Rethinking NIMBYism: The role of place attachment and place identity in explaining place‐protective action

The ‘NIMBY’ (Not In My Back Yard) concept is commonly used to explain public opposition to new developments near homes and communities, particularly arising from energy technologies such as wind farms or electricity pylons. Despite its common use, the concept has been extensively critiqued by social scientists as a useful concept for research and practice. Given European policy goals to increase sustainable energy supply by 2020, deepening understanding of local opposition is of both conceptual and practical importance. This paper reviews NIMBY literature and proposes an alternative framework to explain local opposition, drawing upon social and environmental psychological theory on place. Local opposition is conceived as a form of place‐protective action, which arises when new developments disrupt pre‐existing emotional attachments and threaten place‐related identity processes. Adopting a social constructivist perspective and drawing on social representation theory, a framework of place change is proposed encompassing stages of becoming aware, interpreting, evaluating, coping and acting, with each stage conceived at multiple levels of analysis, from intrapersonal to socio‐cultural. Directions for future research and potential implications of the place‐based approach for public engagement by energy policy‐makers and practitioners are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Behavioral and neural correlates of memory selection and interference resolution during a digit working memory task

Neuroimaging studies have shown the involvement of prefrontal and posterior parietal cortexes in regulating information processing. We conducted behavioral and fMRI experiments to investigate the relationship between memory selection and proactive interference (PI), using a delayed recognition task with a selection cue presented during the delay indicating which two of the four studied digits were relevant to the present test. PI was indexed by the response time differences between rejecting probes matching and not matching the no longer relevant digits. By varying the delay intervals, we found that the effect of PI did not diminish, even for cases in which the postcue interval was extended to 9 sec, but was stronger when the precue interval was lengthened to 5 sec. By examining the correlation between PI index and neural correlates of memory selection, we found that stronger PI is predicted by lower selection-related activity in the left inferior parietal lobe, the precuneus, and the dorsal middle frontal gyrus. Our results suggest that activity in the prefrontal-parietal network may contribute to one’s ability to focus on the task-relevant information and may proactively reduce PI in working memory.     

Why Naturalize Consciousness?

This paper examines the relevance of philosophical work on consciousness to its scientific study. Of particular concern is the debate over whether consciousness can be naturalized, which is typically taken to bear on the prospects for its scientific investigation. It is not at all clear that philosophers of consciousness have properly identified and evaluated the assumptions about scientific activity made by both naturalization and antinaturalization projects. I argue that there is good reason to think that some of the assumptions about physicalism and explanation made by the parties to the debate are open to serious doubt. Thus this paper is an invitation for those inquiring into whether consciousness can be naturalized to more carefully consider the expected payoff of such efforts.     

Verbal intelligence and self-regulatory competencies: Joint predictors of boys’ aggression

Two studies examined the interactive effect of receptive verbal intelligence measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and self-regulatory competencies measured in the delay of gratification paradigm on boys’ aggression. Study 1 participants (N = 98) were middle school, low-income boys primarily ethnic minority. Participants for Study 2 (N = 59) were drawn from a treatment camp for boys from low-income neighborhoods with behavioral adjustment problems. In both studies, the interaction between verbal intelligence and self-regulation was significant such that verbal intelligence was associated with lower aggression to a greater extent among boys who had effective self-regulatory skills than among those who had ineffective self-regulatory skills. The implications of these findings for interventions and for a theory of risk factors in aggression are discussed.     

The role of expectancies in accepting task-related diversity: do disappointment and lack of commitment stem from actual differences or violated expectations?

Two studies show that initial expectancies influence the way people respond toward task-related differences (i.e., in work goals or work styles) between the self and a collaboration partner. When no advance information is available, participants expect their partner to be similar to themselves in task-related aspects. However, when people expect their partner to have a different work goal (Study 1) or work style (Study 2), and this actually is the case, disappointment is reduced and commitment toward future collaboration is increased. Initial expectations are important because these help people develop a clear picture of their partner. When initial expectations are violated, people conceive the other less clearly and this is part of the reason they report lower levels of commitment.     

Now you see it; now you don't: inhibiting recall and recognition of scenes

Postevent misleading information can distort people's memories by altering and adding scenes. But can you also inhibit the retrieval of information from memory? In two studies we show that postevent information can make memory for a scene less accessible. In both studies participants first saw an event (e.g. a restaurant scene displayed in slides, or a drunk‐driving incident shown via a video clip). Later they were shown the same event without a critical scene and were told either to use this to generate a story (Experiment 1) or to imagine the event (Experiment 2). Finally they were tested. Relative to controls, this postevent omission led to fewer people reporting the critical scene in free recall and in recognition. Thus, we demonstrated that it may be possible to inhibit memories. This finding has important implications for eyewitness testimony and the recovered memory debate. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On Basic Logical Knowledge; Reflections on Paul Boghossian's "How Are Objective Epistemic Reasons Possible?'

Philosophical Studies -     

On the heritability of inspection time and its covariance with IQ: a twin study

Using the classical twin design, this study investigates the influence of genetic factors on the large phenotypic variance in inspection time (IT), and whether the well established IT–IQ association can be explained by a common genetic factor. Three hundred ninety pairs of twins (184 monozygotic, MZ; 206 dizygotic, DZ) with a mean age of 16 years participated, and 49 pairs returned approximately 3 months later for retesting. As in many IT studies, the pi figure stimulus was used and IT was estimated from the cumulative normal ogive. IT ranged from 39.4 to 774.1 ms (159±110.1 ms) with faster ITs (by an average of 26.9 ms) found in the retest session from which a reliability of .69 was estimated. Full-scale IQ (FIQ) was assessed by the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (MAB) and ranged from 79 to 145 (111±13). The phenotypic association between IT and FIQ was confirmed (−.35) and bivariate results showed that a common genetic factor accounted for 36% of the variance in IT and 32% of the variance in FIQ. The maximum likelihood estimate of the genetic correlation was −.63. When performance and verbal IQ (PIQ & VIQ) were analysed with IT, a stronger phenotypic and genetic relationship was found between PIQ and IT than with VIQ. A large part of the IT variance (64%) was accounted for by a unique environmental factor. Further genetic factors were needed to explain the remaining variance in IQ with a small component of unique environmental variance present. The separability of a shared genetic factor influencing IT and IQ from the total genetic variance in IQ suggests that IT affects a specific subcomponent of intelligence rather than a generalised efficiency.     

Evidence of Impaired Glucose Tolerance and Insulin Resistance in Patients With Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and diabetes rarely occur together, a finding that provides a possible clue as to the development of AD. Abnormal glucose metabolism is not limited to diabetes, but also can include impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance, and hyperinsulinemia. AD patients have significantly varying insulin levels after drinking sugared sodas and thus may be classified as insulin resistant. After reviewing the literature on impaired glucose tolerance and insulin production in AD, we present several hypotheses as possible explanations for the relationship between insulin resistance and AD. Finally, we suggest future studies, including studies on use of thiazolidinediones (currently used in the treatment of diabetes) in AD.