The effect of presentation format and encoding strategy on associative memory distortion

IntroductionPrevious studies using semantically related words revealed more accurate memory when the items were encoded visually rather than auditorily and when mental images were created during encoding. However, how the level of memory distortion is affected by the creation of different mental imagery formats or by techniques that should suppress generation of mental images has rarely been investigated.ObjectiveThe aim of the present studies was to investigate the ways in which the encoding strategy affects the accuracy of memory reports for two presentation formats of semantically related words: verbal and pictorial.MethodIn experiment 1, the participants were asked to memorize either pictures or their verbal equivalents (words) from the same category, using one of two encoding strategies: uttering the words or counting backwards. In experiment 2, pictorially or auditory presented material was encoded together with the creation of either visual or auditory mental images of the items. The results of the experimental groups were compared to control groups that received no specific instruction.ResultsHigher levels of false recognition, together with lower rates of correct recognition, were observed for words, presented either visually or auditory, relative to pictures. Moreover, self-generation of additional code during the processing of information favored the reduction of false recognitions.ConclusionEncoding strategies that engaged dual coding reduced false recognition. The results are discussed within the distinctiveness heuristic phenomenon.     

Les limites de l’approche fondée sur le risque de la loi du 5 mars 2012 relative aux recherches impliquant la personne humaine,dite « loi Jardé »: Lecture critique des arrêtés du 12 avril 2018

Thanks to the publication of the two decrees of 12 April 2018, and six years after the promulgation of the Jardé law, the scope of the law of 5 March 2012 as well as the different categories of research involving the human person finally appear clearly. Beside interventional research that includes intervention on the person that is not justified by usual care, the contours of two categories of research have been precised: interventional research with minimal risk and minimal burden and “non-interventional” research, whose name is questionable. If the latest decrees have managed to reach a more coherent set of rules, the French legal and regulatory provisions remain complex and incomplete. Complex, in view of the multiplicity of statutory texts adopted since the promulgation of the Jardé law. Incomplete, because the needs for ethical evaluation provided for by the international ethical principles of research are not systematically covered by French law.     

Mister Rogers’ environmentalism: children’s spirituality in a trash apocalypse

In 1990, when Earth Day was set to go international, the iconic Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood – which ran for 900 episodes from 1968 to 2001 and won a Peabody Award and 4 Emmy Awards and received 25 Emmy Award nominations – ran a series of episodes on ‘Caring for the Environment.’ The show grappled with how children might face the looming environmental crisis. In these episodes, Rogers offers a spirituality for children that enables them to grasp the severity of the issue but does so by situating the concern in a hopeful worldview and indicating ways that children can take action. Instead of instilling fear and apathy as popular environmental apocalypticism does, Rogers prepares children for the new social order that must emerge to address the environmental crisis. It is an approach that prevents children from being overwhelmed by anxiety in the face of the environmental crisis but instead develops in them a sense of responsibility for the environment.     

Examining multiple feature evaluation and classification methods for improving the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease

An accurate diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease by specialists involves many neurological, psychological and physical examinations. The specialists investigate a number of symptoms and signs when examining the nervous system conditions of a person. The diagnosis involves reviewing the medical history and genetic factor of the person. The recent diagnosis methodology to Parkinson’s disease relies on voice disorders analysis. This methodology entails extracting feature sets of a recorded person’s voice then utilizing a machine learning technique to identify the healthy and Parkinson’s cases from the voice. This paper attempts to improve the diagnoses of Parkinson’s disease by testing multiple feature evaluation and classification machine learning methods based on the voice disorders analysis. The aim of this paper is to find the optimal solution to the problem by (i) proposing a new Multiple Feature Evaluation Approach (MFEA) of a multi-agent system (ii) implementing five independent classification schemas which are Decision Tree, Naïve Bayes, Neural Network, Random Forests, and Support Vector Machine on the Parkinson’s diagnosis before and after applying the MFEA, and (iii) evaluating the diagnosis accuracy of the results. The methodology of the tests encompasses 10-fold cross-validation to evaluate the learning of methods and track variation in their performance. The test results show that the MFEA of the multi-agent system finds the best set of features and improves the performance of the classifiers. The average rate of improvement in the diagnostic accuracy of the classifiers are Decision Tree 10.51%, Naïve Bayes 15.22%, Neural Network 9.19%, Random Forests 12.75%, and Support Vector Machine 9.13%. These results show that the MFEA makes a significant improvement to the classifiers’ diagnosis results.     

Retrospective Predictors of Successful Career Change Among Older Workers: Perceived Objective Success Versus Perceived Subjective Success

An increasing number of older workers are attempting career changes; however, little is known about the antecedents or outcomes of these changes. Results indicate that perceived objective and perceived subjective career‐change success are predicted by different combinations of variables. Implications for both future research and practice are discussed.     

L’usure des travailleurs vieillissants à l’épreuve de la nationalité. Le cas des migrants de Tunisie en région parisienne dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle

If foreign workers are exposed to degraded working and working conditions, they are not necessarily affected by a particularly increased mortality. By analyzing social protection schemes and biographical data, the article shows that this paradoxical situation results from the combination of several factors that contribute to the relative invisibility of the health problems faced by foreign workers. Indeed, if foreign workers constitute an over-selected workforce, the long-term effects of their working conditions remain unknown, because of the particular representations they receive, but also because of the segmentation of the labor market, which induces differentiated trajectories from the point of view of health and its management.     

Cyber-apostasy: its repercussions on Islam and interfaith relations*

In relations between Islam and the West, apostasy has been an issue of perennial contention. Although the Qur’ānic perspective on apostasy is ambiguous, the ?adīths and later Islamic legal thought prescribe harsh sanctions against apostasy, making repudiation of Islam extremely difficult, if not impossible, in the Muslim world. Such a coercive approach contravenes the Western value of freedom of conscience and the correlative right to religious freedom. Moreover, the rise of a parallel form of Islam—online- or cyber-Islam—has complicated the issue of apostasy even further. For countless Muslims worldwide, this parallel expression of their religion, although virtual, is even more ‘real’ than its offline, analogue expression. In this new Islamic expression, freedom of conscience can indeed be exercised. Online dissent, even to the point of engaging in ‘cyber-apostasy’ and encouraging others to do likewise, has given rise to a new level of reciprocity between Islam and other religions interacting with it in the ‘marketplace of religions’, thus opening a new chapter in the history of Islamic interaction with other faiths in the contemporary world.     

From darkness to light: children speak of divine encounter

Abstract

Studies have shown that children share both positive and dark spiritual experiences. The former dominates the literature but whilst the need to address the dark side of spirituality has been raised it has not, as yet, been dealt with as widely as the more positive aspects. This paper draws on an empirical study with 44 children aged 8–11 who were interviewed in school after visiting a sacred space. Three key themes arising from their conversations are covered in this paper: divine encounter; physical feelings and fear. It is argued that the most appropriate way of understanding these phenomena is to draw on different fields and disciplines, notably although not exclusively, theology, psychoanalysis, psychology and neuroscience. The paper concludes that it is important to recognise both the light and dark and the blurred boundaries between them, in addition to different ways of perceiving them, in order to understand the whole child.     

Taking a children’s rights perspective on children’s spirituality

Abstract

The right to spiritual development has had little attention in public educational policy. This is more challenging, considering the fact of increasing religious diversity and the focus on spirituality and religion in that context, as well as the way the spiritual is mentioned in documents on children’s rights. This article traces the development from the first documents on the rights of the child and responses to these documents. It is argued that educational policy and practice should pay more attention to the way children’s spirituality is included in the documents. This is an issue of general education as well as of moral philosophy. The article concludes with a claim: spiritual development is a matter of survival and flourishing as human beings, and considering this in the framework of children’s rights could mean exploring spiritual sources in one’s own faith as well as in other faiths.     

The history and tradition of the Precious Blood of Christ in Mantua

The relic of the Precious Blood of the Passion of Christ is kept in the crypt of the Basilica of Sant’Andrea in Mantua. Venerated over the centuries by popes and emperors, it was, according to tradition, transferred from Calvary to Mantua by the Roman centurion (later saint) Longinus, who had pierced the side of Jesus to verify his death (John 19.34). This devotional tradition was corroborated by historical testimonials and miraculous facts. The soil soaked with the Precious Blood was hidden underground, for fear of desecration, and then found again in two subsequent retrievals (in 804 and 1048 A.D.). Due to its donation to the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry III, a part of the relic finally arrived, through various vicissitudes, in Weingarten, a town now twinned with Mantua. Guardianship of the prestigious Christian relic rests in Mantua, with the Confraternity of the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ.