Essentiality conferred

In this article I introduce a certain kind of anti-realist account of what makes a property essential to an object and defend it against likely objections. This account, which I call a ‘conferralist’ account, shares some of the attractive features of other anti-realist accounts, such as conventionalism and expressivism, but I believe, not their respective drawbacks.

Customer Satisfaction and Switching Barriers: Effects on Repurchase Intentions,Positive Recommendations,and Price Tolerance1

The current article attempts to extend previous research by testing the effects of customer satisfaction and 2 types of switching barriers—negative and positive—on key manifestations of attitudinal loyalty (repurchase intentions, positive recommendations, and price tolerance). The work also studies whether the effect of customer satisfaction is linear or nonlinear. Finally, the paper analyzes whether switching barriers moderate the relative strength of the customer satisfaction/attitudinal loyalty relation. To this end, a total of 554 private mobile‐phone customers were surveyed. The distinction between negative and positive switching barriers is important to draw theoretical and managerial implications.     

People with intellectual disability who are ageing: Perceived needs assessment

Background/Objective: Ageing and progressive increase in life expectancy in people with intellectual disability present significant challenges. The present study is to examine the needs that arise in the aging process of this population. To detect these needs is fundamental to ensure personal wellbeing; almost no psychometrically sound instruments have been developed. Method: A structured interview was developed and evaluated by a panel of 20 experts to obtain evidence of content validity. The interview was then applied to 1,173 people with intellectual disability. The ages ranged from 35 to 80 (M = 52.27; SD = 7.5). Results: The interview consisted of 93 items evaluating four areas: perceived needs, personal problems, future perspectives, and solutions required. The results demonstrated the proximity and relationship of the various needs evaluated. In addition it was observed that those with intellectual disability who were older, male and users of residential services tended to indicate more needs, problems, and required more solutions. Conclusions: The instrument has adequate evidence of validity, allowing the evaluation of specific needs of people with intellectual disability. The results advocate the design of transversal intervention policies in order to effectively meet the needs and requirements of this population.     

The Testing Effect is Preserved in Stressful Final Testing Environment

Previous studies have shown that retrieval practice leads to better long‐term memory than additional study of a material (a phenomenon termed the testing effect). In this study, we compared the effectiveness of these learning strategies when the final test occurs under stress (such as in an exam). Participants studied word pairs; then half of the material was repeatedly studied, whereas the other half was repeatedly tested. Following a 7‐day delay, participants were exposed to either a psychosocially stressful situation or a control task, followed by an associative recall task that tested memory for all items. Multiple measures were used to assess stress levels: emotional state assessments as well as assays of salivary cortisol and alpha‐amylase levels. Results are in favour of the ecological validity of retrieval‐based learning. Participants recalled more retested items than restudied items regardless of being exposed to a stressful situation and the hormonal (cortisol) response to stress. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Where perception meets memory: A review of repetition priming in visual search tasks

What we have recently seen and attended to strongly influences how we subsequently allocate visual attention. A clear example is how repeated presentation of an object’s features or location in visual search tasks facilitates subsequent detection or identification of that item, a phenomenon known as priming. Here, we review a large body of results from priming studies that suggest that a short-term implicit memory system guides our attention to recently viewed items. The nature of this memory system and the processing level at which visual priming occurs are still debated. Priming might be due to activity modulations of low-level areas coding simple stimulus characteristics or to higher level episodic memory representations of whole objects or visual scenes. Indeed, recent evidence indicates that only minor changes to the stimuli used in priming studies may alter the processing level at which priming occurs. We also review recent behavioral, neuropsychological, and neurophysiological evidence that indicates that the priming patterns are reflected in activity modulations at multiple sites along the visual pathways. We furthermore suggest that studies of priming in visual search may potentially shed important light on the nature of cortical visual representations. Our conclusion is that priming occurs at many different levels of the perceptual hierarchy, reflecting activity modulations ranging from lower to higher levels, depending on the stimulus, task, and context—in fact, the neural loci that are involved in the analysis of the stimuli for which priming effects are seen.     

The performance of school integration according to the perception of specialist teachers in therapeutic pedagogy

The main purpose of this article is to analyse the perception that specialist teachers in therapeutic pedagogy have of the integration of students with specific needs for educational support. Diverse groups of students are differentiated. More specifically, it aims to know how teachers perceive students' performance and participation, and also certain attitudes towards the students (acceptance, involvement of fellow students…). Teachers' opinions of various measures to improve integration are also analysed as are the diverse preferred means of schooling and support. For this purpose, a 114-item Lickert-type questionnaire, with 8 additional personal identification items, was used. The sample comprised 106 specialist teachers who work in Asturias, out of an entire sample of 406. The results reveal that specialist teachers do not perceive the same attitudes in the different groups studied. Students with behaviour disorders are the most rejected and the ones from whom teachers can expect the least. The group of ethnic minorities needs to improve family involvement. The specialists demand more human and physical resources and most of them think that ordinary centres provide the most suitable form of schooling.     

Toward a deeper understanding of motivation towards exercise: measurement of integrated regulation in the Spanish context

The purpose of this study was to validate the Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire in the Spanish context, including items to measure integrated regulation. Participants were 524 exercisers, mean age 29.59 years. The results revealed acceptable fit indices in the confirmatory factor analysis and good internal consistency (with a Cronbach alpha of .87 for integrated regulation). The diverse subscales also conformed to a simplex pattern and the factor structure was invariant across gender and age. Integrated regulation reflected high temporal stability over a 4-week period (ICC=.90). The criterion validity analysis of integrated regulation indicated that this variable was positively predicted by satisfaction of the needs for competence and autonomy. The results regarding the importance of measuring integrated regulation in exercise are discussed.     

Spinal cord injured people: differences in psychological variables from a gender perspective

This ex post factor study is within the framework of studies dealing with the psychological aspects involved in the rehabilitation of people with physical handicaps from the perspective of gender. From this perspective, the study focuses on comparing and studying the differences between men and women using the EMELM Scale (Multidimensional Evaluative Scale for People with Spinal Cord Injury). Participants were 143 people -99 men and 44 women- with spinal cord injuries. The results showed no differences as a result of gender in any of the following psychological variables related to the spinal cord injury adjustment process: extraversion-neuroticism, motivation and anxiety, locus of control, current coping strategies, remembrance of coping strategies and depression. The implications of these results for future research are discussed.     

Relationship between productivity and efficiency in research funding for Spanish regions

Quality is a major current needs and requirements for any university system. The funding that universities receive a relevant influence on the scientific productivity of these. Thus the main objective of this study is to classify the Spanish regions in terms of scientific productivity and economic efficiency of their universities. It followed the same procedure used to prepare the 2009 ranking of research productivity in Spanish universities. The results show that there are differences in the classifications made on the basis of productivity and efficiency in the investigation. The more efficient Spanish regions in managing its resources to obtain research results are Catalonia, Asturias, Aragon, and Cantabria. From the results, each region can compare their situation with the rest and analyze strengths and weaknesses in research in terms of resources.     

Discovering New Ways of Moving: Observational Analysis of Motor Creativity While Dancing Contact Improvisation and the Influence of the Partner

Contact improvisation (CI) is a form of dance based on motor creativity, improvisation and the physical contact between different improvisers dancing together. This will generate different ways of moving and a varied use of motor creativity depending on the dancers involved. This study aims to observe the differences in movement generation depending on the partner by using OSMOS (Observational System of Motor Skills; Castañer & Camerino 2006; Castañer et al., 2009). Four contact improvisers were video‐recorded while dancing in duets. Data were analysed by three observers using Theme Coder software (Magnusson, 1996) for the detection of T‐patterns and the production of event frequency charts. The results show that (1) the motor skills that appear most frequently are the conduction of partners, elevations, spatial level changes and turns; (2) motor creativity is affected by the partner, as there is a reciprocal influence in the dance; and (3) motor creativity is enhanced by interaction with a partner.