Retrieval from semantic memory during a night without sleep

It has been demonstrated that retrieval performance from semantic memory varies during the day. Specifically, the retrieval of low- relative to high-dominance category members is slower in the morning compared to later in the day. It has been suggested that the effect is related to a circadian arousal rhythm, which steadily rises during the day and rapidly declines at night. This study examines retrieval from semantic memory during the night. Sixteen subjects performed a semantic classification task once every hour throughout one night without sleep. Classification latencies became progressively slower, and the time taken to retrieve low- relative to high-dominance category members increased from midnight to 4 a.m. The trend reversed between 4 and 7 a.m. The pattern of results closely parallels the hypothesised circadian arousal rhythm. It is suggested that the variation in retrieval performance as a function of time of day may be related to fluctuations in a circadian arousal rhythm.     

An Empirical Investigation of Critical Success Factors in the Personal Selling Process for Homogenous Goods

This study uses a Critical Success Factor approach to evaluate a representative set of 51 selling techniques with the intent of determining what techniques are more critical to sales success for salespeople who sell homogenous products than others and what techniques are associated with failure. A set of twelve techniques were identified that distinguished salespeople in the top decile from those in the bottom decile.     

Wage Theft Among Latino Day Laborers in Post-Katrina New Orleans: Comparing Contractors with Other Employers

This study examines the nature of wage theft among Latino day laborers who participated in post-Katrina construction work. It addresses three important issues: (a) Is wage theft more prevalent in circumstances where there is very little enforcement of labor law? (b) Are professional contractors more likely to commit wage theft than other employers such as homeowners and small businesses? And (c) Do contractors and non-contractors who commit wage theft vary in the reasons given to justify their crime? Through survey interviews with 304 Latino day laborers conducted at four procurement sites across the city, respondents indicate that 78 % were victims of wage theft over the previous year (2008). Comparisons of wage theft across multiple studies expose the need for the development of a common conceptualization of a rate of wage theft and the benefit of using similar sampling frames to facilitate cross-comparison. Analysis reveals that there was no significant variation in the incidence of wage theft by employer type. Contractors and non-contractors did not differ significantly in the average dollar amount of wage theft, in the number of days worked before wage theft was committed, or in the hourly wage promised to employees. Contractors were, however, much more likely to justify wage theft by citing lack of funds than non-contractors.     

One nation under God? Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s changing Fiqh of citizenship in the light of the Islamic legal tradition

In the wake of the Arab Revolutions of 2011, countries in the Middle East are grappling with how Islamists might be included within a regime of democratic political pluralism and how their aspirations for an “Islamic state” could affect the citizenship status of non-Muslims. While Islamic jurisprudence on this issue has traditionally classified non-Muslims in Islamic society as protected peoples or dhimma, endowed with what the authors term “minority citizenship”, this article will examine how the transnational intellectual Wasa?iyya or Centrist movement, of which Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is the figurehead, have sought to develop a new fiqh of citizenship in which Muslims and non-Muslims have equal civil and political rights. This article will focus on Yusuf al-Qaradawi on the basis that his very recent shift in 2010 on the issue is yet to be studied in depth, as well as in view of the fact that the dilemma faced by reformist Islamic scholars—how to integrate modern concepts into a legal tradition while simultaneously arguing for that tradition’s continuing relevance and authority—is for him rendered particularly acute, given that this tradition is itself the very source of his own authority and relevance. It will therefore be argued that the legacy of the Islamic legal tradition structures his discourse in a very specific way, thereby having the potential to render it more persuasive to his audience, and worthy of a more detailed examination.     

Does the human odometer use an extrinsic or intrinsic metric?

It is commonly assumed that path integration is based on an extrinsic measure of the objective distance traversed during locomotion. In contrast, biological odometers may rely on embodied intrinsic measures, such as idiothetic information specific to an action mode. We investigated this question using a distance reproduction task in which participants traveled an outbound distance and then reproduced that distance using the same or a different action mode. The extrinsic model predicted that distance reproduction should be invariant across action modes, whereas the intrinsic model predicted invariance only within an action mode. In Experiment 1, we held the outbound mode constant while varying the response mode (walk–walk, walk–throw) and corrected for response production error (view–walk, view–throw). In Experiment 2, we crossed different gaits in the outbound and response modes (walk, gallop). In both cases, we found that distance reproduction was significantly more accurate when the outbound and response modes matched, consistent with the intrinsic model. The results indicate that the human odometer preferentially relies on an intrinsic, rather than an extrinsic, metric. This solution is sufficient to support successful path integration within an action mode (but not across action modes), without the difficulties of objective distance estimation.