When You and I Share Perspectives: Pronouns Modulate Perspective Taking During Narrative Comprehension

ABSTRACT— Readers mentally simulate the objects and events described in narratives. One common assumption is that readers mentally embody an actor's perspective; alternatively, readers might mentally simulate events from an external "onlooker" perspective. Two experiments examined the role of pronouns in modulating a reader's adopted perspective when comprehending simple event sentences. Experiment 1 demonstrated that readers embody an actor's perspective when the pronoun you or I is used, but take an external perspective when he is used. Experiment 2 , however, found that a short discourse context preceding the event sentence led readers to adopt an external perspective with the pronoun I . These experiments demonstrate that pronoun variation and discourse context mediate the degree of embodiment experienced during narrative comprehension: In all cases, readers mentally simulate objects and events, but they embody an actor's perspective only when directly addressed as the subject of a sentence.     

Probabilistic assignments of sentence relations on the basis of differentially weighted interpretive cues

Recent treatments of comprehension have emphasized the role of surface structure characteristics. In many circumstances, meanings that are inferred on the basis of such cues will not be deterministic. This study investigated a probabilistic system of sentence comprehension. Hebrew-speaking university studients interpreted utterances that varied and balanced the contradictory and complementary effects of three interpretive cues. Sentence interpretations were systematically affected by the relative weights of cues that supported and opposed different interpretations. Adults therefore seemed to deploy a probabilistic strategy of assigning internal relations to a preferred alternative, a greatest composite of component likelihoods. While the present treatment emphasized a syntactic level of processing, it was suggested that the probabilistic strategy could easily accommodate pragmatic and semantic effects as well. The probabilistic strategy implies that given a conflict between interpretive cues, a decision needs to be made between alternative assignments of internal relations. It was therefore suggested that ambiguous and unambiguous utterances typically may be processed in a similar fashion; for both, more than one meaning may be processed at least in part before a single probabilistic interpretation is finally assigned to the utterance.     

Predictors of responses to stress among families coping with poverty-related stress

This study tested how poverty-related stress (PRS), psychological distress, and responses to stress predicted future effortful coping and involuntary stress responses one year later. In addition, we explored age, sex, ethnicity, and parental influences on responses to stress over time. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses conducted with 98 low-income families (300 family members: 136 adults, 82 school-aged children, 82 adolescents) revealed that primary control coping, secondary control coping, disengagement, involuntary engagement, and involuntary disengagement each significantly predicted future use of that response. Primary and secondary control coping also predicted less maladaptive future responses to stress, while involuntary responses to stress undermined the development of adaptive responding. Age, sex, and interactions among PRS and prior coping were also found to predict certain responses to stress. In addition, child subgroup analyses demonstrate the importance of parental modeling of coping and involuntary stress responses, and warmth/nurturance and monitoring practices. Results are discussed with regard to the implications for preventive interventions with families in poverty.     

Transformational Leadership and Creative Problem‐Solving: The Mediating Role of Psychological Safety and Reflexivity

Previous research has pointed to the importance of transformational leadership in facilitating employees' creative outcomes. However, the mechanism by which transformational leadership cultivates employees' creative problem‐solving capacity is not well understood. Drawing on theories of leadership, information processing and creativity, we proposed and tested a model in which psychological safety and reflexivity mediate the effect of transformational leadership and creative problem‐solving capacity. The results of survey data collected at three points in time indicate that transformational leadership facilitates the development of employees' creative problem‐solving capacity by shaping a climate of psychological safety conducive to reflexivity processes. However, the findings also indicate that psychological safety is related both directly and indirectly, through reflexivity, to employees' creative problem‐solving capacity. This study sheds further light on the ways in which transformational leaders help to develop and cultivate employees' capacity for creative problem‐solving.     

Influence of electroencephalography neurofeedback training on episodic memory: A randomized,sham-controlled,double-blind study

The relationships between memory processes and oscillatory electroencephalography (EEG) are well established. Neurofeedback training (NFT) may cause participants to better regulate their brain EEG oscillations. The present study is a double-blind sham-controlled design investigating the effect of NFT on memory. NFT included up-training upper alpha (UA) band, up-training sensory-motor rhythm (SMR) band and sham protocol. Thirty healthy adult volunteers were randomly divided into three treatment groups. NFT sessions (30 min each) took place twice weekly for a total of 10 sessions while memory testing took place pre- and post-training. The results indicate dissociation between SMR and UA NFT and different memory processes. While the SMR protocol resulted in improving automatic, item-specific and familiarity-based processes in memory, the UA protocol resulted in improved strategic and controlled recollection. The implications of the results are discussed.     

An Experience for the Lifelong Journey: The Long-Term Effect of a Class Visit to a Science Center

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to explore the multiple outcomes of a class visit to a science center, and to investigate changes in these outcomes over time. The study is significant because relatively little research has been conducted on the long-term effects of school museum visits. The study was carried out in the National Museum of Science, Technology and Space in Israel, which is the largest science museum in the country. Participants were 8th-grade students who had a guided visit in the museum. Students from this class were interviewed immediately after and then again 16 months after the visit. The short- and the long-term interviews were analyzed according to 3 main categories that addressed meaningful learning outcomes: connecting knowledge, communicating knowledge, and fostering lifelong learning. After 16 months the students retained details of the experience; indicated the contribution of the visit to their knowledge; and emphasized peer interactions during the visit. This highlights the significant educational values that students take to their life's journey from the informal learning experience.     

Endurance factors improve hippocampal neurogenesis and spatial memory in mice

Physical activity improves learning and hippocampal neurogenesis. It is unknown whether compounds that increase endurance in muscle also enhance cognition. We investigated the effects of endurance factors, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor δ agonist GW501516 and AICAR, activator of AMP-activated protein kinase on memory and neurogenesis. Mice were injected with GW for 7 d or AICAR for 7 or 14 d. Two weeks thereafter mice were tested in the Morris water maze. AICAR (7 d) and GW improved spatial memory. Moreover, AICAR significantly, and GW modestly, elevated dentate gyrus neurogenesis. Thus, pharmacological activation of skeletal muscle may mediate cognitive effects.     

Running is the neurogenic and neurotrophic stimulus in environmental enrichment

Environmental enrichment (EE) increases dentate gyrus (DG) neurogenesis and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels. However, running is considered an element of EE. To dissociate effects of physical activity and enrichment on hippocampal neurogenesis and BDNF levels, young female C57Bl/6 mice were housed under control, running, enrichment, or enrichment plus running conditions, and injected with bromodeoxyuridine. Cell genesis was assessed after 12 d and differentiation was analyzed 1 mo later. In addition, locomotor activity in the open field and hippocampal mature BDNF peptide levels were measured. Open-field adaptation was improved in all groups, compared to controls, but more so with running. New cell proliferation, survival, neuron number, and neurotrophin levels were enhanced only when running was accessible. We conclude that exercise is the critical factor mediating increased BDNF levels and adult hippocampal neurogenesis.     

Social support networks, stress, sense of coherence and academic success of university students with learning disabilities

The current study evaluated the extent to which 191 university students with learning disabilities (LD) differed from 190 students without disabilities in terms of their perceived social support, stress and sense of coherence. The study also investigated students’ perceptions of their academic success at university as compared with their rating of their struggles and failures. Findings indicated that students with LD perceived themselves as having less social support than did students without LD. Students without LD were more likely than students with LD to attribute their academic success to study skills and to their academic characteristics, while students with LD were more likely to attribute their academic success or lack of success to external factors. Although overall the levels of stress reported by the entire sample were relatively low, students with LD tended to experience slightly higher academic stress than students without LD.     

Teaching the Bible as a common culture

This essay discusses the teaching of Bible in the Israeli public school as reflected in the encounter between new immigrants and long-time Israelis during the two first decades of the state. The Israeli secular curriculum defines the study of the Bible as a prime agent of Zionist acculturation. This definition, however, was challenged by the arrival of new immigrants, pupils and teachers alike, who did not view the Bible – as it was taught in secular schools – as primarily a means of reinforcing the link between Jews and their land. For them, this conception had no resonance in the traditional cultures in which they had been reared, which perceived and taught the Bible as an important component in defining Jewish religious identity. The result was cultural interaction, which expressed itself in various ways. Some immigrants assimilated the prevalent secular view of the Bible, while others expressed reservation and continued to voice criticism. At the same time, there were non-immigrant teachers who adopted immigrant usages, for instance, men covering their heads during Bible lessons. But there was also interaction between teachers of varying background, and here the result was an amalgam, even a fruitful pluralism of approaches.