Sources of sentence constraint on lexical ambiguity resolution

Results from a series of naming experiments demonstrated that major lexical categories of simple sentences can provide sources of constraint on the interpretation of ambiguous words (homonyms). Manipulation of verb (Experiment 1) or subject noun (Experiment 2) specificity produced contexts that were empirically rated as being strongly biased or ambiguous. Priming was demonstrated for target words related to both senses of a homonym following ambiguous sentences, but only contextually appropriate target words were primed following strongly biased dominant or subordinate sentences. Experiment 3 showed an increase in the magnitude of priming when multiple constraints on activation converged. Experiments 4 and 5 eliminated combinatorial intralexical priming as an alternative explanation. Instead, it was demonstrated that each constraint was influential only insofar as it contributed to the overall semantic representation of the sentence. When the multiple sources of constraint were retained but the sentence-level representation was changed (Experiment 4) or eliminated (Experiment 5), the results of Experiments 1, 2, and 3 and were not replicated. Experiment 6 examined the issue of homonym exposure duration by using an 80-msec stimulus onset asynchrony. The results replicated the previous experiments. The overall evidence indicates that a sentence context can be made strongly and immediately constraining by the inclusion of specific fillers for salient lexical categories. The results are discussed within a constraint-based, context-sensitive model of lexical ambiguity resolution.     

Psychological Hardiness in Learning and Quality of College Life of Business Students: Evidence from Vietnam

Vietnam’s continuing economic transformation has sharply increased the demand for highly-qualified business graduates. Vietnamese universities have responded to this increase in demand by improving the quality of their programs and raising their performance standards. The degree to which high-quality competitive programs increase students’ satisfaction with their educational experience is determined by their psychological hardiness in learning, their learning motivation, and their assessments of the functional value of business education. This study gathered survey data from a convenience sample of 1,024 business students in Vietnam, then validated measures of four constructs: Quality of College Life, psychological hardiness in learning, learning motivation, and perceived functional value of business education. The relationships among the constructs were estimated by Structural Equation Modeling. The results demonstrate that psychological hardiness in learning and learning motivation have statistically significant positive impacts on students’ perceived Quality of College Life. The impacts are significantly stronger for students with higher assessments of the functional value of a business education. These findings suggest that universities could enhance the Quality of College Life and academic performance by offering programs to cultivate students’ psychological hardiness in learning and their learning motivation, and by providing them with objective information about the functional value of business careers.     

The Role of External Sources of Information in Children's Evaluative Food Categories

Evaluative food categories are value‐laden assessments, which reflect the healthfulness and palatability of foods (e.g. healthy/unhealthy, yummy/yucky). In a series of three studies, this research examines how 3‐ to 4‐year‐old children (N = 147) form evaluative food categories based on input from external sources of information. The results indicate that children prefer to ask a mom and teacher over a cartoon and child for information about the evaluative status of foods. However, children are cautious to accept information about healthy foods from all of the external sources compared with unhealthy, yummy and yucky foods. The results also indicate that providing information about the positive taste of healthy foods helps to encourage children to select healthy foods to eat. Taken together, these results have potential implications for children's health and nutrition education. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychotherapy in France: the legacy and the future

This paper looks at the present situation of psychotherapy in France. In studying the historical background to the introduction of psychoanalysis in France since the 1920s, an assumption is made about the similar changes in paradigms brought about by the emergence of a new field, whether this be psychoanalysis or psychotherapy.     

Whispering gallery mode sensor for phase transformation and solidification studies

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) sensors are created by coupling a dielectric microresonator with the evanescent field of an optical fiber. Since the sensor is created by two separate entities, most of the existing studies are limited to using them in fluid environments, such as air or water, for the ease of manipulation and placement in the optimum configuration. This work is focused on studying the possibility of using WGM sensors inside a solid material. The sensor is immersed in water, which is cooled to solid state and the sensor survival is monitored. In subsequent studies, three remelting cycles are carried out and temperature measurements are obtained through the sensor. The sensor output is calibrated with the temperature data obtained from a thermocouple. The results show that a linear relationship exists between temperature and WGM shift, which enables application of these sensors in temperature measurement. Considering that the sensitivity of WGM sensors is very high (10^?6 N force and 10^?5 K temperature), they can be used for high resolution studies on solidification in cryogenic environments.     

Interpersonal influences on adolescent materialism: A new look at the role of parents and peers

What causes adolescents to be materialistic? Prior research shows parents and peers are an important influence. Researchers have viewed parents and peers as socialization agents that transmit consumption attitudes, goals, and motives to adolescents. We take a different approach, viewing parents and peers as important sources of emotional support and psychological well-being, which increase self-esteem in adolescents. Supportive parents and peers boost adolescents' self-esteem, which decreases their need to turn to material goods to develop positive self-perceptions. In a study with 12–18 year-olds, we find support for our view that self-esteem mediates the relationship between parent/peer influence and adolescent materialism.     

Mosque-Based Emotional Support Among Young Muslim Americans

Despite a growing literature on social support networks in religious settings (i.e., church-based social support), little is known about mosque-based support among Muslims. This study investigates the demographic and religious behavior correlates of mosque-based social support among a multi-racial and ethnic sample of 231 young Muslims from southeast Michigan. Several dimensions of mosque-based support are examined including receiving emotional support, giving emotional support, anticipated emotional support and negative interactions with members of one’s mosque. Results indicated that women both received and anticipated receiving greater support than did men. Higher educational attainment was associated with receiving and giving less support compared to those with the lowest level of educational attainment. Moreover, highly educated members reported fewer negative interactions than less educated members. Mosque attendance and level of congregational involvement positively predicted receiving, giving, and anticipated emotional support from congregants, but was unrelated to negative interactions. Overall, the study results converge with previously established correlates of church-based emotional support.