TESTING LATOUR'S APP: A USER'S GUIDE

I reconstruct Bruno Latour's ideas about science and religion and compare them to Ian G. Barbour's and Mikael Stenmark's models, as well as to the discussion of technology and religion developed by John C. Caiazza and Antje Jackelén. I show how using “Latour's App” enlightens some aspects of said models which Barbour and Stenmark themselves were seemingly struggling with, and that Caiazza's and Jackelén's views can be reconciled despite their apparent opposition. The result of such tests is an overall assessment of Latour's proposal. I argue that, under the disguise of a flamboyant and original language, Latour's method is not that distant from those of the other authors analyzed here, and that his discussion might conceal some unwelcome philosophical shortcomings.     

A qualitative study of client experiences of working with novice counsellors

Aims: This paper reports on a qualitative analysis of written accounts by clients who participated in a counselling relationship with beginning-level trainees. The purpose of the study was to explore how clients experience the process of counselling with novice practitioners. Method: Consensual qualitative research was used for data analysis. Findings: Three general thematic categories were identified – client perceptions of self in counselling; client perceptions of the counsellor; and client perception of the counselling process. Conclusions: Overall, the findings suggest that these clients saw the interpersonal qualities and skills of the counsellor as major contributors to their experience. Implications: Clinical training of novices should start by developing the interpersonal and collaborative skills of trainees.     

Usability evaluation with screen reader users: a video presentation of the PCTA’s experimental setting and rules

In the study entitled “Web usability evaluation with screen reader users: Implementation of the Partial Concurrent Thinking Aloud technique” (Federici et al. 2010), we have proposed a modified protocol of usability evaluation technique for blind users, which integrates the features of the concurrent and the retrospective techniques. This new technique, called partial concurrent thinking aloud (PCTA), while respecting the properties of classic verbal protocols, overcomes the structural interference and the limits of concurrent and retrospective protocols when used with screen reader users. In order to facilitate understanding and acquisition of the PCTA’s technique for practitioners and researchers, we have video recorded three different verbal protocols by visualizing five experimental sections. In the first two videos, we have compared a concurrent with a retrospective’s verbal protocol of a sighted user, showing the difference of the verbalizations provided by the user in these two conditions. The third video shows the structural interference of the screen reader, during a blind user concurrent thinking aloud. In the last two videos, we show the difference of a blind user behaviour when PCTA or retrospective protocol is adopted. The videos clearly visualize the advantage of the PCTA use in respect of the two other protocols. In conclusion, the visualization of the PCTA technique confirms that this new verbal protocol promotes and guarantees a more user-driven usability assessment with disabled people, by better involving screen reader users, overcoming the structural interference and the limits of the concurrent and retrospective protocols.     

Do automatic mental associations detect a flashbulb memory?

Flashbulb memories (FBMs) are defined as detailed memories for the reception context in which people first heard of a public and emotionally relevant event. For many years researchers have been debating whether FBMs can be considered a special class of emotional memories, or whether they suffer the same fate as ordinary autobiographical formations. The debate on the real existence of this special class of memories reflects the difficulty of establishing their accuracy. Three indices have been defined as proxies for FBM accuracy: specificity of recalled details, individuals’ confidence in their memory, and memory consistency over time. However, all approaches to FBM assessment have been based on explicit self-report measures. In two studies we aimed to detect FBMs for two emotional public events, by simultaneously employing explicit traditional FBM measures and implicit measures based on the autobiographical Implicit Association Test (aIAT). Jointly considered, the results from the two studies showed that the implicit measures were able to discriminate a FBM, and appeared significantly associated with explicit traditional measures of FBM Specificity, Confidence, and Consistency. Both explicit and implicit assessments concurred to correctly estimate a FBM. Implications for the FBM debate are discussed.     

Flashbulb memories of the Pope's resignation: Explicit and implicit measures across differing religious groups

In the present paper, we aimed to provide evidence in support of the idea tested in a recent study by Lanciano and colleagues that flashbulb memories (FBMs) are a special class of autobiographical memories that can be assessed through the autobiographical implicit association test (aIAT). FBMs and event memories (EMs) for the news of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI were evaluated in three samples of churchgoer Catholic, non-churchgoer Catholic and Evangelical Italian participants through the traditional self-report measures (specificity/accuracy, confidence, consistency) and aIAT indices. Results confirmed the strength of the association between FBM and true information. The aIAT effect was stronger for FBMs than for EM details, and for Catholic respondents who were the group most concerned by the original event. Furthermore, the use of implicit measures for memory assessment concurs with the traditional self-report indices of FBMs. The present evidence supports the idea that FBMs are special autobiographical memories which remain detailed, certain and consistent over time.     

Learning the Ropes: The Protective Role of Mentoring in Correctional Police Officers’ Socialization Process

Formal mentoring is an individualized and contextualized socialization tactic to enhance newcomers’ learning—acknowledged as essential in the early career stage—that can be of particular value when entering a fairly unpredictable and stressful workplace. This research aims to understand the moderating role of formal mentoring in the relationship between organizational socialization and 2 adjustment indicators, a positive 1 (commitment) and a negative 1 (turnover intention). A questionnaire was administered to 117 correctional police officer newcomers, as prisons are especially critical work contexts for newcomers. The results show a direct effect from both socialization and mentoring on commitment and turnover, and an interaction between socialization and mentoring on turnover, although not on commitment. When the socialization process progresses steadily, both socialization and mentoring contribute to good adjustment, but when traditional tactics go wrong, a different learning source (formal mentoring) exerts a protective function, limiting newcomers’ intention to quit. These findings give support to the usefulness of mentoring in a law enforcement context and provide some insight into defining formal mentoring programs.     

Disobeying an Illegitimate Request in a Democratic or Authoritarian System

Crimes of obedience in the form of illegal or immoral acts committed in response to orders from authority occur in many contexts. In particular, under some circumstances of threats, people can easily accept restrictions upon democratic procedures. Recent studies have underlined the role of legitimacy in understanding the authority relationship and the importance of evaluating the legitimacy of the request rather than the legitimacy of the authority in preventing the rise of authoritarianism. The purpose of this study was to verify if people respond differently when an illegitimate request is put forward by a democratic or an authoritarian authority. The results on 224 subjects confirmed that people tend to be more obedient when they perceive authorities as democratic, notwithstanding the legitimacy of their requests.     

Motion-induced blindness measured objectively

During central fixation, a moving pattern of nontargets induces repeated temporary blindness to even salient peripheral targets: motion-induced blindness (MIB). Hitherto, behavioral measures of MIB have relied on subjective judgments. Here, we offer an objective alternative that builds on earlier findings regarding the effects of MIB on the detectability of physical target offsets. We propose a small modification of regular MIB displays: Following a variable duration (lead time), one of the targets is physically removed. Subjects are to respond immediately afterward. We hypothesize that illusory target offsets, caused by MIB, are mistaken for physical target offsets and that errors should thus increase with lead time. Indeed, for both nonsalient and salient targets, we found that detection accuracy for physical target offsets dramatically decreased with lead time. We conclude that target offset detection accuracy is a valid objective measure of MIB. With our method, effects of guessing are minimal, and the fitting of psychometric functions is straightforward. In principle, a staircase extension—for more efficient data collection—is also possible.     

Is obesity treated like a contagious disease?

The behavioral avoidance of people with obesity is well documented, but its psychological basis is poorly understood. Based upon a disease avoidance account of stigmatization, we tested whether a person with obesity triggers equivalent self-reported emotional and avoidant-based responses as a contagious disease (i.e., influenza). Two hundred and sixty-four participants rated images depicting real disease signs (i.e., person with influenza), false alarms (i.e., person with obesity), person with facial bruising (i.e., negative control), and a healthy control for induced emotion and willingness for contact along increasing levels of physical proximity. Consistent with our prediction, as the prospect for contact became more intimate, self-reported avoidance was equivalent in the influenza and obese target conditions, with both significantly exceeding reactions to the negative and healthy controls. In addition, participants reported greatest levels of disgust toward the obese and influenza target conditions. These results are consistent with an evolved predisposition to avoid individuals with disease signs. Implicit avoidance occurs even when participants know explicitly that such signs—here, obese body form—result from a noncontagious condition. Our findings provide important evidence for a disease avoidance explanation of the stigmatization of people with obesity.