Toward a Theology of Hospitality

This article considers the need for a repositioning from advocacy to the embodiment of a theology of hospitality in focusing on the issue of statelessness as an issue of gender discrimination. To address statelessness adequately, the churches should exercise the ministry of hospitality for “strangers” as the basis for their advocacy to protect stateless persons and defend their basic and fundamental rights with regard to nationality.     

Children’s understanding of television programmes: Three exploratory studies

Three studies were designed to explore children’s understanding of television programmes. Seventy-two children from 6 to 9 years of age and attending a primary school, viewed one adult and one children’s television programme. They took part in procedures that examined their 1) memory for crucial plot events immediately after viewing, 2) understanding of the motives of the protagonists, and 3) character evaluation of the protagonists. The results yielded age differences in these abilities and suggested variable recall, poor comprehension, in terms of being able to relate motives to consequences, and confused character evaluation when the heroes and villains were not clearly discriminated. The results are interpreted in relation to the television literature, reading comprehension and children’s desire to make sense of what they see.     

Phonological cues to open- and closed-class words in the processing of spoken sentences

Evidence is presented that (a) the open and the closed word classes in English have different phonological characteristics, (b) the phonological dimension on which they differ is one to which listeners are highly sensitive, and (c) spoken open- and closed-class words produce different patterns of results in some auditory recognition tasks. What implications might link these findings? Two recent lines of evidence from disparate paradigms—the learning of an artificial language, and natural and experimentally induced misperception of juncture—are summarized, both of which suggest that listeners are sensitive to the phonological reflections of open- vs. closed-class word status. Although these correlates cannot be strictly necessary for efficient processing, if they are present listeners exploit them in making word class assignments. That such a use of phonological information is of value to listeners could be indirect evidence that open- vs. closed-class words undergo different processing operations.     

The role of information about "convention," "design," and "goal" in representing artificial kinds

In this chapter, we have considered the nature and development of our capacities for the representation of artificial kinds. We have presented a range of evidence collected using varying methods and from our own laboratories and those of others that speaks to the question of the kinds of information that might be central to knowledge of artifacts and their functions in human semantic memory. One key argument here has been that despite the fact that information about shared convention has been argued to play an important role in understanding of the "proper" uses of artifacts, just as it does in the case of the use of linguistic symbols within language communities, there are important differences between the two cases, and indeed across development, decisions about categories and functions dissociate. We have argued here that the nonarbitrary relationship between the material kind and mechanical structure of artifacts and the functions that can be supported undercuts the force of information about convention as important to determining proper artifact function. Shared convention appears less important for determining this facet of our semantic memory for artifacts than it does in supporting the proper relationship between linguistic symbols and the categories of artifact to which they refer.     

The role of social categorization and perceived source credibility in minority influence

This study was conducted in order to compare the influence of ingroup and outgroup minorities and to assess the role of perceived source credibility in minority influence. The subjects were exposed to the simultaneous majority/minority influence paradigm. Ingroup minorities were more influential than outgroup minorities. Subjects moved toward the minority position in private and toward the majority position in public when the minority was represented by members of the ingroup. On private responses subjects were not affected by outgroup minorities who argued for abortion, and they became more positive toward abortion when outgroup minorities opposed abortion. Final &, ingroup minorities were perceived as more credible than outgroup minorities and greater credibility of minority source was associated with greater attitude change toward the minority position. The superior influence of ingroup minorities held when controlling for source credibility. Overall, the results were highly supportive of social identity theory.     

EMERGENT INTRAVERBAL RESPONSES VIA TACT AND MATCH-TO-SAMPLE INSTRUCTION

The present investigation evaluated the effectiveness of category tact and match‐to‐sample instruction in facilitating the emergence of intraverbal responses (i.e., naming several items belonging to a specific category) for 2 children with autism. Results demonstrated the emergence of untaught responses, suggesting an effective instructional protocol for establishing intraverbal responses without direct instruction.