A Review of: “Learning in Places: The Informal Education Reader”

ABSTRACT

Fluctuations in visitor numbers over the past 50 years at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Museum of Natural History and Archaeology in Trondheim, Norway, indicate an overall decline in visitation since the 1990s but with some positive figures in the last years. Separate data available from 1977 to 2006 show a strong correlation between the numbers of school students and the general public. The general public paid relatively few visits in December, but visitation peaked in summer and autumn. Sundays and midweek were the busiest days. This article discusses factors that may influence the short-term, monthly, and daily distribution of visitors as well as the more long-term variations. These include the development of museums in Norway and how the historical, cultural, and nationalistic background may influence the topics and information in exhibitions, and hence the public interest in what the museum has to offer.     

The Story of the Self in the Aftermath of Crisis: A Case Study

Adopting a dialogical framework, a case study is presented that explores the story of the self in the aftermath of crisis. An analysis and interpretation of the case study leads to the hypothesis that integration and dialogue through promoters, coalitions, and cooperation are needed in the process of reconstructing the story and the self. A cultural narrative may facilitate such a process. It is proposed that during these developments a new core position may arise that has the capacity to unite and reconcile the self while promoting growth in the aftermath of crisis. Future research is encouraged that examines this hypothesis more broadly.     

Two Kinds of Time-Consciousness and Three Kinds of Content

This paper explores the distinction between perceiving an object as extended in time, and experiencing a sequence of perceptions. I argue that this distinction cannot be adequately described by any present theory of time-consciousness and that in order to solve the puzzle, we need to consider perceptual content as having three distinct constituents: Explicit content, which has a particular phenomenal character, modal content, or the kind of content that is contributed by the psychological mode, and implicit content, which lacks phenomenal character. These notions are then further clarified and related to each other.     

Static items are automatically prioritized in a dynamic environment

Everyday experience provides us with the intuition that dynamic events guide or capture attention—something which has been confirmed in experimental studies. Recently, we showed that there are limitations to the extent to which dynamic items attract attention. In a visual search task where all items, except one, were dynamic, the dynamic items could be ignored and the static item could be efficiently detected. In the present study we investigated whether attention is automatically drawn to the static item. Three visual search experiments, in which the target and the static object were uncorrelated, revealed that the static item was nevertheless prioritized. This result is at odds with some of the current theories on attentional capture, including the “new object” hypothesis. The current study suggests that differences in dynamics, rather than dynamic features per se, determine where attention is allocated.     

Perceptual coupling of multiple point-light figures

When confronted with multiple bistable stimuli at the same time, the visual system tends to generate a common interpretation for all stimuli. We exploit this perceptual-coupling phenomenon to investigate the perception of depth in bistable point-light figures. Observers indicate the global depth orientation of simultaneously presented point-light figures while the similarity between the stimuli is manipulated. In a first experiment, a higher occurrence of coupled percepts is found for identical figures, but coupling breaks down when either the movement pattern or both the viewpoint and the phase-relation are changed. A second experiment confirms these results, but also demonstrates that different point-light actions can be subject to perceptual coupling as long as they share the same viewpoint and exhibit equivalent degrees of perceptual ambiguity. The data are consistent with an explanation in terms of differential contributions of stored, view-dependent object and action representations and of an interaction between stages processing local stimulus features. The consequences of these results are discussed in the framework of an explicit model for the perception of depth in biological motion.     

A contrast effect between the concurrent production and perception of movement directions

With three experiments, we explored the nature of specific interference between the concurrent production and perception of movements. Participants were asked to move one of their hands in a certain direction while simultaneously trying to identify the direction of an independent and non-biological stimulus motion. Perceived direction of the stimulus was assessed with either above/below judgements (Experiment 1), same/different judgements (Experiment 2), or the adjustment of a line (Experiment 3). The results revealed a form of contrast effect: Perceived directions were repulsed by produced directions. Moreover, the size of the effect was comparable across the three experiments, which points to its robustness and allowed us to control for potential confounds associated with some of the perceptual measures. These results alleviate concerns regarding the interpretation of related findings and demonstrate that effects of this type are not tied to the processing of biological motion, as previously proposed.     

Offsets and prioritizing the selection of new elements in search displays: More evidence for attentional capture in the preview effect

The preview effect refers to the finding that new elements in a search display are prioritized over old elements. Donk and Theeuwes (2001) suggest that this prioritization is due to bottom-up attentional capture, as new elements that abruptly appear with increases in luminance produce a preview effect whereas new elements that are equiluminant to the background do not. The present study extends this research by examining if new elements that appear from offsets, with and without luminance changes, yield similar findings to onsets. This was indeed the case, as equiluminant offsets did not produce a preview effect but offsets with corresponding increases or decreases in luminance did show the prioritization of new elements over old elements. These findings show that the prioritization of new elements is sensitive to changes in luminance but not to the direction of such changes.     

Impression making by résumé layout: Its impact on the probability of being shortlisted

This study examines the effect of the graphical layout of résumés on the shortlisting of applicants for employment interviews. Previous research has investigated the effect of bad printing quality, but this research has explored the impact of a creative layout of résumés of equal quality. A sample of 90 respondents (half professional recruiters, half students) was asked to rank 12 candidates applying for one vacancy. All 12 candidates were presented an equal number of times in three different layout formats—formal on white paper, coloured, and “creative” design. Results suggest that the graphical design may have a substantial impact on the likelihood of being shortlisted, where formal designs were preferred over the “creative” layouts. Professional recruiters were only slightly less influenced by the layout than nonprofessionals. Implications for employers and jobseekers are discussed.     

What Carroll’s Tortoise Actually Proves

Rationality requires us to have certain propositional attitudes (beliefs, intentions, etc.) given certain other attitudes that we have. Carroll’s Tortoise repeatedly shows up in this discussion. Following up on Brunero (Ethical Theory Moral Pract 8:557–569, 2005), I ask what Carroll-style considerations actually prove. This paper rejects two existing suggestions, and defends a third.     

Americans Value Happiness, But Block Required Policies

In his book “The Politics of Happiness” Derek Bok argues that happiness should be a goal in public policy. He presents an inventory of social problems in the US with negative effects on happiness, like inadequate education, chronic pain, sleep disorders, depressions, divorce, single-parent families, and financial hardship. He presents interesting options to deal with these problems. He also pays attention to some more general happiness-issues for US-policymakers, like the question of economic growth without happiness and the reputation of the US-government. Bok’s findings are consistent with available data about the high levels of negative feelings in the US: stress, depressions, sadness, anger and worry. His message is quite clear: policy-makers can use the findings of happiness-research to improve their decisions.