Culturally Focused Community‐Centered Service Learning: An International Cultural Immersion Experience

An immersion training model is described that incorporates culturally focused community‐centered service in South Africa as an experiential learning approach. Recommendations for developing international cultural immersion training with a goal of developing cultural competencies are suggested. Se describe un modelo formativo de inmersión que incorpora servicios culturalmente enfocados centrados en la comunidad en Sudáfrica como una aproximación experimental de aprendizaje. Se sugieren recomendaciones para desarrollar programas formativos de inmersión cultural con el objetivo de desarollar competencias culturales.     

Working memory deficits can be overcome: Impacts of training and medication on working memory in children with ADHD

This study evaluated the impact of two interventions—a training program and stimulant medication—on working memory (WM) function in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Twenty‐five children aged between 8 and 11 years participated in training that taxed WM skills to the limit for a minimum of 20 days, and completed other assessments of WM and IQ before and after training, and with and without prescribed drug treatment. While medication significantly improved visuo‐spatial memory performance, training led to substantial gains in all components of WM across untrained tasks. Training gains associated with the central executive persisted over a 6‐month period. IQ scores were unaffected by either intervention. These findings indicate that the WM impairments in children with ADHD can be differentially ameliorated by training and by stimulant medication. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attributions for Health‐Related Physical Activity

Tenets of Weiner's (1985, 1986 ) attribution theory were examined in the context of being active enough for health benefits, including associations between attributions, emotions, and future expectations. Participants completed questionnaires assessing activity, perceived success/failure to be active enough for health benefits, attributions, emotions, and future expectancy. Perception of being active enough for health benefits was associated with more internal, personally controllable, and stable attributions. Support was found for relationships between perceived outcome and emotions, but not for attributions and emotions. Finally, a positive relationship was found between stability of attributions and certainty of achieving similar future activity outcomes. Given the interest in promoting activity for health, examining attributions for being sufficiently active for health may be considered an important advance.     

Subjective randomness and natural scene statistics

Accounts of subjective randomness suggest that people consider a stimulus random when they cannot detect any regularities characterizing the structure of that stimulus. We explored the possibility that the regularities people detect are shaped by the statistics of their natural environment. We did this by testing the hypothesis that people’s perception of randomness in two-dimensional binary arrays (images with two levels of intensity) is inversely related to the probability with which the array’s pattern would be encountered in nature. We estimated natural scene probabilities for small binary arrays by tabulating the frequencies with which each pattern of cell values appears. We then conducted an experiment in which we collected human randomness judgments. The results show an inverse relationship between people’s perceived randomness of an array pattern and the probability of the pattern appearing in nature.     

Might an overweight waitress make you eat more? How the body type of others is sufficient to alter our food consumption

This paper investigates how people's food choices can be shaped by the body type of others around them. Using a professionally constructed obesity prosthesis, we show that the body type of a (confederate) server in a taste test study was sufficient to alter both the quantity (Experiment 1) and specific choices (Experiment 2) participants made but that chronic dieters and non-dieters exhibited opposite effects. While non-dieters ate more snacks when the server was thin, dieters ate more when the server was heavy. Dieters were also more persuaded by a heavy (vs. a thin) server, choosing both a healthy and unhealthy snack more often when she recommended it to them. We suggest these results may be attributable to identification with the server.     

When There Is Not Enough to Go Around: How Black People’s Perceptions of Competition for Black Mates Affects Forced Black Identity Ascriptions of Black/White Multiracial People

Using a resource scarcity framework, the current study investigated whether Black people’s perceptions of competition for Black mates related to ascribing a Black identity onto Black/White Multiracial people. Participants took online questionnaires that assessed competition for Black mates, likelihood of forcing a Black identity onto a self-identified Black/White Multiracial person, essentialism, and contact with Multiracial people. Results indicated that increased perceptions of competition for Black mates was related to increased forced Black identity onto self-identified Black/White Multiracial people, above and beyond levels of essentialism and contact. This relationship was stronger for sexual minorities. The current research supports the proposition that scarcity of resources (i.e., mates) affects ideologies regarding Black/White Multiracial people’s identities.     

The Ontology of Scripture and the Ethics of Interpretation in the Theology of John Webster

This article outlines the ontology of Scripture and the ethics of interpretation in the theology of John Webster, covering how the doctrines of revelation, sanctification, inspiration and canonization condition the locus of interpretation. Particular focus is given to the way in which the triune God’s presence and perfection determine Webster’s explication of these topics. The article’s conclusion is that Webster’s work makes a major contribution with the basic approach that it takes, thinking about the Bible in relation to a wider field, though it does not entirely overcome the obstacle of the dualism between history and transcendence.