Common patterns of prediction of literacy development in different alphabetic orthographies

Previous studies have shown that phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and verbal memory span are reliable correlates of learning to read in English. However, the extent to which these different predictors have the same relative importance in different languages remains uncertain. In this article, we present the results from a 10-month longitudinal study that began just before or soon after the start of formal literacy instruction in four languages (English, Spanish, Slovak, and Czech). Longitudinal path analyses showed that phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and RAN (but not verbal memory span) measured at the onset of literacy instruction were reliable predictors, with similar relative importance, of later reading and spelling skills across the four languages. These data support the suggestion that in all alphabetic orthographies, phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and RAN may tap cognitive processes that are important for learning to read.     

Relationship between schizotypal and borderline traits in college students

The main objective of the present investigation was to analyze the relationship between self-reported schizotypal and borderline personality traits in a sample of 759 college students (M = 19.63 years; SD = 2.03). For this purpose, the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief (SPQ-B; Raine and Benishay, 1995) and Borderline Personality Questionnaire (BPQ; Poreh et al., 2006) were administered. The results showed that schizotypal and borderline features are partially related at subclinical level. The exploratory factor analysis conducted on the subscales revealed a three-factor solution comprised of the following factors: Identity/Interpersonal, Lack of Control and Schizotypal. The canonical correlation analysis showed that schizotypal features and borderline personality traits shared 34.8% of the variance. The data highlight the overlap between schizotypal and borderline personality traits in nonclinical young adults. Future studies should continue to examine the relationship and the degree of overlap between these traits in community samples.     

Working memory capacity and individual differences in the making of reinstatement and elaborative inferences

This study investigated the role of working memory capacity on the making of reinstatement and causal elaborative inferences during the reading of natural texts. In order to determine participants' working memory capacity, they were asked to take the reading span task before they took part in the study. Those participants that were identified as high or low working memory capacity readers were asked to perform a lexical decision task in two conditions: pre-inference and inference. In the pre-inference condition, target words representing reinstatement or causal elaborative inferences were presented immediately before the sentences that were predicted to prompt them. In the inference condition, the target words were presented immediately after the sentences that were predicted to prompt the inferences. Results indicated that, for the high working memory capacity readers, lexical decision times were faster at the inference compared to the pre-inference locations for both types of inferences. In the case of low working capacity readers, lexical decision times were faster at the inference compared to the pre-inference locations only for reinstatement inferences. These findings suggest that working memory capacity plays a role in the making of causal inferences during the comprehension of natural texts.     

Benign and disruptive disturbances of the supervisory field1

Inspired by Baranger, Baranger and Mom’s notion of psychoanalytic bastion, we describe an unconscious collusion between analytic supervisors and supervisees. This collusion’s purpose is to avoid the anxiety inherent in the psychoanalytic field and that enters unprocessed into the supervisory field. The supervisor/supervisee dyad’s emotional experience can be fleeting, with moderate intensity, but can slow down the process. This can happen sometimes in any supervisory situation. Or it can become permanent and with greater intensity and bring the entire process to a standstill and to a disruption of the supervisory field. We call the first situation a ‘benign disturbance of the supervisory field’, the second a ‘disruptive disturbance of the supervisory field’. We illustrate both disturbances using supervisory material. Our purpose is to show how to detect these disturbances, understand them, and manage them.     

Life and Death of Music as Education: A Philosophical Overview

Abstract

This essay contemplates the role of music as education (as opposed to music education) in the Western World since Ancient Greek philosophical inquiry and throughout early Christianity, the Middle Ages, and Modernism. It regards music as a potential tool for instruction and knowledge exchange. In particular, this essay examines post-Enlightenment philosophical trends that reshaped Western understandings of music. Finally, this paper explores music education within the Seventh-day Adventist educational system as influenced by both nineteenth-century thought as well as informed by the reformative attempts that followed in the twentieth century.     

Religiosity at the roadside: memorials,animitas, and shrines on a Chilean highway

ABSTRACT

Roadside memorials devoted to vehicle-related deaths are increasingly common across the globe. Scholars have generally emphasised their commemorative status—as sites where a private memory is publicly displayed—underestimating, however, their religious dimension. This article is based on research which involved the content analysis of photographs taken during multiple visits to the 94 roadside memorials existing in 2015 on Route 78, a major Chilean highway connecting Santiago (Chile’s capital city) and San Antonio (one of the country’s main sea ports). We argue that Chilean roadside memorials are not solely commemorative sites but primarily animitas that have a core (popular) religious component: they are privileged locations where salvific grace is dispensed, acting as mediators between the living and the divinity and connecting the sacred and profane worlds. Furthermore, we suggest that the tragic nature of the deaths they commemorate confers on them a miraculous efficacy which may transform the sites into shrines and the victims into folk saints.