambiguous, positive, or negative computer-generated context spoken in a flat emotional tone was followed by a statement with a negative literal meaning spoken in a sincere or sarcastic tone of voice. Results for both the proportion of sarcastic responses and response time showed a significant context by tone interaction, reflecting relatively fast sarcastic responses for the situation in which sarcasm would turn the statement into a compliment (positive context, sarcastic intonation) and fast sincere responses when the literal insult was emphasized (negative context, sincere intonation). However, the ambiguous context produced a pattern of results modulated by the tone of voice that was similar to that observed when the context/intonation pairing could not be interpreted as a compliment or an insult (negative context/sarcastic intonation or positive context/sincere intonation). These findings add to the body of literature suggesting that situational contrast, context, and intonation influence how sarcasm is perceived while demonstrating the importance of the literal meaning in sarcasm perception. They can be interpreted in the context of models of sarcasm comprehension that postulate two stages of processing.

EXAMINING THE DIMENSIONALITY OF COLQUITT'S ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE SCALE IN A PUBLIC HEALTH SECTOR CONTEXT.

PubMed

Enoksen, Elisabeth

2015-06-01

In 2001, Colquitt developed an Organizational Justice Scale that intended to measure procedural, distributive, interpersonal, and informational justice. The dimensionality of the scale has been tested in subsequent studies with diverging results. Given the fact that contextual differences may account for more variation across research sites than individual differences, the deviating research findings may be due to context. This study examined the dimensionality of Colquitt's Organizational Justice Scale in a new context: the public health sector. The procedural and informational justice dimensions were highly correlated, but confirmatory factor analysis showed that a four-factor solution provided a better fit than a three-factor solution. All fit indices for the four-factor model were consistent with a good model. There was, however, evidence of a potential omitted factor, procedural-voice justice, which has also been found in a previous examination of the measure in the public sector.

A Guide to Field Notes for Qualitative Research: Context and Conversation.

PubMed

Phillippi, Julia; Lauderdale, Jana

2018-02-01

Field notes are widely recommended in qualitative research as a means of documenting needed contextual information. With growing use of data sharing, secondary analysis, and metasynthesis, field notes ensure rich context persists beyond the original research team. However, while widely regarded as essential, there is not a guide to field note collection within the literature to guide researchers. Using the qualitative literature and previous research experience, we provide a concise guide to collection, incorporation, and dissemination of field notes. We provide a description of field note content for contextualization of an entire study as well as individual interviews and focus groups. In addition, we provide two "sketch note" guides, one for study context and one for individual interviews or focus groups for use in the field. Our guides are congruent with many qualitative and mixed methodologies and ensure contextual information is collected, stored, and disseminated as an essential component of ethical, rigorous qualitative research.

Contrastive Constraints Guide Explanation-Based Category Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chin-Parker, Seth; Cantelon, Julie

2017-01-01

This paper provides evidence for a contrastive account of explanation that is motivated by pragmatic theories that recognize the contribution that context makes to the interpretation of a prompt for explanation. This study replicates the primary findings of previous work in explanation-based category learning (Williams & Lombrozo, 2010),…

Fear, Worry, and Ritualistic Behaviour in Childhood: Developmental Trends and Interrelations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laing, Sarah V.; Fernyhough, Charles; Turner, Michelle; Freeston, Mark H.

2009-01-01

Previous studies of childhood fear, worry, and ritualistic behaviour have been limited by restricted age ranges, narrow ranges of anxiety phenomena, non-comparable methodologies, and assessment of typical behaviour within a pathological context. Content and intensity of fear, worry, and ritualistic behaviour, and associations among these…

The Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of a Rural Employer-Based Wellness Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saleh, Shadi S.; Alameddine, Mohamad S.; Hill, Dan; Darney-Beuhler, Jessica; Morgan, Ann

2010-01-01

Context: The cost-effectiveness of employer-based wellness programs has been previously investigated with favorable financial and nonfinancial outcomes being detected. However, these investigations have mainly focused on large employers in urban settings. Very few studies examined wellness programs offered in rural settings. Purpose: This paper…

Understanding Physical Educators' Perceptions of Mattering Questionnaire--Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richards, K. Andrew R.; Gaudreault, Karen Lux; Woods, Amelia Mays

2017-01-01

Previous research has illustrated that physical educators feel their subject is valued less than others in the context of schools. However, to date, no instruments have been developed to measure physical education teachers' perceptions of mattering. This study sought to propose and validate the Perceived Mattering Questionnaire--Physical Education…

Review of Parent Training Interventions for Parents with Intellectual Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wade, Catherine; Llewellyn, Gwynnyth; Matthews, Jan

2008-01-01

Background: This paper reviews recent research to provide an updated perspective on the effectiveness of parent training interventions for parents with intellectual disability. The degree to which these studies meet previous recommendations for future research is explored, particularly with regard to the influence of context on intervention…

Compound Cuing in Free Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lohnas, Lynn J.; Kahana, Michael J.

2014-01-01

According to the retrieved context theory of episodic memory, the cue for recall of an item is a weighted sum of recently activated cognitive states, including previously recalled and studied items as well as their associations. We show that this theory predicts there should be compound cuing in free recall. Specifically, the temporal contiguity…

Speaking Tongues Are Actively Braced

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gick, Bryan; Allen, Blake; Roewer-Després, François; Stavness, Ian

2017-01-01

Purpose: Bracing of the tongue against opposing vocal-tract surfaces such as the teeth or palate has long been discussed in the context of biomechanical, somatosensory, and aeroacoustic aspects of tongue movement. However, previous studies have tended to describe bracing only in terms of contact (rather than mechanical support), and only in…

Family of Origin, Race/Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Attainment: Genotype and Intraindividual Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wickrama, K. A. S.; O'Neal, Catherine Walker

2013-01-01

Previous research has mainly focused on the persistent direct influence of early life contexts on young adult socioeconomic attainment, and less is known about intraindividual processes that are responsible for this persistent influence. The present study, using genetically informed longitudinal, prospective data from a nationally representative…

Academic Capitalism in the Pasteur's Quadrant

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mendoza, Pilar

2009-01-01

Based on previous empirical studies, in this work the author presents an analysis of the role of context in academic capitalism. In particular, she argues that the literature on academic capitalism fails to properly acknowledge disciplinary and institutional differences, which results in an oversimplification of the effects of industry-academia…

Effects of Reinforcement on Peer Imitation in a Small Group Play Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barton, Erin E.; Ledford, Jennifer R.

2018-01-01

Children with disabilities often have deficits in imitation skills, particularly in imitating peers. Imitation is considered a behavioral cusp--which, once learned, allows a child to access additional and previously unavailable learning opportunities. In the current study, researchers examined the efficacy of contingent reinforcement delivered…

Investigating Norms of Listening in Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sangster, Pauline; Anderson, Charles

2009-01-01

Previous research into listening has tended to focus on individual processing rather than on how sociocultural contexts mediate the nature and quality of listening. This article draws on a study involving observations of listening lessons conducted by ten English teachers regarded as skilled practitioners, interviews with these teachers and with…

Recreational and Developmental Youth Coach Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rocchi, Meredith; Couture, A. Lauren

2018-01-01

Background: Within the field of coach development, previous research has ascertained that elite coaches learn through a variety of formal, non-formal, and informal sources. Little is known, however, about how coaches from different coaching contexts such as recreational and developmental learn to coach. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to…

Bayesian Model Averaging for Propensity Score Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaplan, David; Chen, Jianshen

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study is to explore Bayesian model averaging in the propensity score context. Previous research on Bayesian propensity score analysis does not take into account model uncertainty. In this regard, an internally consistent Bayesian framework for model building and estimation must also account for model uncertainty. The…

How the mind shapes action: Offline contexts modulate involuntary episodic retrieval.

PubMed

Frings, Christian; Koch, Iring; Moeller, Birte

2017-11-01

Involuntary retrieval of previous stimulus-response episodes is a centerpiece of many theories of priming, episodic binding, and action control. Typically it is assumed that by repeating a stimulus from trial n-1 to trial n, involuntary retrieval is triggered in a nearly automatic fashion, facilitating (or interfering with) the to-be-executed action. Here we argue that changes in the offline context weaken the involuntary retrieval of previous episodes (the offline context is defined to be the information presented before or after the focal stimulus). In four conditions differing in cue modality and target modality, retrieval was diminished if participants changed the target selection criterion (as indicated by a cue presented before the selection took place) while they still performed the same task. Thus, solely through changes in the offline context (cue or selection criterion), involuntary retrieval can be weakened in an effective way.

Differential effects of context on psychomotor sensitization to ethanol and cocaine.

PubMed

Didone, Vincent; Quoilin, Caroline; Dieupart, Julie; Tirelli, Ezio; Quertemont, Etienne

2016-04-01

Repeated drug injections lead to sensitization of their stimulant effects in mice, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as drug psychomotor sensitization. Previous studies showed that sensitization to cocaine is context dependent as its expression is reduced in an environment that was not paired with cocaine administration. In contrast, the effects of the test context on ethanol sensitization remain unclear. In the present study, female OF1 mice were repeatedly injected with 1.5 g/kg ethanol to test for both the effects of context novelty/familiarity and association on ethanol sensitization. A first group of mice was extensively pre-exposed to the test context before ethanol sensitization and ethanol injections were paired with the test context (familiar and paired group). A second group was not pre-exposed to the test context, but ethanol injections were paired with the test context (nonfamiliar and paired group). Finally, a third group of mice was not pre-exposed to the test context and ethanol was repeatedly injected in the home cage (unpaired group). Control groups were similarly exposed to the test context, but were injected with saline. In a second experiment, cocaine was used as a positive control. The same behavioral procedure was used, except that mice were injected with 10 mg/kg cocaine instead of ethanol. The results show a differential involvement of the test context in the sensitization to ethanol and cocaine. Cocaine sensitization is strongly context dependent and is not expressed in the unpaired group. In contrast, the expression of ethanol sensitization is independent of the context in which it was administered, but is strongly affected by the relative novelty/familiarity of the environment. Extensive pre-exposure to the test context prevented the expression of ethanol sensitization. One possible explanation is that expression of ethanol sensitization requires an arousing environment.

Destination Memory in Korsakoff's Syndrome.

PubMed

El Haj, Mohamad; Kessels, Roy P C; Matton, Christian; Bacquet, Jean-Eudes; Urso, Laurent; Cool, Gaëlle; Guidez, Florence; Potier, Stéphanie; Nandrino, Jean-Louis; Antoine, Pascal

2016-06-01

Context memory, or the ability to remember the context in which an episodic event has occurred (e.g., where and when an event took place), has been found to be compromised in Korsakoff's syndrome. This study examined whether a similar deficit would be observed for destination memory, that is, the ability to remember to whom an information was previously transmitted. Patients with Korsakoff's syndrome and healthy controls were instructed to tell proverbs to pictures of celebrities. In a subsequent recognition test, they had to indicate to which celebrity they had previously told the proverbs. Participants also completed a neuropsychological battery including a binding task in which they were required to associate letters with their correspondent locations to assess context memory. Results showed worse binding and destination memory in patients with Korsakoff's syndrome than in controls. In the Korsakoff group, destination memory was significantly correlated with and predicted by performances on the binding task. The binding process seems to be impaired in Korsakoff's syndrome, a deficit that may account for the destination memory compromise in the syndrome, and probably, for the difficulty to retrieve the "where and when" of an encountered event. Copyright © 2016 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

Support for context effects on segmentation and segments depends on the context.

PubMed

Heffner, Christopher C; Newman, Rochelle S; Idsardi, William J

2017-04-01

Listeners must adapt to differences in speech rate across talkers and situations. Speech rate adaptation effects are strong for adjacent syllables (i.e., proximal syllables). For studies that have assessed adaptation effects on speech rate information more than one syllable removed from a point of ambiguity in speech (i.e., distal syllables), the difference in strength between different types of ambiguity is stark. Studies of word segmentation have shown large shifts in perception as a result of distal rate manipulations, while studies of segmental perception have shown only weak, or even nonexistent, effects. However, no study has standardized methods and materials to study context effects for both types of ambiguity simultaneously. Here, a set of sentences was created that differed as minimally as possible except for whether the sentences were ambiguous to the voicing of a consonant or ambiguous to the location of a word boundary. The sentences were then rate-modified to slow down the distal context speech rate to various extents, dependent on three different definitions of distal context that were adapted from previous experiments, along with a manipulation of proximal context to assess whether proximal effects were comparable across ambiguity types. The results indicate that the definition of distal influenced the extent of distal rate effects strongly for both segments and segmentation. They also establish the presence of distal rate effects on word-final segments for the first time. These results were replicated, with some caveats regarding the perception of individual segments, in an Internet-based sample recruited from Mechanical Turk.

Gender symmetry, sexism, and intimate partner violence.

PubMed

Allen, Christopher T; Swan, Suzanne C; Raghavan, Chitra

2009-11-01

This study of a predominantly Hispanic sample of 92 male and 140 female college students examines both gender symmetry in intimate partner violence (IPV) and inconsistent relationships found in previous studies between sexist attitudes and IPV. Results indicate that although comparable numbers of men and women perpetrate and are victimized in their relationships with intimate partners, the path models suggest that women's violence tends to be in reaction to male violence, whereas men tend to initiate violence and then their partners respond with violence. Benevolent sexism was shown to have a protective effect against men's violence toward partners. Findings highlight the importance of studying women's violence not only in the context of men's violence but also within a broader sociocultural context.

Burnout in Special Needs Teachers at Kindergarten and Primary School: Investigating the Role of Personal Resources and Work Wellbeing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Stasio, Simona; Fiorilli, Caterina; Benevene, Paula; Uusitalo-Malmivaara, Lotta; Di Chiacchio, Carlo

2017-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to examine, within an integrative predictive model, the relative contributions of sociodemographic variables, personal resources, and work wellbeing to teacher burnout. The research was conducted with special education teachers at Italian preschools--a context in which few previous studies have been carried…

"Tone It down a Bit!": Euphemism as a Colonial Device in Australian Indigenous Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGloin, Colleen

2014-01-01

In a previous article discussing the politics of language in Australian Indigenous Studies teaching and learning contexts, the author and her colleague stated their objective in writing that article was to ''instill'' a sense of the importance of the political nature of language to their student body (McGloin and Carlson 2013). They wanted to…

Internationalisation of the Chemistry Curriculum: Two Problem-Based Learning Activities for Undergraduate Chemists

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Overton, Tina L.; Bradley, John S.

2010-01-01

In this paper we describe the development and evaluation of two activities for delivery in first year B.Sc. and M.Chem. degree courses, in which we introduced an international context representing either a linguistic or a cultural modification to the previously developed case studies. The case studies focus on an industrial and an environmental…

First-Year College Students' Attitudes toward Communication Technologies and Their Perceptions of Communication Competence in the 21st Century

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morreale, Sherwyn; Staley, Constance; Stavrositu, Carmen; Krakowiak, Maja

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to better understand new college students' attitudes toward and perceptions of communication media and technology and themselves as communicators in the context of communication competence. Building on the results of a previous qualitative study, the researchers developed a survey focused on communication competence in…

A Propensity Score Matching Study of Participation in Community Activities: A Path to Positive Outcomes for Youth in New Zealand?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Connor, Seini; Jose, Paul E.

2012-01-01

Extracurricular activities are important in many young people's lives and have been associated with positive academic, psychological, and social outcomes. However, most previous research has been limited to school-based activities in the North American context. This study expands existing literature by analyzing longitudinal data from more than…

Evaluating Climate in Nine "Good" High Schools in Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bobbett, Gordon C.; French, Russell L.

The Wayson School Climate and Context Inventory (SCCI) was used in previously reported comparative studies of six good high schools in Tennessee and Kentucky (three in each state). This study added data for three similar high schools in North Carolina to bring the pool of data to nine schools, making possible the determination of similarities and…

Deriving Meaning through Context: Interpreting Bare Nominals in Second Language Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gabriele, Alison

2010-01-01

Previous studies on the second language acquisition of telicity have suggested that learners can use morphosyntactic cues to interpret sentences as telic or atelic even in cases where the cues differ in the first language (L1) and second language (L2) (Slabakova, 2001, 2005; Gabriele, 2008; Kaku et al., 2008a, 2008b). The present study extends…

Performers and Postulates: The Role of Evolving Socio-Historical Contexts in Shaping New Teacher Professional Identities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leonard, Simon N.; Roberts, Philip

2014-01-01

In this article we investigate the generative causes of variation in the professional identity of new teachers. Building on previous work that has shown a link between professional identity and socio-political context, we argue that the context experienced in late adolescence and early adulthood is particularly significant in shaping how beginning…

Understanding women's journey of recovering from anorexia nervosa.

PubMed

Weaver, Kathryn; Wuest, Judith; Ciliska, Donna

2005-02-01

Previous studies of recovery from anorexia nervosa (AN) have concentrated on discrete behavioral responses of individual women. Little is understood about the subjective process of women's recovery in the context of family, community, or society. In this feminist grounded theory study, the authors explored the perceptions of 12 women who considered themselves recovered or recovering from AN. They discovered a substantive theory of self-development that explains, within the current social context, women's journey from the perilous self-soothing of devastating weight loss to the informed self-care of healthy eating and problem-solving practices. The findings provide an urgently needed explanatory framework to inform women, clinicians, and health policy makers in their prevention and recovery efforts.

The Effectiveness of Somatization in Communicating Distress in Korean and American Cultural Contexts

PubMed Central

Choi, Eunsoo; Chentsova-Dutton, Yulia; Parrott, W. Gerrod

2016-01-01

Previous research has documented that Asians tend to somatize negative experiences to a greater degree than Westerners. It is posited that somatization may be a more functional communication strategy in Korean than American context. We examined the effects of somatization in communications of distress among participants from the US and Korea. We predicted that the communicative benefits of somatic words used in distress narratives would depend on the cultural contexts. In Study 1, we found that Korean participants used more somatic words to communicate distress than US participants. Among Korean participants, but not US participants, use of somatic words predicted perceived effectiveness of the communication and expectations of positive reactions (e.g., empathy) from others. In Study 2, we found that when presented with distress narratives of others, Koreans (but not Americans) showed more sympathy in response to narratives using somatic words than narratives using emotional words. These findings suggest that cultural differences in use of somatization may reflect differential effectiveness of somatization in communicating distress across cultural contexts. PMID:27047414

General perceptual contributions to lexical tone normalization.

PubMed

Huang, Jingyuan; Holt, Lori L

2009-06-01

Within tone languages that use pitch variations to contrast meaning, large variability exists in the pitches produced by different speakers. Context-dependent perception may help to resolve this perceptual challenge. However, whether speakers rely on context in contour tone perception is unclear; previous studies have produced inconsistent results. The present study aimed to provide an unambiguous test of the effect of context on contour lexical tone perception and to explore its underlying mechanisms. In three experiments, Mandarin listeners' perception of Mandarin first and second (high-level and mid-rising) tones was investigated with preceding speech and non-speech contexts. Results indicate that the mean fundamental frequency (f0) of a preceding sentence affects perception of contour lexical tones and the effect is contrastive. Following a sentence with a higher-frequency mean f0, the following syllable is more likely to be perceived as a lower frequency lexical tone and vice versa. Moreover, non-speech precursors modeling the mean spectrum of f0 also elicit this effect, suggesting general perceptual processing rather than articulatory-based or speaker-identity-driven mechanisms.

The effects of context processing on social cognition impairments in adults with Asperger's syndrome

PubMed Central

Baez, Sandra; Ibanez, Agustin

2014-01-01

Social cognition—the basis of all communicative and otherwise interpersonal relationships—is embedded in specific contextual circumstances which shape intrinsic meanings. This domain is compromised in the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), including Asperger's syndrome (AS) (DSM-V). However, the few available reports of social cognition skills in adults with AS have largely neglected the effects of contextual factors. Moreover, previous studies on this population have also failed to simultaneously (a) assess multiple social cognition domains, (b) examine executive functions, (c) follow strict sample selection criteria, and (d) acknowledge the cognitive heterogeneity typical of the disorder. The study presently reviewed (Baez et al., 2012), addressed all these aspects in order to establish the basis of social cognition deficits in adult AS patients. Specifically, we assessed the performance of AS adults in multiple social cognition tasks with different context-processing requirements. The results suggest that social cognition deficits in AS imply a reduced ability to implicitly encode and integrate contextual cues needed to access social meaning. Nevertheless, the patients' performance was normal when explicit social information was presented or when the situation could be navigated with abstract rules. Here, we review the results of our study and other relevant data, and discuss their implications for the diagnosis and treatment of AS and other neuropsychiatric conditions (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, frontotemporal dementia). Finally, we analyze previous results in the light of a current neurocognitive model of social-context processing. PMID:25232301

Lead optimization using matched molecular pairs: inclusion of contextual information for enhanced prediction of HERG inhibition, solubility, and lipophilicity.

PubMed

Papadatos, George; Alkarouri, Muhammad; Gillet, Valerie J; Willett, Peter; Kadirkamanathan, Visakan; Luscombe, Christopher N; Bravi, Gianpaolo; Richmond, Nicola J; Pickett, Stephen D; Hussain, Jameed; Pritchard, John M; Cooper, Anthony W J; Macdonald, Simon J F

2010-10-25

Previous studies of the analysis of molecular matched pairs (MMPs) have often assumed that the effect of a substructural transformation on a molecular property is independent of the context (i.e., the local structural environment in which that transformation occurs). Experiments with large sets of hERG, solubility, and lipophilicity data demonstrate that the inclusion of contextual information can enhance the predictive power of MMP analyses, with significant trends (both positive and negative) being identified that are not apparent when using conventional, context-independent approaches.

Contextual Change After Fear Acquisition Affects Conditioned Responding and the Time Course of Extinction Learning-Implications for Renewal Research.

PubMed

Sjouwerman, Rachel; Niehaus, Johanna; Lonsdorf, Tina B

2015-01-01

Context plays a central role in retrieving (fear) memories. Accordingly, context manipulations are inherent to most return of fear (ROF) paradigms (in particular renewal), involving contextual changes after fear extinction. Context changes are, however, also often embedded during earlier stages of ROF experiments such as context changes between fear acquisition and extinction (e.g., in ABC and ABA renewal). Previous studies using these paradigms have however focused exclusively on the context switch after extinction (i.e., renewal). Thus, the possibility of a general effect of context switch on conditioned responding that may not be conditional to preceding extinction learning remains unstudied. Hence, the current study investigated the impact of a context switch between fear acquisition and extinction on immediate conditioned responding and on the time-course of extinction learning by using a multimodal approach. A group that underwent contextual change after fear conditioning (AB; n = 36) was compared with a group without a contextual change from acquisition to extinction (AA; n = 149), while measuring physiological (skin conductance and fear potentiated startle) measures and subjective fear ratings. Contextual change between fear acquisition and extinction had a pronounced effect on both immediate conditioned responding and on the time course of extinction learning in skin conductance responses and subjective fear ratings. This may have important implications for the mechanisms underlying and the interpretation of the renewal effect (i.e., contextual switch after extinction). Consequently, future studies should incorporate designs and statistical tests that disentangle general effects of contextual change from genuine ROF effects.

Partial and specific source memory for faces associated to other- and self-relevant negative contexts.

PubMed

Bell, Raoul; Giang, Trang; Buchner, Axel

2012-01-01

Previous research has shown a source memory advantage for faces presented in negative contexts. As yet it remains unclear whether participants remember the specific type of context in which the faces were presented or whether they can only remember that the face was associated with negative valence. In the present study, participants saw faces together with descriptions of two different types of negative behaviour and neutral behaviour. In Experiment 1, we examined whether the participants were able to discriminate between two types of other-relevant negative context information (cheating and disgusting behaviour) in a source memory test. In Experiment 2, we assessed source memory for other-relevant negative (threatening) context information (other-aggressive behaviour) and self-relevant negative context information (self-aggressive behaviour). A multinomial source memory model was used to separately assess partial source memory for the negative valence of the behaviour and specific source memory for the particular type of negative context the face was associated with. In Experiment 1, source memory was specific for the particular type of negative context presented (i.e., cheating or disgusting behaviour). Experiment 2 showed that source memory for other-relevant negative information was more specific than source memory for self-relevant information. Thus, emotional source memory may vary in specificity depending on the degree to which the negative emotional context is perceived as threatening.

Relationship of corporal punishment and antisocial behavior by neighborhood.

PubMed

Grogan-Kaylor, Andrew

2005-10-01

To examine the relationship of corporal punishment with children's behavior problems while accounting for neighborhood context and while using stronger statistical methods than previous literature in this area, and to examine whether different levels of corporal punishment have different effects in different neighborhood contexts. Longitudinal cohort study. General community. 1943 mother-child pairs from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Internalizing and externalizing behavior problem scales of the Behavior Problems Index. Parental use of corporal punishment was associated with a 0.71 increase (P<.05) in children's externalizing behavior problems even when several parenting behaviors, neighborhood quality, and all time-invariant variables were accounted for. The association of corporal punishment and children's externalizing behavior problems was not dependent on neighborhood context. The research found no discernible relationship between corporal punishment and internalizing behavior problems.

Role of projections from ventral subiculum to nucleus accumbens shell in context-induced reinstatement of heroin seeking in rats.

PubMed

Bossert, Jennifer M; Adhikary, Sweta; St Laurent, Robyn; Marchant, Nathan J; Wang, Hui-Ling; Morales, Marisela; Shaham, Yavin

2016-05-01

In humans, exposure to contexts previously associated with heroin use can provoke relapse. In rats, exposure to heroin-paired contexts after extinction of drug-reinforced responding in different contexts reinstates heroin seeking. We previously demonstrated that the projections from ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) to nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell play a role in this reinstatement. The ventral subiculum (vSub) sends glutamate projections to NAc shell and vmPFC. Here, we determined whether these projections contribute to context-induced reinstatement. We trained rats to self-administer heroin (0.05-0.1 mg/kg/infusion) for 3 h per day for 12 days; drug infusions were paired with a discrete tone-light cue. Lever pressing in the presence of the discrete cue was subsequently extinguished in a different context. We then tested the rats for reinstatement in the heroin- and extinction-associated contexts under extinction conditions. We combined Fos with the retrograde tracer Fluoro-Gold (FG) to determine projection-specific activation during the context-induced reinstatement tests. We also used anatomical disconnection procedures to determine whether the vSub → NAc shell and vSub → vmPFC projections are functionally involved in this reinstatement. Exposure to the heroin but not the extinction context reinstated lever pressing. Context-induced reinstatement of heroin seeking was associated with increased Fos expression in vSub neurons, including those projecting to NAc shell and vmPFC. Anatomical disconnection of the vSub → NAc shell projection, but not the vSub → vmPFC projection, decreased this reinstatement. Our data indicate that the vSub → NAc shell glutamatergic projection, but not the vSub → vmPFC projection, contributes to context-induced reinstatement of heroin seeking.

Faculty and Student Attitudes about Transfer of Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lightner, Robin; Benander, Ruth; Kramer, Eugene F.

2008-01-01

Transfer of learning is using previous knowledge in novel contexts. While this is a basic assumption of the educational process, students may not always perceive all the options for using what they have learned in different, novel situations. Within the framework of transfer of learning, this study outlines an attitudinal survey concerning faculty…

Occupational Channels for Mexican Migration: New Destination Formation in a Binational Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanderson, Matthew; Painter, Matthew, II

2011-01-01

In the 1990s, Mexican immigration dispersed spatially, leading to the emergence of many "new destinations," in nonmetropolitan areas of the United States. Previous studies constrain the scope of the analysis to the United States, limiting our understanding of how new destinations are formed. We place new destination formation into a…

Bark Beetle-Fungal Symbiosis: Context Dependency in Complex Associations

Treesearch

Kier D. Klepzig; D.L. Six

2004-01-01

Recent thinking in symbiosis research has emphasized a holistic consideration of these complex interactions. Bark beetles and their associated microbes are one group which has previously not been addressed in this manner. We review the study of symbiotic interactions among bark beetles and microbes in light of this thinking. We describe the considerable progress...

Future Time Perspective in Sociocultural Contexts: A Discussion Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phan, Huy P.

2009-01-01

Future time perspective (FTP) serves as a strong motivational force for individuals to engage in activities that may be instrumental in future outcomes. There has been a voluminous body of research studies, to date, that explored the importance of FTP. This article discusses FTP from sociocultural perspectives. Based on previous empirical…

Students' Understanding on Newton's Third Law in Identifying the Reaction Force in Gravity Interactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Shaona; Zhang, Chunbin; Xiao, Hua

2015-01-01

In the past three decades, previous researches showed that students had various misconceptions of Newton's Third Law. The present study focused on students' difficulties in identifying the third-law force pair in gravity interaction situations. An instrument involving contexts with gravity and non-gravity associated interactions was designed and…

Economic benefits of using adaptive predictive models of reproductive toxicity in the context of a tiered testing program

EPA Science Inventory

A predictive model of reproductive toxicity, as observed in rat multigeneration reproductive (MGR) studies, was previously developed using high throughput screening (HTS) data from 36 in vitro assays mapped to 8 genes or gene-sets from Phase I of USEPA ToxCast research program, t...

Method for Analyzing Students' Utilization of Prior Physics Learning in New Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McBride, Dyan L.; Zollman, Dean; Rebello, N. Sanjay

2010-01-01

In prior research, the classification of concepts into three types--descriptive, hypothetical and theoretical--has allowed for the association of students' use of different concept types with their level of understanding. Previous studies have also examined the ways in which students link concepts to determine whether students have a meaningful…

The Influence of SLA Training in Curricular Design among Teachers in Preparation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kessler, Greg; Bikowski, Dawn

2011-01-01

This study reports on how language teachers in preparation integrate key concepts from second language acquisition (SLA) theory into CALL curricular design. The need for language teachers who have had SLA coursework to receive orientation to student-centered learning in a CALL context has been identified previously (Kessler, 2010). This research…

How Do Students Understand Energy in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics? Development and Validation of an Assessment Instrument

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Opitz, Sebastian Tobias; Neumann, Knut; Bernholt, Sascha; Harms, Ute

2017-01-01

Science standards of different countries introduced disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts--such as energy--to help students develop a more interconnected science understanding. As previous research has mostly addressed energy learning in specific disciplinary contexts, this study targets students' cross-disciplinary understanding of…

Associations among Context-Specific Maternal Protective Behavior, Toddlers' Fearful Temperament, and Maternal Accuracy and Goals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiel, Elizabeth J.; Buss, Kristin A.

2012-01-01

Maternal protective responses to temperamentally fearful toddlers have previously been found to relate to increased risk for children's development of anxiety-spectrum problems. Not all protective behavior is "overprotective", and not all mothers respond to toddlers' fear with protection. Therefore, the current study aimed to identify conditions…

Morphophonological Practice: An Ethnographic Study of Grammar and Discourse in Four American English Stuttering Speech Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dumas, Nathaniel William

2010-01-01

Using the Practice Theory Approach to Language, this dissertation examines how social actors use communicative practices within activities to constitute a communicative context that I call the American English Stuttering Speech Community (AESSC). Building on previous linguistic research on stuttering and sociological research on collectives of…

Following the Template: Transferring Modeling Skills to Nonstandard Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tyumeneva, Yu. A.; Goncharova, M. V.

2017-01-01

This study seeks to analyze how students apply a mathematical modeling skill that was previously learned by solving standard word problems to the solution of word problems with nonstandard contexts. During the course of an experiment involving 106 freshmen, we assessed how well they were able to transfer the mathematical modeling skill that is…

Examining Peer Language Use and Investment in a Distinct North American Immersion Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ballinger, Susan

2017-01-01

Previous studies have shown that immersion students tend to speak the majority language during peer interactions, regardless of the language of instruction or their dominant language. Researchers have argued that the societal status of the majority language presents an obstacle to providing equitable support for both languages of instruction. To…

Homeless Education and Social Capital: An Examination of School and Community Leaders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Peter M.

2011-01-01

Background/Context: This study contributes to the literature on the schooling of homeless and highly mobile students. Although previous work has detailed the demographics of homelessness, the effects of homelessness on academic progress, and particular legal issues in homeless education, this research focused on how individual and institutional…

Systematic Review of Social Network Analysis in Adolescent Cigarette Smoking Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seo, Dong-Chul; Huang, Yan

2012-01-01

Background: Social networks are important in adolescent smoking behavior. Previous research indicates that peer context is a major causal factor of adolescent smoking behavior. To date, however, little is known about the influence of peer group structure on adolescent smoking behavior. Methods: Studies that examined adolescent social networks with…

Antecedents of Identity Development in a Structured Recreation Setting: A Qualitative Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duerden, Mat D.; Taniguchi, Stacy; Widmer, Mark

2012-01-01

Identity research has focused primarily on outcomes associated with identity formation. Far less attention, however, has been given to understanding the facilitating contextual elements of this process. This qualitative study examined a context, a 2-week adventure recreation program for youth, quantitatively shown in previous research to have…

"Prospecting for Metacognition" in a Science Museum: A Metaphor Reflecting Hermeneutic Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, David; Thomas, Gregory P.

2014-01-01

Studying metacognition brings with it many challenges. The challenge of researching metacognition is exacerbated when research, (a) moves from clinical or highly structured settings, those associated with much research in this field, to more naturalistic contexts with less structure, and (b) begins in previously unexplored settings and social…

Poorer Phonetic Perceivers Show Greater Benefit in Phonetic-Phonological Speech Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ingvalson, Erin M.; Barr, Allison M.; Wong, Patrick C. M.

2013-01-01

Purpose: Previous research has demonstrated that native English speakers can learn lexical tones in word context (pitch-to-word learning), to an extent. However, learning success depends on learners' pre-training sensitivity to pitch patterns. The aim of this study was to determine whether lexical pitch-pattern training given before lexical…

Gender and Behavioural Differences in Kuwait Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Almurtaji, Yousuf; Everatt, John; Almenaye, Nasser S.; Alazemi, Ahmad S.; Alradaan, Dalal Abdul Hadi

2018-01-01

Previous studies have found significant differences between the classroom behaviour of boys and girls. Most are within a single broad cultural context and little work has been done within an Arabic/Kuwaiti one. The main aim was to investigate the differences in behaviour between boys and girls in Kuwait primary schools. Data were collected that…

Latent Class Analysis of Conduct Problems of Elementary Students Receiving Special Education Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Toupin, Jean; Déry, Michèle; Verlaan, Pierrette; Lemelin, Jean-Pascal; Lecocq, Aurélie; Jagiellowicz, Jadwiga

2016-01-01

Students with conduct problems (CPs) may present heterogeneity in terms of behavioral manifestations and service needs. Previous studies using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to capture this heterogeneity have been conducted mostly with community samples and have often applied a narrow definition of CP. Considering this context, this study…

Symbol Grounding without Direct Experience: Do Words Inherit Sensorimotor Activation from Purely Linguistic Context?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Günther, Fritz; Dudschig, Carolin; Kaup, Barbara

2018-01-01

Theories of embodied cognition assume that concepts are grounded in non-linguistic, sensorimotor experience. In support of this assumption, previous studies have shown that upwards response movements are faster than downwards movements after participants have been presented with words whose referents are typically located in the upper vertical…

An Exploration of the Characteristics of Effective Undergraduate Peer-Mentoring Relationships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Douglass, April G.; Smith, Dennie L.; Smith, Lana J.

2013-01-01

In this article, we explored the effectiveness of peer mentoring of undergraduate education students enrolled in core curriculum, writing-intensive courses. The context for our study was the use of peer mentors in undergraduate education writing-intensive courses. Peer mentors who had previously taken the courses were selected and trained as…

Change in Irrational Beliefs and the Outcome of Rational-Emotive Psychotherapy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Timothy W.

1983-01-01

Examined correlations between pre- to posttreatment changes in beliefs and changes in treatment-outcome measures within the context of a previous study of rational-emotive therapy. Obtained reliable correlations between changes in beliefs and changes in emotional distress. This relationship occurred in control conditions as well as in treatment…

Doing Without Schema Hierarchies: A Recurrent Connectionist Approach to Normal and Impaired Routine Sequential Action

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Botvinick, Matthew; Plaut, David C.

2004-01-01

In everyday tasks, selecting actions in the proper sequence requires a continuously updated representation of temporal context. Previous models have addressed this problem by positing a hierarchy of processing units, mirroring the roughly hierarchical structure of naturalistic tasks themselves. The present study considers an alternative framework,…

Considering Cognitive Factors in Interest Research: Context Personalization and Illustrations in Math Curricula

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Candace, Walkington; Clinton, Virginia; Mingle, Leigh

2016-01-01

This paper examines two factors that have been shown in previous literature to enhance students' interest in learning mathematics--personalization of problems to students' interest areas, and the addition of visual representations such as decorative illustrations. In two studies taking place within an online curriculum for middle school…

How Can Syntax Support Number Word Acquisition?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Syrett, Kristen; Musolino, Julien; Gelman, Rochel

2012-01-01

We expand upon a previous proposal by Bloom and Wynn (1997) that young children learn about the meaning of number words by tracking their occurrence in particular syntactic environments, in combination with the discourse context in which they are used. An analysis of the Childes database (MacWhinney, 2000) reveals that the environments studied by…

Children's Understanding of Others' Emotional States: Inferences from Extralinguistic or Paralinguistic Cues?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gil, Sandrine; Aguert, Marc; Bigot, Ludovic Le; Lacroix, Agnès; Laval, Virginie

2014-01-01

The ability to infer the emotional states of others is central to our everyday interactions. These inferences can be drawn from several different sources of information occurring simultaneously in the communication situation. Based on previous studies revealing that children pay more heed to situational context than to emotional prosody when…

Effects of Arousal and Context on Recognition Memory for Emotional Pictures in Younger and Older Adults.

PubMed

Wang, Yang; Yang, Jiongjiong

2017-01-01

Background/Study Context: Previous studies found that older adults tend to remember more positive than negative information (i.e., positivity bias), leading to an age-related positivity effect. However, the extent to which factors of arousal and contextual information influence the positivity bias in older adults remains to be determined. In this study, 27 Chinese younger adults (20.00 ± 1.75 years) and 33 Chinese older adults (70.76 ± 5.49) learned pictures with negative, positive, and neutral valences. Half of the pictures had a human context, and the other half did not. In addition, emotional dimensions of negative and positive pictures were divided into high-arousal and low-arousal. The experimental task was to provide old/new recognition and confidence rating judgments. Both groups of subjects showed the positivity bias for low-arousal pictures, but the positivity bias was restricted to low-arousal pictures without the human context in older adults. In addition, the positivity bias was mainly driven by the recollection process in younger adults, and it was mainly driven by both the recollection and familiarity processes in older adults. The recognition of the nonhuman positive pictures was correlated with cognitive control abilities, but the recognition of pictures with human contexts was correlated with general memory abilities in older adults. This study highlights the importance of arousal and contextual information in modulating emotional memory in younger and older adults. It suggests that there are different mechanisms for memorizing pictures with and without human contexts in older adults.

Effects of arousal and context on recognition memory for emotional pictures in younger and older adults

PubMed Central

Wang, Yang; Yang, Jiongjiong

2017-01-01

Background/Study context Previous studies found that older adults tend to remember more positive than negative information (i.e., positivity bias), leading to an age-related positivity effect. However, the extent to which factors of arousal and contextual information influence the positivity bias in older adults remains to be determined. Methods In this study, 27 Chinese younger adults (20.00±1.75 years) and 33 Chinese older adults (70.76 ± 5.49) learned pictures with negative, positive and neutral valences. Half of the pictures had a human context, and the other half did not. In addition, emotional dimensions of negative and positive pictures were divided into high-arousal and low-arousal. The experimental task was to provide old/new recognition and confidence rating judgments. Results Both groups of subjects showed the positivity bias for low-arousal pictures, but the positivity bias was restricted to low-arousal pictures without the human context in older adults. In addition, the positivity bias was mainly driven by the recollection process in younger adults, and it was mainly driven by both the recollection and familiarity processes in older adults. The recognition of the nonhuman positive pictures was correlated with cognitive control abilities, but the recognition of pictures with human contexts was correlated with general memory abilities in older adults. Conclusion This study highlights the importance of arousal and contextual information in modulating emotional memory in younger and older adults. It suggests that there are different mechanisms for memorizing pictures with and without human contexts in older adults. PMID:28230422

Contextual Control of Discriminated Operant Behavior

PubMed Central

Bouton, Mark E.; Todd, Travis P.; León, Samuel P.

2014-01-01

Previous research suggests that changing the context after instrumental (operant) conditioning can weaken the strength of the operant response. That result contrasts with the results of studies of Pavlovian conditioning, where a context switch often does not affect the response elicited by a conditioned stimulus. To begin to make the methods more similar, Experiments 1–3 tested the effects of a context switch in rats on a discriminated operant response (R, lever pressing or chain pulling) that had been reinforced only in the presence of a 30-s discriminative stimulus (S, tone or light). As in Pavlovian conditioning, responses and reinforcers became confined to presentations of the S during training. However, in Experiment 1, after training in Context A, a switch to Context B caused a decrement in responding during S. In Experiment 2, a switch to Context B likewise decreased responding in S when Context B was equally familiar, equally associated with reinforcement, or equally associated with the training of a discriminated operant (a different R reinforced in a different S). However, there was no decrement if Context B had been associated with the same response that was trained in Context A (Experiments 2 and 3). The effectiveness of S transferred across contexts, whereas the strength of the response did not. Experiment 4 found that a continuously reinforced response was also disrupted by context change when the same response manipulandum was used in both training and testing. Overall, the results suggest that the context can have a robust general role in the control of operant behavior. Mechanisms of contextual control are discussed. PMID:24000907

Contextual control of discriminated operant behavior.

PubMed

Bouton, Mark E; Todd, Travis P; León, Samuel P

2014-01-01

Previous research has suggested that changing the context after instrumental (operant) conditioning can weaken the strength of the operant response. That result contrasts with the results of studies of Pavlovian conditioning, in which a context switch often does not affect the response elicited by a conditioned stimulus. To begin to make the methods more similar, Experiments 1-3 tested the effects of a context switch in rats on a discriminated operant response (R; lever pressing or chain pulling) that had been reinforced only in the presence of a 30-s discriminative stimulus (S; tone or light). As in Pavlovian conditioning, responses and reinforcers became confined to presentations of the S during training. However, in Experiment 1, after training in Context A, a switch to Context B caused a decrement in responding during S. In Experiment 2, a switch to Context B likewise decreased responding in S when Context B was equally familiar, equally associated with reinforcement, or equally associated with the training of a discriminated operant (a different R reinforced in a different S). However, there was no decrement if Context B had been associated with the same response that was trained in Context A (Experiments 2 and 3). The effectiveness of S transferred across contexts, whereas the strength of the response did not. Experiment 4 found that a continuously reinforced response was also disrupted by context change when the same response manipulandum was used in both training and testing. Overall, the results suggest that the context can have a robust general role in the control of operant behavior. Mechanisms of contextual control are discussed.

The mediating effect of context variation in mixed practice for transfer of basic science.

PubMed

Kulasegaram, Kulamakan; Min, Cynthia; Howey, Elizabeth; Neville, Alan; Woods, Nicole; Dore, Kelly; Norman, Geoffrey

2015-10-01

Applying a previously learned concept to a novel problem is an important but difficult process called transfer. Practicing multiple concepts together (mixed practice mode) has been shown superior to practicing concepts separately (blocked practice mode) for transfer. This study examined the effect of single and multiple practice contexts for both mixed and blocked practice modalities on transfer performance. We looked at performance on near transfer (familiar contexts) cases and far transfer (unfamiliar contexts) cases. First year psychology students (n = 42) learned three physiological concepts in a 2 × 2 factorial study (one or two practice contexts and blocked or mixed practice). Each concept was practiced with two clinical cases; practice context was defined as the number of organ systems used (one system per concept vs. two systems). In blocked practice, two practice cases followed each concept; in mixed practice, students learned all concepts before seeing six practice cases. Transfer testing consisted of correctly classifying and explaining 15 clinical cases involving near and far transfer. The outcome was ratings of quality of explanations on a 0-3 scale. The repeated measures analysis showed a significant near versus far by organ system interaction [F(1,38) = 3.4, p < 0.002] with practice with a single context showing lower far transfer scores than near transfer [0.58 (0.37)-0.83 (0.37)] compared to the two contexts which had similar far and near transfer scores [1.19 (0.50)-1.01 (0.38)]. Practicing with two organ contexts had a significant benefit for far transfer regardless of mixed or blocked practice; the single context mixed practice group had the lowest far transfer performance; this was a large effect size (Cohen's d = 0.81). Using only one practice context during practice significantly lowers performance even with the usually superior mixed practice mode. Novices should be exposed to multiple contexts and mixed practice to facilitate transfer.

Reporting the characteristics of the policy context for population-level alcohol interventions: a proposed 'Transparent Reporting of Alcohol Intervention ContExts' (TRAICE) checklist.

PubMed

Holmes, John; Meier, Petra S; Booth, Andrew; Brennan, Alan

2014-11-01

Effectiveness of alcohol policy interventions varies across times and places. The circumstances under which effective polices can be successfully transferred between contexts are typically unexplored with little attention given to developing reporting requirements that would facilitate systematic investigation. Using purposive sampling and expert elicitation methods, we identified context-related factors impacting on the effectiveness of population-level alcohol policies. We then drew on previous characterisations of alcohol policy contexts and methodological-reporting checklists to design a new checklist for reporting contextual information in evaluation studies. Six context factor domains were identified: (i) baseline alcohol consumption, norms and harm rates; (ii) baseline affordability and availability; (iii) social, microeconomic and demographic contexts; (iv) macroeconomic context; (v) market context; and (vi) wider policy, political and media context. The checklist specifies information, typically available in national or international reports, to be reported in each domain. The checklist can facilitate evidence synthesis by providing: (i) a mechanism for systematic and more consistent reporting of contextual data for meta-regression and realist evaluations; (ii) information for policy-makers on differences between their context and contexts of evaluations; and (iii) an evidence base for adjusting prospective policy simulation models to account for policy context. Our proposed checklist provides a tool for gaining better understanding of the influence of policy context on intervention effectiveness. Further work is required to rationalise and aggregate checklists across interventions types to make such checklists practical for use by journals and to improve reporting of important qualitative contextual data. © 2014 The Authors. Drug and Alcohol Review published by Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd on behalf of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

How Justice Can Affect Jury Training Abstract Words Promotes Generalization to Concrete Words in Patients with Aphasia

PubMed Central

Sandberg, Chaleece; Kiran, Swathi

2014-01-01

Developing language treatments that not only improve trained items but also promote generalization to untrained items is a major focus in aphasia research. This study is a replication and extension of previous work that found that training abstract words in a particular context-category promotes generalization to concrete words but not vice versa (Kiran, Sandberg, & Abbott, 2009). Twelve persons with aphasia (5 female) with varying types and degrees of severity participated in a generative naming treatment based on the complexity account of treatment efficacy (CATE; Thompson, Shapiro, Kiran, & Sobecks, 2003). All participants were trained to generate abstract words in a particular context-category by analyzing the semantic features of the target words. Two other context-categories were used as controls. Ten of the twelve participants improved on the trained abstract words in the trained context-category. Eight of the ten participants who responded to treatment also generalized to concrete words in the same context-category. These results suggest that this treatment is both efficacious and efficient. We discuss possible mechanisms of training and generalization effects. PMID:24805853

The Effect of Context and Input Conditions on Oral and Written Development: A Study Abroad Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perez-Vidal, Carmen; Juan-Garau, Maria

2011-01-01

This article aims at describing and explaining the effects of a period of Study Abroad spent in the target language country (SA) on foreign language development. Such effects are analysed in the short- and mid-term and in contrast with the impact of a period of formal instruction (FI) previously spent in the home country (AH). It is hypothesised…

Analyzing the Knowledge Construction and Cognitive Patterns of Blog-Based Instructional Activities Using Four Frequent Interactive Strategies (Problem Solving, Peer Assessment, Role Playing and Peer Tutoring): A Preliminary Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Shu-Ming; Hou, Huei-Tse; Wu, Sheng-Yi

2017-01-01

Instructional strategies can be helpful in facilitating students' knowledge construction and developing advanced cognitive skills. In the context of collaborative learning, instructional strategies as scripts can guide learners to engage in more meaningful interaction. Previous studies have been investigated the benefits of different instructional…

Roles of University Support for International Students in the United States: Analysis of a Systematic Model of University Identification, University Support, and Psychological Well-Being

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cho, Jaehee; Yu, Hongsik

2015-01-01

Unlike previous research on international students' social support, this current study applied the concept of organizational support to university contexts, examining the effects of university support. Mainly based on the social identity/self-categorization stress model, this study developed and tested a path model composed of four key…

CALL versus Paper: In Which Context Are L1 Glosses More Effective?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Alan M.

2013-01-01

CALL glossing in first language (L1) or second language (L2) texts has been shown by previous studies to be more effective than traditional, paper-and-pen L1 glossing. Using a pool of studies with much more statistical power and more accurate results, this meta-analysis demonstrates more precisely the degree to which CALL L1 glossing can be more…

Leaders in Interdependent Contexts Suppress Nonverbal Assertiveness: A Multilevel Analysis of Japanese University Club Leaders' and Members' Rank Signaling.

PubMed

Ito, Atsuki; Gobel, Matthias S; Uchida, Yukiko

2018-01-01

Previous research has shown that leadership is signaled through nonverbal assertiveness. However, those studies have been mostly conducted in individualistic cultural contexts, such as in the U.S. Here, we suggest that one important strategy for goal attainment in collectivistic cultures is for leaders to self-regulate their behaviors. Thus, contrary to the previous evidence from individualistic cultural contexts, in collectivistic cultural contexts, leaders might suppress nonverbal assertiveness. To test this possibility, we assessed nonverbal behaviors (NVB) of Japanese leaders and members, and how they were evaluated by observers. We recruited Japanese leaders and members of university clubs and video-recorded them while introducing their club. Then, we coded their nonverbal rank signaling behavior. Finally, we asked a new set of naïve observers to watch these video-clips and to judge targets' suitability for being possible club leaders. Results of a multilevel analysis (level 1: individual participants, level 2: clubs) suggested that the more the club culture focused on tasks (rather than relationships), the more likely were leaders (but not members) of those clubs to suppress their nonverbal assertiveness. Naïve observers judged individuals who restrained from emitting nonverbal assertiveness as being more suitable and worthy club leaders. Thus, our findings demonstrate the cultural fit between contextual effects at the collective level (i.e., cultural orientation of a group) and the signaling and perceiving of social ranks at the individual level (i.e., suppression of nonverbal assertiveness). We discuss the importance of studying the cultural fit between the collective reality that people inhabit and people's psychology for future research in cultural psychology.

The Migration, Mental Stress, and Tobacco use of Internal Migrants in China: The Moderating Effect of the Social Context of the Host Society.

PubMed

Xie, Shenghua

2017-11-10

Previous studies on the relationship between mental stress and the tobacco use of internal migrants have not fully considered the social context of the host society. This study aims to examine how mental stress influences cigarette smoking in internal migrants in China by considering the social context of the host society. We used the RUMiC data that were collected in 15 cities distributed throughout 9 provinces of China. A total of 8,446 and 5,426 migrant workers were interviewed in 2008 and 2009, respectively. We selected individuals based on the criteria of age, salary, and hukou status. A total of 8,880 observations are valid for this study. This research used the logistic regression method to test the association between mental stress and the tobacco use of internal migrants. The results show that mental stress is not necessarily associated with the tobacco use of internal migrants. However, the effects of mental stress on tobacco use are moderated by the social context of the host society. This article calls for more attention to be paid to the moderate effect of social context in the host society on the association between mental stress and cigarette smoking of internal migrants. Moreover, this article underscores the importance of factors related to local societies in making and enacting tobacco control policies for migrants in developing countries.

A Robust Camera-Based Interface for Mobile Entertainment

PubMed Central

Roig-Maimó, Maria Francesca; Manresa-Yee, Cristina; Varona, Javier

2016-01-01

Camera-based interfaces in mobile devices are starting to be used in games and apps, but few works have evaluated them in terms of usability or user perception. Due to the changing nature of mobile contexts, this evaluation requires extensive studies to consider the full spectrum of potential users and contexts. However, previous works usually evaluate these interfaces in controlled environments such as laboratory conditions, therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to real users and real contexts. In this work, we present a robust camera-based interface for mobile entertainment. The interface detects and tracks the user’s head by processing the frames provided by the mobile device’s front camera, and its position is then used to interact with the mobile apps. First, we evaluate the interface as a pointing device to study its accuracy, and different factors to configure such as the gain or the device’s orientation, as well as the optimal target size for the interface. Second, we present an in the wild study to evaluate the usage and the user’s perception when playing a game controlled by head motion. Finally, the game is published in an application store to make it available to a large number of potential users and contexts and we register usage data. Results show the feasibility of using this robust camera-based interface for mobile entertainment in different contexts and by different people. PMID:26907288

Creatine and Caffeine: Considerations for Concurrent Supplementation.

PubMed

Trexler, Eric T; Smith-Ryan, Abbie E

2015-12-01

Nutritional supplementation is a common practice among athletes, with creatine and caffeine among the most commonly used ergogenic aids. Hundreds of studies have investigated the ergogenic potential of creatine supplementation, with consistent improvements in strength and power reported for exercise bouts of short duration (≤ 30 s) and high intensity. Caffeine has been shown to improve endurance exercise performance, but results are mixed in the context of strength and sprint performance. Further, there is conflicting evidence from studies comparing the ergogenic effects of coffee and caffeine anhydrous supplementation. Previous research has identified independent mechanisms by which creatine and caffeine may improve strength and sprint performance, leading to the formulation of multi-ingredient supplements containing both ingredients. Although scarce, research has suggested that caffeine ingestion may blunt the ergogenic effect of creatine. While a pharmacokinetic interaction is unlikely, authors have suggested that this effect may be explained by opposing effects on muscle relaxation time or gastrointestinal side effects from simultaneous consumption. The current review aims to evaluate the ergogenic potential of creatine and caffeine in the context of high-intensity exercise. Research directly comparing coffee and caffeine anhydrous is discussed, along with previous studies evaluating the concurrent supplementation of creatine and caffeine.

The Extraordinary Nature of Barney's Drumming: A Complementary Study of Ordinary Noise Making in Chimpanzees.

PubMed

Dufour, Valérie; Pasquaretta, Cristian; Gayet, Pierre; Sterck, Elisabeth H M

2017-01-01

In a previous study (Dufour et al., 2015) we reported the unusual characteristics of the drumming performance of a chimpanzee named Barney. His sound production, several sequences of repeated drumming on an up-turned plastic barrel, shared features typical for human musical drumming: it was rhythmical, decontextualized, and well controlled by the chimpanzee. This type of performance raises questions about the origins of our musicality. Here we recorded spontaneously occurring events of sound production with objects in Barney's colony. First we collected data on the duration of sound making. Here we examined whether (i) the context in which objects were used for sound production, (ii) the sex of the producer, (iii) the medium, and (iv) the technique used for sound production had any effect on the duration of sound making. Interestingly, duration of drumming differed across contexts, sex, and techniques. Then we filmed as many events as possible to increase our chances of recording sequences that would be musically similar to Barney's performance in the original study. We filmed several long productions that were rhythmically interesting. However, none fully met the criteria of musical sound production, as previously reported for Barney.

The Extraordinary Nature of Barney's Drumming: A Complementary Study of Ordinary Noise Making in Chimpanzees

PubMed Central

Dufour, Valérie; Pasquaretta, Cristian; Gayet, Pierre; Sterck, Elisabeth H. M.

2017-01-01

In a previous study (Dufour et al., 2015) we reported the unusual characteristics of the drumming performance of a chimpanzee named Barney. His sound production, several sequences of repeated drumming on an up-turned plastic barrel, shared features typical for human musical drumming: it was rhythmical, decontextualized, and well controlled by the chimpanzee. This type of performance raises questions about the origins of our musicality. Here we recorded spontaneously occurring events of sound production with objects in Barney's colony. First we collected data on the duration of sound making. Here we examined whether (i) the context in which objects were used for sound production, (ii) the sex of the producer, (iii) the medium, and (iv) the technique used for sound production had any effect on the duration of sound making. Interestingly, duration of drumming differed across contexts, sex, and techniques. Then we filmed as many events as possible to increase our chances of recording sequences that would be musically similar to Barney's performance in the original study. We filmed several long productions that were rhythmically interesting. However, none fully met the criteria of musical sound production, as previously reported for Barney. PMID:28154521

Khat Use and Neurobehavioral Functions: Suggestions for Future Studies

PubMed Central

Hoffman, Richard; al’Absi, Mustafa

2010-01-01

Although there is a rich body of research available regarding the effect of acute and chronic khat dosing in animal models, research on the behavioral and cognitive effects of khat in human subjects is not extensive and several of the available studies have been done only in the context of observational and single-case studies. In light of the absence of a substantial literature on the neurobehavioral deficits associated with khat use and to provide a context that could be used to identify themes for future research we review previous research that has focused on other stimulant drugs. This review highlights multiple areas of neurocognitive deficit that have been identified in previous studies of individuals who have been chronic users of stimulants, such as amphetamines and methamphetamines. The review highlights a substantial body of evidence demonstrating a wide range of learning and memory impairments including deficits that persist during abstinence from active drug use. This review does not imply a similar khat effect, but due to some similarities pharmacologically between the active components of khat (cathinone and cathine) and amphetamines, future studies examining these same domains of cognitive functioning in chronic khat users and abstinent khat users appears to be warranted, if possible using some of the same or similar laboratory measures. PMID:20553832

Using the Virtual Reality-Cognitive Rehabilitation Approach to Improve Contextual Processing in Children with Autism

PubMed Central

Reid, Denise

2013-01-01

Background. This pilot study investigated the efficacy of a novel virtual reality-cognitive rehabilitation (VR-CR) intervention to improve contextual processing of objects in children with autism. Previous research supports that children with autism show deficits in contextual processing, as well as deficits in its elementary components: abstraction and cognitive flexibility. Methods. Four children with autism participated in a multiple-baseline, single-subject study. The children were taught how to see objects in context by reinforcing attention to pivotal contextual information. Results. All children demonstrated statistically significant improvements in contextual processing and cognitive flexibility. Mixed results were found on the control test and changes in context-related behaviours. Conclusions. Larger-scale studies are warranted to determine the effectiveness and usability in comprehensive educational programs. PMID:24324379

Validating a Culturally-sensitive Social Competence Training Programme for Adolescents with ASD in a Chinese Context: An Initial Investigation.

PubMed

Chan, Raymond Won Shing; Leung, Cecilia Nga Wing; Ng, Denise Ching Yiu; Yau, Sania Sau Wai

2018-02-01

Previous studies on social skills training on ASD were done almost exclusively in the West with children as the main subjects. Demonstrations of the applicability of social interventions in different cultures and age groups are warranted. The current study outlined the development and preliminary evaluation of a CBT-context-based social competence training for ASD (CBT-CSCA) developed in Hong Kong for Chinese adolescents with ASD. Twenty-five adolescents (aged 12-17 years, with a FSIQ above 80) were recruited. Significant improvements in social competence, autistic symptoms and general psychopathology at post-training and 3-month follow-up were reported by the parents. The study provided initial evidence support to the applicability of social competence training for adolescents with ASD in a different culture.

The effect of visual context on manual localization of remembered targets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barry, S. R.; Bloomberg, J. J.; Huebner, W. P.

1997-01-01

This paper examines the contribution of egocentric cues and visual context to manual localization of remembered targets. Subjects pointed in the dark to the remembered position of a target previously viewed without or within a structured visual scene. Without a remembered visual context, subjects pointed to within 2 degrees of the target. The presence of a visual context with cues of straight ahead enhanced pointing performance to the remembered location of central but not off-center targets. Thus, visual context provides strong visual cues of target position and the relationship of body position to target location. Without a visual context, egocentric cues provide sufficient input for accurate pointing to remembered targets.

Preservice Science Teachers' Informal Reasoning about Socioscientific Issues: The influence of issue context

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sami Topcu, Mustafa; Sadler, Troy D.; Yilmaz-Tuzun, Ozgul

2010-12-01

The purpose of the current study is to explicitly test the extent to which issue contexts affect the informal reasoning processes engaged in by individuals. In order to address the research question framing this study, we engaged 39 Turkish preservice science teachers (PSTs) in interviews designed to elicit argumentation related to multiple socioscientific scenarios. Three scenarios related to gene therapy, another three related to human cloning, and the final scenario related to global warming. The data were analyzed using an interpretive qualitative research approach. Our work builds on a framework initially proposed by Toulmin in 1958. This study has provided new evidence related to informal reasoning in the context of socioscientific issues (SSI). At the sample level, there was strong consistency in informal reasoning quality among varying socioscientific scenarios. However, finer-grained analyses indicated a greater level of variability in the informal reasoning practices of individual PSTs. These results support previous conclusions that suggest context dependence for informal reasoning related to SSI. This study provides an initial picture of the reasoning practices of preservice teachers as opposed to science learners. The results indicate that teachers, at least those in this Turkish setting, would benefit from learning experiences that support their own informal reasoning practices as well as their ability to foster development of these practices among their students. We encourage the field to continue the investigation of SSI as contexts for education particularly as it relates to the education of teachers.

Context-Specific Adaptation of Gravity-Dependent Vestibular Reflex Responses (NSBRI Neurovestibular Project 1)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shelhamer, Mark; Goldberg, Jefim; Minor, Lloyd B.; Paloski, William H.; Young, Laurence R.; Zee, David S.

1999-01-01

Impairment of gaze and head stabilization reflexes can lead to disorientation and reduced performance in sensorimotor tasks such as piloting of spacecraft. Transitions between different gravitoinertial force (gif) environments - as during different phases of space flight - provide an extreme test of the adaptive capabilities of these mechanisms. We wish to determine to what extent the sensorimotor skills acquired in one gravity environment will transfer to others, and to what extent gravity serves as a context cue for inhibiting such transfer. We use the general approach of adapting a response (saccades, vestibuloocular reflex: VOR, or vestibulocollic reflex: VCR) to a particular change in gain or phase in one gif condition, adapting to a different gain or phase in a second gif condition, and then seeing if gif itself - the context cue - can recall the previously-learned adapted responses. Previous evidence indicates that unless there is specific training to induce context-specificity, reflex adaptation is sequential rather than simultaneous. Various experiments in this project investigate the behavioral properties, neurophysiological basis, and anatomical substrate of context-specific learning, using otolith (gravity) signals as a context cue. In the following, we outline the methods for all experiments in this project, and provide details and results on selected experiments.

A single-rate context-dependent learning process underlies rapid adaptation to familiar object dynamics.

PubMed

Ingram, James N; Howard, Ian S; Flanagan, J Randall; Wolpert, Daniel M

2011-09-01

Motor learning has been extensively studied using dynamic (force-field) perturbations. These induce movement errors that result in adaptive changes to the motor commands. Several state-space models have been developed to explain how trial-by-trial errors drive the progressive adaptation observed in such studies. These models have been applied to adaptation involving novel dynamics, which typically occurs over tens to hundreds of trials, and which appears to be mediated by a dual-rate adaptation process. In contrast, when manipulating objects with familiar dynamics, subjects adapt rapidly within a few trials. Here, we apply state-space models to familiar dynamics, asking whether adaptation is mediated by a single-rate or dual-rate process. Previously, we reported a task in which subjects rotate an object with known dynamics. By presenting the object at different visual orientations, adaptation was shown to be context-specific, with limited generalization to novel orientations. Here we show that a multiple-context state-space model, with a generalization function tuned to visual object orientation, can reproduce the time-course of adaptation and de-adaptation as well as the observed context-dependent behavior. In contrast to the dual-rate process associated with novel dynamics, we show that a single-rate process mediates adaptation to familiar object dynamics. The model predicts that during exposure to the object across multiple orientations, there will be a degree of independence for adaptation and de-adaptation within each context, and that the states associated with all contexts will slowly de-adapt during exposure in one particular context. We confirm these predictions in two new experiments. Results of the current study thus highlight similarities and differences in the processes engaged during exposure to novel versus familiar dynamics. In both cases, adaptation is mediated by multiple context-specific representations. In the case of familiar object dynamics, however, the representations can be engaged based on visual context, and are updated by a single-rate process.

Changes in Cue Configuration Reduce the Impact of Interfering Information in a Predictive Learning Task

PubMed Central

Cubillas, Carmelo P.; Vadillo, Miguel A.; Matute, Helena

2017-01-01

Decades of research in extinction and interference show that contexts can play a critical role at disambiguating the meaning of cues that have been paired with different outcomes at different times. For instance, if a cue x is followed by outcome 1 in the first phase of an experiment and by outcome 2 in a second phase, responses to cue x tend to be consistent with outcome 2 when tested in a context similar to that of the second phase of the experiment. However, if participants are taken back to the original context of the first phase (i.e., ABA renewal) or to a completely new context (i.e., ABC or AAB renewal), their responses to x tend to be more consistent with outcome 1. Although the role of physical and temporal contexts has been well studied, other factors that can also modulate the selective retrieval of information after interference have received less attention. The present series of experiments shows how changes in cue configuration can modulate responding in a similar manner. Across five experiments using a human predictive learning task, we found that adding, removing or replacing elements from a compound cue that had undergone an interference treatment gave rise to a recovery of responding akin to that observed after context changes in AAB renewal. These results are consistent with those of previous studies exploring the effect of changes of cue configuration on interference. Taken together, these studies suggest that a change in cue configuration can have the functional properties of a context change, a finding with important implications for formal models of configural learning and for classical accounts of interference and information retrieval. PMID:28111562

Changes in Cue Configuration Reduce the Impact of Interfering Information in a Predictive Learning Task.

PubMed

Cubillas, Carmelo P; Vadillo, Miguel A; Matute, Helena

2016-01-01

Decades of research in extinction and interference show that contexts can play a critical role at disambiguating the meaning of cues that have been paired with different outcomes at different times. For instance, if a cue x is followed by outcome 1 in the first phase of an experiment and by outcome 2 in a second phase, responses to cue x tend to be consistent with outcome 2 when tested in a context similar to that of the second phase of the experiment. However, if participants are taken back to the original context of the first phase (i.e., ABA renewal) or to a completely new context (i.e., ABC or AAB renewal), their responses to x tend to be more consistent with outcome 1. Although the role of physical and temporal contexts has been well studied, other factors that can also modulate the selective retrieval of information after interference have received less attention. The present series of experiments shows how changes in cue configuration can modulate responding in a similar manner. Across five experiments using a human predictive learning task, we found that adding, removing or replacing elements from a compound cue that had undergone an interference treatment gave rise to a recovery of responding akin to that observed after context changes in AAB renewal. These results are consistent with those of previous studies exploring the effect of changes of cue configuration on interference. Taken together, these studies suggest that a change in cue configuration can have the functional properties of a context change, a finding with important implications for formal models of configural learning and for classical accounts of interference and information retrieval.

Positional priming of pop-out is nested in visuospatial context.

PubMed

Gokce, Ahu; Müller, Hermann J; Geyer, Thomas

2013-11-26

The present study investigated facilitatory and inhibitory positional priming using a variant of Maljkovic and Nakayama's (1996) priming of pop-out task. Here, the singleton target and the distractors could be presented in different visuospatial contexts-but identical screen locations-across trials, permitting positional priming based on individual locations to be disentangled from priming based on interitem configural relations. The results revealed both significant facilitatory priming, i.e., faster reaction times (RTs) to target presented at previous target relative to previously empty locations, and inhibitory priming, i.e., slower RTs to target at previous distractor relative to previously empty locations. However, both effects were contingent on repetitions versus changes of stimulus arrangement: While facilitation of target locations was dependent on the repetition of the exact item configuration (e.g., T-type followed by T-type stimulus arrangement), the inhibitory effect was more "tolerant," being influenced by repetitions versus changes of the item's visuospatial category (T-type followed by Z-type pattern; cf. Garner & Clement, 1963). The results suggest that facilitatory and inhibitory priming are distinct phenomena (Finke et al., 2009) and that both effects are sensitive to subtle information about the arrangement of the display items (Geyer, Zehetleitner, & Müller, 2010). The results are discussed with respect to the stage(s) of visual pop-out search that are influenced by positional priming.

Temporal context, preference, and resistance to change.

PubMed

Podlesnik, Christopher A; Jimenez-Gomez, Corina; Thrailkill, Eric A; Shahan, Timothy A

2011-09-01

According to behavioral momentum theory, preference and relative resistance to change in concurrent-chains schedules are correlated and reflect the relative conditioned value of discriminative stimuli. In the present study, we explore the generality of this relation by manipulating the temporal context within a concurrent-chains procedure through changes in the duration of the initial links. Consistent with previous findings, preference for a richer terminal link was less extreme with longer initial links across three experiments with pigeons. In Experiment 1, relative resistance to change and preference were related inversely when responding was disrupted with response-independent food presentations during initial links, replicating a previous finding with rats. However, more food was presented with longer initial links, confounding the disrupter and initial-link duration. In Experiment 2, presession feeding was used instead and eliminated the negative relation between relative resistance to change and preference, but relative resistance to change was not sensitive to relative terminal-link reinforcement rates. In Experiment 3, with more extreme relative terminal-link reinforcement rates, increasing initial-link duration similarly decreased preference and relative resistance to change for the richer terminal link. Thus, when conditions of disruption are equal and assessed under the appropriate reinforcement conditions, changes in temporal context impact relative resistance to change and preference similarly.

New specimen of Archaeopteryx provides insights into the evolution of pennaceous feathers.

PubMed

Foth, Christian; Tischlinger, Helmut; Rauhut, Oliver W M

2014-07-03

Discoveries of bird-like theropod dinosaurs and basal avialans in recent decades have helped to put the iconic 'Urvogel' Archaeopteryx into context and have yielded important new data on the origin and early evolution of feathers. However, the biological context under which pennaceous feathers evolved is still debated. Here we describe a new specimen of Archaeopteryx with extensive feather preservation, not only on the wings and tail, but also on the body and legs. The new specimen shows that the entire body was covered in pennaceous feathers, and that the hindlimbs had long, symmetrical feathers along the tibiotarsus but short feathers on the tarsometatarsus. Furthermore, the wing plumage demonstrates that several recent interpretations are problematic. An analysis of the phylogenetic distribution of pennaceous feathers on the tail, hindlimb and arms of advanced maniraptorans and basal avialans strongly indicates that these structures evolved in a functional context other than flight, most probably in relation to display, as suggested by some previous studies. Pennaceous feathers thus represented an exaptation and were later, in several lineages and following different patterns, recruited for aerodynamic functions. This indicates that the origin of flight in avialans was more complex than previously thought and might have involved several convergent achievements of aerial abilities.

Is naming faces different from naming objects? Semantic interference in a face- and object-naming task.

PubMed

Marful, Alejandra; Paolieri, Daniela; Bajo, M Teresa

2014-04-01

A current debate regarding face and object naming concerns whether they are equally vulnerable to semantic interference. Although some studies have shown similar patterns of interference, others have revealed different effects for faces and objects. In Experiment 1, we compared face naming to object naming when exemplars were presented in a semantically homogeneous context (grouped by their category) or in a semantically heterogeneous context (mixed) across four cycles. The data revealed significant slowing for both face and object naming in the homogeneous context. This semantic interference was explained as being due to lexical competition from the conceptual activation of category members. When focusing on the first cycle, a facilitation effect for objects but not for faces appeared. This result permits us to explain the previously observed discrepancies between face and object naming. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, with the exception that half of the stimuli were presented as face/object names for reading. Semantic interference was present for both face and object naming, suggesting that faces and objects behave similarly during naming. Interestingly, during reading, semantic interference was observed for face names but not for object names. This pattern is consistent with previous assumptions proposing the activation of a person identity during face name reading.

Malignant Mesothelioma in a Motor Vehicle Mechanic.

PubMed

Meisenkothen, Christopher

2017-02-01

Case reports remain an important source of data in the debate over the carcinogenic effect of asbestos-containing automotive friction products. This report documents a case of pleural mesothelioma accompanied by asbestos bodies in the lung tissue of a career auto mechanic with no other known sources of exposure. Previously unreported historical and contemporary exposure data are also discussed in the context of providing additional support for the proposition that work with asbestos-containing automotive products presents a risk of significant exposure. While there remains a body of negative epidemiology that fails to find an increased risk of disease among auto workers, those data must be approached with caution. Many of those studies have drawn technical criticisms, which are beyond the scope of this report, but they remain a key part of the legal defense mounted by defendant-companies who are involved in asbestos-related litigation. This ongoing debate provides the context for the continued relevance of case reports such as this one, as well as the presentation of new and previously unpublished exposure data.

Effects of the Team Competition-Based Ubiquitous Gaming Approach on Students' Interactive Patterns, Collective Efficacy and Awareness of Collaboration and Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chih-Hung; Hwang, Gwo-Jen

2017-01-01

Previous research has illustrated the importance of acquiring knowledge from authentic contexts; however, without full engagement, students' learning performance might not be as good as expected. In this study, a Team Competition-based Ubiquitous Gaming approach was proposed for improving students' learning effectiveness in authentic learning…

Effective and Ethical and Interviewing of Young Children in Pedagogical Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunphy, Elizabeth

2005-01-01

Ethical and effective interviewing of young children in relation to their learning is a challenging and complex process. This paper describes the use of an experience-based flexible and focused interview methodology in a study based on young children's views and understandings of number. It shows how the approach used builds on previous work in…

The Effect of Conceptual and Contextual Familiarity on Transfer Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kulasegaram, Kulamakan; Min, Cynthia; Ames, Kimberly; Howey, Elizabeth; Neville, Alan; Norman, Geoffrey

2012-01-01

Applying a previously learned concept to a novel problem is an important but difficult process called transfer. It is suggested that a commonsense analogy aids in transfer by linking novel concepts to familiar ones. How the context of practice affects transfer when learning using analogies is still unclear. This study investigated the effect of a…

Roles of Terminology, Experience, and Energy Concepts in Student Conceptions of "Freezing" and "Boiling"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jasien, Paul G.

2013-01-01

A discussion of some student conceptions of the solid-liquid and liquid-vapor phase transitions is presented. Data from open-ended, short-answer questions were collected from first-semester general chemistry students and then discussed in the context of previous studies. The responses gave insight into the various student conceptions about these…

Learning Communities and Fair Trade in Doctorates and Development: Report of a Collaborative Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenwood, Janinka; Alam, Safayet; Salahuddin, Abu Nayeem Mohammad; Rasheed, Mollah Mohammed Haroon-Ar

2016-01-01

This article reports the second stage of a study examining an academic partnership in which Bangladeshi doctoral students in a western university focus their research in the grounded context of Bangladesh and investigate the processes for change. After briefly outlining the previous published stage which examined the academic trade in higher…

Evaluating Different Standard-Setting Methods in an ESL Placement Testing Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shin, Sun-Young; Lidster, Ryan

2017-01-01

In language programs, it is crucial to place incoming students into appropriate levels to ensure that course curriculum and materials are well targeted to their learning needs. Deciding how and where to set cutscores on placement tests is thus of central importance to programs, but previous studies in educational measurement disagree as to which…

Can You Skype Me Now? Developing Teachers' Classroom Management Practices through Virtual Coaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rock, Marcia L.; Schoenfeld, Naomi; Zigmond, Naomi; Gable, Robert A.; Gregg, Madeleine; Ploessl, Donna M.; Salter, Ashley

2013-01-01

In this article, situated within the context of a larger ongoing study on the efficacy of Web-based virtual coaching, these authors describe a virtual coaching model for maximizing pre- and in-service teachers' effective use of evidence-based classroom management practices. They also provide a brief summary of previous results obtained…

Gender-Based Wage Differentials in a Predominantly Female Profession: Observations from Nursing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Cheryl, Bland; Gates, Michael

2004-01-01

Despite numerous studies examining nursing wages, very little attention has focused on nursing wage differentials. We build on previous research by modeling nursing wages and examining male-female wage differences within the context of the current nursing shortage. Our results show that male nurses do earn a wage premium, largely explained by…

"I Just Want to Be 'Me' When I Am Exercising": Adrianna's Construction of a Vulnerable Exercise Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rossing, Hilde; Ronglan, Lars-Tore; Scott, Susie

2016-01-01

This study explores the social and dynamic aspects of the concept "exercise identity". Previous research, mainly in psychology, has documented a link between exercise identity and exercise behaviour. However, the process of identity formation is not straightforward but rather something that can change with time, context and interaction…

Art and Migraine: Researching the Relationship between Artmaking and Pain Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vick, Randy M.; Sexton-Radek, Kathy

2009-01-01

This research project extends a previous study (Vick & Sexton-Radek, 1999) in examining the relationship between artmaking and pain among 127 migraine sufferers. A basic overview of migraine symptoms and treatment is presented along with a discussion of concepts relating to "migraine art" in order to provide a context for this project. Surveys…

Art and Migraine: Researching the Relationship between Artmaking and Pain Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vick, Randy M.; Sexton-Radek, Kathy

2005-01-01

This research project extends a previous study (Vick & Sexton-Radek, 1999) in examining the relationship between artmaking and pain among 127 migraine sufferers. A basic overview of migraine symptoms and treatment is presented along with a discussion of concepts relating to "migraine art" in order to provide a context for this project. Surveys…

An Experiential Learning Perspective on Students' Satisfaction Model in a Flipped Classroom Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhai, Xuesong; Gu, Jibao; Liu, Hefu; Liang, Jyh-Chong; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2017-01-01

Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in the flipped classroom model, and many flipped programs have been funded and implemented to explore the effectiveness of this new model. However, previous studies centering on comparative assessment have indicated that it is not always entirely successful in terms of promoting students'…

Defining Moral Leadership in Graduate Schools of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pijanowski, John

2007-01-01

This article explores how ethics education has evolved over the last 15 years in graduate schools of educational leadership. A review of previous studies showing an increased attention to ethics education is analyzed in the context of external pressures such as new NCATE standards, and the emerging role of moral psychology to inform how ethics is…

Neural Correlates of Visual Perceptual Expertise: Evidence from Cognitive Neuroscience Using Functional Neuroimaging

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gegenfurtner, Andreas; Kok, Ellen M.; van Geel, Koos; de Bruin, Anique B. H.; Sorger, Bettina

2017-01-01

Functional neuroimaging is a useful approach to study the neural correlates of visual perceptual expertise. The purpose of this paper is to review the functional-neuroimaging methods that have been implemented in previous research in this context. First, we will discuss research questions typically addressed in visual expertise research. Second,…

Rural School Children Picturing Family Life

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Lange, Naydene; Olivier, Tilla; Geldenhuys, Johanna; Mitchell, Claudia

2012-01-01

Rurality is an active agent and central to the lived experiences of children growing up on a farm and attending a farm school. It is a key to their everyday experiences, and influences family life, schooling and their future. Previous studies elsewhere in the world have explored the notion of childhood in rural contexts, but there is a dearth of…

Covariation between Variables in a Modelling Process: The ACODESA (Collaborative Learning, Scientific Debate and Self-Reflection) Method

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hitt, Fernando; González-Martín, Alejandro S.

2015-01-01

Semiotic representations have been an important topic of study in mathematics education. Previous research implicitly placed more importance on the development of institutional representations of mathematical concepts in students rather than other types of representations. In the context of an extensive research project, in progress since 2005,…

Architectures of Oppression: Perceptions of Individuals with Asperger's Syndrome in the Republic of Armenia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hallett, Fiona; Allan, David

2017-01-01

This paper presents a phenomenographic analysis of perceptions of individuals with Asperger's syndrome in the Republic of Armenia. The primary objective was to apply and develop existing theory in a unique national context and across a broader respondent group than in previous studies. As such, the research compares and contrasts the views…

The Future of the Humanities in Today's Financial Markets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lea, David

2014-01-01

In this essay David Lea approaches the decline in the study and teaching of the humanities within the university context from a financial perspective. As humanities departments are either closed down or have their curriculum attenuated, it is obvious that the revenue previously available to support such programs has not been forthcoming. This…

Finding "Mathematics": Parents Questioning School-Centered Approaches to Involvement in Children's Mathematics Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jay, Tim; Rose, Jo; Simmons, Ben

2017-01-01

This paper reports on a study of parental involvement in children's mathematics learning in the context of a series of workshops carried out in four primary schools in the United Kingdom. Previous research suggests that, while there are high correlations between parental involvement and positive student outcomes, it can be difficult to raise…

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy versus Cognitive Therapy for the Treatment of Comorbid Eating Pathology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Juarascio, Adrienne S.; Forman, Evan M.; Herbert, James D.

2010-01-01

Previous research has indicated that although eating pathology is prevalent in college populations, both CBT and non-CBT-based therapies achieve only limited effectiveness. The current study examined several questions related to the treatment of eating pathology within the context of a larger randomized controlled trial that compared standard CBT…

Teachers' Incorporation of Argumentation to Support Engineering Learning in STEM Integration Curricula

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathis, Corey A.; Siverling, Emilie A.; Glancy, Aran W.; Moore, Tamara J.

2017-01-01

One of the fundamental practices identified in Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is argumentation, which has been researched in P-12 science education for the previous two decades but has yet to be studied within the context of P-12 engineering education. This research explores how elementary and middle school science teachers incorporated…

Physical Education Teacher Education Students' Knowledge, Perceptions and Experiences of Promoting Healthy, Active Lifestyles in Secondary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Jo

2014-01-01

Background: Physical education teacher education (PETE) offers a context for students to learn about the promotion of active lifestyles in secondary schools through their interactions and experiences during the teacher education process. However, previous studies have found low levels of health-related fitness knowledge amongst PETE students,…

The Effect of Classroom-Based Assessment and Language Processing on the Second Language Acquisition of EFL Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perrone, Michael

2011-01-01

This study investigated the notions of washback and classroom-based assessment within the context of the "First Certificate of English (FCE)" examination and the students at the British Institute of Florence (BIF). A review of the literature examining classroom-based assessment revealed several limitations in previous research. This…

Mass Media Consumption in a Bilingual Culture: Implications of the Literature for Further Research in the Canadian Context.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grondin, Deirdre

Previous studies of mass media consumption behavior within cultural boundaries have yielded important information regarding the selection of communication channels to obtain information by members of specific cultures. However, the selection of mass media information sources in a cross-cultural setting has received little attention in the…

What Can Boys and Girls Do? Preschoolers' Perspectives Regarding Gender Roles across Domains of Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Erin R.; Tisak, Marie S.; Tisak, John

2016-01-01

Previous research has examined at what age and in what contexts males and females develop gender-congruent stereotypes. Research indicates that social experience may provide a great influence on the presence of such stereotypes, but this is likely influenced by the development of gender schemas. The current study interviewed 99 children…

Undergraduate Time Use and Academic Outcomes: Results from the University of California Undergraduate Experiences Survey 2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brint, Steven; Cantwell, Allison M.

2010-01-01

Background/Context: Previous research has established the significance of academic study time on undergraduate students' academic performance. The effects of other uses of time are, however, in dispute. Some researchers have argued that students involved in activities that require initiative and effort also perform better in class, while students…

Prospects and Problems for Religious Education in England, 1967-1970: Curriculum Reform in Political Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freathy, R. J. K.; Parker, S. G.

2015-01-01

This article provides an historical case study of an abortive attempt to revise policy and legislation relating to Religious Education (RE) in English schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Drawing upon published sources, including parliamentary debates, as well as previously unutilised national archival sources from the Department of…

Treatment Effects of a Modular Intervention for Early-Onset Child Behavior Problems on Family Contextual Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaffer, Anne; Lindhiem, Oliver; Kolko, David J.

2013-01-01

The overall aim of this multi-informant study was to examine pre-post treatment changes, and maintenance at 3-year follow-up, for multiple dimensions of the family context, for a modular intervention that has previously demonstrated significant clinical improvements in child behavior and maintenance of these effects. Family outcomes included…

Prevalence of Rural Intimate Partner Violence in 16 US States, 2005

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Breiding, Matthew J.; Ziembroski, Jessica S.; Black, Michele C.

2009-01-01

Context: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health problem that affects people across the entire social spectrum. However, no previous population-based public health studies have examined the prevalence of IPV in rural areas of the United States. Research on IPV in rural areas is especially important given that there are relatively fewer…

Linkages between Approaches to Learning, Perceived Stress and Expected and Actual Academic Outcomes among First-Semester Psychology Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Öhrstedt, Maria; Lindfors, Petra

2018-01-01

Previous research indicates that higher educational students' perceptions of stress are in part related to the teaching and learning context, and influence academic outcomes. This study intends to deepen our understanding of these processes by examining the linkages between approaches to learning, perceived stress and expected and actual academic…

A Measure of EFL Public Speaking Class Anxiety: Scale Development and Preliminary Validation and Reliability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yaikhong, Kriangkrai; Usaha, Siriluck

2012-01-01

The present study contributes to developing a Public Speaking Class Anxiety Scale (PSCAS) to measure anxiety in the EFL public speaking class in the Thai context. Items were adopted from previous scales: Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) by Horwitz et al. (1986); Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) and Personal…

Exploring the MACH Model's Potential as a Metacognitive Tool to Help Undergraduate Students Monitor Their Explanations of Biological Mechanisms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trujillo, Caleb M.; Anderson, Trevor R.; Pelaez, Nancy J.

2016-01-01

When undergraduate biology students learn to explain biological mechanisms, they face many challenges and may overestimate their understanding of living systems. Previously, we developed the MACH model of four components used by expert biologists to explain mechanisms: Methods, Analogies, Context, and How. This study explores the implementation of…

The cultural grounding of personal relationship: the importance of attractiveness in everyday life.

PubMed

Anderson, Stephanie L; Adams, Glenn; Plaut, Victoria C

2008-08-01

Previous research has suggested that physically attractive people experience more positive life outcomes than do unattractive people. However, the importance of physical attractiveness in everyday life may vary depending on the extent to which different cultural worlds afford or require individual choice in the construction and maintenance of personal relationships. The authors hypothesized that attractiveness matters more for life outcomes in settings that promote voluntaristic-independent constructions of relationship as the product of personal choice than it does in settings that promote embedded-interdependent constructions of relationship as an environmental affordance. Study 1 examined self-reported outcomes of attractive and unattractive persons. Study 2 examined expectations about attractive and unattractive targets. Results provide support for the hypothesis along four dimensions: national context, relationship context, rural-urban context, and experimental manipulation of relationship constructions. These patterns suggest that the importance of physical attractiveness documented by psychological research is the product of particular constructions of reality. (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved

Females are sensitive to unpleasant human emotions regardless of the emotional context of photographs.

PubMed

Kato, Ryousuke; Takeda, Yuji

2017-06-09

Previous studies have demonstrated that females exhibit higher sensitivity than males to the emotional state of a person in a photograph. The present study examined whether such females' sensitivity to human emotions could be observed even when the background emotional contexts were incongruent with facial expressions. The late positive potential (LPP) was measured while 19-female and 15-male participants viewed a photograph of a face with varied emotional expressions (pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant) superimposed on a background photograph with varied valences (pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant). The results showed that unpleasant background photographs elicited a larger LPP compared to pleasant and neutral background photographs in both female and male participants. In contrast, a larger LPP for the unpleasant face photographs was observed only in female participants. Furthermore, the effect of face photographs did not interact with the effect of background photographs. These results suggest that females are sensitive to human emotions regardless of the emotional context. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Alpha band event-related desynchronization underlying social situational context processing during irony comprehension: A magnetoencephalography source localization study.

PubMed

Akimoto, Yoritaka; Takahashi, Hidetoshi; Gunji, Atsuko; Kaneko, Yuu; Asano, Michiko; Matsuo, Junko; Ota, Miho; Kunugi, Hiroshi; Hanakawa, Takashi; Mazuka, Reiko; Kamio, Yoko

2017-12-01

Irony comprehension requires integration of social contextual information. Previous studies have investigated temporal aspects of irony processing and its neural substrates using psychological/electroencephalogram or functional magnetic resonance imaging methods, but have not clarified the temporospatial neural mechanisms of irony comprehension. Therefore, we used magnetoencephalography to investigate the neural generators of alpha-band (8-13Hz) event-related desynchronization (ERD) occurring from 600 to 900ms following the onset of a critical sentence at which social situational contexts activated ironic representation. We found that the right anterior temporal lobe, which is involved in processing social knowledge and evaluating others' intentions, exhibited stronger alpha ERD following an ironic statement than following a literal statement. We also found that alpha power in the left anterior temporal lobe correlated with the participants' communication abilities. These results elucidate the temporospatial neural mechanisms of language comprehension in social contexts, including non-literal processing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Children's Emotional Expressivity and Teacher Perceptions of Social Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Louie, Jennifer Yu; Wang, Shu-wen; Fung, Joey; Lau, Anna

2015-01-01

Previous research suggests that adult perceptions of children's social competence may vary depending on the socialization goals in a given cultural context. There is also ample evidence of cultural differences in values concerning emotional display, with East Asian collectivistic contexts favoring restraint and Western individualistic contexts…

Understanding Monitoring Technologies for Adults With Pain: Systematic Literature Review

PubMed Central

Rodríguez, Iyubanit; Gerea, Carmen; Fuentes, Carolina; Rossel, Pedro O; Marques, Maíra; Campos, Mauricio

2017-01-01

Background Monitoring of patients may decrease treatment costs and improve quality of care. Pain is the most common health problem that people seek help for in hospitals. Therefore, monitoring patients with pain may have significant impact in improving treatment. Several studies have studied factors affecting pain; however, no previous study has reviewed the contextual information that a monitoring system may capture to characterize a patient’s situation. Objective The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review to (1) determine what types of technologies have been used to monitor adults with pain, and (2) construct a model of the context information that may be used to implement apps and devices aimed at monitoring adults with pain. Methods A literature search (2005-2015) was conducted in electronic databases pertaining to medical and computer science literature (PubMed, Science Direct, ACM Digital Library, and IEEE Xplore) using a defined search string. Article selection was done through a process of removing duplicates, analyzing title and abstract, and then reviewing the full text of the article. Results In the final analysis, 87 articles were included and 53 of them (61%) used technologies to collect contextual information. A total of 49 types of context information were found and a five-dimension (activity, identity, wellness, environment, physiological) model of context information to monitor adults with pain was proposed, expanding on a previous model. Most technological interfaces for pain monitoring were wearable, possibly because they can be used in more realistic contexts. Few studies focused on older adults, creating a relevant avenue of research on how to create devices for users that may have impaired cognitive skills or low digital literacy. Conclusions The design of monitoring devices and interfaces for adults with pain must deal with the challenge of selecting relevant contextual information to understand the user’s situation, and not overburdening or inconveniencing users with information requests. A model of contextual information may be used by researchers to choose possible contextual information that may be monitored during studies on adults with pain. PMID:29079550

Fatal Passenger Vehicle Crashes with At Least 1 Driver Younger than 15 Years: A Fatality Analysis Reporting System Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frisch, Larry; Plessinger, Alexander

2007-01-01

Context: A small number of fatalities continue to occur due to motor vehicle crashes on highways in which at least 1 passenger vehicle (automobile, van, or small truck) is driven by a child younger than 15 years. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to extend previous work suggesting that such crashes occur frequently in the Southern states and…

Rats with ventral hippocampal damage are impaired at various forms of learning including conditioned inhibition, spatial navigation, and discriminative fear conditioning to similar contexts.

PubMed

McDonald, Robert J; Balog, R J; Lee, Justin Q; Stuart, Emily E; Carrels, Brianna B; Hong, Nancy S

2018-10-01

The ventral hippocampus (vHPC) has been implicated in learning and memory functions that seem to differ from its dorsal counterpart. The goal of this series of experiments was to provide further insight into the functional contributions of the vHPC. Our previous work implicated the vHPC in spatial learning, inhibitory learning, and fear conditioning to context. However, the specific role of vHPC on these different forms of learning are not clear. Accordingly, we assessed the effects of neurotoxic lesions of the ventral hippocampus on retention of a conditioned inhibitory association, early versus late spatial navigation in the water task, and discriminative fear conditioning to context under high ambiguity conditions. The results showed that the vHPC was necessary for the expression of conditioned inhibition, early spatial learning, and discriminative fear conditioning to context when the paired and unpaired contexts have high cue overlap. We argue that this pattern of effects, combined with previous work, suggests a key role for vHPC in the utilization of broad contextual representations for inhibition and discriminative memory in high ambiguity conditions. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Serum Cytokine Profiles Associated with Specific Adjuvants Used in a DNA Prime-Protein Boost Vaccination Strategy

PubMed Central

Buglione-Corbett, Rachel; Pouliot, Kimberly; Marty-Roix, Robyn; West, Kim; Wang, Shixia; Lien, Egil; Lu, Shan

2013-01-01

In recent years, heterologous prime-boost vaccines have been demonstrated to be an effective strategy for generating protective immunity, consisting of both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses against a variety of pathogens including HIV-1. Previous reports of preclinical and clinical studies have shown the enhanced immunogenicity of viral vector or DNA vaccination followed by heterologous protein boost, compared to using either prime or boost components alone. With such approaches, the selection of an adjuvant for inclusion in the protein boost component is expected to impact the immunogenicity and safety of a vaccine. In this study, we examined in a mouse model the serum cytokine and chemokine profiles for several candidate adjuvants: QS-21, Al(OH)3, monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) and ISCOMATRIX™ adjuvant, in the context of a previously tested pentavalent HIV-1 Env DNA prime-protein boost formulation, DP6-001. Our data revealed that the candidate adjuvants in the context of the DP6-001 formulation are characterized by unique serum cytokine and chemokine profiles. Such information will provide valuable guidance in the selection of an adjuvant for future AIDS vaccine development, with the ultimate goal of enhancing immunogenicity while minimizing reactogenicity associated with the use of an adjuvant. More significantly, results reported here will add to the knowledge on how to include an adjuvant in the context of a heterologous prime-protein boost vaccination strategy in general. PMID:24019983

Neurophysiological correlates of relatively enhanced local visual search in autistic adolescents.

PubMed

Manjaly, Zina M; Bruning, Nicole; Neufang, Susanne; Stephan, Klaas E; Brieber, Sarah; Marshall, John C; Kamp-Becker, Inge; Remschmidt, Helmut; Herpertz-Dahlmann, Beate; Konrad, Kerstin; Fink, Gereon R

2007-03-01

Previous studies found normal or even superior performance of autistic patients on visuospatial tasks requiring local search, like the Embedded Figures Task (EFT). A well-known interpretation of this is "weak central coherence", i.e. autistic patients may show a reduced general ability to process information in its context and may therefore have a tendency to favour local over global aspects of information processing. An alternative view is that the local processing advantage in the EFT may result from a relative amplification of early perceptual processes which boosts processing of local stimulus properties but does not affect processing of global context. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 12 autistic adolescents (9 Asperger and 3 high-functioning autistic patients) and 12 matched controls to help distinguish, on neurophysiological grounds, between these two accounts of EFT performance in autistic patients. Behaviourally, we found autistic individuals to be unimpaired during the EFT while they were significantly worse at performing a closely matched control task with minimal local search requirements. The fMRI results showed that activations specific for the local search aspects of the EFT were left-lateralised in parietal and premotor areas for the control group (as previously demonstrated for adults), whereas for the patients these activations were found in right primary visual cortex and bilateral extrastriate areas. These results suggest that enhanced local processing in early visual areas, as opposed to impaired processing of global context, is characteristic for performance of the EFT by autistic patients.

Neurophysiological correlates of relatively enhanced local visual search in autistic adolescents

PubMed Central

Manjaly, Zina M.; Bruning, Nicole; Neufang, Susanne; Stephan, Klaas E.; Brieber, Sarah; Marshall, John C.; Kamp-Becker, Inge; Remschmidt, Helmut; Herpertz-Dahlmann, Beate; Konrad, Kerstin; Fink, Gereon R.

2007-01-01

Previous studies found normal or even superior performance of autistic patients on visuospatial tasks requiring local search, like the Embedded Figures Task (EFT). A well-known interpretation of this is “weak central coherence”, i.e. autistic patients may show a reduced general ability to process information in its context and may therefore have a tendency to favour local over global aspects of information processing. An alternative view is that the local processing advantage in the EFT may result from a relative amplification of early perceptual processes which boosts processing of local stimulus properties but does not affect processing of global context. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 12 autistic adolescents (9 Asperger and 3 high-functioning autistic patients) and 12 matched controls to help distinguish, on neurophysiological grounds, between these two accounts of EFT performance in autistic patients. Behaviourally, we found autistic individuals to be unimpaired during the EFT while they were significantly worse at performing a closely matched control task with minimal local search requirements. The fMRI results showed that activations specific for the local search aspects of the EFT were left-lateralised in parietal and premotor areas for the control group (as previously demonstrated for adults), whereas for the patients these activations were found in right primary visual cortex and bilateral extrastriate areas. These results suggest that enhanced local processing in early visual areas, as opposed to impaired processing of global context, is characteristic for performance of the EFT by autistic patients. PMID:17240169

Persistent conditioned place preference to aggression experience in adult male sexually-experienced CD-1 mice

PubMed Central

Golden, Sam A.; Aleyasin, Hossein; Heins, Robert; Flanigan, Meghan; Heshmati, Mitra; Takahashi, Aki; Russo, Scott J.; Shaham, Yavin

2016-01-01

We recently developed a conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure, commonly used to study rewarding drug effects, to demonstrate that dominant sexually-experienced CD-1 male mice form CPP to contexts previously associated with defeating subordinate male C57BL/6J mice. Here we further characterized conditioned and unconditioned aggression behavior in CD-1 mice. In Exp. 1 we used CD-1 mice that displayed a variable spectrum of unconditioned aggressive behavior toward younger subordinate C57BL/6J intruder mice. We then trained the CD-1 mice in the CPP procedure where one context was intruder-paired, while a different context was not. We then tested for aggression CPP 1 day after training. In Exp. 2, we tested CD-1 mice for aggression CPP 1 day and 18 days after training. In Exp. 3–4, we trained the CD-1 mice to lever-press for palatable food and tested them for footshock punishment-induced suppression of food-reinforced responding. In Exp. 5, we characterized unconditioned aggression in hybrid CD-1xC57BL/6J D1-Cre or D2-Cre F1 generation crosses. Persistent aggression CPP was observed in CD-1 mice that either immediately attacked C57BL/6J mice during all screening sessions or mice that gradually developed aggressive behavior during the screening phase. In contrast, CD-1 mice that did not attack the C57BL/6J mice during screening didn’t develop CPP to contexts previously paired with C57BL/6J mice. The aggressive phenotype did not predict resistance to punishment-induced suppression of food-reinforced responding. CD-1xD1-Cre or D2-Cre F1 transgenic mice showed strong unconditioned aggression. Our study demonstrates that aggression experience causes persistent CPP and introduces transgenic mice for circuit studies of aggression. PMID:27457669

Persistent conditioned place preference to aggression experience in adult male sexually-experienced CD-1 mice.

PubMed

Golden, S A; Aleyasin, H; Heins, R; Flanigan, M; Heshmati, M; Takahashi, A; Russo, S J; Shaham, Y

2017-01-01

We recently developed a conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure, commonly used to study rewarding drug effects, to demonstrate that dominant sexually-experienced CD-1 male mice form CPP to contexts previously associated with defeating subordinate male C57BL/6J mice. Here we further characterized conditioned and unconditioned aggression behavior in CD-1 mice. In Exp. 1 we used CD-1 mice that displayed a variable spectrum of unconditioned aggressive behavior toward younger subordinate C57BL/6J intruder mice. We then trained the CD-1 mice in the CPP procedure where one context was intruder-paired, while a different context was not. We then tested for aggression CPP 1 day after training. In Exp. 2, we tested CD-1 mice for aggression CPP 1 day and 18 days after training. In Exp. 3-4, we trained the CD-1 mice to lever-press for palatable food and tested them for footshock punishment-induced suppression of food-reinforced responding. In Exp. 5, we characterized unconditioned aggression in hybrid CD-1 × C57BL/6J D1-Cre or D2-Cre F1 generation crosses. Persistent aggression CPP was observed in CD-1 mice that either immediately attacked C57BL/6J mice during all screening sessions or mice that gradually developed aggressive behavior during the screening phase. In contrast, CD-1 mice that did not attack the C57BL/6J mice during screening did not develop CPP to contexts previously paired with C57BL/6J mice. The aggressive phenotype did not predict resistance to punishment-induced suppression of food-reinforced responding. CD-1 × D1-Cre or D2-Cre F1 transgenic mice showed strong unconditioned aggression. Our study demonstrates that aggression experience causes persistent CPP and introduces transgenic mice for circuit studies of aggression. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society.

Acquisition of background and technical information and class trip planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mackinnon, R. M.; Wake, W. H.

1981-01-01

Instructors who are very familiar with a study area, as well as those who are not, find the field trip information acquisition and planning process speeded and made more effective by organizing it in stages. The stage follow a deductive progression: from the associated context region, to the study area, to the specific sample window sites, and from generalized background information on the study region to specific technical data on the environmental and human use systems to be interpreted at each site. On the class trip and in the follow up laboratory, the learning/interpretive process are at first deductive in applying previously learned information and skills to analysis of the study site, then inductive in reading and interpreting the landscape, imagery, and maps of the site, correlating them with information of other samples sites and building valid generalizations about the larger study area, its context region, and other (similar and/or contrasting) regions.

How Visual and Semantic Information Influence Learning in Familiar Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goujon, Annabelle; Brockmole, James R.; Ehinger, Krista A.

2012-01-01

Previous research using the contextual cuing paradigm has revealed both quantitative and qualitative differences in learning depending on whether repeated contexts are defined by letter arrays or real-world scenes. To clarify the relative contributions of visual features and semantic information likely to account for such differences, the typical…

International Perspectives on Inclusion: Concluding Thoughts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Timmons, Vianne

2002-01-01

This article discusses overall trends and commonalities among previous articles on inclusion in the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. It concludes that inclusive education must be viewed in a broader context that looks at school reform and the societal context. Teacher education is stressed.…

Effects of Sentence Context on Lexical Ambiguity Resolution in Patients with Schizophrenia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andreou, Christina; Tsapkini, Kyrana; Bozikas, Vasilis P.; Giannakou, Maria; Karavatos, Athanasios; Nimatoudis, Ioannis

2009-01-01

Previous research has suggested that a failure in processing contextual information may account for the heterogeneous clinical manifestations and cognitive impairments observed in schizophrenia. In the domain of language, context processing in schizophrenia has been investigated mostly with single-word semantic priming paradigms; however, natural…

Pseudocontingencies and Choice Behavior in Probabilistic Environments with Context-Dependent Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meiser, Thorsten; Rummel, Jan; Fleig, Hanna

2018-01-01

Pseudocontingencies are inferences about correlations in the environment that are formed on the basis of statistical regularities like skewed base rates or varying base rates across environmental contexts. Previous research has demonstrated that pseudocontingencies provide a pervasive mechanism of inductive inference in numerous social judgment…

Gradiency and Visual Context in Syntactic Garden-Paths

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farmer, Thomas A.; Anderson, Sarah E.; Spivey, Michael J.

2007-01-01

Through recording the streaming x- and y-coordinates of computer-mouse movements, we report evidence that visual context provides an immediate constraint on the resolution of syntactic ambiguity in the visual-world paradigm. This finding converges with previous eye-tracking results that support a constraint-based account of sentence processing, in…

Role of Context in Risk-Based Reasoning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pratt, Dave; Ainley, Janet; Kent, Phillip; Levinson, Ralph; Yogui, Cristina; Kapadia, Ramesh

2011-01-01

In this article we report the influence of contextual factors on mathematics and science teachers' reasoning in risk-based decision-making. We examine previous research that presents judgments of risk as being subjectively influenced by contextual factors and other research that explores the role of context in mathematical problem-solving. Our own…

Opportunities and Challenges in Representing Narrative Inquiries Digitally

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Craig, Cheryl J.

2013-01-01

Background/Context: Within the context of four locally funded research projects, the researcher was asked to disseminate the findings of her narrative inquiries not to the research community, which had previously been the case, but to the practice and philanthropic communities. This, in turn, created a representational crisis because practitioners…

The Intended and Unintended Consequences of International Service-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crabtree, Robbin D.

2013-01-01

Previous research on service-learning in international contexts tends to focus on the benefits and outcomes for students and educational institutions. This essay is intended to provoke further examination of issues related to university-community engagement in global contexts, particularly in terms of the consequences for host communities. In…

Electronic and School-Based Victimization: Unique Contexts for Adjustment Difficulties during Adolescence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fredstrom, Bridget K.; Adams, Ryan E.; Gilman, Rich

2011-01-01

Previous research suggests that school-based and electronic victimization have similar negative consequences, yet it is unclear whether these two contexts offer overlapping or unique associations with adolescents' adjustment. 802 ninth-graders (43% male, mean age = 15.84 years), majority being Caucasian (82%), completed measures assessing the…

Sickness-induced changes in physiology do not affect fecundity or same-sex behavior.

PubMed

Sylvia, Kristyn E; Báez Ramos, Patricia; Demas, Gregory E

2018-02-01

Previous work in our lab has shown that early-life infection affects female reproductive physiology and function (i.e., smaller ovaries, abnormal estrous cycles) and alters investigation and aggression towards male conspecifics in a reproductive context. Although many studies have investigated the effects of postnatal immune challenge on physiological and behavioral development, fewer studies have examined whether these changes have ultimate effects on reproduction. In the current study, we paired Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) and simulated a bacterial infection in early life by administering lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to male and female pups on pnd3 and pnd5. In adulthood, hamsters were paired with novel individuals of the same sex, and we scored an array of social behaviors (e.g., investigation, aggression). We then paired animals with individuals of the opposite sex for 5 consecutive nights, providing them with the opportunity to mate. We found that females exhibited impaired reproductive physiology and function in adulthood (i.e., smaller ovaries and abnormal estrous cycles), similar to our previous work. However, both LPS-treated males and females exhibited similar same-sex social behavior when compared with saline-treated controls, they successfully mated, and there were no significant changes in fecundity. These data suggest that the physiological changes in response to neonatal immune challenge may not have long-term effects on reproductive success in a controlled environment. Collectively, the results of this study are particularly important when investigating the relationships between physiology and behavior within an ultimate context. Animals exposed to early-life stress may in fact be capable of compensating for changes in physiology in order to survive and reproduce in some contexts. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Selective rehearsal is affected by the emotionality of the encoding context in item-method directed forgetting: An event-related potential study.

PubMed

Liu, Tzu-Ling; Chen, Nai-Feng; Cheng, Shih-Kuen

2017-02-01

Emotional items are often remembered more clearly than neutral items. However, whether stimuli embedded in an emotional context are more resistant to directed forgetting than those presented in a neutral context remains unclear. This question was tested by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) in an item-method directed forgetting paradigm involving neutral words that were embedded in neutral or negative contexts. During the study phase, participants were asked to associate a neutral word with a negative or neutral picture. A remember (R) or forget (F) cue was then designated to indicate whether the word was a to-be-remembered (TBR) or to-be-forgotten (TBF) word. In the test phase, participants were asked to identify all previously presented old words regardless of the R/F cues. The behavioral results indicated a significant interaction between the valence of the encoding contexts and the R/F cues. The hit rate was lower for the TBR words encoded in negative contexts relative to those encoded in neutral contexts. No such valence effect was observed in the hit rates of the TBF words. For the ERP data, the R cues elicited a P3b-like effect that has been linked to the selective rehearsal of the TBR items. This effect was more sustained in the negative encoding context than in the neutral context. The F cues elicited a frontal positivity that has been linked to the active inhibition of the TBF words; however, this positivity was not modulated by the valence of the encoding context. The sustained P3b-like effect for the R cues in the negative encoding context might reflect a compensative encoding for the TBR words caused by the attention-capturing negative contexts. Therefore, we argue that the emotional context affected the selective elaboration of the TBR words; however, we also argue that there was no supportive evidence of an emotional effect on the forgetting of TBF items. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Relating Teacher PCK and Teacher Practice Using Classroom Observation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barendsen, Erik; Henze, Ineke

2017-09-01

Science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has been researched in many studies, yet little empirical evidence has been found to determine how this knowledge actually informs teachers' actions in the classroom. To complement previous quantitative studies, there is a need for more qualitative studies to investigate the relationship between teacher knowledge (as formulated by the teacher) and classroom practice, especially in the context of an educational innovation. In this study we explored a possible way to investigate this relationship in an in-depth and systematic fashion. To this end, we conducted a case study with a chemistry teacher in the context of the implementation of a context-based science curriculum in The Netherlands. The teacher's PCK was captured using the Content Representation form by Loughran, Mulhall, and Berry. We used an observation table to monitor classroom interactions in such a way that the observations could be related to specific elements of teachers' PCK. Thus, we were able to give a detailed characterization of the correspondences and differences between the teacher's personal PCK and classroom practice. Such an elaborate description turned out to be a useful basis for discussing mechanisms explaining the relationship between teachers' knowledge and teachers' actions.

Interaction between the basolateral amygdala and dorsal hippocampus is critical for cocaine memory reconsolidation and subsequent drug context-induced cocaine-seeking behavior in rats

PubMed Central

Wells, Audrey M.; Lasseter, Heather C.; Xie, Xiaohu; Cowhey, Kate E.; Reittinger, Andrew M.; Fuchs, Rita A.

2011-01-01

Contextual stimulus control over instrumental drug-seeking behavior relies on the reconsolidation of context-response-drug associative memories into long-term memory storage following retrieval-induced destabilization. According to previous studies, the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and dorsal hippocampus (DH) regulate cocaine-related memory reconsolidation; however, it is not known whether these brain regions interact or independently control this phenomenon. To investigate this question, rats were trained to lever press for cocaine reinforcement in a distinct environmental context followed by extinction training in a different context. Rats were then briefly re-exposed to the cocaine-paired context to destabilize cocaine-related memories, or they were exposed to an unpaired context. Immediately thereafter, the rats received unilateral microinfusions of anisomycin (ANI) into the BLA plus baclofen/muscimol (B/M) into the contralateral (BLA/DH disconnection) or ipsilateral DH, or they received contralateral or ipsilateral microinfusions of vehicle. They then remained in their home cages overnight or for 21 d, followed by additional extinction training and a test of cocaine-seeking behavior (nonreinforced active lever responding). BLA/DH disconnection following re-exposure to the cocaine-paired context, but not the unpaired context, impaired subsequent drug context-induced cocaine-seeking behavior relative to vehicle or ipsilateral ANI + B/M treatment. Prolonged home cage stay elicited a time-dependent increase, or incubation, of drug-context-induced cocaine-seeking behavior, and BLA/DH disconnection inhibited this incubation effect despite some recovery of cocaine-seeking behavior. Thus, the BLA and DH interact to regulate the reconsolidation of cocaine-related associative memories, thereby facilitating the ability of drug-paired contexts to trigger cocaine-seeking behavior and contributing to the incubation of cocaine-seeking behavior. PMID:22005750

Sex Differences in Context Fear Generalization and Recruitment of Hippocampus and Amygdala during Retrieval

PubMed Central

Keiser, Ashley A; Turnbull, Lacie M; Darian, Mara A; Feldman, Dana E; Song, Iris; Tronson, Natalie C

2017-01-01

Anxiety disorders are commonly associated with increased generalization of fear from a stress- or trauma-associated environment to a neutral context or environment. Differences in context-associated memory in males and females may contribute to increased susceptibility to anxiety disorders in women. Here we examined sex differences in context fear generalization and its neural correlates. We observed stronger context fear conditioning and more generalization of fear to a similar context in females than males. In addition, context preexposure increased fear conditioning in males and decreased generalization in females. Accordingly, males showed stronger cFos activity in dorsal hippocampus during memory retrieval and context generalization, whereas females showed preferential recruitment of basal amygdala. Together, these findings are consistent with previous research showing that hippocampal activity correlates with reduced context fear generalization. Differential competition between hippocampus and amygdala-dependent processes may thus contribute to sex differences in retrieval of context fear and greater generalization of fear-associated memory. PMID:27577601

Differential expression of the immediate early genes c-Fos, Arc, Egr-1, and Npas4 during long-term memory formation in the context preexposure facilitation effect (CPFE).

PubMed

Heroux, Nicholas A; Osborne, Brittany F; Miller, Lauren A; Kawan, Malak; Buban, Katelyn N; Rosen, Jeffrey B; Stanton, Mark E

2018-01-01

The context preexposure facilitation effect (CPFE) is a contextual fear conditioning paradigm in which learning about the context, acquiring the context-shock association, and retrieving/expressing contextual fear are temporally dissociated into three distinct phases (context preexposure, immediate-shock training, and retention). The current study examined changes in the expression of plasticity-associated immediate early genes (IEGs) during context and contextual fear memory formation on the preexposure and training days of the CPFE, respectively. Using adolescent Long-Evans rats, preexposure and training day expression of the IEGs c-Fos, Arc, Egr-1, and Npas4 in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), dorsal hippocampus (dHPC), and basolateral amygdala (BLA) was analyzed using qPCR as an extension of previous studies from our lab examining Egr-1 via in situ hybridization (Asok, Schreiber, Jablonski, Rosen, & Stanton, 2013; Schreiber, Asok, Jablonski, Rosen, & Stanton, 2014). In Expt. 1, context preexposure induced expression of c-Fos, Arc, Egr-1 and Npas4 significantly above that of home-cage (HC) controls in all three regions. In Expt. 2, immediate-shock was followed by a post-shock freezing test, resulting in increased mPFC c-Fos expression in a group preexposed to the training context but not a control group preexposed to an alternate context, indicating expression related to associative learning. This was not seen with other IEGs in mPFC or with any IEG in dHPC or BLA. Finally, when the post-shock freezing test was omitted in Expt. 3, training-related increases were observed in prefrontal c-Fos, Arc, Egr-1, and Npas4, hippocampal c-Fos, and amygdalar Egr-1 expression. These results indicate that context exposure in a post-shock freezing test re-engages IEG expression that may obscure associatively-induced expression during contextual fear conditioning. Additionally, these studies suggest a key role for long-term synaptic plasticity in the mPFC in supporting the CPFE. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Characterizing the context of sedentary lifestyles in a representative sample of adults: a cross-sectional study from the physical activity measurement study project.

PubMed

Kim, Youngwon; Welk, Gregory J

2015-12-09

Research has clearly demonstrated that excess time spent on sedentary behavior (SB) increases health risks in the population. However, the lack of information on the context of SB in the population prevents a detailed understanding of sedentary lifestyles. The purpose of this study was to characterize the context of SB in a representative sample of adults and to examine differences across various socio-demographic indicators. A diverse sample of 1442 adults (ages 20-71 year) completed an interviewer-administered 24-h activity recall to provide detailed information about the time, type and location of the previous day's activities. All reported activities were matched with MET scores from the Compendium of Physical Activity but only SB (i.e., METS < 1.5) were extracted for the present analyses. The reported SB were broadly distributed across 5 primary location categories (Work: 27.5%, Community: 24.8%, Home/Indoor: 20.5%, Home/Outdoor: 15.8%, and Transportation: 11.3%). Patterns of SB allocations varied considerably across different socio-demographic indicators indicating the extreme variability in SB in the population. The findings provide unique insights about the context of SB at the population level, and can serve as a guide for developing intervention/policy studies to reduce sedentary time and minimize disparities in SB.

A cocaine context renews drug seeking preferentially in a subset of individuals.

PubMed

Saunders, Benjamin T; O'Donnell, Elizabeth G; Aurbach, Elyse L; Robinson, Terry E

2014-11-01

Addiction is characterized by a high propensity for relapse, in part because cues associated with drugs can acquire Pavlovian incentive motivational properties, and acting as incentive stimuli, such cues can instigate and invigorate drug-seeking behavior. There is, however, considerable individual variation in the propensity to attribute incentive salience to reward cues. Discrete and localizable reward cues act as much more effective incentive stimuli in some rats ('sign-trackers', STs), than others ('goal-trackers', GTs). We asked whether similar individual variation exists for contextual cues associated with cocaine. Cocaine context conditioned motivation was quantified in two ways: (1) the ability of a cocaine context to evoke conditioned hyperactivity and (2) the ability of a context in which cocaine was previously self-administered to renew cocaine-seeking behavior. Finally, we assessed the effects of intra-accumbens core flupenthixol, a nonselective dopamine receptor antagonist, on context renewal. In contrast to studies using discrete cues, a cocaine context spurred greater conditioned hyperactivity, and more robustly renewed extinguished cocaine seeking in GTs than STs. In addition, cocaine context renewal was blocked by antagonism of dopamine receptors in the accumbens core. Thus, contextual cues associated with cocaine preferentially acquire motivational control over behavior in different individuals than do discrete cues, and in these individuals the ability of a cocaine context to create conditioned motivation for cocaine requires dopamine in the core of the nucleus accumbens. We speculate that different individuals may be preferentially sensitive to different 'triggers' of relapse.

How perception guides action: Figure-ground segmentation modulates integration of context features into S-R episodes.

PubMed

Frings, Christian; Rothermund, Klaus

2017-11-01

Perception and action are closely related. Responses are assumed to be represented in terms of their perceptual effects, allowing direct links between action and perception. In this regard, the integration of features of stimuli (S) and responses (R) into S-R bindings is a key mechanism for action control. Previous research focused on the integration of object features with response features while neglecting the context in which an object is perceived. In 3 experiments, we analyzed whether contextual features can also become integrated into S-R episodes. The data showed that a fundamental principle of visual perception, figure-ground segmentation, modulates the binding of contextual features. Only features belonging to the figure region of a context but not features forming the background were integrated with responses into S-R episodes, retrieval of which later on had an impact upon behavior. Our findings suggest that perception guides the selection of context features for integration with responses into S-R episodes. Results of our study have wide-ranging implications for an understanding of context effects in learning and behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Bilateral neurotoxic amygdala lesions in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta): Consistent pattern of behavior across different social contexts

PubMed Central

Machado, Christopher J.; Emery, Nathan J.; Capitanio, John P.; Mason, William A.; Mendoza, Sally P.; Amaral, David G.

2010-01-01

Although the amygdala has been repeatedly implicated in normal primate social behavior, great variability exists in the specific social and nonsocial behavioral changes observed after bilateral amygdala lesions in nonhuman primates. One plausible explanation pertains to differences in social context. To investigate this idea, we measured the social behavior of amygdala-lesioned and unoperated rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in two contexts. Animals interacted in four-member social groups over 32 test days. These animals were previously assessed in pairs (Emery et al., 2001), and were, therefore, familiar with each other at the beginning of this study. Across the two contexts, amygdala lesions produced a highly consistent pattern of social behavior. Operated animals engaged in more affiliative social interactions with control group partners than did control animals. In the course of their interactions, amygdala-lesioned animals also displayed an earlier decrease in nervous and fearful personality qualities than controls. The increased exploration and sexual behavior recorded for amygdala-lesioned animals in pairs was not found in the four-member groups. We conclude that the amygdala contributes to social inhibition and this function transcends various social contexts. PMID:18410164

Influences of Phonological Context on Tense Marking in Spanish–English Dual Language Learners

PubMed Central

Barlow, Jessica A.; Potapova, Irina; Pruitt-Lord, Sonja

2017-01-01

Purpose The emergence of tense-morpheme marking during language acquisition is highly variable, which confounds the use of tense marking as a diagnostic indicator of language impairment in linguistically diverse populations. In this study, we seek to better understand tense-marking patterns in young bilingual children by comparing phonological influences on marking of 2 word-final tense morphemes. Method In spontaneous connected speech samples from 10 Spanish–English dual language learners aged 56–66 months (M = 61.7, SD = 3.4), we examined marking rates of past tense -ed and third person singular -s morphemes in different environments, using multiple measures of phonological context. Results Both morphemes were found to exhibit notably contrastive marking patterns in some contexts. Each was most sensitive to a different combination of phonological influences in the verb stem and the following word. Conclusions These findings extend existing evidence from monolingual speakers for the influence of word-final phonological context on morpheme production to a bilingual population. Further, novel findings not yet attested in previous research support an expanded consideration of phonological context in clinical decision making and future research related to word-final morphology. PMID:28750415

In Search for Boundary Conditions of Reconsolidation: A Failure of Fear Memory Interference

PubMed Central

Schroyens, Natalie; Beckers, Tom; Kindt, Merel

2017-01-01

The presentation of a fear memory cue can result in mere memory retrieval, destabilization of the reactivated memory trace, or the formation of an extinction memory. The interaction between the degree of novelty during reactivation and previous learning conditions is thought to determine the outcome of a reactivation session. This study aimed to evaluate whether contextual novelty can prevent cue-induced destabilization and disruption of a fear memory acquired by non-asymptotic learning. To this end, fear memory was reactivated in a novel context or in the original context of learning, and fear memory reactivation was followed by the administration of propranolol, an amnestic drug. Remarkably, fear memory was not impaired by post-reactivation propranolol administration or extinction training under the usual conditions used in our lab, irrespective of the reactivation context. These unexpected findings are discussed in the light of our current experimental parameters and alleged boundary conditions on memory destabilization. PMID:28469565

Wisdom in Context.

PubMed

Grossmann, Igor

2017-03-01

Philosophers and psychological scientists have converged on the idea that wisdom involves certain aspects of thinking (e.g., intellectual humility, recognition of uncertainty and change), enabling application of knowledge to life challenges. Empirical evidence indicates that people's ability to think wisely varies dramatically across experiential contexts that they encounter over the life span. Moreover, wise thinking varies from one situation to another, with self-focused contexts inhibiting wise thinking. Experiments can show ways to buffer thinking against bias in cases in which self-interests are unavoidable. Specifically, an ego-decentering cognitive mind-set enables wise thinking about personally meaningful issues. It appears that experiential, situational, and cultural factors are even more powerful in shaping wisdom than previously imagined. Focus on such contextual factors sheds new light on the processes underlying wise thought and its development, helps to integrate different approaches to studying wisdom, and has implications for measurement and development of wisdom-enhancing interventions.

A self-categorization theory perspective on adolescent boys' sexual bullying of girls.

PubMed

Page, Elysia; Shute, Rosalyn; McLachlan, Angus

2015-02-01

This preliminary study applied Self-Categorization Theory (SCT) to the sexual bullying of high school girls by boys. Seventy-five Year 9 boys responded to vignettes portraying sexual bullying in which gender was a more or a less salient feature of the social context described. As predicted, boys were more likely to engage in sexual bullying when gender was more salient. Masculine sex role was not correlated with engagement in sexual bullying. Controlling for social desirability, pro-bullying attitude was predictive of such engagement, but only when the social context rendered gender less salient. This suggests the power of the perceived social context for determining which individual characteristics will gain expression. It is concluded that SCT is a promising avenue for advancing understanding of bullying, a field of research that has previously largely lacked a theoretical focus. © The Author(s) 2014.

Matching achievement contexts with implicit theories to maximize motivation after failure: a congruence model.

PubMed

El-Alayli, Amani

2006-12-01

Previous research has shown that matching person variables with achievement contexts can produce the best motivational outcomes. The current study examines whether this is also true when matching entity and incremental beliefs with the appropriate motivational climate. Participants were led to believe that a personal attribute was fixed (entity belief) or malleable (incremental belief). After thinking that they failed a test that assessed the attribute, participants performed a second (related) task in a context that facilitated the pursuit of either performance or learning goals. Participants were expected to exhibit greater effort on the second task in the congruent conditions (entity belief plus performance goal climate and incremental belief plus learning goal climate) than in the incongruent conditions. These results were obtained, but only for participants who either valued competence on the attribute or had high achievement motivation. Results are discussed in terms of developing strategies for optimizing motivation in achievement settings.

Art and science in health care research: pushing at open doors or locked in institutions?

PubMed

Freshwater, Dawn; Cahill, Jane; Walsh, Elizabeth; Muncey, Tessa; Esterhuizen, Philip

2012-09-01

Research methods are usually dictated and driven by the research question. In the context of research in "closed" systems--for example, offender health settings--it is imperative that the research question takes into consideration the context in which the research is located. Conducting research that has action, transformation, and creativity at its heart is a significant challenge in closed cultures, for both the researcher and the researched. Using two exemplars, we question whether researchers should adopt a safe approach to researching these closed cultures and to what extent they should engage in methodological tensions and ethical dilemmas that provoke and support reflection on change. By reflecting on our previous research studies, we aim not so much to provide a definitive answer to this question but to suggest that researchers give careful consideration to the methods appropriate to both the context of the research and its purpose.

Episodic-like memory in zebrafish.

PubMed

Hamilton, Trevor J; Myggland, Allison; Duperreault, Erika; May, Zacnicte; Gallup, Joshua; Powell, Russell A; Schalomon, Melike; Digweed, Shannon M

2016-11-01

Episodic-like memory tests often aid in determining an animal's ability to recall the what, where, and which (context) of an event. To date, this type of memory has been demonstrated in humans, wild chacma baboons, corvids (Scrub jays), humming birds, mice, rats, Yucatan minipigs, and cuttlefish. The potential for this type of memory in zebrafish remains unexplored even though they are quickly becoming an essential model organism for the study of a variety of human cognitive and mental disorders. Here we explore the episodic-like capabilities of zebrafish (Danio rerio) in a previously established mammalian memory paradigm. We demonstrate that when zebrafish were presented with a familiar object in a familiar context but a novel location within that context, they spend more time in the novel quadrant. Thus, zebrafish display episodic-like memory as they remember what object they saw, where they saw it (quadrant location), and on which occasion (yellow or blue walls) it was presented.

Young Children's Self-Concepts Include Representations of Abstract Traits and the Global Self.

PubMed

Cimpian, Andrei; Hammond, Matthew D; Mazza, Giulia; Corry, Grace

2017-11-01

There is debate about the abstractness of young children's self-concepts-specifically, whether they include representations of (a) general traits and abilities and (b) the global self. Four studies (N = 176 children aged 4-7) suggested these representations are indeed part of early self-concepts. Studies 1 and 2 reexamined prior evidence that young children cannot represent traits and abilities. The results suggested that children's seemingly immature judgments in previous studies were due to peculiarities of the task context not the inadequacy of children's self-concepts. Similarly, Studies 3 and 4 revealed that, contrary to claims of immaturity in reasoning about the global self, young children update their global self-evaluations in flexible, context-sensitive ways. This evidence suggests continuity in the structure of self-concepts across childhood. © 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Narrative thematic analysis of baccalaureate nursing students' reflections: critical thinking in the clinical education context.

PubMed

Naber, Jessica L; Hall, Joanne; Schadler, Craig Matthew

2014-09-01

This study sought to identify characteristics of clinically situated critical thinking in nursing students' reflections, originally part of a study guided by Richard Paul's model of critical thinking. Nurses are expected to apply critical thinking in all practice situations to improve health outcomes, including patient safety and satisfaction. In a previous study, Paul's model of critical thinking was used to develop questions for reflective writing assignments. Within that study, 30 nursing students completed six open-ended narratives of nurse-patient clinical encounters during an 8-week period. Improvements were seen in critical thinking scores after the intervention. This article reports the qualitative analysis of the content of six open-ended narratives. Six overarching themes were identified and combined into a tentative conceptual model. Faculty's understanding of the characteristics of critical thinking in the context of clinical education will help them to teach and evaluate students' progress and competencies for future practice.

Contextual mediation of perceptions during hauntings and poltergeist-like experiences: a replication and extension.

PubMed

Harte, T M

2000-10-01

This study is a replication of the experiment by Lange, Houran, Harte, and Havens (1996 on contextual variables, in which hallucinations appear to be affected by the environmental context. These contextual variables are influential in the reporting of haunting and poltergeist-like episodes. This study extended the previous study by adding new factors of time of day, climactic conditions, and emotional feelings. These were analyzed for a different sample, looking for further congruency between experiential content and the context. The sample (N=8431 were reports found on the Internet and in one book. The Lange, et al. study was replicated in that contextual variables were identified in 99.2% of the reports, the content of the reports was judged to be consistent with the nature of the contextual variables in 58.8% of the reports, and contextual variables were related to the percipients' state of arousal and the modalities of experience.

Health Sciences Library Closings; A Context Sensitive Pilot Study.

PubMed

Schwartz, Diane G; Elkin, Peter L

2017-01-01

A significant number of U.S. health sciences libraries have closed since the mid-1990's. A pilot study was conducted with academic physicians to understand the impact of closing the health sciences library in the teaching hospital with which they were affiliated. A brief survey was designed and distributed to fourteen faculty members with thirteen useable responses received. The study elicited a context-sensitive perspective on the closing of the library with the most noteworthy outcome being the additional time required by attending physicians and trainees to perform the work that previously was performed by library staff. The loss of the expert literature search, instructional services, journal request, and interlibrary loan services had the most significant impact on study participants. Further research is needed to understand the long term consequences of closing hospital-based health sciences library on the education of physicians.

Contextual control of attentional allocation in human discrimination learning.

PubMed

Uengoer, Metin; Lachnit, Harald; Lotz, Anja; Koenig, Stephan; Pearce, John M

2013-01-01

In 3 human predictive learning experiments, we investigated whether the allocation of attention can come under the control of contextual stimuli. In each experiment, participants initially received a conditional discrimination for which one set of cues was trained as relevant in Context 1 and irrelevant in Context 2, and another set was relevant in Context 2 and irrelevant in Context 1. For Experiments 1 and 2, we observed that a second discrimination based on cues that had previously been trained as relevant in Context 1 during the conditional discrimination was acquired more rapidly in Context 1 than in Context 2. Experiment 3 revealed a similar outcome when new stimuli from the original dimensions were used in the test stage. Our results support the view that the associability of a stimulus can be controlled by the stimuli that accompany it.

Adults' Self-Directed Learning of an Artificial Lexicon: The Dynamics of Neighborhood Reorganization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bardhan, Neil Prodeep

2010-01-01

Artificial lexicons have previously been used to examine the time course of the learning and recognition of spoken words, the role of segment type in word learning, and the integration of context during spoken word recognition. However, in all of these studies the experimenter determined the frequency and order of the words to be learned. In three…

The Preferences of In-Service ELT Teachers' Language Learning Strategies in Their Own Language Learning Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koç, Hatice Kübra

2017-01-01

As a still popular research area, Language Learning Strategies (LLS) researches need to be enhanced, since it consists of different phenomenon such as age, gender, individual differences and learning environment. At a glance, previous studies in the literature state that most of LLS researches are conducted in just learner-contexts in schools or…

The Role of Cross-Cultural Absorptive Capacity in the Effectiveness of In-Country Cross-Cultural Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tarique, Ibraiz; Caligiuri, Paula

2009-01-01

Based on the theory of absorptive capacity, this study examines the following question. In the context of cross-cultural training, can the amount of previously accumulated cultural knowledge affect the ability of a trainee to absorb further learning about a new culture, thus enhancing total knowledge and presumably cross-cultural adjustment?…

Looking Back over Their Shoulders: A Qualitative Analysis of Portuguese Teachers' Attitudes towards Statistics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martins, Jose Alexandre; Nascimento, Maria Manuel; Estrada, Assumpta

2012-01-01

Teachers' attitudes towards statistics can have a significant effect on their own statistical training, their teaching of statistics, and the future attitudes of their students. The influence of attitudes in teaching statistics in different contexts was previously studied in the work of Estrada et al. (2004, 2010a, 2010b) and Martins et al.…

Equine-Facilitated Prison-Based Programs within the Context of Prison-Based Animal Programs: State of the Science Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bachi, Keren

2013-01-01

Equine-facilitated prison programs have become more prevalent and operate in correctional facilities in 13 states throughout the United States. However, there is a deficit of empirical knowledge to guide them. This article reviews 19 studies of prison-based animal programs and centers on patterns in the literature. It reveals how previous studies…

Civic Engagement in the Upper Elementary Grades: An Examination of Parent and Teacher Practices and Children's Civic Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Elizabeth Spalding

2012-01-01

This study examines civic identity (i.e., civic values and responsibility to community and to people) in middle childhood, a previously unexplored developmental period in the civic engagement literature, and how adults and socialization processes in the home and school contexts are associated with children's civic outcomes. Middle childhood is a…

To Resist or Not to Resist? The Effect of Context and Crime Characteristics on Sex Offenders' Reaction to Victim Resistance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balemba, Samantha; Beauregard, Eric; Mieczkowski, Tom

2012-01-01

Circumstances under which a sexual assault takes place and how these circumstances affect offenders' reactions to victim resistance are not well understood. Previous studies have not thoroughly examined the interactions that take place between situational factors and resistance. Using a combination of logistic regression and Chi-square Automatic…

The Impact of Foreign Accent on Credibility: An Analysis of Cognitive Statement Ratings in a Swiss Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stocker, Ladina

2017-01-01

The present paper reports on a study investigating whether the presence of a foreign accent negatively affects credibility judgments. Previous research suggests that trivia statements recorded by speakers with a foreign accent are judged as less credible than when recorded by native speakers due to increased cognitive demands (Lev-Ari and Keysar…

Integration of iPad-Based M-Learning into a Creative Engineering Module in a Secondary School in England

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Yulong; Liu, Xiaojing

2017-01-01

Mobile learning (M-learning) has become a popular topic in educational research, in previous research there have been many studies on attitude to M-learning directed towards staff, parents and students; however, limited research has focused on the comparison between teachers and students in the context of creative engineering and their respective…

The Challenge of More Light, the Complexity of Culture: Lessons Learned in Exploring the Cultural Positioning of Literacy Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McVee, Mary B.

2014-01-01

This conceptual article, based on data collected and analyzed within a larger study, considers perspectives on cultural diversity and research in the context of the current politicized educational environment within the United States. Drawing from previous research conducted in a graduate course exploring language, literacy and culture, the author…

The Development of a System of Study Credits in Ukraine: The Case of Policy Layering in the Bologna Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kushnir, Iryna

2017-01-01

The Bologna Process is an intergovernmental initiative aimed to make higher education degrees compatible in Europe. Previous research into the implementation of the Bologna objectives (or action lines) views the influence of the context as a challenge. This article suggests a different approach for analysing the implementation of the Bologna…

Theory, Practice and Competences in the Study of Pedagogy--Views of Ljubljana and Belgrade University Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ermenc, Klara Skubic; Vujisic Živkovic, Nataša; Spasenovic, Vera

2015-01-01

Over the previous decade, higher education in Slovenia and Serbia has undergone considerable reforms, influenced by the Bologna process and its agenda of competence and learning outcomes. In the context of these reforms, the aim of this research is to consider the question of the relationship between the theoretical and the practical education of…

Socio-cultural influences on young people's sexual development.

PubMed

Shoveller, Jean A; Johnson, Joy L; Langille, Donald B; Mitchell, Terry

2004-08-01

Emerging evidence indicates that the mechanisms that create health (or ill health) at the population level exist at the intersection between the individual and more "upstream" forces that shape our social contexts. To investigate this proposition, we collected detailed descriptions of youth's perceptions about the socio-cultural and other structural aspects of their contexts that shape their sexual behaviour patterns, and ultimately their health outcomes. In this paper, we examine how social context shaped experiences and perceptions pertaining to sexual behaviour among 18-24 year olds living in two Canadian communities (one rural and one urban). We investigate explanations for the struggle that youth engage in as they attempt to situate their emergent sexual behaviour patterns within community, family, peer, and broader social contexts. Two central processes appeared to be important to the experiences of youth in the current study and their recollections about their adolescent sexual experiences. These processes are embedded in social norms and structures and are directed at pathologizing sex and silencing meaningful discussion about sex. Together, they interact to create a climate of sex-based shame. The findings of this qualitative study add to previous sociological and feminist research that has also demonstrated how traditional approaches to understanding youth sexual behaviour tend to ignore or discount the "embeddedness" of young people in their social structures and contexts. Copyright 2003 Elsevier Ltd.

Sexual dimorphism of male face shape, partnership status and the temporal context of relationship sought modulate women's preferences for direct gaze.

PubMed

Conway, Claire A; Jones, Benedict C; DeBruine, Lisa M; Little, Anthony C

2010-02-01

Most previous studies of face preferences have investigated the physical cues that influence face preferences. Far fewer studies have investigated the effects of cues to the direction of others' social interest (i.e. gaze direction) on face preferences. Here we found that unpartnered women demonstrated stronger preferences for direct gaze (indicating social interest) from feminine male faces than from masculine male faces when judging men's attractiveness for long-term relationships, but not when judging men's attractiveness for short-term relationships. Moreover, unpartnered women's preferences for direct gaze from feminine men were stronger for long-term than short-term relationships, but there was no comparable effect for judgements of masculine men. No such effects were evident among women with romantic partners, potentially reflecting different motivations underlying partnered and unpartnered women's judgements of men's attractiveness. Collectively these findings (1) complement previous findings whereby women demonstrated stronger preferences for feminine men as long-term than short-term partners, (2) demonstrate context-sensitivity in the integration of physical and social cues in face preferences, and (3) suggest that gaze preferences may function, at least in part, to facilitate efficient allocation of mating effort.

Stepping Stones Triple P: the importance of putting the findings into context.

PubMed

Tellegen, Cassandra L; Sofronoff, Kate

2015-02-04

The Stepping Stones Triple P (SSTP) parenting program is an evidence-based program for parents of children with a disability. A trial of SSTP was recently published in BMC Medicine, which reported results of a randomized controlled trial comparing SSTP to care-as-usual. Although the paper described what should be an important replication trial of SSTP, there are significant shortcomings to the scientific approach of the reporting that need to be addressed. The paper initially cites only a few published SSTP studies and describes evidence for the efficacy of the program as "very scarce". A meta-analysis of studies evaluating SSTP published prior to submission of this paper was not cited. The results are inconsistent with previous evidence for SSTP, yet the authors provide scant interpretation for this inconsistency. Similarly, the unusually high dropout rate of 49% was not adequately explained. The claims that previous research has only been conducted by the developers, has not included children with intellectual disability, and has not used care-as-usual comparison groups, are inaccurate. This commentary explores these issues further in order to place the findings from the recent trial into context.

Cultural context, obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms, and cognitions: a preliminary study of three Turkish samples living in different countries.

PubMed

Yorulmaz, Orçun; Işık, Bilgen

2011-04-01

Previous research findings have suggested that recent cognitive accounts of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are valid across different cultural contexts for both clinical and nonclinical samples; however, there is evidence that cultural differences may have an impact on a number of cognitive variables. For this reason, immigration provides an exceptional opportunity for an examination of the role of cultural context in cognitions and possible changes in cultural characteristics. To this end, the present study examined the interrelationships between thought-action fusion, thought control strategies and OCD symptoms in three nonclinical samples, taking the immigration factor into consideration. Thus, the current study included three Turkish sample groups: those who remigrated to Turkey from Bulgaria, those still living in Bulgaria, and those that have always resided in Turkey. The findings of the study supported the role of thought and action fusion and control strategies in OCD symptoms in a cross-cultural context. To illustrate, worry, as a thought control strategy for OCD symptoms, was a common factor in all three sample groups. However, differences were also noted between the groups, despite having the same ethnic origin. Although they immigrated back to Turkey and have been living there for a considerable period of time, the Turkish remigrants retained similar characteristics to the respondents in Bulgaria on cognitions in general. Consequently, it may be suggested that cultural context might have a relative impact on certain correlates. A replication of these findings using different immigration groups and examining various cultural factors is strongly encouraged.

Sexual Assault Victimization Among Female Undergraduates During Study Abroad: A Single Campus Survey Study.

PubMed

Flack, William F; Kimble, Matthew O; Campbell, Brooke E; Hopper, Allyson B; Petercă, Oana; Heller, Emily J

2015-12-01

Almost all research on sexual assault victimization among undergraduate university students pertains to incidents that occur on domestic college and university campuses. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of sexual assault victimization and related factors among undergraduates in the context of study-abroad programs. Two hundred eight female students (52% response rate) from a small university in the northeastern United States who had recently studied abroad responded to an online survey containing measures of sexual assault, posttraumatic stress responses (PSR), and alcohol consumption. Almost 19% of the respondents indicated one or more types of sexual assault victimization. Approximately 17% reported non-consensual sexual touching, 7% attempted rape, 4% rape, with 9% reporting attempted rape or rape. As in domestic studies, victimization in this sample was related positively to alcohol consumption and PSR. Use of force was the most frequently reported perpetrator tactic. In sum, the high rates of sexual assault victimization reported by this sample during study abroad replicate previous findings. This context requires further attention from sexual assault researchers, especially given the increasing numbers of university students engaging in study abroad, and from campus support personnel who may be unaware of the likelihood of assault in this context. © The Author(s) 2014.

Influences on Cocaine Tolerance Assessed under a Multiple Conjunctive Schedule of Reinforcement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoon, Jin Ho; Branch, Marc N.

2009-01-01

Under multiple schedules of reinforcement, previous research has generally observed tolerance to the rate-decreasing effects of cocaine that has been dependent on schedule-parameter size in the context of fixed-ratio (FR) schedules, but not under the context of fixed-interval (FI) schedules of reinforcement. The current experiment examined the…

Accidence and Acronyms: Deploying Electronic Assessment in Support of Classical Language Teaching in a University Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashdowne, Richard

2009-01-01

This article describes the process of design and implementation of GALACTICA ("Greek And Latin Accidence Consolidation Training, Internet-Centred Assessment") in support of the University of Oxford's Classics Faculty language consolidation classes. The context and aims of the previous paper-based "assessment" system are…

Arbitrary grammars generating context-free languages

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baker, B. S.

1972-01-01

If G is a grammar such that in each noncontext-free rule of G, the right side contains a string of terminals longer than any terminal string appearing between two nonterminals in the left side; then the language generated by G is context-free. Six previous results follow as simple corollaries of this theorem.

The Significance of Relationships: Academic Engagement and Achievement among Newcomer Immigrant Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suarez-Orozco, Carola; Pimentel, Allyson; Martin, Margary

2009-01-01

Background/Context: Newcomer immigrant students are entering schools in the United States in unprecedented numbers. As they enter new school contexts, they face a number of challenges in their adjustment. Previous literature suggested that relationships in school play a particularly crucial role in promoting socially competent behavior in the…

Walking through doorways causes forgetting: Further explorations.

PubMed

Radvansky, Gabriel A; Krawietz, Sabine A; Tamplin, Andrea K

2011-08-01

Previous research using virtual environments has revealed a location-updating effect in which there is a decline in memory when people move from one location to another. Here we assess whether this effect reflects the influence of the experienced context, in terms of the degree of immersion of a person in an environment, as suggested by some work in spatial cognition, or by a shift in context. In Experiment 1, the degree of immersion was reduced by using smaller displays. In comparison, in Experiment 2 an actual, rather than a virtual, environment was used, to maximize immersion. Location-updating effects were observed under both of these conditions. In Experiment 3, the original encoding context was reinstated by having a person return to the original room in which objects were first encoded. However, inconsistent with an encoding specificity account, memory did not improve by reinstating this context. Finally, we did a further analysis of the results of this and previous experiments to assess the differential influence of foregrounding and retrieval interference. Overall, these data are interpreted in terms of the event horizon model of event cognition and memory.

A snapshot of gut microbiota of an adult urban population from Western region of India.

PubMed

Tandon, Disha; Haque, Mohammed Monzoorul; R, Saravanan; Shaikh, Shafiq; P, Sriram; Dubey, Ashok Kumar; Mande, Sharmila S

2018-01-01

The human gut microbiome contributes to a broad range of biochemical and metabolic functions that directly or indirectly affect human physiology. Several recent studies have indicated that factors like age, geographical location, genetic makeup, and individual health status significantly influence the diversity, stability, and resilience of the gut microbiome. Of the mentioned factors, geographical location (and related dietary/socio-economic context) appears to explain a significant portion of microbiome variation observed in various previously conducted base-line studies on human gut microbiome. Given this context, we have undertaken a microbiome study with the objective of cataloguing the taxonomic diversity of gut microbiomes sampled from an urban cohort from Ahmedabad city in Western India. Computational analysis of microbiome sequence data corresponding to 160 stool samples (collected from 80 healthy individuals at two time-points, 60 days apart) has indicated a Prevotella-dominated microbial community. Given that the typical diet of participants included carbohydrate and fibre-rich components (predominantly whole grains and legume-based preparations), results appear to validate the proposed correlation between diet/geography and microbiome composition. Comparative analysis of obtained gut microbiome profiles with previously published microbiome profiles from US, China, Finland, and Japan additionally reveals a distinct taxonomic and (inferred) functional niche for the sampled microbiomes.

Testing a "content meets process" model of depression vulnerability and rumination: Exploring the moderating role of set-shifting deficits.

PubMed

Vergara-Lopez, Chrystal; Lopez-Vergara, Hector I; Roberts, John E

2016-03-01

MacCoon and Newman's (2006) "content meets process" model posits that deficits in cognitive control make it difficult to disengage from negative cognitions caused by a negative cognitive style (NCS). The present study examined if the interactive effect of cognitive set-shifting abilities and NCS predicts rumination and past history of depression. Participants were 90 previously depressed individuals and 95 never depressed individuals. We administered three laboratory tasks that assess set-shifting: the Wisconsin Card-Sorting Task, the Emotional Card-Sorting Task, and the Internal Switch Task, and self-report measures of NCS and rumination. Shifting ability in the context of emotional distractors moderated the association between NCS and depressive rumination. Although previously depressed individuals had more NCS and higher trait rumination relative to never depressed individuals, shifting ability did not moderate the association between NCS and depression history. The cross-sectional correlational design cannot address the causal direction of effects. It is also not clear whether findings will generalize beyond college students. NCS was elevated in previously depressed individuals consistent with its theoretical role as trait vulnerability to the disorder. Furthermore, NCS may be particularly likely to trigger rumination among individuals with poor capacity for cognitive control in the context of emotional distraction. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mechanisms supporting superior source memory for familiar items: A multi-voxel pattern analysis study

PubMed Central

Poppenk, Jordan; Norman, Kenneth A.

2012-01-01

Recent cognitive research has revealed better source memory performance for familiar relative to novel stimuli. Here we consider two possible explanations for this finding. The source memory advantage for familiar stimuli could arise because stimulus novelty induces attention to stimulus features at the expense of contextual processing, resulting in diminished overall levels of contextual processing at study for novel (vs. familiar) stimuli. Another possibility is that stimulus information retrieved from long-term memory (LTM) provides scaffolding that facilitates the formation of item-context associations. If contextual features are indeed more effectively bound to familiar (vs. novel) items, the relationship between contextual processing at study and subsequent source memory should be stronger for familiar items. We tested these possibilities by applying multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to a recently collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) dataset, with the goal of measuring contextual processing at study and relating it to subsequent source memory performance. Participants were scanned with fMRI while viewing novel proverbs, repeated proverbs (previously novel proverbs that were shown in a pre-study phase), and previously known proverbs in the context of one of two experimental tasks. After scanning was complete, we evaluated participants’ source memory for the task associated with each proverb. Drawing upon fMRI data from the study phase, we trained a classifier to detect on-task processing (i.e., how strongly was the correct task set activated). On-task processing was greater for previously known than novel proverbs and similar for repeated and novel proverbs. However, both within- and across participants, the relationship between on-task processing and subsequent source memory was stronger for repeated than novel proverbs and similar for previously known and novel proverbs. Finally, focusing on the repeated condition, we found that higher levels of hippocampal activity during the pre-study phase, which we used as an index of episodic encoding, led to a stronger relationship between on-task processing at study and subsequent memory. Together, these findings suggest different mechanisms may be primarily responsible for superior source memory for repeated and previously known stimuli. Specifically, they suggest that prior stimulus knowledge enhances memory by boosting the overall level of contextual processing, whereas stimulus repetition enhances the probability that contextual features will be successfully bound to item features. Several possible theoretical explanations for this pattern are discussed. PMID:22820636

[Repeat induced abortion: A multicenter study on medical abortions in France in 2014].

PubMed

Opatowski, M; Bardy, F; David, P; Dunbavand, A; Saurel-Cubizolles, M-J

2017-01-01

To describe the social characteristics of women seeking a medical abortion, and the conditions of that abortion, according to whether they had one or more previous induced abortions. An observational study was carried out in 11 French units in 2013-2014, among women 18 years or older. A self-administered questionnaire on the abortion context and social situation was given to them, as well as a diary to record the pain level for each of five days following the mifepristone intake. The sample included 453 women. Among the respondents, 22% had had one previous abortion and 8% had had two or more. Women having had a previous voluntary abortion were more often isolated and in a poorer social situation than women having their first abortion. Better support for contraception after abortion could reduce the number of repeated abortions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Context-Aware Based Efficient Training System Using Augmented Reality and Gravity Sensor for Healthcare Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Seoksoo; Jung, Sungmo; Song, Jae-Gu; Kang, Byong-Ho

As augmented reality and a gravity sensor is of growing interest, siginificant developement is being made on related technology, which allows application of the technology in a variety of areas with greater expectations. In applying Context-aware to augmented reality, it can make useful programs. A traning system suggested in this study helps a user to understand an effcienct training method using augmented reality and make sure if his exercise is being done propery based on the data collected by a gravity sensor. Therefore, this research aims to suggest an efficient training environment that can enhance previous training methods by applying augmented reality and a gravity sensor.

Developing and validating an instrument for measuring mobile computing self-efficacy.

PubMed

Wang, Yi-Shun; Wang, Hsiu-Yuan

2008-08-01

IT-related self-efficacy has been found to have a critical influence on system use. However, traditional measures of computer self-efficacy and Internet-related self-efficacy are perceived to be inapplicable in the context of mobile computing and commerce because they are targeted primarily at either desktop computer or wire-based technology contexts. Based on previous research, this study develops and validates a multidimensional instrument for measuring mobile computing self-efficacy (MCSE). This empirically validated instrument will be useful to researchers in developing and testing the theories of mobile user behavior, and to practitioners in assessing the mobile computing self-efficacy of users and promoting the use of mobile commerce systems.

Social Responsibility in Stem Cell Research - Is the News All Bad?

PubMed

Benjaminy, Shelly; Lo, Cody; Illes, Judy

2016-06-01

Transparent public discourse about translational stem cell research promotes informed hope about scientific progress and the sustainable development of biotechnologies. Using an a priori coding scheme, we surveyed articles from leading news media about stem cell interventions for neurodegenerative diseases (1991-2014) from United States (n = 83), Canada (n = 29), and United Kingdom (n = 65). While, this analysis of translational contexts in the news demonstrates a lingering tendency to celebrate the benefits of research with little context of its caveats even for chronic neurologic diseases, in a departure from many previous studies, the data also reveal conscientious reporting about stem cell tourism and timeframe estimates for the development of relevant therapeutics.

Health and labor supply in the context of HIV/AIDS: the long-run economic impacts on antiretroviral therapy*

PubMed Central

Thirumurthy, Harsha; Zivin, Joshua Graff

2011-01-01

Using longitudinal survey data collected in Kenya, this paper estimates the longer-term impacts of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on the labor supply of treated adults and their household members. Building upon previous work in Kenya, data collected from 2004–2006 indicate that early evidence on the short-run impacts of ART tends to be upheld over the long-term as well. The results show that the labor supply response among treated adults occurs rapidly and is sustained through the 3-year observation period in our study. These results underscore the strong relationship between health and labor supply that has been observed in other contexts. PMID:22984292

Validating Domains of Patient Contextual Factors Essential to Preventing Contextual Errors: A Qualitative Study Conducted at Chicago Area Veterans Health Administration Sites.

PubMed

Binns-Calvey, Amy E; Malhiot, Alex; Kostovich, Carol T; LaVela, Sherri L; Stroupe, Kevin; Gerber, Ben S; Burkhart, Lisa; Weiner, Saul J; Weaver, Frances M

2017-09-01

"Patient context" indicates patient circumstances and characteristics or states that are essential to address when planning patient care. Specific patient "contextual factors," if overlooked, result in an inappropriate plan of care, a medical error termed a "contextual error." The myriad contextual factors that constitute patient context have been grouped into broad domains to create a taxonomy of challenges to consider when planning care. This study sought to validate a previously identified list of contextual domains. This qualitative study used directed content analysis. In 2014, 19 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) providers (84% female) and 49 patients (86% male) from two VA medical centers and four outpatient clinics in the Chicago area participated in semistructured interviews and focus groups. Topics included patient-specific, community, and resource-related factors that affect patients' abilities to manage their care. Transcripts were analyzed with a previously identified list of contextual domains as a framework. Analysis of responses revealed that patients and providers identified the same 10 domains previously published, plus 3 additional ones. Based on comments made by patients and providers, the authors created a revised list of 12 domains from themes that emerged. Six pertain to patient circumstances such as access to care and financial situation, and 6 to patient characteristics/states including skills, abilities, and knowledge. Contextual factors in patients' lives may be essential to address for effective care planning. The rubric developed can serve as a "contextual differential" for clinicians to consider when addressing challenges patients face when planning their care.

Evaluation of the HFACS-ADF safety classification system: inter-coder consensus and intra-coder consistency.

PubMed

Olsen, Nikki S; Shorrock, Steven T

2010-03-01

This article evaluates an adaptation of the human factors analysis and classification system (HFACS) adopted by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to classify factors that contribute to incidents. Three field studies were undertaken to assess the reliability of HFACS-ADF in the context of a particular ADF air traffic control (ATC) unit. Study one was designed to assess inter-coder consensus between many coders for two incident reports. Study two was designed to assess inter-coder consensus between one participant and the previous original analysts for a large set of incident reports. Study three was designed to test intra-coder consistency for four participants over many months. For all studies, agreement was low at the level of both fine-level HFACS-ADF descriptors and high-level HFACS-type categories. A survey of participants suggested that they were not confident that HFACS-ADF could be used consistently. The three field studies reported suggest that the ADF adaptation of HFACS is unreliable for incident analysis at the ATC unit level, and may therefore be invalid in this context. Several reasons for the results are proposed, associated with the underlying HFACS model and categories, the HFACS-ADF adaptations, the context of use, and the conduct of the studies. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prospective relationships between body weight and physical activity: an observational analysis from the NAVIGATOR study.

PubMed

Preiss, David; Thomas, Laine E; Wojdyla, Daniel M; Haffner, Steven M; Gill, Jason M R; Yates, Thomas; Davies, Melanie J; Holman, Rury R; McMurray, John J; Califf, Robert M; Kraus, William E

2015-08-14

While bidirectional relationships exist between body weight and physical activity, direction of causality remains uncertain and previous studies have been limited by self-reported activity or weight and small sample size. We investigated the prospective relationships between weight and physical activity. Observational analysis of data from the Nateglinide And Valsartan in Impaired Glucose Tolerance Outcomes Research (NAVIGATOR) study, a double-blinded randomised clinical trial of nateglinide and valsartan, respectively. Multinational study of 9306 participants. Participants with biochemically confirmed impaired glucose tolerance had annual measurements of both weight and step count using research grade pedometers, worn for 7 days consecutively. Along with randomisation to valsartan or placebo plus nateglinide or placebo, participants took part in a lifestyle modification programme. Longitudinal regression using weight as response value and physical activity as predictor value was conducted, adjusted for baseline covariates. Analysis was then repeated with physical activity as response value and weight as predictor value. Only participants with a response value preceded by at least three annual response values were included. Adequate data were available for 2811 (30%) of NAVIGATOR participants. Previous weight (χ(2)=16.8; p<0.0001), but not change in weight (χ(2)=0.1; p=0.71) was inversely associated with subsequent step count, indicating lower subsequent levels of physical activity in heavier individuals. Change in step count (χ(2)=5.9; p=0.02) but not previous step count (χ(2)=0.9; p=0.34) was inversely associated with subsequent weight. However, in the context of trajectories already established for weight (χ(2) for previous weight measurements 747.3; p<0.0001) and physical activity (χ(2) for previous step count 432.6; p<0.0001), these effects were of limited clinical importance. While a prospective bidirectional relationship was observed between weight and physical activity, the magnitude of any effect was very small in the context of natural trajectories already established for these variables. NCT00097786. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

A Range-Normalization Model of Context-Dependent Choice: A New Model and Evidence

PubMed Central

Camerer, Colin

2012-01-01

Most utility theories of choice assume that the introduction of an irrelevant option (called the decoy) to a choice set does not change the preference between existing options. On the contrary, a wealth of behavioral data demonstrates the dependence of preference on the decoy and on the context in which the options are presented. Nevertheless, neural mechanisms underlying context-dependent preference are poorly understood. In order to shed light on these mechanisms, we design and perform a novel experiment to measure within-subject decoy effects. We find within-subject decoy effects similar to what have been shown previously with between-subject designs. More importantly, we find that not only are the decoy effects correlated, pointing to similar underlying mechanisms, but also these effects increase with the distance of the decoy from the original options. To explain these observations, we construct a plausible neuronal model that can account for decoy effects based on the trial-by-trial adjustment of neural representations to the set of available options. This adjustment mechanism, which we call range normalization, occurs when the nervous system is required to represent different stimuli distinguishably, while being limited to using bounded neural activity. The proposed model captures our experimental observations and makes new predictions about the influence of the choice set size on the decoy effects, which are in contrast to previous models of context-dependent choice preference. Critically, unlike previous psychological models, the computational resource required by our range-normalization model does not increase exponentially as the set size increases. Our results show that context-dependent choice behavior, which is commonly perceived as an irrational response to the presence of irrelevant options, could be a natural consequence of the biophysical limits of neural representation in the brain. PMID:22829761

Emotional Faces in Context: Age Differences in Recognition Accuracy and Scanning Patterns

PubMed Central

Noh, Soo Rim; Isaacowitz, Derek M.

2014-01-01

While age-related declines in facial expression recognition are well documented, previous research relied mostly on isolated faces devoid of context. We investigated the effects of context on age differences in recognition of facial emotions and in visual scanning patterns of emotional faces. While their eye movements were monitored, younger and older participants viewed facial expressions (i.e., anger, disgust) in contexts that were emotionally congruent, incongruent, or neutral to the facial expression to be identified. Both age groups had highest recognition rates of facial expressions in the congruent context, followed by the neutral context, and recognition rates in the incongruent context were worst. These context effects were more pronounced for older adults. Compared to younger adults, older adults exhibited a greater benefit from congruent contextual information, regardless of facial expression. Context also influenced the pattern of visual scanning characteristics of emotional faces in a similar manner across age groups. In addition, older adults initially attended more to context overall. Our data highlight the importance of considering the role of context in understanding emotion recognition in adulthood. PMID:23163713

Turning publicly available gene expression data into discoveries using gene set context analysis.

PubMed

Ji, Zhicheng; Vokes, Steven A; Dang, Chi V; Ji, Hongkai

2016-01-08

Gene Set Context Analysis (GSCA) is an open source software package to help researchers use massive amounts of publicly available gene expression data (PED) to make discoveries. Users can interactively visualize and explore gene and gene set activities in 25,000+ consistently normalized human and mouse gene expression samples representing diverse biological contexts (e.g. different cells, tissues and disease types, etc.). By providing one or multiple genes or gene sets as input and specifying a gene set activity pattern of interest, users can query the expression compendium to systematically identify biological contexts associated with the specified gene set activity pattern. In this way, researchers with new gene sets from their own experiments may discover previously unknown contexts of gene set functions and hence increase the value of their experiments. GSCA has a graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI makes the analysis convenient and customizable. Analysis results can be conveniently exported as publication quality figures and tables. GSCA is available at https://github.com/zji90/GSCA. This software significantly lowers the bar for biomedical investigators to use PED in their daily research for generating and screening hypotheses, which was previously difficult because of the complexity, heterogeneity and size of the data. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

The risk of a safety-critical event associated with mobile device use in specific driving contexts.

PubMed

Fitch, Gregory M; Hanowski, Richard J; Guo, Feng

2015-01-01

We explored drivers' mobile device use and its associated risk of a safety-critical event (SCE) in specific driving contexts. Our premise was that the SCE risk associated with mobile device use increases when the driving task becomes demanding. Data from naturalistic driving studies involving commercial motor vehicle drivers and light vehicle drivers were partitioned into subsets representative of specific driving contexts. The subsets were generated using data set attributes that included level of service and relation to junction. These attributes were selected based on exogenous factors known to alter driving task demands. The subsets were analyzed using a case-cohort approach, which was selected to complement previous investigations of mobile device SCE risk using naturalistic driving data. Both commercial motor vehicle and light vehicle drivers varied as to how much they conversed on a mobile device but did not vary their engagement in visual-manual subtasks. Furthermore, commercial motor vehicle drivers conversed less frequently as the driving task demands increased, whereas light vehicle drivers did not. The risk of an SCE associated with mobile device use was dependent on the subtask performed and the driving context. Only visual-manual subtasks were associated with an increased SCE risk, whereas conversing was associated with a decreased risk in some driving contexts. Drivers' engagement in mobile device subtasks varies by driving context. The SCE risk associated with mobile device use is dependent on the types of subtasks performed and the driving context. The findings of this exploratory study can be applied to the design of driver-vehicle interfaces that mitigate distraction by preventing visual-manual subtasks while driving.

Normalized value coding explains dynamic adaptation in the human valuation process.

PubMed

Khaw, Mel W; Glimcher, Paul W; Louie, Kenway

2017-11-28

The notion of subjective value is central to choice theories in ecology, economics, and psychology, serving as an integrated decision variable by which options are compared. Subjective value is often assumed to be an absolute quantity, determined in a static manner by the properties of an individual option. Recent neurobiological studies, however, have shown that neural value coding dynamically adapts to the statistics of the recent reward environment, introducing an intrinsic temporal context dependence into the neural representation of value. Whether valuation exhibits this kind of dynamic adaptation at the behavioral level is unknown. Here, we show that the valuation process in human subjects adapts to the history of previous values, with current valuations varying inversely with the average value of recently observed items. The dynamics of this adaptive valuation are captured by divisive normalization, linking these temporal context effects to spatial context effects in decision making as well as spatial and temporal context effects in perception. These findings suggest that adaptation is a universal feature of neural information processing and offer a unifying explanation for contextual phenomena in fields ranging from visual psychophysics to economic choice.

Self-Punishment Promotes Forgiveness in the Direct and Indirect Reciprocity Contexts.

PubMed

Zhu, Ruida; Shen, Xueyi; Tang, Honghong; Ye, Peixia; Wang, Huagen; Mai, Xiaoqin; Liu, Chao

2017-06-01

Most previous studies regarding self-punishment have focused on the correlation between moral emotion and self-punishment. Only a few studies have attempted to understand self-punishment from the perspective of seeking forgiveness, and no study has yet directly tested whether wrongdoers' self-punishment promotes others to forgive the wrongdoers. In three studies, the participants judged the wrongdoers' self-punishment behaviors following an unfair allocation and reported the extent to which they forgave the wrongdoers. The results demonstrated that self-punishment did promote forgiveness in both the direct (Studies 1 and 2) and indirect reciprocity (Study 3) contexts. Consistent with costly signaling theory, the costlier the self-punishment was, the stronger the effect it had on forgiveness. Moreover, communicative self-punishment had a better effect than silent self-punishment when the cost was relatively high in the direct-reciprocity studies. These findings can guide us regarding how to address a damaged relationship via self-punishment when compensation is not feasible or acceptable.

Compositional clustering in task structure learning

PubMed Central

Frank, Michael J.

2018-01-01

Humans are remarkably adept at generalizing knowledge between experiences in a way that can be difficult for computers. Often, this entails generalizing constituent pieces of experiences that do not fully overlap, but nonetheless share useful similarities with, previously acquired knowledge. However, it is often unclear how knowledge gained in one context should generalize to another. Previous computational models and data suggest that rather than learning about each individual context, humans build latent abstract structures and learn to link these structures to arbitrary contexts, facilitating generalization. In these models, task structures that are more popular across contexts are more likely to be revisited in new contexts. However, these models can only re-use policies as a whole and are unable to transfer knowledge about the transition structure of the environment even if only the goal has changed (or vice-versa). This contrasts with ecological settings, where some aspects of task structure, such as the transition function, will be shared between context separately from other aspects, such as the reward function. Here, we develop a novel non-parametric Bayesian agent that forms independent latent clusters for transition and reward functions, affording separable transfer of their constituent parts across contexts. We show that the relative performance of this agent compared to an agent that jointly clusters reward and transition functions depends environmental task statistics: the mutual information between transition and reward functions and the stochasticity of the observations. We formalize our analysis through an information theoretic account of the priors, and propose a meta learning agent that dynamically arbitrates between strategies across task domains to optimize a statistical tradeoff. PMID:29672581

The interplay between sharing behavior and beliefs about others in children during dictator games.

PubMed

Santamaría-García, Hernando; González-Gadea, María Luz; Di Tella, Rafael; Ibáñez, Agustín; Sigman, Mariano

2018-02-01

Previous studies in adults demonstrated that beliefs and sharing decisions in social scenarios are closely related. However, to date, little is known about the development of this relationship in children. By using a modified dictator game, we assessed sharing behavior and beliefs about others in children between 3 and 12 years old. We performed four studies (N = 376) aimed to assess whether decisions were related to beliefs (Studies 1 and 2) and whether information about the recipient's forced sharing behavior would shape decisions and beliefs (Studies 3 and 4). Results of Studies 1 and 2 showed that beliefs about others' generosity were related to children's sharing behavior. In Studies 3 and 4, we found that only children older than 9 years shared more pieces of candy when they knew that the recipient would be forced to share (cooperative context) than when they knew that the recipient would be forced not to share (noncooperative context). Besides, children older than 6 years did not modify their beliefs about others' generosity according to these social contexts. These results suggest that normative or preconceived beliefs about the functioning of the social world may guide social behavior in children. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Memory for friends or foes: the social context of past encounters with faces modulates their subsequent neural traces in the brain.

PubMed

Vrticka, Pascal; Andersson, Frédéric; Sander, David; Vuilleumier, Patrik

2009-01-01

Every day we encounter new people, interact with them, and form person impressions based on quick and automatic inferences from minimal contextual information. Previous studies have identified an extensive network of brain areas involved in familiar face recognition, but there is little evidence to date concerning the neural bases of negative vs. positive person impressions. In the present study, participants were repeatedly exposed to 16 unfamiliar face identities within a pseudo-interactive game context to generate a perception of either "friends" or "foes". Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was then performed during an old/new memory task to assess any difference in brain responses to these now familiar face identities, relative to unfamiliar faces. Importantly, whereas facial expressions were always emotional (either smiling or angry) during the encoding phase, they were always neutral during the memory task. Our results reveal that several brain regions involved in familiar face recognition, including fusiform cortex, posterior cingulate gyrus, and amygdala, plus additional areas involved in motivational control such as caudate and anterior cingulate cortex, were differentially modulated as a function of a previous encounter, and generally more activated when faces were perceived as "foes" rather than "friends". These findings underscore that a key dimension of social judgments, based on past impressions of who may be supportive or hostile, may lead to long-lasting effects on memory for faces and thus influence affective reactions to people during a subsequent encounter even in a different (neutral) context.

Attitudes about high school physics in relationship to gender and ethnicity: A mixed method analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hafza, Rabieh Jamal

There is an achievement gap and lack of participation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) by minority females. The number of minority females majoring in STEM related fields and earning advanced degrees in these fields has not significantly increased over the past 40 years. Previous research has evaluated the relationship between self-identity concept and factors that promote the academic achievement as well the motivation of students to study different subject areas. This study examined the interaction between gender and ethnicity in terms of physics attitudes in the context of real world connections, personal interest, sense making/effort, problem solving confidence, and problem solving sophistication. The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) was given to 131 students enrolled in physics classes. There was a statistically significant Gender*Ethnicity interaction for attitude in the context of Real World Connections, Personal Interest, Sense Making/Effort, Problem Solving Confidence, and Problem Solving Sophistication as a whole. There was also a statistically significant Gender*Ethnicity interaction for attitude in the context of Real World Connections, Personal Interest, and Sense Making/Effort individually. Five Black females were interviewed to triangulate the quantitative results and to describe the experiences of minority females taking physics classes. There were four themes that emerged from the interviews and supported the findings from the quantitative results. The data supported previous research done on attitudes about STEM. The results reported that Real World Connections and Personal Interest could be possible factors that explain the lack of participation and achievement gaps that exists among minority females.

Look Who’s Talking NOW! Parentese Speech, Social Context, and Language Development Across Time

PubMed Central

Ramírez-Esparza, Nairán; García-Sierra, Adrián; Kuhl, Patricia K.

2017-01-01

In previous studies, we found that the social interactions infants experience in their everyday lives at 11- and 14-months of age affect language ability at 24 months of age. These studies investigated relationships between the speech style (i.e., parentese speech vs. standard speech) and social context [i.e., one-on-one (1:1) vs. group] of language input in infancy and later speech development (i.e., at 24 months of age), controlling for socioeconomic status (SES). Results showed that the amount of exposure to parentese speech-1:1 in infancy was related to productive vocabulary at 24 months. The general goal of the present study was to investigate changes in (1) the pattern of social interactions between caregivers and their children from infancy to childhood and (2) relationships among speech style, social context, and language learning across time. Our study sample consisted of 30 participants from the previously published infant studies, evaluated at 33 months of age. Social interactions were assessed at home using digital first-person perspective recordings of the auditory environment. We found that caregivers use less parentese speech-1:1, and more standard speech-1:1, as their children get older. Furthermore, we found that the effects of parentese speech-1:1 in infancy on later language development at 24 months persist at 33 months of age. Finally, we found that exposure to standard speech-1:1 in childhood was the only social interaction that related to concurrent word production/use. Mediation analyses showed that standard speech-1:1 in childhood fully mediated the effects of parentese speech-1:1 in infancy on language development in childhood, controlling for SES. This study demonstrates that engaging in one-on-one interactions in infancy and later in life has important implications for language development. PMID:28676774

Statistical context shapes stimulus-specific adaptation in human auditory cortex

PubMed Central

Henry, Molly J.; Fromboluti, Elisa Kim; McAuley, J. Devin

2015-01-01

Stimulus-specific adaptation is the phenomenon whereby neural response magnitude decreases with repeated stimulation. Inconsistencies between recent nonhuman animal recordings and computational modeling suggest dynamic influences on stimulus-specific adaptation. The present human electroencephalography (EEG) study investigates the potential role of statistical context in dynamically modulating stimulus-specific adaptation by examining the auditory cortex-generated N1 and P2 components. As in previous studies of stimulus-specific adaptation, listeners were presented with oddball sequences in which the presentation of a repeated tone was infrequently interrupted by rare spectral changes taking on three different magnitudes. Critically, the statistical context varied with respect to the probability of small versus large spectral changes within oddball sequences (half of the time a small change was most probable; in the other half a large change was most probable). We observed larger N1 and P2 amplitudes (i.e., release from adaptation) for all spectral changes in the small-change compared with the large-change statistical context. The increase in response magnitude also held for responses to tones presented with high probability, indicating that statistical adaptation can overrule stimulus probability per se in its influence on neural responses. Computational modeling showed that the degree of coadaptation in auditory cortex changed depending on the statistical context, which in turn affected stimulus-specific adaptation. Thus the present data demonstrate that stimulus-specific adaptation in human auditory cortex critically depends on statistical context. Finally, the present results challenge the implicit assumption of stationarity of neural response magnitudes that governs the practice of isolating established deviant-detection responses such as the mismatch negativity. PMID:25652920

Does formal complexity reflect cognitive complexity? Investigating aspects of the Chomsky Hierarchy in an artificial language learning study.

PubMed

Öttl, Birgit; Jäger, Gerhard; Kaup, Barbara

2015-01-01

This study investigated whether formal complexity, as described by the Chomsky Hierarchy, corresponds to cognitive complexity during language learning. According to the Chomsky Hierarchy, nested dependencies (context-free) are less complex than cross-serial dependencies (mildly context-sensitive). In two artificial grammar learning (AGL) experiments participants were presented with a language containing either nested or cross-serial dependencies. A learning effect for both types of dependencies could be observed, but no difference between dependency types emerged. These behavioral findings do not seem to reflect complexity differences as described in the Chomsky Hierarchy. This study extends previous findings in demonstrating learning effects for nested and cross-serial dependencies with more natural stimulus materials in a classical AGL paradigm after only one hour of exposure. The current findings can be taken as a starting point for further exploring the degree to which the Chomsky Hierarchy reflects cognitive processes.

Does Formal Complexity Reflect Cognitive Complexity? Investigating Aspects of the Chomsky Hierarchy in an Artificial Language Learning Study

PubMed Central

Öttl, Birgit; Jäger, Gerhard; Kaup, Barbara

2015-01-01

This study investigated whether formal complexity, as described by the Chomsky Hierarchy, corresponds to cognitive complexity during language learning. According to the Chomsky Hierarchy, nested dependencies (context-free) are less complex than cross-serial dependencies (mildly context-sensitive). In two artificial grammar learning (AGL) experiments participants were presented with a language containing either nested or cross-serial dependencies. A learning effect for both types of dependencies could be observed, but no difference between dependency types emerged. These behavioral findings do not seem to reflect complexity differences as described in the Chomsky Hierarchy. This study extends previous findings in demonstrating learning effects for nested and cross-serial dependencies with more natural stimulus materials in a classical AGL paradigm after only one hour of exposure. The current findings can be taken as a starting point for further exploring the degree to which the Chomsky Hierarchy reflects cognitive processes. PMID:25885790

The Growth of Education Revenues from 1998-2006: An Update on What Accounts for Differences among States and the District of Columbia in the Context of Adequacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alexander, Nicola A.

2012-01-01

This article is an update of a previous study by the author which examined the growth of elementary and public school revenues for school years 1982-1983 through 1991-1992 (Alexander 1997). Using the same framework, this study provides an analysis of the factors accounting for changes in real per-pupil revenues across the 50 states and the…

The Transition from Teaching in an International Context Back to New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, Anthony; Carlyon, Tracey

2018-01-01

While there can be benefits from having overseas teaching experience, the transition back to New Zealand is not always easy for teachers who have previously gained their initial teaching qualification and certification in New Zealand. Upon returning to New Zealand from teaching in an international context, teachers can find it difficult having…

Moodle: A Way for Blending VLE and Face-to-Face Instruction in the ELT Context?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ilin, Gulden

2013-01-01

This classroom research explores the probable consequences of a blended Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYLs) course comprised of Moodle applications and face to face instruction in the English Language Teaching (ELT) context. Contrary to previous face to face only procedure, the course was divided into two segments: traditional classroom…

Investigating Language Learning Strategies of EFL Children for the Development of a Taxonomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gürsoy, Esim

2010-01-01

As a still growing area, Language Learning Strategies (LLS) research needs to expand so that it covers different contexts and age groups. Previous research shows that most of LLS research is conducted in ESL contexts and the majority looked into strategies of adolescents and adults. Consequently, strategy taxonomies as well as the inventories…

Reinstatement of an extinguished fear conditioned response in infant rats.

PubMed

Revillo, Damian A; Trebucq, Gastón; Paglini, Maria G; Arias, Carlos

2016-01-01

Although it is currently accepted that the extinction effect reflects new context-dependent learning, this is not so clear during infancy, because some studies did not find recovery of the extinguished conditioned response (CR) in rodents during this ontogenetic stage. However, recent studies have shown the return of an extinguished CR in infant rats. The present study analyzes the possibility of recovering an extinguished CR with a reinstatement procedure in a fear conditioning paradigm, on PD17 (Experiments 1-4) and on PD24 (Experiment 5), while exploring the role of the olfactory content of the context upon the reinstatement effect during the preweanling period. Preweanling rats expressed a previously extinguished CR after a single experience with an unsignaled US. Furthermore, this result was only found when subjects were trained and tested in contexts that included an explicit odor, but not in standard experimental cages. Finally, Experiment 5 demonstrated the reinstatement effect on PD24 in a standard context. These results support the notion that extinction during infancy has the same characteristics as those described for extinction that occurs in adulthood. Instead of postulating a different mechanism for extinction during infancy, we propose that it may be more accurate to view the problem in terms of the variables that may differentially modulate the extinction effect according to the stages of ontogeny. © 2015 Revillo et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

Identification and Characterization of the V(D)J Recombination Activating Gene 1 in Long-Term Memory of Context Fear Conditioning

PubMed Central

Castro-Pérez, Edgardo; Soto-Soto, Emilio; Pérez-Carambot, Marizabeth; Dionisio-Santos, Dawling; Saied-Santiago, Kristian; Ortiz-Zuazaga, Humberto G.; Peña de Ortiz, Sandra

2016-01-01

An increasing body of evidence suggests that mechanisms related to the introduction and repair of DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) may be associated with long-term memory (LTM) processes. Previous studies from our group suggested that factors known to function in DNA recombination/repair machineries, such as DNA ligases, polymerases, and DNA endonucleases, play a role in LTM. Here we report data using C57BL/6 mice showing that the V(D)J recombination-activating gene 1 (RAG1), which encodes a factor that introduces DSBs in immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor genes, is induced in the amygdala, but not in the hippocampus, after context fear conditioning. Amygdalar induction of RAG1 mRNA, measured by real-time PCR, was not observed in context-only or shock-only controls, suggesting that the context fear conditioning response is related to associative learning processes. Furthermore, double immunofluorescence studies demonstrated the neuronal localization of RAG1 protein in amygdalar sections prepared after perfusion and fixation. In functional studies, intra-amygdalar injections of RAG1 gapmer antisense oligonucleotides, given 1 h prior to conditioning, resulted in amygdalar knockdown of RAG1 mRNA and a significant impairment in LTM, tested 24 h after training. Overall, these findings suggest that the V(D)J recombination-activating gene 1, RAG1, may play a role in LTM consolidation. PMID:26843989

Self-Efficacy Enhanced in a Cross-Cultural Context through an Initiative in Under-Resourced Schools in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maher, Marguerite

2016-01-01

This paper discusses the Khanyisa Programme, an initiative in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where learners from under-resourced schools are supported by teachers and high achievers in Grade 11 and 12 from a previously advantaged state school under apartheid. A qualitative, evaluative study was undertaken to identify key elements in the ongoing…

The Generality of Drug Resistance Self-Efficacy across Social Situations and Solitary Contexts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenkins, Jeanne E.; Nolan, Heather; Rieder, Christie

According to a recent national survey, 9 out of 10 high school students in the United States reported that they had tried alcohol at least once. Previous research has identified drug resistance self-efficacy (DRSE) as an important construct in adolescent drug use, which is the focus of this research study. A total of 361 students in grades 9-12…

Recreation and leisure research from an active living perspective: taking a second look at urban trail use data

Treesearch

Paul H. Gobster

2005-01-01

This paper examines recreation and leisure research within the context of active living, and highlights an apparent gap between the current involvement of recreation and leisure researchers and the potential they could offer to this important and expanding area of inquiry. To illustrate this potential, I looked at two previous studies that focused on the recreational...

Organized Out-of-School Activities and Peer Relationships: Theoretical Perspectives and Previous Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fredricks, Jennifer A.; Simpkins, Sandra D.

2013-01-01

The goal of this volume is to show how organized activities provide an ideal setting for developing a deeper understanding of peer relations, as well as offering a context for a more positive study of peers. The chapters in this volume focus on youth 10 to 18 years of age. In this introductory chapter we first describe the reasons why organized…

Science Textbooks in the Context of Political Reform in South Africa: Implications for Access to Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, Whitfield; Naidoo, Devika

2008-01-01

The post-apartheid National Physical Science Curriculum was implemented for the first time in South Africa in grade 10 during 2006. A variety of new textbooks for grade 10 have been published. This study was a comparative analysis of three popular textbooks, one prepared to support the previous curriculum, and two prepared for the new curriculum.…

Age-Related Changes in the Control of Episodic Retrieval: An ERP Study of Recognition Memory in Children and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Czernochowski, Daniela; Mecklinger, Axel; Johansson, Mikael

2009-01-01

We examined developmental aspects of the ability to monitor the temporal context of an item's previous occurrence while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. In a continuous recognition task, children between 10 and 12 years and young adults watched a stream of pictures repeated with a lag of 10-15 intervening items and indicated…

Factors controlling plasticity of leaf morphology in Robinia pseudoacacia L. II: the impact of water stress on leaf morphology of seedlings grown in a controlled environment chamber

Treesearch

M.T. Tyree

2012-01-01

Context. The cause of morphological plasticity of leaves within the crowns of tall trees still debated. Whether it is driven by irradiance or hydraulic constraints is inconclusive. In a previous study, we hypothesized that water stress caused between-site and within-tree morphological variability in mature Robinia trees.

The Influence of Alternative Scale Formats on the Generalizability of Data Obtained from Direct Behavior Rating Single-Item Scales (DBR-SIS)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Briesch, Amy M.; Kilgus, Stephen P.; Chafouleas, Sandra M.; Riley-Tillman, T. Chris; Christ, Theodore J.

2013-01-01

The current study served to extend previous research on scaling construction of Direct Behavior Rating (DBR) in order to explore the potential flexibility of DBR to fit various intervention contexts. One hundred ninety-eight undergraduate students viewed the same classroom footage but rated student behavior using one of eight randomly assigned…

"You Looking at Me?": Investigating 9 and 13 Year-Olds' Ability to Encode and Decode Nonverbal Communication and Demonstrate "Emotional Literacy"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dickson, Esther; Burton, Neil

2011-01-01

This small-scale study reports the findings from an investigation into non-verbal communication. It primarily seeks to analyse whether 9 and 13 year-olds can encode and decode non-verbal communication in the context of classroom behaviour management. This research showed that, in contrast to previous published research, there were no distinct…

Coping with Pain in the Motivational Context of Values: Comparison between an Acceptance-Based and a Cognitive Control-Based Protocol

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paez-Blarrina, Marisa; Luciano, Carmen; Gutierrez-Martinez, Olga; Valdivia, Sonsoles; Rodriguez-Valverde, Miguel; Ortega, Jose

2008-01-01

This study compares the effect of an acceptance-based protocol (ACT) and a cognitive control-based (CONT) protocol on three measures of pain coping: tolerance, self-report, and believability. Specific methodological controls were employed to further isolate the role of the value of participating in a pain task, compared to previous investigations…

The Development of Co-Speech Gesture and Its Semantic Integration with Speech in 6- to 12-Year-Old Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

So, Wing-Chee; Wong, Miranda Kit-Yi; Lui, Ming; Yip, Virginia

2015-01-01

Previous work leaves open the question of whether children with autism spectrum disorders aged 6-12?years have delay in producing gestures compared to their typically developing peers. This study examined gestural production among school-aged children in a naturalistic context and how their gestures are semantically related to the accompanying…

Fairness of prices, user fee policy and willingness to pay among visitors to a national forest

Treesearch

Jin Young Chung; Gerard T. Kyle; James F. Petrick; James D. Absher

2011-01-01

Imposing user fees in Nature-Based Tourism (NBT) contexts has been a controversial issue. Based on the notions of justice and fairness, this study extended previous work examining the relationship between attitudes toward user fees and spending support. In a proposed structural model of price fairness, fee spending support, and willingness to pay (WTP), this paper...

An Examination of Alternate Assessment Durations when Assessing Multiple-Skill Computational Fluency: The Generalizability and Dependability of Curriculum-Based Outcomes within the Context of Educational Decisions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christ, Theodore J.; Johnson-Gros, Kristin H.

2005-01-01

The current study extended previous research on curriculum-based measurement in mathematics (M-CBM) assessments. The purpose was to examine the generalizability and dependability of multiple-skill M-CBM computation assessments across various assessment durations (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 minutes). Results of generalizability and dependability studies…

First records of preorbital gland opening in rare wild barasingha (Rucervus duvaucelii) in social contexts may help to explain this phenomenon in cervids.

PubMed

Pluháček, Jan; Ceacero, Francisco; Lupták, Peter

2015-10-01

The opening of the preorbital gland in deer serves as a visual communication and has been linked to a wide variety of behavioural situations. As we reported recently, all previous long-term studies on preorbital gland opening were carried out on only one species, whereas case reports on six other rarely studied species have shown associations with different behaviours, thus greatly increasing our overall understanding of the real function of this gland in animal visual communication. Here, we report for the first time preorbital gland opening in the barasingha (Rucervus duvaucelii) in social contexts as observed in a wild population in Kanha National Park, India. We observed this behaviour in two different contexts: agonistic and sexual. Moreover, our record of preorbital gland opening during copulation is the first one amongst cervids. Our findings of preorbital gland opening in both contexts in wild barasingha indicate that the gland was opened only when the individual was highly excited. We suggest that preorbital gland opening may be an important behavioural indicator of an individual involved in a serious intraspecific interaction, and thus a useful tool with which to distinguish between playful and serious behaviours, especially in agonistic and sexual situations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The role of internal reference prices in consumers' willingness to pay judgments: Thaler's Beer Pricing Task revisited.

PubMed

Ranyard, R; Charlton, J P; Williamson, J

2001-02-01

Alternative reference prices, either displayed in the environment (external) or recalled from memory (internal) are known to influence consumer judgments and decisions. In one line of previous research, internal reference prices have been defined in terms of general price expectations. However, Thaler (Marketing Science 4 (1985) 199; Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 12 (1999) 183) defined them as fair prices expected from specific types of seller. Using a Beer Pricing Task, he found that seller context had a substantial effect on willingness to pay, and concluded that this was due to specific internal reference prices evoked by specific contexts. In a think aloud study using the same task (N = 48), we found only a marginal effect of seller context. In a second study using the Beer Pricing Task and seven analogous ones (N = 144), general internal reference prices were estimated by asking people what they normally paid for various commodities. Both general internal reference prices and seller context influenced willingness to pay, although the effect of the latter was again rather small. We conclude that general internal reference prices have a greater impact in these scenarios than specific ones, because of the lower cognitive load involved in their storage and retrieval.

Empathy, ToM, and self-other differentiation: an fMRI study of internal states.

PubMed

Reniers, Renate L E P; Völlm, Birgit A; Elliott, Rebecca; Corcoran, Rhiannon

2014-02-01

This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural substrates of empathy, Theory of Mind (ToM), and self-other differentiation involved in the adaptive understanding of people's internal states. Three conditions were distinguished in both sad and neutral (no obvious emotion) contexts. The empathy condition involved imagining what another person is feeling while the more cognitively loaded ToM condition involved imagining what would make another person feel better. The self-reference condition required participants to imagine how they would feel in someone else's situation. Areas previously implicated in empathy, ToM, and self-other differentiation were identified within the different conditions, regardless of emotional context. Specifically, the frontal and temporal poles responded more strongly for ToM than for empathy. The self-reference condition was associated with stronger dorsolateral prefrontal response than the empathy condition, while the reverse comparison revealed a stronger role for right frontal pole. Activations in frontal pole and orbitofrontal cortex were shared between the three conditions. Contrasts of parameter estimates demonstrated modulation by emotional context. The findings of common and differential patterns of responding observed in prefrontal and temporal regions suggest that within the social cognition network empathy, ToM and self-other differentiation have distinct roles that are responsive to context.

Recapitulation of Emotional Source Context during Memory Retrieval

PubMed Central

Bowen, Holly J.; Kensinger, Elizabeth A.

2016-01-01

Recapitulation involves the reactivation of cognitive and neural encoding processes at retrieval. In the current study, we investigated the effects of emotional valence on recapitulation processes. Participants encoded neutral words presented on a background face or scene that was negative, positive or neutral. During retrieval, studied and novel neutral words were presented alone (i.e., without the scene or face) and participants were asked to make a remember, know or new judgment. Both the encoding and retrieval tasks were completed in the fMRI scanner. Conjunction analyses were used to reveal the overlap between encoding and retrieval processing. These results revealed that, compared to positive or neutral contexts, words that were recollected and previously encoded in a negative context showed greater encoding-to-retrieval overlap, including in the ventral visual stream and amygdala. Interestingly, the visual stream recapitulation was not enhanced within regions that specifically process faces or scenes but rather extended broadly throughout visual cortices. These findings elucidate how memories for negative events can feel more vivid or detailed than positive or neutral memories. PMID:27923474

How Mood and Task Complexity Affect Children's Recognition of Others’ Emotions

PubMed Central

Cummings, Andrew J.; Rennels, Jennifer L.

2013-01-01

Previous studies examined how mood affects children's accuracy in matching emotional expressions and labels (label-based tasks). This study was the first to assess how induced mood (positive, neutral, or negative) influenced 5- to 8-year-olds’ accuracy and reaction time using both context-based tasks, which required inferring a character's emotion from a vignette, and label-based tasks. Both tasks required choosing one of four facial expressions to respond. Children responded more accurately to label-based questions relative to context-based questions at 5 to 7 years of age, but showed no differences at 8 years of age, and when the emotional expression being identified was happiness, sadness, or surprise, but not disgust. For the context-based questions, children were more accurate at inferring sad and disgusted emotions compared to happy and surprised emotions. Induced positive mood facilitated 5-year-olds’ processing (decreased reaction time) in both tasks compared to induced negative and neutral moods. Results demonstrate how task type and children's mood influence children's emotion processing at different ages. PMID:24489442

Vocal repertoire of the social giant otter.

PubMed

Leuchtenberger, Caroline; Sousa-Lima, Renata; Duplaix, Nicole; Magnusson, William E; Mourão, Guilherme

2014-11-01

According to the "social intelligence hypothesis," species with complex social interactions have more sophisticated communication systems. Giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis) live in groups with complex social interactions. It is likely that the vocal communication of giant otters is more sophisticated than previous studies suggest. The objectives of the current study were to describe the airborne vocal repertoire of giant otters in the Pantanal area of Brazil, to analyze call types within different behavioral contexts, and to correlate vocal complexity with level of sociability of mustelids to verify whether or not the result supports the social intelligence hypothesis. The behavior of nine giant otters groups was observed. Vocalizations recorded were acoustically and statistically analyzed to describe the species' repertoire. The repertoire was comprised by 15 sound types emitted in different behavioral contexts. The main behavioral contexts of each sound type were significantly associated with the acoustic variable ordination of different sound types. A strong correlation between vocal complexity and sociability was found for different species, suggesting that the communication systems observed in the family mustelidae support the social intelligence hypothesis.

Toward variational assimilation of SARAL/Altika altimeter data in a North Atlantic circulation model at eddy-permitting resolution: assessment of a NEMO-based 4D-VAR system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouttier, Pierre-Antoine; Brankart, Jean-Michel; Candille, Guillem; Vidard, Arthur; Blayo, Eric; Verron, Jacques; Brasseur, Pierre

2015-04-01

In this project, the response of a variational data assimilation system based on NEMO and its linear tangent and adjoint model is investigated using a 4DVAR algorithm into a North-Atlantic model at eddy-permitting resolution. The assimilated data consist of Jason-2 and SARAL/AltiKA dataset collected during the 2013-2014 period. The main objective is to explore the robustness of the 4DVAR algorithm in the context of a realistic turbulent oceanic circulation at mid-latitude constrained by multi-satellite altimetry missions. This work relies on two previous studies. First, a study with similar objectives was performed based on academic double-gyre turbulent model and synthetic SARAL/AltiKA data, using the same DA experimental framework. Its main goal was to investigate the impact of turbulence on variational DA methods performance. The comparison with this previous work will bring to light the methodological and physical issues encountered by variational DA algorithms in a realistic context at similar, eddy-permitting spatial resolution. We also have demonstrated how a dataset mimicking future SWOT observations improves 4DVAR incremental performances at eddy-permitting resolution. Then, in the context of the OSTST and FP7 SANGOMA projects, an ensemble DA experiment based on the same model and observational datasets has been realized (see poster by Brasseur et al.). This work offers the opportunity to compare efficiency, pros and cons of both DA methods in the context of KA-band altimetric data, at spatial resolution commonly used today for research and operational applications. In this poster we will present the validation plan proposed to evaluate the skill of variational experiment vs. ensemble assimilation experiments covering the same period using independent observations (e.g. from Cryosat-2 mission).

Differential long-term effects of social stress during adolescence on anxiety in Wistar and wild-type rats.

PubMed

Vidal, Jose; Buwalda, Bauke; Koolhaas, Jaap M

2011-06-01

Severe and chronic stress may interfere with adolescent neuronal plasticity that turns the juvenile brain into an adult brain increasing the vulnerability to develop anxiety disorders. It is well-known from adult stress research that there is a large individual differentiation in stress vulnerability. The current study is aimed at the individual resilience and vulnerability to adolescent social stress. Two strains of rats that differ in social behavioral skills were subjected to social stress during adolescence. In three experiments we studied short and long term effects of adolescent social stress using a water conflict test in different contexts. Wistar rats which had been socially defeated on postnatal days 45 and 46 showed, following water deprivation, a strong decrease in the total amount of water consumed and time spent drinking when tested 2 days and 3 weeks later in the context where they received the defeat experience. Also a strong increase in drinking latency was noticed in the context of the previous defeat. No differences in these parameters were found between defeated and non-defeated wild-type rats. The results of the water conflict test in an environment where no association with the previous defeat experience was present showed that the adolescent social stress did not induce a generalized anxiety. In conclusion, the water conflict test is a useful tool to measure the influence of social defeat on the motivation to obtain resources under conditions with different stimulus properties. In addition, our data suggest the importance of the strain used in adolescent stress experiments. The fact that Wistar rats showed a strong association with the context at adulthood whereas no effect was observed in the wild-type rats shows that victim characteristics are important determining factors for the long term effects of adolescent social stress. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Proactive and reactive control depends on emotional valence: a Stroop study with emotional expressions and words.

PubMed

Kar, Bhoomika Rastogi; Srinivasan, Narayanan; Nehabala, Yagyima; Nigam, Richa

2018-03-01

We examined proactive and reactive control effects in the context of task-relevant happy, sad, and angry facial expressions on a face-word Stroop task. Participants identified the emotion expressed by a face that contained a congruent or incongruent emotional word (happy/sad/angry). Proactive control effects were measured in terms of the reduction in Stroop interference (difference between incongruent and congruent trials) as a function of previous trial emotion and previous trial congruence. Reactive control effects were measured in terms of the reduction in Stroop interference as a function of current trial emotion and previous trial congruence. Previous trial negative emotions exert greater influence on proactive control than the positive emotion. Sad faces in the previous trial resulted in greater reduction in the Stroop interference for happy faces in the current trial. However, current trial angry faces showed stronger adaptation effects compared to happy faces. Thus, both proactive and reactive control mechanisms are dependent on emotional valence of task-relevant stimuli.

Patients' satisfaction with fast-track surgery in gynaecological oncology.

PubMed

Philp, S; Carter, J; Pather, S; Barnett, C; D'Abrew, N; White, K

2015-07-01

This study investigates the experience and satisfaction with care of fast-tracked gynaecological patients. The Sydney Gynaecological Oncology Group, New South Wales, Australia, has previously shown the benefits of a fast-track surgery programme for gynaecology patients with both complex benign gynaecological pathology and gynaecological malignancy. The question of whether these benefits translate into a positive experience for fast-tracked patients, in the context of their hospital stay and healthcare team care, has not been previously explored in detail. A self-administered satisfaction questionnaire incorporating the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) cancer in-patient satisfaction with care measure (INPATSAT-32) questionnaire with additional questions was administered to 106 gynaecology participants at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction with patient care and support received from doctors, ward nurses and the hospital as a service and care organisation, within the context of a fast-track surgical programme. Early hospital discharge after gynaecological surgery results in both enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) and high levels of patient satisfaction. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A model of the pre-assessment learning effects of assessment is operational in an undergraduate clinical context

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background No validated model exists to explain the learning effects of assessment, a problem when designing and researching assessment for learning. We recently developed a model explaining the pre-assessment learning effects of summative assessment in a theory teaching context. The challenge now is to validate this model. The purpose of this study was to explore whether the model was operational in a clinical context as a first step in this process. Methods Given the complexity of the model, we adopted a qualitative approach. Data from in-depth interviews with eighteen medical students were subject to content analysis. We utilised a code book developed previously using grounded theory. During analysis, we remained alert to data that might not conform to the coding framework and open to the possibility of deploying inductive coding. Ethical clearance and informed consent were obtained. Results The three components of the model i.e., assessment factors, mechanism factors and learning effects were all evident in the clinical context. Associations between these components could all be explained by the model. Interaction with preceptors was identified as a new subcomponent of assessment factors. The model could explain the interrelationships of the three facets of this subcomponent i.e., regular accountability, personal consequences and emotional valence of the learning environment, with previously described components of the model. Conclusions The model could be utilized to analyse and explain observations in an assessment context different to that from which it was derived. In the clinical setting, the (negative) influence of preceptors on student learning was particularly prominent. In this setting, learning effects resulted not only from the high-stakes nature of summative assessment but also from personal stakes, e.g. for esteem and agency. The results suggest that to influence student learning, consequences should accrue from assessment that are immediate, concrete and substantial. The model could have utility as a planning or diagnostic tool in practice and research settings. PMID:22420839

Context matters: The moderating role of bar context in the association between substance use during sex and condom use among male clients of female sex workers in Tijuana, Mexico

PubMed Central

Pitpitan, Eileen V.; Wagner, Karla D.; Goodman, David; Semple, Shirley J.; Chavarin, Claudia; Strathdee, Steffanie A.; Patterson, Thomas L.

2013-01-01

Tijuana is situated on Mexico’s northern border with the U.S., where sex work is quasi-legal. Whereas previous work has focused on the risk behaviors of female sex workers (FSWs), less is known about the risk behaviors of their male clients. Further, research has not examined structural factors as moderators of the association between substance use and condom use, including the contexts in which sex takes place. The purpose of the current study is to examine whether having sex with FSWs in a bar moderates the link between alcohol intoxication during sex and condom use. We recruited 375 male clients of FSWs in Tijuana, Mexico from San Diego, California and Tijuana. Using computer assisted interviewing, we surveyed participants on their alcohol use, condom use, and physical contexts of sex with FSWs in the past four months. Results showed that more frequent intoxication during sex with FSWs is associated with more unprotected sex, but only among clients having sex with FSWs in a bar context. Results point to potential reasons for inconsistent condom use with FSWs in this context, including lower risk perceptions of sex with FSWs in bars. Future research should examine structural factors that underlie clients’ risk behavior in bars in order to inform structural-level HIV prevention interventions. PMID:23640653

Context matters: the moderating role of bar context in the association between substance use during sex and condom use among male clients of female sex workers in Tijuana, Mexico.

PubMed

Pitpitan, Eileen V; Wagner, Karla D; Goodman-Meza, David; Semple, Shirley J; Chavarin, Claudia; Strathdee, Steffanie A; Patterson, Thomas L

2013-10-01

Tijuana is situated on Mexico's northern border with the U.S., where sex work is quasi-legal. Whereas previous work has focused on the risk behaviors of female sex workers (FSWs), less is known about the risk behaviors of their male clients. Further, research has not examined structural factors as moderators of the association between substance use and condom use, including the contexts in which sex takes place. The purpose of the current study is to examine whether having sex with FSWs in a bar moderates the link between alcohol intoxication during sex and condom use. We recruited 375 male clients of FSWs in Tijuana, Mexico from San Diego, California and Tijuana. Using computer assisted interviewing, we surveyed participants on their alcohol use, condom use, and physical contexts of sex with FSWs in the past 4 months. Results showed that more frequent intoxication during sex with FSWs is associated with more unprotected sex, but only among clients having sex with FSWs in a bar context. Results point to potential reasons for inconsistent condom use with FSWs in this context, including lower risk perceptions of sex with FSWs in bars. Future research should examine structural factors that underlie clients' risk behavior in bars in order to inform structural-level HIV prevention interventions.

Compensating Faraday Depolarization by Magnetic Helicity in the Solar Corona

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Brandenburg, Axel; Ashurova, Mohira B.; Jabbari, Sarah, E-mail: brandenb@nordita.org

A turbulent dynamo in spherical geometry with an outer corona is simulated to study the sign of magnetic helicity in the outer parts. In agreement with earlier studies, the sign in the outer corona is found to be opposite to that inside the dynamo. Line-of-sight observations of polarized emission are synthesized to explore the feasibility of using the local reduction of Faraday depolarization to infer the sign of helicity of magnetic fields in the solar corona. This approach was previously identified as an observational diagnostic in the context of galactic magnetic fields. Based on our simulations, we show that thismore » method can be successful in the solar context if sufficient statistics are gathered by using averages over ring segments in the corona separately for the regions north and south of the solar equator.« less

Dimensions of patient safety culture in family practice.

PubMed

Palacios-Derflingher, Luz; O'Beirne, Maeve; Sterling, Pam; Zwicker, Karen; Harding, Brianne K; Casebeer, Ann

2010-01-01

Safety culture has been shown to affect patient safety in healthcare. While the United States and United Kingdom have studied the dimensions that reflect patient safety culture in family practice settings, to date, this has not been done in Canada. Differences in the healthcare systems between these countries and Canada may affect the dimensions found to be relevant here. Thus, it is important to identify and compare the dimensions from the United States and the United Kingdom in a Canadian context. The objectives of this study were to explore the dimensions of patient safety culture that relate to family practice in Canada and to determine if differences and similarities exist between dimensions found in Canada and those found in previous studies undertaken in the United States and the United Kingdom. A qualitative study was undertaken applying thematic analysis using focus groups with family practice offices and supplementary key stakeholders. Analysis of the data indicated that most of the dimensions from the United States and United Kingdom are appropriate in our Canadian context. Exceptions included owner/managing partner/leadership support for patient safety, job satisfaction and overall perceptions of patient safety and quality. Two unique dimensions were identified in the Canadian context: disclosure and accepting responsibility for errors. Based on this early work, it is important to consider differences in care settings when understanding dimensions of patient safety culture. We suggest that additional research in family practice settings is critical to further understand the influence of context on patient safety culture.

Beta-adrenergic receptors support attention to extinction learning that occurs in the absence, but not the presence, of a context change

PubMed Central

André, Marion Agnès Emma; Wolf, Oliver T.; Manahan-Vaughan, Denise

2015-01-01

The noradrenergic (NA)-system is an important regulator of cognitive function. It contributes to extinction learning (EL), and in disorders where EL is impaired NA-dysfunction has been postulated. We explored whether NA acting on beta-adrenergic-receptors (β-AR), regulates EL that depends on context, but is not fear-associated. We assessed behavior in an “AAA” or “ABA” paradigm: rats were trained for 3 days in a T-maze (context-A) to learn that a reward is consistently found in the goal arm, despite low reward probability. This was followed on day 4 by EL (unrewarded), whereby in the ABA-paradigm, EL was reinforced by a context change (B), and in the AAA-paradigm, no context change occurred. On day 5, re-exposure to the A-context (unrewarded) occurred. Typically, in control “AAA” animals EL occurred on day 4 that progressed further on day 5. In control “ABA” animals, EL also occurred on day 4, followed by renewal of the previously learned (A) behavior on day 5, that was succeeded (on day 5) by extinction of this behavior, as the animals realised that no food reward would be given. Treatment with the β-AR-antagonist, propranolol, prior to EL on day 4, impaired EL in the AAA-paradigm. In the “ABA” paradigm, antagonist treatment on day 4, had no effect on extinction that was reinforced by a context change (B). Furthermore, β-AR-antagonism prior to renewal testing (on day 5) in the ABA-paradigm, resulted in normal renewal behavior, although subsequent extinction of responses during day 5 was prevented by the antagonist. Thus, under both treatment conditions, β-AR-antagonism prevented extinction of the behavior learned in the “A” context. β-AR-blockade during an overt context change did not prevent EL, whereas β-AR were required for EL in an unchanging context. These data suggest that β-AR may support EL by reinforcing attention towards relevant changes in the previously learned experience, and that this process supports extinction learning in constant-context conditions. PMID:26074793

Understanding Monitoring Technologies for Adults With Pain: Systematic Literature Review.

PubMed

Rodríguez, Iyubanit; Herskovic, Valeria; Gerea, Carmen; Fuentes, Carolina; Rossel, Pedro O; Marques, Maíra; Campos, Mauricio

2017-10-27

Monitoring of patients may decrease treatment costs and improve quality of care. Pain is the most common health problem that people seek help for in hospitals. Therefore, monitoring patients with pain may have significant impact in improving treatment. Several studies have studied factors affecting pain; however, no previous study has reviewed the contextual information that a monitoring system may capture to characterize a patient's situation. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review to (1) determine what types of technologies have been used to monitor adults with pain, and (2) construct a model of the context information that may be used to implement apps and devices aimed at monitoring adults with pain. A literature search (2005-2015) was conducted in electronic databases pertaining to medical and computer science literature (PubMed, Science Direct, ACM Digital Library, and IEEE Xplore) using a defined search string. Article selection was done through a process of removing duplicates, analyzing title and abstract, and then reviewing the full text of the article. In the final analysis, 87 articles were included and 53 of them (61%) used technologies to collect contextual information. A total of 49 types of context information were found and a five-dimension (activity, identity, wellness, environment, physiological) model of context information to monitor adults with pain was proposed, expanding on a previous model. Most technological interfaces for pain monitoring were wearable, possibly because they can be used in more realistic contexts. Few studies focused on older adults, creating a relevant avenue of research on how to create devices for users that may have impaired cognitive skills or low digital literacy. The design of monitoring devices and interfaces for adults with pain must deal with the challenge of selecting relevant contextual information to understand the user's situation, and not overburdening or inconveniencing users with information requests. A model of contextual information may be used by researchers to choose possible contextual information that may be monitored during studies on adults with pain. ©Iyubanit Rodríguez, Valeria Herskovic, Carmen Gerea, Carolina Fuentes, Pedro O Rossel, Maíra Marques, Mauricio Campos. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 27.10.2017.

How the brain learns how few are “many”: An fMRI study of the flexibility of quantifier semantics

PubMed Central

Heim, Stefan; McMillan, Corey T.; Clark, Robin; Baehr, Laura; Ternes, Kylie; Olm, Christopher; Min, Nam Eun; Grossman, Murray

2015-01-01

Previous work has shown that the meaning of a quantifier such as “many” or “few” depends in part on quantity. However, the meaning of a quantifier may vary depending on the context, e.g. in the case of common entities such as “many ants” (perhaps several thousands) compared to endangered species such as “many pandas” (perhaps a dozen). In a recent study (Heim et al. 2015 Front. Psychol.) we demonstrated that the relative meaning of “many” and “few” may be changed experimentally. In a truth value judgment task, displays with 40% of circles in a named color initially had a low probability of being labeled “many”. After a training phase, the likelihood of acceptance 40% as “many” increased. Moreover, the semantic learning effect also generalized to the related quantifier “few” which had not been mentioned in the training phase. Thus, fewer 40% arrays were considered “few.” In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that this semantic adaptation effect was supported by cytoarchitectonic Brodmann area (BA) 45 in Broca’s region which may contribute to semantic evaluation in the context of language and quantification. In an event-related fMRI study, 17 healthy volunteers performed the same paradigm as in the previous behavioral study. We found a relative signal increase when comparing the critical, trained proportion to untrained proportions. This specific effect was found in left BA 45 for the trained quantifier “many”, and in left BA 44 for both quantifiers, reflecting the semantic adjustment for the untrained but related quantifier “few.” These findings demonstrate the neural basis for processing the flexible meaning of a quantifier, and illustrate the neuroanatomical structures that contribute to variable meanings that can be associated with a word when used in different contexts. PMID:26481678

Immediate early gene activation throughout the brain is associated with dynamic changes in social context.

PubMed

Williamson, Cait M; Klein, Inbal S; Lee, Won; Curley, James P

2018-05-31

Social competence is dependent on successful processing of social context information. The social opportunity paradigm is a methodology in which dynamic shifts in social context are induced through removal of the alpha male in a dominance hierarchy, leading to rapid ascent in the hierarchy of the beta male and of other subordinate males in the social group. In the current study, we use the social opportunity paradigm to determine what brain regions respond to this dynamic change in social context, allowing an individual to recognize the absence of the alpha male and subsequently perform status-appropriate social behaviors. Replicating our previous work, we show that following removal of the alpha male, beta males rapidly ascend the social hierarchy and attain dominant status by increasing aggression towards more subordinate individuals. Analysis of patterns of Fos immunoreactivity throughout the brain indicates that in individuals undergoing social ascent, there is increased activity in regions of the social behavior network, as well as the infralimbic and prelimbic regions of the prefrontal cortex and areas of the hippocampus. Our findings demonstrate that male mice are able to respond to changes in social context and provide insight into the how the brain processes these complex behavioral changes.

Stingless bees (Melipona scutellaris) learn to associate footprint cues at food sources with a specific reward context.

PubMed

Roselino, Ana Carolina; Rodrigues, André Vieira; Hrncir, Michael

2016-10-01

Foraging insects leave chemical footprints on flowers that subsequent foragers may use as indicators for recent flower visits and, thus, potential resource depletion. Accordingly, foragers should reject food sources presenting these chemical cues. Contrasting this assumption, experimental studies in stingless bees (Apidae, Meliponini), so far, demonstrated an attractive effect of footprints. These findings lead to doubts about the meaning of these chemical cues in natural foraging contexts. Here, we asked whether foragers of stingless bees (Melipona scutellaris) use footprints according to the previously experienced reward level of visited food sources. Bees were trained to artificial flower patches, at which the reward of a flower either decreased or, alternatively, increased after a visit by a forager. Individuals were allowed a total of nine foraging bouts to the patch, after which their preference for visited or unvisited flowers was tested. In the choice tests, bees trained under the decreasing reward context preferred unvisited flowers, whereas individuals trained under the increasing reward context preferred visited flowers. Foragers without experience chose randomly between visited and unvisited flowers. These results demonstrate that M. scutellaris learns to associate unspecific footprint cues at food sources with differential, specific reward contexts, and uses these chemical cues accordingly for their foraging decisions.

Race, Urban Context, and Russian Roulette: Findings from the National Violent Death Reporting System, 2003-2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wasserman, Ira; Stack, Steven

2011-01-01

Previous work on Russian roulette has focused on data from large cities. It is unclear if the epidemiological patterns based on large cities will replicate for the nation as a whole, and if the influence of minority status will be moderated by urban context. The present investigation fills these gaps by providing descriptive epidemiological data…

Focus Particles at Syntactic, Semantic, and Pragmatic Interfaces: The Acquisition of Only and Even in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Soyoung

2012-01-01

In order to interpret a sentence, hearers must often access information that is not explicitly stated, drawing on pragmatic knowledge and/or the discourse context. A problem with previous work on the acquisition of English focus particles such as "only," "also," "even," etc. is that it has often ignored such factors. Using a context-based…

Mnemonic Context Effect in Two Cultures: Attention to Memory Representations?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duffy, Sean; Kitayama, Shinobu

2007-01-01

In two experiments we demonstrate a substantial cross-cultural difference in a mnemonic context effect, whereby a magnitude estimate of a simple stimulus such as a line or circle is biased toward the center of the distribution of previously seen instances of the same class. In support of the hypothesis that Asians are more likely than Americans to…

Right Temporal Cortex is Critical for Utilization of Melodic Contextual Cues in a Pitch Constancy Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warrier, Catherine M.; Zatorre, Robert J.

2004-01-01

Pitch constancy, perceiving the same pitch from tones with differing spectral shapes, requires one to extract the fundamental frequency from two sets of harmonics and compare them. We previously showed this difficult task to be easier when tonal context is present, presumably because the context creates a tonal reference point from which to judge…

Are Self-Perception Measures Used in School Library Research Transferable to the Context of Public Library Summer Reading Programs?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arnone, Marilyn P.; Small, Ruth V.; Weng, Shicheng

2016-01-01

Several instruments previously validated for use in school library research were tested for their appropriateness in the context of public libraries' summer reading programs for youth. The researchers were also interested in whether the connection between perceived competence in one's own information skills and perceived competence in one's own…

The role of perceived well-being in the family, school and peer context in adolescents' subjective health complaints: evidence from a Greek cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Petanidou, Dimitra; Daskagianni, Evangelie; Dimitrakaki, Christine; Kolaitis, Gerasimos; Tountas, Yannis

2013-11-28

During adolescence children are usually confronted with an expanding social arena. Apart from families, schools and neighbourhoods, peers, classmates, teachers, and other adult figures gain increasing importance for adolescent socio-emotional adjustment. The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which Greek adolescents' perceived well-being in three main social contexts (family, school and peers) predicted self-reported Subjective Health Complaints. Questionnaires were administered to a Greek nation-wide, random, school-based sample of children aged 12-18 years in 2003. Data from 1.087 adolescents were analyzed. A hierarchical regression model with Subjective Health Complaints as the outcome variable was employed in order to i) control for the effects of previously well-established demographic factors (sex, age and subjective economic status) and ii) to identify the unique proportion of variance attributed to each context. Bivariate correlations and multicollinearity were also explored. As hypothesized, adolescents' perceived well-being in each of the three social contexts appeared to hold unique proportions of variance in self-reported Subjective Health Complaints, after controlling for the effects of sex, age and subjective economic status. In addition, our final model confirmed that the explained variance in SHC was accumulated from each social context studied. The regression models were statistically significant and explained a total of approximately 24% of the variance in Subjective Health Complaints. Our study delineated the unique and cumulative contributions of adolescents' perceived well-being in the family, school and peer setting in the explanation of Subjective Health Complaints. Apart from families, schools, teachers and peers appear to have a salient role in adolescent psychosomatic adjustment. A thorough understanding of the relationship between adolescents' Subjective Health Complaints and perceived well-being in their social contexts could not only lead to more effective tailored initiatives, but also to promote a multi- and inter-disciplinary culture in adolescent psychosomatic health.

The role of perceived well-being in the family, school and peer context in adolescents’ subjective health complaints: evidence from a Greek cross-sectional study

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background During adolescence children are usually confronted with an expanding social arena. Apart from families, schools and neighbourhoods, peers, classmates, teachers, and other adult figures gain increasing importance for adolescent socio-emotional adjustment. The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which Greek adolescents’ perceived well-being in three main social contexts (family, school and peers) predicted self-reported Subjective Health Complaints. Methods Questionnaires were administered to a Greek nation-wide, random, school-based sample of children aged 12–18 years in 2003. Data from 1.087 adolescents were analyzed. A hierarchical regression model with Subjective Health Complaints as the outcome variable was employed in order to i) control for the effects of previously well-established demographic factors (sex, age and subjective economic status) and ii) to identify the unique proportion of variance attributed to each context. Bivariate correlations and multicollinearity were also explored. Results As hypothesized, adolescents’ perceived well-being in each of the three social contexts appeared to hold unique proportions of variance in self-reported Subjective Health Complaints, after controlling for the effects of sex, age and subjective economic status. In addition, our final model confirmed that the explained variance in SHC was accumulated from each social context studied. The regression models were statistically significant and explained a total of approximately 24% of the variance in Subjective Health Complaints. Conclusions Our study delineated the unique and cumulative contributions of adolescents’ perceived well-being in the family, school and peer setting in the explanation of Subjective Health Complaints. Apart from families, schools, teachers and peers appear to have a salient role in adolescent psychosomatic adjustment. A thorough understanding of the relationship between adolescents’ Subjective Health Complaints and perceived well-being in their social contexts could not only lead to more effective tailored initiatives, but also to promote a multi- and inter-disciplinary culture in adolescent psychosomatic health. PMID:24283390

mlCAF: Multi-Level Cross-Domain Semantic Context Fusioning for Behavior Identification.

PubMed

Razzaq, Muhammad Asif; Villalonga, Claudia; Lee, Sungyoung; Akhtar, Usman; Ali, Maqbool; Kim, Eun-Soo; Khattak, Asad Masood; Seung, Hyonwoo; Hur, Taeho; Bang, Jaehun; Kim, Dohyeong; Ali Khan, Wajahat

2017-10-24

The emerging research on automatic identification of user's contexts from the cross-domain environment in ubiquitous and pervasive computing systems has proved to be successful. Monitoring the diversified user's contexts and behaviors can help in controlling lifestyle associated to chronic diseases using context-aware applications. However, availability of cross-domain heterogeneous contexts provides a challenging opportunity for their fusion to obtain abstract information for further analysis. This work demonstrates extension of our previous work from a single domain (i.e., physical activity) to multiple domains (physical activity, nutrition and clinical) for context-awareness. We propose multi-level Context-aware Framework (mlCAF), which fuses the multi-level cross-domain contexts in order to arbitrate richer behavioral contexts. This work explicitly focuses on key challenges linked to multi-level context modeling, reasoning and fusioning based on the mlCAF open-source ontology. More specifically, it addresses the interpretation of contexts from three different domains, their fusioning conforming to richer contextual information. This paper contributes in terms of ontology evolution with additional domains, context definitions, rules and inclusion of semantic queries. For the framework evaluation, multi-level cross-domain contexts collected from 20 users were used to ascertain abstract contexts, which served as basis for behavior modeling and lifestyle identification. The experimental results indicate a context recognition average accuracy of around 92.65% for the collected cross-domain contexts.

mlCAF: Multi-Level Cross-Domain Semantic Context Fusioning for Behavior Identification

PubMed Central

Villalonga, Claudia; Lee, Sungyoung; Akhtar, Usman; Ali, Maqbool; Kim, Eun-Soo; Khattak, Asad Masood; Seung, Hyonwoo; Hur, Taeho; Kim, Dohyeong; Ali Khan, Wajahat

2017-01-01

The emerging research on automatic identification of user’s contexts from the cross-domain environment in ubiquitous and pervasive computing systems has proved to be successful. Monitoring the diversified user’s contexts and behaviors can help in controlling lifestyle associated to chronic diseases using context-aware applications. However, availability of cross-domain heterogeneous contexts provides a challenging opportunity for their fusion to obtain abstract information for further analysis. This work demonstrates extension of our previous work from a single domain (i.e., physical activity) to multiple domains (physical activity, nutrition and clinical) for context-awareness. We propose multi-level Context-aware Framework (mlCAF), which fuses the multi-level cross-domain contexts in order to arbitrate richer behavioral contexts. This work explicitly focuses on key challenges linked to multi-level context modeling, reasoning and fusioning based on the mlCAF open-source ontology. More specifically, it addresses the interpretation of contexts from three different domains, their fusioning conforming to richer contextual information. This paper contributes in terms of ontology evolution with additional domains, context definitions, rules and inclusion of semantic queries. For the framework evaluation, multi-level cross-domain contexts collected from 20 users were used to ascertain abstract contexts, which served as basis for behavior modeling and lifestyle identification. The experimental results indicate a context recognition average accuracy of around 92.65% for the collected cross-domain contexts. PMID:29064459

Why (and When) Straight Women Trust Gay Men: Ulterior Mating Motives and Female Competition.

PubMed

Russell, Eric M; Ta, Vivian P; Lewis, David M G; Babcock, Meghan J; Ickes, William

2017-04-01

Previous findings indicate that heterosexual women experience a greater sense of comfort and trust in their friendships with gay men than in their friendships with heterosexual individuals. In the present studies, we tested a hypothesis that not only explains why women exhibit increased trust in gay men but also yields novel predictions about when (i.e., in what contexts) this phenomenon is likely to occur. Specifically, we propose that gay men's lack of motives to mate with women or to compete with them for mates enhances women's trust in gay men and openness to befriend them. Study 1 demonstrated that women placed greater trust in a gay man's mating-but not non-mating (e.g., career) advice-than in the same advice given by heterosexual individuals. Study 2 showed that women perceived a gay man to be more sincere in scenarios relevant to sexual and competitive mating deception. In Study 3, exposing women to a visualization of increased mating competition enhanced their trust in gay men; when mating competition was salient, women's trust in mating information from a gay man was amplified. Study 4 showed that women who perceived higher levels of mating competition were more open to befriending gay men. Together, these converging findings support our central hypothesis, which not only provides a distal explanation for the trust that straight women place in gay men, but also provides novel insights into previously unidentified contexts that facilitate the formation and strengthening of this unique bond.

Defining Peer-to-Peer Learning--From an Old "Art of Practice" to a New Mode of Forest Owner Extension?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamunen, Katri; Appelstrand, Marie; Hujala, Teppo; Kurttila, Mikko; Sriskandarajah, Nadarajah; Vilkriste, Lelde; Westberg, Lotten; Tikkanen, Jukka

2015-01-01

Purpose: This paper explores the concept of peer-to-peer learning (P2PL) in the context of North-European small-scale forest owners. The aim is to develop a framework for initiating new and evaluating already existing forest owners' P2PL communities. Design: Previous studies of peer-learning are used to determine and justify eight dimensions for…

It takes two to talk: a second-person neuroscience approach to language learning.

PubMed

Syal, Supriya; Anderson, Adam K

2013-08-01

Language is a social act. We have previously argued that language remains embedded in sociality because the motivation to communicate exists only within a social context. Schilbach et al. underscore the importance of studying linguistic behavior from within the motivated, socially interactive frame in which it is learnt and used, as well as provide testable hypotheses for a participatory, second-person neuroscience approach to language learning.

Argumentation Text Construction by Japanese as a Foreign Language Writers: A Dynamic View of Transfer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rinnert, Carol; Kobauashi, Hiroe; Katayama, Akemi

2015-01-01

This study takes a dynamic view of transfer as reusing and reshaping previous knowledge in new writing contexts to investigate how novice Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) writers draw on knowledge across languages to construct L1 and L2 texts. We analyzed L1 English and L2 Japanese argumentation essays by the same JFL writers (N = 19) and L1…

Can dark matter be a scalar field?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jesus, J.F.; Malatrasi, J.L.G.; Pereira, S.H.

2016-08-01

In this paper we study a real scalar field as a possible candidate to explain the dark matter in the universe. In the context of a free scalar field with quadratic potential, we have used Union 2.1 SN Ia observational data jointly with a Planck prior over the dark matter density parameter to set a lower limit on the dark matter mass as m ≥0.12 H {sub 0}{sup -1} eV ( c = h-bar =1). For the recent value of the Hubble constant indicated by the Hubble Space Telescope, namely H {sub 0}=73±1.8 km s{sup -1}Mpc{sup -1}, this leads tomore » m ≥1.56×10{sup -33} eV at 99.7% c.l. Such value is much smaller than m ∼ 10{sup -22} eV previously estimated for some models. Nevertheless, it is still in agreement with them once we have not found evidences for a upper limit on the scalar field dark matter mass from SN Ia analysis. In practice, it confirms free real scalar field as a viable candidate for dark matter in agreement with previous studies in the context of density perturbations, which include scalar field self interaction.« less

Repetition Suppression and Reactivation in Auditory–Verbal Short-Term Recognition Memory

PubMed Central

D'Esposito, Mark

2009-01-01

The neural response to stimulus repetition is not uniform across brain regions, stimulus modalities, or task contexts. For instance, it has been observed in many functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that sometimes stimulus repetition leads to a relative reduction in neural activity (repetition suppression), whereas in other cases repetition results in a relative increase in activity (repetition enhancement). In the present study, we hypothesized that in the context of a verbal short-term recognition memory task, repetition-related “increases” should be observed in the same posterior temporal regions that have been previously associated with “persistent activity” in working memory rehearsal paradigms. We used fMRI and a continuous recognition memory paradigm with short lags to examine repetition effects in the posterior and anterior regions of the superior temporal cortex. Results showed that, consistent with our hypothesis, the 2 posterior temporal regions consistently associated with working memory maintenance, also show repetition increases during short-term recognition memory. In contrast, a region in the anterior superior temporal lobe showed repetition suppression effects, consistent with previous research work on perceptual adaptation in the auditory–verbal domain. We interpret these results in light of recent theories of the functional specialization along the anterior and posterior axes of the superior temporal lobe. PMID:18987393

Repetition suppression and reactivation in auditory-verbal short-term recognition memory.

PubMed

Buchsbaum, Bradley R; D'Esposito, Mark

2009-06-01

The neural response to stimulus repetition is not uniform across brain regions, stimulus modalities, or task contexts. For instance, it has been observed in many functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that sometimes stimulus repetition leads to a relative reduction in neural activity (repetition suppression), whereas in other cases repetition results in a relative increase in activity (repetition enhancement). In the present study, we hypothesized that in the context of a verbal short-term recognition memory task, repetition-related "increases" should be observed in the same posterior temporal regions that have been previously associated with "persistent activity" in working memory rehearsal paradigms. We used fMRI and a continuous recognition memory paradigm with short lags to examine repetition effects in the posterior and anterior regions of the superior temporal cortex. Results showed that, consistent with our hypothesis, the 2 posterior temporal regions consistently associated with working memory maintenance, also show repetition increases during short-term recognition memory. In contrast, a region in the anterior superior temporal lobe showed repetition suppression effects, consistent with previous research work on perceptual adaptation in the auditory-verbal domain. We interpret these results in light of recent theories of the functional specialization along the anterior and posterior axes of the superior temporal lobe.

Eliminating mirror responses by instructions.

PubMed

Bardi, Lara; Bundt, Carsten; Notebaert, Wim; Brass, Marcel

2015-09-01

The observation of an action leads to the activation of the corresponding motor plan in the observer. This phenomenon of motor resonance has an important role in social interaction, promoting imitation, learning and action understanding. However, mirror responses not always have a positive impact on our behavior. An automatic tendency to imitate others can introduce interference in action execution and non-imitative or opposite responses have an advantage in some contexts. Previous studies suggest that mirror tendencies can be suppressed after extensive practice or in complementary joint action situations revealing that mirror responses are more flexible than previously thought. The aim of the present study was to gain insight into the mechanisms that allow response flexibility of motor mirroring. Here we show that the mere instruction of a counter-imitative mapping changes mirror responses as indexed by motor evoked potentials (MEPs) enhancement induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Importantly, mirror activation was measured while participants were passively watching finger movements, without having the opportunity to execute the task. This result suggests that the implementation of task instructions activates stimulus-response association that can overwrite the mirror representations. Our outcome reveals one of the crucial mechanisms that might allow flexible adjustments of mirror responses in different contexts. The implications of this outcome are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How previous experience shapes perception in different sensory modalities

PubMed Central

Snyder, Joel S.; Schwiedrzik, Caspar M.; Vitela, A. Davi; Melloni, Lucia

2015-01-01

What has transpired immediately before has a strong influence on how sensory stimuli are processed and perceived. In particular, temporal context can have contrastive effects, repelling perception away from the interpretation of the context stimulus, and attractive effects (TCEs), whereby perception repeats upon successive presentations of the same stimulus. For decades, scientists have documented contrastive and attractive temporal context effects mostly with simple visual stimuli. But both types of effects also occur in other modalities, e.g., audition and touch, and for stimuli of varying complexity, raising the possibility that context effects reflect general computational principles of sensory systems. Neuroimaging shows that contrastive and attractive context effects arise from neural processes in different areas of the cerebral cortex, suggesting two separate operations with distinct functional roles. Bayesian models can provide a functional account of both context effects, whereby prior experience adjusts sensory systems to optimize perception of future stimuli. PMID:26582982

Moral Foundations and Voting Intention in Italy

PubMed Central

Milesi, Patrizia

2017-01-01

Based on the view of morality proposed by the Moral Foundations Theory, this paper investigates whether voting intention is associated with moral foundation endorsement in not perfectly bipolar electoral contexts. Three studies carried out in Italy from 2010 to 2013, showed that controlling for ideological orientation, moral foundation endorsement is associated with voting intention. In Study 1 and 3, in fictitious and real national elections, intention to vote for right-wing political groups rather than for left-wing rivals was associated with Sanctity, confirming previous results obtained in the U.S. Furthermore, as a function of the specific competing political groups in each of the examined contexts other moral foundations predicted voting intention. In Study 1, Care and Authority predicted voting intention for the major political groups rather than for an autonomist party that aimed at decreasing central government’s fiscal power in favor of fiscal regional autonomy. In Study 3, Loyalty predicted the intention to vote for the major parliamentarian parties rather than for a movement that aimed at capturing disaffection towards traditional politics. In Study 2, at real regional elections, Loyalty predicted voting intention for the incumbent right-wing governor rather than for the challengers and Fairness predicted voting intention for left-wing extra-parliamentarian political groups rather than for the major left-wing party. Thus multiple moral concerns can be associated with voting intention. In fragmented and unstable electoral contexts, at each election the context of the competing political groups may elicit specific moral concerns that can contribute to affect voting intention beyond ideological orientation. PMID:29358981

Habit Discontinuity, Self-Activation, and the Diminishing Influence of Context Change: Evidence from the UK Understanding Society Survey.

PubMed

Thomas, Gregory Owen; Poortinga, Wouter; Sautkina, Elena

2016-01-01

Repeated behaviours in stable contexts can become automatic habits. Habits are resistant to information-based techniques to change behaviour, but are contextually cued, so a change in behaviour context (e.g., location) weakens habit strength and can facilitate greater consideration of the behaviour. This idea was demonstrated in previous work, whereby people with strong environmental attitudes have lower car use, but only after recently moving home. We examine the habit discontinuity hypothesis by analysing the Understanding Society dataset with 18,053 individuals representative of the UK population, measuring time since moving home, travel mode to work, and strength of environmental attitudes. Results support previous findings where car use is significantly lower among those with stronger environmental views (but only after recently moving home), and in addition, demonstrate a trend where this effects decays as the time since moving home increases. We discuss results in light of moving into a new home being a potential 'window of opportunity' to promote pro-environmental behaviours.

Habit Discontinuity, Self-Activation, and the Diminishing Influence of Context Change: Evidence from the UK Understanding Society Survey

PubMed Central

Thomas, Gregory Owen; Poortinga, Wouter; Sautkina, Elena

2016-01-01

Repeated behaviours in stable contexts can become automatic habits. Habits are resistant to information-based techniques to change behaviour, but are contextually cued, so a change in behaviour context (e.g., location) weakens habit strength and can facilitate greater consideration of the behaviour. This idea was demonstrated in previous work, whereby people with strong environmental attitudes have lower car use, but only after recently moving home. We examine the habit discontinuity hypothesis by analysing the Understanding Society dataset with 18,053 individuals representative of the UK population, measuring time since moving home, travel mode to work, and strength of environmental attitudes. Results support previous findings where car use is significantly lower among those with stronger environmental views (but only after recently moving home), and in addition, demonstrate a trend where this effects decays as the time since moving home increases. We discuss results in light of moving into a new home being a potential ‘window of opportunity’ to promote pro-environmental behaviours. PMID:27120333

The cortical underpinnings of context-based memory distortion.

PubMed

Aminoff, Elissa; Schacter, Daniel L; Bar, Moshe

2008-12-01

Everyday contextual settings create associations that later afford generating predictions about what objects to expect in our environment. The cortical network that takes advantage of such contextual information is proposed to connect the representation of associated objects such that seeing one object (bed) will activate the visual representations of other objects sharing the same context (pillow). Given this proposal, we hypothesized that the cortical activity elicited by seeing a strong contextual object would predict the occurrence of false memories whereby one erroneously "remembers" having seen a new object that is related to a previously presented object. To test this hypothesis, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging during encoding of contextually related objects, and later tested recognition memory. New objects that were contextually related to previously presented objects were more often falsely judged as "old" compared with new objects that were contextually unrelated to old objects. This phenomenon was reflected by activity in the cortical network mediating contextual processing, which provides a better understanding of how the brain represents and processes context.

Associations among Context-Specific Maternal Protective Behavior, Toddler Fearful Temperament, and Maternal Accuracy and Goals

PubMed Central

Kiel, Elizabeth J.; Buss, Kristin A.

2011-01-01

Maternal protective responses to temperamentally fearful toddlers have previously been found to relate to increased risk for children’s development of anxiety-spectrum problems. Not all protective behavior is “overprotective,” and not all mothers respond to toddlers’ fear with protection. Therefore, the current study aimed to identify conditions under which an association between fearful temperament and protective maternal behavior occurs. Participants included 117 toddlers and their mothers, who were observed in a variety of laboratory tasks. Mothers predicted their toddlers’ fear reactions in these tasks and reported the importance of parent-centered goals for their children’s shyness. Protective behavior displayed in low-threat, but not high-threat, contexts related to concurrently observed fearful temperament and to mother-reported shy/inhibited behavior one year later. The relation between fearful temperament and protective behavior in low-threat, but not high-threat, contexts was strengthened by maternal accuracy in anticipating children’s fear and maternal parent-centered goals for children’s shyness. PMID:23226924

Migration of cells in a social context

PubMed Central

Vedel, Søren; Tay, Savaş; Johnston, Darius M.; Bruus, Henrik; Quake, Stephen R.

2013-01-01

In multicellular organisms and complex ecosystems, cells migrate in a social context. Whereas this is essential for the basic processes of life, the influence of neighboring cells on the individual remains poorly understood. Previous work on isolated cells has observed a stereotypical migratory behavior characterized by short-time directional persistence with long-time random movement. We discovered a much richer dynamic in the social context, with significant variations in directionality, displacement, and speed, which are all modulated by local cell density. We developed a mathematical model based on the experimentally identified “cellular traffic rules” and basic physics that revealed that these emergent behaviors are caused by the interplay of single-cell properties and intercellular interactions, the latter being dominated by a pseudopod formation bias mediated by secreted chemicals and pseudopod collapse following collisions. The model demonstrates how aspects of complex biology can be explained by simple rules of physics and constitutes a rapid test bed for future studies of collective migration of individual cells. PMID:23251032

Migration of cells in a social context.

PubMed

Vedel, Søren; Tay, Savaş; Johnston, Darius M; Bruus, Henrik; Quake, Stephen R

2013-01-02

In multicellular organisms and complex ecosystems, cells migrate in a social context. Whereas this is essential for the basic processes of life, the influence of neighboring cells on the individual remains poorly understood. Previous work on isolated cells has observed a stereotypical migratory behavior characterized by short-time directional persistence with long-time random movement. We discovered a much richer dynamic in the social context, with significant variations in directionality, displacement, and speed, which are all modulated by local cell density. We developed a mathematical model based on the experimentally identified "cellular traffic rules" and basic physics that revealed that these emergent behaviors are caused by the interplay of single-cell properties and intercellular interactions, the latter being dominated by a pseudopod formation bias mediated by secreted chemicals and pseudopod collapse following collisions. The model demonstrates how aspects of complex biology can be explained by simple rules of physics and constitutes a rapid test bed for future studies of collective migration of individual cells.

Environmental invariants in the representation of motion: Implied dynamics and representational momentum, gravity, friction, and centripetal force.

PubMed

Hubbard, T L

1995-09-01

Memory for the final position of a moving target is often shifted or displaced from the true final position of that target. Early studies of this memory shift focused on parallels between the momentum of the target and the momentum of the representation of the target and called this displacementrepresentational momentum, but many factors other than momentum contribute to the memory shift. A consideration of the empirical literature on representational momentum and related types of displacement suggests there are at least four different types of factors influencing the direction and magnitude of such memory shifts: stimulus characteristics (e.g., target direction, target velocity), implied dynamics and environmental invariants (e.g., implied momentum, gravity, friction, centripetal force), memory averaging of target and nontarget context (e.g., biases toward previous target locations or nontarget context), and observers' expectations (both tacit and conscious) regarding future target motion and target/context interactions. Several theories purporting to account for representational momentum and related types of displacement are also considered.

Content Classification and Context-Based Retrieval System for E-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mittal, Ankush; Krishnan, Pagalthivarthi V.; Altman, Edward

2006-01-01

A recent focus in web based learning systems has been the development of reusable learning materials that can be delivered as personalized courses depending of a number of factors such as the user's background, his/her learning preferences, current knowledge based on previous assessments, or previous browsing patterns. The student is often…

Molecular insights into the colonization and chromosomal diversification of Madeiran house mice.

PubMed

Förster, D W; Gündüz, I; Nunes, A C; Gabriel, S; Ramalhinho, M G; Mathias, M L; Britton-Davidian, J; Searle, J B

2009-11-01

The colonization history of Madeiran house mice was investigated by analysing the complete mitochondrial (mt) D-loop sequences of 156 mice from the island of Madeira and mainland Portugal, extending on previous studies. The numbers of mtDNA haplotypes from Madeira and mainland Portugal were substantially increased (17 and 14 new haplotypes respectively), and phylogenetic analysis confirmed the previously reported link between the Madeiran archipelago and northern Europe. Sequence analysis revealed the presence of four mtDNA lineages in mainland Portugal, of which one was particularly common and widespread (termed the 'Portugal Main Clade'). There was no support for population bottlenecks during the formation of the six Robertsonian chromosome races on the island of Madeira, and D-loop sequence variation was not found to be structured according to karyotype. The colonization time of the Madeiran archipelago by Mus musculus domesticus was approached using two molecular dating methods (mismatch distribution and Bayesian skyline plot). Time estimates based on D-loop sequence variation at mainland sites (including previously published data from France and Turkey) were evaluated in the context of the zooarchaeological record of M. m. domesticus. A range of values for mutation rate (mu) and number of mouse generations per year was considered in these analyses because of the uncertainty surrounding these two parameters. The colonization of Portugal and Madeira by house mice is discussed in the context of the best-supported parameter values. In keeping with recent studies, our results suggest that mutation rate estimates based on interspecific divergence lead to gross overestimates concerning the timing of recent within-species events.

Personality Development Within a Generational Context: Life Course Outcomes of Shy Children.

PubMed

Schmidt, Louis A; Tang, Alva; Day, Kimberly L; Lahat, Ayelet; Boyle, Michael H; Saigal, Saroj; Van Lieshout, Ryan J

2017-08-01

Studies have shown that shy children born in the 1920s and 1950s had delayed marriage and parenthood, less stable careers, and lower occupational attainment as adults than other children. Do these effects still hold true? We examined demographic and social outcomes of children born between 1977 and 1982 in a prospective longitudinal study. We assessed shyness in childhood (age 8), adolescence (age 12-16), young adulthood (age 22-26), and adulthood (age 30-35), and derived three shyness trajectories (i.e., decreasing, increasing, and low-stable). Social and demographic outcomes for shy children who outgrew their shyness (i.e., decreasing trajectory) were indistinguishable from those who were consistently low on shyness measures. However, a shyness trajectory beginning in adolescence and increasing to adulthood was associated with poorer outcomes, similar to previous studies. These findings highlight the importance of multiple assessments in long-term longitudinal studies and the need to consider personality development within a generational context.

Incidental and context-responsive activation of structure- and function-based action features during object identification

PubMed Central

Lee, Chia-lin; Middleton, Erica; Mirman, Daniel; Kalénine, Solène; Buxbaum, Laurel J.

2012-01-01

Previous studies suggest that action representations are activated during object processing, even when task-irrelevant. In addition, there is evidence that lexical-semantic context may affect such activation during object processing. Finally, prior work from our laboratory and others indicates that function-based (“use”) and structure-based (“move”) action subtypes may differ in their activation characteristics. Most studies assessing such effects, however, have required manual object-relevant motor responses, thereby plausibly influencing the activation of action representations. The present work utilizes eyetracking and a Visual World Paradigm task without object-relevant actions to assess the time course of activation of action representations, as well as their responsiveness to lexical-semantic context. In two experiments, participants heard a target word and selected its referent from an array of four objects. Gaze fixations on non-target objects signal activation of features shared between targets and non-targets. The experiments assessed activation of structure-based (Experiment 1) or function-based (Experiment 2) distractors, using neutral sentences (“S/he saw the …”) or sentences with a relevant action verb (Experiment 1: “S/he picked up the……”; Experiment 2: “S/he used the….”). We observed task-irrelevant activations of action information in both experiments. In neutral contexts, structure-based activation was relatively faster-rising but more transient than function-based activation. Additionally, action verb contexts reliably modified patterns of activation in both Experiments. These data provide fine-grained information about the dynamics of activation of function-based and structure-based actions in neutral and action-relevant contexts, in support of the “Two Action System” model of object and action processing (e.g., Buxbaum & Kalénine, 2010). PMID:22390294