SCALING VELOCITY AND SPACE FROM TIME ESTIMATES

A model described by the relation, relative estimated time = (subjective space)/(subjective velocity), is applied on time estimates collected in three experiments with moving spots indicating the time intervals which were estimated. The model is found to account satisfactorily for the data, thus permitting derivations of subjective scales of velocity and space.     

Individual postdecision processes in group settings

In two experiments Differentiation and Consolidation Theory (Diff Con) (Svenson, 1992) was used to investigate individual postdecision making processes in three-member groups. It was predicted that in groups in which the subjects preferred different alternatives (conflict groups), subjects would consolidate their own preferred alternative, and not the group's final decision. A second hypothesis was that no consolidation would be indicated in groups in which all members preferred the same alternative (non-conflict groups). The results showed that in conflict groups, the members who gave up their preferred alternative (minority members) consolidated their own preference, thereby significantly regretting the group decision. In contrast, members who got their own will through in the majority decision (majority members) showed no consolidation of the group decision. The corresponding pattern of results was replicated in a second experiment, using a different decision situation. The results indicated that perceptions of social support, agreement in a group and decreasing responsibility for a group's decision, could all partly substitute consolidation by attractiveness restructuring.     

Postdecision consolidation in a trend prediction task

To be able to learn from experience it is necessary to correctly apprehend experienced feedback and the situation in which it is provided. The results indicate how post-decision consolidation in complex domains may affect learning. The problem may be particularly pertinent in recurrent decision making where considerable risk is involved. The study explores the changes in aspect (signal) importance from pre- to postdiction as a function of outcome information. By postdiction we mean the remembering of an earlier prediction (cf. Hawkins & Hastie, 1990). Subjects were asked to decide on which of four alternative future price developments would follow a historical price trajectory for different commodities, and to rate the importance of each of the chosen alternative's corresponding aspects. The subjects revealed a bias in their support ratings of aspects--seeing support in aspects that traditionally (by themselves and in many contexts) would be seen as neutral or even counter-indicative of the alternative chosen. After an intermission, the subjects were also given information about what was indicated to be the actual development of the market. One group was told that their decisions were correct (irrespective of what the decisions were), another group that they were incorrect but close, a third group that they were incorrect by far, while a fourth group served as a control. Following this information the subjects were again asked to judge the importance of the aspects for their own prior decision on the most likely future development. The results indicated that outcome feed-back had an effect on post decision restructuring of facts. Subjects in the correct condition showed an average consolidation that increased the support, while the wrong conditions lead to negative consolidation (in retrospect indicating that they never found as much support for their decision in the past as they actually did). Thus, in a choice between consolidating their own initial prediction and the price trajectory they would have to live with, the decision makers consolidated the outcome. Therefore, the results of the study were related to the hindsight bias phenomenon (Fischhoff, 1975) and to Kahneman and Miller's (1986) mutability concept.     

Adolescent smoking behavior and outcome expectancies

Adolescent smoking behavior is assumed to be associated with smoking outcome expectancies. Results in this paper are based on data from the control group of two data collections among Norwegian secondary school students taken approximately 30 months apart (T1 and T2). The dimensionality of smoking outcome expectancies was the same at both time points, revealing three components ("Addicted", "Not harmful" and "Social"). After correction for attenuation, the Pearson's correlation between T1 and T2 was 0.41 for the total sumscore, indicating low to moderate relative stability. When examining smoking expectancy sumscore means by smoking habits at T1 and T2, never smokers were different from smokers on both occasions. Never smokers scored low on "Social" and "Not harmful", and high on "Addictive". All associations were statistically significant (p < 0.001). The "Social" dimension was the strongest predictor of smoking behavior at T1 and T2. One of the outcome expectancy sumscores ("Addictive") at T1 predicted smoking habits at T2 after controlling for smoking habits at T1 (p < 0.01). This predictor was significant also after entering outcome expectancy sumscores at T2 into the model (p < 0.05). These results indicate that outcome expectations other than the health-related ones should be paid attention to when planning new prevention programs.     

Predictors of Diabetes Fatalism Among Arabs: A Cross-Sectional Study of Lebanese Adults with Type 2 Diabetes

Fatalism is a grounded cultural belief that is common among Arabs and is known to hinder self-care in chronic diseases including diabetes (Nabolsi and Carson in Scand J Caring Sci 25(4):716–724, 2011). The purpose of this study is to identify predictors of diabetes fatalism in this population. Data on 280 Lebanese patients with type 2 diabetes (mean age 58.24 ± 13.48 years; mean HbA1c 7.90 ± 1.90%; 53.76% females) recruited from one hospital in greater Beirut, Lebanon, and from the community using snowballing technique were examined. Multiple linear regression was used to assess the independent association between diabetes fatalism and demographic and patient characteristics. Age (β = ?.14, 95% CI ?.27, ?.002), BMI (β = .35, 95% CI .15; .54), level of education (β = ?3.98, 95% CI ?7.64; ?.32) and number of diabetes problems (β = ?5.03, 95% CI ?9.89; ?.18) were significantly associated with diabetes fatalism in the regression model. The combination of demographic and patient characteristics accounted for 14.5% of the variance in diabetes fatalism scores’ change. Patients with type 2 diabetes who exhibited more fatalistic attitudes were younger, of lower education levels, had higher BMI and had fewer diabetes comorbidities. Such findings are crucial for healthcare practitioners to identify fatalistic patients and to tailor culturally appropriate strategies in diabetes management. Further studies are warranted to explore other potential determinants of diabetes fatalism with larger sample and non-Lebanese Arabic population.     

Mizpah of Benjamin

In this article I discuss the question of how to speak of the body in theology after Friedrich Nietzsche's critique of Christianity as nihilistic. A purely theoretical and a-historic approach, such as could be found in much doctrinal theology as well as philosophy after Descartes, runs the risk of objectifying the body through its representations of it. The phenomenological approach to embodiment would instead help theology to avoid treating the body as a thing and instead as a communicative and expressive medium for relationships with divinity as well as other human beings. A critical theological somatology after Nietzsche would have to speak of the body through genealogical accounts of the traces of the body in biblical and theological texts as well as in religious practices such as prayer, liturgy and hymns with the aim of correlating this theological tradition with the articulations and configurations of embodiment today.     

Enhanced resistance to weld cracking by strain-induced rapid solidification during linear friction welding

A study of weld cracking resistance during linear friction joining of a difficult-to-weld nickel-based superalloy was performed by Gleeble thermomechanical simulation coupled with an extensive microstructural analysis. It was found that crack-free welds produced by the supposedly solid-state joining technique of linear friction welding is not due to preclusion of grain boundary liquation as has been commonly assumed and reported. Instead, resistance to cracking can be related to a reduction in liquid stability by the imposed compressive strain during welding.     

Slavoj Žižek,the Death Drive,and Zombies: A Theological Account

In this article, I discuss the question of the hybridity of the religious and the secular through the example of the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj ?i?ek and his psychoanalytically inspired notion of the undead. The undead is ?i?ek's rendering of the Freudian death drive, and as the undead is instantiated in the popular culture cliché of the zombies, we need to look no further than to George A. Romero's classic zombie movie Night of the Living Dead from 1968. Thus, this article proceeds in three steps: first, I trace the concept of the death drive from Freud to ?i?ek, supplemented, for their theological importance, by two contemporary philosophers, Jonathan Lear and Eric Santner. Second, I discuss the zombie in contemporary popular culture, with a focus on Romero's movies, and whether such cinematic representations can function as a kind of cultural critique. In conclusion, I return to the question of theology by showing what ?i?ek means by theology and contrasting as well as comparing his philosophy to Augustine's anthropology. Despite ?i?ek's atheistic confession and his dismissal of all pre‐modern philosophy and theology, I show that Augustine's anthropology is structurally similar to ?i?ek's, thus suggesting that the relationship is more complex than ?i?ek allows. Both are united in rejecting any superficial and transparent understanding of self, and become, consequently, an example of the ambiguous relationship between religion and secularity in contemporary times.     

The corpus callosum: Some anatomical and functional considerations with special reference to language

Recent studies on the anatomy and development of the corpus callosum (CC) are reviewed, and discussed in relation to present theories of the function of the CC. The contributions of various pathological conditions of the CC, as well as that of the split-brain studies, to the understanding of the functions of the CC are considered. The recent theory that the language dominant hemisphere exerts inhibitory influences over the nondominant hemisphere via the CC did not receive much support, and an alternative theory implicating the CC in the establishment of lateralization of language is presented. Direct evidence for this view is as yet not available, but it receives some support from cases of agenesis of the CC.     

Judgments of mean speed and predictions of route choice

How are driving speeds integrated when speeds vary along a route? In a first study, we examined heuristic processes used in judgments of mean speed when the mean speeds on parts of the trip varied. The judgments deviated systematically from objective mean speeds because the distances driven at different speeds were given more weight than travel time spent on the different distances. The second study showed that when there was a 10–15 min pause during a travel the effect on the mean speed decrease was underestimated for driving speeds of 90 km/h and higher. In the third study, the objective mean speeds and the subjective biased mean speed judgments were used to predict choices between routes with different speed limits. The results showed that subjective judgments predicted decisions to maximize mean speed significantly better than objective mean speeds. Finally, some applied and basic research implications of the results were discussed.