On Becoming a Cybernetician: Highlights and Milestones

In this article, I describe how I encountered cybernetics and how it became an important part of my life. I begin with an account of my time at Brunel University and also describe how I came to work with Gordon Pask, one of the few intellectuals and researchers in the UK who styled themselves as cyberneticians. To enrich my story, I include an overview of the story of cybernetics as I perceive it. Given the importance I attach to cybernetics as an intellectual tool, I end with a plea for it to be included in all educational curricula.     

Family Resource Allocation after Firstborns Leave Home: Implications for Secondborns' Academic Functioning

This study assessed secondborn adolescents' perceptions of changes in the allocation of family resources following their firstborn siblings' departure from home after high school, and whether perceived changes were related to changes over 1 year in secondborns' academic functioning. Participants were secondborn siblings (mean age = 16.58, SD = 0.91) from 115 families in which the older sibling had left the family home in the previous year. Allocation of resources was measured via coded qualitative interviews. Most (77%) secondborns reported increases in at least one type of family resource (i.e., parental companionship, attention, material goods), and many reported an increase in multiple types of resources in the year following their older sibling's departure. Consistent with resource dilution theory, perceptions of increases in fathers' companionship, fathers' attention, and mothers' companionship were related to improvements over time in secondborns' academic functioning.     

The so‐called death drive,an indispensable force for any subjective life

The psychoanalytic movement has difficulty in overcoming the malaise bequeathed by what Freud wanted to call the ‘death drive’. This term remains doubly problematic: first because the indispensable antagonist of Eros‐binding cannot be reduced to a particular drive; and secondly because this Anteros plays a vital role in subjectivization. The Freudian idea of the ‘death drive’ has in addition the drawback of confusing dissociative thrust (unbinding) with the aggressive component of libidinal cathexis. Now it is precisely the lack of articulation between them that leads to deconstructing it. For it is constantly observed that in the psychic register aggression is much more fixing than unbinding. The essential role of Anteros/unbinding in the process of subjectivization can be illustrated through several key operations in subjective development: sublimatory activity and its renunciation of pleasure‐discharge, the work of mourning opposed to melancholic fixation, the intricating‐unbinding parental function, and finally the psychoanalytic treatment and its work of analysis. This means we should cease to anathematize the dynamic component of unbinding as ‘of death’ and seek to explain the concept of subjectivization better.     

That Could Be Me (or Not): Senseless Violence and the Role of Deservingness,Victim Ethnicity,Person Identification,and Position Identification1

Building on just‐world theory, the current study examined variables contributing to the labeling of violent incidents as senseless. In a 2 × 2 (Blame Opportunities x Victim Ethnicity) design, Dutch participants (N= 78) were provided with a written hypothetical situation depicting a violent incident. Consistent with predictions, the violence was evaluated to be less deserved and more senseless (and the desired penalty for the offender was stronger) when participants had no opportunity to blame the victim than when they did have an opportunity to blame the victim. Likewise, an act of violence committed against a victim belonging to an ethnic minority (allochthonous victim) was perceived to be more deserved and less senseless (and the desired penalty for the offender was smaller) than a similar violent act directed against a native (autochthonous) victim. Findings designate that the just‐world theory offers a promising approach to investigate factors determining the labeling of violent incidents as senseless by outside, uninvolved observers.     

The use of virtual reality for episodic memory assessment: effects of active navigation

Episodic memory was assessed using Virtual Reality (VR). Forty-four (44) subjects visualized a target virtual apartment containing specific objects in each room. Then they visualized a second virtual apartment comprised of specific objects and objects shared by the two apartments. Subjects navigated in the virtual apartments in one of the following two conditions: active and passive. Four main episodic memory components were scored from the VR exposures: (1) learning effect; (2) active forgetting effect; (3) strategies at encoding and at retrieval; and (4) false recognitions (FRs). The effect of navigation mode (active vs. passive) on each memory component was examined. Active subjects had better learning and retrieval (recognition hits) performances compared to passive subjects. A beneficial effect of active navigation was also observed on the source-based FR rates. Active subjects made fewer source-based FRs compared to passive subjects. These overall results for the effect of active navigation are discussed in terms of the distinction between item-specific and relational processing.     

How to Cook Rice: A Review of Ingredients for Teaching anti‐Prejudice

There is a pressing need to address prejudice, racism, and discrimination against marginalised groups in Australia. This involves change from the structural to the individual level. In this article, we discuss the merits of individual anti‐prejudice mechanisms within the Australian context. First, we expand on nine mechanisms described in a previous paper and then review five new mechanisms. We conclude that while some mechanisms are likely to be useful regardless of location, others need to be tailored to the local context. We also conclude that effective interventions need to utilise multiple mechanisms. It is hoped that the synthesis of the different mechanisms provided here will assist anti‐prejudice researchers, practitioners, and policymakers striving to improve relations among different groups in our society.     

Who takes driving licence point recovery courses in France? Comparison between course-takers and ordinary drivers

A self-administered questionnaire was answered by 2014 drivers, 853 of whom were taking a course. The data were analyzed aiming to identify the factors that are linked to taking the course, i.e. to recurrent reoffending.The course-takers, of whom 89% were male, admitted committing more violations than the control group. They had more accidents. More male course-takers than controls reported not being happy, and they more frequently had high extroversion scores.The multivariate analysis showed that, among men, taking the course was associated with the mileage, the feeling of being almost certain to be charged for an offence and having a high risk of losing one’s licence, in addition to being young, having a large number of brothers and sisters, higher socio-occupational category and smoking. Among women, in spite of the small number of them on the course, the mileage, the feeling of having a high risk of losing one’s licence, driving alone, the mental representation of their own vehicle as an extension of their office, and defining themselves as liking to take risks during leisure activities were significantly linked to taking a points recovery course.Those taking the course were not therefore doing so by chance; they differed from the general population of drivers, which was also precisely described with regard to driving habits and representations.Recommendations are then made in order to redirect the content of courses more towards introspection than technical matters.