The Impact of Crime on Social Ties and Civic Participation

The present study examined associations of neighbourhood crime with residents' social ties and civic participation using multilevel models. We hypothesized that crime is indirectly associated with residents' low civic participation by negatively relating to their acquaintanceship ties because of fear of neighbours. By contrast, we predicted that crime is indirectly related to frequent civic participation by positively associating with more intimate friendship ties as a response to combat external threats. Additionally, we hypothesized that high crime rates in the neighbourhood increases the importance of generalized trust towards others. Therefore, we examined the interaction effects of neighbourhood crime and trust on social ties and participation. The study is based on a postal questionnaire mailed to residents aged between 20 and 69 years, residing in Musashino City and Kiyose City, in Tokyo. Rates of larceny reported by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department were used as indices of neighbourhood crime. As hypothesized, our results showed that crime is positively associated with friendship ties and is negatively related to acquaintanceship ties. Through these opposing relationships, crime showed both positive and negative associations with civic participation. Moreover, we found that generalized trust buffered the adverse relationships between crime, broader social ties and participation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contextual cueing facilitation arises early in the time course of visual search: An investigation with the `speed-accuracy tradeoff task

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - Visual search is expedited in a spatial context encountered repeatedly. A much-debated question is how early the facilitation by contextual memory...     

Inter‐religious dialogue between the Vatican and Sudan

In the modern world, since the end of the Cold War, it seems that the significance of inter‐religious dialogue between Muslims and Christians is increasing. One of the most interesting cases is that of the Vatican and Sudan. There exists an impression that the inter‐religious dialogue between these two parties is going very well But to what extent is this true? This article attempts to find out the true picture of this dialogue. Although the Sudanese Islamists were initially not so keen on the dialogue, they later became more positive and enthusiastic. The Sudanese have developed a vision in international inter‐religious dialogue, while the Vatican seems to have employed a rather delicate policy towards Sudan.     

Concept identification with natural material.

Phonetic letters in Japanese (Hiragana, 23 in number) written by 6 adults (Ws) were presented one by one and the S was asked to guess by which W it was written. Immediately after the S made the guess, the code of correct W was given on each trial. The Ss were Japanese housewives, students etc., 53 in number. Rate of correct identification increased during 23 × 6 trials, but only from 0.3 to 0.4 on the average. The learning transferred to the remaining 23 letters of the same kind but not to letters of the other kind (Katakana). On each trial, the S verbally described cues upon which the guess was made. When the data were separately analysed according to Ws, it was found that letters of the W who was most difficult to identify were most ‘diffused’ in characterization by the Ss. The relevance of the present experiment to study of concept identification in general was also discussed.     

The effects of dimensional naming upon children’s performance in a modified optional shift problem

In a modified optional shift paradigm, shift and test tasks were administered concurrently to 120 second-grade children. Ss required, during shift learning, to verbalize the values of the previously relevant dimension showed an increase in reversal responding in the test task, whereas those required to verbalize the values of the previously irrelevant dimension showed an increase in nonreversal responding. The results are in good agreement with predictions made from an extension of Hull-Spence discrimination learning theory.     

The nature of the task-stimulus interaction in the tachistoscopic recognition of kana and kanji words

To investigate the nature of the task-stimulus interaction in tachistoscopic recognition of kana and kanji, right-handed normal subjects performed two phonological tasks and two visual tasks. In the phonological tasks, the subjects compared the members of a pair of kana or kanji appearing in the right or left visual field on the basis of phonological identity; while in the visual tasks, they compared the members of a pair of kana or kanji on the basis of visual identity. The results showed a significant Visual Field × Task interaction as well as a significant Task × Stimulus interaction, indicating that both the type of stimuli and the nature of task demands contribute importantly to the determination of visual field asymmetry and hence the relative participation of each hemisphere.     

Self-enhancement in Japan and America

North Americans view themselves in more positive terms than they view most other people. In the present paper, we report three studies showing that this bias is also found in Japan. For highly valued traits and abilities, Japanese students rated themselves and their best friends in more positive terms than they rated most other students (Study 1 and Study 2) and most other Japanese (Study 2). In Study 3, a sample of older Japanese displayed the same tendency when evaluating themselves and a member of their family. We discuss the theoretical importance of the findings.     

Causal relationship between Internet use and social capital in Japan

Based on longitudinal data collected from a random sample panel survey, the present study found that different types of Internet usage are differentially related to social networks. The more social ties people have, the more likely they are to use personal computer (PC) email, and the use of PC email increases social ties. The results also show that the more supportive ties people have, the more they tend to use mobile phone email; however, it does not prove the use of mobile phone email increases supportive ties. However, participation in an online community is not related social networks. These findings suggest that PC email may increase the size of personal social networks, whereas mobile phone email is useful in maintaining existing strong ties which provide social support.     

Learning by Preparing‐to‐Teach and Teaching: A Meta‐Analysis

The present research meta‐analytically examined the effects of preparing‐to‐teach and subsequent teaching (relative to mere studying without teaching expectancy) on the acquisition of domain knowledge. The synthesis of 28 studies indicated that the estimated effect sizes (Hedges' gs) were 0.35 for preparing‐to‐teach and 0.56 for teaching with preparing‐to‐teach. Both preparing‐to‐teach and teaching with preparing‐to‐teach were effective in promoting deep learning (as well as surface learning) and even after a delay. The learning benefits of teaching with preparing‐to‐teach were larger when students expected and engaged in an interactive teaching activity than when they expected and engaged in a non‐interactive teaching activity. The mere expectation of interactive teaching also produced larger learning effects than the expectation of non‐interactive teaching. These results suggest that preparing‐to‐teach and teaching, interactive teaching after preparing to do so in particular, are useful for enhancing learning.