Using the Black Sheep Effect to reveal normative stakes: The example of alcohol drinking contexts

The present study shows that the paradigm relative to Black Sheep Effect (BSE) may be used to reveal normative stakes whose existence is not clearly identified. To this end, our study focuses on alcohol drinking practices among students, specifically with regard to drinking contexts (solitary vs. group). Our hypothesis was that the drinking norms are determined by their context (i.e. social vs. solitary drinking). More specifically, we suggested that social drinking is viewed by students as pro‐normative, while solitary drinking is viewed as anti‐normative. The results confirmed our hypotheses and enable us to consider that the BSE paradigm has the potential to reveal normative stakes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Praying for Rain?: Reformed Perspectives from the Southern African Context

This contribution addresses the question raised in this volume whether praying for rain is an appropriate response to the impact of climate change from a Southern African perspective. It commences with a missionary story from Chipata in Zambia, reflects on subsequent contextual changes, and raises some theological questions on discerning the movement of the Spirit, divine action, and providence. It addresses such questions with reference to material developed for a “Season of Creation” from within the Western Cape, namely on the theme of “God and El Niño: What can we expect from the God of Exodus?” It concludes that praying for rain is a rather limited ecclesial response to climate change that raises more questions than it can answer.     

Material properties determine how force and position signals combine in haptic shape perception

When integrating estimates from redundant sensory signals, humans seem to weight these estimates according to their reliabilities. In the present study, human observers used active touch to judge the curvature of a shape. The curvature was specified by positional and force signals: When a finger slides across a surface, the finger's position follows the surface geometry (position signal). At the same time, it is exposed to patterns of forces depending on the gradient of the surface (force signal; Robles-de-la-Torre, G., & Hayward, V. (2001). Force can overcome object geometry in the perception of shape through active touch. Nature, 412, 445-448). We show that variations in the surface's material properties (compliance, friction) influence the sensorily available position and force signals, as well as the noise associated with these signals. Along with this, material properties affect the weights given to the position and force signals for curvature judgements. Our findings are consistent with the notion of an observer who weights signal estimates according to their reliabilities. That is, signal weights shifted with the signal noise, which in the present case resulted from active exploration.     

向乌托邦告别吗?

存在三种意义上的向乌托邦告别.从前的乌托邦主义者是马克思主义的先行者,但是乌托邦主义者缺乏中间阶段,脱离现实,不善生活.马克思主义并非不是乌托邦,而是一种具体的乌托邦的新事物.具体的乌托邦要求我们善于同可能性打交道,努力领悟可能性,使之成为一种智力参谋部,从而建设一个公正的、美好的、人道的社会.具体的乌托邦永不满足.     

Sustaining work force inclusion and well-being of mothers on public assistance: Individual deficit and social ecology perspectives

This study compared theoretical perspectives on the psychological and paid labor activity implications of mandating mothers initially on US welfare to participate in labor force activities. Data were collected that reflected these areas: government public policy interventions, family social ecology measures, mother’s psychological and human capital, and community capital. A quasi-experimental design was used, and multiple source data was collected over time. In the initial part of the study, 144 welfare mothers and one of their children between 9 and 13 years were interviewed. Results indicated that having high levels of individual human and psychological capital and lower levels of family social ecological barriers predicted higher levels of maternal paid labor market activity and psychological well-being. Using archival records, additional analyses involved a 32-month review of state records for nearly 1200 mothers initially on welfare. Results revealed that the lower one’s initial capital—either educational (lacking GED or high school diploma) or community-based (residents spending a high percentage of gross income on rent), the greater one’s economic dependence on public welfare, regardless of whether one was assigned to a welfare to work program or to a control group. Thus, mandating labor market activity as a government public policy was not effective as an isolated strategy to uphold employability over time. These results suggest that employers and government leaders need to provide individual human capital and community capital investments to sustain work force inclusion of low-income mothers.     

Neural Correlates of Reward Processing in Adolescents With a History of Inhibited Temperament

ABSTRACT— Functional imaging data were acquired during performance of a reward-contingency task in a unique cohort of adolescents (ages 14–18 years) who were characterized since infancy on measures of temperamental behavioral inhibition. Neural activation was examined in striatal structures (nucleus accumbens, putamen, caudate) with a known role in facilitating response to salient reward-related cues. Adolescents with a history of behavioral inhibition, relative to noninhibited adolescents, showed increased activation in the nucleus accumbens when they believed their selection of an action would affect reward outcome. Neural responses did not differ between the two groups when participants made a prespecified response that they knew would result in reward or when they produced random motor responses that they knew would not be rewarded. These results link inhibited temperament and perturbed neural responses to reward-contingency cues.     

Cooperative tapping: Time control under different feedback conditions

The same isochronous tone sequence was presented simultaneously to two mutually isolated subjects. In half the trials, accentuation in this sequence was accomplished by doubling the duration of the first and then of every fourth tone; in the other half, by doubling the frequency of those tones. The subjects’ task was to follow the rhythm of the resulting four-tone patterns by finger tapping to tone onsets. There were four auditory feedback (FB) conditions: (1) no FB; (2) FB from the subject’s own motor responses; (3) “alien” FB from the motor responses of the other pair member who, in turn, was listening to FB from his/her own tapping; (4) mutually “crossed” FB, where each pair member listened to FB from the tapping of the other. Tap onsets regularly preceded stimulus onsets. The observed order of the amount of this anticipation (from least to greatest) was: (1) own FB, (2) no FB, (3) alien FB, and (4) crossed FB. No mutual dynamic influence between simultaneously performing subjects was-detected. Anticipation was more pronounced for sequences that were accentuated by frequency rather than by duration changes. The type of accent also influenced timing of intertap intervals in the rhythmic patterns. For the frequency accent, regular timing was produced, whereas for the durational accent, shortening of the second and lengthening of the fourth (the last) intertap interval were observed. The presence and source of feedback as well as the character of accentuation are therefore relevant factors in the timing of auditorally controlled rhythmic motor behavior.     

Regressive myopathy with myasthenic syndrome in idiopathic gluten enteropathy]

The authors report on a case of sprue myopathy with myasthenic syndrome. Pathophysiological ideas are discussed and the necessity of complex examinations in myopathy-syndromes is emphasized.