Target-related coupling in bimanual reaching movements

While bimanual interference effects can be observed when symbolic cues indicate the parameter values of simultaneous reaching movements, these effects disappear under conditions in which the target locations of two movements are cued directly. The present study investigates the generalizability of these target-location cuing benefits to conditions in which symbolic cues are used to indicate target locations (i.e., the end points of bimanual movements). Participants were asked to move to two of four possible target locations, being located either at the same and different distances (Experiment 1), or in the same and different directions (Experiment 2). Circles and crosses served as symbolic target-location cues and were arranged in a symmetric or non-symmetric fashion over the four target locations. Each trial was preceded by a variable precuing interval. Results revealed faster initiation times for equivalent as compared to non-equivalent target locations (same vs. different cues). Moreover, the time course of prepartion suggests that this effect is in fact due to target-equivalence and not to cue-similarity. Bimanual interference relative to movement parameter values was not observed. These findings suggest that cuing target locations can dominate potential intermanual interference effects during the concurrent programming of different movement parameter values.     

Knowing Through Making: The Role of the Artefact in Practice-led Research

During the last decade, research in art and design in Finland has begun to explore new dimensions. Artists and designers have taken an active role in contextualising and interpreting the creative process in practice, as well as the products of this process, by looking at the process itself and the works produced through it. From this new point of view, the knowledge and the skills of a practising artist or designer form a central part of the research process, and this has produced a new way of doing research. In this new type of research project, part of the research is carried out as art or design practice. The central methodological question of this emerging field of research is: how can art or design practice interact with research in such a manner that they will together produce new knowledge, create a new point of view or form new, creative ways of doing research? In this article, the making and the products of making are seen as an essential part of research: they can be conceived both as answers to particular research questions and as artistic or designerly argumentation. As an object made by an artist–researcher, the artefact can also be seen as a method for collecting and preserving information and understanding. However, the artefacts seem unable to pass on their knowledge, which is relevant for the research context. Thus, the crucial task to be carried out is to give a voice to the artefact. This means interpreting the artefact. During the process of interpretation, furthermore, the artefact has to be placed into a suitable theoretical context. In this process, the final products (the artefacts) can be seen as revealing their stories, i.e. the knowledge they embody.     

Finitary Polyadic Algebras from Cylindric Algebras

It is known that every α-dimensional quasi polyadic equality algebra (QPEA _α ) can be considered as an α-dimensional cylindric algebra satisfying the merrygo- round properties . The converse of this proposition fails to be true. It is investigated in the paper how to get algebras in QPEA from algebras in CA. Instead of QPEA the class of the finitary polyadic equality algebras (FPEA) is investigated, this class is definitionally equivalent to QPEA. It is shown, among others, that from every algebra in a β-dimensional algebra can be obtained in QPEA _β where , moreover the algebra obtained is representable in a sense. Presented by Daniele Mundici Supported by the OTKA grants T0351192, T43242.     

Sometimes One is More Than Two: When Collaboration Inhibits Knowledge Construction

In this paper I suggest that to better understand knowledge construction in science, and the role of social processes and collaboration in it, it is useful to distinguish between “elaborative knowledge” and “emergent knowledge.” Elaborative knowledge is constructed for solving clearly defined problems in established theoretical frameworks, and emergent knowledge refers to the knowledge constructed to reach a hierarchically higher and more complex level of scientific understanding. There are also two types of collaboration. On the one hand there is “dialogical collaboration” in which team members contribute to reaching the common clearly defined objective so that a team as a whole becomes qualitatively more complex than its members alone. On the other hand there is “unidirectional collaboration” where the result of collaboration is determined by one person, should be distinguished. There is evidence from multiple perspectives indicating that “elaborative knowledge” can be developed in both kinds of collaboration and sometimes ‘dialogical collaboration” is necessary for knowledge construction. However, for building “emergent knowledge,” it is argued, only individual or “unidirectional collaboration” is productive, and “dialogical collaboration” can hinder or even prevent the construction of this kind of knowledge.

Effects of classroom context on university students’ judgments about cheating: mediating and moderating processes

Hypothetical vignettes were used to examine the effects of classroom context variables (pedagogical quality and classroom goal structure) on undergraduate (study 1) and graduate (study 2) students’ judgments about cheating. Consistent with attribution theory and previous findings, poor (versus good) pedagogy and performance (versus mastery) goals structures resulted in more teacher blame and less student blame for cheating, and cheating was rated as more acceptable and more likely in these situations. Participants’ own prior cheating history but not their experience as a classroom teacher also affected these judgments. Relations between classroom context variables and assigned blame for cheating were mediated by students’ assessments of the fairness of the classroom situation.     

Three obstructions: forms of causation,chronotopoids, and levels of reality

The thesis is defended that the theories of causation, time and space, and levels of reality are mutually interrelated in such a way that the difficulties internal to theories of causation and to theories of space and time can be understood better, and perhaps dealt with, in the categorial context furnished by the theory of the levels of reality. The structural condition for this development to be possible is that the first two theories be opportunely generalized.

Dugin Eurasianism: a window on the minds of the Russian elite or an intellectual ploy?

This paper considers the views of Alexander Dugin, a leading proponent of Eurasianism in contemporary Russia. The point of his teaching is the preservation of the traditional social/cultural make-up of each civilization. He also believes that the Russian Slavs together with the minorities of the Russian Federation constitute a quasi-unity of Eurasian civilization. He emphasizes that globalism, led by the USA, is a mortal threat to the cultural identity of Russia/Eurasia and all other civilizations. For this reason the USA and Russia are locked in mortal conflict with one other. At the outset of his intellectual career, in post-Soviet Russia, Dugin believed that Putin would follow the Eurasian road. It would be wrong to see Dugin as an intellectual guru at the head of the post-Soviet elite. Still, his views are important, for they indicate the kinds of ideas that circulate in the minds of the Russian elite.

A class of multidimensional IRT models for testing unidimensionality and clustering items

We illustrate a class of multidimensional item response theory models in which the items are allowed to have different discriminating power and the latent traits are represented through a vector having a discrete distribution. We also show how the hypothesis of unidimensionality may be tested against a specific bidimensional alternative by using a likelihood ratio statistic between two nested models in this class. For this aim, we also derive an asymptotically equivalent Wald test statistic which is faster to compute. Moreover, we propose a hierarchical clustering algorithm which can be used, when the dimensionality of the latent structure is completely unknown, for dividing items into groups referred to different latent traits. The approach is illustrated through a simulation study and an application to a dataset collected within the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 1996. The author would like to thank the Editor, an Associate Editor and three anonymous referees for stimulating comments. I also thank L. Scaccia, F. Pennoni and M. Lupparelli for having done part of the simulations.