Identity Negotiations of Colombian International Students

Research has pointed to challenges and positive aspects of the international student experience, but it has been mainly outcome-oriented and has not addressed the ongoing identity negotiations of these students as they navigate a new cultural setting. The aim of this study was to illustrate the application of a sociocultural/dialogical framework to the analysis of identity processing by international students. Based on interviews with 14 Colombian university students in the United States, the analysis identified meanings (positionings) relative to the experience, tensions between meanings and, for some students, abstractions that served to resolve the tensions. We suggest that this dialogical framework promotes needed attention to the dynamic, ongoing nature of identity meaning creation.     

Transmettre la relation de service par l’interaction tutorale: le cas des facteurs

Based on data gathered from naturalistic observation, the article analyses the communicative activity implemented by postmen involved in tutoring users and their apprentices. The occupational situation observed is that of mail distribution, and the critical moments selected are those which bring customer relations into play. We examine the role of the other in the way three tutors pass on their customer relations skills. We show that their means of interaction and understanding situations differ widely.     

An asymmetric effect of relational integration on recognition memory

Two experiments assessed whether conceptual relations (e.g., contains: cookie jar) facilitate the retrieval of concepts (e.g., cookie and jar) from long-term memory. The CARIN model of nominal combination asserts that conceptual relations are represented with and selected from the modifier noun (cookie). Thus, the model predicts that relational integration will facilitate memory for modifiers but not for head nouns (jar). In Experiment 1, concepts were studied in pairs and were then tested individually. Recognition accuracy was higher for modifiers than for head nouns. In Experiment 2, the studied concepts (e.g., cookie jar) were tested in the context of a new pair that instantiated either the same relation (e.g., cookie plate) or a different relation (e.g., cookie crumb). Recognition was again better for modifiers than for head nouns, but only when the same conceptual relation was instantiated at both study and test. Thus, results indicate that conceptual relations (a) facilitate recognition memory, and (b) are associated more strongly with the modifier than with the head noun.     

The relationship between allocentric and egocentric frames of reference and categorical and coordinate spatial information processing

We report two experiments on the relationship between allocentric/egocentric frames of reference and categorical/coordinate spatial relations. Jager and Postma (2003) suggest two theoretical possibilities about their relationship: categorical judgements are better when combined with an allocentric reference frame and coordinate judgements with an egocentric reference frame (interaction hypothesis); allocentric/egocentric and categorical/coordinate form independent dimensions (independence hypothesis). Participants saw stimuli comprising two vertical bars (targets), one above and the other below a horizontal bar. They had to judge whether the targets appeared on the same side (categorical) or at the same distance (coordinate) with respect either to their body-midline (egocentric) or to the centre of the horizontal bar (allocentric). The results from Experiment 1 showed a facilitation in the allocentric and categorical conditions. In line with the independence hypothesis, no interaction effect emerged. To see whether the results were affected by the visual salience of the stimuli, in Experiment 2 the luminance of the horizontal bar was reduced. As a consequence, a significant interaction effect emerged indicating that categorical judgements were more accurate than coordinate ones, and especially so in the allocentric condition. Furthermore, egocentric judgements were as accurate as allocentric ones with a specific improvement when combined with coordinate spatial relations. The data from Experiment 2 showed that the visual salience of stimuli affected the relationship between allocentric/egocentric and categorical/coordinate dimensions. This suggests that the emergence of a selective interaction between the two dimensions may be modulated by the characteristics of the task.     

Are there qualitative differences in the representation of abstract and concrete words? Within-language and cross-language evidence from the semantic priming paradigm

The different organizational frameworks theory proposes that there is a qualitative difference between the representation of concrete and abstract words in memory: Concrete concepts would be primarily organized in terms of semantic similarity whereas abstract concepts would be mainly organized by their association with other concepts. Evidence in support of this proposal has been mostly obtained with neuropsychological populations and, to a lesser extent, with healthy participants. In the present work, we tested the different organizational frameworks theory by using, for the first time, a semantic priming paradigm both within language and across languages. The results revealed that there was priming for both semantically similar and associative relations when words were concrete. However, with abstract words, priming was only observed when pairs and targets were associated. These results do not support the proposal of Crutch and coworkers, suggesting that the experimental paradigm as well as the type of relations tested may modulate the pattern of effects obtained with concrete and abstract words.     

The nature of categorical and coordinate spatial relation processing: An interference study

Spatial relation information can be encoded in two different ways: categorically, which is abstract, and coordinately, which is metric. Although categorical and coordinate spatial relation processing is commonly conceived as relying on spatial representations and spatial cognitive processes, some suggest that representations and cognitive processes involved in categorical spatial relation processing can be verbal as well as spatial. We assessed the extent to which categorical and coordinate spatial relation processing engages verbal and spatial representations and processes using a dual-task paradigm. Participants performed the classical dot-bar paradigm and simultaneously performed either a spatial tapping task, or an articulatory suppression task. When participants were requested to tap blocks in a given pattern (spatial tapping), their performance decreased in both the categorical and coordinate tasks compared to a control condition without interference. In contrast, articulatory suppression did not affect performance in either spatial relation task. A follow-up experiment indicated that this outcome could not be attributed to different levels of difficulty of the two interference tasks. These results provide strong evidence that both coordinate and categorical spatial relation processing relies mainly on spatial mechanisms. These findings have implications for theories on why categorical and coordinate spatial relations processing are lateralised in the brain.     

Reduction of false recognition through haptic presentation of objects

False recognition of an item that is not presented (the lure) can occur when participants study and are tested on their recognition of items related to the lure. False recognition is reduced when the study and test modalities are congruent (e.g., both visual) rather than different (e.g., visual study and auditory test). The present study examined whether such a congruency effect occurs for haptic and auditory modalities. After studying items presented haptically or auditorily, participants took a haptic or auditory recognition test. False recognition was reduced when both the study and test were haptic, but not when the study was auditory and the test was haptic. These results indicate that cues encoded through the haptic modality can reduce false recognition.     

The Revival of Rejective Negation

Whether assent (acceptance) and dissent (rejection) are thought of as speech acts or as propositional attitudes, the leading idea of rejectivism is that a grasp of the distinction between them is prior to our understanding of negation as a sentence operator, this operator then being explicable as applying to A to yield something assent to which is tantamount to dissent from A. Widely thought to have been refuted by an argument of Frege"s, rejectivism has undergone something of a revival in recent years, especially in writings by Huw Price and Timothy Smiley. While agreeing that Frege"s argument does not refute the position, we shall air some philosophical qualms about it in Section 5, after a thorough examination of the formal issues in Sections 1–4. This discussion draws on – and seeks to draw attention to – some pertinent work of Kent Bendall in the 1970s.     

The Impact of Economic Globalisation on Health

The analysis of the impact of economic globalisation on health depends on how it is defined and should consider how it shapes both health and health policies. I first discuss the ways in which economic globalisation can and has been defined and then why it is important to analyse its impact both in terms of health and health policies. I then explore the ways in which economic globalisation influences health and health policies and how this relates to equity, social justice, and the role of values and social rights in societies. Finally, I argue that the process of economic globalisation provides a common challenge for all health systems across the globe and requires a broader debate on values, accountability, and policy approaches.