Metaphor and ‘career’

This article provides a series of readings of a young man’s career—a career that was shared in the context of a research project. Although similar, each reading is qualitatively different in the sense that new material is introduced on each occasion. This, in turn, highlights the limitations of the word as a form of representation. The article argues that in order to encapsulate the irreducible hermeneutic characteristic of a ‘career,’ a non-linear form of representation is required. The article moves on to show how metaphor can be utilized to represent ‘career’ in both words and images. This includes a detailed examination of the notion of metaphorisation—a constructionist term that denotes the relationship between metaphor and consciousness. The article concludes with a discussion of the methodological possibilities offered by metaphor for conducting research.     

Indicative and counterfactual ‘only if’ conditionals

We report three experiments to test the possibilities reasoners think about when they understand a conditional of the form ‘A only if B’ compared to ‘if A then B’. The experiments examine conditionals in the indicative mood (e.g., A occurred only if B occurred) and counterfactuals in the subjunctive mood (A would have occurred only if B had occurred). The first experiment examines the conjunctions of events that reasoners judge to be consistent with conditionals, e.g., A and B, not-A and not-B. It shows that people think about one possibility to understand ‘if’ and two possibilities to understand ‘only if’; they think about two possibilities to understand counterfactual ‘if’ and ‘only if’. The second experiment shows that the possibilities people think about when they understand ‘only if’ are in a different temporal order (e.g., B and A) to the possibilities they think about for ‘if’ (A and B). The third experiment shows that people make different inferences from ‘only if’ and ‘if’ conditionals and counterfactuals. The implications of the results for theories of counterfactual conditionals are considered.     

‘Feeling of knowing’ and cued recall

This study investigates further the relationship between an individual's ‘Feeling of Knowing’ (FOK) that a memory response is stored, and evidence of later retention. Following the presentation of a test list, in which Ss were required to recall capitals of countries, unretrieved items were immediately subject to a further retrieval attempt. Items still unretrieved were then subject to first letter cueing. Finally, items still unretrieved were subject to first and second letter cueing. Results indicate that degree of expressed FOK is significantly related to later retrieval following both first, and first and second letter cueing. This finding thus extends the earlier findings of Hart (1965) and Freedman and Landauer (1966) concerning the relationship between FOK and later measured retention, as in both these studies retention was measured by a recognition procedure. Where Ss reported ‘not knowing’ a capital on the test list, there was nevertheless a substantial probability of recall following cueing (0.33). Finally, it was shown that wrong responses given during the test list presentation were highly indicative of a correct response following cueing.     

‘Additive difference’ models without additivity and subtractivity

This paper studies conjoint measurement models tolerating intransitivities that closely resemble Tversky's additive difference model while replacing additivity and subtractivity by mere decomposability requirements. We offer a complete axiomatic characterisation of these models without having recourse to unnecessary structural assumptions on the set of objects. This shows the pure consequences of several cancellation conditions that have often been used in the analysis of more traditional conjoint measurement models. Our models contain as particular cases many aggregation rules that have been proposed in the literature.     

Getting emotional about ‘brain mobility’

Our purpose in this paper is to offer an historical and cultural account of the relationships between globalisation, the nation-state, emotion and the academic mobility policies that are driven by the knowledge economy. In so doing we seek to contribute to the emerging literature on the links between emotion, policy and globalisation. These links are under-researched and under-theorised. Seeking to build on Arjun Appadurai’s work on the global cultural economy, we coin the term ‘emoscapes’. Emoscapes, we argue, involve the movement and mobilisation of emotion on intersecting global, national and personal scales. This concept helps us to illuminate how emotion circulates within global power and knowledge geographies. We discuss global policy atmospherics in terms of the structural power relationship between different nation-states and regions, the feelings such relationships generate on matters of ‘brain mobility’ and the implications for policy. This provides a broad context for our discussion of the nation-state itself where we consider how the nation-state’s position within these global power formations contributes to national feelings. Taking the example of Australia, we look at its emotional archive, the implications for the ways in which Australian policies have territorialised the global ‘brain mobility’ policy discourse and the nation-state policy atmospherics involved. Ultimately we show how emoscapes have entered and influenced policy and how they are part of global and national power and knowledge geographies.     

“右好左坏”和“左好右坏”——利手与左右空间情感效价的关联性

人们会将“右”和“左”与积极或消极的事物相关联,这称为左右空间的情感效价.以具身认知理论和躯体特异性假设为基础的研究发现,右利手会将右侧空间与积极事物相关联,而左利手则会将左侧空间与积极事物相关连;左右空间情感效价是由利手与非利手的运动经验塑造的;利手与非利手运动经验的改变则会反转左右空间情感效价;趋近动机脑功能偏侧化与利手是一致的.未来的研究应进一步澄清利手运动与趋近动机在神经机制上的关联性,并探索文化因素与身体经验如何共同塑造左右空间情感效价.     

The role of ‘action-effects’ and agency in toddlers’ imitation

We report an experiment on imitation by children between 14 and 26 months in which the presence or absence of an outcome of the procedure to be imitated was varied against whether the procedure was one performed by the experimenter or by a descending arrow. The presence of an outcome did not affect performance positively when the procedure was performed by the experimenter, but it did when it was performed by the descending arrow. When there was an outcome, performance on the experimenter-perform and the arrow-perform conditions did not differ. We argue that this result puts pressure on theories like ‘the theory of common coding’ (W. Prinz) which view the presence of an outcome as being crucial to imitation.     

The ‘circumstances’ of gestures: Proto-interrogatives and private gestures

The later Wittgenstein's emphasis on the social usage of language has been very influential in psychology, particularly in language acquisition research. This move toward a pragmatic position should also be applied to gestures in pre-linguistic children and to objects in the everyday contexts of use. The shared ‘forms of life’ presupposed by language involve pre-linguistic gestures and material ‘things’.Research on early communication has focused on proto-declarative and proto-imperative gestures. I extend this focus and propose further types of gestures: ‘proto-interrogatives’ - in which children “ask” for help or regulation from adults, and three types of ‘private gestures’ - ostensive, indexical and symbolic - in which children regulate their own behaviour. This diversity of gestures becomes apparent when objects are taken seriously. Wittgenstein's ‘language-games’ necessarily apply to games with objects and gestures as well: social meaning in all cases is emergent within the context of these ‘sign games’ and ‘circumstances.’     

The accuracy of ‘haptically’ measured geographical slant perception

In two recent issues of Acta, the widely accepted view of Proffitt (2006), that ‘haptic’ measures of perceived geographical slant are generally accurate, and dissociated from explicit overestimates, came under intense scrutiny (Durgin, Hajnal, Li, Tonge, and Stigliani, 2010; 2011). Durgin and colleagues' challenge to this account centred on the claim that Proffitt's haptic’ measure of geographical slant, the palm-board, may be accidently accurate due to restricted movements available at the wrist. Two experiments reported here compare the accuracy of Proffitt's palm-board with an alternative measure of geographical slant perception, the Palm-Controlled Inclinometer (PCI), which allows participants to use wrist, elbow and shoulder movements to match slant with their hand. Participants (N = 320) made slant judgements using both measures, across five hills and five staircases with 32 participants for each stimulus angle (4.5°–31°). Results for the palm-board replicated those of Proffitt and co-workers, overestimation at shallow angles (≤ 14°), contrasted with underestimation at steeper angles (≥ 23°), whereas estimates made using the PCI had a greater degree of accuracy for steeper slopes. A follow-up experiment tested the accuracy of the palm-board and PCI for surfaces in near space to repeat the design of Durgin et al. (2010, experiment 1). Participants (N = 20) used the palm-board and PCI to judge the angle of slanted blocks (25°, 30°). As with traversable slopes, PCI judgements did not differ from the actual angle of the blocks whereas the palm-board measure underestimated. ‘Haptic’ measures of geographical slant perception can be accurate for relatively steep slopes, in both near and far space.     

Defining ‘Modern’ Malay womanhood and the coexistent messages of the veil

The gender constructions and performances of Malay women are often perceived by outside researchers as ‘shrouded under a veil’ of increasing Islamic conservatism. Urban Malay women, however, argue that women actively engage in the construction and performance of gender identities. Based on research conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during 2001 and 2003, this article argues that women advantageously alter, transform and utilise the constructs placed upon them by Islam, by ethnic identification and by conceptions of ‘modernity’. Often one image of ‘womanhood’ is presented and in public - an image that is socially accepted, honoured and respected - while less publicly alternative forms of ‘womanhood’ articulate individual goals and aims. Using an agent-oriented perspective, this article further includes an analysis of women's individual renegotiations of larger cultural constructs and the ways in which the tudong, or headscarf, has become a symbol by which individual women express their understanding of social position and personal freedoms in an industrialised Islamic context.     

Transfer of old ‘reactivated’ memory retrieval cues in rats

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 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, J. F., Fitz, K. I., & Riccio, D. C. (in press). Transfer of memory retrieval cues in rats. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review] showing the transfer of retrieval cues for a new memory, and demonstrating a similarity (in this case) between newly acquired and old reactivated memories.     

‘Cognitive inhibition’ and schizotypy as measured by the Oxford-Liverpool inventory of feelings and experiences

Previous studies have reliably shown a reduced level of the negative priming effect in both schizophrenics and high schizotypes. Measurement of symptom orientated aspects of schizotypy has previously utilised lengthy questionnaires such as the CSTQ, or individual use of several different questionnaires. We attempted to replicate previous findings with use of the OLIFE, a relatively short schizotypy questionnaire derived from the CSTQ. Consistent with recent research, reduced negative priming was significantly linked with subjects scoring high on scales related to positive, and not negative, aspects of schizophrenic symptomatology, whilst the Stroop effect was found to be independent of all measures of schizotypy. The OLIFE served as a useful tool, allowing examination of specific aspects of schizotypy within the time pressures of a laboratory environment.     

Art as Neglected ‘Text’ for the Study of Gender and Religion in Africa

The visual and performing arts in Africa provide unique opportunities not just for the reinforcement of gender differences but also for the subversion or transcendence of those differences to ensure societal harmony. A close reading of the various forms of artistic expression provides valuable data on women’s perceived mystical powers—procreation, metaphysical knowledge and intimate communication with the spirit world as well as their social and religious status.     

Personality and occupational markers of ‘solid citizenship’ are associated with having fewer children

Investigating associations between personality and reproductive fitness may reveal the adaptive significance of human behavioural traits. What we dub ‘solid-citizenship’ personality characteristics such as self-control, diligence and responsibility may repay study from an evolutionary perspective as they protect against negative life-outcomes. We explored associations between reproductive fitness and personality questionnaire markers of solid citizenship in 4981 women from four Australian samples. We also examined relations between reproductive fitness and army discharge status, an applied measure of solid citizenship, in 15,283 Vietnam War-era military veterans. In two Australian samples there were significant negative associations between reproductive fitness and personality measures of solid citizenship. Similarly, in the US study honourably discharged servicemen on average fathered significantly fewer children than non-honourably discharged servicemen. Since personality is genetically influenced, our results suggest that genetic variants for solid citizenship may be decreasing in frequency in some populations, in line with other modern findings but in contrast to historical analyses. Causes for this change may include relatively more conscientious women using contraception to prioritise their careers over reproduction and the availability of systematic welfare provisioning.     

Anomalous global effects induced by ‘blind’ distractors in visual hemifield defects

Previous research has revealed that a stimulus presented in the blind visual field of participants with visual hemifield defects can evoke oculomotor competition, in the absence of awareness. Here we studied three cases to determine whether a distractor in a blind hemifield would be capable of inducing a global effect, a shift of saccade endpoint when target and distractor are close to each other, in participants with lesions of the optic radiations or striate cortex. We found that blind field distractors significantly shifted saccadic endpoints in two of three participants with lesions of either the striate cortex or distal optic radiations. The direction of the effect was paradoxical, however, in that saccadic endpoints shifted away from blind field distractors, whereas endpoints shifted towards distractors in the visible hemifields, which is the normal global effect. These results provide further evidence that elements presented in the blind visual field can generate modulatory interactions in the oculomotor system, which may differ from interactions in normal vision.     

The ‘Emerging Church’ in America: Notes on the interaction of Christianities

The ‘Emerging Church’ is an American-born movement that dates to the late 1990s. It is fundamentally a movement of cultural critique in which the primary interlocutor is the dominant tradition in the United States, conservative Evangelicalism. In this article I address the phenomenon of Emerging Christianity based on historical, literary, and ethnographic analyses of Emerging Church advocates and critics. In particular, I argue that four points of dialogue characterize the status of Emerging in the United States: ‘post-foundational’ theology, ‘ancient-future’ worship, ‘missional’ evangelism, and a general posture of ‘deconversion.’ Ultimately, I present the story of the Emerging Church for its significance to two broad theoretical questions. First, how do new forms of religious identity come into being? And, second, for those working in the ‘anthropology of Christianity’: what happens when Christianities interact? In response to these questions, I stress the Janus-faced quality of Emerging Christianity and its reliance on the categories, narratives, and vocabulary of conservative Evangelicalism in constructing its thoroughgoing cultural critique.     

Fractal analyses for ‘short’ time series: A re-assessment of classical methods

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performances of some classical methods of fractal analysis with short time series. We simulated exact fractal series to test how well methods estimate the Hurst exponent. We successively tested power spectral density analysis, detrended fluctuation analysis, rescaled range analysis, dispersional analysis, maximum likelihood estimation, and two versions of scaled windowed variance methods. All methods presented different advantages and disadvantages, in terms of biases and variability. We propose in conclusion a systematic step-by-step procedure of analysis, based on the performances of each method and their appropriateness regarding the scientific aims that could motivate fractal analysis.