Sex differences in retention of verbal and spatial characteristics of stimuli: A cross-cultural replication

This study is a partial (omitting college students) replication of R. V. Kail and A. W. Siegel (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1977, 23, 341–347) in Ghana and Scotland on boys and girls with 4 and 7 years of education. After viewing sets of five or seven letters in a 4 × 4 matrix they remembered either (a) the letters, (b) positions of the letters, or (c) both letters and positions. Contrary to the results of the original study, no sex difference in relative recall of letters and positions was found. There was also evidence that verbal and spatial information is not always processed independently. A prediction that Scottish children would have better recall of positions was supported. The discussion notes the limitations of intracultural research as a basis for generalizations.     

Ethnic identity and preferences among Asian immigrant children in Glasgow: A replicated study

The aim of first study, carried out by an English investigator, was to assess the extent to which Asian immigrant children had moved away from the values of their culture of origin. For this purpose some novel techniques were employed, including an identikit task and one focusing on Scottish versus Asian names. The outcome suggested that the children had been very powerfully influenced by the values of the host community. Since it was suspected that these results might have been in part a function of the ethnic membership of the investigator and/or the specific methods employed, the study was repeated on a comparable sample with an Indian psychologist and using modified test materials. The results of the second study remained unchanged as far as factual aspects were concerned; however, preferences expressed changed significantly in the direction of Asian cultural values. The theoretical and methodological implications of these findings are discussed, and it is argued that studies of this type are likely to have an inherent element of uncertainty which calls for caution in making generalizations.     

Teaching children with autism spectrum disorder to tact auditory stimuli: A replication

It is important that tacts are controlled by stimuli across all senses but teaching tacts to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often limited to visual stimuli. This study replicated and extended a study on the effects of antecedent-stimulus presentations on the acquisition of auditory tacts. We used a concurrent multiple probe across sets design and an embedded adapted alternating treatments design to evaluate acquisition of auditory tacts when auditory stimuli were presented alone (i.e., isolated) or with corresponding pictures (i.e., compound-with-known and compound-with-unknown) with two school-aged boys with ASD. Both participants' responding met the mastery criterion no matter the stimulus presentation with at least one set, but one participant failed to acquire one set of stimuli in the isolated condition. The isolated condition was rarely the most efficient. We conducted post-training stimulus-control probes, and we observed disrupted stimulus control in the isolated condition for one participant. Implications for arranging auditory tacts instruction are discussed.     

LSD response in Eysenckian trait types identified by polypredictive CFA

The four personality type combinations derived from high and low extraversion () and high and low neuroticism () have been related to response patterns composed of three symptoms (affective disturbances, thinking disturbances, and blackouts) scored as present (+) or absent (−) after a single oral dose of the hallucinogenic drug LSD-25. Hypotheses for expected response patterns for each personality group were derived from a data set obtained by Kohnen and Lienert (1987). Significance of associations was tested by two strategies of polyprediction configural frequency analysis (CFA): multiple uniprediction and biprediction CFA. Both strategies yielded a significant hyperpresentation of all three symptoms present in E+N+ (hysterics), merely thinking disorders in dysthymics (E−N+), merely affective symptoms in E+N− (stable extraverts), and merely blackouts in N−E− (stable introverts). Authors tried to relate these symptoms to Kretschmer's temperament types and could afterwards show by a chessboard modification of prediction CFA, that by applying two combined hypotheses for two personality types each, the significance of the predicted associations could be increased.     

An EMG-driven musculoskeletal model of the shoulder

This paper aims to develop an EMG-driven model of the shoulder that can consider possible muscle co-contractions. A musculoskeletal shoulder model (the original model) is modified such that measured EMGs can be used as model-inputs (the EMG-driven model). The model is validated by using the in-vivo measured glenohumeral-joint reaction forces (GH-JRFs). Three patients carrying instrumented hemi-arthroplasty were asked to perform arm abduction and forward-flexion up to maximum possible elevation, during which motion data, EMG, and in-vivo GH-JRF were measured. The measured EMGs were normalized and together with analyzed motions served as model inputs to estimate the GH-JRF. All possible combinations of input EMGs ranging from a single signal to all EMG signals together were tested. The 'best solution' was defined as the combination of EMGs which yielded the closest match between the model and the experiments. Two types of inconsistencies between the original model and the measurements were observed including a general GH-JRF underestimation and a GH-JRF drop above 90° elevation. Both inconsistencies appeared to be related to co-contraction since inclusion of EMGs could significantly (p<.05) improve the predicted GH-JRF (up to 45%). The developed model has shown the potential to successfully take the existent muscle co-contractions of patients into account.     

Decision-making competence and cognitive abilities: Which abilities matter?

Decision-making competence is a skill that is associated with numerous positive life outcomes. Even though multiple cognitive abilities have been shown to predict decision-making competence, few studies have incorporated a large test battery tapping into several cognitive abilities concurrently in the same models. The current paper presents a study that sought to investigate which cognitive abilities predicted overall decision-making competence in adults using hierarchical regression analysis. A cognitive test battery, comprising abilities such as general intelligence, executive functions, numeracy, visuospatial ability, and time perception, was administered to 182 participants. Results indicate that both general intelligence, which was consistently the strongest predictor, and numeracy contributed independently to overall decision-making competence. Executive functions did predict overall decision-making competence, while all predictors were included in the models. A novel finding concerns the relationship between time perception and decision-making competence. The complementary roles of these cognitive abilities are discussed.     

Explaining Local Swedish Refugee Policy

In the Swedish migration system, the local level plays a crucial role since the municipalities have full autonomy to accept or decline refugees. This has created a considerable variation in numbers of immigrants among municipalities, and there is a large variation in local societies' willingness to receive refugees. In this study, we focus on all the Swedish municipalities for a time span of several years and derive from economic, demographic, socio-cultural, and explanatory factors that have been put forward in earlier research. Through quantitative analysis, we can show how income, the unemployment rate, population, and support for the right-wing party negatively vary with the willingness to receive refugees. Moreover, the distribution of income results in the opposite significant direction. These results, partly contradicting theory, show the importance of a nuanced and holistic theoretical base in further research.     

Transculturality and tradition - renewing the continuous in late modernity

The status and sovereignty of Jerusalem remains one of the most difficult, not to say the most difficult issue to be resolved before a lasting peace can arrive to the Middle East region. This article assumes that any solution to the Jerusalem-issue should be strongly accompanied by a shared vision of it among Jews, Christians and Muslims. In order to explore and elucidate the religious importance and reconciliatory potential of Jerusalem, selected writings by the British scholar and Anglican bishop Kenneth Cragg are examined in light of metaphorical theory (Lakoff &; Johnson). The article demonstrates how the theological and interreligious elasticity of Cragg's approach related to core issues within Christian teaching, and in conversation with the Jewish and Islamic tradition, exhibits an attempt at negotiation and expansion of the meaning of Jerusalem. Such attempts are surely needed if this central metaphor is to be shared among people and traditions with high stakes in the Holy City.