And all your problems are gone: religious coping strategies among Philippine migrant workers in Hong Kong

This paper provides an ethnographic account of both hardships and religious coping strategies of Philippine migrant workers in Hong Kong. It will argue that intensified coping needs that arise from the migration process may lead to a reorientation towards more charismatic religious groups, which in turn seem to promote coping strategies specifically tailored towards the (relatively homogenous) experiences of these migrants. It will also argue that, while the “disempowering” implications of religious coping rest ambiguous, it may assist the toleration of exploitative patterns in migration by reducing their emotional cost.     

Uncertainty, credal sets and second order probability

The last 20 years or so has seen an intense search carried out within Dempster–Shafer theory, with the aim of finding a generalization of the Shannon entropy for belief functions. In that time, there has also been much progress made in credal set theory—another generalization of the traditional Bayesian epistemic representation—albeit not in this particular area. In credal set theory, sets of probability functions are utilized to represent the epistemic state of rational agents instead of the single probability function of traditional Bayesian theory. The Shannon entropy has been shown to uniquely capture certain highly intuitive properties of uncertainty, and can thus be considered a measure of that quantity. This article presents two measures developed with the purpose of generalizing the Shannon entropy for (1) unordered convex credal sets and (2) possibly non-convex credal sets ordered by second order probability, thereby providing uncertainty measures for such epistemic representations. There is also a comparison with the results of the measure AU developed within Dempster–Shafer theory in a few instances where unordered convex credal set theory and Dempster–Shafer theory overlap.     

Neuroimaging of multisensory processing in vision,audition, touch,and olfaction

The development of neuroimaging methods has had a significant impact on the study of the human brain. Functional MRI, with its high spatial resolution, provides investigators with a method to localize the neuronal correlates of many sensory and cognitive processes. Magneto- and electroencephalography, in turn, offer excellent temporal resolution allowing the exact time course of neuronal processes to be investigated. Applying these methods to multisensory processing, many research laboratories have been successful in describing cross-sensory interactions and their spatio-temporal dynamics in the human brain. Here, we review data from selected neuroimaging investigations showing how vision can influence and interact with other senses, namely audition, touch, and olfaction. We highlight some of the similarities and differences in the cross-processing of the different sensory modalities and discuss how different neuroimaging methods can be applied to answer specific questions about multisensory processing.Edited by: Marie-Hélène Giard and Mark Wallace     

Prediction of outcome in the behavioural treatment of panic disorder with agoraphobia

Outcome was predicted from pre-treatment characteristics for 62 patients with a primary diagnosis of panic disorder with agoraphobia of moderate to severe magnitude who were treated with 16 sessions of behavioural therapy. Two approaches to the task of prediction was compared: (i) predicting class membership as clinically significantly improved at post-test and at 1-year follow-up on a composite score; and (ii) predicting individual change from the same variable. Agoraphobic severity was found to be a significant predictor of clinically significant improvement at both post-treatment and follow-up. It was also found to be a significant predictor of change at post-treatment, but not at follow-up. Instead the duration of the disorder was found to be a significant predictor of change at follow-up. Perceived treatment credibility, motivation, anxious cluster personality disorder or trait anxiety were not identified as significant predictors of outcome.     

Confirmation bias in sequential information search after preliminary decisions: an expansion of dissonance theoretical research on selective exposure to information

Research on selective exposure to information consistently shows that, after having made a decision, people prefer supporting over conflicting information. However, in all of these experiments participants were given an overview of all available pieces of information, selected them simultaneously, and did not process the requested information during the selection phase. In the present research the authors show that an even stronger preference for supporting information arises if information is presented and processed sequentially instead of simultaneously (Experiment 1), and they demonstrate that this stronger confirmation bias is due to sequential presentation and not to sequential processing of information (Experiment 2). The authors provide evidence that the increase in confirmation bias under sequential presentation is caused by heightened commitment due to the participants' increased focusing on their decision (Experiments 3 and 4).     

The relationship between comprehension and metacomprehension ability

We investigated the relationship between the ability to comprehend text and the ability to predict future performance and to assess past performance on text. Subjects were poor at predicting performance, which may be why prediction accuracy did not relate to measures of comprehension ability. Measures of comprehension ability did relate to the accuracy with which subjects assessed their performance on tests. Better and faster comprehenders judged their relative levels of test performance over sections of text more accurately than did poorer and slower comprehenders.     

Expectancy-value models of health behaviour: An analysis by conjoint measurement

Various studies in the health area consistently rejected the multiplicative combination between severity and probability of threat which is predicted by expectancy-value (EV) theories. It is hypothesized here, that this negative evidence may be due to an overly demanding assumption underlying the multiplicative combination, namely, the assumption that people are able to performs trade-offs between expectancies and valences. This hypothesis is tested in two studies in which subjects judged hypothetical health threats. Results from a nonparametric analysis (conjoint measurement) of individual data (Study 1) and an experimental study of trade-off judgments (Study 2) are mostly consistent with the prediction. Unexpectedly, however, an ANOVA of the aggregate data of Study 1 yielded a small, but significant effect consistent with the multiplicative assumption. Whereas this latter result can be interpreted as evidencing an attempt to perform trade-offs, the overall results show as predicted that trade-off judgments are associated with a systematic error component due to the inherent difficulty of this type of judgment.     

Humanizing education: Dewey's concepts of a democratic society and purpose in education revisited

Humanizing education in a democratic society requires an adequate conception of democratic life. Dewey's ideal of a society with free interaction among groups and extensive sharing of interests provides such a vision. His idea of purposing, as a key ingredient in meaningful learning, thought and action, also gives depth to the concept of education in democracy.