The present work aimed at assessing whether the interference exerted by task-irrelevant spatial information is comparable in high- and low-susceptible individuals and whether it may be eliminated by means of a specific posthypnotic suggestion. To this purpose high- and low-susceptible participants were tested using a Simon-like interference task after the administration of a suggestion aimed at preventing the processing of the irrelevant spatial information conveyed by the stimuli. The suggestion could be administered either in the absence or following a standard (...) hypnotic induction. We showed that, outside from the hypnotic context, the Simon effect was similar in high and low-susceptible participants and it was significantly reduced following the posthypnotic suggestion in high-susceptible participants only. These results show that a specific posthypnotic suggestion can alter information processing in high-susceptible individuals and reduce the interfering effect exerted by arrow stimuli. (shrink)

The deep comprehension of a text is tantamount to the construction of an articulated mental model of that text. The number of correct recollections is an index of a learner's mental model of a text. We assume that another index of comprehension is the timing of the gestures produced during text recall; gestures are simultaneous with speech when the learner has built an articulated mental model of the text, whereas they anticipate the speech when the learner has built a less (...) articulated mental model. The results of four experiments confirm the predictions deriving from our assumptions for both children and adults. Provided that the recollections are correct, the timing of gestures can differ and can be considered a further measure of the quality of the mental model, beyond the number of correct recollections. (shrink)

A number of previous studies have documented the link between media literacy and civic or political participation, and some researchers argue that the advancement of media literacy may encourage citizens to take part in addressing various issues of societal concern. However, the previous studies tend to include relatively few civic or political activities in the measurements and do not demonstrate in detail how different dimensions of media literacy are related to particular forms of participation. This study addresses these issues using (...) survey data from Latvia (N = 871). The results show that a link between media literacy and civic participation exists, but media literacy explains a relatively small variance in civic participation activities. We advocate caution when considering whether media literacy itself promotes civic participation, because other phenomena, which further studies should explore, could contribute to both media literacy and civic participation. While acknowledging the general importance of media literacy, this paper argues that individuals with these skills do not necessarily use them for civic participation, and that increased levels of media literacy may not offset the structural reasons for low civic activity in a society. (shrink)

This paper brings the intellectual tools of cognitive science to bear on resolving the “paradox of the active user” [Interfacing Thought: Cognitive Aspects of Human–Computer Interaction, Cambridge, MIT Press, MA, USA]—the persistent use of inefficient procedures in interactive tasks by experienced or even expert users when demonstrably more efficient procedures exist. The goal of this paper is to understand the roots of this paradox by finding regularities in these inefficient procedures. We examine three very different data sets. For each data (...) set, we first satisfy ourselves that the preferred procedures used by some subjects are indeed less efficient than the recommended procedures. We then amass evidence, for each set, and conclude that when a preferred procedure is used instead of a more efficient, recommended procedure, the preferred procedure tends to have two major characteristics: (1) the preferred procedure is a well‐practiced, generic procedure that is applicable either within the same task environment in different contexts or across different task environments, and (2) the preferred procedure is composed of interactive components that bring fast, incremental feedback on the external problem states. The support amassed for these characteristics leads to a new understanding of the paradox. In interactive tasks, people are biased towards the use of general procedures that start with interactive actions. These actions require much less cognitive effort as each action results in an immediate change to the external display that, in turn, cues the next action. Unfortunately for the users, the bias to use interactive unit tasks leads to a path that requires more effort in the long run. Our data suggest that interactive behavior is composed of a series of distributed choices; that is, people seldom make a once‐and‐for‐all decision on procedures. This series of biased selection of interactive unit tasks often leads to a stable suboptimal level of performance. (shrink)

Gaze direction is an important social cue for understanding the intentions of other people. Indeed, interacting with others requires the ability to encode their current focus of attention in order to predict their future actions. Previous studies have showed that when asked to detect or identify a target, people are faster if shown a gaze oriented toward rather than away from that target. Most importantly, there is evidence that the emotion conveyed by the face with the averted gaze matters. We (...) further tested the interplay between gaze and face emotion in the context of manipulable objects to understand whether and to what extent other people's gaze influences our own actions toward objects. Participants judged whether a target graspable object was upright or inverted after viewing a face cue with a central or averted gaze. Importantly, the target's handle could be oriented toward the gazed-at location or the opposite side such that gaze and handle were corresponding or non-corresponding in space. Furthermore, we manipulated the expression of the cue by using neutral and fearful faces. Results showed a handle-response compatibility effect only with fearful cues with a central gaze. (shrink)

The common narrations in the main hadith books in the tradition of Ahl as-Sunnah and Shia are an essential subject of examination in determining the relations within and between sects. In the significant part of these narrations, the two madhhabs differ by attributing different meanings to the common hadiths. It is understood that Shia's practices such as walaya, the necessity of the imam, being innocent and muhaddath of the imams are proven especially in the common hadiths related to the principles (...) of faith. Aside from who is right, the meaning and wording differences in the common narrations could provide an understanding of the differences and formation processes between and within the sects. For example, the hadith of firâsah, one of the common narrations, has been discussed. An independent study concludes that the hadith of firâsah found a place in the Ahl al-Sunnah, especially in the Sufi tradition and did not pass on to the Ahl al-Sunnah from the Shia. This article has examined the common narrators of whether the hadith passed from Ahl al-Sunnah to Shia and has focused on whether there is an intellectual interaction. It has been determined that the meaning attributed to the understanding of firâsah by the Sufis among the Ahl al-Sunnah is similar to the imams' characteristic of being muhaddath in Shia. It has also been determined that the Shia made some additions to the hadith of firâsah and reached different conclusions from the Ahl as-sunnah. In addition, it has been seen that Ithnâashariya used the hadith of firâsah as evidence against other groups to confirm its justification in the sectarian divisions of the Shia. (shrink)

We study the jump hierarchy of d.c.e. Turing degrees and show that there exists a high d.c.e. degree d which does not bound any minimal pair of d.c.e. degrees.

This paper focuses on the relation of heuristic search and level of intelligence in cognitive computation systems. The paper begins with a review of the fundamental properties of a cognitive computation system, which is defined generally as a control system that generates goal-directed actions in response to environmental inputs and constraints. An important property of cognitive computations is the need to process local cues in symbol structures to access and integrate distal knowledge to generate a response. To deal with uncertainties (...) involved in this local-to-distal processing, the system needs to perform heuristic search to locate and integrate the right set of distal structures. The level of intelligence of the system depends critically on the efficiency of the heuristic search process. It is argued that, for a bounded rationality system, the level of intelligence does not depend on how much search it needs to do to accomplish a task. Rather, the level of intelligence depends on how much search it does not need to do to achieve the same level of performance. Examples were discussed to illustrate this idea. The first two examples show how machines that play games like tic-tac-toe and chess rely heavily on the efficiency of the heuristic search algorithm to achieve better performance, demonstrating the relation of heuristic search and intelligence in a bounded rationality system. The second example shows how humans adapt to different information ecologies to perform information search on the Internet and how their performance improves over time, demonstrating how heuristic search can be improved in an adaptive rationality system. The two examples demonstrate how better search control knowledge and representations of task environment can improve the efficiency of heuristic search, thereby improving the intelligence of the system. (shrink)

The existence of cooperative labor relations within leading firms in South Korea, amid unfavorable national-level economic and political institutions, merits study by comparative political economists. Late industrializing Korea lacks the conditions that sustain cooperative labor relations in other nonliberal capitalist countries like Germany and Japan. More relevant, therefore, are debates over the emergence and practice of “high performance work systems” in the unfavorable environments of advanced liberal and developing country capitalism. As a successful late industrializing country that combines both advanced (...) and developing capitalism characteristics, Korea represents a useful testing ground for ideas about HPWS. This article will examine cooperation in four leading Korean firms and use the findings to advance key HPWS debates about the possibilities of participation and the conditions under which cooperation can emerge and be sustained. (shrink)

The article is devoted to an important area of scientific research related to the history and culture of Yakutia. Written monuments of historical and cultural heritage, along with material ones, occupy their permanent place. The solution to the problem of their preservation and interpretation is inextricably linked with publishing activities – modern technical capabilities increase its effectiveness. In the article we study the existing experience in this field by the example of the publication of Russian cursive sources of the XVII (...) century about the history of Yakutia, as well as cultural heritage. The object of the study is the historical and cultural heritage of Yakutia. The subject of the study ate the samples in various forms. The research summarized the experience of publishing historical and cultural heritage monuments on the example of Russian cursive documents of the XVII century about Yakutia, as well as the works of the first Yakut composer M.N. Zhirkov. Since they are of great value as samples of archival documents reflecting regional specifics, we have carried out work to determine their historical significance for the culture of Yakutia. In this article, based on an assessment of the internal content of the collections considered as examples and the quality of their publication, recommendations have been developed to improve further work in this direction. Undoubtedly, further work should be continued to identify such written monuments that require special storage and interpretation, have great historical and cultural value for the Yakut people, as well as transfer to modern media of this information, taking into account the necessary publication rules. For the first time, the question of creating a pan-Yakut electronic database of written monuments of historical and cultural heritage of Yakutia was raised. (shrink)

One of the common points between Ahl al-Sunnah and Shia is the com-mon hadiths, which both have. These hadiths have been seen as a means of bringing the two sides closer in recent years. Although common narrations, which are seen as a means of bringing the two sects closer, have been men-tioned in recent years, when going into detail, it is understood that there are differences in terms of wording and interpretation. Some of the common hadiths are transmitted in the (...) exactly same way in Shia and Ahl al-Sunnah. The two sects were able to make different evaluations in terms of meaning in such hadiths. The wording differences of a hadith in Shia enable the follow-up of the formation within the sect. A similar situation can be seen in the interpretations attributed to the hadiths in the Ahl al-Sunnah. As a concrete example of these determinations, it is possible to consider the hadith of firâsah, which includes abstract concepts within the scope of faith. The study consists of two parts. In the first part, status of authenticity the hadith of firâsah in Ahl al-Sunnah and the meaning attributed to the hadith are emphasized. It was seen that Sufi scholars concentrated more on this hadith as a result of the research on hadith, tafsir and sufism sources.The hadith of firâset, which is almost identical in terms of text in the books of Shia and Ahl as-sunna, has been accepted as evidence of the understanding of firâset among the Ahl as-Sunnah, especially as a way of Sufis obtaining knowledge. (shrink)

Se vorbește îndeobște mai mult despre un spirit al timpului (Zeitgeist) și amprenta acestuia asupra modului în care noi înțelegem și reflectăm lumea – asemenea cerului, al cărui joc de lumini și umbre oferă un contur de culoare lucrurilor. Nu trebuie însă să uităm solul din care ideile încolțesc și spiritul locului (Raumgeist) care le‐a animat creșterea. În acest orizont au loc întâlnirile, împlinirile, speranțele și dezamăgirile care ne edifică ca oameni și ne orientează busola căutărilor filosofice și spirituale. Există (...) roade pentru care dăm socoteală în secerișul vieții de zi cu zi și există resturi de care recolta zilei nu pare să ia seama – aparent neînsemnate pentru logica zilei, aceste resturi de roade sunt tocmai cele care la urmă, la apus, dau sens întregii strădanii. Avem sarcina existențială de a nu lăsa iarna vieții să se aștearnă pe resturile rămase în urma secerișului. Acesta este și imboldul volumului de față, care se dorește a fi un spicilegium, care în limba latină înseamnă „un mănunchi de resturi de spice rămase în urma recoltei”. Așadar, o antologie de paisprezece texte filosofice de diferite dimensiuni și subiecte, dar care reprezintă expresia unei comunități de cercetători, profesori, doctoranzi și pasionați de filosofie aduși împreună de filosofia studiată sau trăită cândva la Cluj‐Napoca. Chiar dacă este compus din texte eterogene, cititorul atent al acestui volum va putea sesiza cum spiritul acestui loc subîntinde toate tematizările: propensiunea față de idealism, profunzimea psihanalizei, subtilitatea fenomenologiei, pasiunea realist speculativă și fervoarea căutării autentice a binelui, adevărului și frumosului în lume, în gândire și artă sunt predispozițiile care însuflețesc și textele de față. - Dan Siserman. (shrink)

Constraints and dependencies among the elements of embodied cognition form patterns or microstrategies of interactive behavior. Hard constraints determine which microstrategies are possible. Soft constraints determine which of the possible microstrategies are most likely to be selected. When selection is non-deliberate or automatic the least effort microstrategy is chosen. In calculating the effort required to execute a microstrategy each of the three types of operations, memory retrieval, perception, and action, are given equal weight; that is, perceptual-motor activity does not have (...) a privileged status with respect to memory. Soft constraints can work contrary to the designer's intentions by making the access of perfect knowledge in-the-world more effortful than the access of imperfect knowledge in-the-head. These implications of soft constraints are tested in two experiments. In experiment 1 we varied the perceptual-motor effort of accessing knowledge in-the-world as well as the effort of retrieving items from memory. In experiment 2 we replicated one of the experiment 1 conditions to collect eye movement data. The results suggest that milliseconds matter. Soft constraints lead to a reliance on knowledge in-the-head even when the absolute difference in perceptual-motor versus memory retrieval effort is small, and even when relying on memory leads to a higher error rate and lower performance. We discuss the implications of soft constraints for routine interactive behavior, accounts of embodied cognition, and tool and interface design. (shrink)

As human consumption is one of the key contributors to environmental problems, it is increasingly urgent to promote sustainable consumption. Drawing on the agentic-communal model of power, this research explores how the psychological feeling of power influences consumers’ preference for green products. We show that low power increases consumers’ preference for green products compared to high power. Importantly, we identify two factors moderating the main effect of power on green consumption. Specifically, we find that the effect of power on green (...) consumption is more salient among those with high green consumption values. In addition, the effects of power are dynamic as a function of power distance belief, such that low power promotes green consumption in the low-PDB context while high power promotes green consumption in the high-PDB context. Taken together, these findings provide novel insights into understanding green consumption from the perspectives of social power, green values, and PDB. Besides contributing to the literature, the findings have significant implications for marketers and policy-makers in promoting green campaigns, bridging the attitude-behavior gap, and building a more sustainable society. (shrink)