The Cross versus the Crescent: Karl Kumm’s Missiology

ABSTRACT

This article surveys the missiology promoted in the writings of the Protestant missionary Karl Kumm during the first decades of the twentieth century. Kumm was famous as a missionary explorer. He was the first European to successfully cross the region known as the Sudan, from the Niger bend to the Nile. He was also notable because he founded two different missions in two different places in Africa, both aimed at evangelizing the peoples of the Sudan. Lastly, Kumm was significant for having constructed in his various writings a highly influential case against the evangelization of Muslims and for the evangelization of traditionalist people. Kumm, his ideas and actions helped shape government policy towards Christian missions and Christian–Muslim relations in colonial Northern Nigeria.     

Mother-Infant Interaction Kinect Analysis (MIIKA): An automatic kinematic-based methodology for the investigation of interpersonal distance during early exchanges

Interpersonal distance is a core aspect of mother-child interaction. While conventional measures based on human coders do not fully capture the dynamics of this feature, computational methods provide automatic measures which can detect even small changes and more accurate estimates both spatially and temporally. Using RGB-D sensors (Microsoft Kinect V2), the present study describes a setup to automatically examine interpersonal distance during mother-child interactions, termed Mother-Infant Interaction Kinect Analysis (MIIKA). First, the laboratory setting and the data extraction method are described. By using an ad-hoc algorithm for kinematic data extraction, MIIKA returns three metrics: barycenter position (distance and velocity of approach and separation), movements (number of small, medium and large approaches and separations) and contributions (proportional contributions of mother and child to approaches and separations). Secondly, preliminary MIIKA metrics are described for a non-clinical mother-child dyad as an exemplification of the protocol. As interpersonal distance can be affected by contingent situations, we detected mother-infant full skeleton during three interactional contexts characterized by different kinds of dyadic exchanges: a free play session, a task-oriented activity and an emotionally arousing condition. Results highlighted similarities and differences between the three interactional contexts. MIIKA appears to be a promising setup to automatically examine interpersonal distance in early mother-child interactions.     

Using the EZ-diffusion model to score a Single-Category Implicit Association Test of physical activity

ObjectiveThe Single-Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) has been used as a method for assessing automatic evaluations of physical activity, but measurement artifact or consciously-held attitudes could be confounding the outcome scores of these measures. The objective of these two studies was to address these measurement concerns by testing the validity of a novel SC-IAT scoring technique.DesignStudy 1 was a cross-sectional study, and study 2 was a prospective study.MethodIn study 1, undergraduate students (N = 104) completed SC-IATs for physical activity, flowers, and sedentary behavior. In study 2, undergraduate students (N = 91) completed a SC-IAT for physical activity, self-reported affective and instrumental attitudes toward physical activity, physical activity intentions, and wore an accelerometer for two weeks. The EZ-diffusion model was used to decompose the SC-IAT into three process component scores including the information processing efficiency score.ResultsIn study 1, a series of structural equation model comparisons revealed that the information processing score did not share variability across distinct SC-IATs, suggesting it does not represent systematic measurement artifact. In study 2, the information processing efficiency score was shown to be unrelated to self-reported affective and instrumental attitudes toward physical activity, and positively related to physical activity behavior, above and beyond the traditional D-score of the SC-IAT.ConclusionsThe information processing efficiency score is a valid measure of automatic evaluations of physical activity.     

Further evidence of the heterogeneous nature of impulsivity

‘Impulsivity’ refers to a range of behaviours including preference for immediate reward (temporal-impulsivity) and the tendency to make premature decisions (reflection-impulsivity) and responses (motor-impulsivity). The current study aimed to examine how different behavioural and self-report measurements of impulsivity can be categorised into distinct subtypes.Exploratory factor analysis using full information maximum likelihood was conducted on 10 behavioural and 1 self-report measure of impulsivity.Four factors of impulsivity were indicated, with Factor 1 having a high loading of the Stop Signal Task, which measures motor-impulsivity, factor 2 representing reflection-impulsivity with loadings of the Information Sampling Task and Matching Familiar Figures Task, factor 3 representing the Immediate Memory Task, and finally factor 4 which represents the Delay Discounting Questionnaire and The Monetary Choice Questionnaire, measurements of temporal-impulsivity.These findings indicated that impulsivity is not a unitary construct, and instead represents a series of independent subtypes. There was evidence of a distinct reflection-impulsivity factor, providing the first factor analysis support for this subtype. There was also support for additional factors of motor- and temporal-impulsivity. The present findings indicated that a number of currently accepted tasks cannot be considered as indexing motor- and temporal-impulsivity suggesting that additional characterisations of impulsivity may be required.     

浅析现阶段大学生心理压力成因及对策

通过分析当代大学生心理压力问题产生的原因,并提出了相应的对策措施。     

Measuring being lost in thought: An exploratory driving simulator study

In driver behaviour research there is considerable focus on distraction caused by specific external systems, such as navigation systems or mobile telephones. However, it is not clear whether self-paced actions such as daydreaming have the same negative effects on driving behaviour. In a driving simulator study, the effects of an internal cognitive process (internal distraction) on driving behaviour and physiological data were compared to the effects of a sound and speech task (external distraction). Three groups of participants made two drives on a motorway, with one control group, one internal distraction group and one external distraction group. Dependent measures included driving behavioural measures, physiological measures and a subjective indication of participants’ experienced involvement in the driving task.The effects of both the internal and external distraction task were reflected in speed, number of lane changes, deceleration, glances and subjective ratings. When an effect was found for both the internal and the external distraction task, the results indicated similar (negative) effects. Participants also indicated that they had the feeling they were less involved in the driving task with both secondary tasks.