Does colour preference have a role in colour term acquisition?

A developmental association exists between colour preference and emerging colour term acquisition in young children. Colour preference might influence colour term acquisition by directing attention towards or away from a particular colour, making it more or less memorable. To investigate the role that colour preference may have in the acquisition of colour terms, experimental tasks of colour preference, discrimination, attention, memory, and new colour term learning, were given to three groups of participants (preschool children; primary school children; and adults). Each task utilized the same colour stimuli, which were four computer‐simulated colours, matched perceptually to four different Munsell chips, drawn from the same colour category. Three colours varied systematically from an anchor colour (10PB 4/8) only in saturation (10PB 4/4), luminance (10PB 6/8), or hue (5P 4/8). Results showed that within‐category colour preferences emerged with age, and that when established within individuals, most preferred colours were named significantly more accurately than least preferred colours, although this association did not appear to be mediated directly by attention or memory. Rather, perceptual saliency was shown to have a mediating role, to some extent, in determining the relationship between colour preference and the cognitive processing of colour.     

Participatory action research: towards (non-ideal) epistemic justice in a university in South Africa

ABSTRACT

The paper explores the possibilities for promoting epistemic justice in a South African university setting through a participatory action-based photovoice research project in which university researchers worked alongside undergraduate students with no prior experience of doing research. The student voices are employed to understand how learning as capability development and agency expansion can advance epistemic justice in a university setting of hierarchical relationships that make participatory action research challenging. The paper considers how, in this project, spaces of epistemic democracy intersected with the expansion of multidimensional functionings, resulting in more epistemic justice for the student-researchers. The paper considers the possibilities for change through a participatory project toward promoting epistemic justice at the individual level. It also explores some criticisms of the limits of such individual development in the face of structural challenges.     

Dissociable lexical and phonological influences on serial recognition and serial recall

The impact of the lexicality of memory items on memory performance was compared in two paradigms, serial recall and serial recognition. Experiments 1 to 3 tested 7- and 8-year-old children. Memory accuracy was only mildly impaired in lists containing nonwords compared with words in a serial recognition task involving judgements of whether the items in two sequences were in the same order (Experiment 1), although a substantial advantage for word over nonword items from the same stimulus pool was found in serial recall (Experiment 2). A stronger influence of lexicality on serial recall than serial recognition was further demonstrated in Experiments 3A and 3B, and in 4A and 4B using adult participants. These experiments also established comparable degrees of sensitivity to the phonological similarity of the memory sequences in the two paradigms. The phonological similarity effect in serial recall was found to arise from increased phoneme order errors, whereas the lexicality effect was due principally to the greater frequency of phoneme identity errors for nonwords. It is proposed that the lexicality effect originates in the redintegration of item information just prior to recall, and that this process is largely bypassed in serial recognition.     

Correlates of unhealthy weight-control behaviors among adolescents: implications for prevention programs.

This study aimed to identify correlates of unhealthy weight-control behaviors in adolescents to guide the development of programs aimed at the primary prevention of disordered eating. A model explaining unhealthy weight-control behaviors was tested among 4,746 adolescents using structural equation modeling. Models fit the data well and explained 76% of the variance in unhealthy weight-control behaviors among girls and 63% among boys. Weight-body concerns were a strong correlate of unhealthy weight-control behaviors in both girls and boys. Models also emphasized the importance of weight-specific social norms within the adolescent's proximal environment. Findings suggest the importance of addressing weight-body concerns within prevention programs and extending interventions beyond classroom settings to ensure changes in weight-related norms among peer groups and family members.     

THE FEMALE SEXUAL SUBJECTIVITY INVENTORY: DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A MULTIDIMENSIONAL INVENTORY FOR LATE ADOLESCENTS AND EMERGING ADULTS

Three studies were conducted to develop and validate a theoretically derived multidimensional inventory of females' sexual self-conceptions ( sexual subjectivity ). Study 1 revealed five factors on the Female Sexual Subjectivity Inventory (FSSI): sexual body-esteem, three factors of conceptions and expectations of sexual desire and pleasure (self, partner, and self-efficacy), and sexual self-reflection. A shorter revised version of the FSSI was tested in Study 2. In Study 3, a confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit to the data. The FSSI had a sound factorial structure and high reliability. Significant associations between the five scales in the FSSI and sexual self-awareness, safe sex self-efficacy, and sexual anxiety provided evidence of validity. Some FSSI scales were also associated with self-silencing in close relationships, resistance to sexual double standards, and self-esteem. Sexual subjectivity is a complex intraindividual phenomenon that includes cognitive and emotional components, some of which can be assessed with the FSSI scales.