Fairness perceptions and prosocial emotions in the power to take

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reuben, E.; van Winden, F.

2010-01-01

This experimental study investigates how behavior changes after receiving punishment. The focus is on how proposers in a power-to-take game adjust their behavior depending on their fairness perceptions, their experienced emotions, and their interaction with responders. We find that fairness plays an

Moral character effects in endorser perception

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang Joseph W.

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This research consists of two experimental studies investigating the influence of moral character on endorser perception, and the influence of perceiver characteristics on tarnished endorser perception and brand evaluations. Perceiver characteristics are discussed from the perspectives of dispositional tendency, innate moral intuitions and self-location. The first study compared the influences of moral character and warmth on endorser perception. The second study examined the impact of perceiver characteristics on tarnished endorsers and brand evaluations. The findings reveal that moral character is more influential than warmth on endorser evaluations. Tarnished endorsers with immoral character exert more negative influence than tarnished endorsers with coldness character on brand evaluations. Innate moral intuitions and self-location moderate brand evaluations. High-morality consumers and heart-locators are more vulnerable than low-morality and brain-locators to the brands endorsed by tarnished endorsers, respectively.

The Effects of Phonological Short-Term Memory and Speech Perception on Spoken Sentence Comprehension in Children: Simulating Deficits in an Experimental Design

Science.gov (United States)

Higgins, Meaghan C.; Penney, Sarah B.; Robertson, Erin K.

2017-01-01

The roles of phonological short-term memory (pSTM) and speech perception in spoken sentence comprehension were examined in an experimental design. Deficits in pSTM and speech perception were simulated through task demands while typically-developing children (N = 71) completed a sentence-picture matching task. Children performed the control,…

Exploring science teachers' perceptions of experimentation: implications for restructuring school practical work

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Bing; Li, Xiaoxiao

2017-09-01

It is commonly recognised that practical work has a distinctive and central role in science teaching and learning. Although a large number of studies have addressed the definitions, typologies, and purposes of practical work, few have consulted practicing science teachers. This study explored science teachers' perceptions of experimentation for the purpose of restructuring school practical work in view of science practice. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 87 science teachers at the secondary school level. In the interviews, science teachers were asked to make a comparison between students' experiments and scientific experiments. Eight dimensions of experimentation were generated from the qualitative data analysis, and the distributions of these eight dimensions between the two types of experiments were compared and analysed. An ideal model of practical work was suggested for restructuring practical work at the secondary school level, and some issues related to the effective enactment of practical work were discussed.

Risk perception of nuclear energy and the effect of information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, Caroline

2000-08-01

Results from 4 studies are reported. A mixture of survey, experimental and quasi-experimental designs and a variety of samples (undergraduates, postgraduates and graduates of Nottingham University, visitors to Sellafield and a random national UK sample) were used to examine risk perceptions of nuclear energy. The roles of risk, benefit, preference, knowledge, control, trust, attitudes, intentions to act and personality, in relation to nuclear energy, were examined. A survey study examined and explored the above-mentioned variables. Then experimental and quasi-experimental studies were devised using a BNFL video advert, a BNFL written newspaper advert and BNFL's Sellafield Visitors' Centre (SVC), to test the effectiveness of information on these variables. Through pre-post experimental and quasi-experimental studies, it was shown that levels of knowledge could be increased through information. This increase was also seen to be sustained over time, especially when people engaged in their learning environment (reading a newspaper or going to Sellafield). Regarding levels of knowledge, passively watching a video had a significant but very small effect. Changes in attitudes were also recorded, although these were only sustained over time for the Visitors' Centre. Concerning the other variables in question, changes in perceived risk, perceived benefit and preference were also recorded for the samples, although these results either could not be attributed to the different types of information, were not sustained or were no different to observations in the control groups. Some changes were recorded for aspects of control in the advert study although none were seen in the SVC study. No changes were found in trust for any of the different types of information. The main, consistent finding, was that sustained changes were recorded for knowledge and attitudes. These were both found to be linked to many of the variables under investigation, including risk perception. A study

Wind Speed Perception and Risk

Science.gov (United States)

Agdas, Duzgun; Webster, Gregory D.; Masters, Forrest J.

2012-01-01

Background How accurately do people perceive extreme wind speeds and how does that perception affect the perceived risk? Prior research on human–wind interaction has focused on comfort levels in urban settings or knock-down thresholds. No systematic experimental research has attempted to assess people's ability to estimate extreme wind speeds and perceptions of their associated risks. Method We exposed 76 people to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 mph (4.5, 8.9, 13.4, 17.9, 22.3, and 26.8 m/s) winds in randomized orders and asked them to estimate wind speed and the corresponding risk they felt. Results Multilevel modeling showed that people were accurate at lower wind speeds but overestimated wind speeds at higher levels. Wind speed perceptions mediated the direct relationship between actual wind speeds and perceptions of risk (i.e., the greater the perceived wind speed, the greater the perceived risk). The number of tropical cyclones people had experienced moderated the strength of the actual–perceived wind speed relationship; consequently, mediation was stronger for people who had experienced fewer storms. Conclusion These findings provide a clearer understanding of wind and risk perception, which can aid development of public policy solutions toward communicating the severity and risks associated with natural disasters. PMID:23226230

Wind speed perception and risk.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Duzgun Agdas

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: How accurately do people perceive extreme wind speeds and how does that perception affect the perceived risk? Prior research on human-wind interaction has focused on comfort levels in urban settings or knock-down thresholds. No systematic experimental research has attempted to assess people's ability to estimate extreme wind speeds and perceptions of their associated risks. METHOD: We exposed 76 people to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 mph (4.5, 8.9, 13.4, 17.9, 22.3, and 26.8 m/s winds in randomized orders and asked them to estimate wind speed and the corresponding risk they felt. RESULTS: Multilevel modeling showed that people were accurate at lower wind speeds but overestimated wind speeds at higher levels. Wind speed perceptions mediated the direct relationship between actual wind speeds and perceptions of risk (i.e., the greater the perceived wind speed, the greater the perceived risk. The number of tropical cyclones people had experienced moderated the strength of the actual-perceived wind speed relationship; consequently, mediation was stronger for people who had experienced fewer storms. CONCLUSION: These findings provide a clearer understanding of wind and risk perception, which can aid development of public policy solutions toward communicating the severity and risks associated with natural disasters.

Wind speed perception and risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Agdas, Duzgun; Webster, Gregory D; Masters, Forrest J

2012-01-01

How accurately do people perceive extreme wind speeds and how does that perception affect the perceived risk? Prior research on human-wind interaction has focused on comfort levels in urban settings or knock-down thresholds. No systematic experimental research has attempted to assess people's ability to estimate extreme wind speeds and perceptions of their associated risks. We exposed 76 people to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 mph (4.5, 8.9, 13.4, 17.9, 22.3, and 26.8 m/s) winds in randomized orders and asked them to estimate wind speed and the corresponding risk they felt. Multilevel modeling showed that people were accurate at lower wind speeds but overestimated wind speeds at higher levels. Wind speed perceptions mediated the direct relationship between actual wind speeds and perceptions of risk (i.e., the greater the perceived wind speed, the greater the perceived risk). The number of tropical cyclones people had experienced moderated the strength of the actual-perceived wind speed relationship; consequently, mediation was stronger for people who had experienced fewer storms. These findings provide a clearer understanding of wind and risk perception, which can aid development of public policy solutions toward communicating the severity and risks associated with natural disasters.

The Effects of Phonological Short-Term Memory and Speech Perception on Spoken Sentence Comprehension in Children: Simulating Deficits in an Experimental Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Higgins, Meaghan C; Penney, Sarah B; Robertson, Erin K

2017-10-01

The roles of phonological short-term memory (pSTM) and speech perception in spoken sentence comprehension were examined in an experimental design. Deficits in pSTM and speech perception were simulated through task demands while typically-developing children (N [Formula: see text] 71) completed a sentence-picture matching task. Children performed the control, simulated pSTM deficit, simulated speech perception deficit, or simulated double deficit condition. On long sentences, the double deficit group had lower scores than the control and speech perception deficit groups, and the pSTM deficit group had lower scores than the control group and marginally lower scores than the speech perception deficit group. The pSTM and speech perception groups performed similarly to groups with real deficits in these areas, who completed the control condition. Overall, scores were lowest on noncanonical long sentences. Results show pSTM has a greater effect than speech perception on sentence comprehension, at least in the tasks employed here.

Review for 'Nattoh' model and experimental findings during cold fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsumoto, Takaaki

1993-01-01

A review is described for the Nattoh model that provides the framework of the mechanisms of cold fusion. The model classifies the reactions into two categories: fundamental and associated reactions. The former involves the new 'hydrogen-catalyzed' fusion reaction and the chain-reactions of hydrogens. And extremely exciting physics are involved in the latter. Furthermore experimental findings are described. (author)

Changes in health perceptions after exposure to human suffering: using discrete emotions to understand underlying processes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonia A Paschali

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to examine whether exposure to human suffering is associated with negative changes in perceptions about personal health. We further examined the relation of possible health perception changes, to changes in five discrete emotions (i.e., fear, guilt, hostility/anger, and joviality, as a guide to understand the processes underlying health perception changes, provided that each emotion conveys information regarding triggering conditions. METHODOLOGY/FINDINGS: An experimental group (N = 47 was exposed to images of human affliction, whereas a control group (N = 47 was exposed to relaxing images. Participants in the experimental group reported more health anxiety and health value, as well as lower health-related optimism and internal health locus of control, in comparison to participants exposed to relaxing images. They also reported more fear, guilt, hostility and sadness, as well as less joviality. Changes in each health perception were related to changes in particular emotions. CONCLUSION: These findings imply that health perceptions are shaped in a constant dialogue with the representations about the broader world. Furthermore, it seems that the core of health perception changes lies in the acceptance that personal well-being is subject to several potential threats, as well as that people cannot fully control many of the factors the determine their own well-being.

76 FR 38663 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Experimental...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-01

... the existing comparative advertising literature to DTC advertising, where little research has been... effectiveness of comparative advertising: An experimental field investigation,'' Journal of Consumer Research...: Practitioners' perceptions versus academic research findings,'' Journal of Advertising Research, 29(5), 22-37...

Risk perception of nuclear energy and the effect of information

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Taylor, Caroline

2000-08-01

Results from 4 studies are reported. A mixture of survey, experimental and quasi-experimental designs and a variety of samples (undergraduates, postgraduates and graduates of Nottingham University, visitors to Sellafield and a random national UK sample) were used to examine risk perceptions of nuclear energy. The roles of risk, benefit, preference, knowledge, control, trust, attitudes, intentions to act and personality, in relation to nuclear energy, were examined. A survey study examined and explored the above-mentioned variables. Then experimental and quasi-experimental studies were devised using a BNFL video advert, a BNFL written newspaper advert and BNFL's Sellafield Visitors' Centre (SVC), to test the effectiveness of information on these variables. Through pre-post experimental and quasi-experimental studies, it was shown that levels of knowledge could be increased through information. This increase was also seen to be sustained over time, especially when people engaged in their learning environment (reading a newspaper or going to Sellafield). Regarding levels of knowledge, passively watching a video had a significant but very small effect. Changes in attitudes were also recorded, although these were only sustained over time for the Visitors' Centre. Concerning the other variables in question, changes in perceived risk, perceived benefit and preference were also recorded for the samples, although these results either could not be attributed to the different types of information, were not sustained or were no different to observations in the control groups. Some changes were recorded for aspects of control in the advert study although none were seen in the SVC study. No changes were found in trust for any of the different types of information. The main, consistent finding, was that sustained changes were recorded for knowledge and attitudes. These were both found to be linked to many of the variables under investigation, including risk

WHEN ONSET MEETS DESISTANCE: COGNITIVE TRANSFORMATION AND ADOLESCENT MARIJUANA EXPERIMENTATION*

Science.gov (United States)

Kreager, Derek A.; Ragan, Daniel T.; Nguyen, Holly; Staff, Jeremy

2016-01-01

Purpose Desistance scholars primarily focus on changing social roles, cognitive transformations, and shifting identities to understand the cessation of serious crime and illicit drug use in adulthood. In the current study, we move the spotlight away from adulthood and toward adolescence, the developmental stage when the prevalence of offending and substance use peak and desistance from most of these behaviors begins. Our primary hypothesis is that changes in perceived psychic rewards surrounding initial forays into marijuana use strongly predict adolescents’ decisions to cease or persist that behavior. In addition, based on social learning expectations, we hypothesize that peer perceptions and behaviors provide mechanisms for perceptual change. Methods We test these hypotheses using longitudinal data of marijuana use, perceptions, and peer networks from the PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience (PROSPER) study. We estimate hazard models of marijuana initiation and within-person models of perceptual updating for youth from grades 6 to 12 (n=6,154). Results We find that changes in marijuana’s perceived psychic rewards surrounding initiation differentiated experimenters from persisters. Experimenters had significantly lower updated perceptions of marijuana as a fun behavior compared to persisters and these perceptions dropped after the initiation wave. In contrast, persisters updated their perceptions in upward directions and maintained more positive perceptions over time. Inconsistent with social learning expectations, initiators’ updated perceptions of marijuana as a fun activity were not explained by peer-reported behaviors or attitudes. PMID:27478762

WHEN ONSET MEETS DESISTANCE: COGNITIVE TRANSFORMATION AND ADOLESCENT MARIJUANA EXPERIMENTATION.

Science.gov (United States)

Kreager, Derek A; Ragan, Daniel T; Nguyen, Holly; Staff, Jeremy

2016-06-01

Desistance scholars primarily focus on changing social roles, cognitive transformations, and shifting identities to understand the cessation of serious crime and illicit drug use in adulthood. In the current study, we move the spotlight away from adulthood and toward adolescence, the developmental stage when the prevalence of offending and substance use peak and desistance from most of these behaviors begins. Our primary hypothesis is that changes in perceived psychic rewards surrounding initial forays into marijuana use strongly predict adolescents' decisions to cease or persist that behavior. In addition, based on social learning expectations, we hypothesize that peer perceptions and behaviors provide mechanisms for perceptual change. We test these hypotheses using longitudinal data of marijuana use, perceptions, and peer networks from the PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience (PROSPER) study. We estimate hazard models of marijuana initiation and within-person models of perceptual updating for youth from grades 6 to 12 ( n =6,154). We find that changes in marijuana's perceived psychic rewards surrounding initiation differentiated experimenters from persisters. Experimenters had significantly lower updated perceptions of marijuana as a fun behavior compared to persisters and these perceptions dropped after the initiation wave. In contrast, persisters updated their perceptions in upward directions and maintained more positive perceptions over time. Inconsistent with social learning expectations, initiators' updated perceptions of marijuana as a fun activity were not explained by peer-reported behaviors or attitudes.

Factors Affecting the Perception of Importance and Practice of Patient Safety Management among Hospital Employees in Korea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

In-Sook Kim, RN, PhD

2013-03-01

Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate a need for developing strategies to improve perception of the importance and practice of PSM among all hospital employees, and provide a reference for future experimental studies.

Project PAVE (Personality And Vision Experimentation: Role of personal and interpersonal resilience in the perception of emotional facial expression.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michal eTanzer

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The aim of the proposed theoretical model is to illuminate personal and interpersonal resilience by drawing from the field of emotional face perception. We suggest that perception/recognition of emotional facial expressions serves as a central link between subjective, self-related processes and the social context. Emotional face perception constitutes a salient social cue underlying interpersonal communication and behavior. Because problems in communication and interpersonal behavior underlie most, if not all, forms of psychopathology, it follows that perception/recognition of emotional facial expressions impacts psychopathology. The ability to accurately interpret one's facial expression is crucial in subsequently deciding on an appropriate course of action. However, perception in general, and of emotional facial expressions in particular, is highly influenced by individuals’ personality and the self-concept. Herein we briefly outline well-established theories of personal and interpersonal resilience and link them to the neuro-cognitive basis of face perception. We then describe the findings of our ongoing program of research linking two well-established resilience factors, general self-efficacy (GSE and perceived social support (PSS, with face perception. We conclude by pointing out avenues for future research focusing on possible genetic markers and patterns of brain connectivity associated with the proposed model. Implications of our integrative model to psychotherapy are discussed.

Effects of fitness and self-confidence on time perception during exertion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Aims: Human physical and psychological features influence perceptions of the environment during activity. If during exercise an individual over-estimates time, they may interpret this as spending longer than necessary under a potentially aversive state of exertion. This may in turn decrease one’s sense of exercise success and tendency to persevere with exercise. We tested if experimentally manipulating sense of exercise self-efficacy would affect time perception during standardised physical exertion. Method: Exercise Self-Efficacy (ESE of 18 -73 year olds (N=51 was measured before and after an exercise challenge of moderate intensity. Height, weight and body fat composition were measured before participants were randomly allocated to one of three groups. After a 4-minute treadmill fitness test, participants were presented with either bogus feedback about their performance (positive or negative or no feedback (control. Before and during exercise, participants estimated a prescribed 2-minute time interval. Ratings of perceived exertion were also measured periodically. Results: Feedback on performance had no significant effect on time perception, even when controlling for individual exertion level. Reported ESE was also unaffected by whether someone received positive, negative or no feedback. Age was again found to be significantly correlated with VO2max, r(51 = .62, p < .001, but in contrast to prior findings, estimates of general fitness such as VO2max, BMI and waist circumference were unrelated to changes in time perception due to exertion. Conclusions: These findings failed to support prior findings and anecdotal evidence suggesting that exertion might alter one’s perception of time. We also failed to find any support for effects on ESE when participants were given explicit performance feedback. Finally, participants’ physical characteristics appear to be unrelated to time perception whilst exercising at moderate intensity.

Reactions to psychological contract breaches and organizational citizenship behaviours: An experimental manipulation of severity.

Science.gov (United States)

Atkinson, Theresa P; Matthews, Russell A; Henderson, Alexandra A; Spitzmueller, Christiane

2018-01-30

Grounded in affective events theory, we investigated the effects of experimentally manipulated psychological contract breaches on participants' feelings of violation, subsequent perceptions of psychological contract strength, and organizational citizenship behaviours in a sample of working adults. Results support previous findings that pre-existing relational psychological contract strength interacts with severity of unmet promises or expectations. Specifically, individuals with high relational contracts who experience low severity of unmet promises/expectations have the lowest breach perceptions, whereas individuals with high relational contracts who experience more severe levels unmet promises/expectations experience the highest level of breach perceptions. Results also support the concept of a breach spiral in that prior perceptions of breach led to an increased likelihood of subsequent perceptions of breach following the experimental manipulation. Furthermore, consistent with affective events theory, results support the argument that a psychological contract breach's effect on specific organizational citizenship behaviours is mediated by feelings of violation and the reassessment of relational contracts. These effects were present even after controlling for the direct effects of the manipulated severity of unmet promises/expectations. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Same same but different!? The differential influence of smilies and emoticons on person perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Ganster, Tina; Eimler, Sabrina C; Krämer, Nicole C

2012-04-01

Emoticons (ASCII-based character strings) and smilies (pictograms) are widely used in computer-mediated communication as substitutes to compensate for the absence of nonverbal cues. Although their usage has been investigated in numerous studies, it remains open whether they provoke differential effects and whether they lead to person perception patterns similar to what is known from face-to-face interactions. Based on findings from research about person perception and nonverbal communication, we investigated the differential effects of smilies and emoticons with regard to recipients' mood, message evaluation, and person perception in an experimental online study (n=127) with a 2(smiley/emoticon) by 2(positive/negative) between-subjects design (with an additional control condition). Results generally support earlier findings, indicating that the valence of the cue (smiley or emoticon) affects the corresponding impression formation. Further, findings concerning the differential influence of both forms of cues show that there are no differences with regard to message interpretation, whereas smiling smilies have a stronger impact on personal mood than smiling emoticons. The perception of a writer's commitment was only altered by smilies, suggesting that they elicit a stronger impact than emoticons.

Emotion perception, but not affect perception, is impaired with semantic memory loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindquist, Kristen A; Gendron, Maria; Barrett, Lisa Feldman; Dickerson, Bradford C

2014-04-01

For decades, psychologists and neuroscientists have hypothesized that the ability to perceive emotions on others' faces is inborn, prelinguistic, and universal. Concept knowledge about emotion has been assumed to be epiphenomenal to emotion perception. In this article, we report findings from 3 patients with semantic dementia that cannot be explained by this "basic emotion" view. These patients, who have substantial deficits in semantic processing abilities, spontaneously perceived pleasant and unpleasant expressions on faces, but not discrete emotions such as anger, disgust, fear, or sadness, even in a task that did not require the use of emotion words. Our findings support the hypothesis that discrete emotion concept knowledge helps transform perceptions of affect (positively or negatively valenced facial expressions) into perceptions of discrete emotions such as anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. These findings have important consequences for understanding the processes supporting emotion perception.

G-CSF in acute myocardial infarction - experimental and clinical findings.

Science.gov (United States)

Ince, Hüseyin; Petzsch, Michael; Rehders, Tim C; Dunkelmann, Simone; Nienaber, Christoph A

2006-09-01

Early data from clinical studies suggest that intracoronary injection of autologous progenitor cells may beneficially affect postinfarction remodeling and perfusion. Beyond intracoronary infusion of autologous bone marrow mononuclear CD34+ cells (MNCCD34+), mobilization of stem cells by G-CSF has recently attracted attention because of various advantages such as the noninvasive nature of MNCCD34+ mobilization by subcutaneous injections. It is the aim of the present work to give an overview about the current experimental and clinical findings of G-CSF treatment in acute myocardial infarction.

Pain perception and hypnosis: findings from recent functional neuroimaging studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Del Casale, Antonio; Ferracuti, Stefano; Rapinesi, Chiara; Serata, Daniele; Caltagirone, Saverio Simone; Savoja, Valeria; Piacentino, Daria; Callovini, Gemma; Manfredi, Giovanni; Sani, Gabriele; Kotzalidis, Georgios D; Girardi, Paolo

2015-01-01

Hypnosis modulates pain perception and tolerance by affecting cortical and subcortical activity in brain regions involved in these processes. By reviewing functional neuroimaging studies focusing on pain perception under hypnosis, the authors aimed to identify brain activation-deactivation patterns occurring in hypnosis-modulated pain conditions. Different changes in brain functionality occurred throughout all components of the pain network and other brain areas. The anterior cingulate cortex appears to be central in modulating pain circuitry activity under hypnosis. Most studies also showed that the neural functions of the prefrontal, insular, and somatosensory cortices are consistently modified during hypnosis-modulated pain conditions. Functional neuroimaging studies support the clinical use of hypnosis in the management of pain conditions.

[Psychopathic personality in women. Diagnostics and experimental findings in the forensic setting and the business world].

Science.gov (United States)

Eisenbarth, H

2014-03-01

Highly psychopathic women are rare in the context of forensic psychiatry; however, the concept of psychopathy plays an important role in diagnostics, for court expertises as well as for treatment. Another so far neglected yet relevant field is the business world. The so-called successful female psychopaths are characterized by highly psychopathic traits but low antisocial behavior, at least with reference to criminal behavior. The basis for investigating and interpreting gender differences is the assessment of psychopathy. Gender differences have been repeatedly demonstrated, especially in the assessment of antisocial behavior and the differentiation of borderline personality disorder and psychopathy which have to be addressed. Group comparisons based on these diagnostic methods found lower inhibitory deficits but less aggressive behavior in female participants with respect to the first main symptom category. For the second symptom category, emotional detachment, so far there are almost no findings reporting gender differences but only few direct gender comparisons have been carried out. However, highly psychopathic women from the general population demonstrate a stronger correlation between psychopathic traits and self-perception as negotiation partner compared to men: they make more use of manipulation and perceive themselves as more powerful in negotiation situations. Future studies should address the diagnostic variability, direct gender comparisons in experimental tasks and the relationship between psychopathic traits, the core symptom categories and career-related success.

Experimental Evaluation of Loss Perception in Continuous Media

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Wijesekera, D

1998-01-01

Perception of multimedia quality, specified by quality of service metrics can be used by system designers to optimize customer satisfaction within resource bounds enforced by general purpose computing platforms...

Tasting green: An experimental design for investigating consumer perception of organic wine

OpenAIRE

Wiedmann, Klaus-Peter; Hennigs, Nadine; Behrens, Stefan Henrik; Klarmann, Christiane

2014-01-01

Purpose: There is empirical evidence that the image of organic products has a stronger effect on consumer perception than the intrinsic characteristics. Against this background, the aim of this paper is twofold; first, to ascertain if the stimulus "organic food", placed by storytelling, influences the perception of wine. Based on this, the study tries to discover wherein a positive perception of organic wine might be reflected (e.g. willingness to pay premium prices, better taste perception)....

Binocular perception of slant about oblique axes relative to a visual frame of reference

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ee, R. van; Erkelens, Casper J.

1995-01-01

From the literature it is known that the processing of disparity for slant is different in the presence and in the absence of a visual frame of reference. We elaborate the experimental finding that vertical disparity is not processed for slant perception in the presence of a visual reference. This

Effects of an Integrated Science and Societal Implication Intervention on Promoting Adolescents' Positive Thinking and Emotional Perceptions in Learning Science

Science.gov (United States)

Hong, Zuway R.; Lin, Huann-Shyang; Lawrenz, Frances P.

2012-02-01

The goal of this study was to test the effectiveness of integrating science and societal implication on adolescents' positive thinking and emotional perceptions about learning science. Twenty-five eighth-grade Taiwanese adolescents (9 boys and 16 girls) volunteered to participate in a 12-week intervention and formed the experimental group. Fifty-seven eighth-grade Taiwanese adolescents (30 boys and 27 girls) volunteered to participate in the assessments and were used as the comparison group. Additionally, 15 experimental students were recruited to be observed and interviewed. Paired t-tests, correlations, and analyses of covariance assessed the similarity and differences between groups. The findings were that the experimental group significantly outperformed its counterpart on positive thinking and emotional perceptions, and all participants' positive thinking scores were significantly related to their emotional perceptions about learning science. Recommendations for integrating science and societal implication for adolescents are provided.

The Effects of General System Justification on Corruption Perception and Intent.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Xuyun; Liu, Li; Huang, Zhenwei; Zheng, Wenwen; Liang, Yuan

2016-01-01

Previous research stresses that system justifying belief can weaken corruption perception, by this possibly fostering unjust behaviors. However, general results of the effect of general system justification on corruption are ambiguous, indicating also a lessening impact. We conducted a line of studies trying to elucidate these circumstances by testing the effect of general system justification on corruption perception and intention. In addition, we explored institutional trust as a possible mediator in this process. For this purpose, we conducted three studies. The first two studies examined the association between general system justification and corruption. In Study 1, a correlational design was run using questionnaires to assess the relation between general system justification and corruption perception as well as corruption intention. In Study 2, an experimental design was conducted manipulating general system justification via exposure to high or low system threat condition, then measuring its effect on corruption perception and corrupt intention. In Study 3, two sub-studies using correlational and experimental designs were run to explore the mediating role of institutional trust, respectively. Results replicated former studies showing that general system justification is negatively associated with corruption perception. However, they also showed a negative correlation with corrupt intention. Furthermore, they showed that institutional trust mediated the relation between general system justification and corruption. We suggest to consider these findings to further elucidate the psychological basis underlying different effects of general system justification on human behaviors.

The Effects of General System Justification on Corruption Perception and Intent

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuyun Tan

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Previous research stresses that system justifying belief can weaken corruption perception, by this possibly fostering unjust behaviors. However, general results of the effect of general system justification on corruption are ambiguous, indicating also a lessening impact. We conducted a line of studies trying to elucidate these circumstances by testing the effect of general system justification on corruption perception and intention. In addition, we explored institutional trust as a possible mediator in this process. For this purpose we conducted three studies. The first two studies examined the association between general system justification and corruption. In Study 1, a correlational design was run using questionnaires to assess the relation between general system justification and corruption perception as well as corruption intention. In Study 2, an experimental design was conducted manipulating general system justification via exposure to high or low system threat condition, then measuring its effect on corruption perception and corrupt intention. In Study 3, two sub-studies using correlational and experimental designs were run to explore the mediating role of institutional trust, respectively. Results replicated former studies showing that general system justification is negatively associated with corruption perception. However, they also showed a negative correlation with corrupt intention. Furthermore, they showed that institutional trust mediated the relation between general system justification and corruption. We suggest to consider these findings to further elucidate the psychological basis underlying different effects of general system justification on human behaviors.

Adolescent perceptions of violence: formative research findings from a social marketing campaign to reduce violence among middle school youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Quinn, G P; Bell-Ellison, B A; Loomis, W; Tucci, M

2007-05-01

To identify the specific barriers and benefits of violent behaviours as noted by middle school youth and to develop a social marketing campaign that attends to the needs and wants of the target audience. A non-experimental, qualitative study design was used to assess youth perceptions of violence in a large, southeast urban school district. Using a social marketing approach, a series of in-depth interviews were conducted with middle school youths, to gain an understanding of perceived barriers and benefits of violent behaviours. Additionally, interviews assessed youth preferences for an effective spokesperson for an anti-violence campaign. Qualitative analysis of coded transcripts revealed key themes that were incorporated into a multi-media initiative. Critical themes of the research highlighted that the majority of violence occurs at school, during school hours and most of the youths believed the use of violence was necessary to defend themselves from other peers or to protect family members. Another key finding pertained to adolescent views on violent people; although the majority of respondents reported engaging in violent acts, they did not view themselves as violent. Results were used to inform the development of a social marketing campaign designed to reduce youth violence among middle school students in a large, urban central Florida school district. Findings from the formative research led to the creation and pre-testing of five potential campaign brands. The campaign slogan that tested best with the target audience emphasized the choice youth have to either engage in violent behaviour and suffer the consequences or to 'rise above' physical conflict and reap the benefits.

Student perceptions of a quality clinical experience: findings from the literature and their application to radiation therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fenton, Paul

2005-01-01

This paper seeks to provide a review of research findings into the clinical experience from the perception of students, with the aim of improving the clinical placements of radiation therapy students. Drawing on evidence from other allied health professions, the attributes of the ideal supervisor perceived by students is presented. The effect of clinical environment, departmental culture and communication with universities on student perception is also discussed. The lack of literature on radiation therapy education in the clinical setting has been highlighted and may be remedied in the future with the appointment of research radiation therapists. There is an ongoing need for the universities to assist radiation therapists in maintaining their skills in the supervision of students, perhaps through the provision of workshops and seminars. The list of attributes of the ideal supervisor extracted from the literature is extensive. It is an unrealistic expectation for a person to possess all of the characteristics, however the challenge is for supervisors to develop and exhibit as many as possible. Copyright (2005) Australian Institute of Radiography

Biofilms and mechanics: a review of experimental techniques and findings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gordon, Vernita D; Davis-Fields, Megan; Kovach, Kristin; Rodesney, Christopher A

2017-01-01

Biofilms are developmentally-dynamic communities of sessile microbes that adhere to each other and, often, to other structures in their environment. The cohesive mechanical forces binding microbes to each other confer mechanical and structural stability on the biofilm and give rise to biofilm viscoelasticity. The adhesive mechanical forces binding microbes to other structures in their environment can promote biofilm initiation and mechanosensing that leads to changes in biological activity. Thus, physical mechanics is intrinsic to characteristics that distinguish biofilms from free-swimming or free-floating microbes in liquid culture. However, very little is known about the specifics of what mechanical traits characterize different types of biofilms at different stages of development. Even less is known about how mechanical inputs impact microbial biology and how microbes can adjust their mechanical coupling to, and interaction with, their environment. These knowledge gaps arise, in part, from the challenges associated with experimental measurements of microbial and biofilm biomechanics. Here, we review extant experimental techniques and their most-salient findings to date. At the end of this review we indicate areas where significant advances in the state-of-the art are heading. (topical review)

Biofilms and mechanics: a review of experimental techniques and findings

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, Vernita D.; Davis-Fields, Megan; Kovach, Kristin; Rodesney, Christopher A.

2017-06-01

Biofilms are developmentally-dynamic communities of sessile microbes that adhere to each other and, often, to other structures in their environment. The cohesive mechanical forces binding microbes to each other confer mechanical and structural stability on the biofilm and give rise to biofilm viscoelasticity. The adhesive mechanical forces binding microbes to other structures in their environment can promote biofilm initiation and mechanosensing that leads to changes in biological activity. Thus, physical mechanics is intrinsic to characteristics that distinguish biofilms from free-swimming or free-floating microbes in liquid culture. However, very little is known about the specifics of what mechanical traits characterize different types of biofilms at different stages of development. Even less is known about how mechanical inputs impact microbial biology and how microbes can adjust their mechanical coupling to, and interaction with, their environment. These knowledge gaps arise, in part, from the challenges associated with experimental measurements of microbial and biofilm biomechanics. Here, we review extant experimental techniques and their most-salient findings to date. At the end of this review we indicate areas where significant advances in the state-of-the art are heading.

Perception of facial expressions produced by configural relations

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V A Barabanschikov

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The authors discuss the problem of perception of facial expressions produced by configural features. Experimentally found configural features influence the perception of emotional expression of subjectively emotionless face. Classical results by E. Brunsvik related to perception of schematic faces are partly confirmed.

Beyond False Beliefs: The Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Perceptions of Children's Theory of Mind Measure--Experimental Version (PCToMM-E)

Science.gov (United States)

Hutchins, Tiffany L.; Bonazinga, Laura A.; Prelock, Patricia A.; Taylor, Rebecca S.

2008-01-01

The Perceptions of Children's Theory of Mind Measure (Experimental version; PCToMM-E) is an informant measure designed to tap children's theory of mind competence. Study one evaluated the measure when completed by primary caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder. Scores demonstrated high test-retest reliability and correlated with…

The influence of a working memory task on affective perception of facial expressions.

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Seung-Lark Lim

Full Text Available In a dual-task paradigm, participants performed a spatial location working memory task and a forced two-choice perceptual decision task (neutral vs. fearful with gradually morphed emotional faces (neutral ∼ fearful. Task-irrelevant word distractors (negative, neutral, and control were experimentally manipulated during spatial working memory encoding. We hypothesized that, if affective perception is influenced by concurrent cognitive load using a working memory task, task-irrelevant emotional distractors would bias subsequent perceptual decision-making on ambiguous facial expression. We found that when either neutral or negative emotional words were presented as task-irrelevant working-memory distractors, participants more frequently reported fearful face perception - but only at the higher emotional intensity levels of morphed faces. Also, the affective perception bias due to negative emotional distractors correlated with a decrease in working memory performance. Taken together, our findings suggest that concurrent working memory load by task-irrelevant distractors has an impact on affective perception of facial expressions.

Comparative study of radiologic-pathologic findings of experimental clonorchiasis in rabbits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ryu, Kyung Nam; Lim, Jae Hoon; Cho, You Jung; Yang, Moon Ho

1993-01-01

Radiological investigation in patients with clonorchiasis is very important as this is the only method of evaluating the severity of clonorchiasis. In order to correlate the radiologic and pathologic findings of clonorchiasis, fourteen rabbits infested with Clonorchis sinensis and five control rabbits were examined radiologically by ultrasonography, computed tomography and cholangiography and the results were correlated with pathologic findings. Dilatation of the intrahepatic small bile ducts of the liver was due to obstruction by flukes: oval or elliptical, small filling defects or irregular margin of the bile ducts on cholangiogram or intraluminal echoes on sonogram represented flukes per se; periductal thickening on sonogram and periductal enhancement of bile ducts on CT were due to inflammatory cell infiltration, adenomatous hyperplasia and periductal fibrosis; band like enhancement at the periphery of the liver on CT represented proliferated bile ducts, destruction of liver cells and resultant fibrosis. The study confirmed the pathological bases for the radiological findings of clonorchiasis in liver and bile ducts and will, perhaps, serve as a basis for the future radiologic-pathological correlation of clonorchiasis and in further clinical and experimental researches in the biliary tract diseases

Comparative study of radiologic-pathologic findings of experimental clonorchiasis in rabbits

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ryu, Kyung Nam; Lim, Jae Hoon; Cho, You Jung; Yang, Moon Ho [College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

1993-01-15

Radiological investigation in patients with clonorchiasis is very important as this is the only method of evaluating the severity of clonorchiasis. In order to correlate the radiologic and pathologic findings of clonorchiasis, fourteen rabbits infested with Clonorchis sinensis and five control rabbits were examined radiologically by ultrasonography, computed tomography and cholangiography and the results were correlated with pathologic findings. Dilatation of the intrahepatic small bile ducts of the liver was due to obstruction by flukes: oval or elliptical, small filling defects or irregular margin of the bile ducts on cholangiogram or intraluminal echoes on sonogram represented flukes per se; periductal thickening on sonogram and periductal enhancement of bile ducts on CT were due to inflammatory cell infiltration, adenomatous hyperplasia and periductal fibrosis; band like enhancement at the periphery of the liver on CT represented proliferated bile ducts, destruction of liver cells and resultant fibrosis. The study confirmed the pathological bases for the radiological findings of clonorchiasis in liver and bile ducts and will, perhaps, serve as a basis for the future radiologic-pathological correlation of clonorchiasis and in further clinical and experimental researches in the biliary tract diseases.

Attention increases the temporal precision of conscious perception: verifying the Neural-ST Model.

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Srivas Chennu

2009-11-01

Full Text Available What role does attention play in ensuring the temporal precision of visual perception? Behavioural studies have investigated feature selection and binding in time using fleeting sequences of stimuli in the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP paradigm, and found that temporal accuracy is reduced when attentional control is diminished. To reduce the efficacy of attentional deployment, these studies have employed the Attentional Blink (AB phenomenon. In this article, we use electroencephalography (EEG to directly investigate the temporal dynamics of conscious perception. Specifically, employing a combination of experimental analysis and neural network modelling, we test the hypothesis that the availability of attention reduces temporal jitter in the latency between a target's visual onset and its consolidation into working memory. We perform time-frequency analysis on data from an AB study to compare the EEG trials underlying the P3 ERPs (Event-related Potential evoked by targets seen outside vs. inside the AB time window. We find visual differences in phase-sorted ERPimages and statistical differences in the variance of the P3 phase distributions. These results argue for increased variation in the latency of conscious perception during the AB. This experimental analysis is complemented by a theoretical exploration of temporal attention and target processing. Using activation traces from the Neural-ST(2 model, we generate virtual ERPs and virtual ERPimages. These are compared to their human counterparts to propose an explanation of how target consolidation in the context of the AB influences the temporal variability of selective attention. The AB provides us with a suitable phenomenon with which to investigate the interplay between attention and perception. The combination of experimental and theoretical elucidation in this article contributes to converging evidence for the notion that the AB reflects a reduction in the temporal acuity of

Experimental and theoretical studies of perceptible color fading of decorative paints consisting of mixed pigments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Auger, Jean-Claude; McLoughlin, Daragh

2017-01-01

We study the color fading of paints films composed of mixtures of white rutile titanium dioxide and yellow arylide pigments dispersed in two polymer binders at different volume concentrations. The samples were exposed to ultraviolet radiations in an accelerated weathering tester during three weeks. The measured patterns in color variations appeared to be independent of the chemistry of the binders. We then developed a theoretical framework, based on the Radiative transfer Equation of light and the One Particle T-Matrix formalism to simulate the color fading process. The loss of color is correlated to the progressive decrease of the original colored pigment volume-filling fraction as the destructive UV radiations penetrate deeper into the films. The calculated patterns of color variations of paints film composed by mixtures of white pigments with yellow Cadmium Sulfate (CdS) and red Cerium Sulfide (Ce_2S_3) pigments showed the same trend as that seen experimentally. - Highlights: • Theoretical framework to simulate color-fading process of paints. • Good comparison between simulation and experimental data. • Color Fading depends on total amount of perceptible pigments.

CT scan and histological findings in experimental cerebral infarctions in cats

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morimoto, Tetsuya

1981-01-01

Experimental cerebral infarctions were made in sixty-five cats by the transorbital approach. CT scanning was done at various periods after right-middle cerebral artery occlusion, and all cases were studied histopathologically. Cerebral microcirculation was studied by the carbon perfusion method, and blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction was studied by intravenous fluorescein administration. The iodine content of brain tissue was measured and this value was compared with the findings on CT scan. Experimental cerebral infarction was divided into four stages according to CT scan findings. These are the pre-edema stage, edema stage, edema diminishing stage, and cavity stage. The low density area (LDA) in the edema stage has a mass effect and a spongy appearance is seen histopathologically. LDA in the edema diminishing stage is localized to the extent of the macroscopic infarcted region, and macrophage (so called ''gitter cells'') and capillaries are seen. Fluorescein stain indicating the area of BBB dysfunction shows almost the same extent as the area of disturbed microcirculation indicated by impaired carbon filling. In the edema diminishing stage, there is good carbon filling in the infarcted region, and enlarged capillaries with carbon black inside are seen. The study of iodine content showed that the iodine level is very high in the infarcted region, and the level has good correlation with the number of capillaries. The mechanism of contrast enhancement in the cerebral infarction seems to be well linked to the capillaries with BBB dysfunction. This study indicates that the contrast medium leaks through the capillary wall. (author)

Multiparton interactions. Theory and experimental findings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Diehl, Markus

2013-06-15

I give an introduction to multiparton interactions in proton-proton collisions, with a focus on the perturbative regime. Recent experimental results are discussed, as well as progress and open questions in theory.

An open microcomputer-based laboratory system for perceptional experimentality

Science.gov (United States)

Hamalainen, Ari

A computer, equipped with hardware for acquiring data about the properties of a physical system and programs for processing that data, is a powerful tool for physics research and instruction. There is strong evidence that utilizing microcomputer-based laboratories (MBLs) in instruction can lead to significantly improved learning. The perceptional approach is a method for physics instruction, developed at the Department of Physics, University of Helsinki. Its main arguments are that the meanings of the concepts must be learnt before their formal definitions and adoption, and that learning and research are fundamentally similar concept formation processes. Applying the perceptional approach requires the ability to perform quantitative experiments, either as students' laboratory exercises or as lecture demonstrations, and to process their results. MBL tools are essential for this. In student's laboratory exercises, they reduce the routine work and leave more time for the actual learning. In lecture demonstrations, they make it possible to perform the experiments in the tight time limits. At a previous stage of the research, a set of requirements was found that the perceptional approach places on MBL systems. The primary goal of this thesis is to build a prototype of a MBL system that would fulfil these requirements. A secondary goal is to describe technical aspects of a computerized measurement system from the standpoint of educational use. The prototype was built using mostly commercial sensors and data acquisition units. The software was written with a visual programming language, designed for instrumentation applications. The prototype system was developed and tested with a set of demonstrations of various topics in the Finnish high school physics curriculum, which were implemented according to the perceptional approach. Limited usability tests were also performed. The prototype was improved, until it could perform the test demonstrations. It was found to meet the

Acceptance and Commitment Based Therapy on Disease Perception and Psychological Capital in Patients with Type II Diabetes

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A. Baghban Baghestan

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Aims: As a prevalent metabolic disease, diabetes can be followed by severe mental outcomes leading to problems affecting the daily life. The aim of the study was to determine the effects of acceptance and commitment-based intervention on illness perception and psychological capital in persons with type II diabetes. Materials & Methods: In the controlled pretest-posttest semi-experimental study, 34 patients with type II diabetes were studied in the Diabetes Clinic of Chamran Hospital of Ferdows City in 2015. The subjects, selected via available sampling method, were randomly divided into two groups including control (n=17 persons and experimental (n=17 persons groups. Data was collected by short illness perception questionnaire (IPQ and Luthans’ psychological capital questionnaire (PCQ. Eight 60-minute acceptance and commitment-base intervention sessions were weekly conducted in experimental group. Data was analyzed by SPSS 18 software using descriptive statistics and covariance analysis test. Findings: The pretest score having been adjusted, the acceptance and commitment-based intervention significantly increases the scores of illness perception and its sub-scales (p=0.0001 except the personal control sub-scale. In addition, it significantly increases the scores of the psychological capital and its sub-scales (p=0.0001 in patients with type II diabetes. Conclusion: The acceptance and commitment-based intervention can considerably improve the illness perception and the psychological capital in persons with type II diabetes.

Novice drivers' risky driving behavior, risk perception, and crash risk: findings from the DRIVE study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ivers, Rebecca; Senserrick, Teresa; Boufous, Soufiane; Stevenson, Mark; Chen, Huei-Yang; Woodward, Mark; Norton, Robyn

2009-09-01

We explored the risky driving behaviors and risk perceptions of a cohort of young novice drivers and sought to determine their associations with crash risk. Provisional drivers aged 17 to 24 (n = 20 822) completed a detailed questionnaire that included measures of risk perception and behaviors; 2 years following recruitment, survey data were linked to licensing and police-reported crash data. Poisson regression models that adjusted for multiple confounders were created to explore crash risk. High scores on questionnaire items for risky driving were associated with a 50% increased crash risk (adjusted relative risk = 1.51; 95% confidence interval = 1.25, 1.81). High scores for risk perception (poorer perceptions of safety) were also associated with increased crash risk in univariate and multivariate models; however, significance was not sustained after adjustment for risky driving. The overrepresentation of youths in crashes involving casualties is a significant public health issue. Risky driving behavior is strongly linked to crash risk among young drivers and overrides the importance of risk perceptions. Systemwide intervention, including licensing reform, is warranted.

Changing motor perception by sensorimotor conflicts and body ownership

Science.gov (United States)

Salomon, R.; Fernandez, N. B.; van Elk, M.; Vachicouras, N.; Sabatier, F.; Tychinskaya, A.; Llobera, J.; Blanke, O.

2016-01-01

Experimentally induced sensorimotor conflicts can result in a loss of the feeling of control over a movement (sense of agency). These findings are typically interpreted in terms of a forward model in which the predicted sensory consequences of the movement are compared with the observed sensory consequences. In the present study we investigated whether a mismatch between movements and their observed sensory consequences does not only result in a reduced feeling of agency, but may affect motor perception as well. Visual feedback of participants’ finger movements was manipulated using virtual reality to be anatomically congruent or incongruent to the performed movement. Participants made a motor perception judgment (i.e. which finger did you move?) or a visual perceptual judgment (i.e. which finger did you see moving?). Subjective measures of agency and body ownership were also collected. Seeing movements that were visually incongruent to the performed movement resulted in a lower accuracy for motor perception judgments, but not visual perceptual judgments. This effect was modified by rotating the virtual hand (Exp.2), but not by passively induced movements (Exp.3). Hence, sensorimotor conflicts can modulate the perception of one’s motor actions, causing viewed “alien actions” to be felt as one’s own. PMID:27225834

Perception of risk from radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Slovic, P.

1996-01-01

Perceptions of risk from radiation have been studied systematically for about 20 years. This paper summarises the key findings and conclusions from this research with regard to the nature of risk perceptions, the impacts of these perceptions, and the need for communication about radiological hazards. Perhaps the most important generalisation from research in this area is that there is no uniform or consistent perception of radiation risks. Public perception and acceptance is determined by the context in which the radiation is used -and the very different reactions to different uses provide insight into the nature of perception and the determinants of acceptable risk. (author)

Country-of-origin Effects on Consumer Brand Perception of Familiar vs. Unfamiliar Brands of Technological Complex Products in a Developed Market Setting

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Jeanne; Iacob, Andreea

2016-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge of the effect of brand familiarity on how Country of Origin influences brand perception in a developed country. We used a 2x2 factorial experimental design to test the effects of COO with two levels of sourcing location – Czech Republic...... usable questionnaires. We used ANOVA to test our hypotheses. The findings suggest that country of origin has a significant positive impact on the consumers’ perception of the Czech manufactured Skoda Fabia, representing the familiar brand, and a significant negative impact on the consumers’ perception...

Visual motion perception predicts driving hazard perception ability.

Science.gov (United States)

Lacherez, Philippe; Au, Sandra; Wood, Joanne M

2014-02-01

To examine the basis of previous findings of an association between indices of driving safety and visual motion sensitivity and to examine whether this association could be explained by low-level changes in visual function. A total of 36 visually normal participants (aged 19-80 years) completed a battery of standard vision tests including visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and automated visual fields and two tests of motion perception including sensitivity for movement of a drifting Gabor stimulus and sensitivity for displacement in a random dot kinematogram (Dmin ). Participants also completed a hazard perception test (HPT), which measured participants' response times to hazards embedded in video recordings of real-world driving, which has been shown to be linked to crash risk. Dmin for the random dot stimulus ranged from -0.88 to -0.12 log minutes of arc, and the minimum drift rate for the Gabor stimulus ranged from 0.01 to 0.35 cycles per second. Both measures of motion sensitivity significantly predicted response times on the HPT. In addition, while the relationship involving the HPT and motion sensitivity for the random dot kinematogram was partially explained by the other visual function measures, the relationship with sensitivity for detection of the drifting Gabor stimulus remained significant even after controlling for these variables. These findings suggest that motion perception plays an important role in the visual perception of driving-relevant hazards independent of other areas of visual function and should be further explored as a predictive test of driving safety. Future research should explore the causes of reduced motion perception to develop better interventions to improve road safety. © 2012 The Authors. Acta Ophthalmologica © 2012 Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica Foundation.

Pain perception in people with Down syndrome: a synthesis of clinical and experimental research

Science.gov (United States)

McGuire, Brian E.; Defrin, Ruth

2015-01-01

People with an intellectual disability experience both acute and chronic pain with at least the same frequency as the general population. However, considerably less is known about the pain perception of people with Down syndrome. In this review paper, we evaluated the available clinical and experimental evidence. Some experimental studies of acute pain have indicated that pain threshold was higher than normal but only when using a reaction time method to measure pain sensitivity. However, when reaction time is not part of the calculation of the pain threshold, pain sensitivity in people with Down syndrome is in fact lower than normal (more sensitive to pain). Clinical studies of chronic pain have shown that people with an intellectual disability experience chronic pain and within that population, people with Down syndrome also experience chronic pain, but the precise prevalence of chronic pain in Down syndrome has yet to be established. Taken together, the literature suggests that people with Down syndrome experience pain, both acute and chronic, with at least the same frequency as the rest of the population. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that although acute pain expression appears to be delayed, once pain is registered, there appears to be a magnified pain response. We conclude by proposing an agenda for future research in this area. PMID:26283936

Do flood risk perceptions provide useful insights for flood risk management? Findings from central Vietnam

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bubeck, P.; Botzen, W.J.W.; Suu, L.T.T.; Aerts, J.C.J.H.

2012-01-01

Following the renewed attention for non-structural flood risk reduction measures implemented at the household level, there has been an increased interest in individual flood risk perceptions. The reason for this is the commonly-made assumption that flood risk perceptions drive the motivation of

The effect of auditory perception training on reading performance of the 8-9-year old female students with dyslexia: A preliminary study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nafiseh Vatandoost

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Background and Aim: Dyslexia is the most common learning disability. One of the main factors have role in this disability is auditory perception imperfection that cause a lot of problems in education. We aimed to study the effect of auditory perception training on reading performance of female students with dyslexia at the third grade of elementary school.Methods: Thirty-eight female students at the third grade of elementary schools of Khomeinishahr City, Iran, were selected by multistage cluster random sampling of them, 20 students which were diagnosed dyslexic by Reading test and Wechsler test, devided randomly to two equal groups of experimental and control. For experimental group, during ten 45-minute sessions, auditory perception training were conducted, but no intervention was done for control group. An participants were re-assessed by Reading test after the intervention (pre- and post- test method. Data were analyed by covariance test.Results: The effect of auditory perception training on reading performance (81% was significant (p<0.0001 for all subtests execpt the separate compound word test.Conclusion: Findings of our study confirm the hypothesis that auditory perception training effects on students' functional reading. So, auditory perception training seems to be necessary for the students with dyslexia.

Faculty perceptions of the strengths, weaknesses and future prospects of the current medical undergraduate experimental physiology curriculum in Gujarat, India.

Science.gov (United States)

Paralikar, Swapnil; Shah, Chinmay

2015-01-01

Over the past several years, an opinion has emerged in India that the current practical curricula in medical schools fail to meet many of the objectives for which they were instituted. Hence, this study has assessed the perception of physiology faculty members regarding the current experimental physiology curriculum in one Indian state, Gujarat. The faculty were of the opinion that many of the topics currently taught in experimental physiology (amphibian nerve-muscle and heart muscle experiments) were outdated and clinically irrelevant: Therefore, the faculty advocated that duration of teaching time devoted to some of these topics should be reduced and topics with clinical relevance should be introduced at the undergraduate level. The faculty also felt that more emphasis should be laid on highlighting the clinical aspect related to each concept taught in experimental physiology . Moreover, a majority of faculty members were in favour of replacing the current practice in Gujarat of teaching experimental physiology only by explanation of graphs obtained from experiments conducted in the previous years, with computer assisted learning in small groups.

Poor Speech Perception Is Not a Core Deficit of Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Preliminary Findings

Science.gov (United States)

Zuk, Jennifer; Iuzzini-Seigel, Jenya; Cabbage, Kathryn; Green, Jordan R.; Hogan, Tiffany P.

2018-01-01

Purpose: Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is hypothesized to arise from deficits in speech motor planning and programming, but the influence of abnormal speech perception in CAS on these processes is debated. This study examined speech perception abilities among children with CAS with and without language impairment compared to those with…

A Bayesian approach to person perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Clifford, C W G; Mareschal, I; Otsuka, Y; Watson, T L

2015-11-01

Here we propose a Bayesian approach to person perception, outlining the theoretical position and a methodological framework for testing the predictions experimentally. We use the term person perception to refer not only to the perception of others' personal attributes such as age and sex but also to the perception of social signals such as direction of gaze and emotional expression. The Bayesian approach provides a formal description of the way in which our perception combines current sensory evidence with prior expectations about the structure of the environment. Such expectations can lead to unconscious biases in our perception that are particularly evident when sensory evidence is uncertain. We illustrate the ideas with reference to our recent studies on gaze perception which show that people have a bias to perceive the gaze of others as directed towards themselves. We also describe a potential application to the study of the perception of a person's sex, in which a bias towards perceiving males is typically observed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

New Zealand Nurses’ Perceptions of Spirituality and Spiritual care: Qualitative Findings from a National Survey

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Richard Egan

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the qualitative findings from the first national survey of New Zealand nurses’ views on spirituality and spiritual care. The importance of spirituality as a core aspect of holistic nursing care is gaining momentum. Little is currently known about New Zealand nurses’ understandings, perceptions and experience of spirituality. Design: A descriptive online survey. Method: A random sample of 2000 individuals resident in New Zealand whose occupation on the New Zealand electoral roll suggested nursing was their current or past occupation were invited via postcard to participate in an online survey. This paper reports on the free response section of the survey. Findings: Overall, 472 invitees responded (24.1%. From the respondents, 63% completed at least one of the optional free response sections. Thematic analysis generated three metathemes: ‘The role of spirituality in nursing practice’, ‘Enabling best practice’, and ‘Creating a supportive culture’. Conclusions: Spirituality was predominantly valued as a core aspect of holistic nursing care. However, clarity is needed surrounding what constitutes spiritual care and how this intersects with professional responsibilities and boundaries. Participants’ insights suggest a focus on improving the consistency and quality of spiritual care by fostering inter-professional collaboration, and improved provision of resources and educational opportunities.

Vision as subjective perception; La vision, une perception subjective

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reppas, J.B. [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). Biological Labs.; Dale, A.; Sereno, M.; Tootell, R.

1996-07-01

The human brain is not very different of the monkey`s one: at least, its visual cortex is organized as a similar scheme. Specialized areas in the movement analysis are found and others in the forms perception. In this work, the author tries to answer to the following questions: (1)why so many visual areas? What are exactly their role in vision? Thirteen years of experimentation have not allowed to answer to these questions. The cerebral NMR imaging gives the opportunity of understanding the subjective perception of the visual world. One step which is particularly described in this work is to know how the visual cortex reacts to the optical illusions. (O.M.).

Opening the Implicit Leadership Theories' Black Box: An Experimental Approach with Conjoint Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Tavares, Gustavo M; Sobral, Filipe; Goldszmidt, Rafael; Araújo, Felipe

2018-01-01

Although research on implicit leadership theories (ILTs) has concentrated on determining which attributes define a leadership prototype, little attention has been paid to testing the relative importance of each of these attributes for individuals' leadership perceptions. Building on socio-cognitive theories of impression processes, we experimentally explore the formation of leadership perceptions based on the recognition of six key attributes in a series of three experimental studies comprising 566 US-based participants recruited online via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our results show that while certain attributes play an important role in the leader categorization process, others are less relevant. We also demonstrate that some attributes' importance is contingent on the presence of other attributes and on the leadership schema type activated in respondents' minds. Consistent with the Leadership Categorization Theory, our findings support the premise that individuals cognitively hold a superordinate leadership prototype, which imposes constraints on their more basic level prototypes. We discuss the implications of these results for leadership theory and practice.

Opening the Implicit Leadership Theories’ Black Box: An Experimental Approach with Conjoint Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gustavo M. Tavares

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Although research on implicit leadership theories (ILTs has concentrated on determining which attributes define a leadership prototype, little attention has been paid to testing the relative importance of each of these attributes for individuals’ leadership perceptions. Building on socio-cognitive theories of impression processes, we experimentally explore the formation of leadership perceptions based on the recognition of six key attributes in a series of three experimental studies comprising 566 US-based participants recruited online via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our results show that while certain attributes play an important role in the leader categorization process, others are less relevant. We also demonstrate that some attributes’ importance is contingent on the presence of other attributes and on the leadership schema type activated in respondents’ minds. Consistent with the Leadership Categorization Theory, our findings support the premise that individuals cognitively hold a superordinate leadership prototype, which imposes constraints on their more basic level prototypes. We discuss the implications of these results for leadership theory and practice.

Opening the Implicit Leadership Theories’ Black Box: An Experimental Approach with Conjoint Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Tavares, Gustavo M.; Sobral, Filipe; Goldszmidt, Rafael; Araújo, Felipe

2018-01-01

Although research on implicit leadership theories (ILTs) has concentrated on determining which attributes define a leadership prototype, little attention has been paid to testing the relative importance of each of these attributes for individuals’ leadership perceptions. Building on socio-cognitive theories of impression processes, we experimentally explore the formation of leadership perceptions based on the recognition of six key attributes in a series of three experimental studies comprising 566 US-based participants recruited online via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our results show that while certain attributes play an important role in the leader categorization process, others are less relevant. We also demonstrate that some attributes’ importance is contingent on the presence of other attributes and on the leadership schema type activated in respondents’ minds. Consistent with the Leadership Categorization Theory, our findings support the premise that individuals cognitively hold a superordinate leadership prototype, which imposes constraints on their more basic level prototypes. We discuss the implications of these results for leadership theory and practice. PMID:29467706

Computational and Experimental Approaches to Visual Aesthetics

Science.gov (United States)

Brachmann, Anselm; Redies, Christoph

2017-01-01

Aesthetics has been the subject of long-standing debates by philosophers and psychologists alike. In psychology, it is generally agreed that aesthetic experience results from an interaction between perception, cognition, and emotion. By experimental means, this triad has been studied in the field of experimental aesthetics, which aims to gain a better understanding of how aesthetic experience relates to fundamental principles of human visual perception and brain processes. Recently, researchers in computer vision have also gained interest in the topic, giving rise to the field of computational aesthetics. With computing hardware and methodology developing at a high pace, the modeling of perceptually relevant aspect of aesthetic stimuli has a huge potential. In this review, we present an overview of recent developments in computational aesthetics and how they relate to experimental studies. In the first part, we cover topics such as the prediction of ratings, style and artist identification as well as computational methods in art history, such as the detection of influences among artists or forgeries. We also describe currently used computational algorithms, such as classifiers and deep neural networks. In the second part, we summarize results from the field of experimental aesthetics and cover several isolated image properties that are believed to have a effect on the aesthetic appeal of visual stimuli. Their relation to each other and to findings from computational aesthetics are discussed. Moreover, we compare the strategies in the two fields of research and suggest that both fields would greatly profit from a joined research effort. We hope to encourage researchers from both disciplines to work more closely together in order to understand visual aesthetics from an integrated point of view. PMID:29184491

Maternal perception of fetal activity and late stillbirth risk: findings from the Auckland Stillbirth Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Stacey, Tomasina; Thompson, John M D; Mitchell, Edwin A; Ekeroma, Alec; Zuccollo, Jane; McCowan, Lesley M E

2011-12-01

  Maternal perception of decreased fetal movements has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, including stillbirth. Little is known about other aspects of perceived fetal activity. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between maternal perception of fetal activity and late stillbirth (≥28 wk gestation) risk.   Participants were women with a singleton, late stillbirth without congenital abnormality, born between July 2006 and June 2009 in Auckland, New Zealand. Two control women with ongoing pregnancies were randomly selected at the same gestation at which the stillbirth occurred. Detailed demographic and fetal movement data were collected by way of interview in the first few weeks after the stillbirth, or at the equivalent gestation for control women.   A total of 155/215 (72%) women who experienced a stillbirth and 310/429 (72%) control group women consented to participate in the study. Maternal perception of increased strength and frequency of fetal movements, fetal hiccups, and frequent vigorous fetal activity were all associated with a reduced risk of late stillbirth. In contrast, perception of decreased strength of fetal movement was associated with a more than twofold increased risk of late stillbirth (aOR: 2.37; 95% CI: 1.29-4.35). A single episode of vigorous fetal activity was associated with an almost sevenfold increase in late stillbirth risk (aOR: 6.81; 95% CI: 3.01-15.41) compared with no unusually vigorous activity.   Our study suggests that maternal perception of increasing fetal activity throughout the last 3 months of pregnancy is a sign of fetal well-being, whereas perception of reduced fetal movements is associated with increased risk of late stillbirth. © 2011, Copyright the Authors. Journal compilation © 2011, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Importance of 'Likes': The Interplay of Message Framing, Source, and Social Endorsement on Credibility Perceptions of Health Information on Facebook.

Science.gov (United States)

Borah, Porismita; Xiao, Xizhu

2018-01-01

Online sources not only permeate the information-seeking environment of the younger generation, but also have profound influence in shaping their beliefs and behaviors. In this landscape, examining the factors responsible for credibility perceptions of online information is fundamental, particularly for health-related information. Using a 2 (frames: gain vs. loss) × 2 (source: expert vs. non-expert) × 2 (social endorsement: high vs. low) randomized between-subjects experimental design, this study examines the effect of health message framing and the moderating effects of social endorsement and source type on credibility perceptions of Facebook posts. Testing across two issues--physical activity and alcohol consumption--findings indicate that the gain-framed message was perceived as most credible. Additionally, significant three-way interactions suggest that social endorsement and source type affect the relationship between message framing and credibility perceptions. Specifically, the findings demonstrate that a gain-framed message from an expert source with high number of 'likes' is considered the most credible message. These findings have significant implications for information gathering from social media sources, such as the influence of 'likes' on health information.

Perception and evaluation of risks. Findings of the 'Baden-Wuerttemberg Risk Survey 2001'

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zwick, M.M.; Renn, O. (eds.)

2002-05-01

Since most of the empirical work on risk perception has been conducted in the 1970s and few studies are available that claim to span the full range of psychological, sociological and cultural variables, the Center of Technology Assessment in Stuttgart (Germany) has conducted a representative survey in the German State of Baden-Wuerttemberg on risk perception in the general population. In addition, a qualitative investigation based on a sample of 62 respondents was launched in 2001. The objective of the study was to determine the relative importance of psychometric, stigma-related, social value-related, trust-related and cultural variables in explaining risk perception and acceptance. The following report summarizes the results of these investigations. (orig.)

HYDROïD humanoid robot head with perception and emotion capabilities :Modeling, Design and Experimental Results

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samer eAlfayad

2016-04-01

Full Text Available In the framework of the HYDROïD humanoid robot project, this paper describes the modeling and design of an electrically actuated head mechanism. Perception and emotion capabilities are considered in the design process. Since HYDROïD humanoid robot is hydraulically actuated, the choice of electrical actuation for the head mechanism addressed in this paper is justified. Considering perception and emotion capabilities leads to a total number of 15 degrees of freedom for the head mechanism which are split on four main sub-mechanisms: the neck, the mouth, the eyes and the eyebrows. Biological data and kinematics performances of human head are taken as inputs of the design process. A new solution of uncoupled eyes is developed to possibly address the master-slave process that links the human eyes as well as vergence capabilities. Modeling each sub-system is carried out in order to get equations of motion, their frequency responses and their transfer functions. The neck pitch rotation is given as a study example. Then, the head mechanism performances are presented through a comparison between model and experimental results validating the hardware capabilities. Finally, the head mechanism is integrated on the HYDROïD upper-body. An object tracking experiment coupled with emotional expressions is carried out to validate the synchronization of the eye rotations with the body motions.

Factors Affecting the Perception of Importance and Practice of Patient Safety Management among Hospital Employees in Korea.

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Kim, In-Sook; Park, MiJeong; Park, Mi-Young; Yoo, Hana; Choi, Jihea

2013-03-01

The study was undertaken to identify factors affecting perception of the importance and practice of patient safety management (PSM) among hospital employees in Korea. This study was conducted using a descriptive design and a self-report questionnaire. Two hundred and eighty employees were recruited from three hospitals using a convenience sampling method. Measures were perception of the importance, practice, and characteristics of PSM. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including t test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation analysis, and multiple regression. Factors affecting perception of the importance of PSM were whether hospital employees were in contact with patients while on duty, weekly working hours, education on PSM, and perceived adequacy of PSM system construction. Factors affecting the practice of PSM were perceived adequacy of work load, perceived adequacy of PSM system construction and perception of its importance. The findings of this study indicate a need for developing strategies to improve perception of the importance and practice of PSM among all hospital employees, and provide a reference for future experimental studies. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Higher Education Students' Perceptions of Environmental Issues and Media Coverage

Science.gov (United States)

Keinonen, Tuula; Palmberg, Irmeli; Kukkonen, Jari; Yli-Panula, Eija; Persson, Christel; Vilkonis, Rytis

2016-01-01

This study aims to find higher education students' perceptions about environmental issues and how the perceptions are related to perceptions of media coverage. This study investigates higher education students' perceptions of the seriousness of environmental issues and their relation to perceptions of media coverage. Higher education students…

Perception of illusory contour figures: Microgenetic analysis

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Gvozdenović Vasilije P.

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Microgenetic analysis was used to investigate perception of illusory contour figures which represent whole, completed forms on the basis of segmented, incomplete stimulation. The analysis provided an experimental approach to this phenomenon which was standardly investigated phenomenologically. Experimental procedure consisted of two phases: a priming phase and b test phase which consisted of visual search task. Two types of visual search tasks were applied: (i classic detection, in which subjects were detecting presence or absence of the target stimuli and (ii two-alternative forced choice, 2AFC, in which subjects performed discrimination between two concurrent targets (target A vs. target B. Variation of exposition of prim stimuli was used as an indication of the percept formation period. Concepts like early vision, visual attention and feature binding were investigated. Four experiments were conducted. Their outcome showed that (i perception of amodal figure requires visual attention, (ii features binding precedes spatial attention and (iii time period of percept formation is dependent of task properties and varies between 50 - 150 ms. Some results obtained in this research could be explained by feature-integration theory (Treisman & Gelade, 1980; Treisman, 1986. Furthermore, percept formation period data comply with data acquired in Elliott & Müller's psychophysical research (1998.

Pain-related anxiety influences pain perception differently in men and women: a quantitative sensory test across thermal pain modalities.

Science.gov (United States)

Thibodeau, Michel A; Welch, Patrick G; Katz, Joel; Asmundson, Gordon J G

2013-03-01

The sexes differ with respect to perception of experimental pain. Anxiety influences pain perception more in men than in women; however, there lacks research exploring which anxiety constructs influence pain perception differentially between men and women. Furthermore, research examining whether depression is associated with pain perception differently between the sexes remains scant. The present investigation was designed to examine how trait anxiety, pain-related anxiety constructs (ie, fear of pain, pain-related anxiety, anxiety sensitivity), and depression are associated with pain perception between the sexes. A total of 95 nonclinical participants (55% women) completed measures assessing the constructs of interest and participated in quantitative sensory testing using heat and cold stimuli administered by a Medoc Pathway Pain and Sensory Evaluation System. The findings suggest that pain-related anxiety constructs, but not trait anxiety, are associated with pain perception. Furthermore, these constructs are associated with pain intensity ratings in men and pain tolerance levels in women. This contrasts with previous research suggesting that anxiety influences pain perception mostly or uniquely in men. Depression was not systematically associated with pain perception in either sex. Systematic relationships were not identified that allow conclusions regarding how fear of pain, pain-related anxiety, and anxiety sensitivity may contribute to pain perception differentially in men and women; however, anxiety sensitivity was associated with increased pain tolerance, a novel finding needing further examination. The results provide directions for future research and clinical endeavors and support that fear and anxiety are important features associated with hyperalgesia in both men and women. Copyright © 2012 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Portevin–Le Chatelier effect: a review of experimental findings

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Ahmet Yilmaz

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The Portevin–Le Chatelier (PLC effect manifests itself as an unstable plastic flow during tensile tests of some dilute alloys under certain regimes of strain rate and temperature. The plastic strain becomes localized in the form of bands which move along a specimen gauge in various ways as the PLC effect occurs. Because the localization of strain causes degradation of the inherent structural properties and surface quality of materials, understanding the effect is crucial for the effective use of alloys. The characteristic behaviors of localized strain bands and techniques commonly used to study the PLC effect are summarized in this review. A brief overview of experimental findings, the effect of material properties and test parameters on the PLC effect, and some discussion on the mechanisms of the effect are included. Tests for predicting the early failure of structural materials due to embrittlement induced by the PLC effect are also discussed.

Perception, Action, and Consciousness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

What is the relationship between perception and action, between an organism and its environment, in explaining consciousness? These are issues at the heart of philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences. This book explores the relationship between perception and action from a variety of interdi......What is the relationship between perception and action, between an organism and its environment, in explaining consciousness? These are issues at the heart of philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences. This book explores the relationship between perception and action from a variety...... of interdisciplinary perspectives, ranging from theoretical discussion of concepts to findings from recent scientific studies. It incorporates contributions from leading philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, and an artificial intelligence theorist. The contributions take a range of positions with respect...

Turkish Primary Students' Perceptions of Geography

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Senyurt, Secil

2014-01-01

This study provides an in-depth investigation of Turkish primary school students' perceptions of geography. Gender differences in students' perceptions of geography were investigated, including definitions of geography and its field of study. The findings showed that "landforms," "our geographical regions/Turkey,"…

Sensorimotor influences on speech perception in infancy.

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Bruderer, Alison G; Danielson, D Kyle; Kandhadai, Padmapriya; Werker, Janet F

2015-11-03

The influence of speech production on speech perception is well established in adults. However, because adults have a long history of both perceiving and producing speech, the extent to which the perception-production linkage is due to experience is unknown. We addressed this issue by asking whether articulatory configurations can influence infants' speech perception performance. To eliminate influences from specific linguistic experience, we studied preverbal, 6-mo-old infants and tested the discrimination of a nonnative, and hence never-before-experienced, speech sound distinction. In three experimental studies, we used teething toys to control the position and movement of the tongue tip while the infants listened to the speech sounds. Using ultrasound imaging technology, we verified that the teething toys consistently and effectively constrained the movement and positioning of infants' tongues. With a looking-time procedure, we found that temporarily restraining infants' articulators impeded their discrimination of a nonnative consonant contrast but only when the relevant articulator was selectively restrained to prevent the movements associated with producing those sounds. Our results provide striking evidence that even before infants speak their first words and without specific listening experience, sensorimotor information from the articulators influences speech perception. These results transform theories of speech perception by suggesting that even at the initial stages of development, oral-motor movements influence speech sound discrimination. Moreover, an experimentally induced "impairment" in articulator movement can compromise speech perception performance, raising the question of whether long-term oral-motor impairments may impact perceptual development.

Illness perceptions or recurrence risk perceptions: What comes first? A longitudinal cross-lagged examination among cardiac patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Peleg, Shira; Drori, Erga; Banai, Shmuel; Finkelstein, Ariel; Shiloh, Shoshana

2016-05-01

Previous research suggested that illness perceptions provide the basis for illness risk perceptions through an inductive reasoning process. This study aimed to assess the direction of relationships between illness and recurrence risk perceptions over time, among cardiac patients. A longitudinal study was conducted among 138 patients undergoing coronary angioplasty. Self-report questionnaires measured perceived recurrence risk and illness perceptions one day and one month after catheterisation. Cross-lagged Panel Model Analyses revealed that higher perceptions of timeline, consequences and emotional representations of illness at hospitalisation were associated with higher recurrence risk perceptions one month later. Perceived personal control was the only illness perception with bi-directional associations: higher perceived personal control at hospitalisation was associated with higher recurrence risk perceptions one month later; and higher recurrence risk perceptions at hospitalisation was associated with lower personal control one month later. The findings suggest that the associations between recurrence risk and illness perceptions can only partly be explained by inductive reasoning. Halo effects and defensive processes are suggested as complementary explanations for the observed associations between risk and illness perceptions.

Emotion perception and overconfidence in errors under stress in psychosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Köther, Ulf; Lincoln, Tania M; Moritz, Steffen

2018-03-21

Vulnerability stress models are well-accepted in psychosis research, but the mechanisms that link stress to psychotic symptoms remain vague. Little is known about how social cognition and overconfidence in errors, two putative mechanisms for the pathogenesis of delusions, relate to stress. Using a repeated measures design, we tested four groups (N=120) with different liability to psychosis (schizophrenia patients [n=35], first-degree relatives [n=24], participants with attenuated positive symptoms [n=19] and healthy controls [n=28]) and depression patients (n=14) as a clinical control group under three randomized experimental conditions (no stress, noise and social stress). Parallel versions of the Emotion Perception and Confidence Task, which taps both emotion perception and confidence, were used in each condition. We recorded subjective stress, heart rate, skin conductance level and salivary cortisol to assess the stress response across different dimensions. Independent of the stress condition, patients with schizophrenia showed poorer emotion perception performance and higher confidence in emotion perception errors than participants with attenuated positive symptoms and healthy controls. However, they did not differ from patients with depression or first-degree relatives. Stress did not influence emotion perception or the extent of high-confident errors, but patients with schizophrenia showed an increase in high-confident emotion perception errors conditional on higher arousal. A possible clinical implication of our findings is the necessity to provide stress management programs that aim to reduce arousal. Moreover, patients with schizophrenia might benefit from interventions that help them to reduce overconfidence in their social cognition judgements in times in which they feel being under pressure. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Do flood risk perceptions provide useful insights for flood risk management? Findings from central Vietnam

OpenAIRE

Bubeck, P.; Botzen, W.J.W.; Suu, L.T.T.; Aerts, J.C.J.H.

2012-01-01

Following the renewed attention for non-structural flood risk reduction measures implemented at the household level, there has been an increased interest in individual flood risk perceptions. The reason for this is the commonly-made assumption that flood risk perceptions drive the motivation of individuals to undertake flood risk mitigation measures, as well as the public's demand for flood protection, and therefore provide useful insights for flood risk management. This study empirically exa...

Rhythm Perception and Its Role in Perception and Learning of Dysrhythmic Speech.

Science.gov (United States)

Borrie, Stephanie A; Lansford, Kaitlin L; Barrett, Tyson S

2017-03-01

The perception of rhythm cues plays an important role in recognizing spoken language, especially in adverse listening conditions. Indeed, this has been shown to hold true even when the rhythm cues themselves are dysrhythmic. This study investigates whether expertise in rhythm perception provides a processing advantage for perception (initial intelligibility) and learning (intelligibility improvement) of naturally dysrhythmic speech, dysarthria. Fifty young adults with typical hearing participated in 3 key tests, including a rhythm perception test, a receptive vocabulary test, and a speech perception and learning test, with standard pretest, familiarization, and posttest phases. Initial intelligibility scores were calculated as the proportion of correct pretest words, while intelligibility improvement scores were calculated by subtracting this proportion from the proportion of correct posttest words. Rhythm perception scores predicted intelligibility improvement scores but not initial intelligibility. On the other hand, receptive vocabulary scores predicted initial intelligibility scores but not intelligibility improvement. Expertise in rhythm perception appears to provide an advantage for processing dysrhythmic speech, but a familiarization experience is required for the advantage to be realized. Findings are discussed in relation to the role of rhythm in speech processing and shed light on processing models that consider the consequence of rhythm abnormalities in dysarthria.

Effects of victim presence and coercion in restorative justice: An experimental paradigm.

Science.gov (United States)

Saulnier, Alana; Sivasubramaniam, Diane

2015-08-01

There is little experimental work examining the ways in which particular procedural features of restorative justice impact offenders. This research describes a new experimental paradigm designed to advance knowledge about causal relationships in restorative justice settings. Apologizing is a core component of restorative procedures, and can result in beneficial outcomes, but previous research suggests that coercion to apologize and the absence of victims in restorative procedures may negatively impact these outcomes. The experimental procedure elicited confessions and apologies for a transgression from participants (N = 101) in a deceptive paradigm. We manipulated coercion (coerced, not coerced) and victim presence (direct, surrogate, ambiguous) to test their effects on offenders' subjective experiences of offering an apology, as well as their effects on the quality of offenders' apologies. Findings indicated that the victim presence and coercion manipulations significantly impacted some of the subjective perceptions of apologizers, including perceptions of accountability and transgression finality. In addition, independent raters evaluated the degree to which the transgressor's apologies conveyed remorse, acceptance of guilt, and potential for dispute resolution. Victim presence and coercion consistently affected the ability of transgressors to convey high quality apologies. Implications for future research and restorative procedures are discussed. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Turkish Political Market and the Perception of Political Parties

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Cihat Polat

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This study attempts to describe the Turkish political market and determine where and how Turkish political parties are perceived by voters. The study uses a two-dimensional map to determine the voter perceptions of the parties in the Turkish political market based on a survey questionnaire applied to 400 young voters. It also investigates whether there are any major differences in the perception of parties in the political space based on voter ideologies. The study finds that young voters have clear perceptions of the positions of Turkish parties. It also finds that voter perceptions of parties vary based on voters’ ideological positions.

Patients' perceptions of their general practitioner's health and weight influences their perceptions of nutrition and exercise advice received

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Fraser SE

2013-12-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: General practitioners (GPs play an important role in the management of patients who are overweight or obese. Previous research suggests that GPs' physical characteristics may influence patients' perceptions of health care received during consultations, mediating the likelihood of patients following health advice provided by GPs. This study aimed to explore patients' perceptions of their GP's health status and its influence on patients' perceptions of healthy eating and exercise advice. METHODS: An interpretive approach to phenomenology underpinned the qualitative inquiry and study design. Twenty-one participants (aged 55.9 ± 6.5 years; 14 females, 7 males who had previously received healthy eating and/or exercise advice from a GP participated in an individual semi-structured interview. A constant comparison approach to thematic analysis was conducted. FINDINGS: Participants identified three key indicators of perceived health of their GP. These included the GP's physical appearance, particularly weight status; perceived absence of ill health; and disclosure of a GP's health behaviours. Participants expressed favourable perceptions of the weight status of their GP. Participants expected their GP to be a healthy role model and often, but not always, felt more confident receiving advice from a GP that they perceived as healthy. CONCLUSION: The findings highlight that a GP's perceived health status influences patients' perceptions of the health advice received during consultations. These findings provide a foundation for future research that may allow GPs to modify patients' perceptions of their health status in order to facilitate behaviour change in overweight or obese patients.

HiTEC: a connectionist model of the interaction between perception and action planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Haazebroek, Pascal; Raffone, Antonino; Hommel, Bernhard

2017-11-01

Increasing evidence suggests that perception and action planning do not represent separable stages of a unidirectional processing sequence, but rather emerging properties of highly interactive processes. To capture these characteristics of the human cognitive system, we have developed a connectionist model of the interaction between perception and action planning: HiTEC, based on the Theory of Event Coding (Hommel et al. in Behav Brain Sci 24:849-937, 2001). The model is characterized by representations at multiple levels and by shared representations and processes. It complements available models of stimulus-response translation by providing a rationale for (1) how situation-specific meanings of motor actions emerge, (2) how and why some aspects of stimulus-response translation occur automatically and (3) how task demands modulate sensorimotor processing. The model is demonstrated to provide a unitary account and simulation of a number of key findings with multiple experimental paradigms on the interaction between perception and action such as the Simon effect, its inversion (Hommel in Psychol Res 55:270-279, 1993), and action-effect learning.

Health perceptions of Mexican American women.

Science.gov (United States)

Mendelson, Cindy

2002-07-01

This article describes the health perceptions of a sample of moderately to highly acculturated Mexican American women. Using an ethnographic design, the author interviewed 13 women to determine their health perceptions. The interviews were guided by the domains of health described in the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health. Three broad categories of health perceptions were identified: the physical body, the emotional component, and finding balance. With the addition of a spiritual component, the WHO definition was a useful tool for uncovering health perceptions. The process of in-depth ethnographic interviewing provided a contextual view of health in which the complexity of intrafamilial relationships was revealed, as were the importance of spirituality as a coping mechanism and the perception of health as an integrated, holistic experience.

Serial correlation between the ultrasonographic and pathologic findings of intramuscular hemorrhaging in an experimental rabbit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ko, Kyung Ran; Ryu, Kyung Nam; Park, Ji Seon; Jin, Wook; Sung, Dong Wook; Park, Yong Koo

2008-01-01

To evaluate the serial ultrasonographic findings of experimental intramuscular hemorrhaging to determine if there is a correlation with the pathologic findings. An ultrasonography (US) was performed before and immediately after an intramuscular blood injection in nine rabbits. In addition, follow-up US images were obtained at 1, 4, 7, 10, 14, 21, and 28 days after the intramuscular blood injections in seven of the rabbits. The pathologic specimens, compared to the US findings on each date, and consisted of samples of left thigh muscle. A US, performed immediately after a blood injection, showed two patterns; 6 cases of hyperechoic muscle thickening and 3 cases of hyperechoic muscle thickening with extravasation between the epimysium and muscle bundle or within muscle bundle. A follow-up US showed a marked decrease in intramuscular hemorrhaging and microcalcifications, which appeared on the 4th, 7th and 10th day after the blood injection. The pathologic findings revealed several short echogenic lines in the muscular bundles which were hemosiderin. Moreover, a 28 day follow-up US revealed that the normal findings are correlated with the normal gross pathologic findings. The US findings of the intramuscular hemorrhaging, for each of the follow-up dates, in comparison to the pathologic findings, revealed a high correlation with the pathologic specimens. Consequently, a US transducer with high resolution can be considered as a helpful technique in the diagnosing and evaluating the follow-up treatment of intramuscular hemorrhaging

Serial correlation between the ultrasonographic and pathologic findings of intramuscular hemorrhaging in an experimental rabbit

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ko, Kyung Ran [National Cancer Center, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Ryu, Kyung Nam; Park, Ji Seon; Jin, Wook; Sung, Dong Wook; Park, Yong Koo [KyungHee University Medical Center, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2008-05-15

To evaluate the serial ultrasonographic findings of experimental intramuscular hemorrhaging to determine if there is a correlation with the pathologic findings. An ultrasonography (US) was performed before and immediately after an intramuscular blood injection in nine rabbits. In addition, follow-up US images were obtained at 1, 4, 7, 10, 14, 21, and 28 days after the intramuscular blood injections in seven of the rabbits. The pathologic specimens, compared to the US findings on each date, and consisted of samples of left thigh muscle. A US, performed immediately after a blood injection, showed two patterns; 6 cases of hyperechoic muscle thickening and 3 cases of hyperechoic muscle thickening with extravasation between the epimysium and muscle bundle or within muscle bundle. A follow-up US showed a marked decrease in intramuscular hemorrhaging and microcalcifications, which appeared on the 4th, 7th and 10th day after the blood injection. The pathologic findings revealed several short echogenic lines in the muscular bundles which were hemosiderin. Moreover, a 28 day follow-up US revealed that the normal findings are correlated with the normal gross pathologic findings. The US findings of the intramuscular hemorrhaging, for each of the follow-up dates, in comparison to the pathologic findings, revealed a high correlation with the pathologic specimens. Consequently, a US transducer with high resolution can be considered as a helpful technique in the diagnosing and evaluating the follow-up treatment of intramuscular hemorrhaging.

Yarbus's Conceptions on the General Mechanisms of Color Perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Nikolaev, Petr P; Rozhkova, Galina I

2015-01-01

In the last series of papers published during 1975 to 1980, Alfred Yarbus tried to formulate general conceptions concerning the basic principles of retinal image processing in the human visual system. The original ideas of Yarbus were based on the results of his numerous and various experiments carried out with extraordinary inventiveness and great skill. Being concentrated primarily on the problems of color vision, Alfred Yarbus dreamed of elaborating a comprehensive model that would simulate visual information processing at the monocular precognitive level in the visual system of humans with normal trichromatic color perception. In this article, the most important of Yarbus' experimental paradigms, findings, statements, and conclusions are systematized and considered in relation to the classical theories of color perception and, in particular, fundamental theses of the Nyberg school. The perceptual model developed by Alfred Yarbus remained incomplete. Nevertheless, it is already evident that some intrinsic contradictions make it inadequate in terms of comprehensive modeling. However, certain partial advantages deserve more thorough appreciation and further investigation. © The Author(s) 2015.

The Ethical Perceptions of Small Business Owners

OpenAIRE

Aydemir, Muzaffer

2006-01-01

This paper reports the findings of an investigation into the ethical perceptions of small business owner/managers. The study has been conducted in Northwest region of Turkey and is the first investigation of ethical perceptions in Turkey. More than 99 percent of the companies in Turkey are small businesses and they play a key role in driving sustainable economic growth and job creation. However, they remain the largely unexplored area of ethics. Most of the findings of this stu...

Flux and permanence of risk perceptions: Tourists' perception of the relative and absolute risk for various destinations.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolff, Katharina; Larsen, Svein

2016-12-01

The present investigation is a cross-sectional, multi-national, quantitative, and quasi-experimental comparison of tourists' risk perceptions regarding different destinations throughout the past decade. Over 10,000 tourists to Norway from 89 different countries filled in a questionnaire rating the perceived risk for various destinations. Data were collected during 2004, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015 and allow for a comparison of perceived risk across time, place and nationality. Results show that while absolute risk judgments for different destinations fluctuate somewhat over the years, relative risk judgments remain constant. Findings also reveal a "home-is-safer-then-abroad-bias" with tourists consistently perceiving their home country among the safest destinations. The current investigation is rare because it looks at more than one destination at a time. Insights gained from the present findings diverge from what would have been concluded from employing case studies, that is, looking at one destination at a time. © 2016 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology published by Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Japanese Consumer Perceptions of Genetically Modified Food: Findings From an International Comparative Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Komoto, Keiko; Okamoto, Sawako; Hamada, Miki; Obana, Naoya; Samori, Mami; Imamura, Tomoaki

2016-08-29

Reports of food-related incidents, such as cows infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (2001) and the Fukushima nuclear accident (2011), engendered significant fear among Japanese consumers and led to multiple farmer suicides, even when no actual health damage occurred. The growing availability of genetically modified (GM) food is occurring against this backdrop of concern about food safety. Consumers need information to assess risk and make informed purchasing decisions. However, we lack a clear picture of Japanese consumer perceptions of GM food. This study aims to understand Japanese consumer perceptions of GM food for risk communication. Consumer perceptions of GM food were compared among 4 nations. A Web-based survey was conducted in Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. Participants were asked about demographics, fear of health hazards, resistance to GM and breeding-improved products, perception of GM technology and products, and willingness to pay. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted, as were t tests on dichotomous variables, and 1-way analysis of variance and post hoc tests. Of 1812 individuals who agreed to participate, 1705 (94%) responded: 457 from Japan and 416 each from France, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The male/female and age group ratios were all about even. Some resistance to GM food was seen in all countries in this study. France showed the strongest resistance (Pperceptions of GM technology and products, consumers in nations other than Japan would accept GM food if it were appropriately explained, they were provided with scientific data supporting its safety, and they understood that all food carries some risk. However, Japanese consumers tended to accept GM technology but rejected its application to food (Phealth hazards are known, respondents in Japan and France strongly recognized GM food as a health risk. Price discounts of 30% and GM technology may be communication cues to start

Differences in perception: How the experts look at energy efficiency (findings from a Finnish survey)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Virkki-Hatakka, Terhi; Luoranen, Mika; Ikävalko, Markku

2013-01-01

Using energy efficiently is generally considered to be essential for a continuing prosperous future. As a result, improving efficiency has become a focus of attention, and recently a lot of time and effort has been expended to develop new energy efficiency methodologies and technologies. Considering the amount of focused attention, the rate of improvement has not been encouraging. Human behaviour is an important factor of the energy efficiency challenge, and research has revealed several consumer profiles with significantly different perceptions on energy issues. In this study, the focus is not on consumers but on energy efficiency professionals. A number of Finnish energy efficiency professionals from both the private and public sectors were surveyed revealing that experts have decidedly different perceptions regarding energy efficiency. Our analysis of survey results suggests that energy efficiency expertise comes from a variety of educational and professional backgrounds, and that instead of working on common ground, experts with differing perspectives are endeavouring to make progress in a complex and multifaceted arena. Focusing on specific areas in which players need to share a common understanding of terminology and where common and clearly stated goals can be established should result in an acceleration of efficiency improvement results. - Highlights: • Energy efficiency professionals from both private and public sectors were surveyed. • Perceptions of energy efficiency vary, which delays improvement progress. • The educational background and professional affiliation do influence to perceptions. • For energy efficiency progress, target-audience specific guiding actions are needed

Ethnic identity, perceptions of disadvantage, and psychosis: findings from the ÆSOP study.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Reininghaus, Ulrich

2010-12-01

Many studies have shown that rates of psychosis are elevated in the Black and minority ethnic (BME) population in the UK. One important, but relatively less researched explanation of these high rates may be social adversity associated with acculturation processes. Strong identification with an ethnic minority group subjected to social disadvantage may exert adverse effects on individuals from BME groups. Using data from a large epidemiological case-control study of first-episode psychosis, we aimed to investigate whether strong ethnic identification is a factor contributing to the excess of psychosis in BME groups compared with the White British, after adjustment for perceptions of disadvantage. All cases with a first episode of psychosis presenting to specialist mental health services within tightly defined catchment areas in London and Nottingham, UK, and geographically matched community controls were included in the study. Data were collected on socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, perceptions of disadvantage, and identification with one\\'s own ethnic group. Analysis was performed on data from 139 cases and 234 controls. There was evidence that, as levels of ethnic identification increased, the odds of psychosis increased in the BME but not in the White British group, independent of potential confounders. However, the association between strong ethnic identity and psychosis in BME individuals was attenuated and non-significant when controlled for perceived disadvantage. Strong identification with an ethnic minority group may be a potential contributory factor of the high rates of psychosis in the BME population, the effects of which may be explained by perceptions of disadvantage.

Improving the Perception of Self-Sufficiency towards Creative Drama

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Pekdogan, Serpil; Korkmaz, Halil Ibrahim

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a Creative Drama Based Perception of Self-sufficiency Skills Training Program on 2nd grade bachelor degree students' (who are attending a preschool teacher training program) perception of self-sufficiency. This is a quasi-experimental study. Totally 50 students were equally divided into…

[Perception of health risks: psychological and social factors].

Science.gov (United States)

Kurzenhäuser, S; Epp, A

2009-12-01

This article reviews central findings and current developments of psychological and sociological research on the perception of health risks. Risk perception is influenced by numerous psychological, social, political, and cultural factors. These factors can be categorized into (a) risk characteristics, (b) characteristics of the risk perceiving person and his/her situation, and (c) characteristics of risk communication. Thus, besides individual cognitive and affective processing of risk information, social processes of risk amplification (e.g., media effects) are also involved in the construction of individual risk perceptions. We discuss the recommendations for health risk communication that follow from these findings with regard to different communication goals.

Customers’ Perception regarding Assurance of Bancassurance Channel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Choudhury Mousumi

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Bancassurance has evolved as a strong distribution channel in India. Bancassurance means that the insurance company and the bank come together to offer insurance products from the counter of the banks to the bank’s customer. The present study attempts to analyse customers’ perception regarding assurance of bancassurance channel in providing insurance-related services. The study also tries to find out the impact of various demographic variables on customers’ perception regarding assurance of bancassurance channel. The study finds that customers consider bancassurance channel having high assurance in providing insurance services. It is also found in the study that there is no significant association between the demographic variables considered in the study and customers’ perception regarding assurance of bancassurance channel.

Same but different: Comparative modes of information processing are implicated in the construction of perceptions of autonomy support.

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Lee, Rebecca Rachael; Chatzisarantis, Nikos L D

2017-11-01

An implicit assumption behind tenets of self-determination theory is that perceptions of autonomy support are a function of absolute modes of information processing. In this study, we examined whether comparative modes of information processing were implicated in the construction of perceptions of autonomy support. In an experimental study, we demonstrated that participants employed comparative modes of information processing in evaluating receipt of small, but not large, amounts of autonomy support. In addition, we found that social comparison processes influenced a number of outcomes that are empirically related to perceived autonomy support such as sense of autonomy, positive affect, perceived usefulness, and effort. Findings shed new light upon the processes underpinning construction of perceptions related to autonomy support and yield new insights into how to increase the predictive validity of models that use autonomy support as a determinant of motivation and psychological well-being. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Improving Teacher Perceptions of Parent Involvement Patterns: Findings from a Group Randomized Trial

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Herman, Keith C.; Reinke, Wendy M.

2017-01-01

For children with the most serious and persistent academic and behavior problems, parent involvement in education, particularly teacher perceptions of involvement, is essential to avert their expected long-term negative outcomes. Despite the widespread interest in and perceived importance of parent involvement in education, however, few…

Healthcare waste management practices and risk perceptions: findings from hospitals in the Algarve region, Portugal.

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Ferreira, Vera; Teixeira, Margarida Ribau

2010-12-01

The management of healthcare wastes is receiving greater attention because of the risks to both human health and the environment caused by inadequate waste management practices. In that context, the objective of this study was to analyse the healthcare waste management practices in hospitals of the Algarve region, Portugal, and in particular to assess the risk perceptions of, and actual risk to, healthcare staff. The study included three of the six hospitals in the region, covering 41% of the bed capacity. Data were collected via surveys, interviews, and on-site observations. The results indicate that waste separation is the main deficiency in healthcare waste practice, with correct separation being positively related to the degree of daily contact with the waste. Risk perceptions of healthcare staff show the highest levels for the environment (4.24) and waste workers (4.08), and the lowest for patients (3.29) and visitors (2.80), again being positively associated with the degree of daily contact. Risk perceptions of healthcare staff are related to the difficulties of the correct separation of wastes and the lack of knowledge concerning the importance of that separation. The risk of infection with needlesticks/sharps is higher during patient care than during waste handling, and the frequency of these injuries is related to the daily tasks of each healthcare group (doctors, nurses, and housekeepers). Furthermore, legislative definitions and classifications of healthcare wastes appear to have conditioned the management practices associated with, and the perceptions of risk concerning, healthcare wastes. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparison of two metrological approaches for the prediction of human haptic perception

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Neumann, Annika; Frank, Daniel; Vondenhoff, Thomas; Schmitt, Robert

2016-06-01

Haptic perception is regarded as a key component of customer appreciation and acceptance for various products. The prediction of customers’ haptic perception is of interest both during product development and production phases. This paper presents the results of a multivariate analysis between perceived roughness and texture related surface measurements, to examine whether perceived roughness can be accurately predicted using technical measurements. Studies have shown that standardized measurement parameters, such as the roughness coefficients (e.g. Rz or Ra), do not show a one-dimensional linear correlation with the human perception (of roughness). Thus, an alternative measurement method was compared to standard measurements of roughness, in regard to its capability of predicting perceived roughness through technical measurements. To estimate perceived roughness, an experimental study was conducted in which 102 subjects evaluated four sets of 12 different geometrical surface structures regarding their relative perceived roughness. The two different metrological procedures were examined in relation to their capability to predict the perceived roughness of the subjects stated within the study. The standardized measurements of the surface roughness were made using a structured light 3D-scanner. As an alternative method, surface induced vibrations were measured by a finger-like sensor during robot-controlled traverse over a surface. The presented findings provide a better understanding of the predictability of human haptic perception using technical measurements.

The speech perception skills of children with and without speech sound disorder.

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Hearnshaw, Stephanie; Baker, Elise; Munro, Natalie

To investigate whether Australian-English speaking children with and without speech sound disorder (SSD) differ in their overall speech perception accuracy. Additionally, to investigate differences in the perception of specific phonemes and the association between speech perception and speech production skills. Twenty-five Australian-English speaking children aged 48-60 months participated in this study. The SSD group included 12 children and the typically developing (TD) group included 13 children. Children completed routine speech and language assessments in addition to an experimental Australian-English lexical and phonetic judgement task based on Rvachew's Speech Assessment and Interactive Learning System (SAILS) program (Rvachew, 2009). This task included eight words across four word-initial phonemes-/k, ɹ, ʃ, s/. Children with SSD showed significantly poorer perceptual accuracy on the lexical and phonetic judgement task compared with TD peers. The phonemes /ɹ/ and /s/ were most frequently perceived in error across both groups. Additionally, the phoneme /ɹ/ was most commonly produced in error. There was also a positive correlation between overall speech perception and speech production scores. Children with SSD perceived speech less accurately than their typically developing peers. The findings suggest that an Australian-English variation of a lexical and phonetic judgement task similar to the SAILS program is promising and worthy of a larger scale study. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Novelty enhances visual perception.

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Judith Schomaker

Full Text Available The effects of novelty on low-level visual perception were investigated in two experiments using a two-alternative forced-choice tilt detection task. A target, consisting of a Gabor patch, was preceded by a cue that was either a novel or a familiar fractal image. Participants had to indicate whether the Gabor stimulus was vertically oriented or slightly tilted. In the first experiment tilt angle was manipulated; in the second contrast of the Gabor patch was varied. In the first, we found that sensitivity was enhanced after a novel compared to a familiar cue, and in the second we found sensitivity to be enhanced for novel cues in later experimental blocks when participants became more and more familiarized with the familiar cue. These effects were not caused by a shift in the response criterion. This shows for the first time that novel stimuli affect low-level characteristics of perception. We suggest that novelty can elicit a transient attentional response, thereby enhancing perception.

Novelty enhances visual perception.

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Schomaker, Judith; Meeter, Martijn

2012-01-01

The effects of novelty on low-level visual perception were investigated in two experiments using a two-alternative forced-choice tilt detection task. A target, consisting of a Gabor patch, was preceded by a cue that was either a novel or a familiar fractal image. Participants had to indicate whether the Gabor stimulus was vertically oriented or slightly tilted. In the first experiment tilt angle was manipulated; in the second contrast of the Gabor patch was varied. In the first, we found that sensitivity was enhanced after a novel compared to a familiar cue, and in the second we found sensitivity to be enhanced for novel cues in later experimental blocks when participants became more and more familiarized with the familiar cue. These effects were not caused by a shift in the response criterion. This shows for the first time that novel stimuli affect low-level characteristics of perception. We suggest that novelty can elicit a transient attentional response, thereby enhancing perception.

Competition Field Perceptions of Table-tennis Athletes and their Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liu Ying-Chieh

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The distinction between positive and negative perceptions is fundamental in perception models. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between field perceptions of table tennis players and the outcome (net result during the matches in a competition. Experimental data were collected from 10 elite table tennis players and analysed. The results addressed the following three competition field perceptions: (1 before the service, the player’s positive perceptions had significant effect on the positive outcome (winning rate of that service; (2 the perception after the net result of the previous service increased the positive outcome of the next service, and (3 the player’s positive/negative perception during the matches affected the win/loss outcome of that competition. In conclusion, the player’s positive perceptions enhanced their winning rate during table tennis competitions. Therefore, during the training program, coaches need to develop positive perceptions and strengthen the psychological quality of table tennis players.

Combined fMRI- and eye movement-based decoding of bistable plaid motion perception.

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Wilbertz, Gregor; Ketkar, Madhura; Guggenmos, Matthias; Sterzer, Philipp

2018-05-01

The phenomenon of bistable perception, in which perception alternates spontaneously despite constant sensory stimulation, has been particularly useful in probing the neural bases of conscious perception. The study of such bistability requires access to the observer's perceptual dynamics, which is usually achieved via active report. This report, however, constitutes a confounding factor in the study of conscious perception and can also be biased in the context of certain experimental manipulations. One approach to circumvent these problems is to track perceptual alternations using signals from the eyes or the brain instead of observers' reports. Here we aimed to optimize such decoding of perceptual alternations by combining eye and brain signals. Eye-tracking and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed in twenty participants while they viewed a bistable visual plaid motion stimulus and reported perceptual alternations. Multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) for fMRI was combined with eye-tracking in a Support vector machine to decode participants' perceptual time courses from fMRI and eye-movement signals. While both measures individually already yielded high decoding accuracies (on average 86% and 88% correct, respectively) classification based on the two measures together further improved the accuracy (91% correct). These findings show that leveraging on both fMRI and eye movement data may pave the way for optimized no-report paradigms through improved decodability of bistable motion perception and hence for a better understanding of the neural correlates of consciousness. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Marihuana Perception Inventory: The Effects of Substance Abuse Instruction.

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Gabany, Steve G.; Plummer, Portia

1990-01-01

Studied 617 high school and college students prior to and after substance abuse instruction to determine relationship between perceptions and demographic characteristics, and to learn whether substance abuse instruction was related to changes in student's perception of relationships. Findings from Marihuana Perception Inventory showed five factors…

Vision as subjective perception

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reppas, J.B.; Dale, A.; Sereno, M.; Tootell, R.

1996-01-01

The human brain is not very different of the monkey's one: at least, its visual cortex is organized as a similar scheme. Specialized areas in the movement analysis are found and others in the forms perception. In this work, the author tries to answer to the following questions: 1)why so many visual areas? What are exactly their role in vision? Thirteen years of experimentation have not allowed to answer to these questions. The cerebral NMR imaging gives the opportunity of understanding the subjective perception of the visual world. One step which is particularly described in this work is to know how the visual cortex reacts to the optical illusions. (O.M.)

Pain perception studies in tension-type headache

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bezov, David; Ashina, Sait; Jensen, Rigmor

2011-01-01

Tension-type headache (TTH) is a disorder with high prevalence and significant impact on society. Understanding of pathophysiology of TTH is paramount for development of effective treatments and prevention of chronification of TTH. Our aim was to review the findings from pain perception studies...... of pathophysiology of TTH as well as to review the research of pathophysiology of TTH. Pain perception studies such as measurement of muscle tenderness, pain detection thresholds, pain tolerance thresholds, pain response to suprathreshold stimulation, temporal summation and diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC...... to integrate pain perception and imaging to confirm this finding. Pharmacological studies have shown that drugs like tricyclic anti-depressant amitriptyline and nitric oxide synthase inhibitors can reverse central sensitization and the chronicity of headache. Finally, low frequency electrical stimulation has...

Left cheek bias for emotion perception, but not expression, is established in children aged 3-7 years.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindell, Annukka K; Tenenbaum, Harriet R; Aznar, Ana

2017-01-01

As the left hemiface is controlled by the emotion-dominant right hemisphere, emotion is expressed asymmetrically. Portraits showing a model's left cheek consequently appear more emotive. Though the left cheek bias is well established in adults, it has not been investigated in children. To determine whether the left cheek biases for emotion perception and expression are present and/or develop between the ages of 3 and 7 years, 145 children (71 male, 74 female; M age = 65.49 months) completed two experimental tasks: one assessing biases in emotion perception, and the other assessing biases in emotion expression. Regression analysis confirmed that children aged 3-7 years find left cheek portraits happier than right cheek portraits, and age does not predict the magnitude of the bias. In contrast when asked to pose for a photo expressing happiness children did not show a left cheek bias, with logistic regression confirming that age did not predict posing orientations. These findings indicate that though the left cheek bias for emotion perception is established by age 3, a similar bias for emotion expression is not evident by age 7. This implies that tacit knowledge of the left cheek's greater expressivity is not innate but develops in later childhood/adolescence.

Is Chemistry Attractive for Pupils? Czech Pupils' Perception of Chemistry

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Kubiatko, Milan

2015-01-01

Chemistry is an important subject due to understanding the composition and structure of the things around us. The main aim of the study was to find out the perception of chemistry by lower secondary school pupils. The partial aims were to find out the influence of gender, year of study and favorite subject on the perception of chemistry. The…

Third-Person Perception of Television-Viewing Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Peiser, Wolfram; Peter, Jochen

2000-01-01

Investigates whether the third-person effect extends to perceptions of other people's television viewing, and whether it can be explained by a general tendency to underrate the education of others. Finds that people tended to perceive others as more inclined toward undesirable viewing behaviors, and that this third-person perception was stronger…

Adolescent Perceptions of Dating Violence: A Qualitative Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Sarah; Calkins, Carrie A; Xia, Yan; Dalla, Rochelle L

2017-08-01

Scholars have identified dating violence as a public health issue among adolescents. Yet, minimal research has detailed adolescents' perceptions of dating violence, specifically gender differences in perceptions. Research suggests that in order for dating violence prevention and intervention to be effective, services need to be delivered in a manner that is understood by adolescents. Therefore, this study used a qualitative phenomenology study to investigate adolescents' perceptions of dating violence, including gender differences in adolescents' perceptions. Thirty adolescents between the ages of 14 and 19 from a Midwest public high school participated in focus groups. Focus group participants were asked semistructured interview questions regarding the definition of dating violence, risk and protective factors for dating violence, support for victims and perpetrators, and prevention efforts. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis methods, and common themes were identified. Adolescents' language revealed gender differences in perceptions toward dating violence. Males perceive dating violence through action, perpetration, and physical consequences. Females discuss dating violence by relating to the victim and the victim's emotions. Although gender differences existed in participants' perceptions, both males and females explained that dating violence is more often perpetrated by females, despite the view from society that males are more likely to perpetrate dating violence. Findings suggest that schools, practitioners, and policy makers are not meeting the needs of adolescents in regard to dating violence prevention and intervention. Prevention and intervention efforts could be improved by delivering education and services using language that adolescents find relevant. Findings also suggest that adolescents may benefit from prevention and intervention with gender specific components.

Protobacco Media Exposure and Youth Susceptibility to Smoking Cigarettes, Cigarette Experimentation, and Current Tobacco Use among US Youth.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erika B Fulmer

Full Text Available Youth are exposed to many types of protobacco influences, including smoking in movies, which has been shown to cause initiation. This study investigates associations between different channels of protobacco media and susceptibility to smoking cigarettes, cigarette experimentation, and current tobacco use among US middle and high school students.By using data from the 2012 National Youth Tobacco Survey, structural equation modeling was performed in 2013. The analyses examined exposure to tobacco use in different channels of protobacco media on smoking susceptibility, experimentation, and current tobacco use, accounting for perceived peer tobacco use.In 2012, 27.9% of respondents were never-smokers who reported being susceptible to trying cigarette smoking. Cigarette experimentation increased from 6.3% in 6th grade to 37.1% in 12th grade. Likewise, current tobacco use increased from 5.2% in 6th grade to 33.2% in 12th grade. Structural equation modeling supported a model in which current tobacco use is associated with exposure to static advertising through perception of peer use, and by exposure to tobacco use depicted on TV and in movies, both directly and through perception of peer use. Exposure to static advertising appears to directly increase smoking susceptibility but indirectly (through increased perceptions of peer use to increase cigarette experimentation. Models that explicitly incorporate peer use as a mediator can better discern the direct and indirect effects of exposure to static advertising on youth tobacco use initiation.These findings underscore the importance of reducing youth exposure to smoking in TV, movies, and static advertising.

Visitors' perceptions of tourism development in West Virginia

Science.gov (United States)

Jinyang Deng; Maureen Young Bender

2008-01-01

Previous studies indicate that tourists' destination choices are increasingly influenced by perceptions of sustainability but research into tourists' insights and sensitivities about sustainability is lacking. This study examines how visitors to West Virginia perceive tourism development in the state. Findings indicate that visitors' perceptions are...

Perceptions of Relationships and Evaluations of Satisfaction: An Exploration of Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Bruning, Stephen D.; Ledingham, John A.

2000-01-01

Examines key public members' perceptions of the personal, professional, and community relationships they have with a bank and relates those perceptions to evaluations of satisfaction. Finds members' perceptions of their personal and professional relationships significantly influence evaluations of overall satisfaction. Discusses implications for…

Patients' perceptions of their general practitioner's health and weight influences their perceptions of nutrition and exercise advice received.

Science.gov (United States)

Fraser, Sally E; Leveritt, Michael D; Ball, Lauren E

2013-12-01

General practitioners (GPs) play an important role in the management of patients who are overweight or obese. Previous research suggests that GPs' physical characteristics may influence patients' perceptions of health care received during consultations, mediating the likelihood of patients following health advice provided by GPs. This study aimed to explore patients' perceptions of their GP's health status and its influence on patients' perceptions of healthy eating and exercise advice. An interpretive approach to phenomenology underpinned the qualitative inquiry and study design. Twenty-one participants (aged 55.9 ± 6.5 years; 14 females, 7 males) who had previously received healthy eating and/or exercise advice from a GP participated in an individual semi-structured interview. A constant comparison approach to thematic analysis was conducted. Participants identified three key indicators of perceived health of their GP. These included the GP's physical appearance, particularly weight status; perceived absence of ill health; and disclosure of a GP's health behaviours. Participants expressed favourable perceptions of the weight status of their GP. Participants expected their GP to be a healthy role model and often, but not always, felt more confident receiving advice from a GP that they perceived as healthy. The findings highlight that a GP's perceived health status influences patients' perceptions of the health advice received during consultations. These findings provide a foundation for future research that may allow GPs to modify patients' perceptions of their health status in order to facilitate behaviour change in overweight or obese patients.

Cortical visual prostheses: from microstimulation to functional percept

Science.gov (United States)

Najarpour Foroushani, Armin; Pack, Christopher C.; Sawan, Mohamad

2018-04-01

Cortical visual prostheses are intended to restore vision by targeted electrical stimulation of the visual cortex. The perception of spots of light, called phosphenes, resulting from microstimulation of the visual pathway, suggests the possibility of creating meaningful percept made of phosphenes. However, to date electrical stimulation of V1 has still not resulted in perception of phosphenated images that goes beyond punctate spots of light. In this review, we summarize the clinical and experimental progress that has been made in generating phosphenes and modulating their associated perceptual characteristics in human and macaque primary visual cortex (V1). We focus specifically on the effects of different microstimulation parameters on perception and we analyse key challenges facing the generation of meaningful artificial percepts. Finally, we propose solutions to these challenges based on the application of supervised learning of population codes for spatial stimulation of visual cortex.

Altered figure-ground perception in monkeys with an extra-striate lesion.

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Supèr, Hans; Lamme, Victor A F

2007-11-05

The visual system binds and segments the elements of an image into coherent objects and their surroundings. Recent findings demonstrate that primary visual cortex is involved in this process of figure-ground organization. In the primary visual cortex the late part of a neural response to a stimulus correlates with figure-ground segregation and perception. Such a late onset indicates an involvement of feedback projections from higher visual areas. To investigate the possible role of feedback in figure-ground perception we removed dorsal extra-striate areas of the monkey visual cortex. The findings show that figure-ground perception is reduced when the figure is presented in the lesioned hemifield and perception is normal when the figure appeared in the intact hemifield. In conclusion, our observations show the importance for recurrent processing in visual perception.

GABA shapes the dynamics of bistable perception.

Science.gov (United States)

van Loon, Anouk M; Knapen, Tomas; Scholte, H Steven; St John-Saaltink, Elexa; Donner, Tobias H; Lamme, Victor A F

2013-05-06

Sometimes, perception fluctuates spontaneously between two distinct interpretations of a constant sensory input. These bistable perceptual phenomena provide a unique window into the neural mechanisms that create the contents of conscious perception. Models of bistable perception posit that mutual inhibition between stimulus-selective neural populations in visual cortex plays a key role in these spontaneous perceptual fluctuations. However, a direct link between neural inhibition and bistable perception has not yet been established experimentally. Here, we link perceptual dynamics in three distinct bistable visual illusions (binocular rivalry, motion-induced blindness, and structure from motion) to measurements of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentrations in human visual cortex (as measured with magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and to pharmacological stimulation of the GABAA receptor by means of lorazepam. As predicted by a model of neural interactions underlying bistability, both higher GABA concentrations in visual cortex and lorazepam administration induced slower perceptual dynamics, as reflected in a reduced number of perceptual switches and a lengthening of percept durations. Thus, we show that GABA, the main inhibitory neurotransmitter, shapes the dynamics of bistable perception. These results pave the way for future studies into the competitive neural interactions across the visual cortical hierarchy that elicit conscious perception. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Unregulated provider perceptions of audit and feedback reports in long-term care: cross-sectional survey findings from a quality improvement intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Fraser, Kimberly D; O'Rourke, Hannah M; Baylon, Melba Andrea B; Boström, Anne-Marie; Sales, Anne E

2013-02-13

Audit with feedback is a moderately effective approach for improving professional practice in other health care settings. Although unregulated caregivers give the majority of direct care in long-term care settings, little is known about how they understand and perceive feedback reports because unregulated providers have not been directly targeted to receive audit with feedback in quality improvement interventions in long-term care. The purpose of this paper is to describe unregulated care providers' perceptions of usefulness of a feedback report in four Canadian long-term care facilities. We delivered monthly feedback reports to unregulated care providers for 13 months in 2009-2010. The feedback reports described a unit's performance in relation to falls, depression, and pain as compared to eight other units in the study. Follow-up surveys captured participant perceptions of the feedback report. We conducted descriptive analyses of the variables related to participant perceptions and multivariable logistic regression to assess the association between perceived usefulness of the feedback report and a set of independent variables. The vast majority (80%) of unregulated care providers (n = 171) who responded said they understood the reports. Those who discussed the report with others and were interested in other forms of data were more likely to find the feedback report useful for making changes in resident care. This work suggests that unregulated care providers can understand and feel positively about using audit with feedback reports to make changes to resident care. Further research should explore ways to promote fuller engagement of unregulated care providers in decision-making to improve quality of care in long-term care settings.

Time perception: the bad news and the good

Science.gov (United States)

Matthews, William J; Meck, Warren H

2014-01-01

Time perception is fundamental and heavily researched, but the field faces a number of obstacles to theoretical progress. In this advanced review, we focus on three pieces of ‘bad news’ for time perception research: temporal perception is highly labile across changes in experimental context and task; there are pronounced individual differences not just in overall performance but in the use of different timing strategies and the effect of key variables; and laboratory studies typically bear little relation to timing in the ‘real world’. We describe recent examples of these issues and in each case offer some ‘good news’ by showing how new research is addressing these challenges to provide rich insights into the neural and information-processing bases of timing and time perception. PMID:25210578

Visual exposure to large and small portion sizes and perceptions of portion size normality: Three experimental studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Eric; Oldham, Melissa; Cuckson, Imogen; Brunstrom, Jeffrey M; Rogers, Peter J; Hardman, Charlotte A

2016-03-01

Portion sizes of many foods have increased in recent times. In three studies we examined the effect that repeated visual exposure to larger versus smaller food portion sizes has on perceptions of what constitutes a normal-sized food portion and measures of portion size selection. In studies 1 and 2 participants were visually exposed to images of large or small portions of spaghetti bolognese, before making evaluations about an image of an intermediate sized portion of the same food. In study 3 participants were exposed to images of large or small portions of a snack food before selecting a portion size of snack food to consume. Across the three studies, visual exposure to larger as opposed to smaller portion sizes resulted in participants considering a normal portion of food to be larger than a reference intermediate sized portion. In studies 1 and 2 visual exposure to larger portion sizes also increased the size of self-reported ideal meal size. In study 3 visual exposure to larger portion sizes of a snack food did not affect how much of that food participants subsequently served themselves and ate. Visual exposure to larger portion sizes may adjust visual perceptions of what constitutes a 'normal' sized portion. However, we did not find evidence that visual exposure to larger portions altered snack food intake. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Exposure Knowledge and Perception of Wireless Communication Technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frederik Freudenstein

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The presented survey investigates risk and exposure perceptions of radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF EMF associated with base stations, mobile phones and other sources, the key issue being the interaction between both sets of perceptions. The study is based on a cross-sectional design, and conducted with an online sample of 838 citizens from Portugal. The results indicate that respondents’ intuitive exposure perception differs from the actual exposure levels. Furthermore, exposure and risk perceptions are found to be highly correlated. Respondents’ beliefs  about exposure factors, which might influence possible health risks, is appropriate. A regression analysis between exposure characteristics, as predictor variables, and RF EMF risk perception, as the response variable, indicates that people seem to use simple heuristics to form their perceptions. What is bigger, more frequent and longer lasting is seen as riskier. Moreover, the quality of exposure knowledge is not an indicator for amplified EMF risk perception. These findings show that exposure perception is key to future risk communication.

Middle School Students' Perceptions of the Quality of School Life in Ankara

Science.gov (United States)

Eres, Figen; Bilasa, Pinar

2016-01-01

The aim of this research is to measure the perception of middle school students in Ankara regarding the quality of school life. According to the findings obtained, the students have moderate level perceptions about the quality of school life. Their perceptions about sub-dimensions vary. While the students have the highest perceptions about…

Quantitative evaluation of impedance perception characteristics of humans in the man-machine interface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Onish, Keiichi; Kim, Young Woo; Obinata, Goro; Hase, Kazunori

2013-01-01

We investigated impedance perception characteristics of humans in the man-machine interface. Sensibility or operational feel about physical properties of machine dynamics is obtained through perception process. We evaluated the impedance perception characteristics of humans who are operating a mechanical system, based on extended Scheffe's subjective evaluation method in full consideration of the influence of impedance level, impedance difference, experiment order, individual difference and so on. Constant method based quantitative evaluation was adopted to investigate the influence of motion frequency and change of the impedance on human impedance perception characteristics. Experimental results indicate that humans perceive impedance of mechanical systems based on comparison process of the dynamical characteristics of the systems. The proposed method can be applied to quantify the design requirement of man-machine interface. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through experimental results.

Quantitative evaluation of impedance perception characteristics of humans in the man-machine interface

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Onish, Keiichi [Yamaha Motor Co., Shizuoka (Japan); Kim, Young Woo [Daegu Techno Park R and D Center, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Obinata, Goro [Nagoya University, Nagoya (Japan); Hase, Kazunori [Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo (Japan)

2013-05-15

We investigated impedance perception characteristics of humans in the man-machine interface. Sensibility or operational feel about physical properties of machine dynamics is obtained through perception process. We evaluated the impedance perception characteristics of humans who are operating a mechanical system, based on extended Scheffe's subjective evaluation method in full consideration of the influence of impedance level, impedance difference, experiment order, individual difference and so on. Constant method based quantitative evaluation was adopted to investigate the influence of motion frequency and change of the impedance on human impedance perception characteristics. Experimental results indicate that humans perceive impedance of mechanical systems based on comparison process of the dynamical characteristics of the systems. The proposed method can be applied to quantify the design requirement of man-machine interface. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through experimental results.

Stakeholder Perceptions of Risk in Construction

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Dong; McCoy, Andrew P.; Kleiner, Brian M.; Mills, Thomas H.; Lingard, Helen

2015-01-01

Safety management in construction is an integral effort and its success requires inputs from all stakeholders across design and construction phases. Effective risk mitigation relies on the concordance of all stakeholders’ risk perceptions. Many researchers have noticed the discordance of risk perceptions among critical stakeholders in safe construction work, however few have provided quantifiable evidence describing them. In an effort to fill this perception gap, this research performs an experiment that investigates stakeholder perceptions of risk in construction. Data analysis confirms the existence of such discordance, and indicates a trend in risk likelihood estimation. With risk perceptions from low to high, the stakeholders are architects, contractors/safety professionals, and engineers. Including prior studies, results also suggest that designers have improved their knowledge in building construction safety, but compared to builders they present more difficultly in reaching a consensus of perception. Findings of this research are intended to be used by risk management and decision makers to reassess stakeholders’ varying judgments when considering injury prevention and hazard assessment. PMID:26441481

Speech Perception as a Multimodal Phenomenon

OpenAIRE

Rosenblum, Lawrence D.

2008-01-01

Speech perception is inherently multimodal. Visual speech (lip-reading) information is used by all perceivers and readily integrates with auditory speech. Imaging research suggests that the brain treats auditory and visual speech similarly. These findings have led some researchers to consider that speech perception works by extracting amodal information that takes the same form across modalities. From this perspective, speech integration is a property of the input information itself. Amodal s...

Vibro-Perception of Optical Bio-Inspired Fiber-Skin.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Tao; Zhang, Sheng; Lu, Guo-Wei; Sunami, Yuta

2018-05-12

In this research, based on the principle of optical interferometry, the Mach-Zehnder and Optical Phase-locked Loop (OPLL) vibro-perception systems of bio-inspired fiber-skin are designed to mimic the tactile perception of human skin. The fiber-skin is made of the optical fiber embedded in the silicone elastomer. The optical fiber is an instinctive and alternative sensor for tactile perception with high sensitivity and reliability, also low cost and susceptibility to the magnetic interference. The silicone elastomer serves as a substrate with high flexibility and biocompatibility, and the optical fiber core serves as the vibro-perception sensor to detect physical motions like tapping and sliding. According to the experimental results, the designed optical fiber-skin demonstrates the ability to detect the physical motions like tapping and sliding in both the Mach-Zehnder and OPLL vibro-perception systems. For direct contact condition, the OPLL vibro-perception system shows better performance compared with the Mach-Zehnder vibro-perception system. However, the Mach-Zehnder vibro-perception system is preferable to the OPLL system in the indirect contact experiment. In summary, the fiber-skin is validated to have light touch character and excellent repeatability, which is highly-suitable for skin-mimic sensing.

An overview of quantitative approaches in Gestalt perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Jäkel, Frank; Singh, Manish; Wichmann, Felix A; Herzog, Michael H

2016-09-01

Gestalt psychology is often criticized as lacking quantitative measurements and precise mathematical models. While this is true of the early Gestalt school, today there are many quantitative approaches in Gestalt perception and the special issue of Vision Research "Quantitative Approaches in Gestalt Perception" showcases the current state-of-the-art. In this article we give an overview of these current approaches. For example, ideal observer models are one of the standard quantitative tools in vision research and there is a clear trend to try and apply this tool to Gestalt perception and thereby integrate Gestalt perception into mainstream vision research. More generally, Bayesian models, long popular in other areas of vision research, are increasingly being employed to model perceptual grouping as well. Thus, although experimental and theoretical approaches to Gestalt perception remain quite diverse, we are hopeful that these quantitative trends will pave the way for a unified theory. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Do neighborhood economic characteristics, racial composition, and residential stability predict perceptions of stress associated with the physical and social environment? Findings from a multilevel analysis in Detroit.

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Schulz, Amy J; Zenk, Shannon N; Israel, Barbara A; Mentz, Graciela; Stokes, Carmen; Galea, Sandro

2008-09-01

As the body of evidence linking disparities in the health of urban residents to disparate social, economic and environmental contexts grows, efforts to delineate the pathways through which broader social and economic inequalities influence health have burgeoned. One hypothesized pathway connects economic and racial and ethnic inequalities to differentials in stress associated with social and physical environments, with subsequent implications for health. Drawing on data from Detroit, Michigan, we examined contributions of neighborhood-level characteristics (e.g., poverty rate, racial and ethnic composition, residential stability) and individual-level characteristics (e.g., age, gender) to perceived social and physical environmental stress. We found that neighborhood percent African American was positively associated with perceptions of both social and physical environmental stress; neighborhood percent poverty and percent Latino were positively associated with perceived physical environmental stress; and neighborhood residential stability was negatively associated with perceived social environmental stress. At the individual level, whites perceived higher levels of both social and physical environmental stress compared to African American residents of the same block groups, after accounting for other variables included in the models. Our findings suggest the importance of understanding and addressing contributions of neighborhood structural characteristics to perceptions of neighborhood stress. The consistency of the finding that neighborhood racial composition and individual-level race influence perceptions of both social and physical environments suggests the continuing importance of understanding the role played by structural conditions and by personal and collective histories that vary systematically by race and ethnicity within the United States.

Perception of illusory contour figures: Microgenetic analysis

OpenAIRE

Gvozdenović Vasilije P.

2004-01-01

Microgenetic analysis was used to investigate perception of illusory contour figures which represent whole, completed forms on the basis of segmented, incomplete stimulation. The analysis provided an experimental approach to this phenomenon which was standardly investigated phenomenologically. Experimental procedure consisted of two phases: a) priming phase and b) test phase which consisted of visual search task. Two types of visual search tasks were applied: (i) classic detection, in which s...

Perception and action de-coupling in congenital amusia: sensitivity to task demands.

Science.gov (United States)

Williamson, Victoria J; Liu, Fang; Peryer, Guy; Grierson, Mick; Stewart, Lauren

2012-01-01

Theories that purport the existence of a distinct auditory action stream have received support from the finding that individuals with congenital amusia, a disorder of pitch perception, are able to reproduce the direction of a pitch change that they are unable to identify (Loui, Guenther, Mathys, & Schlaug, 2008). Although this finding has proved influential in theorizing about the existence of an auditory action-stream, aspects of the original study warrant further investigation. The present report attempts to replicate the original study's findings across a sizeable cohort of individuals with amusia (n=14), obtaining action (production) and perception thresholds for pitch direction. In contrast to the original study, we find evidence of a double dissociation: while a minority of amusics had lower (better) thresholds for production compared to perception of pitch, more than half showed the reverse pattern. To explore the impact of task demands, perception thresholds were also measured using a two alternative, criterion-free, forced choice task that avoided labeling demands. Controls' thresholds were task-invariant while amusics' thresholds were significantly task-dependent. We argue that the direction and extent of a perception/production dissociation in this population reflects individual differences in the mapping of pitch representations to labels ("up"; "down") and to the vocal apparatus, as opposed to anything intrinsically yoked to perception or action per se. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Individual Investor Perceptions and Behavior During the Financial Crisis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoffmann, A.O.I.; Post, T.; Pennings, J.M.E.

2013-01-01

Combining monthly survey data with matching trading records, we examine how individual investor perceptions change and drive trading and risk-taking behavior during the 2008–2009 financial crisis. We find that investor perceptions fluctuate significantly during the crisis, with risk tolerance and

Students' Perception of Educational Environment of Medical Colleges in Bangladesh

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Nurun Nahar

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Background: Students' perceptions of their educational environment are a useful basis for modifying and improving the quality of educational environment. Educational environment is one of the most important factors determining the success of an effective curriculum. The quality of educational environment has been identified to be crucial for effective learning. Identifying the weakness of educational environment and understanding how students perceive the environment will help the institute to facilitate learning and to achieve better learning outcome. Objective: To explore students' perceptions of their educational environment and to find out gender differences in perception. Methods: It was a cross sectional descriptive study. Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM inventory was administered to 1903 medical students (studying in 3rd, 4th and 5th year MBBS course in 15 medical colleges of Bangladesh adopting purposive sampling. Results: The total mean score for all students was found positive (110/200. Students' perceptions of learning was positive (28/48, perceptions of teachers was moving in right direction (24/44, students academic self perception was positive (19.5/32. Students' perceptions of atmosphere was expressed as many issues need to change (24/48 and social self perceptions was not a nice place (14/28. Female students’ perceptions were significantly higher than male students. Conclusion: Remedial measure should be needed in the subscales of students’ perceptions of atmosphere and social self perceptions for further improvement. Findings from this study may give guideline to curricular planner and faculties/administrators of medical college for further improvement of educational environment. Key words: perception; educational environment; medical college  DOI: 10.3329/bsmmuj.v3i2.7060BSMMU J 2010; 3(2: 97-102

Perception is reality: How patients contribute to poor workplace safety perceptions.

Science.gov (United States)

McCaughey, Deirdre; McGhan, Gwen; DelliFraine, Jami L; Brannon, S Diane

2011-01-01

Nurses and aides are among the occupational subgroups with the highest injury rates and workdays lost to illness and injury in North America. Many studies have shown that these incidents frequently happen during provision of patient care. Moreover, health care workplaces are a source of numerous safety risks that contribute to worker injuries. These findings identify health care as a high-risk occupation for employee injury or illness. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among patient care, employee safety perceptions, and employee stress. Using the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Model of Job Stress and Health as a foundation, we developed and tested a conceptual workplace safety climate-stress model that explicates how caring for high-risk patients is a safety stressor that has negative outcomes for health care providers, including poor workplace safety perceptions and increasing stress levels. We introduced the concept of "high-risk patients" and define them as those who put providers at greater risk for injury or illness. Using a nonexperimental survey design, we examined patient types and safety perceptions of health care providers (nurses, aides, and allied health) in an acute care hospital. Health care providers who care for high-risk patients more frequently have poor safety climate perceptions and higher stress levels. Safety climate was found to mediate the relationship between high-risk patients and stress. These findings bring insight into actions health care organizations can pursue to improve health care provider well-being. Recognizing that different patients present different risks and pursuing staffing, training, and equipment to minimize employee risk of injury will help reduce the staggering injury rates experienced by these employees. Moreover, minimizing employee stress over poor workplace safety is achievable through comprehensive workplace safety climate programs that include supervisor, management

Student Perceptions of Auditor Responses to Evidence of Suspicious Activities: An Experimental Assessment

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David S Murphy

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This study assessed student perceptions of auditor responses to evidence that a client failed to respond appropriately to suspicious activities that could indicate money laundering. Subjects were presented with a series of randomized cases in which partner type (new vs. experienced, firm type (regional vs. international and audit fee materiality (not material, material to the local office only, material to the firm were manipulated asked to indicate their perceptions of the likelihood that an audit partner would discuss such evidence with the client, and the likelihood that the issue would be disclosed by the auditor. Both partner type and audit fee materiality was found to have significant effects on perceived likelihoods.

Illusions of perception of 3-D house models.

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Nielsen, Torsten Ingemann

2008-01-01

In five experiments some edgelines on different polyhedrons (house models in 3-D) were, from a certain vantage point, optically confluent, ie in optical prolongation of each other in 2-D on the retinal image and on photos. Other edgelines on the same polyhedrons were non-confluent, ie optically separate in 2-D. These conditions were found to lead to five different illusory shapes in 3-D. Five spatiofigural illusions were perceived. From these findings an edgeline principle is formulated that: "a straight edgeline in 2-D, whether confluent or separate, is perceived as a unitary and continuously straight edgeline in 3-D". To this is added a supplementary perceptual principle, an amodal completion principle. In the experiments reported here, the illusory perception of shapes in 3-D with confluent edgelines as well as the veridical perception of other shapes in 3-D with only separate or non-confluent edgelines could all be explained by the edgeline principle and the amodal completion principle. By applying the concepts of edgeline confluence and the edgeline principle, a new explanation of the Kopfermann (1930 Psychologische Forschung 13 293- 364) cube phenomena is proposed together with one example of how to test this explanation experimentally.

Neck proprioception shapes body orientation and perception of motion.

Science.gov (United States)

Pettorossi, Vito Enrico; Schieppati, Marco

2014-01-01

This review article deals with some effects of neck muscle proprioception on human balance, gait trajectory, subjective straight-ahead (SSA), and self-motion perception. These effects are easily observed during neck muscle vibration, a strong stimulus for the spindle primary afferent fibers. We first remind the early findings on human balance, gait trajectory, SSA, induced by limb, and neck muscle vibration. Then, more recent findings on self-motion perception of vestibular origin are described. The use of a vestibular asymmetric yaw-rotation stimulus for emphasizing the proprioceptive modulation of motion perception from the neck is mentioned. In addition, an attempt has been made to conjointly discuss the effects of unilateral neck proprioception on motion perception, SSA, and walking trajectory. Neck vibration also induces persistent aftereffects on the SSA and on self-motion perception of vestibular origin. These perceptive effects depend on intensity, duration, side of the conditioning vibratory stimulation, and on muscle status. These effects can be maintained for hours when prolonged high-frequency vibration is superimposed on muscle contraction. Overall, this brief outline emphasizes the contribution of neck muscle inflow to the construction and fine-tuning of perception of body orientation and motion. Furthermore, it indicates that tonic neck-proprioceptive input may induce persistent influences on the subject's mental representation of space. These plastic changes might adapt motion sensitiveness to lasting or permanent head positional or motor changes.

Social perception and aging: The relationship between aging and the perception of subtle changes in facial happiness and identity.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Tao; Penton, Tegan; Köybaşı, Şerife Leman; Banissy, Michael J

2017-09-01

Previous findings suggest that older adults show impairments in the social perception of faces, including the perception of emotion and facial identity. The majority of this work has tended to examine performance on tasks involving young adult faces and prototypical emotions. While useful, this can influence performance differences between groups due to perceptual biases and limitations on task performance. Here we sought to examine how typical aging is associated with the perception of subtle changes in facial happiness and facial identity in older adult faces. We developed novel tasks that permitted the ability to assess facial happiness, facial identity, and non-social perception (object perception) across similar task parameters. We observe that aging is linked with declines in the ability to make fine-grained judgements in the perception of facial happiness and facial identity (from older adult faces), but not for non-social (object) perception. This pattern of results is discussed in relation to mechanisms that may contribute to declines in facial perceptual processing in older adulthood. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Music alters visual perception.

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Jacob Jolij

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Visual perception is not a passive process: in order to efficiently process visual input, the brain actively uses previous knowledge (e.g., memory and expectations about what the world should look like. However, perception is not only influenced by previous knowledge. Especially the perception of emotional stimuli is influenced by the emotional state of the observer. In other words, how we perceive the world does not only depend on what we know of the world, but also by how we feel. In this study, we further investigated the relation between mood and perception. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We let observers do a difficult stimulus detection task, in which they had to detect schematic happy and sad faces embedded in noise. Mood was manipulated by means of music. We found that observers were more accurate in detecting faces congruent with their mood, corroborating earlier research. However, in trials in which no actual face was presented, observers made a significant number of false alarms. The content of these false alarms, or illusory percepts, was strongly influenced by the observers' mood. CONCLUSIONS: As illusory percepts are believed to reflect the content of internal representations that are employed by the brain during top-down processing of visual input, we conclude that top-down modulation of visual processing is not purely predictive in nature: mood, in this case manipulated by music, may also directly alter the way we perceive the world.

(Injustice contexts and work satisfaction: The mediating role of justice perceptions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhou, Q.

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This study explores the impact of the social context, namely (injustice climate and target, in workers' justice perceptions and satisfaction. Individual's justice judgments are expected to mediate the relationship of (injustice climate and target with work satisfaction. We found mediation effects of procedural justice in the relationship between justice climate and satisfaction, and interactional justice in the relationship between injustice target and satisfaction. Distributive justice does not affect the relationship between the (injustice context and satisfaction. Findings demonstrate the relevance of framing organizational justice in a socially contextualized perspective since they seem to influence individual justice reactions and work attitudes. Using an experimental methodology, it was possible to explore the role of seldom studied contextual variables.

Assessing EU perception in Kazakhstan's mass media

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Bakyt Ospanova

2017-01-01

Our main findings suggest that Kazakhstan's mass media positively perceives the role of the EU in the region. Moreover, they tend to portray the EU mainly as an economic powerhouse. Our findings support some suggestions by similar studies of the EU's external perception.

The impact of music on the PACU patient's perception of discomfort.

Science.gov (United States)

Easter, Betty; DeBoer, Laura; Settlemyre, Gail; Starnes, Carolyn; Marlowe, Vickie; Tart, Rebecca Creech

2010-04-01

Pain is a normal finding in the postoperative patient, and noise can accentuate one's perception of discomfort. In this study, physiological measurements, intravenous (IV) opioid administration, length of stay, and satisfaction for postoperative patients who listened to music were compared with patients not provided music during their PACU stay. Of the 213 subjects enrolled, 163 experienced postoperative pain. The mean change in experimental subjects' respiratory rate was significantly lower than the controls. Decreases in heart rate and blood pressure from admission to discharge were similar between the two groups. On average, peripheral oxygen saturation and opioid pain control were not significantly different between control and experimental subjects. Subjects provided with music reported acceptable noise levels and increased satisfaction with their PACU experience. Music intervention is therefore a viable, minimal cost, and alternative therapy that PACU nurses can use to assist patients coping with postoperative pain. Copyright 2010 American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Characteristics of Effective EFL Instructors: Language Teachers’ Perceptions Versus Learners’ Perceptions

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Negar Hajizadeh

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Improving the field of foreign language teaching without improving the qualities of the teachers seems impossible. This attempt, at first hand, requires recognizing the qualities of effective EFL teachers. The aim of this study was to find what foreign language instructors perceive to be the most important characteristics of a successful EFL teacher. In addition, the teachers’ perception was compared to that of learners’ to see whether there were discrepancies between the two groups’ perceptions regarding the preferable characteristics of an effective English language instructors or not. A 58-item questionnaire was administered to teachers at a prominent language institute in Iran. This questionnaire was divided into eight sections and addressed issues relating to teachers’ personal qualities, command in English, teaching methods and evaluation methods they used within the class, mastery over teaching, teacher-student relation, class management and finally language skills management. Teachers were asked to specify the importance of each item in the questionnaire using terms like not important at all, somehow important, important and finally very important. Basic statistics were used to convert the qualitative results into quantitative ones for easier comparison. Interestingly however, the study revealed that the students’ perceptions and teachers’ perceptions do not differ in major ways although there are slight discrepancies.

The Interface Theory of Perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffman, Donald D; Singh, Manish; Prakash, Chetan

2015-12-01

Perception is a product of evolution. Our perceptual systems, like our limbs and livers, have been shaped by natural selection. The effects of selection on perception can be studied using evolutionary games and genetic algorithms. To this end, we define and classify perceptual strategies and allow them to compete in evolutionary games in a variety of worlds with a variety of fitness functions. We find that veridical perceptions--strategies tuned to the true structure of the world--are routinely dominated by nonveridical strategies tuned to fitness. Veridical perceptions escape extinction only if fitness varies monotonically with truth. Thus, a perceptual strategy favored by selection is best thought of not as a window on truth but as akin to a windows interface of a PC. Just as the color and shape of an icon for a text file do not entail that the text file itself has a color or shape, so also our perceptions of space-time and objects do not entail (by the Invention of Space-Time Theorem) that objective reality has the structure of space-time and objects. An interface serves to guide useful actions, not to resemble truth. Indeed, an interface hides the truth; for someone editing a paper or photo, seeing transistors and firmware is an irrelevant hindrance. For the perceptions of H. sapiens, space-time is the desktop and physical objects are the icons. Our perceptions of space-time and objects have been shaped by natural selection to hide the truth and guide adaptive behaviors. Perception is an adaptive interface.

Opening the Implicit Leadership Theories’ Black Box: An Experimental Approach with Conjoint Analysis

OpenAIRE

Gustavo M. Tavares; Filipe Sobral; Rafael Goldszmidt; Felipe Araújo

2018-01-01

Although research on implicit leadership theories (ILTs) has concentrated on determining which attributes define a leadership prototype, little attention has been paid to testing the relative importance of each of these attributes for individuals’ leadership perceptions. Building on socio-cognitive theories of impression processes, we experimentally explore the formation of leadership perceptions based on the recognition of six key attributes in a series of three experimental studies comprisi...

Revisiting the Lissajous figure as a tool to study bistable perception.

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Weilnhammer, V A; Ludwig, K; Sterzer, P; Hesselmann, G

2014-05-01

During bistable vision perception spontaneously "switches" between two mutually exclusive percepts despite constant sensory input. The endogenous nature of these perceptual transitions has motivated extensive research aimed at the underlying mechanisms, since spontaneous perceptual transitions of bistable stimuli should in principle allow for a dissociation of processes related to sensory stimulation from those related to conscious perception. However, transitions from one conscious percept to another are often not instantaneous, and participants usually report a considerable amount of mixed or unclear percepts. This feature of bistable vision makes it difficult to isolate transition-related visual processes. Here, we revisited an ambiguous depth-from-motion stimulus which was first introduced to experimental psychology more than 80 years ago. This rotating Lissajous figure might prove useful in complementing other bistable stimuli, since its perceptual transitions only occur at critical stimulus configurations and are virtually instantaneous, thus facilitating the construction of a perceptually equivalent replay condition. We found that three parameters of the Lissajous figure - complexity, line width, and rotational speed - differentially modulated its perceptual dominance durations and transition probabilities, thus providing experimenters with a versatile tool to study the perceptual dynamics of bistable vision. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of Positive Affect on Risk Perceptions in Adolescence and Young Adulthood

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Haase, Claudia M.; Silbereisen, Rainer K.

2011-01-01

Affective influences may play a key role in adolescent risk taking, but have rarely been studied. Using an audiovisual method of affect induction, two experimental studies examined the effect of positive affect on risk perceptions in adolescence and young adulthood. Outcomes were risk perceptions regarding drinking alcohol, smoking a cigarette,…

Perceptions of mental illness and related stigma among Vietnamese populations: findings from a mixed method study.

Science.gov (United States)

Do, Mai; Pham, Nhu Ngoc K; Wallick, Stacy; Nastasi, Bonnie Kaul

2014-12-01

Mental-illness-related (MIR) stigma is recognized as a major barrier to health care. Yet very little is known about mental illness and stigma among Vietnamese populations, or how emigration and acculturation processes might affect traditional views. Focus group discussions were conducted with Vietnamese Americans in New Orleans (Louisiana) and Vietnamese nationals in Bui Chu (Vietnam), who shared historical and cultural backgrounds, in 2010 to assess differences in their perceptions of mental illness and stigma. Results show several significant differences in mental illness perceptions between Vietnamese Americans and Vietnamese nationals, while MIR stigma seemed prevalent and understanding of mental illness was low among both groups.

Motor cognition-motor semantics: action perception theory of cognition and communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Pulvermüller, Friedemann; Moseley, Rachel L; Egorova, Natalia; Shebani, Zubaida; Boulenger, Véronique

2014-03-01

A new perspective on cognition views cortical cell assemblies linking together knowledge about actions and perceptions not only as the vehicles of integrated action and perception processing but, furthermore, as a brain basis for a wide range of higher cortical functions, including attention, meaning and concepts, sequences, goals and intentions, and even communicative social interaction. This article explains mechanisms relevant to mechanistic action perception theory, points to concrete neuronal circuits in brains along with artificial neuronal network simulations, and summarizes recent brain imaging and other experimental data documenting the role of action perception circuits in cognition, language and communication. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Decision-makers' Risk Perception in the Internationalisation of Small and Medium-Sized Firms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eduardsen, Jonas Strømfeldt; Marinova, Svetla Trifonova

2016-01-01

awareness exists, decision-makers do not perceive internationalisation as risky behaviour. Findings highlight the importance of decision-makers’ background, including cognitive and psychological characteristics, such as self-efficacy and locus of control, and their experiences in explaining risk perceptions......This study examines the risk perception of decision-makers in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the factors underlying these perceptions in the process of internationalization of their firms. While risk perception has been identified as a potential predictor variable...... in internationalisation research, very little work has been done exploring the factors and processes that shape decision-makers’ perception of risk. A qualitative interview-based approach was adopted by collecting data from thirty-two Danish SMEs operating in four different industries. Findings suggest that while risk...

Compensatory shifts in visual perception are associated with hallucinations in Lewy body disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowman, Alan Robert; Bruce, Vicki; Colbourn, Christopher J; Collerton, Daniel

2017-01-01

Visual hallucinations are a common, distressing, and disabling symptom of Lewy body and other diseases. Current models suggest that interactions in internal cognitive processes generate hallucinations. However, these neglect external factors. Pareidolic illusions are an experimental analogue of hallucinations. They are easily induced in Lewy body disease, have similar content to spontaneous hallucinations, and respond to cholinesterase inhibitors in the same way. We used a primed pareidolia task with hallucinating participants with Lewy body disorders (n = 16), non-hallucinating participants with Lewy body disorders (n = 19), and healthy controls (n = 20). Participants were presented with visual "noise" that sometimes contained degraded visual objects and were required to indicate what they saw. Some perceptions were cued in advance by a visual prime. Results showed that hallucinating participants were impaired in discerning visual signals from noise, with a relaxed criterion threshold for perception compared to both other groups. After the presentation of a visual prime, the criterion was comparable to the other groups. The results suggest that participants with hallucinations compensate for perceptual deficits by relaxing perceptual criteria, at a cost of seeing things that are not there, and that visual cues regularize perception. This latter finding may provide a mechanism for understanding the interaction between environments and hallucinations.

Children's Perceptions of Learning Braille: Qualitative and Quantitative Findings of the ABC Braille Study

Science.gov (United States)

Sacks, Sharon Z.; Hannan, Cheryl K.; Erin, Jane N.

2011-01-01

Children's perceptions of learning to read and write braille were measured using an open ended 10-item questionnaire. The data were evaluated by amount of time, level of contractedness, and level of achievement. No differences were found with respect to time or the introduction of contractions. Differences were apparent between the high- and…

UK public perceptions of shale gas hydraulic fracturing:The role of audience, message and contextual factors on risk perceptions and policy support

OpenAIRE

Whitmarsh, Lorraine; Nash, Nick; Upham, Paul; Lloyd, Alyson; Verdon, James P; Kendall, J.-Michael

2015-01-01

There is growing recognition of the need to understand public attitudes to energy sources, such as shale gas, and to feed these into decision-making. This study represents the first detailed UK experimental survey of public perceptions of shale gas fracking, including analysis of the effects of different messages and the relative influence of different audience, message and contextual factors on support and risk perceptions in respect of shale gas fracking. Using an online survey (N = 1457) o...

The perception of probability.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallistel, C R; Krishan, Monika; Liu, Ye; Miller, Reilly; Latham, Peter E

2014-01-01

We present a computational model to explain the results from experiments in which subjects estimate the hidden probability parameter of a stepwise nonstationary Bernoulli process outcome by outcome. The model captures the following results qualitatively and quantitatively, with only 2 free parameters: (a) Subjects do not update their estimate after each outcome; they step from one estimate to another at irregular intervals. (b) The joint distribution of step widths and heights cannot be explained on the assumption that a threshold amount of change must be exceeded in order for them to indicate a change in their perception. (c) The mapping of observed probability to the median perceived probability is the identity function over the full range of probabilities. (d) Precision (how close estimates are to the best possible estimate) is good and constant over the full range. (e) Subjects quickly detect substantial changes in the hidden probability parameter. (f) The perceived probability sometimes changes dramatically from one observation to the next. (g) Subjects sometimes have second thoughts about a previous change perception, after observing further outcomes. (h) The frequency with which they perceive changes moves in the direction of the true frequency over sessions. (Explaining this finding requires 2 additional parametric assumptions.) The model treats the perception of the current probability as a by-product of the construction of a compact encoding of the experienced sequence in terms of its change points. It illustrates the why and the how of intermittent Bayesian belief updating and retrospective revision in simple perception. It suggests a reinterpretation of findings in the recent literature on the neurobiology of decision making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Balancing bistable perception during self-motion.

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van Elk, Michiel; Blanke, Olaf

2012-10-01

In two experiments we investigated whether bistable visual perception is influenced by passive own body displacements due to vestibular stimulation. For this we passively rotated our participants around the vertical (yaw) axis while observing different rotating bistable stimuli (bodily or non-bodily) with different ambiguous motion directions. Based on previous work on multimodal effects on bistable perception, we hypothesized that vestibular stimulation should alter bistable perception and that the effects should differ for bodily versus non-bodily stimuli. In the first experiment, it was found that the rotation bias (i.e., the difference between the percentage of time that a CW or CCW rotation was perceived) was selectively modulated by vestibular stimulation: the perceived duration of the bodily stimuli was longer for the rotation direction congruent with the subject's own body rotation, whereas the opposite was true for the non-bodily stimulus (Necker cube). The results found in the second experiment extend the findings from the first experiment and show that these vestibular effects on bistable perception only occur when the axis of rotation of the bodily stimulus matches the axis of passive own body rotation. These findings indicate that the effect of vestibular stimulation on the rotation bias depends on the stimulus that is presented and the rotation axis of the stimulus. Although most studies on vestibular processing have traditionally focused on multisensory signal integration for posture, balance, and heading direction, the present data show that vestibular self-motion influences the perception of bistable bodily stimuli revealing the importance of vestibular mechanisms for visual consciousness.

Perceptions of inequity in the workplace: Exploring the link with unauthorised absenteeism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jessie Banks

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Orientation: The focus of this study was the relationship between perceptions of inequity and specific withdrawal behaviours. Research purpose: The purpose of the investigation was to explore possible relationships between workers’ perceptions of inequity in the workplace, intentions toward withdrawal behaviour and unauthorised absenteeism. Motivation for the study: There is very little South African research on the correlates of perceived inequity in the workplace. This study attempted to address the gap by exploring specific withdrawal behaviours as possible correlates of perceived inequity. Research design, approach and method: Using a small-scale survey design, the researchers measured intentions towards withdrawal behaviour and recorded rates of absenteeism in a sample of 110 employees from a variety of automotive manufacturing companies in the KwaZulu-Natal area. Main findings: The researchers did not find a relationship between perceptions of inequity and unauthorised absenteeism but did find one between perceptions of inequity and future withdrawal behaviours. Practical/managerial implications: The high levels of perceptions of inequity amongst the workers and the finding that workers were more likely to engage in withdrawal behaviours in the future if they perceived unequal treatment in the workplace are worrying issues for the companies involved. Contribution/value-add: The scale that the researchers developed to measure perceptions of inequity shows preliminary evidence of construct validity. The results suggest that employers need to monitor levels of perceived inequity especially in relation to future withdrawal behaviour.

Perceptions of inequity in the workplace: Exploring the link with unauthorised absenteeism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jessie Banks

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Orientation: The focus of this study was the relationship between perceptions of inequity and specific withdrawal behaviours. Research purpose: The purpose of the investigation was to explore possible relationships between workers’ perceptions of inequity in the workplace, intentions toward withdrawal behaviour and unauthorised absenteeism.Motivation for the study: There is very little South African research on the correlates of perceived inequity in the workplace. This study attempted to address the gap by exploring specific withdrawal behaviours as possible correlates of perceived inequity.Research design, approach and method: Using a small-scale survey design, the researchers measured intentions towards withdrawal behaviour and recorded rates of absenteeism in a sample of 110 employees from a variety of automotive manufacturing companies in the KwaZulu-Natal area.Main findings: The researchers did not find a relationship between perceptions of inequity and unauthorised absenteeism but did find one between perceptions of inequity and future withdrawal behaviours.Practical/managerial implications: The high levels of perceptions of inequity amongst the workers and the finding that workers were more likely to engage in withdrawal behaviours in the future if they perceived unequal treatment in the workplace are worrying issues for the companies involved.Contribution/value-add: The scale that the researchers developed to measure perceptions of inequity shows preliminary evidence of construct validity. The results suggest that employers need to monitor levels of perceived inequity especially in relation to future withdrawal behaviour.

Temporality of couple conflict and relationship perceptions.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Matthew D; Horne, Rebecca M; Hardy, Nathan R; Anderson, Jared R

2018-05-03

Using 5 waves of longitudinal survey data gathered from 3,405 couples, the present study investigates the temporal associations between self-reported couple conflict (frequency and each partner's constructive and withdrawing behaviors) and relationship perceptions (satisfaction and perceived instability). Autoregressive cross-lagged model results revealed couple conflict consistently predicted future relationship perceptions: More frequent conflict and withdrawing behaviors and fewer constructive behaviors foretold reduced satisfaction and conflict frequency and withdrawal heightened perceived instability. Relationship perceptions also shaped future conflict, but in surprising ways: Perceptions of instability were linked with less frequent conflict, and male partner instability predicted fewer withdrawing behaviors for female partners. Higher satisfaction from male partners also predicted more frequent and less constructive conflict behavior in the future. These findings illustrate complex bidirectional linkages between relationship perceptions and couple conflict behaviors in the development of couple relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Measuring and improving the public perceptions on nuclear energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Young Sung

2001-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to measure the public's perception on risk and benefit of nuclear power and to find ways to improve the perceptions. Latent Class Analysis is adopted for the perception measures, which quantify people's perception and reveal the perception structure. The measures resulted from Latent Class Analysis show that women perceive risks to be more existent and benefits to be less than men do. Moreover there is a tendency that if education level is high, perceived risk is low and perceived benefit is high. The perception of risk and benefit also depends on different channels through which people get information about nuclear energy. Comparing seven different information channels, the most effective ways of communicating with people to improve the risk and benefit perception of nuclear energy are found to be the visit to nuclear plants and the education through the regular schooling. Information dissemination through mass media is only effective to the benefit perception

Towards a formal link between inflation perceptions and inflation ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper reports the finding of a survey of inflation perceptions and inflation expectations in South Africa undertaken in 2014. This survey posed questions on perceptions of past inflation (historic inflation) and expectations of future inflation to the same respondents and determined linkages between historic views and ...

Electrophysiological assessment of audiovisual integration in speech perception

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eskelund, Kasper; Dau, Torsten

Speech perception integrates signal from ear and eye. This is witnessed by a wide range of audiovisual integration effects, such as ventriloquism and the McGurk illusion. Some behavioral evidence suggest that audiovisual integration of specific aspects is special for speech perception. However, our...... knowledge of such bimodal integration would be strengthened if the phenomena could be investigated by objective, neutrally based methods. One key question of the present work is if perceptual processing of audiovisual speech can be gauged with a specific signature of neurophysiological activity...... on the auditory speech percept? In two experiments, which both combine behavioral and neurophysiological measures, an uncovering of the relation between perception of faces and of audiovisual integration is attempted. Behavioral findings suggest a strong effect of face perception, whereas the MMN results are less...

Network dynamics of human face perception.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cihan Mehmet Kadipasaoglu

Full Text Available Prevailing theories suggests that cortical regions responsible for face perception operate in a serial, feed-forward fashion. Here, we utilize invasive human electrophysiology to evaluate serial models of face-processing via measurements of cortical activation, functional connectivity, and cortico-cortical evoked potentials. We find that task-dependent changes in functional connectivity between face-selective regions in the inferior occipital (f-IOG and fusiform gyrus (f-FG are bidirectional, not feed-forward, and emerge following feed-forward input from early visual cortex (EVC to both of these regions. Cortico-cortical evoked potentials similarly reveal independent signal propagations between EVC and both f-IOG and f-FG. These findings are incompatible with serial models, and support a parallel, distributed network underpinning face perception in humans.

Fetal response to maternal hunger and satiation - novel finding from a qualitative descriptive study of maternal perception of fetal movements.

Science.gov (United States)

Bradford, Billie; Maude, Robyn

2014-08-26

Maternal perception of decreased fetal movements is a specific indicator of fetal compromise, notably in the context of poor fetal growth. There is currently no agreed numerical definition of decreased fetal movements, with the subjective perception of a decrease on the part of the mother being the most significant definition clinically. Both qualitative and quantitative aspects of fetal activity may be important in identifying the compromised fetus.Yet, how pregnant women perceive and describe fetal activity is under-investigated by qualitative means. The aim of this study was to explore normal fetal activity, through first-hand descriptive accounts by pregnant women. Using qualitative descriptive methodology, interviews were conducted with 19 low-risk women experiencing their first pregnancy, at two timepoints in their third trimester. Interview transcripts were later analysed using qualitative content analysis and patterns of fetal activity identified were then considered along-side the characteristics of the women and their birth outcomes. This paper focuses on a novel finding; the description by pregnant women of fetal behaviour indicative of hunger and satiation. Full findings will be presented in later papers. Most participants (74% 14 of 19) indicated mealtimes were a time of increased fetal activity. Eight participants provided detailed descriptions of increased activity around meals, with seven (37% 7 of 19) of these specifying increased fetal activity prior to meals or in the context of their own hunger. These movements were interpreted as a fetal demand for food often prompting the mother to eat. Interestingly, the women who described increased fetal activity in the context of hunger subsequently gave birth to smaller infants (mean difference 364 gm) than those who did not describe a fetal response to hunger. Food seeking behaviour may have a pre-birth origin. Maternal-fetal interaction around mealtimes could constitute an endocrine mediated

Perception of low dose radiation risks among radiation researchers in Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Seong, Ki Moon; Kwon, TaeWoo; Seo, Songwon; Lee, Dalnim; Park, Sunhoo; Jin, Young Woo; Lee, Seung-Sook

2017-01-01

Expert's risk evaluation of radiation exposure strongly influences the public's risk perception. Experts can inform laypersons of significant radiation information including health knowledge based on experimental data. However, some experts' radiation risk perception is often based on non-conclusive scientific evidence (i.e., radiation levels below 100 millisievert), which is currently under debate. Examining perception levels among experts is important for communication with the public since these individual's opinions have often exacerbated the public's confusion. We conducted a survey of Korean radiation researchers to investigate their perceptions of the risks associated with radiation exposure below 100 millisievert. A linear regression analysis revealed that having ≥ 11 years' research experience was a critical factor associated with radiation risk perception, which was inversely correlated with each other. Increased opportunities to understand radiation effects at perception of radiation exposure. In addition, radiation researchers conceived that more scientific evidence reducing the uncertainty for radiation effects perception of radiation exposure.

Perception of low dose radiation risks among radiation researchers in Korea

Science.gov (United States)

Seo, Songwon; Lee, Dalnim; Park, Sunhoo; Jin, Young Woo; Lee, Seung-Sook

2017-01-01

Expert’s risk evaluation of radiation exposure strongly influences the public’s risk perception. Experts can inform laypersons of significant radiation information including health knowledge based on experimental data. However, some experts’ radiation risk perception is often based on non-conclusive scientific evidence (i.e., radiation levels below 100 millisievert), which is currently under debate. Examining perception levels among experts is important for communication with the public since these individual’s opinions have often exacerbated the public’s confusion. We conducted a survey of Korean radiation researchers to investigate their perceptions of the risks associated with radiation exposure below 100 millisievert. A linear regression analysis revealed that having ≥ 11 years’ research experience was a critical factor associated with radiation risk perception, which was inversely correlated with each other. Increased opportunities to understand radiation effects at risk perception of radiation exposure. In addition, radiation researchers conceived that more scientific evidence reducing the uncertainty for radiation effects risk perception of radiation exposure. PMID:28166286

Neck proprioception shapes body orientation and perception of motion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vito Enrico Pettorossi

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This review article deals with some effects of neck muscle proprioception on human balance, gait trajectory, subjective straight-ahead, and self-motion perception. These effects are easily observed during neck muscle vibration, a strong stimulus for the spindle primary afferent fibers.We first remind the early findings on human balance, gait trajectory, subjective straight-ahead, induced by limb and neck muscle vibration. Then, more recent findings on self-motion perception of vestibular origin are described. The use of a vestibular asymmetric yaw-rotation stimulus for emphasizing the proprioceptive modulation of motion perception from the neck is mentioned. In addition, an attempt has been made to conjointly discuss the effects of unilateral neck proprioception on motion perception, subjective straight-ahead and walking trajectory.Neck vibration also induces persistent aftereffects on the subjective straight-ahead and on self-motion perception of vestibular origin. These perceptive effects depend on intensity, duration, side of the conditioning vibratory stimulation, and on muscle status. These effects can be maintained for hours when prolonged high-frequency vibration is superimposed on muscle contraction. Overall, this brief outline emphasizes the contribution of neck muscle inflow to the construction and fine-tuning of perception of body orientation and motion. Furthermore, it indicates that tonic neck proprioceptive input may induce persistent influences on the subject's mental representation of space. These plastic changes might adapt motion sensitiveness to lasting or permanent head positional or motor changes.

Investor Perceptions of Board Performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fischer, Paul E.; Gramlich, Jeffrey D.; Miller, Brian P.

2009-01-01

This paper provides evidence that uncontested director elections provide informative polls of investor perceptions regarding board performance. We find that higher (lower) vote approval is associated with lower (higher) stock price reactions to subsequent announcements of management turnovers. In...

The effect of an interprofessional simulation-based education program on perceptions and stereotypes of nursing and medical students: A quasi-experimental study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lockeman, Kelly S; Appelbaum, Nital P; Dow, Alan W; Orr, Shelly; Huff, Tanya A; Hogan, Christopher J; Queen, Brenda A

2017-11-01

Interprofessional education is intended to train practitioners to collaboratively address challenges in healthcare delivery, and interprofessional simulation-based education (IPSE) provides realistic, contextual learning experiences in which roles, responsibilities, and professional identity can be learned, developed, and assessed. Reducing negative stereotypes within interprofessional relationships is a prime target for IPSE. We sought to understand whether perceptions of interprofessional education and provider stereotypes change among nursing and medical students after participating in IPSE. We also sought to determine whether changes differed based on the student's discipline. This was a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study. The study took place at a large mid-Atlantic public university with a comprehensive health science campus. 147 senior Bachelors of Science in Nursing students and 163 fourth-year medical students participated. Students were grouped into interprofessional teams for a two-week period and participated in three two-hour simulations focused on collaboration around acutely ill patients. At the beginning of the first session, they completed a pretest survey with demographic items and measures of their perceptions of interprofessional clinical education, stereotypes about doctors, and stereotypes about nurses. They completed a posttest with the same measures after the third session. 251 students completed both the pretest and posttest surveys. On all three measures, students showed an overall increase in scores after the IPSE experience. In comparing the change by student discipline, medical students showed little change from pretest to posttest on stereotypes of doctors, while nursing students had a significant increase in positive perceptions about doctors. No differences were noted between disciplines on changes in stereotypes of nurses. This study demonstrated that a short series of IPSE experiences resulted in improved perceptions of

A Customized Intervention for Dementia Caregivers: A Quasi-Experimental Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Wawrziczny, Emilie; Larochette, Clotilde; Papo, David; Constant, Emilie; Ducharme, Francine; Kergoat, Marie-Jeanne; Pasquier, Florence; Antoine, Pascal

2018-04-01

The aim of this study is to test the effects of a customized intervention on distress among caregivers of persons with dementia (PWD) using a quasi-experimental design. Fifty-one spouse caregivers in the experimental group and 51 in the control group participated in the study. The effects of the intervention were examined by comparing caregivers' responses with questionnaires at pre-intervention baseline (T0) and immediately after intervention (T1). Differences were quantified using repeated-measures ANOVA. The analyses indicated a stabilizing effect of the intervention on caregivers' perceptions of PWD's daily functioning, self-esteem related to caregiving, quality of family support, and feeling of distress. Linear increases were observed regarding sense of preparedness and impact on daily routine, while no differences (interaction and linear effects) were observed for degree of self-efficacy, depression, impact on finances, or self-rated health. These findings show a preliminary efficacy of the intervention proposed in this study to prevent the exacerbation of caregivers' distress.

Action-based effects on music perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Maes, Pieter-Jan; Leman, Marc; Palmer, Caroline; Wanderley, Marcelo M

2014-01-03

The classical, disembodied approach to music cognition conceptualizes action and perception as separate, peripheral processes. In contrast, embodied accounts of music cognition emphasize the central role of the close coupling of action and perception. It is a commonly established fact that perception spurs action tendencies. We present a theoretical framework that captures the ways in which the human motor system and its actions can reciprocally influence the perception of music. The cornerstone of this framework is the common coding theory, postulating a representational overlap in the brain between the planning, the execution, and the perception of movement. The integration of action and perception in so-called internal models is explained as a result of associative learning processes. Characteristic of internal models is that they allow intended or perceived sensory states to be transferred into corresponding motor commands (inverse modeling), and vice versa, to predict the sensory outcomes of planned actions (forward modeling). Embodied accounts typically refer to inverse modeling to explain action effects on music perception (Leman, 2007). We extend this account by pinpointing forward modeling as an alternative mechanism by which action can modulate perception. We provide an extensive overview of recent empirical evidence in support of this idea. Additionally, we demonstrate that motor dysfunctions can cause perceptual disabilities, supporting the main idea of the paper that the human motor system plays a functional role in auditory perception. The finding that music perception is shaped by the human motor system and its actions suggests that the musical mind is highly embodied. However, we advocate for a more radical approach to embodied (music) cognition in the sense that it needs to be considered as a dynamical process, in which aspects of action, perception, introspection, and social interaction are of crucial importance.

Action-based effects on music perception

Science.gov (United States)

Maes, Pieter-Jan; Leman, Marc; Palmer, Caroline; Wanderley, Marcelo M.

2013-01-01

The classical, disembodied approach to music cognition conceptualizes action and perception as separate, peripheral processes. In contrast, embodied accounts of music cognition emphasize the central role of the close coupling of action and perception. It is a commonly established fact that perception spurs action tendencies. We present a theoretical framework that captures the ways in which the human motor system and its actions can reciprocally influence the perception of music. The cornerstone of this framework is the common coding theory, postulating a representational overlap in the brain between the planning, the execution, and the perception of movement. The integration of action and perception in so-called internal models is explained as a result of associative learning processes. Characteristic of internal models is that they allow intended or perceived sensory states to be transferred into corresponding motor commands (inverse modeling), and vice versa, to predict the sensory outcomes of planned actions (forward modeling). Embodied accounts typically refer to inverse modeling to explain action effects on music perception (Leman, 2007). We extend this account by pinpointing forward modeling as an alternative mechanism by which action can modulate perception. We provide an extensive overview of recent empirical evidence in support of this idea. Additionally, we demonstrate that motor dysfunctions can cause perceptual disabilities, supporting the main idea of the paper that the human motor system plays a functional role in auditory perception. The finding that music perception is shaped by the human motor system and its actions suggests that the musical mind is highly embodied. However, we advocate for a more radical approach to embodied (music) cognition in the sense that it needs to be considered as a dynamical process, in which aspects of action, perception, introspection, and social interaction are of crucial importance. PMID:24454299

Action-based effects on music perception

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pieter-Jan eMaes

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The classical, disembodied approach to music cognition conceptualizes action and perception as separate, peripheral phenomena. In contrast, embodied accounts to music cognition emphasize the central role of the close coupling of action and perception. It is a commonly established fact that perception spurs action tendencies. We present a theoretical framework capturing the ways that the human motor system, and the actions it produces, can reciprocally influence the perception of music. The cornerstone of this framework is the common coding theory postulating a representational overlap in the brain between the planning, the execution, and the perception of movement. The integration of action and perception in so-called internal models is explained as a result of associative learning processes. Characteristic of internal models is that they allow intended or perceived sensory states to be transferred into corresponding motor commands (inverse modelling, and vice versa, to predict the sensory outcomes of planned actions (forward modelling. Embodied accounts typically adhere to inverse modelling to explain action effects on music perception (Leman, 2007. We extent this account by pinpointing forward modelling as an alternative mechanism by which action can modulate perception. We provide an extensive overview of recent empirical evidence in support of this idea. Additionally, we demonstrate that motor dysfunctions can cause perceptual disabilities, supporting the main idea of the paper that the human motor system plays a functional role in auditory perception. The finding that music perception is shaped by the human motor system, and the action it produces, suggests that the musical mind is highly embodied. However, we advocate for a more radical approach to embodied (music cognition in the sense that it needs to be considered as a dynamic process, in which aspects of action, perception, introspection, and social interaction are of crucial

A new dietary model to study colorectal carcinogenesis: experimental design, food preparation, and experimental findings.

Science.gov (United States)

Rozen, P; Liberman, V; Lubin, F; Angel, S; Owen, R; Trostler, N; Shkolnik, T; Kritchevsky, D

1996-01-01

Experimental dietary studies of human colorectal carcinogenesis are usually based on the AIN-76A diet, which is dissimilar to human food in source, preparation, and content. The aims of this study were to examine the feasibility of preparing and feeding rats the diet of a specific human population at risk for colorectal neoplasia and to determine whether changes in the colonic morphology and metabolic contents would differ from those resulting from a standard rat diet. The mean daily food intake composition of a previously evaluated adenoma patient case-control study was used for the "human adenoma" (HA) experimental diet. Foods were prepared as for usual human consumption and processed by dehydration to the physical characteristics of an animal diet. Sixty-four female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized and fed ad libitum the HA or the AIN-76A diet. Every eight weeks, eight rats from each group were sacrificed, and the colons and contents were examined. Analysis of the prepared food showed no significant deleterious changes; food intake and weight gain were similar in both groups. Compared with the controls, the colonic contents of rats fed the HA diet contained significantly less calcium, concentrations of neutral sterols, total lipids, and cholic and deoxycholic acids were increased, and there were no colonic histological changes other than significant epithelial hyperproliferation. This initial study demonstrated that the HA diet can be successfully processed for feeding to experimental animals and is acceptable and adequate for growth but induces significant metabolic and hyperproliferative changes in the rat colon. This dietary model may be useful for studies of human food, narrowing the gap between animal experimentation and human nutritional research.

The Influence Factors and Mechanism of Societal Risk Perception

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Rui; Shi, Kan; Li, Shu

Risk perception is one of important subjects in management psychology and cognitive psychology. It is of great value in the theory and practice to investigate the societal hazards that the public cares a lot especially in Socio-economic transition period. A survey including 30 hazards and 6 risk attributes was designed and distributed to about 2, 485 residents of 8 districts, Beijing. The major findings are listed as following: Firstly, a scale of societal risk perception was designed and 2 factors were identified (Dread Risk & Unknown Risk). Secondly, structural equation model was used to analyze the influence factors and mechanism of societal risk perception. Risk preference, government support and social justice could influence societal risk perception directly. Government support fully moderated the relationship between government trust and societal risk perception. Societal risk perception influenced life satisfaction, public policy preferences and social development belief.

Iranian Nurses' Attitudes and Perception towards Patient Advocacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Motamed-Jahromi, Mohadeseh; Abbaszadeh, Abbas; Borhani, Fariba; Zaher, Homa

2012-01-01

Patient advocacy is an inherent component of professional nursing ethics; in other words, nurses' enough knowledge would be essential to gain a positive attitude towards nursing advocacy. Using a descriptive-analytic design, this study aimed to assess the correlation between nurses' perception and attitudes towards patient advocacy, amongst 385 nurses in Kerman, Iran; hence, a three-part questionnaire was applied: part I, a demographic data sheet, part II, attitude measuring instrument, and part III, perception measuring instrument in nursing advocacy. The results implied that fairly positive attitudes and perception were found amongst the participants, and nurses' attitudes, in general, were positively correlated to their perception toward nursing advocacy. This means that with an improvement in perception, the attitude would also improve. In addition to our findings, it seems that these nurses needed more advocacy educational programs and support from responsible employers.

Pain Perception in Buddhism Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Waikakul, Waraporn; Waikakul, Saranatra

2016-08-01

Dhamma, which Lord Buddha has presented to people after his enlightenment, analyzes every phenomenon and objects into their ultimate elements. The explanation of sensory system is also found in a part of Dhamma named Abhidhammapitaka, the Book of the Higher Doctrine in Buddhism. To find out the relationship between explanation of pain in the present neuroscience and the explanation of pain in Abhidhamma, the study was carried out by the use of a comprehensive review. The comparisons were in terms of peripheral stimulation, signal transmission, modulation, perception, suffering, determination and decision making for the responding to pain. We found that details of the explanation on pain mechanism and perception in Abhidhamma could associate well with our present scientific knowledge. Furthermore, more refinement information about the process and its function in particular aspects of pain perception were provided in Abhidhammapitaka.

The hippocampus and visual perception

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Andy C. H.; Yeung, Lok-Kin; Barense, Morgan D.

2012-01-01

In this review, we will discuss the idea that the hippocampus may be involved in both memory and perception, contrary to theories that posit functional and neuroanatomical segregation of these processes. This suggestion is based on a number of recent neuropsychological and functional neuroimaging studies that have demonstrated that the hippocampus is involved in the visual discrimination of complex spatial scene stimuli. We argue that these findings cannot be explained by long-term memory or working memory processing or, in the case of patient findings, dysfunction beyond the medial temporal lobe (MTL). Instead, these studies point toward a role for the hippocampus in higher-order spatial perception. We suggest that the hippocampus processes complex conjunctions of spatial features, and that it may be more appropriate to consider the representations for which this structure is critical, rather than the cognitive processes that it mediates. PMID:22529794

The hippocampus and visual perception

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andy C. H. Lee

2012-04-01

Full Text Available In this review, we will discuss the idea that the hippocampus may be involved in both memory and perception, contrary to theories that posit functional and neuroanatomical segregation of these processes. This suggestion is based on a number of recent neuropsychological and functional neuroimaging studies that have demonstrated that the hippocampus is involved in the visual discrimination of complex spatial scene stimuli. We argue that these findings cannot be explained by long-term memory or working memory processing or, in the case of patient findings, dysfunction beyond the medial temporal lobe. Instead, these studies point towards a role for the hippocampus in higher-order spatial perception. We suggest that the hippocampus processes complex conjunctions of spatial features, and that it may be more appropriate to consider the representations for which this structure is critical, rather than the cognitive processes that it mediates.

Exposure Perception as a Key Indicator of Risk Perception and Acceptance of Sources of Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Freudenstein, Frederik; Wiedemann, Peter M; Brown, Tim W C

2015-01-01

The presented survey was conducted in six European countries as an online study. A total of 2454 subjects participated. Two main research questions were investigated: firstly, how does the cognitive, moral, and affective framing of radio frequency electromagnetic field (RF EMF) exposure perception influence RF EMF risk perception? Secondly, can the deployment of mobile phone base stations have greater acceptance with RF EMF exposure reduction? The findings with respect to the first question clearly indicated that the cognitive framed exposure perception is the main determinant of RF EMF risk perception. The concomitant sensitivity to exposure strength offers an opportunity to improve the acceptance of base stations by exposure reduction. A linear regression analysis supported this assumption: in a fictional test situation, exposure reduction improved the acceptance of base stations, operationalized as the requested distance of the base station from one's own home. Furthermore, subjects with high RF EMF risk perception were most sensitive to exposure reduction. On average, a 70% exposure reduction reduced the requested distance from about 2000 meters to 1000 meters. The consequences for risk communication are discussed.

Exposure Perception as a Key Indicator of Risk Perception and Acceptance of Sources of Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields

Science.gov (United States)

Wiedemann, Peter M.; Brown, Tim W. C.

2015-01-01

The presented survey was conducted in six European countries as an online study. A total of 2454 subjects participated. Two main research questions were investigated: firstly, how does the cognitive, moral, and affective framing of radio frequency electromagnetic field (RF EMF) exposure perception influence RF EMF risk perception? Secondly, can the deployment of mobile phone base stations have greater acceptance with RF EMF exposure reduction? The findings with respect to the first question clearly indicated that the cognitive framed exposure perception is the main determinant of RF EMF risk perception. The concomitant sensitivity to exposure strength offers an opportunity to improve the acceptance of base stations by exposure reduction. A linear regression analysis supported this assumption: in a fictional test situation, exposure reduction improved the acceptance of base stations, operationalized as the requested distance of the base station from one's own home. Furthermore, subjects with high RF EMF risk perception were most sensitive to exposure reduction. On average, a 70% exposure reduction reduced the requested distance from about 2000 meters to 1000 meters. The consequences for risk communication are discussed. PMID:26229540

Consumer Attitudes and Perceptions on mHealth Privacy and Security: Findings From a Mixed-Methods Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Atienza, Audie A; Zarcadoolas, Christina; Vaughon, Wendy; Hughes, Penelope; Patel, Vaishali; Chou, Wen-Ying Sylvia; Pritts, Joy

2015-01-01

This study examined consumers' attitudes and perceptions regarding mobile health (mHealth) technology use in health care. Twenty-four focus groups with 256 participants were conducted in 5 geographically diverse locations. Participants were also diverse in age, education, race/ethnicity, gender, and rural versus urban settings. Several key themes emerged from the focus groups. Findings suggest that consumer attitudes regarding mHealth privacy/security are highly contextualized, with concerns depending on the type of information being communicated, where and when the information is being accessed, who is accessing or seeing the information, and for what reasons. Consumers frequently considered the tradeoffs between the privacy/security of using mHealth technologies and the potential benefits. Having control over mHealth privacy/security features and trust in providers were important issues for consumers. Overall, this study found significant diversity in attitudes regarding mHealth privacy/security both within and between traditional demographic groups. Thus, to address consumers' concerns regarding mHealth privacy and security, a one-size-fits-all approach may not be adequate. Health care providers and technology developers should consider tailoring mHealth technology according to how various types of information are communicated in the health care setting, as well as according to the comfort, skills, and concerns individuals may have with mHealth technology.

The impact of health claims and food deprivation levels on health risk perceptions of fast-food restaurants.

Science.gov (United States)

Cadario, Romain

2016-01-01

We examined the effect of health claims and food deprivation levels on the health risk perceptions of fast-food restaurants. Consistent with previous research, we used a within-subjects experimental design to manipulate the health claims of fast-food restaurants using real brands: Subway, expressing strong health claims vs. McDonald's, expressing weak health claims. Participants who did not have access to nutrition information were asked to estimate the health risk associated with food items that were slightly more caloric for Subway than McDonald's (640 kcal vs. 600 kcal). We collected data through a web survey with a sample consisting of 414 American adults. Based on the USDA Food Insufficiency Indicator, participants were classified into two categorical food deprivation levels: food sufficiency and food insufficiency. We find that risk perceptions for obesity, diabetes and cardiac illnesses are lower (higher) for the restaurant with stronger (lower) health claims, i.e., Subway (McDonald's). Moreover, we also find that food deprivation levels moderate this effect, such that health risk underestimation is aggravated for individuals who suffer from food insufficiency. More precisely, we find that food insufficient individuals are more responsive to health claims, such that they perceive less health risk than food sufficient individuals for the restaurant with stronger health claims (Subway). Exploring the underlying mechanism of the latter effect, we found that dietary involvement mediates the relationship between food deprivation levels and health risk perceptions for the restaurant with stronger health claims (Subway). These results provide an interdisciplinary contribution in consumer psychology and public health. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Community Empowerment through Islamic Microfinances: Perceptions in Comparison

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lathif Hanafir Rifqi

2017-04-01

Full Text Available BMT (Islamic saving and loan cooperative has continuosly been one of the Islamic microfinance institutions playing a significant role in empowering economic society. There has been a number of research discussing on the effort, however none of them discussed on the perception between the empowers and the empowered group. Comparing these perceptions is a salient effort to find similarities or differencess of perceptions. This research seeks to compare empowerment perception between two organizations. One hand hand, the first party taking BMT BIF Ledok Timoho as the empowering organization and on the other hand focusing on a group of women's empowerment Ledok Timoho. Gathering data through doing observation and in-depth interview had been employed with selecting the purposive informants that contains a BMT BIF and four empowerment group representatives. To conclude, this research found that are similarities of perceptions on empowerment goals, process, outcomes and constraints.

Attention, awareness, and the perception of auditory scenes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joel S Snyder

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Auditory perception and cognition entails both low-level and high-level processes, which are likely to interact with each other to create our rich conscious experience of soundscapes. Recent research that we review has revealed numerous influences of high-level factors, such as attention, intention, and prior experience, on conscious auditory perception. And recently, studies have shown that auditory scene analysis tasks can exhibit multistability in a manner very similar to ambiguous visual stimuli, presenting a unique opportunity to study neural correlates of auditory awareness and the extent to which mechanisms of perception are shared across sensory modalities. Research has also led to a growing number of techniques through which auditory perception can be manipulated and even completely suppressed. Such findings have important consequences for our understanding of the mechanisms of perception and also should allow scientists to precisely distinguish the influences of different higher-level influences.

Aesthetic Perception of Visual Textures: A Holistic Exploration using Texture Analysis, Psychological Experiment and Perception Modeling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jianli eLiu

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Modeling human aesthetic perception of visual textures is important and valuable in numerous industrial domains, such as product design, architectural design and decoration. Based on results from a semantic differential rating experiment, we modeled the relationship between low-level basic texture features and aesthetic properties involved in human aesthetic texture perception. First, we compute basic texture features from textural images using four classical methods. These features are neutral, objective and independent of the socio-cultural context of the visual textures. Then, we conduct a semantic differential rating experiment to collect from evaluators their aesthetic perceptions of selected textural stimuli. In semantic differential rating experiment, eights pairs of aesthetic properties are chosen, which are strongly related to the socio-cultural context of the selected textures and to human emotions. They are easily understood and connected to everyday life. We propose a hierarchical feed-forward layer model of aesthetic texture perception and assign 8 pairs of aesthetic properties to different layers. Finally, we describe the generation of multiple linear and nonlinear regression models for aesthetic prediction by taking dimensionality-reduced texture features and aesthetic properties of visual textures as dependent and independent variables, respectively. Our experimental results indicate that the relationships between each layer and its neighbors in the hierarchical feed-forward layer model of aesthetic texture perception can be fitted well by linear functions, and the models thus generated can successfully bridge the gap between computational texture features and aesthetic texture properties.

Leveling the Playing Field: Teacher Perception of Integrated STEM, Engineering, and Engineering Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Fincher, Bridgette Ann

The purpose of this study was to describe the perceptions and approaches of 14 third-through-fifth grade Arkansan elementary teachers towards integrative engineering and engineering practices during 80 hours of integrated STEM professional development training in the summer and fall of 2014. This training was known as Project Flight. The purpose of the professional development was to learn integrated STEM content related to aviation and to write grade level curriculum units using Wiggins and McTighe's Understanding by Design curriculum framework. The current study builds upon on the original research. Using a mixed method exploratory, embedded QUAL[quan] case study design and a non-experimental convenience sample derived from original 20 participants of Project Flight, this research sought to answer the following question: Does professional development influence elementary teachers' perceptions of the curriculum and instruction of integrated STEM engineering and engineering practices in a 3-to-5 grade level setting? A series of six qualitative and one quantitative sub-questions informed the research of the mixed method question. Hermeneutic content analysis was applied to archival and current qualitative data sets while descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, and repeated measures ANOVA tests were performed on the quantitative data. Broad themes in the teachers' perceptions and understanding of the nature of integrated engineering and engineering practices emerged through triangulation. After the professional development and the teaching of the integrated STEM units, all 14 teachers sustained higher perceptions of personal self-efficacy in their understanding of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The teachers gained understanding of engineering and engineering practices, excluding engineering habits of mind, throughout the professional development training and unit teaching. The research resulted in four major findings specific to elementary engineering

Environmental non-government organizations' perceptions of geologic sequestration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wong-Parodi, Gabrielle; Ray, Isha; Farrell, Alexander E

2008-01-01

Environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been influential in shaping public perceptions of environmental problems, their causes and potential solutions. Over the last decade, carbon capture and storage (CCS) has emerged as a potentially important technological response to climate change. In this paper we investigate how leading US NGOs perceive geologic sequestration, a potentially controversial part of CCS. We examine how and why their perceptions and strategies might differ, and if and how they plan to shape public perceptions of geologic sequestration. We approach these questions through semi-structured interviews with representatives from a range of NGOs, supplemented by content analysis of their documents. We find that while all the NGOs are committed to combating climate change, their views on CCS as a mitigation strategy vary considerably. We find that these views are correlated with NGOs' histories of activism and advocacy, as well as with their sources of funding. Overall, most of these NGOs accept the necessity of geologic sequestration, while only a small fraction do not

CO₂-EOR Stakeholder Perceptions and Policy Responses

OpenAIRE

Mabon, Leslie; Littlecott, Chris

2015-01-01

Across the investigations undertaken in WP1 and WP10, analysis has been made of eight different stakeholder constituencies and their perceptions of CO2-EOR. The stakeholder groups investigated include both members of the public and professional groups with direct interest in energy and / or climate change issues. WP1 started this analysis with an investigation of the perceptions and concerns of Scottish environmental NGOs during 2012-13. WP10 sought to test these findings via qualitative f...

Educational Tutorial Video with Aspects of Psychological Sensation and Perception in Academic Achievement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martha Jiménez García

2015-09-01

Full Text Available In Mexico 75.5% of children and young students in elementary and secondary school are at insufficient and elementary levels in mathematics. The purpose of this research is to join the UNESCO initiative by granting quality education, boosted by technology (Rose, 2013. Specifically, the objective is to analyze the impact of using a tutorial video on academic achievement, based on Gestalt psychology stimulating the sensation and perception cognitive capabilities. Using a 50 student sample was used, which was divided into two groups (experimental and control we test whether students that use a tutorial video based on sensation and perception increase their attention and interest to increase academic achievement. The experimental group was a virtual class with tutorial videos on the use of slopes, explanation of the equation, and a virtual graph generator. Both groups were a survey and an exam. The results show that a high impact on the grades and on the perception of knowledge in the experimental group; the average academic achievement of the experimental group was 9.31, against 2 in the control group. Thus, we conclude that the tutorial video presented stimulates cognitive capabilities and improves academic achievement with a 7.3 impact per additional unit of tutorial video, presented as reinforcement of the class.

Cross-cultural differences in risk perceptions of disasters.

Science.gov (United States)

Gierlach, Elaine; Belsher, Bradley E; Beutler, Larry E

2010-10-01

Public risk perceptions of mass disasters carry considerable influences, both psychologically and economically, despite their oft-times imprecise nature. Prior research has identified the presence of an optimistic bias that affects risk perception, but there is a dearth of literature examining how these perceptions differ among cultures-particularly with regard to mass disasters. The present study explores differences among Japanese, Argentinean, and North American mental health workers in their rates of the optimistic bias in risk perceptions as contrasted between natural disasters and terrorist events. The results indicate a significant difference among cultures in levels of perceived risk that do not correspond to actual exposure rates. Japanese groups had the highest risk perceptions for both types of hazards and North Americans and Argentineans had the lowest risk perceptions for terrorism. Additionally, participants across all cultures rated risk to self as lower than risk to others (optimistic bias) across all disaster types. These findings suggest that cultural factors may have a greater influence on risk perception than social exposure, and that the belief that one is more immune to disasters compared to others may be a cross-cultural phenomenon. © 2010 Society for Risk Analysis.

The emotional body and time perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Droit-Volet, Sylvie; Gil, Sandrine

2016-01-01

We examined the effects of emotional bodily expressions on the perception of time. Participants were shown bodily expressions of fear, happiness and sadness in a temporal bisection task featuring different stimulus duration ranges. Stimulus durations were judged to be longer for bodily expressions of fear than for those of sadness, whereas no significant difference was observed between sad and happy postures. In addition, the magnitude of the lengthening effect of fearful versus sad postures increased with duration range. These results suggest that the perception of fearful bodily expressions increases the level of arousal which, in turn, speeds up the internal clock system underlying the representation of time. The effect of bodily expressions on time perception is thus consistent with findings for other highly arousing emotional stimuli, such as emotional facial expressions.

Exploring employees' perceptions, job-related attitudes and characteristics during a planned organizational change

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Katsaros, K.K.

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The current study explores employee perceptions regarding organizational readiness to change, supervisory support, trust in management and appropriateness of change during a planned organizational change in a public hospital. Survey data were collected at two time periods, before and five months after the initiation of the planned change. Research findings show a significant increase in perceptive organizational readiness to change, supervisory support, trust in management and appropriateness of change after the planned change implementation. Findings also suggest that differences in the aforementioned perceptions are moderated by certain job-related attitudes, namely, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job involvement; and job-related characteristics, namely, skill variety, task identity, task significance feedback, autonomy and goal clarity. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Multisensory flavor perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Spence, Charles

2015-03-26

The perception of flavor is perhaps the most multisensory of our everyday experiences. The latest research by psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists increasingly reveals the complex multisensory interactions that give rise to the flavor experiences we all know and love, demonstrating how they rely on the integration of cues from all of the human senses. This Perspective explores the contributions of distinct senses to our perception of food and the growing realization that the same rules of multisensory integration that have been thoroughly explored in interactions between audition, vision, and touch may also explain the combination of the (admittedly harder to study) flavor senses. Academic advances are now spilling out into the real world, with chefs and food industry increasingly taking the latest scientific findings on board in their food design. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Impact of Economic Agents Perceptions on Stock Price Volatility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaroslav Bukovina

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper studies perceptions of economic subjects and its impact on stock prices. Perceptions are represented by stock market indexes and Facebook activity. The contribution of this paper is twofold. In the first place, this paper analyzes the unique data of Facebook activity and proposes the methodology for employment of social networks as a proxy variable which represents the perceptions of information in society related to the specific company. The second contribution is the proposal of potential link between social network principles and theories of behavioral economics. Overall, the author finds the negative impact of Facebook activity on stock prices and the positive impact of stock market indices. The author points the implications of findings to protection of company reputation and to investment strategy based on the existence of undervalued stocks.

Perception of victims of rape and perception of gender social roles among college students in Southwest Nigeria: validation of a 5-item gender scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Opekitan, Afe Taiwo; Ogunsemi, Olawale; Osalusi, Bamidele; Adeleye, Olufunke; Ale, Ayotunde

2017-08-29

Our study focused on the perception of victims of rape and the relationship with the perception of social roles for gender among college students in southwest Nigeria using a 5-item gender social scale and a perception of victims of rape questionnaire. The study was done among 312 college students in Southwest Nigeria and explored the perception of victims of rape and gender social roles. The aim was to determine the relationship between perception of rape victims and view of gender social roles. We used a perception of rape victims questionnaire and a validated 5-item gender social roles scale to assess the views of participants. The findings revealed that females had better perception of victims of rape than males. Females also had more positive views of females' social roles involving gender. However, there was poor perception on work-related social roles and the traditional concept of headship in the varied situations described on the 5-item gender social scale. Old stereotypes of typically blaming victims of rape were not common beliefs among college students. There were no significant correlations between perception of victims of rape and perception of gender social roles among college students. Seemingly, the perception of victims of rape does not have a significant relationship with the concept of gender social roles.

Internet Consumer Catalog Shopping: Findings from an Exploratory Study and Directions for Future Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Joseph M.; Vijayasarathy, Leo R.

1998-01-01

Presents findings from an exploratory, empirical investigation of perceptions of Internet catalog shopping compared to more traditional print catalog shopping. Two factors that might influence perceptions, personality, and important other people are examined, and directions for further research are suggested. (Author/LRW)

Not explicit but implicit memory is influenced by individual perception style.

Science.gov (United States)

Hine, Kyoko; Tsushima, Yoshiaki

2018-01-01

Not only explicit but also implicit memory has considerable influence on our daily life. However, it is still unclear whether explicit and implicit memories are sensitive to individual differences. Here, we investigated how individual perception style (global or local) correlates with implicit and explicit memory. As a result, we found that not explicit but implicit memory was affected by the perception style: local perception style people more greatly used implicit memory than global perception style people. These results help us to make the new effective application adapting to individual perception style and understand some clinical symptoms such as autistic spectrum disorder. Furthermore, this finding might give us new insight of memory involving consciousness and unconsciousness as well as relationship between implicit/explicit memory and individual perception style.

RF EMF Risk Perception Revisited: Is the Focus on Concern Sufficient for Risk Perception Studies?

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Wiedemann, Peter M; Freudenstein, Frederik; Böhmert, Christoph; Wiart, Joe; Croft, Rodney J

2017-06-08

An implicit assumption of risk perception studies is that concerns expressed in questionnaires reflect concerns in everyday life. The aim of the present study is to check this assumption, i.e., the extrapolability of risk perceptions expressed in a survey, to risk perceptions in everyday life. To that end, risk perceptions were measured by a multidimensional approach. In addition to the traditional focus on measuring the magnitude of risk perceptions, the thematic relevance (how often people think about a risk issue) and the discursive relevance (how often people think about or discuss a risk issue) of risk perceptions were also collected. Taking into account this extended view of risk perception, an online survey was conducted in six European countries with 2454 respondents, referring to radio frequency electromagnetic field (RF EMF) risk potentials from base stations, and access points, such as WiFi routers and cell phones. The findings reveal that the present study's multidimensional approach to measuring risk perception provides a more differentiated understanding of RF EMF risk perception. High levels of concerns expressed in questionnaires do not automatically imply that these concerns are thematically relevant in everyday life. We use thematic relevance to distinguish between enduringly concerned (high concern according to both questionnaire and thematic relevance) and not enduringly concerned participants (high concern according to questionnaire but no thematic relevance). Furthermore, we provide data for the empirical value of this distinction: Compared to other participants, enduringly concerned subjects consider radio frequency electromagnetic field exposure to a greater extent as a moral and affective issue. They also see themselves as highly exposed to radio frequency electromagnetic fields. However, despite these differences, subjects with high levels of thematic relevance are nevertheless sensitive to exposure reduction as a means for improving the

RF EMF Risk Perception Revisited: Is the Focus on Concern Sufficient for Risk Perception Studies?

Science.gov (United States)

Wiedemann, Peter M.; Freudenstein, Frederik; Böhmert, Christoph; Wiart, Joe; Croft, Rodney J.

2017-01-01

An implicit assumption of risk perception studies is that concerns expressed in questionnaires reflect concerns in everyday life. The aim of the present study is to check this assumption, i.e., the extrapolability of risk perceptions expressed in a survey, to risk perceptions in everyday life. To that end, risk perceptions were measured by a multidimensional approach. In addition to the traditional focus on measuring the magnitude of risk perceptions, the thematic relevance (how often people think about a risk issue) and the discursive relevance (how often people think about or discuss a risk issue) of risk perceptions were also collected. Taking into account this extended view of risk perception, an online survey was conducted in six European countries with 2454 respondents, referring to radio frequency electromagnetic field (RF EMF) risk potentials from base stations, and access points, such as WiFi routers and cell phones. The findings reveal that the present study’s multidimensional approach to measuring risk perception provides a more differentiated understanding of RF EMF risk perception. High levels of concerns expressed in questionnaires do not automatically imply that these concerns are thematically relevant in everyday life. We use thematic relevance to distinguish between enduringly concerned (high concern according to both questionnaire and thematic relevance) and not enduringly concerned participants (high concern according to questionnaire but no thematic relevance). Furthermore, we provide data for the empirical value of this distinction: Compared to other participants, enduringly concerned subjects consider radio frequency electromagnetic field exposure to a greater extent as a moral and affective issue. They also see themselves as highly exposed to radio frequency electromagnetic fields. However, despite these differences, subjects with high levels of thematic relevance are nevertheless sensitive to exposure reduction as a means for improving the

Staff members' perceptions of an animal-assisted activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Bibbo, Jessica

2013-07-01

To examine the perceptions of staff members toward the implementation of an animal-assisted activity (AAA) in an outpatient regional cancer center. Quasi-experimental, post-test design. An adult outpatient regional cancer center in northern California. 34 facility staff members. Self-report questionnaire following four weeks of AAA visitation. Visits took place three times a week for a total of 12 visits. Perceptions of the AAA. Previous perceptions toward AAA influenced the perceptions of the visitation's efficacy. Direct and indirect interaction with the visiting AAA teams was positively associated with perceptions of the AAA. A disagreement occurred that the AAA had caused extra stress or work for staff. Enjoyment of interacting with the dog handler was not significantly different from interacting with the dog; however, it was more positively correlated to acceptance of the AAA. The study provided evidence that the AAA was generally accepted by staff members. Individual staff members' perceptions of dogs and AAAs can influence their receptivity to AAA interventions. Interaction with AAA teams should be voluntary and available for patients and staff members. AAA may be introduced into facilities without creating the perception of extra stress or work for staff members. Providing staff the opportunity to interact with visiting AAA teams may be beneficial for the success of such programs. The human handler in AAA teams may play a vital role in the staff acceptance of such programs.

Risk perception in western Europe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sjoeberg, Lennart

1999-01-01

This paper describes empirical work on risk perception and some related dimensions, in particular with regard to radiation and nuclear power hazards. Most of the data cited come from a current CEC project in which 5 countries in Western Europe have participated. Models of risk perception are discussed and some generally valid findings concerning risk perception are summarized. Risk is seen to be a primary factor in many policy matters and clearly, to the public, more important than utility considerations. Previously formulated models (the Psychometric Model and Cultural Theory) are found to be deficient and a much more efficient alternative is suggested. It is stressed that risk perception is of interest foremost because it can be of value to decision makers in making difficult policy decisions in matters of risk. Hence, it is important to ask what facets of perceived risk are most strongly related to demand for risk mitigation. It is found that expected severity of consequences of an hazard is the clearly most important dimension. The paper concludes with a brief summary of a case study of Swedish experience with high-level nuclear waste repository siting

Students Perception of Cyber Crime in Edo State: Implications for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study determined the perception of students toward committing cyber crime the study will determine the level of success and the gender mostly prone to commit this crime. The study employed the use of descriptive survey to find out students perception towards cyber crime in Edo State. A sample of 500 students ...

Is conscious perception gradual or dichotomous? A comparison of report methodologies during a visual task

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Overgaard, M; Rote, J; Mouridsen, K

2006-01-01

conscious and unconscious perception. This idea is opposed to theoretical arguments that we should think of conscious perception as a continuum of clarity, with e.g., fringe conscious states [Mangan, B. (2001). Sensation's ghost-the non-sensory "fringe" of consciousness, Psyche, 7, 18]. In the experimental...

Perceptions of a photograph of a woman with visible piercings.

Science.gov (United States)

Martino, Sara

2008-08-01

To examine perceptions of people with visible piercings 105 undergraduate students from four different courses on campus (85 women, 20 men; M age=20.0 yr., SD=3.4) were randomly assigned to rate a photograph of a women with or without piercings on her eyebrow, ear, lip, and nose on 13 characteristics. Analysis indicated the model with visible piercings was rated less religious and more creative, artistic, and mysterious. These findings differ from previous findings on perception of tattoos. Implications and directions for research with different age groups are discussed.

Online versus conventional shopping: consumers' risk perception and regulatory focus.

Science.gov (United States)

van Noort, Guda; Kerkhof, Peter; Fennis, Bob M

2007-10-01

In two experiments, the impact of shopping context on consumers' risk perceptions and regulatory focus was examined. We predicted that individuals perceive an online (vs. conventional) shopping environment as more risky and that an online shopping environment, by its risky nature, primes a prevention focus. The findings in Study 1 demonstrate these effects by using self-report measures for risk perception and prevention focus. In Study 2, we replicated these findings and demonstrated that the effect of an online shopping environment carries over to behavior in a domain unrelated to shopping.

Neural networks for perception human and machine perception

CERN Document Server

Wechsler, Harry

1991-01-01

Neural Networks for Perception, Volume 1: Human and Machine Perception focuses on models for understanding human perception in terms of distributed computation and examples of PDP models for machine perception. This book addresses both theoretical and practical issues related to the feasibility of both explaining human perception and implementing machine perception in terms of neural network models. The book is organized into two parts. The first part focuses on human perception. Topics on network model ofobject recognition in human vision, the self-organization of functional architecture in t

Visual perception from the perspective of a representational, non-reductionistic, level-dependent account of perception and conscious awareness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Overgaard, Morten; Mogensen, Jesper

2014-01-01

This article proposes a new model to interpret seemingly conflicting evidence concerning the correlation of consciousness and neural processes. Based on an analysis of research of blindsight and subliminal perception, the reorganization of elementary functions and consciousness framework suggests......’ of analysis in a ‘situational algorithmic strategy’ that reflects the general state of an individual. We argue that conscious experience is intrinsically related to representations that are available to guide behaviour. From this perspective, we find that blindsight and subliminal perception can be explained...

Age and gender differences in health risk perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, YoungHo; Park, InKyoung; Kang, SooJin

2018-03-01

The current study investigated how adolescents perceive their own health risks and compare their own likelihood of health risks with that of others of the same age. Moreover, the study identified the differences in health risk perceptions between males and females. A total of 625 adolescents (314 males and 311 females) from the Nowon district, geographically located in northern Seoul, voluntarily participated. In order to measure health risk perceptions a Korean version of self-other risk judgments profile was used. The findings indicated that study participants, regardless of gender and age, tend to underestimate their vulnerability to majority of health risk events. Furthermore, there were significant gender and age differences in health risk perception and perception bias in all health risk domains. The present study suggests that further research is needed to identify realistic and unrealistic perception mechanism for a large number of people from different demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Copyright© by the National Institute of Public Health, Prague 2018.

The impact of cigarette branding and plain packaging on perceptions of product appeal and risk among young adults in Norway: A between-subjects experimental survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Scheffels, Janne; Lund, Ingeborg

2013-12-04

This study examined the perceptions of cigarette packaging and the potential impact of plain packaging regulations. The hypothesis was that the branded cigarette packages would be rated more positively than the corresponding plain packs with and without descriptors. Between-subjects experimental online survey. Male and female participants were separately randomised to one of the three experimental conditions: fully branded cigarette packs, plain packs with descriptors and plain packs without descriptors; participants were asked to evaluate 12 individual cigarette packages. The participants were also asked to compare five pairs of packs from the same brand family. Norway. 1010 youths and adults aged 15-22. Ratings of appeal, taste and harmfulness for individual packages. Ratings of taste, harm, quality, 'would rather try' and 'easier to quit' for pairs of packages. Plain with and without descriptors packs were rated less positively than the branded packs on appeal (index score 1.63/1.61 vs 2.42, pbranded condition was significant for appeal (index score 2.08/1.92 vs 2.58, pbranded condition for taste (index score 1.18 vs 1.70, pbranded compared with the plain condition on dimensions less harmful (β -0.77, 95% CI -0.97 to -0.56), would rather try (β -0.32, 95% CI -0.50 to -0.14) and easier to quit (β -0.58, 95% CI -0.76 to -0.39). The results indicate that a shift from branded to plain cigarette packaging could lead to a reduction in positive perceptions of cigarettes among young people.

Hookah Smoking and Harm Perception among Asthmatic Adolescents: Findings from the Florida Youth Tobacco Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Martinasek, Mary P.; Gibson-Young, Linda; Forrest, Jamie

2014-01-01

Background: Hookah tobacco smoking has increased in prevalence among Florida adolescents and is often viewed as a safer alternative to cigarette smoking by young adults. Asthmatic adolescents are at increased risk of the negative health effects of hookah smoking. The purpose of this study is to examine if hookah use and harm perception vary by…

Beyond the internalism/externalism debate: the constitution of the space of perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Lenay, Charles; Steiner, Pierre

2010-12-01

This paper tackles the problem of the nature of the space of perception. Based both on philosophical arguments and on results obtained from original experimental situations, it attempts to show how space is constituted concretely, before any distinction between the "inner" and the "outer" can be made. It thus sheds light on the presuppositions of the well-known debate between internalism and externalism in the philosophy of mind; it argues in favor of the latter position, but with arguments that are foundationally antecedent to this debate. We call the position we defend enactive externalism. It is based on experimental settings which, in virtue of their minimalism, make it possible both to defend a sensori-motor/enactive theory of perception; and, especially, to inquire into the origin of the space of perception, showing how it is concretely enacted before the controversy between internalism and externalism can even take place. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Impact of Gestalt Group Psychotherapy on Parents' Perceptions of Children Identified as Problematic.

Science.gov (United States)

Little, Linda F.

Gestalt therapy respects parents' perceptions of their children and does not attempt to train parents to become therapists for their children. To examine the impact of Gestalt group psychotherapy on parents' perceptions of children identified as problematic, an experimental group of 10 parents participated in 10 2-hour Gestalt sessions. A group of…

Brain mechanisms for simple perception and bistable perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Megan; Arteaga, Daniel; He, Biyu J

2013-08-27

When faced with ambiguous sensory inputs, subjective perception alternates between the different interpretations in a stochastic manner. Such multistable perception phenomena have intrigued scientists and laymen alike for over a century. Despite rigorous investigations, the underlying mechanisms of multistable perception remain elusive. Recent studies using multivariate pattern analysis revealed that activity patterns in posterior visual areas correlate with fluctuating percepts. However, increasing evidence suggests that vision--and perception at large--is an active inferential process involving hierarchical brain systems. We applied searchlight multivariate pattern analysis to functional magnetic resonance imaging signals across the human brain to decode perceptual content during bistable perception and simple unambiguous perception. Although perceptually reflective activity patterns during simple perception localized predominantly to posterior visual regions, bistable perception involved additionally many higher-order frontoparietal and temporal regions. Moreover, compared with simple perception, both top-down and bottom-up influences were dramatically enhanced during bistable perception. We further studied the intermittent presentation of ambiguous images--a condition that is known to elicit perceptual memory. Compared with continuous presentation, intermittent presentation recruited even more higher-order regions and was accompanied by further strengthened top-down influences but relatively weakened bottom-up influences. Taken together, these results strongly support an active top-down inferential process in perception.

Dose-specific effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on experimental pain: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Claydon, Leica S; Chesterton, Linda S; Barlas, Panos; Sim, Julius

2011-09-01

To determine the hypoalgesic effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) parameter combinations on experimental models in healthy humans. Searches were performed using the electronic databases Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, AMED, and Web of Science (from inception to December 2009). Manual searches of journals and reference lists of retrieved trials were also performed. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included in the review if they compared the hypoalgesic effect of TENS relative with placebo and control, using an experimental pain model in healthy human participants. Two reviewers independently selected the trials, assessed their methodologic quality and extracted data. Forty-three RCTs were eligible for inclusion. A best evidence synthesis revealed: Overall "conflicting" (inconsistent findings in multiple RCTs) evidence of TENS efficacy on experimental pain irrespective of TENS parameters used. Overall intense TENS has "moderate" evidence of efficacy (1 high-quality and 2 low-quality trials). Conventional TENS has overall conflicting evidence of efficacy, this is derived from "strong" evidence of efficacy (generally consistent findings in multiple high-quality RCTs) on pressure pain but strong evidence of inefficacy on other pain models. "Limited" evidence (positive findings from 1 RCT) of hypoalgesia exists for some novel parameters. Low-intensity, low-frequency, local TENS has strong evidence of inefficacy. Inappropriate TENS (using "barely perceptible" intensities) has moderate evidence of inefficacy. The level of hypoalgesic efficacy of TENS is clearly dependent on TENS parameter combination selection (defined in terms of intensity, frequency, and stimulation site) and experimental pain model. Future clinical RCTs may consider these TENS dose responses.

Shape perception simultaneously up- and downregulates neural activity in the primary visual cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Kok, Peter; de Lange, Floris P

2014-07-07

An essential part of visual perception is the grouping of local elements (such as edges and lines) into coherent shapes. Previous studies have shown that this grouping process modulates neural activity in the primary visual cortex (V1) that is signaling the local elements [1-4]. However, the nature of this modulation is controversial. Some studies find that shape perception reduces neural activity in V1 [2, 5, 6], while others report increased V1 activity during shape perception [1, 3, 4, 7-10]. Neurocomputational theories that cast perception as a generative process [11-13] propose that feedback connections carry predictions (i.e., the generative model), while feedforward connections signal the mismatch between top-down predictions and bottom-up inputs. Within this framework, the effect of feedback on early visual cortex may be either enhancing or suppressive, depending on whether the feedback signal is met by congruent bottom-up input. Here, we tested this hypothesis by quantifying the spatial profile of neural activity in V1 during the perception of illusory shapes using population receptive field mapping. We find that shape perception concurrently increases neural activity in regions of V1 that have a receptive field on the shape but do not receive bottom-up input and suppresses activity in regions of V1 that receive bottom-up input that is predicted by the shape. These effects were not modulated by task requirements. Together, these findings suggest that shape perception changes lower-order sensory representations in a highly specific and automatic manner, in line with theories that cast perception in terms of hierarchical generative models. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Philippine Classroom Teachers as Researchers: Teachers' Perceptions, Motivations, and Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Ulla, Mark B.; Barrera, Kenneth Ian B.; Acompanado, Meller M.

2017-01-01

This study explores teachers' perceptions and motivations, challenges, and needs of 50 teachers in Agusan del Norte, Philippines with regards to doing research. Methodologies used were survey questionnaire, and group and individual interviews. Findings revealed that teacher-respondents had a positive perceptions towards doing research and its…

Toward Instructional Leadership: Principals' Perceptions of Large-Scale Assessment in Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Prytula, Michelle; Noonan, Brian; Hellsten, Laurie

2013-01-01

This paper describes a study of the perceptions that Saskatchewan school principals have regarding large-scale assessment reform and their perceptions of how assessment reform has affected their roles as principals. The findings revealed that large-scale assessments, especially provincial assessments, have affected the principal in Saskatchewan…

Farmer Perceptions of Conflict Related to Water in Zambia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard A. Marcantonio

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The relationship between climate change, water scarcity, and conflict is still debated. Much of the existing work relating resource scarcity to conflict has involved regional-scale analysis linking instances of violent outbreaks to environmental conditions. But how do individual farmers in Africa define conflict? Do they perceive that conflict will change as a function of water scarcity, and, if so, how? Here, we address these questions by surveying farmers in southern Zambia in 2015, where we asked respondents to define conflict, assessed their perceptions of past and future conflict, as well as perceptions of rainfall and water availability. We find that the majority of our respondents (75% think of conflict as misunderstandings or disagreements between people and that 91% of our sample has experienced past conflict, 70% expect to experience future conflict, and 58% expect to experience future physical violent conflict. When asked about the sources of conflict, respondents mainly mention land grabbing, crop damage by animals, and politics rather than water related issues. However, we find a significant relationship between perceptions of future rainfall decreasing and future physical violent conflict. These results imply that even though respondents do not think water scarcity is a direct source of conflict, the perception of decreased rain in the future is significantly related to the perception that future conflict and future physical violent conflict will occur.

Higher Education Students’ Perceptions of Environmental Issues and Media Coverage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keinonen Tuula

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This study aims to find higher education students’ perceptions about environmental issues and how the perceptions are related to perceptions of media coverage. This study investigates higher education students’ perceptions of the seriousness of environmental issues and their relation to perceptions of media coverage. Higher education students perceived a global problem, lack of clean water, as most serious environmental problem. Media has had an effect on students’ perceptions on environmental issues: when students perceived the problem as serious they also perceived the information in media concerning it appropriate. Students perceived that the media underestimate and obscure some environmental problems such as biological diversity and global warming. It was concluded that higher education educators need more knowledge of students’, future decision makers’ concerns and perceptions about environmental issues to develop more effective teaching practices in higher education. Through education environmental issues literacy, which is a precursor for engaged protection of the environment, can be fostered. This study offers some insights into higher education students’ perceptions of the media’s role in environmental issues.

Multidimensional relationships between paternalistic leadership and perceptions of organizational ethical climates.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yu-Chi; Tsai, Ping Ju

2012-10-01

This study investigated how paternalistic leadership is linked to ethical climates based on a multidimensional construct perspective. This experimental study utilized the partial least squares (PLS) techniques to analyze the data. Participants were 258 civil servants working in various public sectors in Taiwan, who were asked to rate their leaders' paternalistic leadership behaviors and their perception of the ethical climates in their organizations using the Paternalistic Leadership Scale and the Ethical Climate Questionnaire. Using the unidimensional constructs of paternalistic leadership and ethical climates, prior research showed vidence of a positive relationship; however, in the current study, multidimensional relations among these constructs may be positive or negative. The findings of this study suggested that leaders may implement specific types of paternalistic leadership to enhance the intended ethical climate in their organizations.

Unethical and inept? The influence of moral information on perceptions of competence.

Science.gov (United States)

Stellar, Jennifer E; Willer, Robb

2018-02-01

While moral character heavily influences global evaluations of others (Goodwin, Piazza, & Rozin, 2014), its causal effect on perceptions of others' competence (i.e., one's knowledge, skills, and abilities) is less clear. We found that people readily use information about another's morality when judging their competence, despite holding folk intuitions that these domains are independent. Across 6 studies (n = 1,567), including 2 preregistered experiments, participants judged targets who committed hypothetical transgressions (Studies 1 and 3), cheated on lab tasks (Study 2), acted selfishly in economic games (Study 4), and received low morality ratings from coworkers (Study 5 and 6) as less competent than control or moral targets. These findings were specific to morality and were not the result of incidentally manipulating impressions of warmth (Study 4), nor were they fully explained by a general halo effect (Studies 2 and 3). We hypothesized that immoral targets are seen as less competent because their immoral actions led them to be viewed as low in social intelligence. Studies 4 and 5 supported this prediction, demonstrating that social intelligence was a more reliable mediator than perceptions of self-control or general intelligence. An experimental test of this mediation argument found that presenting targets as highly socially intelligent eliminated the negative effect of immoral information on judgments of competence (Study 6). These results suggest that information about a person's moral character readily influences perceptions of their competence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Exposure Perception as a Key Indicator of Risk Perception and Acceptance of Sources of Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields

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Frederik Freudenstein

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The presented survey was conducted in six European countries as an online study. A total of 2454 subjects participated. Two main research questions were investigated: firstly, how does the cognitive, moral, and affective framing of radio frequency electromagnetic field (RF EMF exposure perception influence RF EMF risk perception? Secondly, can the deployment of mobile phone base stations have greater acceptance with RF EMF exposure reduction? The findings with respect to the first question clearly indicated that the cognitive framed exposure perception is the main determinant of RF EMF risk perception. The concomitant sensitivity to exposure strength offers an opportunity to improve the acceptance of base stations by exposure reduction. A linear regression analysis supported this assumption: in a fictional test situation, exposure reduction improved the acceptance of base stations, operationalized as the requested distance of the base station from one’s own home. Furthermore, subjects with high RF EMF risk perception were most sensitive to exposure reduction. On average, a 70% exposure reduction reduced the requested distance from about 2000 meters to 1000 meters. The consequences for risk communication are discussed.

The perception of self in birds.

Science.gov (United States)

Derégnaucourt, Sébastien; Bovet, Dalila

2016-10-01

The perception of self is an important topic in several disciplines such as ethology, behavioral ecology, psychology, developmental and cognitive neuroscience. Self-perception is investigated by experimentally exposing different species of animals to self-stimuli such as their own image, smell or vocalizations. Here we review more than one hundred studies using these methods in birds, a taxonomic group that exhibits a rich diversity regarding ecology and behavior. Exposure to self-image is the main method for studying self-recognition, while exposing birds to their own smell is generally used for the investigation of homing or odor-based kin discrimination. Self-produced vocalizations - especially in oscine songbirds - are used as stimuli for understanding the mechanisms of vocal coding/decoding both at the neural and at the behavioral levels. With this review, we highlight the necessity to study the perception of self in animals cross-modally and to consider the role of experience and development, aspects that can be easily monitored in captive populations of birds. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rubber hand illusion affects joint angle perception.

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Martin V Butz

Full Text Available The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI is a well-established experimental paradigm. It has been shown that the RHI can affect hand location estimates, arm and hand motion towards goals, the subjective visual appearance of the own hand, and the feeling of body ownership. Several studies also indicate that the peri-hand space is partially remapped around the rubber hand. Nonetheless, the question remains if and to what extent the RHI can affect the perception of other body parts. In this study we ask if the RHI can alter the perception of the elbow joint. Participants had to adjust an angular representation on a screen according to their proprioceptive perception of their own elbow joint angle. The results show that the RHI does indeed alter the elbow joint estimation, increasing the agreement with the position and orientation of the artificial hand. Thus, the results show that the brain does not only adjust the perception of the hand in body-relative space, but it also modifies the perception of other body parts. In conclusion, we propose that the brain continuously strives to maintain a consistent internal body image and that this image can be influenced by the available sensory information sources, which are mediated and mapped onto each other by means of a postural, kinematic body model.

Towards a neural basis of music perception.

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Koelsch, Stefan; Siebel, Walter A

2005-12-01

Music perception involves complex brain functions underlying acoustic analysis, auditory memory, auditory scene analysis, and processing of musical syntax and semantics. Moreover, music perception potentially affects emotion, influences the autonomic nervous system, the hormonal and immune systems, and activates (pre)motor representations. During the past few years, research activities on different aspects of music processing and their neural correlates have rapidly progressed. This article provides an overview of recent developments and a framework for the perceptual side of music processing. This framework lays out a model of the cognitive modules involved in music perception, and incorporates information about the time course of activity of some of these modules, as well as research findings about where in the brain these modules might be located.

Students perception on the usage of PowerPoint in learning calculus

Science.gov (United States)

Othman, Zarith Sofiah; Tarmuji, Nor Habibah; Hilmi, Zulkifli Ab Ghani

2017-04-01

Mathematics is a core subject in most of the science and technology courses and in some social sciences programs. However, the low achievement of students in the subject especially in topics such as Differentiation and Integration is always an issue. Many factors contribute to the low performance such as motivation, environment, method of learning, academic background and others. The purpose of this paper is to determine the perception of learning mathematics using PowerPoint on Integration concepts at the undergraduate level with respect to mathematics anxiety, learning enjoyment, mobility and learning satisfaction. The main content of the PowerPoint presentation focused on the integration method with historical elements as an added value. The study was conducted on 48 students randomly selected from students in computer and applied sciences program as experimental group. Questionnaires were distributed to students to explore their learning experiences. Another 51 students who were taught using the traditional chalkboard method were used as the control group. Both groups were given a test on Integration. The statistical methods used were descriptive statistics and independent sample t-test between the experimental and the control group. The finding showed that most students perceived positively to the PowerPoint presentations with respect to mobility and learning satisfaction. The experimental group performed better than the control group.

Designers’ identity: skills' self-perception and expectation in design students

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kunrath, Kamila; Cash, Philip; Li-Ying, Jason

2018-01-01

Designers’ Professional Identity (DPI) combines social- and self-perceptive awareness through which one is able to identify as a designer. However, self-perception can be different from the expectations associated with an ideal designer, especially during education. Thus, this paper reports...... a survey where self-perceived design skills and expectation are compared at different points in a design education. Findings indicate that changes in mindset modify the alignment between self-perception and expectations, which provides implications for education and for a broader understanding of DPI....

Principals' Perceptions of School Public Relations

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Morris, Robert C.; Chan, Tak Cheung; Patterson, Judith

2009-01-01

This study was designed to investigate school principals' perceptions on school public relations in five areas: community demographics, parental involvement, internal and external communications, school council issues, and community resources. Findings indicated that principals' concerns were as follows: rapid population growth, change of…

Labelling effects and adolescent responses to peers with depression: an experimental investigation.

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Dolphin, Louise; Hennessy, Eilis

2017-06-24

The impact of illness labels on the stigma experiences of individuals with mental health problems is a matter of ongoing debate. Some argue that labels have a negative influence on judgments and should be avoided in favour of information emphasising the existence of a continuum of mental health/illness. Others believe that behavioral symptoms are more powerful influencers of stigma than labels. The phenomenon has received little attention in adolescent research, despite the critical importance of the peer group at this developmental stage. This study employs a novel experimental design to examine the impact of the depression label and continuum information on adolescents' responses to peers with depression. Participants were 156 adolescents, 76 male, 80 female (M = 16.25 years; SD = .361), assigned to one of three conditions (Control, Label, Continuum). Participants respond to four audio-visual vignette characters (two clinically depressed) on three occasions. Outcome measures included judgment of the mental health of the vignette characters and emotional responses to them. Neither the provision of a depression label or continuum information influenced perceptions of the mental health of the characters in the audio-visual vignettes or participants' emotional responses to them. The findings have implications for the design of interventions to combat depression stigma with adolescents. Interventions should not necessarily target perceptions of psychiatric labels, but rather perceptions of symptomatic behaviour.

A Bayesian perspective on sensory and cognitive integration in pain perception and placebo analgesia.

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Davide Anchisi

Full Text Available The placebo effect is a component of any response to a treatment (effective or inert, but we still ignore why it exists. We propose that placebo analgesia is a facet of pain perception, others being the modulating effects of emotions, cognition and past experience, and we suggest that a computational understanding of pain may provide a unifying explanation of these phenomena. Here we show how Bayesian decision theory can account for such features and we describe a model of pain that we tested against experimental data. Our model not only agrees with placebo analgesia, but also predicts that learning can affect pain perception in other unexpected ways, which experimental evidence supports. Finally, the model can also reflect the strategies used by pain perception, showing that modulation by disparate factors is intrinsic to the pain process.

Perceptions about Forest Schools: Encouraging and Promoting Archimedes Forest Schools

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Nawaz, Haq; Blackwell, Sarah

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to find out parents' and children's perception of outdoor learning programmes with specific reference to Archimedes Forest Schools, known as Forest Schools. A review of existing research showed that there had been no rigorous evaluation of perception of forest schools. The study was conducted in the UK and mixed method…

Helmholtz and Zoellner: nineteenth-century empiricism, spiritism, and the theory of space perception.

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Stromberg, W H

1989-10-01

J. K. F. Zoellner began writing on "experimental proofs" of a fourth spatial dimension, and of the existence of spirits, in 1878. His arguments caused strong controversy, with rebuttal essays by Wilhelm Wundt and others. The author argues that Zoellner's case that these matters are experimental questions rested on arguments which Hermann von Helmholtz, inveighing against rationalist views of space and space perception, had recently published. Zoellner's use of Helmholtz's arguments to advance and defend his spiritist views occasioned strong criticism of Helmholtz, affected careers and reputations of scholars in Berlin and Leipzig, and caused enduring controversy over the credibility of Helmholtz's empiricist theory of space perception.

Thin-Slice Perception Develops Slowly

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Balas, Benjamin; Kanwisher, Nancy; Saxe, Rebecca

2012-01-01

Body language and facial gesture provide sufficient visual information to support high-level social inferences from "thin slices" of behavior. Given short movies of nonverbal behavior, adults make reliable judgments in a large number of tasks. Here we find that the high precision of adults' nonverbal social perception depends on the slow…

[Nutritional status, nutritional self-perception, and use of licit drugs in adolescents].

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia, Denise Máximo; Mekitarian Filho, Eduardo; Gilio, Alfredo Elias; Lotufo, João Paulo Becker; Lo, Denise Swei

2015-01-01

To associate the nutritional status and the self-perception of nutritional status with the use of licit drugs among adolescents. Cross-sectional study in which 210 adolescents answered a questionnaire on alcohol and tobacco experimentation and self-perceptions about their nutritional status. The correspondence between the adolescents' perception of their own nutritional status and actual nutritional status was analyzed, as well as associations between nutritional status, self-perception of nutritional status, gender, age, and presence of smokers at home with alcohol and tobacco use. The variables were analyzed separately in a bivariate analysis and, subsequently, a multivariate analysis determined the factors associated with drug use. The study included 210 adolescents with a median age of 148 months; 56.6% were females. Of the total sample, 6.6% have tried cigarettes, and 20% have tried alcohol; 32.3% had BMI Z-Score≥1, 12.85% had BMI Z-Score≥2, and 50.7% had a correct perception of his/her weight. After a multivariate analysis, only the self-perception about weight statistically influenced experimentation of tobacco, and patients who identified themselves as having very high weight were more likely to experiment tobacco (odds ratio (OR) 13.57; confidence interval (95% CI) 2.05-89.8; p=0.007); regarding alcohol use, adolescents who identified themselves as having high weight were 2.4 times more likely to experiment with alcohol than adolescents that identified themselves as having normal weight (95% CI 1.08-5.32, p=0.031). Adolescents with self-perception of excess weight may constitute a risk group for alcohol and tobacco use. Copyright © 2015 Sociedade de Pediatria de São Paulo. Publicado por Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Factors Influencing Smallholder Farmers' Climate Change Perceptions: A Study from Farmers in Ethiopia.

Science.gov (United States)

Habtemariam, Lemlem Teklegiorgis; Gandorfer, Markus; Kassa, Getachew Abate; Heissenhuber, Alois

2016-08-01

Factors influencing climate change perceptions have vital roles in designing strategies to enrich climate change understanding. Despite this, factors that influence smallholder farmers' climate change perceptions have not yet been adequately studied. As many of the smallholder farmers live in regions where climate change is predicted to have the most negative impact, their climate change perception is of particular interest. In this study, based on data collected from Ethiopian smallholder farmers, we assessed farmers' perceptions and anticipations of past and future climate change. Furthermore, the factors influencing farmers' climate change perceptions and the relation between farmers' perceptions and available public climate information were assessed. Our findings revealed that a majority of respondents perceive warming temperatures and decreasing rainfall trends that correspond with the local meteorological record. Farmers' perceptions about the past climate did not always reflect their anticipations about the future. A substantial number of farmers' anticipations of future climate were less consistent with climate model projections. The recursive bivariate probit models employed to explore factors affecting different categories of climate change perceptions illustrate statistical significance for explanatory variables including location, gender, age, education, soil fertility status, climate change information, and access to credit services. The findings contribute to the literature by providing evidence not just on farmers' past climate perceptions but also on future climate anticipations. The identified factors help policy makers to provide targeted extension and advisory services to enrich climate change understanding and support appropriate farm-level climate change adaptations.

Factors Influencing Smallholder Farmers' Climate Change Perceptions: A Study from Farmers in Ethiopia

Science.gov (United States)

Habtemariam, Lemlem Teklegiorgis; Gandorfer, Markus; Kassa, Getachew Abate; Heissenhuber, Alois

2016-08-01

Factors influencing climate change perceptions have vital roles in designing strategies to enrich climate change understanding. Despite this, factors that influence smallholder farmers' climate change perceptions have not yet been adequately studied. As many of the smallholder farmers live in regions where climate change is predicted to have the most negative impact, their climate change perception is of particular interest. In this study, based on data collected from Ethiopian smallholder farmers, we assessed farmers' perceptions and anticipations of past and future climate change. Furthermore, the factors influencing farmers' climate change perceptions and the relation between farmers' perceptions and available public climate information were assessed. Our findings revealed that a majority of respondents perceive warming temperatures and decreasing rainfall trends that correspond with the local meteorological record. Farmers' perceptions about the past climate did not always reflect their anticipations about the future. A substantial number of farmers' anticipations of future climate were less consistent with climate model projections. The recursive bivariate probit models employed to explore factors affecting different categories of climate change perceptions illustrate statistical significance for explanatory variables including location, gender, age, education, soil fertility status, climate change information, and access to credit services. The findings contribute to the literature by providing evidence not just on farmers' past climate perceptions but also on future climate anticipations. The identified factors help policy makers to provide targeted extension and advisory services to enrich climate change understanding and support appropriate farm-level climate change adaptations.

Modeling human perception of orientation in altered gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Torin K.; Newman, Michael C.; Oman, Charles M.; Merfeld, Daniel M.; Young, Laurence R.

2015-01-01

Altered gravity environments, such as those experienced by astronauts, impact spatial orientation perception, and can lead to spatial disorientation and sensorimotor impairment. To more fully understand and quantify the impact of altered gravity on orientation perception, several mathematical models have been proposed. The utricular shear, tangent, and the idiotropic vector models aim to predict static perception of tilt in hyper-gravity. Predictions from these prior models are compared to the available data, but are found to systematically err from the perceptions experimentally observed. Alternatively, we propose a modified utricular shear model for static tilt perception in hyper-gravity. Previous dynamic models of vestibular function and orientation perception are limited to 1 G. Specifically, they fail to predict the characteristic overestimation of roll tilt observed in hyper-gravity environments. To address this, we have proposed a modification to a previous observer-type canal-otolith interaction model based upon the hypothesis that the central nervous system (CNS) treats otolith stimulation in the utricular plane differently than stimulation out of the utricular plane. Here we evaluate our modified utricular shear and modified observer models in four altered gravity motion paradigms: (a) static roll tilt in hyper-gravity, (b) static pitch tilt in hyper-gravity, (c) static roll tilt in hypo-gravity, and (d) static pitch tilt in hypo-gravity. The modified models match available data in each of the conditions considered. Our static modified utricular shear model and dynamic modified observer model may be used to help quantitatively predict astronaut perception of orientation in altered gravity environments. PMID:25999822

Modeling Human Perception of Orientation in Altered Gravity

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Torin K. Clark

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Altered gravity environments, such as those experienced by astronauts, impact spatial orientation perception and can lead to spatial disorientation and sensorimotor impairment. To more fully understand and quantify the impact of altered gravity on orientation perception, several mathematical models have been proposed. The utricular shear, tangent, and the idiotropic vector models aim to predict static perception of tilt in hyper-gravity. Predictions from these prior models are compared to the available data, but are found to systematically err from the perceptions experimentally observed. Alternatively, we propose a modified utricular shear model for static tilt perception in hyper-gravity. Previous dynamic models of vestibular function and orientation perception are limited to 1 G. Specifically, they fail to predict the characteristic overestimation of roll tilt observed in hyper-gravity environments. To address this, we have proposed a modification to a previous observer-type canal otolith interaction model based upon the hypothesis that the central nervous system treats otolith stimulation in the utricular plane differently than stimulation out of the utricular plane. Here we evaluate our modified utricular shear and modified observer models in four altered gravity motion paradigms: a static roll tilt in hyper-gravity, b static pitch tilt in hyper-gravity, c static roll tilt in hypo-gravity, and d static pitch tilt in hypo-gravity. The modified models match available data in each of the conditions considered. Our static modified utricular shear model and dynamic modified observer model may be used to help quantitatively predict astronaut perception of orientation in altered gravity environments.

Perception of Mothers on Adequate Nutrition

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Darshini Valoo

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Background: Malnutrition in children less than 5 years old persists around the world. In West Java and one of the districts of West Java (Sumedang, the prevalence of malnutrition is about 18.5% and 15.8% respectively. Numerous factors can lead to child malnutrition. Difficulties in availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of food can be contributing factors. A good perception of mother on adequate nutrition can improve children’s nutritional status. This study was conducted to study the perception of mothers with children 2 to 5 years old on adequate nutrition. Methods: Most of the respondents had good perception on the aspect of adequate nutrition. Results showed perception on availability was 83.8%, physical accessibility was 97.1%, economical accessibility was 98.6%, information accessibility was 84.8% and acceptability was 81.0%. However, perception of respondents on good quality nutrition for the main meal and additional food was still poor. Moreover, there are taboos for eating shrimp and watermelon. Additionally, children were given snacks in large amount. Results: There was a strong correlation between mid-upper arm muscle area/size and muscular strength (correlation cooefficient 0.746. Moreover, the higher the Body Mass Index, the stronger the muscle strength was to some point. If the BMI was more than 25 kg/m2, this findings did not occurred. Conclusions: This study reveals that the perception of mothers on good quality food is poor regardless the good results on availibility, accesibility and acceptability.

The impact of systemic cortical alterations on perception

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zheng

2011-12-01

Perception is the process of transmitting and interpreting sensory information, and the primary somatosensory (SI) area in the human cortex is the main sensory receptive area for the sensation of touch. The elaborate neuroanatomical connectivity that subserves the neuronal communication between adjacent and near-adjacent regions within sensory cortex has been widely recognized to be essential to normal sensory function. As a result, systemic cortical alterations that impact the cortical regional interaction, as associated with many neurological disorders, are expected to have significant impact on sensory perception. Recently, our research group has developed a novel sensory diagnostic system that employs quantitative sensory testing methods and is able to non-invasively assess central nervous system healthy status. The intent of this study is to utilize quantitative sensory testing methods that were designed to generate discriminable perception to objectively and quantitatively assess the impacts of different conditions on human sensory information processing capacity. The correlation between human perceptions with observations from animal research enables a better understanding of the underlying neurophysiology of human perception. Additional findings on different subject populations provide valuable insight of the underlying mechanisms for the development and maintenance of different neurological diseases. During the course of the study, several protocols were designed and utilized. And this set of sensory-based perceptual metrics was employed to study the effects of different conditions (non-noxious thermal stimulation, chronic pain stage, and normal aging) on sensory perception. It was found that these conditions result in significant deviations of the subjects' tactile information processing capacities from normal values. Although the observed shift of sensory detection sensitivity could be a result of enhanced peripheral activity, the changes in the effects

From Hiroshima to Chernobyl: epidemiological findings, uncertainties and perceptions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burkart, W.; Hendry, J.

2003-01-01

The effects on persons of ionizing radiation can be quantified on three major pathways. At the present time, it is not possible to understand fully the basis of mechanistic principles of the interaction of ionizing radiation with the critical macromolecules, i.e. DNA, cell nuclei, cells, and body tissue, also because of the stochastic methods to be employed, the many factors influencing the situation, and the complex radiobiological mechanisms. Studies of the effects of radiation on animals, among other things, allow teratogenic changes and carcinogenicity to be studied as a function of many variables, such as the radiation dose and dose rates. However, these findings can be extrapolated to the situation in humans only to a limited extent. Even tighter constraints apply to the extrapolation of possible effects of low doses. On the whole, these studies generate important findings. The most important findings about the health effects of ionizing radiation to this day have arisen from statistical correlations of radiation exposures and the incidence of diseases in exposed groups of the population. The article presents the main results of studies conducted in the past and of ongoing studies, and cites remaining uncertainties. These uncertainties especially relate to the effects of low radiation levels. In this field, substantial problems exist, among other things, in the interpretation of data on the basis of varying environmental factors and the resultant absence of uniform conditions for evaluation and extrapolation to the low-dose range. (orig.) [de

Investigating the influence of product perception and geometric features

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Perez Mata, Marta; Ahmed-Kristensen, Saeema; Brockhoff, Per B.

2017-01-01

. Surveys were conducted with 71 participants to gather their perceptions of 11 vase concepts. Advanced statistical analyses, including mixed models, were applied to allow generalisation of the results beyond the data sample. Significant relations between the desire to own a product and how the product......Research in emotional design and Kansei Engineering has shown that aesthetics play a significant role in the appeal of a product. This paper contributes to establishing a methodology to identify the relationships between perceptions, aesthetic features, desire to own and background of consumers...... and was simple and tall). An automated mixed model analysis was conducted and revealed that general rules can be found between aesthetic features, perceptions and ownership, which can apply across gender and culture. The findings include design rules that link aesthetic features with perceptions...

Experimental findings on actinide recovery utilizing oxidation by peroxydisulfate followed by ion exchange: Fuel cycle research & development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hobbs, D. T. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL); Shehee, T. C. [Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)

2015-08-31

Our research seeks to determine if inorganic ion-exchange materials can be exploited to provide effective minor actinide (Am, Cm) separation from lanthanides. Previous work has established that a number of inorganic and UMOF ion-exchange materials exhibit varying affinities for actinides and lanthanides, which may be exploited for effective separations. During FY15, experimental work focused on investigating methods to oxidize americium in dilute nitric and perchloric acid with subsequent ion-exchange performance measurements of ion exchangers with the oxidized americium in dilute nitric acid. Ion-exchange materials tested included a variety of alkali titanates. Americium oxidation testing sought to determine the influence that other redox active components may have on the oxidation of Am^III. Experimental findings indicated that Ce^III, Np^V, and Ru^II are oxidized by peroxydisulfate, but there are no indications that the presence of Ce^III, Np^V, and Ru^II affected the rate or extent of americium oxidation at the concentrations of peroxydisulfate being used.

Adolescent Egocentrism, Risk Perceptions, and Sensation Seeking among Smoking and Nonsmoking Youth

Science.gov (United States)

Frankenberger, Kristina D.

2004-01-01

A survey compared adolescents (ages 14 to 18) who have never tried smoking, smoke infrequently, or smoke regularly on three characteristics: adolescent egocentrism, risk perceptions, and sensation seeking. Sensation seeking exhibited the expected result by increasing with smoking experience. Contrary to past research findings, perceptions of…

Participants in School-Sponsored and Independent Sports: Perceptions of Self and Family.

Science.gov (United States)

Browne, Beverly A.; Francis, Sally K.

1993-01-01

Examined perceptions of social competence and family dynamics among adolescent participants in school-sponsored and independent sports (baseball and skateboarding). Findings from 271 adolescents revealed that perceptions of social competence were differentially related to degree of sports involvement and perceived skill but were not related to…

Conflict and professionalism: perceptions among nurses in Saudi Arabia.

Science.gov (United States)

Zakari, N M; Al Khamis, N I; Hamadi, H Y

2010-09-01

To examine the relationship between nurses' perceptions of conflict and professionalism. In Saudi Arabia, health-care sectors are constantly undergoing major changes because of social, consumer-related, governmental, technological and economic pressures. These changes will influence the nature of health-care organizations, such as hospitals' work environment. The ability of nurses to practise in a professional manner may be influenced by their work environment and conflict level. A cross-sectional design was conducted in this study. A simple random selection of three health-care sectors in Saudi Arabia was performed and 346 nurse managers, as well as bedside nurses participated to provide information about conflict levels and professionalism. The Perceived Conflict Scale was used to assess the level of conflict, and the Valiga Concept of Nursing Scale was used to assess the professionalism perception among nurses. The intragroup/other department type of conflict had a statistically significant correlation with the perception of professionalism. In addition, the findings point to a low perception among the participating nurses regarding their professionalism. A number of factors might explain the low level of perception of professionalism. These relate to the workplace itself, as well as to the personal background of the nurses, which includes the personal interest in the nursing profession, as well as the family's, society's and the consumers' views of the profession. Given the findings of this study, nurse managers are encouraged to create a work environment that supports professionalism and minimizes conflict.

The Distance between Perception and Reality in the Social Domains of Life

OpenAIRE

Lora, Eduardo

2013-01-01

The distance between perception and reality with respect to the social domains of life is often striking. Using survey data collected on Latin American countries, this paper provides an overview of the main empirical findings on the gaps between perception and reality in four social domains--health, employment, the perception of security, and social ranking. The overview emphasizes the psychological biases that may explain the gaps. Biases associated with cultural values are very relevant wit...

Detection of gunshot primer residue on bone in an experimental setting-an unexpected finding.

Science.gov (United States)

Berryman, Hugh E; Kutyla, Alicja K; Russell Davis, J

2010-03-01

Pork ribs with intact muscle tissue were used in an experimental attempt to identify bullet wipe on bone at distances from 1 to 6 feet with 0.45 caliber, full metal jacket ammunition. This resulted in the unexpected finding of primer-derived gunshot residue (GSR) deep within the wound tract. Of significance is the fact that the GSR was deposited on the bone, under the periosteum, after the bullet passed through a Ziploc bag and c. 1 inch of muscle tissue. It is also important to note that the GSR persisted on the bone after the periosteum was forcibly removed. The presence of primer-derived GSR on bone provides the potential to differentiate gunshot trauma from blunt trauma when the bone presents an atypical gunshot wound. In this study, the presence of gunshot primer residue at a distance of 6 feet demonstrates the potential for establishing maximum gun-to-target distance for remote shootings.

Do Dutch 11-12 years olds who never smoke, smoke experimentally or smoke regularly have different demographic backgrounds and perceptions of smoking?

Science.gov (United States)

Ausems, Marlein; Mesters, Ilse; van Breukelen, Gerard; De Vries, Hein

2003-06-01

Most adolescent smokers start smoking before the age of twelve. Little is known about the behavioural smoking determinants of Dutch primary school children. A cross-sectional study was carried out on a sample of students from the final year of 143 Dutch primary schools. A total of 3700 students (mean age = 11.6 years) completed a questionnaire based on the ASE model, measuring the attitude, social influences and self-efficacy expectations concerning smoking. Students were categorized as never smokers (64.3%), experimental smokers (28.0%), and regular smokers (7.8%). Multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that never smokers were younger, and were more often female, religious and from two-parent families than experimental smokers. Never smokers perceived more disadvantages, long-term physical consequences, more negative social norms and less pressure regarding smoking, higher self-efficacy expectations towards non-smoking, and had fewer parents, siblings or best friends who smoked. Looking at differences between experimental and regular smokers showed that experimental smokers received less pocket money. They also perceived more disadvantages, fewer advantages, more negative social norms and less pressure towards smoking, higher self-efficacy expectations towards non-smoking, and were less likely to be surrounded by friends, peers, family or teachers who smoked. Generally, the low scores for physical consequences and risk perception regarding addiction were striking. Smoking prevention aimed at primary schoolchildren should consider the different smoking categories, with their specific motives and influences. For instance, the influences on smoking initiation of parents, siblings and best friends suggest more comprehensive programmes aimed at the entire family. Youngsters' ignorance of addiction needs more attention.

Measurement of acute nonspecific low back pain perception in primary care physical therapy: reliability and validity of the brief illness perception questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Hallegraeff, Joannes M; van der Schans, Cees P; Krijnen, Wim P; de Greef, Mathieu H G

2013-02-01

The eight-item Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire is used as a screening instrument in physical therapy to assess mental defeat in patients with acute low back pain, besides patient perception might determine the course and risk for chronic low back pain. However, the psychometric properties of the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire in common musculoskeletal disorders like acute low back pain have not been adequately studied. Patients' perceptions vary across different populations and affect coping styles. Thus, our aim was to determine the internal consistency, test-retest reliability and validity of the Dutch language version of the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire in acute non-specific low back pain patients in primary care physical therapy. A non-experimental cross-sectional study with two measurements was performed. Eighty-four acute low back pain patients, in multidisciplinary health care center in Dutch primary care with a sample mean (SD) age of 42 (12) years, participated in the study. Internal consistency (Cronbach's α) and test-retest procedures (Intraclass Correlation Coefficients and limits of agreement) were evaluated at a one-week interval. The concurrent validity of the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire was examined by using the Mental Health Component of the Short Form 36 Health Survey. The Cronbach's α for internal consistency was 0.73 (95% CI, 0.67 - 0.83); and the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient test-retest reliability was acceptable: 0.72 (95% CI, 0.53 - 0.82), however, the limits of agreement were large. The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient measuring concurrent validity 0.65 (95% CI, 0.46 - 0.80). The Dutch version of the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire is an appropriate instrument for measuring patients' perceptions in acute low back pain patients, showing acceptable internal consistency and reliability. Concurrent validity is adequate, however, the instrument may be unsuitable for detecting changes in low

Exposure knowledge and risk perception of RF EMF

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frederik eFreudenstein

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The presented study is part of the EU Project LEXNET (Low EMF Exposure Future Networks, which deals among other things with the issue of whether a reduction of the radiofrequency (RF electro-magnetic fields (EMF exposure will result in more acceptance of wireless communication networks in the public sphere.We assume that the effects of any reduction of EMF exposure will depend on the subjective link between exposure perception and risk perception. Therefore we evaluated respondents’ risk perceptions of different RF EMF sources and their subjective knowledge about various exposure characteristics with regard to their impact on potential health risks. The results show that participants are more concerned about base stations than about all other RF EMF sources. Concerning the subjective exposure knowledge the results suggest that people have a quite appropriate impact model. The question how RF EMF risk perception is actually affected by the knowledge about the various exposure characteristics was tested in a linear regression analysis. The regression indicates that these features - except distance - do influence people’s general RF EMF risk perceptions. In addition, we analyzed the effect of the quality of exposure knowledge on RF EMF risk perception of various sources. The results show a tendency that better exposure knowledge leads to higher risk perception, especially for mobile phones. The study provides empirical support for models of the relationships between exposure perception and risk perception. It is not the aim to extrapolate these findings to the whole population because the samples are not exactly representative for the general public in the participating countries.

Audience Perception of Television Animated Cartoons as Tool for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study investigated audience perception of television animated cartoons as tool for political communication. The specific objectives of the study were: to find out the frequency of exposure to television animated cartoons between males and females; to find out the frequency of exposure to television animated cartoons ...

Perception of counsellors' leadership roles for the sustainability of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The findings revealed that there was no difference in the way both public and private schools counsellors perceived their leadership roles. Also no significant difference was found between the male and female counsellors while there was difference in their perception based on their experience. The findings will help ...

The role of human ventral visual cortex in motion perception

Science.gov (United States)

Saygin, Ayse P.; Lorenzi, Lauren J.; Egan, Ryan; Rees, Geraint; Behrmann, Marlene

2013-01-01

Visual motion perception is fundamental to many aspects of visual perception. Visual motion perception has long been associated with the dorsal (parietal) pathway and the involvement of the ventral ‘form’ (temporal) visual pathway has not been considered critical for normal motion perception. Here, we evaluated this view by examining whether circumscribed damage to ventral visual cortex impaired motion perception. The perception of motion in basic, non-form tasks (motion coherence and motion detection) and complex structure-from-motion, for a wide range of motion speeds, all centrally displayed, was assessed in five patients with a circumscribed lesion to either the right or left ventral visual pathway. Patients with a right, but not with a left, ventral visual lesion displayed widespread impairments in central motion perception even for non-form motion, for both slow and for fast speeds, and this held true independent of the integrity of areas MT/V5, V3A or parietal regions. In contrast with the traditional view in which only the dorsal visual stream is critical for motion perception, these novel findings implicate a more distributed circuit in which the integrity of the right ventral visual pathway is also necessary even for the perception of non-form motion. PMID:23983030

Emotion perception accuracy and bias in face-to-face versus cyberbullying.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciucci, Enrica; Baroncelli, Andrea; Nowicki, Stephen

2014-01-01

The authors investigated the association of traditional and cyber forms of bullying and victimization with emotion perception accuracy and emotion perception bias. Four basic emotions were considered (i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, and fear); 526 middle school students (280 females; M age = 12.58 years, SD = 1.16 years) were recruited, and emotionality was controlled. Results indicated no significant findings for girls. Boys with higher levels of traditional bullying did not show any deficit in perception accuracy of emotions, but they were prone to identify happiness and fear in faces when a different emotion was expressed; in addition, male cyberbullying was related to greater accuracy in recognizing fear. In terms of the victims, cyber victims had a global problem in recognizing emotions and a specific problem in processing anger and fear. It was concluded that emotion perception accuracy and bias were associated with bullying and victimization for boys not only in traditional settings but also in the electronic ones. Implications of these findings for possible intervention are discussed.

What makes a rhythm complex? The influence of musical training and accent type on beat perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Bouwer, Fleur L; Burgoyne, J Ashley; Odijk, Daan; Honing, Henkjan; Grahn, Jessica A

2018-01-01

Perception of a regular beat in music is inferred from different types of accents. For example, increases in loudness cause intensity accents, and the grouping of time intervals in a rhythm creates temporal accents. Accents are expected to occur on the beat: when accents are "missing" on the beat, the beat is more difficult to find. However, it is unclear whether accents occurring off the beat alter beat perception similarly to missing accents on the beat. Moreover, no one has examined whether intensity accents influence beat perception more or less strongly than temporal accents, nor how musical expertise affects sensitivity to each type of accent. In two experiments, we obtained ratings of difficulty in finding the beat in rhythms with either temporal or intensity accents, and which varied in the number of accents on the beat as well as the number of accents off the beat. In both experiments, the occurrence of accents on the beat facilitated beat detection more in musical experts than in musical novices. In addition, the number of accents on the beat affected beat finding more in rhythms with temporal accents than in rhythms with intensity accents. The effect of accents off the beat was much weaker than the effect of accents on the beat and appeared to depend on musical expertise, as well as on the number of accents on the beat: when many accents on the beat are missing, beat perception is quite difficult, and adding accents off the beat may not reduce beat perception further. Overall, the different types of accents were processed qualitatively differently, depending on musical expertise. Therefore, these findings indicate the importance of designing ecologically valid stimuli when testing beat perception in musical novices, who may need different types of accent information than musical experts to be able to find a beat. Furthermore, our findings stress the importance of carefully designing rhythms for social and clinical applications of beat perception, as not

The effects of message framing and risk perceptions for HPV vaccine campaigns: focus on the role of regulatory fit.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Sun-Young

2012-01-01

This study investigates the effects of framing and risk perception, and their interaction effects on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Based on a 2 (message frames) × 2 (perceived risk) experimental design, the interaction effects reveal the effectiveness of loss- (vs. gain-) framed messages would be maximized for high (vs. low) perceived risk condition. Based on regulatory fit principles the synergy effects are shown in terms of attitudes toward advertising and HPV vaccination, HPV vaccination intention, and ad-promoted behavioral intention. The findings indicate right message appeals should be selected for the right target audiences in the setting of HPV vaccine promotions.

Motor-sensory confluence in tactile perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Saig, Avraham; Gordon, Goren; Assa, Eldad; Arieli, Amos; Ahissar, Ehud

2012-10-03

Perception involves motor control of sensory organs. However, the dynamics underlying emergence of perception from motor-sensory interactions are not yet known. Two extreme possibilities are as follows: (1) motor and sensory signals interact within an open-loop scheme in which motor signals determine sensory sampling but are not affected by sensory processing and (2) motor and sensory signals are affected by each other within a closed-loop scheme. We studied the scheme of motor-sensory interactions in humans using a novel object localization task that enabled monitoring the relevant overt motor and sensory variables. We found that motor variables were dynamically controlled within each perceptual trial, such that they gradually converged to steady values. Training on this task resulted in improvement in perceptual acuity, which was achieved solely by changes in motor variables, without any change in the acuity of sensory readout. The within-trial dynamics is captured by a hierarchical closed-loop model in which lower loops actively maintain constant sensory coding, and higher loops maintain constant sensory update flow. These findings demonstrate interchangeability of motor and sensory variables in perception, motor convergence during perception, and a consistent hierarchical closed-loop perceptual model.

Essays in the Economics of Corruption: Experimental and empirical evidence

OpenAIRE

Leszczynska, Nastassia

2018-01-01

The advent of experimental methodologies have led to decisive progress in the study of corrupt behaviour in the last two decades. Since they can complement survey data and perception indexes with controlled experimental data, scholars and policy makers have reached a better understanding of decision-making in bribery situations and are able to design innovative anticorruption policies.In this thesis, I use experimental and empirical data to contribute to the field of the economics of corrupti...

Pain perception studies in tension-type headache

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bezov, David; Ashina, Sait; Jensen, Rigmor

2011-01-01

to integrate pain perception and imaging to confirm this finding. Pharmacological studies have shown that drugs like tricyclic anti-depressant amitriptyline and nitric oxide synthase inhibitors can reverse central sensitization and the chronicity of headache. Finally, low frequency electrical stimulation has...

Action preparation modulates sensory perception in unseen personal space: An electrophysiological investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Job, Xavier E; de Fockert, Jan W; van Velzen, José

2016-08-01

Behavioural and electrophysiological evidence has demonstrated that preparation of goal-directed actions modulates sensory perception at the goal location before the action is executed. However, previous studies have focused on sensory perception in areas of peripersonal space. The present study investigated visual and tactile sensory processing at the goal location of upcoming movements towards the body, much of which is not visible, as well as visible peripersonal space. A motor task cued participants to prepare a reaching movement towards goals either in peripersonal space in front of them or personal space on the upper chest. In order to assess modulations of sensory perception during movement preparation, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to task-irrelevant visual and tactile probe stimuli delivered randomly at one of the goal locations of the movements. In line with previous neurophysiological findings, movement preparation modulated visual processing at the goal of a movement in peripersonal space. Movement preparation also modulated somatosensory processing at the movement goal in personal space. The findings demonstrate that tactile perception in personal space is subject to similar top-down sensory modulation by motor preparation as observed for visual stimuli presented in peripersonal space. These findings show for the first time that the principles and mechanisms underlying adaptive modulation of sensory processing in the context of action extend to tactile perception in unseen personal space. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decline in word-finding: The objective cognitive finding most relevant to patients after mesial temporal lobe epilepsy surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Pauli, Carla; de Oliveira Thais, Maria Emilia Rodrigues; Guarnieri, Ricardo; Schwarzbold, Marcelo Liborio; Diaz, Alexandre Paim; Ben, Juliana; Linhares, Marcelo Neves; Markowitsch, Hans Joachim; Wolf, Peter; Wiebe, Samuel; Lin, Katia; Walz, Roger

2017-10-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the following: i) the objective impairment in neuropsychological tests that were associated with the subjective perception of cognitive function decline in Brazilian patients who underwent mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) surgery and ii) the predictive variables for those impaired objective neuropsychological tests. Forty-eight adults with MTLE (27 right HS and 23 male) were divided according to their perception of changes (Decline or No-decline) of cognitive function domain of the QOLIE-31 questionnaire applied before and 1year after the ATL. The mean (SD) of changes in the raw score difference of the neuropsychological tests before and after the ATL was compared between Decline and No-decline groups. Receiver Operating Characteristic curves, sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values were used to assess the optimum cutoff points of neuropsychological test score changes to predict patient-reported subjective cognitive decline. Six (12.5%) patients reported a perception of cognitive function decline after ATL. Among the 25 cognitive tests analyzed, only changes in the Boston Naming Test (BNT) were associated with subjective cognitive decline reported by patients. A reduction of ≥8 points in the raw score of BNT after surgery had 91% of sensitivity and 45% specificity for predicting subjective perception of cognitive function decline by the patient. Left side surgery and age older than 40years were more associated with an important BNT reduction with overall accuracy of 91.7%, 95% predictive ability for no impairment, and 75% for impairment of cognitive function. Impairment in word-finding seems to be the objective cognitive finding most relevant to Brazilian patients after mesial temporal lobe epilepsy surgery. Similar to American patients, the side of surgery and age are good predictors for no decline in the BNT, but shows a lower accuracy to predict its decline. If replicated in other populations, the

Individual Perceptions of Local Crime Risk

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Salm, M.; Vollaard, B.A.

2014-01-01

We provide evidence that perceptions of crime risk are severely biased for many years after a move to a new neighborhood. Based on four successive waves of a large crime survey, matched with administrative records on household relocations, we find that the longer an individual lives in a

Application-Based Crossword Puzzles: Players’ Perception and Vocabulary Retention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dzulfikri Dzulfikri

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the perceptions of students towards Application-Based Crossword Puzzles and how playing this game can affect the development of vocabulary amongst students. Drawing on Vygostky’s Socio-Cultural Theory which states that the human mind is mediated by cultural artifacts, the nature of this game poses challenges and builds curiosity, allowing players to pay more attention to the words to fill in the boxes which subsequently enhances their retention of vocabulary. This game has very good potential to build positive perceptions and to develop cognition in the linguistic domain of players, i.e. the amount of their vocabulary. In this study, the researcher conducted interviews with eligible or selected student players to find out their perceptions toward this game and administered a vocabulary test to find out how this game had added to the retention in memory of new words acquired by the players from the game. The study findings showed that the participants perceive this game positively and it affects the players’ vocabulary retention positively as indicated by their test results. It is recommended that English teachers consider using Application-Based Crossword Puzzles to help students build their vocabularies especially as part of extracurricular activities.

Contact high: Mania proneness and positive perception of emotional touches.

Science.gov (United States)

Piff, Paul K; Purcell, Amanda; Gruber, June; Hertenstein, Matthew J; Keltner, Dacher

2012-01-01

How do extreme degrees of positive emotion-such as those characteristic of mania-influence emotion perception? The present study investigated how mania proneness, assessed using the Hypomanic Personality Scale, influences the perception of emotion via touch. Using a validated dyadic interaction paradigm for communicating emotion through touch (Hertenstein, Keltner, App, Bulleit, & Jaskolka, 2006), participants (N=53) received eight different touches to their forearm from a stranger and then identified the emotion via forced-choice methodology. Mania proneness predicted increased overall accuracy in touch perception, particularly for positive emotion touches, as well as the over-attribution of positive and under-attribution of negative emotions across all touches. These findings highlight the effects of positive emotion extremes on the perception of emotion in social interactions.

Feature confirmation in object perception: Feature integration theory 26 years on from the Treisman Bartlett lecture.

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Humphreys, Glyn W

2016-10-01

The Treisman Bartlett lecture, reported in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology in 1988, provided a major overview of the feature integration theory of attention. This has continued to be a dominant account of human visual attention to this day. The current paper provides a summary of the work reported in the lecture and an update on critical aspects of the theory as applied to visual object perception. The paper highlights the emergence of findings that pose significant challenges to the theory and which suggest that revisions are required that allow for (a) several rather than a single form of feature integration, (b) some forms of feature integration to operate preattentively, (c) stored knowledge about single objects and interactions between objects to modulate perceptual integration, (d) the application of feature-based inhibition to object files where visual features are specified, which generates feature-based spreading suppression and scene segmentation, and (e) a role for attention in feature confirmation rather than feature integration in visual selection. A feature confirmation account of attention in object perception is outlined.

Exposure to advertising and perception, interest, and use of e-cigarettes among adolescents: findings from the US National Youth Tobacco Survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Pu, Jia; Zhang, Xiao

2017-11-01

US adolescents are exposed to high levels of advertisements for electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). This study aimed to examine the associations between exposure to e-cigarette advertisements and perception, interest, and use of e-cigarettes among US middle school and high school students. Data from the 2014 cross-sectional National Youth Tobacco Survey were used. Logistic regressions were conducted to model four outcomes, including perception of reduced harmfulness compared to regular cigarettes, perception of reduced addictiveness, intention to use, and current use of e-cigarettes. Main predictors were exposure to e-cigarette advertisements via four sources, including Internet, newspaper/magazines, retail stores, and TV. When all the four sources of e-cigarette advertisements exposure were evaluated jointly, exposure via the Internet was associated with elevated likelihood of reporting all four outcomes related to e-cigarettes, while exposure via retail stores was associated with higher likelihood of current e-cigarette use and perception of reduced harmfulness of e-cigarettes compared to regular cigarettes ( p newspaper/magazines and TV was associated with lower likelihood of perceiving e-cigarettes to be less harmful or addictive ( p advertisements via the Internet and retail stores may play a significant role in adolescents' use and perception of e-cigarettes. The results call for more research on the influence of different sources of advertising exposure on e-cigarette use to help public health programmes curtail the fast growing use of e-cigarette products among youth.

A systematic review of the technology-based assessment of visual perception and exploration behaviour in association football.

Science.gov (United States)

McGuckian, Thomas B; Cole, Michael H; Pepping, Gert-Jan

2018-04-01

To visually perceive opportunities for action, athletes rely on the movements of their eyes, head and body to explore their surrounding environment. To date, the specific types of technology and their efficacy for assessing the exploration behaviours of association footballers have not been systematically reviewed. This review aimed to synthesise the visual perception and exploration behaviours of footballers according to the task constraints, action requirements of the experimental task, and level of expertise of the athlete, in the context of the technology used to quantify the visual perception and exploration behaviours of footballers. A systematic search for papers that included keywords related to football, technology, and visual perception was conducted. All 38 included articles utilised eye-movement registration technology to quantify visual perception and exploration behaviour. The experimental domain appears to influence the visual perception behaviour of footballers, however no studies investigated exploration behaviours of footballers in open-play situations. Studies rarely utilised representative stimulus presentation or action requirements. To fully understand the visual perception requirements of athletes, it is recommended that future research seek to validate alternate technologies that are capable of investigating the eye, head and body movements associated with the exploration behaviours of footballers during representative open-play situations.

Visual Perception Based Rate Control Algorithm for HEVC

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Zeqi; Liu, PengYu; Jia, Kebin

2018-01-01

For HEVC, rate control is an indispensably important video coding technology to alleviate the contradiction between video quality and the limited encoding resources during video communication. However, the rate control benchmark algorithm of HEVC ignores subjective visual perception. For key focus regions, bit allocation of LCU is not ideal and subjective quality is unsatisfied. In this paper, a visual perception based rate control algorithm for HEVC is proposed. First bit allocation weight of LCU level is optimized based on the visual perception of luminance and motion to ameliorate video subjective quality. Then λ and QP are adjusted in combination with the bit allocation weight to improve rate distortion performance. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm reduces average 0.5% BD-BR and maximum 1.09% BD-BR at no cost in bitrate accuracy compared with HEVC (HM15.0). The proposed algorithm devotes to improving video subjective quality under various video applications.

Longevity increased by positive self-perceptions of aging.

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, Becca R; Slade, Martin D; Kunkel, Suzanne R; Kasl, Stanislav V

2002-08-01

This research found that older individuals with more positive self-perceptions of aging, measured up to 23 years earlier, lived 7.5 years longer than those with less positive self-perceptions of aging. This advantage remained after age, gender, socioeconomic status, loneliness, and functional health were included as covariates. It was also found that this effect is partially mediated by will to live. The sample consisted of 660 individuals aged 50 and older who participated in a community-based survey, the Ohio Longitudinal Study of Aging and Retirement (OLSAR). By matching the OLSAR to mortality data recently obtained from the National Death Index, the authors were able to conduct survival analyses. The findings suggest that the self-perceptions of stigmatized groups can influence longevity.

Impact of knowledge and misconceptions on benefit and risk perception of CCS.

Science.gov (United States)

Wallquist, Lasse; Visschers, Vivianne H M; Siegrist, Michael

2010-09-01

Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) is assumed to be one of the key technologies in the mitigation of climate change. Public acceptance may have a strong impact on the progress of this technology. Benefit perception and risk perception are known to be important determinants of public acceptance of CCS. In this study, the prevalence and effect of cognitive concepts underlying laypeople's risk perception and benefit perception of CCS were examined in a representative survey (N=654) in Switzerland. Results confirm findings from previous qualitative studies and show a quantification of a variety of widespread intuitive concepts that laypeople hold about storage mechanisms as well as about leakage and socioeconomic issues, which all appeared to influence risk perception and benefit perception. The perception of an overpressurized reservoir and concerns about diffuse impacts furthermore amplified risk perception. Appropriate images about storage mechanisms and climate change awareness were increasing the perception of benefits. Knowledge about CO2 seemed to lower both perceived benefits and perceived risks. Implications for risk communication and management are discussed.

Perception of Upright: Multisensory Convergence and the Role of Temporo-Parietal Cortex

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amir Kheradmand

2017-10-01

Full Text Available We inherently maintain a stable perception of the world despite frequent changes in the head, eye, and body positions. Such “orientation constancy” is a prerequisite for coherent spatial perception and sensorimotor planning. As a multimodal sensory reference, perception of upright represents neural processes that subserve orientation constancy through integration of sensory information encoding the eye, head, and body positions. Although perception of upright is distinct from perception of body orientation, they share similar neural substrates within the cerebral cortical networks involved in perception of spatial orientation. These cortical networks, mainly within the temporo-parietal junction, are crucial for multisensory processing and integration that generate sensory reference frames for coherent perception of self-position and extrapersonal space transformations. In this review, we focus on these neural mechanisms and discuss (i neurobehavioral aspects of orientation constancy, (ii sensory models that address the neurophysiology underlying perception of upright, and (iii the current evidence for the role of cerebral cortex in perception of upright and orientation constancy, including findings from the neurological disorders that affect cortical function.

Explaining citizens’ perceptions of international climate-policy relevance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schleich, Joachim; Faure, Corinne

2017-01-01

This paper empirically analyses the antecedents of citizens’ perceptions of the relevance of international climate policy. Its use of representative surveys in the USA, China and Germany controls for different environmental attitudes and socio-economic factors between countries. The findings of the micro-econometric analysis suggest that the perceived relevance of international climate policy is positively affected by its perceived effectiveness, approval of the key topics discussed at international climate conferences, and environmental attitudes, but is not affected by perceived procedural justice. A higher level of perceived trust in international climate policy was positively related to perceived relevance in the USA and in China, but not in Germany. Citizens who felt that they were well informed and that their position was represented at climate summits were more likely to perceive international climate policy as relevant in China in particular. Generally, the results show only weak evidence of socio-demographic effects. - Highlights: • Perceptions of climate-policy relevance increase with perceptions of effectiveness. • In China and the USA, trust increases perceptions of climate-policy relevance. • Environmental attitudes are related to perceptions of climate-policy relevance. • In China, well-informed citizens perceive climate policy as more relevant. • Socio-demographics only weakly affect perceptions of climate-policy relevance.

Theorising and testing environmental pathways to behaviour change: natural experimental study of the perception and use of new infrastructure to promote walking and cycling in local communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Panter, Jenna; Ogilvie, David

2015-09-03

Some studies have assessed the effectiveness of environmental interventions to promote physical activity, but few have examined how such interventions work. We investigated the environmental mechanisms linking an infrastructural intervention with behaviour change. Natural experimental study. Three UK municipalities (Southampton, Cardiff and Kenilworth). Adults living within 5 km of new walking and cycling infrastructure. Construction or improvement of walking and cycling routes. Exposure to the intervention was defined in terms of residential proximity. Questionnaires at baseline and 2-year follow-up assessed perceptions of the supportiveness of the environment, use of the new infrastructure, and walking and cycling behaviours. Analysis proceeded via factor analysis of perceptions of the physical environment (step 1) and regression analysis to identify plausible pathways involving physical and social environmental mediators and refine the intervention theory (step 2) to a final path analysis to test the model (step 3). Participants who lived near and used the new routes reported improvements in their perceptions of provision and safety. However, path analysis (step 3, n=967) showed that the effects of the intervention on changes in time spent walking and cycling were largely (90%) explained by a simple causal pathway involving use of the new routes, and other pathways involving changes in environmental cognitions explained only a small proportion of the effect. Physical improvement of the environment itself was the key to the effectiveness of the intervention, and seeking to change people's perceptions may be of limited value. Studies of how interventions lead to population behaviour change should complement those concerned with estimating their effects in supporting valid causal inference. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Teachers' Perceptions of Students' Challenging Behavior and the Impact of Teacher Demographics

Science.gov (United States)

Alter, Peter; Walker, Ja'Nina; Landers, Eric

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study is to update the research regarding perceptions of specific challenging behaviors that teachers find to be most prevalent and/or problematic. This study analyzes the role of teacher demographics (gender, race, grade level, and years of experience) on their perceptions of specifically defined challenging behaviors. After…

From Perception to Subject: The Bergsonian Reversal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Messay Kebede

2014-09-01

Full Text Available In lieu of an abstract, here is the opening paragraph to the essay:What singles out philosophical analyses of perception is the challenge to common sense, that is, to the spontaneous, instinctive belief that an external world exists and that it is similar to the perception we have of it. Even those theories that refrain from questioning the independent existence of the world concede that the resemblance of whatever is out there to the perceived reality is anything but assured. Henri Bergson proposes a theory of perception that not only restores the common belief in the existence of an external world, but also goes a long way in narrowing the alleged disparity between perception and the objective world. With few exceptions, Bergson’s theory of perception has been either ignored or misunderstood. Through a close reading of the first chapter of Matter and Memory, the paper argues, in addition to correcting misreadings, that the strength and originality of Bergson’s theory lie in the reversal of the method of explaining perception from the premise of a given subject, a premise shared by all idealist and realist theories as well as phenomenology. This de-subjectification proposes an approach deriving perception from the interactions of objects while countering the materialist theory of the brain as an organ of representation. The paper contends that the Bergsonian elucidation of the brain as an organ of simulation both anticipates the findings of the sensorimotor theory and overcomes its limitation by showing how simulation inserts indetermination into materiality, thereby actualizing consciousness.

Flavor perception and the risk of malnutrition in patients with Parkinson’s disease

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roos, Dareia S.; Oranje, Oscar J.M.; Freriksen, Anneleen F.D.; Berendse, Henk W.; Boesveldt, Sanne

2018-01-01

Flavor perception involves both olfactory and gustatory function. In patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), hyposmia is a frequent finding, as well as an increased risk of malnutrition. We performed a pilot study to investigate the relationship between flavor perception and risk of malnutrition in

DYNAMICS OF THE COMPELEX FORMS OF VISUAL PERCEPTION IN CHILDREN OF PRE-SCHOOL AGE (A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS)

OpenAIRE

VASILEVA Neli

2015-01-01

Introduction: Experimental data in preschool aged children proves the determining role of the auditory and visual processes for future reading skills, therefore the investigation of complex forms of visual perception in this age period is diagnostically important. Objectives: Basic aim of the research is assessment of the sensitive period for the non-verbal perceptive operations in pre-school aged children, and determination of subgroup with low results for non-verbal perception. Method...

Sex differences in itch perception and modulation by distraction--an FMRI pilot study in healthy volunteers.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Astrid Stumpf

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Even though itch is a common syndrome of many diseases there is only little knowledge about sex and gender differences in pruritus, especially in central itch perception and modulation. To our knowledge, this is the first fMRI study examining sex differences in perception and its modulation by distraction. METHODS: Experimental itch was induced by application of histamine (0.1 mM via microdialysis fibers twice at the left forearm and twice at the left lower leg in 33 healthy volunteers (17 females, 16 males. The brain activation patterns were assessed by fMRI during itch without and with distraction (Stroop task. Between the various conditions, subjects were asked to rate itch intensity, desire to scratch and pain intensity. In a second experiment in 10 of the 33 volunteers histamine was replaced by saline solution to serve as control for the 'Stroop' condition. RESULTS: Women generally presented higher itch intensities compared to men during itch over the course of the experiment. A more specific analysis revealed higher itch intensities and desire to scratch in women during experimental induced itch that can be reduced by distraction at the lower legs when itch is followed by 'Stroop'. In contrast, men depicted significant reduction of 'itch' by 'Stroop' at the forearms. Women depicted higher brain activation of structures responsible for integration of sensory, affective information and motor integration/planning during 'itch' and 'Stroop' condition when compared to men. No sex differences were seen in the saline control condition. CONCLUSION: Women and men exhibited localisation dependent differences in their itch perception with women presenting higher itch intensities and desire to scratch. Our findings parallel clinical observations of women reporting higher itch intensities depending on itch localisation and suffering more from itch as compared to men.

Understanding Trainees' Perception Concerning the Educational ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Trainees' skills and the teaching process can be improved by consideration of candidates' views. Aim: To find out the trainees' perception and views about the features and teaching methods of the Family Practice Training Program (FPSTP) in Kuwait to upgrade its standard. Methods: The study design is cross ...

Colour vision experimental studies in teaching of optometry

Science.gov (United States)

Ozolinsh, Maris; Ikaunieks, Gatis; Fomins, Sergejs

2005-10-01

Following aspects related to human colour vision are included in experimental lessons for optometry students of University of Latvia. Characteristics of coloured stimuli (emitting and reflective), determination their coordinates in different colour spaces. Objective characteristics of transmitting of colour stimuli through the optical system of eye together with various types of appliances (lenses, prisms, Fresnel prisms). Psychophysical determination of mono- and polychromatic stimuli perception taking into account physiology of eye, retinal colour photoreceptor topography and spectral sensitivity, spatial and temporal characteristics of retinal receptive fields. Ergonomics of visual perception, influence of illumination and glare effects, testing of colour vision deficiencies.

Perceptions of Safety Among LGBTQ People Following the 2016 Pulse Nightclub Shooting.

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Stults, Christopher B; Kupprat, Sandra A; Krause, Kristen D; Kapadia, Farzana; Halkitis, Perry N

2017-09-01

The goals of this manuscript are two-fold. First, we provide a brief reaction to this journal's "Special Section: Reflections on the Orlando Massacre on its First Anniversary." Second, we present findings from a study on perceptions of safety among LGBTQ individuals following the Pulse shooting. These issues are discussed within the historical context of hate crimes experienced by the LGBTQ population (Herek), media coverage following the shooting (Hancock & Halderman), and the immediate reaction of LGBTQ graduate students to the event (Jackson). Our study sought to examine differences in perceptions of personal and peer safety by race/ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation among a large, diverse sample of LGBTQ people. Findings from our study indicate that there were differences in perceptions of personal safety by gender identity, and differences in perceptions of peer safety by gender identity and sexual orientation. These findings also suggest that subgroups of the LGBTQ community with more marginalized gender and sexual identities (e.g., female, transgender, genderqueer, bisexual, queer respondents) perceived more concerns related to safety, on average, than subgroups with relatively more privilege (e.g., gay, male). Elevated safety concern may exacerbate multiple minority stress burden, a known driver of poor health outcomes among LGBTQ people. These findings are a call to action to healthcare providers to be well informed and trained to provide the appropriate care and counseling referrals that can address the safety-related concerns of LGBTQ individuals in the aftermath of identity-related attacks.

Decreased pain perception by unconscious emotional pictures

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Irene Peláez

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Pain perception arises from a complex interaction between a nociceptive stimulus and different emotional and cognitive factors, which appear to be mediated by both automatic and controlled systems. Previous evidence has shown that whereas conscious processing of unpleasant stimuli enhances pain perception, emotional influences on pain under unaware conditions are much less known. The aim of the present study was to investigate the modulation of pain perception by unconscious emotional pictures through an emotional masking paradigm. Two kinds of both somatosensory (painful and non-painful and emotional stimulation (negative and neutral pictures were employed. Fifty pain-free participants were asked to rate the perception of pain they were feeling in response to laser-induced somatosensory stimuli as faster as they can. Data from pain intensity and reaction times were measured. Statistical analyses revealed a significant effect for the interaction between pain and emotional stimulation, but surprisingly this relationship was opposite to expected. In particular, lower pain intensity scores and longer reaction times were found in response to negative images being strengthened this effect for painful stimulation. Present findings suggest a clear pain perception modulation by unconscious emotional contexts. Attentional capture mechanisms triggered by unaware negative stimulation could explain this phenomenon leading to a withdrawal of processing resources from pain.

Dispositional sources of sanction perceptions: Emotionality, cognitive style, intolerance of ambiguity, and self-efficacy.

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Pickett, Justin T; Bushway, Shawn D

2015-12-01

This study contributes to efforts to identify the sources of arrest risk perceptions and ambiguity (or lack of confidence) in such perceptions. Drawing on dual-process theories of reasoning, we argue that arrest risk perceptions often represent intuitive judgments that are influenced by cognitive heuristics and dispositional attributes. Multivariate regression models are estimated with data from 3 national surveys to test 6 hypotheses about the relationships between specific dispositional attributes and perceived arrest risk and ambiguity. We find evidence that dispositional positive affect and intolerance of ambiguity are both positively related to perceived arrest risk, and are also both negatively related to ambiguity. We also find evidence that cognitive reflection and general self-efficacy are, respectively, positively and negatively associated with ambiguity. Mixed evidence emerges about whether cognitive reflection is related to risk perceptions, and about whether either dispositional negative affect or thoughtfully reflective decision making correlate with ambiguity. Taken together, the results provide partial support for each of our hypotheses, and suggest that dispositional attributes are important sources of perceptions of arrest risk as well as of ambiguity in such perceptions. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The hunt for the perfect discounting function and a reckoning of time perception.

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Namboodiri, Vijay Mk; Hussain Shuler, Marshall G

2016-10-01

Making decisions that factor the cost of time is fundamental to survival. Yet, while it is readily appreciated that our perception of time is intimately involved in this process, theories regarding intertemporal decision-making and theories regarding time perception are treated, largely, independently. Even within these respective domains, models providing good fits to data fail to provide insight as to why, from a normative sense, those fits should take their apparent form. Conversely, normative models that proffer a rationalization for why an agent should weigh options in a particular way, or to perceive time in a particular way, fail to account for the full body of well-established experimental evidence. Here we review select, yet key advances in our understanding, identifying conceptual breakthroughs in the fields of intertemporal decision-making and in time perception, as well as their limits and failings in the face of hard-won experimental observation. On this background of accrued knowledge, a new conception unifying the domains of decision-making and time perception is put forward (Training-Integrated Maximization of Reinforcement Rate, TIMERR) to provide a better fit to observations and a more parsimonious reckoning of why we make choices, and thereby perceive time, the way we do. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Designing Effective Natural Hazards Preparedness Communications: Factors that Influence Perceptions and Action

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Wong-Parodi, G.; Fischhoff, B.

2012-12-01

Even though most people believe that natural hazards preparation is important for mitigating damage to their homes and basic survival in the aftermath of a disaster, few actually disaster-proof their homes, create plans, or obtain supplies recommended by agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Several observational studies suggest that socio-demographic characteristics such as income and psychological characteristics such as self-efficacy affect whether or not an individual takes action to prepare for a natural hazard. These studies, however, only suggest that these characteristics may play a role. There has been little research that systematically investigates how these characteristics play a role in people's perceptions of recommended preparatory activities and decisions to perform them. Therefore, in Study 1, we explore people's perceptions of natural hazards preparedness measures on four dimensions: time, cost, helpfulness, and sense of preparedness. We further investigate if these responses vary by the socio-demographic and psychological characteristics of self-efficacy, knowledge, and income level. In Study 2, we experimentally test whether people's sense of self-efficacy, as it relates to natural hazards, can be manipulated through exposure to an "easy-and-effective" versus a "hard-and-effective" set of preparation measures. Our findings have implications for the design of natural hazards communication materials for the general public.

Context-Dependent Neural Modulations in the Perception of Duration.

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Murai, Yuki; Yotsumoto, Yuko

2016-01-01

Recent neuroimaging studies have revealed that distinct brain networks are recruited in the perception of sub- and supra-second timescales, whereas psychophysical studies have suggested that there are common or continuous mechanisms for perceiving these two durations. The present study aimed to elucidate the neural implementation of such continuity by examining the neural correlates of peri-second timing. We measured neural activity during a duration reproduction task using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our results replicate the findings of previous studies in showing that separate neural networks are recruited for sub-versus supra-second time perception: motor systems including the motor cortex and the supplementary motor area for sub-second perception, and the frontal, parietal, and auditory cortical areas for supra-second perception. We further found that the peri-second perception activated both the sub- and supra-second networks, and that the timing system that processed duration perception in previous trials was more involved in subsequent peri-second processing. These results indicate that the sub- and supra-second timing systems overlap at around 1 s, and cooperate to optimally encode duration based on the hysteresis of previous trials.

Perceptions of a mobile technology on learning strategies in the anatomy laboratory.

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Mayfield, Chandler H; Ohara, Peter T; O'Sullivan, Patricia S

2013-01-01

Mobile technologies offer new opportunities to improve dissection learning. This study examined the effect of using an iPad-based multimedia dissection manual during anatomy laboratory instruction on learner's perception of anatomy dissection activities and use of time. Three experimental dissection tables used iPads and three tables served as a control for two identical sessions. Trained, non-medical school anatomy faculty observers recorded use of resources at two-minute intervals for 20 observations per table. Students completed pre- and post-perception questionnaires. We used descriptive and inferential analyses. Twenty-one control and 22 experimental students participated. Compared with controls, experimental students reported significantly (P learning anatomy. Experimental students indicated that the iPad helped them in dissection. We observed experimental students more on task (93% vs. 83% of the time) and less likely to be seeking an instructor (2% vs. 32%). The groups received similar attention from instructors (33% vs. 37%). Fifty-nine percent of the time at least one student was looking at the iPad. Groups clustered around the iPad a third of their time. We conclude that the iPad-manual aided learner engagement, achieved instructional objectives, and enhanced the effectiveness and efficiency of dissection education. Copyright © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.

Negative perceptions of ageing predict the onset and persistence of depression and anxiety: Findings from a prospective analysis of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).

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Freeman, Aislinné Theresa; Santini, Ziggi Ivan; Tyrovolas, Stefanos; Rummel-Kluge, Christine; Haro, Josep Maria; Koyanagi, Ai

2016-07-15

Although there is a growing literature on the adverse health outcomes related with negative ageing perceptions, studies on their association with mental disorders such as depression and anxiety are scarce. Thus, the aim of the current study was to prospectively assess the association between negative ageing perceptions and incident/persistent depression and anxiety using nationally representative data from Ireland. Data from two consecutive waves of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) were analysed. The analytical sample consisted of 6095 adults aged ≥50 years. Validated scales for negative ageing perceptions, depression, and anxiety were used. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to assess the association between negative ageing perceptions at baseline and the onset and persistence of depression and anxiety at two-year follow up. After adjusting for potential confounders, negative ageing perceptions at baseline predicted the new onset of depression and anxiety at follow-up. Among those with depression or anxiety at baseline, negative ageing perceptions also predicted the persistence of these conditions at follow-up. Baseline data on negative ageing perceptions were used for the analysis and it is possible that scores could have changed over time. Addressing negative perceptions towards ageing by developing interventions that activate positive ageing perceptions, and target societal attitudes by means of policy change, public campaigns, and community education programmes, may shift social perceptions and reduce the burden of depression and anxiety among the elderly. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Parents' Gender-Stereotyped Perceptions of Newborns: The Eye of the Beholder Revisited.

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Karraker, Katherine Hildebrandt; And Others

1995-01-01

Assessed parental gender-stereotyped perceptions of their newborn infant within a group of 40, mostly Caucasian, pairs of parents. Findings show stereotyped descriptions (that is, finer features, less strong, more delicate, and so on) were used when comparing newborn girls with boys. These perceptions persisted across a one-week time interval.…

Academic Self-Perceptions of Ability and Course Planning among Academically Advanced Students

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Rudasill, Kathleen Moritz; Callahan, Carolyn M.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of gender to the academic self-perceptions of ability and related coursework plans for high school and college across academically advanced students. Participants were academically advanced students (N = 447) from grades 5 to 12. Findings revealed that (a) girls' self-perceptions of ability…

Perceptions of Family Dependence by the Physically Disabled

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Thomas, Kenneth R.; Britton, Jean O.

1973-01-01

The ralationship between six demographic characteristics and perceptions of family dependence were investigated for 170 physically disabled adults using Osgood's semantic differential technique. Implications of these findings for rehabilitation practice and further research are presented. (Author)

Benefit and Risk Perceptions of Controversial Facilities: A Comparison between Local Officials and the Public in China

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Qingduo Mao

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This article investigates the perception biases of local government officials and the general public by comparing their benefit and risk perceptions towards controversial facilities. The analysis framework of Social Judgement Theory (SJT—i.e., (a economic benefits, (b environmental health, and (c social and political factors—was used to design the research. SJT is a widely recognized theoretical framework that includes experimental approaches to the study of cognitive conflicts. An experimental survey was conducted to collect data in order to make a comparison of the weight of different elements. Results demonstrate that there are perception differences between the general public and local officials on controversial facilities. Local officials responsible for endorsing and supervising plants attach more significance to environmental factors than the public, while the public focuses more on social and political factors than officials. There is no significant difference in the cognition of economic benefits. Factors such as demolition compensation and legitimacy may provoke these perception gaps. This paper enriches the current understanding of SJT and policy making for controversial facilities by investigating the perception gaps between officials and the general public.

Contribution of self-motion perception to acoustic target localization.

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Pettorossi, V E; Brosch, M; Panichi, R; Botti, F; Grassi, S; Troiani, D

2005-05-01

The findings of this study suggest that acoustic spatial perception during head movement is achieved by the vestibular system, which is responsible for the correct dynamic of acoustic target pursuit. The ability to localize sounds in space during whole-body rotation relies on the auditory localization system, which recognizes the position of sound in a head-related frame, and on the sensory systems, namely the vestibular system, which perceive head and body movement. The aim of this study was to analyse the contribution of head motion cues to the spatial representation of acoustic targets in humans. Healthy subjects standing on a rotating platform in the dark were asked to pursue with a laser pointer an acoustic target which was horizontally rotated while the body was kept stationary or maintained stationary while the whole body was rotated. The contribution of head motion to the spatial acoustic representation could be inferred by comparing the gains and phases of the pursuit in the two experimental conditions when the frequency was varied. During acoustic target rotation there was a reduction in the gain and an increase in the phase lag, while during whole-body rotations the gain tended to increase and the phase remained constant. The different contributions of the vestibular and acoustic systems were confirmed by analysing the acoustic pursuit during asymmetric body rotation. In this particular condition, in which self-motion perception gradually diminished, an increasing delay in target pursuit was observed.

The selective role of premotor cortex in speech perception: a contribution to phoneme judgements but not speech comprehension.

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Krieger-Redwood, Katya; Gaskell, M Gareth; Lindsay, Shane; Jefferies, Elizabeth

2013-12-01

Several accounts of speech perception propose that the areas involved in producing language are also involved in perceiving it. In line with this view, neuroimaging studies show activation of premotor cortex (PMC) during phoneme judgment tasks; however, there is debate about whether speech perception necessarily involves motor processes, across all task contexts, or whether the contribution of PMC is restricted to tasks requiring explicit phoneme awareness. Some aspects of speech processing, such as mapping sounds onto meaning, may proceed without the involvement of motor speech areas if PMC specifically contributes to the manipulation and categorical perception of phonemes. We applied TMS to three sites-PMC, posterior superior temporal gyrus, and occipital pole-and for the first time within the TMS literature, directly contrasted two speech perception tasks that required explicit phoneme decisions and mapping of speech sounds onto semantic categories, respectively. TMS to PMC disrupted explicit phonological judgments but not access to meaning for the same speech stimuli. TMS to two further sites confirmed that this pattern was site specific and did not reflect a generic difference in the susceptibility of our experimental tasks to TMS: stimulation of pSTG, a site involved in auditory processing, disrupted performance in both language tasks, whereas stimulation of occipital pole had no effect on performance in either task. These findings demonstrate that, although PMC is important for explicit phonological judgments, crucially, PMC is not necessary for mapping speech onto meanings.

A framework for the first-person internal sensation of visual perception in mammals and a comparable circuitry for olfactory perception in Drosophila.

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Vadakkan, Kunjumon I

2015-01-01

Perception is a first-person internal sensation induced within the nervous system at the time of arrival of sensory stimuli from objects in the environment. Lack of access to the first-person properties has limited viewing perception as an emergent property and it is currently being studied using third-person observed findings from various levels. One feasible approach to understand its mechanism is to build a hypothesis for the specific conditions and required circuit features of the nodal points where the mechanistic operation of perception take place for one type of sensation in one species and to verify it for the presence of comparable circuit properties for perceiving a different sensation in a different species. The present work explains visual perception in mammalian nervous system from a first-person frame of reference and provides explanations for the homogeneity of perception of visual stimuli above flicker fusion frequency, the perception of objects at locations different from their actual position, the smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements, the perception of object borders, and perception of pressure phosphenes. Using results from temporal resolution studies and the known details of visual cortical circuitry, explanations are provided for (a) the perception of rapidly changing visual stimuli, (b) how the perception of objects occurs in the correct orientation even though, according to the third-person view, activity from the visual stimulus reaches the cortices in an inverted manner and (c) the functional significance of well-conserved columnar organization of the visual cortex. A comparable circuitry detected in a different nervous system in a remote species-the olfactory circuitry of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster-provides an opportunity to explore circuit functions using genetic manipulations, which, along with high-resolution microscopic techniques and lipid membrane interaction studies, will be able to verify the structure

A new look at emotion perception: Concepts speed and shape facial emotion recognition.

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Nook, Erik C; Lindquist, Kristen A; Zaki, Jamil

2015-10-01

Decades ago, the "New Look" movement challenged how scientists thought about vision by suggesting that conceptual processes shape visual perceptions. Currently, affective scientists are likewise debating the role of concepts in emotion perception. Here, we utilized a repetition-priming paradigm in conjunction with signal detection and individual difference analyses to examine how providing emotion labels-which correspond to discrete emotion concepts-affects emotion recognition. In Study 1, pairing emotional faces with emotion labels (e.g., "sad") increased individuals' speed and sensitivity in recognizing emotions. Additionally, individuals with alexithymia-who have difficulty labeling their own emotions-struggled to recognize emotions based on visual cues alone, but not when emotion labels were provided. Study 2 replicated these findings and further demonstrated that emotion concepts can shape perceptions of facial expressions. Together, these results suggest that emotion perception involves conceptual processing. We discuss the implications of these findings for affective, social, and clinical psychology. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Attentional selection in visual perception, memory and action: a quest for cross-domain integration.

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Schneider, Werner X; Einhäuser, Wolfgang; Horstmann, Gernot

2013-10-19

For decades, the cognitive and neural sciences have benefitted greatly from a separation of mind and brain into distinct functional domains. The tremendous success of this approach notwithstanding, it is self-evident that such a view is incomplete. Goal-directed behaviour of an organism requires the joint functioning of perception, memory and sensorimotor control. A prime candidate for achieving integration across these functional domains are attentional processes. Consequently, this Theme Issue brings together studies of attentional selection from many fields, both experimental and theoretical, that are united in their quest to find overreaching integrative principles of attention between perception, memory and action. In all domains, attention is understood as combination of competition and priority control ('bias'), with the task as a decisive driving factor to ensure coherent goal-directed behaviour and cognition. Using vision as the predominant model system for attentional selection, many studies of this Theme Issue focus special emphasis on eye movements as a selection process that is both a fundamental action and serves a key function in perception. The Theme Issue spans a wide range of methods, from measuring human behaviour in the real word to recordings of single neurons in the non-human primate brain. We firmly believe that combining such a breadth in approaches is necessary not only for attentional selection, but also to take the next decisive step in all of the cognitive and neural sciences: to understand cognition and behaviour beyond isolated domains.

Attentional selection in visual perception, memory and action: a quest for cross-domain integration

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, Werner X.; Einhäuser, Wolfgang; Horstmann, Gernot

2013-01-01

For decades, the cognitive and neural sciences have benefitted greatly from a separation of mind and brain into distinct functional domains. The tremendous success of this approach notwithstanding, it is self-evident that such a view is incomplete. Goal-directed behaviour of an organism requires the joint functioning of perception, memory and sensorimotor control. A prime candidate for achieving integration across these functional domains are attentional processes. Consequently, this Theme Issue brings together studies of attentional selection from many fields, both experimental and theoretical, that are united in their quest to find overreaching integrative principles of attention between perception, memory and action. In all domains, attention is understood as combination of competition and priority control (‘bias’), with the task as a decisive driving factor to ensure coherent goal-directed behaviour and cognition. Using vision as the predominant model system for attentional selection, many studies of this Theme Issue focus special emphasis on eye movements as a selection process that is both a fundamental action and serves a key function in perception. The Theme Issue spans a wide range of methods, from measuring human behaviour in the real word to recordings of single neurons in the non-human primate brain. We firmly believe that combining such a breadth in approaches is necessary not only for attentional selection, but also to take the next decisive step in all of the cognitive and neural sciences: to understand cognition and behaviour beyond isolated domains. PMID:24018715

Frontoparietal cortex mediates perceptual transitions in bistable perception.

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Weilnhammer, Veith A; Ludwig, Karin; Hesselmann, Guido; Sterzer, Philipp

2013-10-02

During bistable vision, perception oscillates between two mutually exclusive percepts despite constant sensory input. Greater BOLD responses in frontoparietal cortex have been shown to be associated with endogenous perceptual transitions compared with "replay" transitions designed to closely match bistability in both perceptual quality and timing. It has remained controversial, however, whether this enhanced activity reflects causal influences of these regions on processing at the sensory level or, alternatively, an effect of stimulus differences that result in, for example, longer durations of perceptual transitions in bistable perception compared with replay conditions. Using a rotating Lissajous figure in an fMRI experiment on 15 human participants, we controlled for potential confounds of differences in transition duration and confirmed previous findings of greater activity in frontoparietal areas for transitions during bistable perception. In addition, we applied dynamic causal modeling to identify the neural model that best explains the observed BOLD signals in terms of effective connectivity. We found that enhanced activity for perceptual transitions is associated with a modulation of top-down connectivity from frontal to visual cortex, thus arguing for a crucial role of frontoparietal cortex in perceptual transitions during bistable perception.

Educators' Perceptions on Bullying Prevention Strategies

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de Wet, Corene

2017-01-01

I report on an investigation into a group of Free State educators' recognition of bullying, their reactions to incidences of bullying, and their perceptions of the effectiveness of a number of bullying prevention strategies. The research instrument was a synthesis of the Delaware Research Questionnaire and questions based on findings from previous…

Employers' Perceptions of Online Accounting Education

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Tabatabaei, Manouchehr; Solomon, Alison; Strickland, Emily; Metrejean, Eddie

2014-01-01

The main focus of this research is on perceptions of accounting employers of those individuals obtaining their accounting education online. An online survey of accounting professionals was conducted, and the findings suggest that a candidate with a traditional education is more suitable for employment than a candidate with an online education.…

Tonic pain and continuous EEG: prediction of subjective pain perception by alpha-1 power during stimulation and at rest.

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Nir, Rony-Reuven; Sinai, Alon; Moont, Ruth; Harari, Eyal; Yarnitsky, David

2012-03-01

Pain neurophysiology has been chiefly characterized via event-related potentials (ERPs), which are exerted using brief, phase-locked noxious stimuli. Striving for objectively characterizing clinical pain states using more natural, prolonged stimuli, tonic pain has been recently associated with the individual peak frequency of alpha oscillations. This finding encouraged us to explore whether alpha power, reflecting the magnitude of the synchronized activity within this frequency range, will demonstrate a corresponding relationship with subjective perception of tonic pain. Five-minute-long continuous EEG was recorded in 18 healthy volunteers under: (i) resting-state; (ii) innocuous temperature; and (iii) psychophysically-anchored noxious temperature. Numerical pain scores (NPSs) collected during the application of tonic noxious stimuli were tested for correlation with alpha-1 and alpha-2 power. NPSs and alpha power remained stable throughout the recording conditions (Ps⩾0.381). In the noxious condition, alpha-1 power obtained at the bilateral temporal scalp was negatively correlated with NPSs (Ps⩽0.04). Additionally, resting-state alpha-1 power recorded at the bilateral temporal scalp was negatively correlated with NPSs reported during the noxious condition (Ps⩽0.038). Current findings suggest alpha-1 power may serve as a direct, objective and experimentally stable measure of subjective perception of tonic pain. Furthermore, resting-state alpha-1 power might reflect individuals' inherent tonic pain responsiveness. The relevance of alpha-1 power to tonic pain perception may deepen the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the processing of prolonged noxious stimulation. Copyright © 2011 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Factors affecting Latina immigrants' perceptions of maternal health care: findings from a qualitative study.

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Gurman, Tilly A; Becker, Davida

2008-05-01

Due to the influx of Latino immigration in the United States, health care services are faced with the challenge of meeting the needs of this growing population. In this qualitative study, we explored Latina immigrants' experiences with maternal health care services. We found that despite enduring language barriers and problems, Spanish-speaking women expressed satisfaction with their care. Factors influencing women's perceptions of care included sociocultural norms (respeto, personalismo, and familismo), previous experiences with care in their countries of origin, having healthy babies, and knowledge about entitlement to interpreter services. We offer recommendations for public health practice and research.

Temporal characteristics of cold pain perception.

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Frölich, Michael A; Bolding, Mark S; Cutter, Gary R; Ness, Timothy J; Zhang, Kui

2010-08-09

Adaptation to a sustained stimulus is an important phenomenon in psychophysical experiments. When studying the response to an experimental task, the investigator has to account for the change in perceived stimulus intensity with repeated stimulus application and, if the stimulus is sustained, for the change in intensity during the presentation. An example of a sustained stimulus is the cold pressor task (CPT). The task has been used both as an experimental pain task and to study cardiovascular physiology. In functional imaging research, the CPT has been used to evaluate cognitive processing of a noxious stimulus. Investigators typically model the stimulus in a block design as a categorical (on-off) stimulus and do not account for a temporal change in stimulus perception. If the perceived stimulus changes over time, the results may be misleading. Therefore, we characterized the time course of cold pain in human volunteers and developed a model of the temporal characteristics of perceived cold pain. Fifteen healthy participants underwent cold pain testing by immersing their right foot into a container filled with ice water (2 degrees C) for 30s alternating with a 30s immersion into a container filled with tepid water 32 degrees C (control). Participants rated the pain intensity using an electronic slide algometer. Using a mixed general linear model (effectively a polynomial regression model), we determined that pain ratings follow a crescendo-decrescendo pattern that can be described well using a quadratic model. We conclude that the time course of quantitative perception differs fundamentally from the time course of stimulus presentation. This may be important when looking for the physiological correlates of perception as opposed to the presence of a stimulus per se. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cross-cultural differences in visual perception

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Jiří Čeněk

2015-09-01

Full Text Available According to recent cross-cultural studies there exist culturally based differences between visual perception and the related cognitive processes (attention, memory. According to current research, East Asians and Westerners percieve and think about the world in very different ways. Westerners are inclined to attend to some focal object (a salient object within a perception field that is relatively big in size, fast moving, colourful focusing on and analyzing its attributes. East Asians on the other hand are more likely to attend to a broad perceptual field, noticing relationships and changes. In this paper we want to describe the recent findings in the field and propose some directions for future research.

Sensorimotor incongruence and body perception: an experimental investigation

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Jens eFoell

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Objectives: Several studies have shown that mirrored arm or leg movements are related to altered body sensations. This includes the alleviation of chronic pain using congruent mirror feedback and the induction of abnormal sensation in healthy participants using incongruent mirror feedback. Prior research has identified neuronal and conceptual mechanisms of these phenomena. With the rising application of behavior-based methods for pain relief, a structured investigation of these reported effects seems necessary.Methods: We investigated a mirror setup that included congruent and incongruent hand and arm movements in 113 healthy participants and assessed the occurrence and intensity of unusual physical experiences such as pain, the sensation of missing or additional limbs, or changes in weight or temperature. A wooden surface instead of a mirror condition served as control. Results: As reported earlier, mirrored movements led to a variety of subjective reactions in both the congruent an incongruent movement condition, with the sensation of possessing a third limb being significantly more intense and frequent in the incongruent mirror condition. Reports of illusory pain were not more frequent during mirrored than during non-mirrored movements.Conclusions: These results suggest that hand movements with and without a mirror induce abnormal body perceptions but that the experience of an extra limb is most pronounced in the incongruent mirror movement condition. The frequent sensation of having a third arm may be related to brain processes designed to integrate input from several senses in a meaningful manner.

Perceptions of key participants about Botswana adolescents' risks of unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV: Qualitative findings.

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Magowe, Mabel K M; Seloilwe, Esther; Dithole, Kefalotse; St Lawrence, Janet

2017-10-01

The qualitative research findings are reported on the perceptions of key participants in Botswana about adolescent sexuality problems and the feasibility (with suggestions) of an adolescent prevention intervention. Twenty adult key participants who were selected through purposive sampling from schools and youth centers responded to open-ended questions during face-to-face individual in-depth interviews that were conducted between December, 2011 and January, 2012 in Gaborone, Botswana. The data were analyzed by using an inductive content analysis. Five major themes and 12 subthemes emerged from the interviews. The key participants discussed situations that exposed adolescents to HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and pregnancy. They also discussed unsafe sexual practices, the consequences of unprotected sex, poor parent-adolescent communication on sexuality, and the need for a sexuality education program. Policy changes are needed to improve collaboration between adolescents, parents, teachers, and youth officers in order to address adolescent sexuality problems. Further research is needed to explore the ways in which to improve sexuality communication between these groups. The results of the study provide valuable information on the sexuality risks that expose adolescents to HIV, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections and the strategies for the prevention of these risks, thus informing targeted interventions for risk reduction for adolescents. © 2017 Japan Academy of Nursing Science.

Food Perceptions and Dietary Behavior of American-Indian Children, Their Caregivers, and Educators: Formative Assessment Findings from Pathways.

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Gittelsohn, Joel; Toporoff, Elanah Greer; Story, Mary; Evans, Marguerite; Anliker, Jean; Davis, Sally; Sharma, Anjali; White, Jean

2000-01-01

Dietary findings from a school-based obesity prevention project (Pathways) are reported for children from six different American-Indian nations. A formative assessment was undertaken with teachers, caregivers, and children from nine schools to design a culturally appropriate intervention, including classroom curriculum, food service, physical education, and family components. This assessment employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods (including direct observations, paired-child in-depth interviews, focus groups with child caregivers and teachers, and semistructured interviews with caregivers and foodservice personnel) to query local perceptions and beliefs about foods commonly eaten and risk behaviors associated with childhood obesity at home, at school, and in the community. An abundance of high-fat, high-sugar foods was detected in children's diets described by caregivers, school food-service workers, and the children themselves. Although children and caregivers identified fruits and vegetables as healthy food choices, this knowledge does not appear to influence actual food choices. Frequent high-fat/high-sugar food sales in the schools, high-fat entrees in school meals, the use of food rewards in the classroom, rules about finishing all of one's food, and limited family resources are some of the competing factors that need to be addressed in the Pathways intervention.

Teachers' and School Leaders' Perceptions of Commercialisation in Australian Public Schools

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Hogan, Anna; Thompson, Greg; Sellar, Sam; Lingard, Bob

2018-01-01

This paper explores teachers' and school leaders' perceptions of commercialisation in Australian public schools, reporting on findings from an open-ended survey question from an exploratory study that sought to investigate teacher and school leader perceptions and experiences of commercialisation. Commercialisation, for the purposes of this paper,…

Multisensory Perception of Affect

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Beatrice de Gelder

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Multisensory integration must stand out among the fields of research that have witnessed a most impressive explosion of interest this last decade. One of these new areas of multisensory research concerns emotion. Since our first exploration of this phenomenon (de Gelder et al., 1999 a number of studies have appeared and they have used a wide variety of behavioral, neuropsychological and neuroscientifc methods. The goal of this presentation is threefold. First, we review the research on audiovisual perception of emotional signals from the face and the voice followed by a report or more recent studies on integrating emotional information provided by the voice and whole body expressions. We will also include some recent work on multisensory music perception. In the next section we discuss some methodological and theoretical issues. Finally, we will discuss findings about abnormal affective audiovisual integration in schizophrenia and in autism.

Bad-breath: Perceptions and misconceptions of Nigerian adults

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2015-03-02

Mar 2, 2015 ... Key words: Bad‑breath, emerging adults, misconceptions, Nigeria, perceptions. Date of ... negligible minority being attributable to food and ill health. Many cases of ..... Intra‑ and extra‑oral halitosis: finding of a new form of ...

The Perception is a Prism: body, presence and technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Enrico

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Starting from an interdisciplinary perspective of the concepts of body, perception, and technologies in the contemporary scene, this text will attempt to define the general aesthetic notion as bodyscape as an extension of the performer’s perception. Through a survey of some key practices from the contemporary scene such as choreographic compositions by Myriam Gourfink, Isabelle Choinière, and the project of motion signature by Martine Époque and Denis Poulin, the impact of technologies on redefining the process of the performer’s perception in the composition of the movement and the change of the notion of presence will be analysed. In this sense, a series of modifications that influence also the spectator’s perception is presented. Therefore, the notion of empathy is discussed, and an attempt to find out how this applies in the context of a digital image of the body is made.

Gustatory and metabolic perception of nutrient stress in Drosophila.

Science.gov (United States)

Linford, Nancy J; Ro, Jennifer; Chung, Brian Y; Pletcher, Scott D

2015-02-24

Sleep loss is an adaptive response to nutrient deprivation that alters behavior to maximize the chances of feeding before imminent death. Organisms must maintain systems for detecting the quality of the food source to resume healthy levels of sleep when the stress is alleviated. We determined that gustatory perception of sweetness is both necessary and sufficient to suppress starvation-induced sleep loss when animals encounter nutrient-poor food sources. We further find that blocking specific dopaminergic neurons phenocopies the absence of gustatory stimulation, suggesting a specific role for these neurons in transducing taste information to sleep centers in the brain. Finally, we show that gustatory perception is required for survival, specifically in a low nutrient environment. Overall, these results demonstrate an important role for gustatory perception when environmental food availability approaches zero and illustrate the interplay between sensory and metabolic perception of nutrient availability in regulating behavioral state.

Negative Effects of Makeup Use on Perceptions of Leadership Ability Across Two Ethnicities.

Science.gov (United States)

James, Esther A; Jenkins, Shauny; Watkins, Christopher D

2018-01-01

Cosmetics alter social perceptions, and prior work suggests that cosmetic use may aid female intrasexual competition, making women appear more dominant to other women but more prestigious to other men. It is unclear whether these findings reflect general improvements in perceptions of traits related to women's dominance or if they are specific to mating contexts only. Here, across two ethnicities, we examined effects of cosmetics used for a social night out on perceptions of women's leadership ability, a trait that denotes competence/high status outside of mating contexts. Participants of African and Caucasian ethnicity judged faces for leadership ability where half of the trials differed in ethnicity (own- vs. other-ethnicity face pairs) and the subtlety of the color manipulation (50% vs. 100%). Regardless of the participant's sex or ethnicity, makeup used for a social night out had a negative effect on perceptions of women's leadership ability. Our findings suggest that, in prior work, women are afforded traits related to dominance, as makeup enhances perceptions of traits that are important for successful female mating competition but not other components of social dominance such as leadership.

The Relationship between Employee Perceptions of Equity and Job Satisfaction in the Egyptian Private Universities

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Mohamed Hossam El-Din KHALIFA

2010-05-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between employee perception of equity and job satisfaction in the Egyptian private universities. Data were gathered using a face-to-face survey of 80 teaching staff members at three Egyptian universities. Findings revealed positive relationships between perceptions of equity, where a "motivator" was the outcome in the comparison, and job satisfaction. The study also revealed that there was no relationship between perceptions of equity and job satisfaction where a "hygiene factor" was the outcome in the comparison. This study is exploratory and findings are not conclusive. Its implications and limitations are discussed.

Moderating effect of nurses' customer-oriented perception between organizational citizenship behaviors and satisfaction.

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Chang, Ching Sheng; Chang, Hae Ching

2010-08-01

This study investigates whether organizational citizenship behaviors enhance job satisfaction among nursing personnel, while exploring whether customer-oriented perception has a moderating effect between nursing personnel's organizational citizenship behaviors and job satisfaction.The authors used a cross-sectional survey sent to 500 nurses with 232 valid responses. According to the research findings, nurses' organizational citizenship behaviors have a positive and significant influence on job satisfaction. Results also indicated that the moderating effect of nurses' customer-oriented perception on the relationship between their organizational citizenship behaviors and job satisfaction was stronger for high customer-oriented perception than it was low customer-oriented perception.

Relationships between Categorical Perception of Phonemes, Phoneme Awareness, and Visual Attention Span in Developmental Dyslexia.

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Rachel Zoubrinetzky

Full Text Available We tested the hypothesis that the categorical perception deficit of speech sounds in developmental dyslexia is related to phoneme awareness skills, whereas a visual attention (VA span deficit constitutes an independent deficit. Phoneme awareness tasks, VA span tasks and categorical perception tasks of phoneme identification and discrimination using a d/t voicing continuum were administered to 63 dyslexic children and 63 control children matched on chronological age. Results showed significant differences in categorical perception between the dyslexic and control children. Significant correlations were found between categorical perception skills, phoneme awareness and reading. Although VA span correlated with reading, no significant correlations were found between either categorical perception or phoneme awareness and VA span. Mediation analyses performed on the whole dyslexic sample suggested that the effect of categorical perception on reading might be mediated by phoneme awareness. This relationship was independent of the participants' VA span abilities. Two groups of dyslexic children with a single phoneme awareness or a single VA span deficit were then identified. The phonologically impaired group showed lower categorical perception skills than the control group but categorical perception was similar in the VA span impaired dyslexic and control children. The overall findings suggest that the link between categorical perception, phoneme awareness and reading is independent from VA span skills. These findings provide new insights on the heterogeneity of developmental dyslexia. They suggest that phonological processes and VA span independently affect reading acquisition.

Relationships between Categorical Perception of Phonemes, Phoneme Awareness, and Visual Attention Span in Developmental Dyslexia.

Science.gov (United States)

Zoubrinetzky, Rachel; Collet, Gregory; Serniclaes, Willy; Nguyen-Morel, Marie-Ange; Valdois, Sylviane

2016-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that the categorical perception deficit of speech sounds in developmental dyslexia is related to phoneme awareness skills, whereas a visual attention (VA) span deficit constitutes an independent deficit. Phoneme awareness tasks, VA span tasks and categorical perception tasks of phoneme identification and discrimination using a d/t voicing continuum were administered to 63 dyslexic children and 63 control children matched on chronological age. Results showed significant differences in categorical perception between the dyslexic and control children. Significant correlations were found between categorical perception skills, phoneme awareness and reading. Although VA span correlated with reading, no significant correlations were found between either categorical perception or phoneme awareness and VA span. Mediation analyses performed on the whole dyslexic sample suggested that the effect of categorical perception on reading might be mediated by phoneme awareness. This relationship was independent of the participants' VA span abilities. Two groups of dyslexic children with a single phoneme awareness or a single VA span deficit were then identified. The phonologically impaired group showed lower categorical perception skills than the control group but categorical perception was similar in the VA span impaired dyslexic and control children. The overall findings suggest that the link between categorical perception, phoneme awareness and reading is independent from VA span skills. These findings provide new insights on the heterogeneity of developmental dyslexia. They suggest that phonological processes and VA span independently affect reading acquisition.

Relationships between Categorical Perception of Phonemes, Phoneme Awareness, and Visual Attention Span in Developmental Dyslexia

Science.gov (United States)

Zoubrinetzky, Rachel; Collet, Gregory; Serniclaes, Willy; Nguyen-Morel, Marie-Ange; Valdois, Sylviane

2016-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that the categorical perception deficit of speech sounds in developmental dyslexia is related to phoneme awareness skills, whereas a visual attention (VA) span deficit constitutes an independent deficit. Phoneme awareness tasks, VA span tasks and categorical perception tasks of phoneme identification and discrimination using a d/t voicing continuum were administered to 63 dyslexic children and 63 control children matched on chronological age. Results showed significant differences in categorical perception between the dyslexic and control children. Significant correlations were found between categorical perception skills, phoneme awareness and reading. Although VA span correlated with reading, no significant correlations were found between either categorical perception or phoneme awareness and VA span. Mediation analyses performed on the whole dyslexic sample suggested that the effect of categorical perception on reading might be mediated by phoneme awareness. This relationship was independent of the participants’ VA span abilities. Two groups of dyslexic children with a single phoneme awareness or a single VA span deficit were then identified. The phonologically impaired group showed lower categorical perception skills than the control group but categorical perception was similar in the VA span impaired dyslexic and control children. The overall findings suggest that the link between categorical perception, phoneme awareness and reading is independent from VA span skills. These findings provide new insights on the heterogeneity of developmental dyslexia. They suggest that phonological processes and VA span independently affect reading acquisition. PMID:26950210

Student Perceptions of Textbook Layout and Learnability in Private Schools

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Alefiyah Hoshangabadwala

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This research is an exploratory study that investigates students’ perceptions pertinent to textbook layout and organization and their evaluation of the textbook ease of learning. The objective is to find out whether the layout dynamics of school textbooks make any difference in students’ interest in studying or subject understanding. 73 students from various private schools of Pakistan’s cosmopolitan city Karachi responded to a quantitative survey that gauged their perceptions regarding textbook components such as paper, print, color, and textbook pedagogical features. Findings indicate that students rank print and color above paper quality, and that there is no particular relationship between a book layout and the actual use of textbooks.

Perceived Cross-Orientation Infidelity: Heterosexual Perceptions of Same-Sex Cheating in Exclusive Relationships.

Science.gov (United States)

Compton, Benjamin L; Bowman, Jonathan M

2017-01-01

For individuals in exclusive romantic relationships, the dynamics of sexual experimentation are nuanced. Extradyadic behavior outside of a relationship may be perceived as cheating or infidelity, with much of those perceptions driven by the biological sex of the perceiver. This study significantly reframes seminal research on perceptions of cheating with third-party friends by Kruger et al. (2013), to further nuance an evolutionary threat-based model. In doing so, this furthers our understanding of the associated perceptions of individuals in heterosexual relationships when confronted by partners' cheating with their same-sex cross-orientation friends. Results indicate that perceptions of same-sex infidelity vary widely depending on the nature of the behaviors, with decreasing attribution given to sexual and erotic behaviors, close relational behaviors, and casual social interaction behaviors, respectively. Implications are discussed for a variety of sexual communities, as well as the impact of gender and relational status on perceptions of infidelity.

Euthanasia: the perceptions of nurses in India.

Science.gov (United States)

Poreddi, Vijayalakshmi; Nagarajaiah; Konduru, Reddemma; Math, Suresh Bada

2013-04-01

Euthanasia provokes controversies in various domains, such as the moral, ethical, legal, religious, scientific, and economic. India legalised passive euthanasia (withdrawal of life support) for patients with brain death or who are in a permanent vegetative state in 2011, but research on perceptions of euthanasia among people in India is limited. This study aimed to examine nurses' perceptions of the practice of euthanasia as well as factors influencing those perceptions. A non-probability quantitative, cross-sectional design was adopted for a sample of 214 nurses working at a tertiary care centre. Data was collected through self-reported questionnaires at the nurses workplace.The findings revealed mixed opinions on euthanasia among the nurses. However, the majority of the participants did not agree with the practice of euthanasia. Nonetheless, further research is needed on this issue across the country among various health professionals in the context of current legislation.

Affect, risk perception and future optimism after the tsunami disaster

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Vastfjall

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Environmental events such as natural disasters may influence the public's affective reactions and decisions. Shortly after the 2004 Tsunami disaster we assessed how affect elicited by thinking about this disaster influenced risk perceptions and future time perspective in Swedish undergraduates not directly affected by the disaster. An experimental manipulation was used to increase the salience of affect associated with the disaster. In Study 1 we found that participants reminded about the tsunami had a sense that their life was more finite and included fewer opportunities than participants in the control condition (not reminded about the tsunami. In Study 2 we found similar effects for risk perceptions. In addition, we showed that manipulations of ease-of-thought influenced the extent to which affect influenced these risk perceptions, with greater ease of thoughts being associated with greater perceived risks.

Perceptions regarding strategic and structural entry barriers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lutz, C.H.M.; Kemp, R.G.M.; Dijkstra, S.G.

2010-01-01

This article uses factor analysis to identify the underlying dimensions of strategic and structural entry barriers. We find that, in the perception of firms, both types of barriers are important and that the effectiveness of strategic barriers depends on attributes of the market structure. Based on

Perceptions regarding strategic and structural entry barriers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lutz, Clemens H. M.; Kemp, Ron G. M.; Dijkstra, S. Gerhard

This article uses factor analysis to identify the underlying dimensions of strategic and structural entry barriers. We find that, in the perception of firms, both types of barriers are important and that the effectiveness of strategic barriers depends on attributes of the market structure. Based on

Pakistani Students' Perceptions about Use of the Internet in Their Academic Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Ali, Zarqa S.

2014-01-01

The aim of the study is to explore Pakistani university students' use of the Internet in their studies and their perceptions of online academic life. Findings show that Internet use for academic purposes has both positive and negative aspects. There is a gender difference in Pakistani students' perceptions about the use of the Internet in their…

An fMRI study of the neural correlates of graded visual perception

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Mark Schram; Ramsoy, T.Z.; Lund, T.E.

2006-01-01

of activation. Different degrees of perceptual clarity were reflected both in the degree to which activation was found within parts of the network serving a clear conscious percept, and additional unique activation patterns for different degrees of perceptual clarity. Our findings support theories proposing...... the involvement of a widespread network of brain areas during conscious perception....

Cross-sectional validation of the Aging Perceptions Questionnaire: a multidimensional instrument for assessing self-perceptions of aging.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Barker, Maja

2007-01-01

the relationship between indices of physical functioning and physical and psychological health outcomes. CONCLUSION: Findings support the complex and multifaceted nature of the aging experience. The good internal reliability and construct validity of the subscales suggests that the APQ is a promising instrument that can enable a theoretically informed, multidimensional assessment of self-perceptions of aging. The potential role of self-perceptions of aging in facilitating physical and psychological health in later life is also highlighted.

Job stress, coping and health perceptions of Hong Kong primary care nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Joseph K L

2003-04-01

Few empirical studies have investigated job stress, coping and health perceptions of nurses working in primary care settings. One thousand self-report questionnaires, which consisted of the modified Nursing Stress Scale, Coping with Work Stress Checklist and Health Perceptions Questionnaire, were distributed randomly to a group of Hong Kong nurses working in primary care settings, to examine issues related to job stress. Three hundred and sixty-two nurses responded. Findings indicated that nurses in these settings experienced low-to-moderate frequency of stress, adopted direct coping strategies, and perceived themselves as rather healthy. There were also statistically significant links between job stress, coping and perceived health status. The findings of this study suggest that job stress, coping and health perception of nurses working in primary care settings were distinct from their colleagues working in acute care settings.

Neural reuse of action perception circuits for language, concepts and communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2018-01-01

Neurocognitive and neurolinguistics theories make explicit statements relating specialized cognitive and linguistic processes to specific brain loci. These linking hypotheses are in need of neurobiological justification and explanation. Recent mathematical models of human language mechanisms constrained by fundamental neuroscience principles and established knowledge about comparative neuroanatomy offer explanations for where, when and how language is processed in the human brain. In these models, network structure and connectivity along with action- and perception-induced correlation of neuronal activity co-determine neurocognitive mechanisms. Language learning leads to the formation of action perception circuits (APCs) with specific distributions across cortical areas. Cognitive and linguistic processes such as speech production, comprehension, verbal working memory and prediction are modelled by activity dynamics in these APCs, and combinatorial and communicative-interactive knowledge is organized in the dynamics within, and connections between APCs. The network models and, in particular, the concept of distributionally-specific circuits, can account for some previously not well understood facts about the cortical 'hubs' for semantic processing and the motor system's role in language understanding and speech sound recognition. A review of experimental data evaluates predictions of the APC model and alternative theories, also providing detailed discussion of some seemingly contradictory findings. Throughout, recent disputes about the role of mirror neurons and grounded cognition in language and communication are assessed critically. Copyright © 2017 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

MRI findings of experimentally induced hepatic infarction: Correlation between changes of MRI findings of liver parenchyma and capsule with time lapse and histopathology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Chang Guhn; Kim, Gang Deuk; Min, Kyung Yoon; Choi, See Sung; Juhng, Seon Kwan; Noh, Byung Suk; Won, Jong Jin

1994-01-01

We experimentally induced hepatic infarction in rabbit to evaluate MR findings of liver parenchyma and capsule and its changes with time and to confirm the capsular structure correlating with its histologic findings. After ligation of hepatic artery, vein and duct of right inferior posterior lobe of liver, T1, T2 weighted and enhanced T1 weighted images were obtained at several time intervals. Histologic samples were taken of two rabbits or more at each time intervals. During the first several days, the signal intensity of the ischemic necrosis showed strong high signal intensity relative to normal liver on both T1 and T2 weighted images. After 2 weeks , however, the necrotic areas gradually changed to isointensity or low signal intensity. Capsule structure was observed as slightly high signal intensity compare to ischemic areas on both enhanced T1 and T2 weighted images in six cases, and five cases of 12, retrospectively. From the first day, homogeneous coagulation necrosis without hemorrhage or liquefaction was observed. Fibrous thickening with rich vascularity was observed along the surface of the necrosis area after two weeks. During the first several days, the signal intensity of the ischemic necrosis showed strong high signal intensity on both T1 and T2 weighted images and gradually changed to isointensity or low signal intensity. Liver capsule was shown and slightly high signal intensity along the surface of the necrosis area and could be explained by fibrous thickening of the liver capsule and rich vascularity within in it

Residents' perceptions of tourism impacts and attitudes towards tourism policies.

OpenAIRE

Brida, J.G.; Disegna, Marta; Osti, L.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore residents' perceptions of tourism impacts and how they affect attitudes towards local tourism policies. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of community attachment and employment sector of residents. This study presents the results of a quantitative survey among residing families of a small mountain community located in the North-East of Italy. The findings reveal that residents perceptions on economic, environmental and socio-cultural impacts ...

Climate change and coastal environmental risk perceptions in Florida.

Science.gov (United States)

Carlton, Stuart J; Jacobson, Susan K

2013-11-30

Understanding public perceptions of climate change risks is a prerequisite for effective climate communication and adaptation. Many studies of climate risk perceptions have either analyzed a general operationalization of climate change risk or employed a case-study approach of specific adaptive processes. This study takes a different approach, examining attitudes toward 17 specific, climate-related coastal risks and cognitive, affective, and risk-specific predictors of risk perception. A survey of 558 undergraduates revealed that risks to the physical environment were a greater concern than economic or biological risks. Perceptions of greater physical environment risks were significantly associated with having more pro-environmental attitudes, being female, and being more Democratic-leaning. Perceptions of greater economic risks were significantly associated with having more negative environmental attitudes, being female, and being more Republican-leaning. Perceptions of greater biological risks were significantly associated with more positive environmental attitudes. The findings suggest that focusing on physical environment risks maybe more salient to this audience than communications about general climate change adaptation. The results demonstrate that climate change beliefs and risk perceptions are multifactorial and complex and are shaped by individuals' attitudes and basic beliefs. Climate risk communications need to apply this knowledge to better target cognitive and affective processes of specific audiences, rather than providing simple characterizations of risks. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The "False Consensus Effect": An Egocentric Bias in Social Perception and Attribution Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Ross, Lee; And Others

1977-01-01

Evidence from four studies demonstrates that social observers tend to perceive a "false consensus" with respect to the relative commonness of their own responses. Implications of these findings for our understanding of social perception phenomena and for the analysis of the divergent perceptions of actors and observers are discussed. (Editor/RK)

THE RISK PERCEPTION OF TRANSPORT–GENERATED AIR POLLUTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birgitta GATERSLEBEN

2000-01-01

Full Text Available This paper describes a study that is part of a multidisciplinary project examining the relationship between transport, air pollution and health in Guildford, a medium sized town in the UK. Real-time air quality monitoring revealed low levels of air pollution through vehicle emissions. However, the residents of the town claim that there is an air pollution problem, perceptions reinforced by visual and sensory feedback, i.e., people see dust, feel irritations to their eyes, noses and throats and smell exhaust fumes. It is shown that the higher people believe air pollution levels to be the more responsible they feel and the less trust they have in local authorities and technological developments. Beliefs about the health consequences of air pollution are not related to responsibility and trust. The findings support other studies on risk perception that have shown that people find a risk less acceptable when they have a lower trust in risk managers. It is concluded that these findings are of importance for the environmental education of the public generally and risk communication by local authorities in particular.

Mutual information, perceptual independence, and holistic face perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Fitousi, Daniel

2013-07-01

The concept of perceptual independence is ubiquitous in psychology. It addresses the question of whether two (or more) dimensions are perceived independently. Several authors have proposed perceptual independence (or its lack thereof) as a viable measure of holistic face perception (Loftus, Oberg, & Dillon, Psychological Review 111:835-863, 2004; Wenger & Ingvalson, Learning, Memory, and Cognition 28:872-892, 2002). According to this notion, the processing of facial features occurs in an interactive manner. Here, I examine this idea from the perspective of two theories of perceptual independence: the multivariate uncertainty analysis (MUA; Garner & Morton, Definitions, models, and experimental paradigms. Psychological Bulletin 72:233-259, 1969), and the general recognition theory (GRT; Ashby & Townsend, Psychological Review 93:154-179, 1986). The goals of the study were to (1) introduce the MUA, (2) examine various possible relations between MUA and GRT using numerical simulations, and (3) apply the MUA to two consensual markers of holistic face perception(-)recognition of facial features (Farah, Wilson, Drain, & Tanaka, Psychological Review 105:482-498, 1998) and the composite face effect (Young, Hellawell, & Hay, Perception 16:747-759, 1987). The results suggest that facial holism is generated by violations of several types of perceptual independence. They highlight the important theoretical role played by converging operations in the study of holistic face perception.

Perceptions of Credibility of Male and Female Syndicated Political Columnists.

Science.gov (United States)

Andsager, Julie L.

1990-01-01

Examines perceptions of the credibility of male and female syndicated political columnists. Finds that college students exhibited little prejudice against female versus male bylines in political interpretive columns. Finds a small tendency for male readers to evaluate male bylines higher in stereotypical ways, but female readers do not do this.…

Embodied perception: A proposal to reconcile affordance and spatial perception

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Canal Bruland, R.; van der Kamp, J.

2015-01-01

Proffitt's embodied approach to perception is deeply indebted to Gibson's ecological approach to visual perception, in particular the idea that the primary objects of perception are affordances or what the environment offers for action. Yet, rather than directly addressing affordance perception,

Global environmental change: local perceptions, understandings, and explanations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aili Pyhälä

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Global environmental change (GEC is an increasingly discussed phenomenon in the scientific literature as evidence of its presence and impacts continues to grow. Yet, while the documentation of GEC is becoming more readily available, local perceptions of GEC - particularly in small-scale societies - and preferences about how to deal with it, are still largely overlooked. Local knowledge and perceptions of GEC are important in that agents make decisions (including on natural resource management based on individual perceptions. We carried out a systematic literature review that aims to provide an exhaustive state-of-the-art of the degree to and manner in which the study of local perceptions of change are being addressed in GEC research. We reviewed 126 articles found in peer-reviewed journals (between 1998 and 2014 that address local perceptions of GEC. We used three particular lenses of analysis that are known to influence local perceptions, namely (i cognition, (ii culture and knowledge, and (iii possibilities for adaptation.We present our findings on the geographical distribution of the current research, the most common changes reported, perceived drivers and impacts of change, and local explanations and evaluations of change and impacts. Overall, we found the studies to be geographically biased, lacking methodological reporting, mostly theory based with little primary data, and lacking of indepth analysis of the psychological and ontological influences in perception and implications for adaptation. We provide recommendations for future GEC research and propose the development of a "meta-language" around adaptation, perception, and mediation to encourage a greater appreciation and understanding of the diversity around these phenomena across multiple scales, and improved codesign and facilitation of locally relevant adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Introducing the Geneva Multimodal expression corpus for experimental research on emotion perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Bänziger, Tanja; Mortillaro, Marcello; Scherer, Klaus R

2012-10-01

Research on the perception of emotional expressions in faces and voices is exploding in psychology, the neurosciences, and affective computing. This article provides an overview of some of the major emotion expression (EE) corpora currently available for empirical research and introduces a new, dynamic, multimodal corpus of emotion expressions, the Geneva Multimodal Emotion Portrayals Core Set (GEMEP-CS). The design features of the corpus are outlined and justified, and detailed validation data for the core set selection are presented and discussed. Finally, an associated database with microcoded facial, vocal, and body action elements, as well as observer ratings, is introduced.

Perception of earthquake risk in Taiwan: effects of gender and past earthquake experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Kung, Yi-Wen; Chen, Sue-Huei

2012-09-01

This study explored how individuals in Taiwan perceive the risk of earthquake and the relationship of past earthquake experience and gender to risk perception. Participants (n= 1,405), including earthquake survivors and those in the general population without prior direct earthquake exposure, were selected and interviewed through a computer-assisted telephone interviewing procedure using a random sampling and stratification method covering all 24 regions of Taiwan. A factor analysis of the interview data yielded a two-factor structure of risk perception in regard to earthquake. The first factor, "personal impact," encompassed perception of threat and fear related to earthquakes. The second factor, "controllability," encompassed a sense of efficacy of self-protection in regard to earthquakes. The findings indicated prior earthquake survivors and females reported higher scores on the personal impact factor than males and those with no prior direct earthquake experience, although there were no group differences on the controllability factor. The findings support that risk perception has multiple components, and suggest that past experience (survivor status) and gender (female) affect the perception of risk. Exploration of potential contributions of other demographic factors such as age, education, and marital status to personal impact, especially for females and survivors, is discussed. Future research on and intervention program with regard to risk perception are suggested accordingly. © 2012 Society for Risk Analysis.

Dark Triad, Perceptions of Organizational Politics and Counterproductive Work Behaviors: The Moderating Effect of Political Skills

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad A. Baloch

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The aim of this work focuses on the relationship among the Dark Triad (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, perceptions of organizational politics, political skills, and counterproductive work behavior. This study empirically tests the mediating role of perceptions of organizational politics in the relationship between the Dark Triad and counterproductive work behavior. Furthermore, the study investigates the moderating role of political skills in strengthening the link between the Dark Triad and the perceptions of organizational politics. A sample of 149 participants was randomly selected. To analyze the data of the present work, we employed a structural equation model using partial least square and PROCESS. From empirical findings, we imply an inference that perception of organizational politics partially mediates the Dark Triad's influence on the counterproductive work behavior. Moreover, the results identify the moderating role of political skills in strengthening the link between the Dark Triad and the perceptions of organizational politics. Empirical findings suggest important policy implications for the hospitality industry.

Dark Triad, Perceptions of Organizational Politics and Counterproductive Work Behaviors: The Moderating Effect of Political Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Baloch, Muhammad A.; Meng, Fanchen; Xu, Zefeng; Cepeda-Carrion, Ignacio; Danish; Bari, Muhammad W.

2017-01-01

The aim of this work focuses on the relationship among the Dark Triad (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism), perceptions of organizational politics, political skills, and counterproductive work behavior. This study empirically tests the mediating role of perceptions of organizational politics in the relationship between the Dark Triad and counterproductive work behavior. Furthermore, the study investigates the moderating role of political skills in strengthening the link between the Dark Triad and the perceptions of organizational politics. A sample of 149 participants was randomly selected. To analyze the data of the present work, we employed a structural equation model using partial least square and PROCESS. From empirical findings, we imply an inference that perception of organizational politics partially mediates the Dark Triad's influence on the counterproductive work behavior. Moreover, the results identify the moderating role of political skills in strengthening the link between the Dark Triad and the perceptions of organizational politics. Empirical findings suggest important policy implications for the hospitality industry. PMID:29167654

Dark Triad, Perceptions of Organizational Politics and Counterproductive Work Behaviors: The Moderating Effect of Political Skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Baloch, Muhammad A; Meng, Fanchen; Xu, Zefeng; Cepeda-Carrion, Ignacio; Danish; Bari, Muhammad W

2017-01-01

The aim of this work focuses on the relationship among the Dark Triad (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism), perceptions of organizational politics, political skills, and counterproductive work behavior. This study empirically tests the mediating role of perceptions of organizational politics in the relationship between the Dark Triad and counterproductive work behavior. Furthermore, the study investigates the moderating role of political skills in strengthening the link between the Dark Triad and the perceptions of organizational politics. A sample of 149 participants was randomly selected. To analyze the data of the present work, we employed a structural equation model using partial least square and PROCESS. From empirical findings, we imply an inference that perception of organizational politics partially mediates the Dark Triad's influence on the counterproductive work behavior. Moreover, the results identify the moderating role of political skills in strengthening the link between the Dark Triad and the perceptions of organizational politics. Empirical findings suggest important policy implications for the hospitality industry.

Consequences of a human TRPA1 genetic variant on the perception of nociceptive and olfactory stimuli.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Schütz

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: TRPA1 ion channels are involved in nociception and are also excited by pungent odorous substances. Based on reported associations of TRPA1 genetics with increased sensitivity to thermal pain stimuli, we therefore hypothesized that this association also exists for increased olfactory sensitivity. METHODS: Olfactory function and nociception was compared between carriers (n = 38 and non-carriers (n = 43 of TRPA1 variant rs11988795 G>A, a variant known to enhance cold pain perception. Olfactory function was quantified by assessing the odor threshold, odor discrimination and odor identification, and by applying 200-ms pulses of H2S intranasal. Nociception was assessed by measuring pain thresholds to experimental nociceptive stimuli (blunt pressure, electrical stimuli, cold and heat stimuli, and 200-ms intranasal pulses of CO2. RESULTS: Among the 11 subjects with moderate hyposmia, carriers of the minor A allele (n = 2 were underrepresented (34 carriers among the 70 normosmic subjects; p = 0.049. Moreover, carriers of the A allele discriminated odors significantly better than non-carriers (13.1±1.5 versus 12.3±1.6 correct discriminations and indicated a higher intensity of the H2S stimuli (29.2±13.2 versus 21±12.8 mm VAS, p = 0.006, which, however, could not be excluded to have involved a trigeminal component during stimulation. Finally, the increased sensitivity to thermal pain could be reproduced. CONCLUSIONS: The findings are in line with a previous association of a human TRPA1 variant with nociceptive parameters and extend the association to the perception of odorants. However, this addresses mainly those stimulants that involve a trigeminal component whereas a pure olfactory effect may remain disputable. Nevertheless, findings suggest that future TRPA1 modulating drugs may modify the perception of odorants.

'You find yourself.' Perceptions of nursing students from non-English speaking backgrounds of the effect of an intensive language support program on their oral clinical communication skills.

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Rogan, Fran; San Miguel, Caroline; Brown, Di; Kilstoff, Kathleen

2006-10-01

Nurses of ethnically diverse backgrounds are essential in providing multicultural populations in western societies with culturally and linguistically competent health care. However, many nurses from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) are at high risk of failure in university programs particularly during clinical placements. Few studies investigate the clinical experiences of students from NESB and strategies to support their learning. This study describes perceptions of fifteen undergraduate nursing students from NESB about their first clinical placement in an Australian university program and the effect of a language support program on their oral clinical communication skills. Three categories arose: *Wanting to belong but feeling excluded; *Wanting to learn how to...; and *You find yourself. While many students find clinical placement challenging, it appeared difficult for students in this study as language and cultural adjustments required some modification of their usual ways of thinking and communicating, often without coping strategies available to other students.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PERCEPTIONS OF SEXUAL INTENT: A QUALITATIVE REVIEW AND INTEGRATION

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Lindgren, Kristen P.; Parkhill, Michele R.; George, William H.; Hendershot, Christian S.

2009-01-01

Men appear to interpret people’s behaviors more sexually than do women. This finding, which has been replicated in scores of studies using a variety of methodological approaches, has been linked to important social concerns, including sexual assault and sexual harassment. This article provides a critical review of the published literature on gender differences in sexual intent perception, using selective examples to illustrate and summarize the field’s major constructs, methodologies, and empirical findings. Theoretical explanations for gender differences in sexual intent perceptions are reviewed. Finally, we highlight the field’s remaining issues and make several recommendations for future research directions. PMID:19763282

Embodied Perception: A Proposal to Reconcile Affordance and Spatial Perception

OpenAIRE

Ca?al-Bruland, Rouwen; van der Kamp, John

2015-01-01

Proffitt's embodied approach to perception is deeply indebted to Gibson's ecological approach to visual perception, in particular the idea that the primary objects of perception are affordances or what the environment offers for action. Yet, rather than directly addressing affordance perception, most of the empirical work evaluating Proffitt's approach focuses on the perception of spatial properties of the environment. We propose that theoretical and empirical efforts should be directed towar...

Residents’ perceptions of simulation as a clinical learning approach

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Catharine M Walsh

2017-02-01

Results: Residents’ perceptions of simulation included: 1 simulation serves pragmatic purposes; 2 simulation provides a safe space; 3 simulation presents perils and pitfalls; and 4 optimal design for simulation: integration and tension. Key findings included residents’ markedly narrow perception of simulation’s capacity to support non-technical skills development or its use beyond introductory learning. Conclusion: Trainees’ learning expectations of simulation were restricted. Educators should critically attend to the way they present simulation to learners as, based on theories of problem-framing, trainees’ a priori perceptions may delimit the focus of their learning experiences. If they view simulation as merely a replica of real cases for the purpose of practicing basic skills, they may fail to benefit from the full scope of learning opportunities afforded by simulation.

Age, Health and Attractiveness Perception of Virtual (Rendered) Human Hair.

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Fink, Bernhard; Hufschmidt, Carla; Hirn, Thomas; Will, Susanne; McKelvey, Graham; Lankhof, John

2016-01-01

The social significance of physical appearance and beauty has been documented in many studies. It is known that even subtle manipulations of facial morphology and skin condition can alter people's perception of a person's age, health and attractiveness. While the variation in facial morphology and skin condition cues has been studied quite extensively, comparably little is known on the effect of hair on social perception. This has been partly caused by the technical difficulty of creating appropriate stimuli for investigations of people's response to systematic variation of certain hair characteristics, such as color and style, while keeping other features constant. Here, we present a modeling approach to the investigation of human hair perception using computer-generated, virtual (rendered) human hair. In three experiments, we manipulated hair diameter (Experiment 1), hair density (Experiment 2), and hair style (Experiment 3) of human (female) head hair and studied perceptions of age, health and attractiveness. Our results show that even subtle changes in these features have an impact on hair perception. We discuss our findings with reference to previous studies on condition-dependent quality cues in women that influence human social perception, thereby suggesting that hair is a salient feature of human physical appearance, which contributes to the perception of beauty.

Perceptions of healthy eating in transitional phases of life

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bech-Larsen, Tino; Kazbare, Laura

2014-01-01

). Originality/value - The study and findings reported in this article contribute by providing the first steps towards a better understanding of how social cognition and self-efficacy perceptions related to healthy eating develop in the transitional phases of adolescence and older adulthood. In order...... adolescents’ and older adults’ own perceptions of the barriers and facilitators of a change towards healthier eating. Design/methodology/approach - This study design consisted of four focus groups that were conducted with adolescents and older adults to identify their health orientations, and their expected...... and experienced outcomes and self-efficacies in implementing approach and avoidance behaviours in relation to healthy eating, i.e. increasing consumption of fruit and vegetables and decreasing consumption of soft drinks and red meat. Findings - The study resulted in a number of interesting insights, e...

Trickle-down effects of supervisor perceptions of interactional justice: a moderated mediation approach.

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Ambrose, Maureen L; Schminke, Marshall; Mayer, David M

2013-07-01

Supervisors' perceptions of how fairly they are treated by their own supervisors can influence their subordinates' perceptions, attitudes, and behavior. We present a moderated mediation model that demonstrates how work group structure can enhance or constrain these effects. Results show supervisors' perceptions of the fairness of the interactional treatment they receive relate to their subordinates' perceptions of interactional justice climate, and this relationship is stronger in work groups with more organic structures. Furthermore, consistent with the moderated mediation prediction, interactional justice climate mediates the relationship between supervisors' perceptions of interactional justice and outcomes when work group structures are more organic. We discuss the implications of the findings for research on justice and trickle-down effects. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

An empirical study on perceptive teaching in junior middle school English in China

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Lifen He

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Although the middle school English teaching has gotten a lot of achievements in China, some problems still exist, such as too much emphasis on words, grammars and structures. Perceptive teaching can be helpful for English teaching from a new perspective. There are three teaching procedures in the perceptive teaching: eliciting to acquire text meaning, creating situation to experience and comprehending to get the internal values in individuals. This thesis did the experimental research on English perspective teaching in middle school in China. The results show that in perceptive teaching, learners’ cognitive abilities can be improved; learners can show great interests in learning and shape positive attitudes; their learning methods can greatly be promoted. For different level learners, it shows that middle level learners can gain more benefit than the high level or low level learners in English perceptive teaching.

The amplification of risk in experimental diffusion chains.

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Moussaïd, Mehdi; Brighton, Henry; Gaissmaier, Wolfgang

2015-05-05

Understanding how people form and revise their perception of risk is central to designing efficient risk communication methods, eliciting risk awareness, and avoiding unnecessary anxiety among the public. However, public responses to hazardous events such as climate change, contagious outbreaks, and terrorist threats are complex and difficult-to-anticipate phenomena. Although many psychological factors influencing risk perception have been identified in the past, it remains unclear how perceptions of risk change when propagated from one person to another and what impact the repeated social transmission of perceived risk has at the population scale. Here, we study the social dynamics of risk perception by analyzing how messages detailing the benefits and harms of a controversial antibacterial agent undergo change when passed from one person to the next in 10-subject experimental diffusion chains. Our analyses show that when messages are propagated through the diffusion chains, they tend to become shorter, gradually inaccurate, and increasingly dissimilar between chains. In contrast, the perception of risk is propagated with higher fidelity due to participants manipulating messages to fit their preconceptions, thereby influencing the judgments of subsequent participants. Computer simulations implementing this simple influence mechanism show that small judgment biases tend to become more extreme, even when the injected message contradicts preconceived risk judgments. Our results provide quantitative insights into the social amplification of risk perception, and can help policy makers better anticipate and manage the public response to emerging threats.

Perceptions and challenges of mobile learning in Kuwait

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Ahmed Al-Hunaiyyan

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The rapid development and growth of mobile technology has motivated developers to introduce a wide range of mobile applications, changing users’ behavior and expectations and reshaping industries and businesses. In implementing any learning system such as mobile learning, users’ expectations should be taken into consideration. However, there is a lack of studies on this aspect, particularly in the context of Kuwait higher education (HE institutions. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate students’ and instructors’ perceptions toward the use of mobile devices in learning, and to understand the challenges that affect its implementation. Although m-learning is used in the developed countries and considered as an effective educational tool, it is not yet fully utilized in Kuwait, as a developing country. This study reports on the results of a survey conducted on 623 students, and 132 instructors from HE institutions in Kuwait, in order to understand their perceptions and opinions about the effectiveness of the use of mobile learning. An analysis of the quantitative survey findings is presented in this article, and the findings indicated that students and instructors are very familiar with mobile devices and its applications. The results also revealed that students and instructors have positive perceptions of m-learning, and indicated that video-based social media applications are widely used among them. However, the study reports some social and cultural issues that may act as barriers to m-learning implementation. Keywords: M-learning, E-learning, Higher education, Implementation challenges, Perceptions

The flipped learning approach in teaching degrees: students’ perceptions

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Déborah Martín R.

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we analyze the students' perception of a university teaching-learning strategy, with a flipped learning approach, in the development of the subject Orientación educativa y plan de acción tutorial del Grado de Educación Primaria. The 21st century skills proposed by Fullan (2013 and known as the six Cs (Character, Communication, Collaboration, Citizenship, Critical Thinking and Creativity are used as a frame of reference. An experimental design of two groups, with a non-equivalent control group, has been used to analyze the students' perceptions of their learning in a conventional teaching environment and under a flipped environment based on m-learning. The differences found were statistically significant in all the analyzed dimensions, with favorable increases in the experimental methodology in all cases. The differences in Citizenship, Character, and Communication are of particular relevance. The analysis of the items reveals some difficulties in the functional literacy of students in the use of digital technology to improve their learning. Likewise, it is evident that the active methodologies improve, according to the perception of the students, the skills development, and learning. It is confirmed the hypothesis proposed in this study that the use of m-learning with a pedagogical approach centered on learning, with active methodologies, is a support that improves the development of the competences of the 21st century and, specifically, those described as the 6C's.

Seasonal variation in family member perceptions of physician competence in the intensive care unit: findings from one academic medical center.

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Stevens, Jennifer P; Kachniarz, Bart; O'Reilly, Kristin; Howell, Michael D

2015-04-01

Researchers have found mixed results about the risk to patient safety in July, when newly minted physicians enter U.S. hospitals to begin their clinical training, the so-called "July effect." However, patient and family satisfaction and perception of physician competence during summer months remain unknown. The authors conducted a retrospective observational cohort study of 815 family members of adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients who completed the Family Satisfaction with Care in the Intensive Care Unit instrument from eight ICUs at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, between April 2008 and June 2011. The association of ICU care in the summer months (July-September) versus other seasons and family perception of physician competence was examined in univariable and multivariable analyses. A greater proportion of family members described physicians as competent in summer months as compared with winter months (odds ratio [OR] 1.9; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2-3.0; P = .003). After adjustment for patient and proxy demographics, severity of illness, comorbidities, and features of the admission in a multivariable model, seasonal variation of family perception of physician competence persisted (summer versus winter, OR of judging physicians competent 2.4; 95% CI 1.3-4.4; P = .004). Seasonal variation exists in family perception of physician competence in the ICU, but opposite to the "July effect." The reasons for this variation are not well understood. Further research is necessary to explore the role of senior provider involvement, trainee factors, system factors such as handoffs, or other possible contributors.

Asymmetry in the Perception of Friendship in Students Groups

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Lancieri, Luigi

2017-01-01

Several studies point out the link between sociability and academic results. In this paper, we highlight a phenomenon of asymmetry in the perception of friendship. This occurs when a student think he has more or less friends than he really has. We present an experimental method that allows us to analyze this question in relation with the academic…

Assessing Mentoring Culture: Faculty and Staff Perceptions, Gaps, and Strengths

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Sheridan, Lynn; Murdoch, Natasha Hubbard; Harder, Emily

2015-01-01

The purpose of this non-experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive research was to survey faculty and staff perceptions of mentorship in a postsecondary institution in order to determine gaps and strengths in the current mentorship environment. The anecdotal activities we present reflect our educational practice environment through the work of our…

The Role of Embodiment in the Perception of Music

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Marc Leman

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Since its breakthrough at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the embodied music cognition theory has inspired empirical research on the role of actionperception couplings in musical activities. The integration of novel technologies and analysis methods inspired empirical research advancing knowledge regarding the role of embodiment in music perception and musical signification processes. In this paper, we present recent and on-going research in the field of embodied music cognition, with a focus on studies conducted at IPEM, the research laboratory in systematic musicology at Ghent University, Belgium. Attention is devoted to encoding/decoding principles underlying musical expressiveness, synchronization and entrainment, and action-based effects on music perception. The discussed empirical findings demonstrate that embodiment is only one component in an interconnected network of sensory, motor, affective, and cognitive systems involved in music perception. Currently, these findings drive the embodiment theory towards a more dynamical approach in which the interaction between various internal processes and the external environment are of central importance. Additionally, this approach envisions practical outcomes in the field of music affect research, wellbeing, healing, sports, music engineering, and brain studies.

Worldwide clustering of the corruption perception

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Paulus, Michal; Kristoufek, Ladislav

2015-06-01

We inspect a possible clustering structure of the corruption perception among 134 countries. Using the average linkage clustering, we uncover a well-defined hierarchy in the relationships among countries. Four main clusters are identified and they suggest that countries worldwide can be quite well separated according to their perception of corruption. Moreover, we find a strong connection between corruption levels and a stage of development inside the clusters. The ranking of countries according to their corruption perfectly copies the ranking according to the economic performance measured by the gross domestic product per capita of the member states. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first one to present an application of hierarchical and clustering methods to the specific case of corruption.

Only for Males: Gendered Perception of Wrestling

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Y. Umar

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Wrestling has generally been considered to be a masculine sport. To increase female participation in the sport, managers and administrators will need to understand how wrestling is perceived differently by the genders. A focus group interview was conducted with eight participants from both genders to examine how wrestling was perceived. The findings suggested that wrestling was regarded more as a form of violent entertainment rather than as a sport. A survey instrument was then constructed using statements made by the focus group. The survey was administered to 155 respondents of which 56% were females. The mean age of the respondents was 19.8 years. The findings from the survey concurred with the findings from the focus group interview. Wrestling is considered to be a violent and gendered form of entertainment. However, gender differences exist with females more likely to see wrestling as a form of entertainment as compared to males. Females are also more likely to view wrestling as violent and consequently, they tend to see wrestling as more suited for male participation. The findings suggest that sports managers and administrators will need to manage the perception that wrestling is a form of violent entertainment among females by creating opportunities for women to experience the sport and to correct their perception of the sport.

Moving Stimuli Facilitate Synchronization But Not Temporal Perception.

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Silva, Susana; Castro, São Luís

2016-01-01

Recent studies have shown that a moving visual stimulus (e.g., a bouncing ball) facilitates synchronization compared to a static stimulus (e.g., a flashing light), and that it can even be as effective as an auditory beep. We asked a group of participants to perform different tasks with four stimulus types: beeps, siren-like sounds, visual flashes (static) and bouncing balls. First, participants performed synchronization with isochronous sequences (stimulus-guided synchronization), followed by a continuation phase in which the stimulus was internally generated (imagery-guided synchronization). Then they performed a perception task, in which they judged whether the final part of a temporal sequence was compatible with the previous beat structure (stimulus-guided perception). Similar to synchronization, an imagery-guided variant was added, in which sequences contained a gap in between (imagery-guided perception). Balls outperformed flashes and matched beeps (powerful ball effect) in stimulus-guided synchronization but not in perception (stimulus- or imagery-guided). In imagery-guided synchronization, performance accuracy decreased for beeps and balls, but not for flashes and sirens. Our findings suggest that the advantages of moving visual stimuli over static ones are grounded in action rather than perception, and they support the hypothesis that the sensorimotor coupling mechanisms for auditory (beeps) and moving visual stimuli (bouncing balls) overlap.

Danish farmer’s perception of GM-crops

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søndergaard, Janus; Pedersen, Søren Marcus; Gylling, Morten

2005-01-01

This paper presents a study of 185 farmer’s perception of GM-crops in Denmark. The respondent’s attitude to GM-crops mainly reflects a conservative view of the adoption of GM-crops. Among farmers only the exciting crops in rotation is seen as their future potential GM-crops. Findings from...

Primary School Teachers' Perceptions of Mathematical Reasoning

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Loong, Esther Yook-Kin; Vale, Colleen; Bragg, Leicha A.; Herbert, Sandra

2013-01-01

Little is known about how Australian teachers interpret, enact and assess reasoning. This paper reports on primary teachers' perceptions of reasoning prior to observation and subsequent trialling of demonstration lessons in a primary school. The findings indicate that while some teachers were able to articulate what reasoning means, others were…

The Influence of culture on goal perception: Qatar versus Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ottsen, Christina L.; Koppel, Jonathan; Johannessen, Kim Berg

2016-01-01

Expectations of control put forth by societal norms impose a constant influence on goal perception. To examine the influence of culture on perception of personal goals, 124 Middle Easterners and 128 Scandinavians rated their perceived locus of control, generated goals and evaluated goal...... characteristics. Findings show several cultural and gender differences, most notably in perceived locus of control, unhappiness despite goal achievement and adherence to cultural life script. Many differences were qualified by interactions, suggesting that Middle Eastern men deviate from Middle Eastern women...... and Scandinavians of both sexes. The Middle Eastern men demonstrated greater ambivalence regarding goal achievement, and contrary to previous findings from other cultural samples, they also showed a significant positive association between internal and external control. Furthermore , goals generated by Middle...

Moldovan Perception of Greece as a Tourism Destination

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Stela Cazacu

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose: This research study analyzes Moldovans' intentions to visit Greece, and their perceptions of Greece's image as a tourism destination, according to the following dimensions: (1 environmental beauty and convenience, (2 country's citizens, (3 place and architectural structure, (4 shopping and tourist accommodation and (5 similarity of the local culture and cuisine with the Moldovan one. The goal is split into four objectives. Design/methodology/approach: For attaining the goal, a self-administered questionnaire was delivered. The empirical study was conducted in the capital of Moldova. The findings are based upon a sample of 139 respondents. Findings: The findings reveal that, overall, Greece's image as a tourist destination among Moldovan consumers is partially positive. The perceptions of the tourism dimensions were evaluated in the descending order as follows: place and architectural structure, shopping and tourist accommodation, environmental beauty and convenience, country's citizens and similarity of the local culture and cuisine with the Moldovan one. Research limitations/implications: As it was undertaken only in the capital of Republic of Moldova and because most respondents are young people and females, the findings of this investigation do not absolutely reflect the perceptions of all Moldovans. Also, because the number of respondents is small, it is not representative of the whole Moldovan population. Hence, the results might not be very realistic and accurate. Originality/value: This study provides insightful theoretical implications and practical recommendations in creating marketing strategies that would help in managing and improving Greece's image as a destination among Moldovan tourists. Also, no study, at least to the researcher's knowledge, has evaluated Greece's image as a destination among Moldovan consumers. Finally, due to the increasing number of Moldovan tourists in Greece, it is important that Greece grasps this

Consumers’ perceptions of energy use and energy savings: A literature review

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Lesic, Vedran; Bruine de Bruin, Wändi; Davis, Matthew C.; Krishnamurti, Tamar; Azevedo, Inês M. L.

2018-03-01

Background. Policy makers and program managers need to better understand consumers’ perceptions of their energy use and savings to design effective strategies for promoting energy savings. Methods. We reviewed 14 studies from the emerging interdisciplinary literature examining consumers’ perceptions electricity use by specific appliances, and potential savings. Results. We find that: (1) electricity use is often overestimated for low-energy consuming appliances, and underestimated for high-energy consuming appliances; (2) curtailment strategies are typically preferred over energy efficiency strategies; (3) consumers lack information about how much electricity can be saved through specific strategies; (4) consumers use heuristics for assessing the electricity use of specific appliances, with some indication that more accurate judgments are made among consumers with higher numeracy and stronger pro-environmental attitudes. However, design differences between studies, such as variations in reference points, reporting units and assessed time periods, may affect consumers’ reported perceptions. Moreover, studies differ with regard to whether accuracy of perceptions was evaluated through comparisons with general estimates of actual use, self-reported use, household-level meter readings, or real-time smart meter readings. Conclusion. Although emerging findings are promising, systematic variations in the measurement of perceived and actual electricity use are potential cause for concern. We propose avenues for future research, so as to better understand, and possibly inform, consumers’ perceptions of their electricity use. Ultimately, this literature will have implications for the design of effective electricity feedback for consumers, and related policies.

Do clinicians decide relying primarily on Bayesians principles or on Gestalt perception? Some pearls and pitfalls of Gestalt perception in medicine.

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Cervellin, Gianfranco; Borghi, Loris; Lippi, Giuseppe

2014-08-01

Clinical judgment is a foundation of medical practice and lies at the heart of a physician's knowledge, expertise and skill. Although clinical judgment is an active part of all medical fields, thus including diagnosis and therapy, communication and decision making, it is still poorly defined. It can be considered a synthesis of intuition (mainly based on Gestalt principles) and an analytical approach. Gestalt perception finds its rationale in the evidence that perception of any given object or experience exhibits intrinsic qualities that cannot be completely reduced to visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or gustatory components. Thus, perceptions are not constructed in a "bottom-up" fashion from such elements, but are instead globally perceived, in a more "top-down" fashion. Gestalt perception, if cautiously and carefully combined with structured (techno)logical tools, would permit one to defoliate the often too-many-branches built diagnostic trees, and help physicians to better develop their competency. On the other hand, the practice of evidence-based medicine lies in the integration of individual clinical expertise and judgment with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research. This article is aimed at providing some general concepts about Gestalt perception, and to discuss some aspects of clinical practice potentially influenced by this approach.

Modulation frequency as a cue for auditory speed perception.

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Senna, Irene; Parise, Cesare V; Ernst, Marc O

2017-07-12

Unlike vision, the mechanisms underlying auditory motion perception are poorly understood. Here we describe an auditory motion illusion revealing a novel cue to auditory speed perception: the temporal frequency of amplitude modulation (AM-frequency), typical for rattling sounds. Naturally, corrugated objects sliding across each other generate rattling sounds whose AM-frequency tends to directly correlate with speed. We found that AM-frequency modulates auditory speed perception in a highly systematic fashion: moving sounds with higher AM-frequency are perceived as moving faster than sounds with lower AM-frequency. Even more interestingly, sounds with higher AM-frequency also induce stronger motion aftereffects. This reveals the existence of specialized neural mechanisms for auditory motion perception, which are sensitive to AM-frequency. Thus, in spatial hearing, the brain successfully capitalizes on the AM-frequency of rattling sounds to estimate the speed of moving objects. This tightly parallels previous findings in motion vision, where spatio-temporal frequency of moving displays systematically affects both speed perception and the magnitude of the motion aftereffects. Such an analogy with vision suggests that motion detection may rely on canonical computations, with similar neural mechanisms shared across the different modalities. © 2017 The Author(s).

The phase of prestimulus alpha oscillations affects tactile perception.

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Ai, Lei; Ro, Tony

2014-03-01

Previous studies have shown that neural oscillations in the 8- to 12-Hz range influence sensory perception. In the current study, we examined whether both the power and phase of these mu/alpha oscillations predict successful conscious tactile perception. Near-threshold tactile stimuli were applied to the left hand while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded over the contralateral right somatosensory cortex. We found a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between prestimulus mu/alpha power and detection rate, suggesting that there is an intermediate level of alpha power that is optimal for tactile perception. We also found a significant difference in phase angle concentration at stimulus onset that predicted whether the upcoming tactile stimulus was perceived or missed. As has been shown in the visual system, these findings suggest that these mu/alpha oscillations measured over somatosensory areas exert a strong inhibitory control on tactile perception and that pulsed inhibition by these oscillations shapes the state of brain activity necessary for conscious perception. They further suggest that these common phasic processing mechanisms across different sensory modalities and brain regions may reflect a common underlying encoding principle in perceptual processing that leads to momentary windows of perceptual awareness.

Facial emotion perception impairments in schizophrenia patients with comorbid antisocial personality disorder.

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Tang, Dorothy Y Y; Liu, Amy C Y; Lui, Simon S Y; Lam, Bess Y H; Siu, Bonnie W M; Lee, Tatia M C; Cheung, Eric F C

2016-02-28

Impairment in facial emotion perception is believed to be associated with aggression. Schizophrenia patients with antisocial features are more impaired in facial emotion perception than their counterparts without these features. However, previous studies did not define the comorbidity of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) using stringent criteria. We recruited 30 participants with dual diagnoses of ASPD and schizophrenia, 30 participants with schizophrenia and 30 controls. We employed the Facial Emotional Recognition paradigm to measure facial emotion perception, and administered a battery of neurocognitive tests. The Life History of Aggression scale was used. ANOVAs and ANCOVAs were conducted to examine group differences in facial emotion perception, and control for the effect of other neurocognitive dysfunctions on facial emotion perception. Correlational analyses were conducted to examine the association between facial emotion perception and aggression. Patients with dual diagnoses performed worst in facial emotion perception among the three groups. The group differences in facial emotion perception remained significant, even after other neurocognitive impairments were controlled for. Severity of aggression was correlated with impairment in perceiving negative-valenced facial emotions in patients with dual diagnoses. Our findings support the presence of facial emotion perception impairment and its association with aggression in schizophrenia patients with comorbid ASPD. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perception of faces in schizophrenia: Subjective (self-report) vs. objective (psychophysics) assessments

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yue; Ekstrom, Tor

2016-01-01

Objectives Face perception impairment in schizophrenia has been demonstrated, mostly through experimental studies. How this laboratory-defined behavioral impairment is associated with patients’ perceptual experience of various faces in everyday life is however unclear. This question is important because a first-person account of face perception has direct consequences on social functioning of patients. In this study, we adapted and administered a self-reported questionnaire on narrative perceptual experience of faces along with psychophysical assessments of face perception in schizophrenia. Methods The self-reported questionnaire includes six rating items of face-related functioning in everyday life, providing a subjective measure of face perception. The psychophysical assessment determines perceptual threshold for discriminating different facial identities, providing an objective measure of face perception. Results Compared to controls (n=25), patients (n=35) showed significantly lower scores (worse performance) in the subjective assessment and significantly higher thresholds (worse performance) in the objective assessment. The subjective and objective face perception assessments were moderately correlated in controls but not in patients. The subjective face perception assessments were significantly correlated with measurements of a social cognitive ability (Theory of Mind), again in controls but not in patients. Conclusion These results suggest that in schizophrenia the quality of face-related functioning in everyday life is degraded and the role that basic face discrimination capacity plays in face-related everyday functioning is disrupted. PMID:26938027

Determining perception-based impacts of noxious facilities on wage rates and property values

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nieves, L.A.; Clark, D.E.

1992-02-01

This document, written for the US Department of Energy, discusses current information and the need for future research on estimating the impacts on wages and property values that could result from people's perceptions of the risks associated with noxious facilities. Psychometric studies indicate that the US population is averse to living near noxious facilities, nuclear-related facilities in particular. Contingent valuation and hedonic studies find that the net economic impacts of proximity to noxious facilities are generally negative and often substantial. Most of these studies are limited in scope, and none estimate the impacts derived from public perceptions of such facilities. This study examines the mechanisms by which negative public perceptions result in economic impacts reflected in wages and property values. On the basis of these mechanisms, it develops a predictive model of perception-based impacts and identifies the data and methods needed to implement it. The key to predicting perception-based impacts lies in combining psychometric and hedonic methods. The reliability of psychometric measures as indicators of aversive stimuli that precipitate economic impacts can be empirically tested. To test the robustness of the findings, alternative estimation methods an be employed in the hedonic analysis. Contingent valuation methods can confirm the results.

Determining perception-based impacts of noxious facilities on wage rates and property values

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nieves, L.A.; Clark, D.E.

1992-02-01

This document, written for the US Department of Energy, discusses current information and the need for future research on estimating the impacts on wages and property values that could result from people`s perceptions of the risks associated with noxious facilities. Psychometric studies indicate that the US population is averse to living near noxious facilities, nuclear-related facilities in particular. Contingent valuation and hedonic studies find that the net economic impacts of proximity to noxious facilities are generally negative and often substantial. Most of these studies are limited in scope, and none estimate the impacts derived from public perceptions of such facilities. This study examines the mechanisms by which negative public perceptions result in economic impacts reflected in wages and property values. On the basis of these mechanisms, it develops a predictive model of perception-based impacts and identifies the data and methods needed to implement it. The key to predicting perception-based impacts lies in combining psychometric and hedonic methods. The reliability of psychometric measures as indicators of aversive stimuli that precipitate economic impacts can be empirically tested. To test the robustness of the findings, alternative estimation methods an be employed in the hedonic analysis. Contingent valuation methods can confirm the results.

The development of visual speech perception in Mandarin Chinese-speaking children.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Liang; Lei, Jianghua

2017-01-01

The present study aimed to investigate the development of visual speech perception in Chinese-speaking children. Children aged 7, 13 and 16 were asked to visually identify both consonant and vowel sounds in Chinese as quickly and accurately as possible. Results revealed (1) an increase in accuracy of visual speech perception between ages 7 and 13 after which the accuracy rate either stagnates or drops; and (2) a U-shaped development pattern in speed of perception with peak performance in 13-year olds. Results also showed that across all age groups, the overall levels of accuracy rose, whereas the response times fell for simplex finals, complex finals and initials. These findings suggest that (1) visual speech perception in Chinese is a developmental process that is acquired over time and is still fine-tuned well into late adolescence; (2) factors other than cross-linguistic differences in phonological complexity and degrees of reliance on visual information are involved in development of visual speech perception.

Energy landscape and dynamics of brain activity during human bistable perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Watanabe, Takamitsu; Masuda, Naoki; Megumi, Fukuda; Kanai, Ryota; Rees, Geraint

2014-08-28

Individual differences in the structure of parietal and prefrontal cortex predict the stability of bistable visual perception. However, the mechanisms linking such individual differences in brain structures to behaviour remain elusive. Here we demonstrate a systematic relationship between the dynamics of brain activity, cortical structure and behaviour underpinning bistable perception. Using fMRI in humans, we find that the activity dynamics during bistable perception are well described as fluctuating between three spatially distributed energy minimums: visual-area-dominant, frontal-area-dominant and intermediate states. Transitions between these energy minimums predicted behaviour, with participants whose brain activity tend to reflect the visual-area-dominant state exhibiting more stable perception and those whose activity transits to frontal-area-dominant states reporting more frequent perceptual switches. Critically, these brain activity dynamics are correlated with individual differences in grey matter volume of the corresponding brain areas. Thus, individual differences in the large-scale dynamics of brain activity link focal brain structure with bistable perception.

Echoic memory and language perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Ardila, A; Montanes, P; Gempeler, J

1986-09-01

The purpose of this study was to analyze asymmetry in echoic memory as a relevant factor in language perception. Two experimental procedures were used: the presentation of temporally segmented words in fragments of 40, 80, 120 and 240 msec, separated by intervals of 40, 80, 120 and 240 msec, similar to the procedures used by A. W. F. Huggins (1975, Perception & Psychophysics, 18, 149-157); the presentation of two tones of short duration, "high" and "low," followed by an interference tone equivalent to the mean frequency of the two tones, closely following the procedure used by D. W. Massaro (1975, in D.W. Massaro (Ed.), Understanding language, New York: Academic Press). A stereophonic tape recorder was used as follows: one channel was employed for the presentation of the words or tones while, through the other channel, the subject received a white noise equivalent in intensity. All subjects carried out the task twice (right ear, left ear) and the order of presentation was counterbalanced. Only the first task showed differences between ears. Implications of the results are analyzed.

Perceiving groups: The people perception of diversity and hierarchy.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, L Taylor; Slepian, Michael L; Hughes, Brent L

2018-05-01

The visual perception of individuals has received considerable attention (visual person perception), but little social psychological work has examined the processes underlying the visual perception of groups of people (visual people perception). Ensemble-coding is a visual mechanism that automatically extracts summary statistics (e.g., average size) of lower-level sets of stimuli (e.g., geometric figures), and also extends to the visual perception of groups of faces. Here, we consider whether ensemble-coding supports people perception, allowing individuals to form rapid, accurate impressions about groups of people. Across nine studies, we demonstrate that people visually extract high-level properties (e.g., diversity, hierarchy) that are unique to social groups, as opposed to individual persons. Observers rapidly and accurately perceived group diversity and hierarchy, or variance across race, gender, and dominance (Studies 1-3). Further, results persist when observers are given very short display times, backward pattern masks, color- and contrast-controlled stimuli, and absolute versus relative response options (Studies 4a-7b), suggesting robust effects supported specifically by ensemble-coding mechanisms. Together, we show that humans can rapidly and accurately perceive not only individual persons, but also emergent social information unique to groups of people. These people perception findings demonstrate the importance of visual processes for enabling people to perceive social groups and behave effectively in group-based social interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Connecting Expectations and Values: Students' Perceptions of Developmental Mathematics in a Computer-Based Learning Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Karen Latrice Terrell

2014-01-01

Students' perceptions influence their expectations and values. According to Expectations and Values Theory of Achievement Motivation (EVT-AM), students' expectations and values impact their behaviors (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002). This study seeks to find students' perceptions of developmental mathematics in a mastery learning computer-based…

Communication Conflict Styles, Perception of Ethical Environment, and Job Satisfaction among College and University Counselors

Science.gov (United States)

Jodoin, Elizabeth C.; Ayers, David F.

2017-01-01

This quantitative study examined the perceptions of college and university counselors (N = 669) regarding their ethical environment, job satisfaction, and ways of dealing with organizational conflict. Findings indicated that counselors manifested an average, but not positive, perception of their ethical environment. Job satisfaction was highest…

Bank Officers’ Perceptions and Uses of Qualified Audit Reports

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sormunen, Nina

2014-01-01

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to provide insights into the perceptions and uses of qualified audit reports in financial statements of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As there is a long-standing debate on the usefulness of auditor’s going-concern reports, this study aims....... Practical implications – Regulators have taken the action to improve the auditor’s reporting model, and the findings provided by this study are important because they provide a deeper understanding of the perceptions and uses of audit reports from smaller companies. The study also contributes knowledge...

A Comprehensive Survey on Student Perceptions of Cyberbullying at a Major Metropolitan University

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Lawler, James P.; Molluzzo, John C.

2015-01-01

Cyberbullying is a concern for any college or university. Digital harassment incidents are featured daily in the news. The authors of this study examine the perceptions of students on cyberbullying at a major metropolitan university. From the findings of a student survey, the authors learn of high levels of perceptions on incidents as an issue but…

Quality of customer service: perceptions from guests in all-inclusive resorts in Jamaica

Science.gov (United States)

Joel L. Frater

2007-01-01

With data collected from guests in all-inclusive resorts in Jamaica, West Indies, the purposes of this study were to: (1) delineate unique dimensions of customer service perceptions among guests and (2) report the finding of a study that measured guests' perceptions of the quality of customer service in all-inclusive resorts. The study asked the following research...

The influence of attention toward facial expressions on size perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Jeong-Won; Kim, Kiho; Lee, Jang-Han

2016-01-01

According to the New Look theory, size perception is affected by emotional factors. Although previous studies have attempted to explain the effects of both emotion and motivation on size perception, they have failed to identify the underlying mechanisms. This study aimed to investigate the underlying mechanisms of size perception by applying attention toward facial expressions using the Ebbinghaus illusion as a measurement tool. The participants, female university students, were asked to judge the size of a target stimulus relative to the size of facial expressions (i.e., happy, angry, and neutral) surrounding the target. The results revealed that the participants perceived angry and neutral faces to be larger than happy faces. This finding indicates that individuals pay closer attention to neutral and angry faces than happy ones. These results suggest that the mechanisms underlying size perception involve cognitive processes that focus attention toward relevant stimuli and block out irrelevant stimuli.

Caring for Patients with traumatic brain injury: a survey of nurses' perceptions.

Science.gov (United States)

Oyesanya, Tolu O; Brown, Roger L; Turkstra, Lyn S

2017-06-01

The purpose of this study was to determine nurses' perceptions about caring for patients with traumatic brain injury. Annually, it is estimated that over 10 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury around the world. Patients with traumatic brain injury and their families are often concerned with expectations about recovery and seek information from nurses. Nurses' perceptions of care might influence information provided to patients and families, particularly if inaccurate knowledge and perceptions are held. Thus, nurses must be knowledgeable about care of these patients. A cross-sectional survey, the Perceptions of Brain Injury Survey (PBIS), was completed electronically by 513 nurses between October and December 2014. Data were analysed with structural equation modelling, factor analysis, and pairwise comparisons. Using latent class analysis, authors were able to divide nurses into three homogeneous sub-groups based on perceived knowledge: low, moderate and high. Findings showed that nurses who care for patients with traumatic brain injury the most have the highest perceived confidence but the lowest perceived knowledge. Nurses also had significant variations in training. As there is limited literature on nurses' perceptions of caring for patients with traumatic brain injury, these findings have implications for training and educating nurses, including direction for development of nursing educational interventions. As the incidence of traumatic brain injury is growing, it is imperative that nurses be knowledgeable about care of patients with these injuries. The traumatic brain injury PBIS can be used to determine inaccurate perceptions about caring for patients with traumatic brain injury before educating and training nurses. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Social Workers' Perceptions of the Association Between Role Playing Games and Psychopathology.

Science.gov (United States)

Ben-Ezra, Menachem; Lis, Eric; Błachnio, Agata; Ring, Lia; Lavenda, Osnat; Mahat-Shamir, Michal

2018-03-01

Whereas role-playing and table-top role-play games (RPGs) have been proven to have potential as therapeutic tools, playing RPGs is often stereotypically associated with social incompetence and psychiatric disorders. Knowledge regarding the stereotype and its implications is very scarce specifically among mental health practitioners. Therefore the present study aimed to narrow this gap in knowledge by examining the perception of Social Workers that are considered to be the forefront of mental health-care, in regard to the association between playing RPGs and mental health. A convenience sample of 130 Social Workers, recruited through social networks (e.g. Facebook, WhatsApp etc.), responded to an on-line survey dealing with their perception of their own knowledge on RPGs, the importance of such knowledge and the association between playing RPGs and mental illness. Results indicated an association between having higher knowledge of RPGs and lower perception of a link between playing RPGs and psychopathology. The study's findings emphasize the false stigma and its potential harmful implication on professionals' practice, especially in the context of intake process and primary diagnostic. The effect of familiarity is also discussed in light of the study's findings. • The perception of mental health professionals toward role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons is understudied. • Social Workers' perception was measured in regard to the connection between use of RPGs and DSM-IV-TR psychopathology. • Greater knowledge of RPGs was found to be associated with lower perception of the connection between use of RPGs and DSM-IV-TR psychopathology.

Color Functions in Information Perception and Retention

Science.gov (United States)

Tolliver, Don L.

1973-01-01

This paper reviews research findings related to color and how it affects perception and retention of information. From the literature it appears colors have varying degrees of value as cues or aids to memory of stimulus information and difference appears to exist between colors as they interact in informational materials. (21 references)…

The Perception of Cyberbullying in Adolescent Victims

Science.gov (United States)

Sevcikova, Anna; Smahel, David; Otavova, Mlada

2012-01-01

The goal of this study was to explore how victims of cyberbullying perceive online aggressive attacks and when they see them as harmful. Interviews were carried out with 16 cybervictimised participants aged 15-17 years. The findings showed differences in the perception of online victimisation when perpetrated by an anonymous Internet user versus…

Perceptions of branded and plain cigarette packaging among Mexican youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Mutti, Seema; Hammond, David; Reid, Jessica L; White, Christine M; Thrasher, James F

2017-08-01

Plain cigarette packaging, which seeks to remove all brand imagery and standardize the shape and size of cigarette packs, represents a novel policy measure to reduce the appeal of cigarettes. Plain packaging has been studied primarily in high-income countries like Australia and the UK. It is unknown whether the effects of plain packaging may differ in low-and-middle income countries with a shorter history of tobacco regulation, such as Mexico. An experimental study was conducted in Mexico City to examine perceptions of branded and plain cigarette packaging among smoking and non-smoking Mexican adolescents (n = 359). Respondents were randomly assigned to a branded or plain pack condition and rated 12 cigarette packages for appeal, taste, harm to health and smoker-image traits. As a behavioral measure of appeal, respondents were offered (although not given) four cigarette packs (either branded or plain) and asked to select one to keep. The findings indicated that branded packs were perceived to be more appealing (β = 3.40, p packaging may reduce brand appeal among Mexican youth, consistent with findings in high-income countries. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

VISUAL PERCEPTION OF THE CHILDREN WITH PLEXUS BRACHIALIS DAMAGE – ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dragana M. KLJAJIKJ

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Interpersonal communication, psychosocial and mental development of personality and its all other functions take place through the motor control. The most common neurological syndrome is a type of peripheral paresis/paralysis of plexus bracialis, which in most cases occurs at birth and significantly compromises the growth and development of the upper extremities and affects the psychomotor performance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of visual perception in children with lesion of plexus brachialis and the effect of the somatopedic treatment over the level of increase of the visual perception. The study sample was consisted of 60 preschool children accommodated at the Rehabilitation Centre “Dr. Miroslav Zotović” in Belgrade (experimental group and examiners that followed regular checkups and had discontinuity in their therapy (control group. For the research purposes, we used The Test for Visual Perception Assessment. By analyzing the results, we concluded that in both, in the first and the second measuring there was a statistically significant correlation between the experimental and the control groups (I measuring: p<0.001, r = 0.408; II measuring: p <0.001, r = 0.593.

Feelings and intervention judgments as mediators in the risk perception-intention relationship.

Science.gov (United States)

Soureti, Anastasia; Hurling, Robert; Cobain, Mark R; van Mechelen, Willem; Chinapaw, Mai

2013-07-01

To explore the mediating role of measures of persuasion in the relationship between risk perceptions and intentions. The first study included 413 obese subjects (mean age = 45.3 years); the second study, 781 overweight subjects (mean age = 46.6 years). All measures were assessed by self-report. Feelings and intervention judgments were mediators in the relationship between risk perceptions and intention to eat healthier, do more physical activity (study 1) and intention to reduce saturated fat (study 2). Feelings was the only mediator in the relationship between risk perceptions and intention to stop smoking (study 1). Future interventions targeting risk perceptions to increase intentions are likely to be more effective if subjects find the information emotionally impactful, credible, and engaging.

Assessing the accuracy of perceptions of intelligence based on heritable facial features

OpenAIRE

Lee, Anthony J.; Hibbs, Courtney; Wright, Margaret J.; Martin, Nicholas G.; Keller, Matthew C.; Zietsch, Brendan P.

2017-01-01

Perceptions of intelligence based on facial features can have a profound impact on many social situations, but findings have been mixed as to whether these judgements are accurate. Even if such perceptions were accurate, the underlying mechanism is unclear. Several possibilities have been proposed, including evolutionary explanations where certain morphological facial features are associated with fitness-related traits (including cognitive development), or that intelligence judgements are ove...

Impact of an educational program on nursing students' caring and self-perception in intensive clinical training in Jordan.

Science.gov (United States)

Khouri, Rawda

2011-01-01

Framing and development of clinical skills in nursing students during their clinical practice is critical because this can shape their future caring skills. Professional caring empowers patients and contributes to their well-being and health. Education may enhance the capacity of nurses to be effective caring practitioners. Their study program encourages caring behavior in nursing students, consequently affecting their professional self-perception. The present study investigated the effect of an educational program on caring behavior and professional self-perception in nursing students using a controlled pre/post test study design. The study sample consisted of 50 nursing students undertaking their final year in 2010-2011. Subjects were randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group. The study was conducted in two critical care units affiliated to the Ma'an and Queen Rania hospitals in the south of Jordan. The instruments utilized were the Caring Dimensions Inventory, Nursing Students Attitude Observational Checklist, and Professional Self-Concept of Nurses Instrument. The study findings favor the effect of the educational program because there was increased knowledge and understanding of caring theory and related concepts, a more holistic approach to care, enhanced caring practices, and improved self-perception in the study group compared with the control group during different periods of assessment. The study group showed significantly better caring perception in psychological, technical, and professional terms than the control group during different periods of assessment. There was a significant positive trend of overall professional self-perception for the study group compared with the control group. Nursing curricula should incorporate concepts and principles that guide students in developing caring, safe, competent, and professional behavior. Nursing students must seek educational opportunities to acquire knowledge for role preparation, to

Split brain: divided perception but undivided consciousness.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinto, Yair; Neville, David A; Otten, Marte; Corballis, Paul M; Lamme, Victor A F; de Haan, Edward H F; Foschi, Nicoletta; Fabri, Mara

2017-05-01

In extensive studies with two split-brain patients we replicate the standard finding that stimuli cannot be compared across visual half-fields, indicating that each hemisphere processes information independently of the other. Yet, crucially, we show that the canonical textbook findings that a split-brain patient can only respond to stimuli in the left visual half-field with the left hand, and to stimuli in the right visual half-field with the right hand and verbally, are not universally true. Across a wide variety of tasks, split-brain patients with a complete and radiologically confirmed transection of the corpus callosum showed full awareness of presence, and well above chance-level recognition of location, orientation and identity of stimuli throughout the entire visual field, irrespective of response type (left hand, right hand, or verbally). Crucially, we used confidence ratings to assess conscious awareness. This revealed that also on high confidence trials, indicative of conscious perception, response type did not affect performance. These findings suggest that severing the cortical connections between hemispheres splits visual perception, but does not create two independent conscious perceivers within one brain. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Introduction to the main experimental findings of the LENR field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Storms, Edmund

2015-01-01

Twenty-five years ago in March 1989, Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons announced their success in initiating fusion between deuterons in palladium used as the cathode in an electrolytic cell. Since then, a battle has waged between skeptics who reject the claim and people who observe behaviour that is consistent with the claim. This article briefly summarizes the major experimental observations. A companion article in this special section provides insight into how the observations might be explained. (author)

Ego development, self-perception, and self-complexity in adolescence: a study of female psychiatric inpatients.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, D W; Brody, L; Noam, G G

2001-01-01

A study of two groups of female psychiatric inpatients, differing in level of ego development, explored domains of self-perception that best predicted global self-worth and symptom clusters that best predicted second-order factors of self perception. Findings revealed quantitative and qualitative differences in self-complexities, and more positive self-perceptions among the higher ego-level group in scholastic competence, job competence, and behavioral conduct. Results are discussed from a developmental perspective.

Systematic review of perceptive studies on nuclear risk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Freitas, Mariana Gama de

2014-01-01

This present work contains the study of risk perception in different areas of interaction. For it was made an analysis using methodology previously recognized and tested: a systematic review in the search for better understanding of the perception of risk in the nuclear area. Through this study it was possible to understand the potential of the systematic review as a tool for information that encompass the perception of risk as a whole. Making it possible to trace parameters to find out why the world's people have an aversion to certain matters relating to nuclear energy. Considering that if you can understand what drives the people has disgust on nuclear area, it is probably possible to create alternatives to remedy this lack of information and knowledge about the area. Causing the population to realize the benefits that nuclear power brings to people. (author)

Childhood onset of spinal cord injury: self-esteem and self-perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy, P; Gorsuch, N; Marsh, N

1995-11-01

The effects of spinal cord injury in childhood upon later psychological adjustment were investigated by comparing a group of 86 people injured as children with a control group (matched for time since injury and level of injury) of people injured as adults. It was hypothesized that adolescence is a crucial period in psychological development and that the effect of spinal cord injury on body image, self-concept and social relationships during adolescence will have a long-term negative effect on psychological well-being. However, on overall measures of depression, self-esteem and self-perception, there were no significant differences between the experimental and control groups. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between paraplegics and tetraplegics, between men women, or between those who were involved in a significant intimate relationship and those who were not. These findings support previous research which has suggested that organic variables, such as age at injury and level of injury, are not predictive of long-term psychological adjustment.

A within-country study of leadership perceptions and outcomes across native and immigrant employees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holten, Ann-Louise; Bøllingtoft, Anne; Carneiro, Isabella Gomes

2017-01-01

This study investigates the universality of transformational leadership with respect to employee perceptions and three outcomes: job satisfaction, self-rated health, and well-being. We do so among employees of different national and cultural backgrounds, yet within a shared national and sectorial...... setting. Our study has a repeated measures design based on survey data from 2,947 employees (2,836 natives Danes and 111 immigrants) in the Danish elder care sector. While we find no difference between native Danes and immigrants in their perception of transformational leadership, we find...

On the perception and operationalization of risk perception

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoav Ganzach

2008-04-01

Full Text Available We compare and critique two measures of risk perception. We suggest that a single question --- ``How risky is the situation?'' --- captures the concept of risk perception more accurately than the multiple-item measure used by Sitkin and Weingart (1995. In fact, this latter measure inadvertently captures notions of attractiveness or expected return, rather than risk perception. We further propose that the error underlying the construction of Sitkin and Weingart's measure is explained in terms of a top-down model of risk perception, in which perceived risk and perceived return are consequences, rather than determinants, of attractiveness. Two studies compare the validity of the two alternative measures.

Spatio-Temporal Saliency Perception via Hypercomplex Frequency Spectral Contrast

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhiqiang Tian

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Salient object perception is the process of sensing the salient information from the spatio-temporal visual scenes, which is a rapid pre-attention mechanism for the target location in a visual smart sensor. In recent decades, many successful models of visual saliency perception have been proposed to simulate the pre-attention behavior. Since most of the methods usually need some ad hoc parameters or high-cost preprocessing, they are difficult to rapidly detect salient object or be implemented by computing parallelism in a smart sensor. In this paper, we propose a novel spatio-temporal saliency perception method based on spatio-temporal hypercomplex spectral contrast (HSC. Firstly, the proposed HSC algorithm represent the features in the HSV (hue, saturation and value color space and features of motion by a hypercomplex number. Secondly, the spatio-temporal salient objects are efficiently detected by hypercomplex Fourier spectral contrast in parallel. Finally, our saliency perception model also incorporates with the non-uniform sampling, which is a common phenomenon of human vision that directs visual attention to the logarithmic center of the image/video in natural scenes. The experimental results on the public saliency perception datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach compared to eleven state-of-the-art approaches. In addition, we extend the proposed model to moving object extraction in dynamic scenes, and the proposed algorithm is superior to the traditional algorithms.

Endenese Fisheries: Exploratory Findings on Environmental Perceptions, Fish Effort, and Overfishing in Eastern Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victoria C. Ramenzoni

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Fishing fleets in South East Asia have recently experienced unprecedented expansion. Consequently, catches and regional diversity have dramatically decreased throughout the Indian Ocean. Regional governments and conservation organizations blame the local fishermen and their use of damaging fishing practices for the present state of resources. However, many of these institutions endorse a narrow perspective on bioeconomic governance and human action (rational action choice that compromises the understanding of resource use and exploitation among small-scale fisheries. Over the last few decades, there is a growing recognized tradition that points to the importance of ecological systems of knowledge, uncertainty representation, and traditional skills, in conceptualizing processes of environmental decision-making and the likelihood of introducing successful sustainability practices. In line with this perspective, this article presents preliminary findings regarding resource use decision-making processes among Endenese fishing villages in central Flores Island, Indonesia. Grounded on 22 months of ethnographic, experimental and ecological research (semistructured interviews, participant observation, visual surveys, probability and uncertainty assessments, and exploring local cognitive representations of marine processes, climate, ichthyology and the role of luck, this article discusses the current economic representations of small-scale fishers as avid maximizers. It concludes by emphasizing the need to further explore the role of mental models and beliefs regarding uncertainty in motivating fishing effort to design adequate conservation and governance programs. 

Improving speech perception in noise with current focusing in cochlear implant users.

Science.gov (United States)

Srinivasan, Arthi G; Padilla, Monica; Shannon, Robert V; Landsberger, David M

2013-05-01

Cochlear implant (CI) users typically have excellent speech recognition in quiet but struggle with understanding speech in noise. It is thought that broad current spread from stimulating electrodes causes adjacent electrodes to activate overlapping populations of neurons which results in interactions across adjacent channels. Current focusing has been studied as a way to reduce spread of excitation, and therefore, reduce channel interactions. In particular, partial tripolar stimulation has been shown to reduce spread of excitation relative to monopolar stimulation. However, the crucial question is whether this benefit translates to improvements in speech perception. In this study, we compared speech perception in noise with experimental monopolar and partial tripolar speech processing strategies. The two strategies were matched in terms of number of active electrodes, microphone, filterbanks, stimulation rate and loudness (although both strategies used a lower stimulation rate than typical clinical strategies). The results of this study showed a significant improvement in speech perception in noise with partial tripolar stimulation. All subjects benefited from the current focused speech processing strategy. There was a mean improvement in speech recognition threshold of 2.7 dB in a digits in noise task and a mean improvement of 3 dB in a sentences in noise task with partial tripolar stimulation relative to monopolar stimulation. Although the experimental monopolar strategy was worse than the clinical, presumably due to different microphones, frequency allocations and stimulation rates, the experimental partial-tripolar strategy, which had the same changes, showed no acute deficit relative to the clinical. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nuclear accidents and policy. Notes on public perception

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Richter, Felix; Steenbeck, Malte; Wilhelm, Markus [Hamburg Univ. (Germany). Lehrstuhl fuer Wirtschaftspolitik

2013-07-01

Major nuclear accidents as recently in Fukushima set nuclear power plant security at the top of the public agenda. Using data of the German Socio-Economic Panel we analyze the effects of the Fukushima accident and a subsequent government decision on nuclear power phase-out on several measures of subjective perception in Germany. In the light of current political debates about the strategic orientation of this energy turnaround, such an analysis is of particular interest since non-pecuniary gains in measures of subjective perception might provide further aspects to be taken into consideration when evaluating the economic costs of the policy. We find that the Fukushima accident increases the probability to report greater worries about the environment. Furthermore, we find evidence for a decrease in the probability to be very worried about the security of nuclear power plants as well as for an increase in reported levels of subjective well-being following the government's resolution on nuclear phase-out. Finally we find that the probabilities of reporting very high concerns are related to the distance between the respondents' place of residence and the nearest nuclear power station.

Nuclear accidents and policy. Notes on public perception

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Richter, Felix; Steenbeck, Malte; Wilhelm, Markus [Hamburg Univ. (Germany). Lehrstuhl fuer Wirtschaftspolitik

2013-07-01

Major nuclear accidents as recently in Fukushima set nuclear power plant security at the top of the public agenda. Using data of the German Socio-Economic Panel we analyze the effects of the Fukushima accident and a subsequent government decision on nuclear power phase-out on several measures of subjective perception in Germany. In the light of current political debates about the strategic orientation of this energy turnaround, such an analysis is of particular interest since non-pecuniary gains in measures of subjective perception might provide further aspects to be taken into consideration when evaluating the economic costs of the policy. We find that the Fukushima accident increases the probability to report greater worries about the environment. Furthermore, we find evidence for a decrease in the probability to be very worried about the security of nuclear power plants as well as for an increase in reported levels of subjective well-being following the government's resolution on nuclear phase-out. Finally we find that the probabilities of reporting very high concerns are related to the distance between the respondents' place of residence and the nearest nuclear power station.

Pain perception studies in tension-type headache.

Science.gov (United States)

Bezov, David; Ashina, Sait; Jensen, Rigmor; Bendtsen, Lars

2011-02-01

Tension-type headache (TTH) is a disorder with high prevalence and significant impact on society. Understanding of pathophysiology of TTH is paramount for development of effective treatments and prevention of chronification of TTH. Our aim was to review the findings from pain perception studies of pathophysiology of TTH as well as to review the research of pathophysiology of TTH. Pain perception studies such as measurement of muscle tenderness, pain detection thresholds, pain tolerance thresholds, pain response to suprathreshold stimulation, temporal summation and diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC) have played a central role in elucidating the pathophysiology of TTH. It has been demonstrated that continuous nociceptive input from peripheral myofascial structures may induce central sensitization and thereby chronification of the headache. Measurements of pain tolerance thresholds and suprathreshold stimulation have shown presence of generalized hyperalgesia in chronic tension-type headache (CTTH) patients, while DNIC function has been shown to be reduced in CTTH. One imaging study showed loss of gray matter structures involved in pain processing in CTTH patients. Future studies should aim to integrate pain perception and imaging to confirm this finding. Pharmacological studies have shown that drugs like tricyclic anti-depressant amitriptyline and nitric oxide synthase inhibitors can reverse central sensitization and the chronicity of headache. Finally, low frequency electrical stimulation has been shown to rapidly reverse central sensitization and may be a new modality in treatment of CTTH and other chronic pain disorders. © 2010 American Headache Society.

Person perception precedes theory of mind: an event related potential analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Y W; Lin, C D; Yuan, B; Huang, L; Zhang, W X; Shen, D L

2010-09-29

Prior to developing an understanding of another person's mental state, an ability termed "theory of mind" (ToM), a perception of that person's appearance and actions is required. However the relationship between this "person perception" and ToM is unclear. To investigate the time course of ToM and person perception, event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded while 17 normal adults received three kinds of visual stimuli: cartoons involving people (person perception cartoons), cartoons involving people and also requiring ToM for comprehension (ToM cartoons), and scene cartoons. We hypothesized that the respective patterns of brain activation would be different under these three stimuli, at different stages in time. Our findings supported this proposal: the peak amplitudes of P200 for scene cartoons were significantly lower than for person perception or ToM cartoons, while there were no significant differences between the latter two for P200. During the 1000-1300 ms epoch, the mean amplitudes of the late positive components (LPC) for person perception were more positive than for scene representation, while the mean amplitudes of the LPC for ToM were more positive than for person perception. The present study provides preliminary evidence of the neural dynamic that underlies the dissociation between person perception and ToM. Copyright 2010 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ESL Teacher and ICT:Teachers' Perception

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Chua Pei Lin

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The rapid development of Information Communication and Technologies (ICTs has made tremendous changes in the twenty-first century. ICT is said to bring a variety of benefits in facilitating the teaching and learning process. Therefore, ICT has been the emphasis in school and higher institutions of education nowadays. However, to integrate ICT in education is not problem free, problems are faced by the teachers. This paper aims to investigate the ESL teachers’ perception toward the use of ICT in KT, Malaysia. Data were collected via interviews with four Form 4 English teachers in a secondary school in Kuala Terengganu. Findings show teachers have a positive perception towards the use of ICT. However, teachers claimed they face challenges in using ICT especially due to insufficient facilities.

Not finding Nemo: limited reef-scale retention in a coral reef fish

KAUST Repository

Nanninga, Gerrit B.; Saenz Agudelo, Pablo; Zhan, Peng; Hoteit, Ibrahim; Berumen, Michael L.

2015-01-01

evidence of consistently high levels of self-recruitment and local retention at various spatial scales. These findings have, to a certain degree, created a paradigm shift toward the perception that large fractions of locally produced recruitment may

Human Occipital and Parietal GABA Selectively Influence Visual Perception of Orientation and Size.

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Song, Chen; Sandberg, Kristian; Andersen, Lau Møller; Blicher, Jakob Udby; Rees, Geraint

2017-09-13

GABA is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in human brain. The level of GABA varies substantially across individuals, and this variability is associated with interindividual differences in visual perception. However, it remains unclear whether the association between GABA level and visual perception reflects a general influence of visual inhibition or whether the GABA levels of different cortical regions selectively influence perception of different visual features. To address this, we studied how the GABA levels of parietal and occipital cortices related to interindividual differences in size, orientation, and brightness perception. We used visual contextual illusion as a perceptual assay since the illusion dissociates perceptual content from stimulus content and the magnitude of the illusion reflects the effect of visual inhibition. Across individuals, we observed selective correlations between the level of GABA and the magnitude of contextual illusion. Specifically, parietal GABA level correlated with size illusion magnitude but not with orientation or brightness illusion magnitude; in contrast, occipital GABA level correlated with orientation illusion magnitude but not with size or brightness illusion magnitude. Our findings reveal a region- and feature-dependent influence of GABA level on human visual perception. Parietal and occipital cortices contain, respectively, topographic maps of size and orientation preference in which neural responses to stimulus sizes and stimulus orientations are modulated by intraregional lateral connections. We propose that these lateral connections may underlie the selective influence of GABA on visual perception. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT GABA, the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in human visual system, varies substantially across individuals. This interindividual variability in GABA level is linked to interindividual differences in many aspects of visual perception. However, the widespread influence of GABA raises the

Human Occipital and Parietal GABA Selectively Influence Visual Perception of Orientation and Size

Science.gov (United States)

Andersen, Lau Møller; Blicher, Jakob Udby

2017-01-01

GABA is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in human brain. The level of GABA varies substantially across individuals, and this variability is associated with interindividual differences in visual perception. However, it remains unclear whether the association between GABA level and visual perception reflects a general influence of visual inhibition or whether the GABA levels of different cortical regions selectively influence perception of different visual features. To address this, we studied how the GABA levels of parietal and occipital cortices related to interindividual differences in size, orientation, and brightness perception. We used visual contextual illusion as a perceptual assay since the illusion dissociates perceptual content from stimulus content and the magnitude of the illusion reflects the effect of visual inhibition. Across individuals, we observed selective correlations between the level of GABA and the magnitude of contextual illusion. Specifically, parietal GABA level correlated with size illusion magnitude but not with orientation or brightness illusion magnitude; in contrast, occipital GABA level correlated with orientation illusion magnitude but not with size or brightness illusion magnitude. Our findings reveal a region- and feature-dependent influence of GABA level on human visual perception. Parietal and occipital cortices contain, respectively, topographic maps of size and orientation preference in which neural responses to stimulus sizes and stimulus orientations are modulated by intraregional lateral connections. We propose that these lateral connections may underlie the selective influence of GABA on visual perception. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT GABA, the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in human visual system, varies substantially across individuals. This interindividual variability in GABA level is linked to interindividual differences in many aspects of visual perception. However, the widespread influence of GABA raises the

Patients' perception of the ambulance services at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Anisah, A; Chew, K S; Mohd Shaharuddin Shah, C H; Nik Hisamuddin, N A R

2008-08-01

Little is known regarding public opinion of prehospital care in Malaysia. This study was conducted to find out the public's perception and expectations of the ambulance services in one of the university hospitals in Malaysia. A six-month prospective cross-sectional study to look at patients' perception of Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia's (HUSM) ambulance service was conducted from February 2006 to July 2006. Upon arrival at the hospital, patients or their relatives (who used our hospital's ambulances) were interviewed with a set of questions regarding their perception of the ambulance services and were asked to rate the perception on a Likert Scale from 1 to 10. A convenient sampling method was applied. A total of 87 samples were obtained. Despite the many problems faced by the ambulance service in HUSM, the mean score for each of the questions on patient's perception ranged from 9.33 to 9.70 out of 10. The questions with the highest mean score, which were both 9.70 each, were related to staff attentiveness and staff gentleness. Patients' perceptions can be very subjective, but until further similar studies could be carried out in other parts of Malaysia, this set of data merely represents a numerical measure of public perception of the ambulance services from HUSM.

Pitch perception and production in congenital amusia: Evidence from Cantonese speakers.

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Liu, Fang; Chan, Alice H D; Ciocca, Valter; Roquet, Catherine; Peretz, Isabelle; Wong, Patrick C M

2016-07-01

This study investigated pitch perception and production in speech and music in individuals with congenital amusia (a disorder of musical pitch processing) who are native speakers of Cantonese, a tone language with a highly complex tonal system. Sixteen Cantonese-speaking congenital amusics and 16 controls performed a set of lexical tone perception, production, singing, and psychophysical pitch threshold tasks. Their tone production accuracy and singing proficiency were subsequently judged by independent listeners, and subjected to acoustic analyses. Relative to controls, amusics showed impaired discrimination of lexical tones in both speech and non-speech conditions. They also received lower ratings for singing proficiency, producing larger pitch interval deviations and making more pitch interval errors compared to controls. Demonstrating higher pitch direction identification thresholds than controls for both speech syllables and piano tones, amusics nevertheless produced native lexical tones with comparable pitch trajectories and intelligibility as controls. Significant correlations were found between pitch threshold and lexical tone perception, music perception and production, but not between lexical tone perception and production for amusics. These findings provide further evidence that congenital amusia is a domain-general language-independent pitch-processing deficit that is associated with severely impaired music perception and production, mildly impaired speech perception, and largely intact speech production.

None-Native University Students’ Perception of Plagiarism

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Ummul Khair Ahmad

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Plagiarism is a complex issue especially among non-native students and it has received a lot of attention from researchers and scholars of academic writing. Some scholars attribute this problem to cultural perceptions and different attitudes toward texts. This study evaluates student perception of different aspects of plagiarism. A small group of postgraduate students in a Malaysian university were asked to categorize ten cases of plagiarism instances. They were also asked to identify plagiarized paraphrased versions of five excerpts of different source texts provided. The findings showed that students had misconceptions about different aspect of plagiarism including citation conventions, collusion, using another writer’s idea, and style of writing. Further analysis has shown that students were aware that plagiarism is wrong but they could not correctly identify the multiple forms in which plagiarism could happen. These findings indicate that students need to be taught and exposed to various forms and layers of plagiarism so that they would know how best to avoid it in their own writing.

Impact of smokeless tobacco packaging on perceptions and beliefs among youth, young adults, and adults in the U.S: findings from an internet-based cross-sectional survey

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

products. Conclusion These results suggest that SLT pack characteristics have a measurable effect on perceptions of health risk and product appeal. Future research should assess these findings in the context of harm reduction. Specifically, research is needed to determine whether pack elements on SLT products can effectively convey risk and harm. PMID:24433301

Elementary school students' perceptions of stuttering: A mixed model approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Panico, James; Healey, E Charles; Knopik, Jennifer

2015-09-01

Past research studies have focused on perceptions of stuttering by various age groups and only a few have examined how children react to a peer who stutters. All of these studies used a quantitative analysis but only one included a qualitative analysis of elementary school age children's responses to stuttering. The aim of this study was to further explore the perceptions of elementary school students toward a peer who stutters using both quantitative and qualitative analyses of three levels of stuttering. Participants included 88 elementary school children between 8 and 12 years of age. Each participant viewed one of four audiovisual samples of a peer producing fluent speech and mild, moderate, and severe simulated stuttering. Each participant then rated five Likert statements and answered three open-ended questions. Quantitative and qualitative results indicated that negative ratings and the percentage of negative comments increased as the frequency of stuttering increased. However, the children in this study indicated that they were comfortable listening to stuttering and would be comfortable making friends with the peer who stutters. The findings of this study together with past research in this area should help clinicians and their clients appreciate the range of social and emotional reactions peers have of a child who stutters. After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (a) discuss past research regarding children's perceptions of stuttering; (b) summarize the need to explore the perceptions of elementary-aged children toward a peer who stutters; (c) describe the major quantitative and qualitative findings of children's perceptions of stuttering; and (d) discuss the need for disseminating more information about stuttering to children and teachers. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Explaining public satisfaction with health-care systems: findings from a nationwide survey in China.

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Munro, Neil; Duckett, Jane

2016-06-01

To identify factors associated with health-care system satisfaction in China. Recent research suggests that socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported health, income and insurance, ideological beliefs, health-care utilization, media use and perceptions of services may affect health-care system satisfaction, but the relative importance of these factors is poorly understood. New data from China offer the opportunity to test theories about the sources of health-care system satisfaction. Stratified nationwide survey sample analysed using multilevel logistic regression. 3680 Chinese adults residing in family dwellings between 1 November 2012 and 17 January 2013. Satisfaction with the way the health-care system in China is run. We find only weak associations between satisfaction and socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported health and income. We do, however, find that satisfaction is strongly associated with having insurance and belief in personal responsibility for meeting health-care costs. We also find it is negatively associated with utilization, social media use, perceptions of access as unequal and perceptions of service providers as unethical. To improve satisfaction, Chinese policymakers - and their counterparts in countries with similar health-care system characteristics - should improve insurance coverage and the quality of health services, and tackle unethical medical practices. © 2015 The Authors. Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Improving index mutual fund risk perception : Increase financial literacy or communicate better?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Goeij, Peter; Van Campenhout, Geert; Subotic, Marjana

2017-01-01

We investigate the effect of financial literacy and index mutual fund risk disclosure format on investors’ risk perception by examining the risk disclosure part in the Key Investor Information Document (KIID) for UCITS funds in Europe. Using an experimental survey administered to 244 university

Perceptions of trust in physician-managers.

Science.gov (United States)

Cregård, Anna; Eriksson, Nomie

2015-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dual role of physician-managers through an examination of perceptions of trust and distrust in physician-managers. The healthcare sector needs physicians to lead. Physicians in part-time managerial positions who continue their medical practice are called part-time physician-managers. This paper explores this dual role through an examination of perceptions of trust and distrust in physician-managers. The study takes a qualitative research approach in which interviews and focus group discussions with physician-managers and nurse-managers provide the empirical data. An analytical model, with the three elements of ability, benevolence and integrity, was used in the analysis of trust and distrust in physician-managers. The respondents (physician-managers and nurse-managers) perceived both an increase and a decrease in physicians' trust in the physician-managers. Because elements of distrust were more numerous and more severe than elements of trust, the physician-managers received negative perceptions of their role. This paper's findings are based on perceptions of perceptions. The physicians were not interviewed on their trust and distrust of physician-managers. The healthcare sector must pay attention to the diverse expectations of the physician-manager role that is based on both managerial and medical logics. Hospital management should provide proper support to physician-managers in their dual role to ensure their willingness to continue to assume managerial responsibilities. The paper takes an original approach in its research into the dual role of physician-managers who work under two conflicting logics: the medical logic and the managerial logic. The focus on perceived trust and distrust in physician-managers is a new perspective on this complicated role.

Assessing instructor intervention upon the perceptions, attitudes, and anxieties of community college biology students toward cooperative learning

Science.gov (United States)

Gafford, Kenneth Allen

The differences between two experimental groups using cooperative learning activities were examined during the initial eight weeks of a biology course. While both groups participated in the same cooperative learning activities, only one group received deliberate instructor interventions. These interventions were designed to help students think positively about working in cooperative learning groups while alleviating anxiety toward cooperative learning. Initially, all students were uncomfortable and reported trouble staying focused during cooperative learning. The final quantitative results indicated that the group who received the interventions had more positive perceptions toward cooperative learning but their attitudes and anxiety levels showed no significant difference from the non-intervention group; advantages occurred specifically for thinking on task, student engagement, perceptions of task importance, and best levels of challenge and skill. Intervention participants had a higher mean score on the class exam administered during the eight-week study but it was not significantly different. Qualitative data revealed that the intervention participants experienced greater overall consequence, mainly in the areas of engagement, believed skill, and self-worth. According to flow theory, when students are actively engaged, the probability of distraction by fears and unrelated ideas is reduced, for instance, how they are perceived by others. These findings corroborate constructivist theories, particularly the ones relative to students working in cooperative groups. Researchers should continue to use appropriate methods to further explore how students of various abilities and developmental levels are affected by their perceptions, attitudes, and anxieties relative to different instructional contexts. Given the highly contextual nature of students' learning and motivation, researchers need to examine a number of meaningful questions by comparing students' perceptions

How Fear-Arousing News Messages Affect Risk Perceptions and Intention to Talk About Risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Paek, Hye-Jin; Oh, Sang-Hwa; Hove, Thomas

2016-09-01

Building on the theoretical arguments of the impersonal-impact and differential-impact hypotheses, this study has a twofold purpose: first, to demonstrate how fear-arousing media messages about risk are associated with personal-level risk perception, as well as, and perhaps more so than, societal-level risk perception; and second, to examine how the resulting risk perceptions can mediate intention to talk about the risk with family and friends. A news message evaluation study was conducted among the general public in South Korea concerning two major risks, carcinogens and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Two sets of structural equation models reveal three main findings: (a) Fear-arousing news messages are positively related to personal-level risk perception, as well as to societal-level risk perception; (b) fear-arousing news messages result in intention to talk about the risk directly and indirectly through risk perception; and (c) personal-level risk perception appears more strongly related to intention to talk than does societal-level risk perception, although such relationships may vary across risk topics.

Seeing mental states: An experimental strategy for measuring the observability of other minds

Science.gov (United States)

Becchio, Cristina; Koul, Atesh; Ansuini, Caterina; Bertone, Cesare; Cavallo, Andrea

2018-03-01

Is it possible to perceive others' mental states? Are mental states visible in others' behavior? In contrast to the traditional view that mental states are hidden and not directly accessible to perception, in recent years a phenomenologically-motivated account of social cognition has emerged: direct social perception. However, despite numerous published articles that both defend and critique direct perception, researchers have made little progress in articulating the conditions under which direct perception of others' mental states is possible. This paper proposes an empirically anchored approach to the observability of others' mentality - not just in the weak sense of discussing relevant empirical evidence for and against the phenomenon of interest, but also, and more specifically, in the stronger sense of identifying an experimental strategy for measuring the observability of mental states and articulating the conditions under which mental states are observable. We conclude this article by reframing the problem of direct perception in terms of establishing a definable and measurable relationship between movement features and perceived mental states.

Marketing norm perception among medical representatives in Indian pharmaceutical industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Nagashekhara, Molugulu; Agil, Syed Omar Syed; Ramasamy, Ravindran

2012-03-01

Study of marketing norm perception among medical representatives is an under-portrayed component that deserves further perusal in the pharmaceutical industry. The purpose of this study is to find out the perception of marketing norms among medical representatives. The research design is quantitative and cross sectional study with medical representatives as unit of analysis. Data is collected from medical representatives (n=300) using a simple random and cluster sampling using a structured questionnaire. Results indicate that there is no difference in the perception of marketing norms among male and female medical representatives. But there is a difference in opinion among domestic and multinational company's medical representatives. Educational back ground of medical representatives also shows the difference in opinion among medical representatives. Degree holders and multinational company medical representatives have high perception of marketing norms compare to their counterparts. The researchers strongly believe that mandatory training on marketing norms is beneficial in decision making process during the dilemmas in the sales field.

Flood Realities, Perceptions and the Depth of Divisions on Climate

Science.gov (United States)

Hamilton, Lawrence C; Wake, Cameron P; Hartter, Joel; Safford, Thomas G; Puchlopek, Alli J

2016-01-01

Research has led to broad agreement among scientists that anthropogenic climate change is happening now and likely to worsen. In contrast to scientific agreement, US public views remain deeply divided, largely along ideological lines. Science communication has been neutralised in some arenas by intense counter-messaging, but as adverse climate impacts become manifest they might intervene more persuasively in local perceptions. We look for evidence of this occurring with regard to realities and perceptions of flooding in the northeastern US state of New Hampshire. Although precipitation and flood damage have increased, with ample news coverage, most residents do not see a trend. Nor do perceptions about past and future local flooding correlate with regional impacts or vulnerability. Instead, such perceptions follow ideological patterns resembling those of global climate change. That information about the physical world can be substantially filtered by ideology is a common finding from sociological environment/society research. PMID:27818533

The Linked Dual Representation model of vocal perception and production

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Sean eHutchins

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The voice is one of the most important media for communication, yet there is a wide range of abilities in both the perception and production of the voice. In this article, we review this range of abilities, focusing on pitch accuracy as a particularly informative case, and look at the factors underlying these abilities. Several classes of models have been posited describing the relationship between vocal perception and production, and we review the evidence for and against each class of model. We look at how the voice is different from other musical instruments and review evidence about both the association and the dissociation between vocal perception and production abilities. Finally, we introduce the Linked Dual Representation model, a new approach which can account for the broad patterns in prior findings, including trends in the data which might seem to be countervailing. We discuss how this model interacts with higher-order cognition and examine its predictions about several aspects of vocal perception and production.

Local delivery of nimodipine by prolonged-release microparticles-feasibility, effectiveness and dose-finding in experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage.

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Daniel Hänggi

Full Text Available BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of locally applied nimodipine prolonged-release microparticles on angiographic vasospasm and secondary brain injury after experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH. METHODS: 70 male Wistar rats were categorized into three groups: 1 sham operated animals (control, 2 animals with SAH only (control and the 3 treatment group. SAH was induced using the double hemorrhage model. The treatment group received different concentrations (20%, 30% or 40% of nimodipine microparticles. Angiographic vasospasm was assessed 5 days later using digital subtraction angiography (DSA. Histological analysis of frozen sections was performed using H&E-staining as well as Iba1 and MAP2 immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: DSA images were sufficient for assessment in 42 animals. Severe angiographic vasospasm was present in group 2 (SAH only, as compared to the sham operated group (p<0.001. Only animals within group 3 and the highest nimodipine microparticles concentration (40% as well as group 1 (sham demonstrated the largest intracranial artery diameters. Variation in vessel calibers, however, did not result in differences in Iba-1 or MAP2 expression, i.e. in histological findings for secondary brain injury. CONCLUSIONS: Local delivery of high-dose nimodipine prolonged-release microparticles at high concentration resulted in significant reduction in angiographic vasospasm after experimental SAH and with no histological signs for matrix toxicity.

Theoretical approaches to lightness and perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Gilchrist, Alan

2015-01-01

Theories of lightness, like theories of perception in general, can be categorized as high-level, low-level, and mid-level. However, I will argue that in practice there are only two categories: one-stage mid-level theories, and two-stage low-high theories. Low-level theories usually include a high-level component and high-level theories include a low-level component, the distinction being mainly one of emphasis. Two-stage theories are the modern incarnation of the persistent sensation/perception dichotomy according to which an early experience of raw sensations, faithful to the proximal stimulus, is followed by a process of cognitive interpretation, typically based on past experience. Like phlogiston or the ether, raw sensations seem like they must exist, but there is no clear evidence for them. Proximal stimulus matches are postperceptual, not read off an early sensory stage. Visual angle matches are achieved by a cognitive process of flattening the visual world. Likewise, brightness (luminance) matches depend on a cognitive process of flattening the illumination. Brightness is not the input to lightness; brightness is slower than lightness. Evidence for an early (perception, the many claims tend to fall apart upon close inspection of the evidence. Much of the evidence for the current revival of the 'new look' is probably better explained by (1) a natural desire of (some) subjects to please the experimenter, and (2) the ease of intuiting an experimental hypothesis. High-level theories of lightness are overkill. The visual system does not need to know the amount of illumination, merely which surfaces share the same illumination. This leaves mid-level theories derived from the gestalt school. Here the debate seems to revolve around layer models and framework models. Layer models fit our visual experience of a pattern of illumination projected onto a pattern of reflectance, while framework models provide a better account of illusions and failures of constancy

MAS Integration and Controllership Effectiveness: Evidence of a Preparer-User Perception Gap

OpenAIRE

Weißenberger, Barbara E.; Angelkort, Hendrik; Holthoff, Gero

2012-01-01

Recent evidence suggests that managers establish a positive link between management accounting system (MAS) integration and controllership effectiveness, which is fully mediated by the perceived consistency of financial language. Our paper extends this research by analyzing whether controllers have similar perceptions on MAS design. Testing a series of multi-group structural equation models, we find evidence for a preparer-user perception gap with respect to the mediating impact of a consiste...

Investigating ethnic minorities' perceptions of safety climate in the construction industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Chan, Albert P C; Wong, Francis K W; Hon, Carol K H; Lyu, Sainan; Javed, Arshad Ali

2017-12-01

An increasing number of ethnic minorities (EMs) have been employed in the construction industry to alleviate severe labor shortages in many countries. Unfortunately, statistics show that EMs have higher fatal and non-fatal occupational injury rates than their local counterparts. However, EMs are often underrepresented in safety climate (SC) research as they are difficult to reach and gauge their perception. A positive relationship has been widely found between SC and safety performance. Understanding the safety perceptions of EMs helps to reduce injuries and improve their safety performance. Based on a sample of 320 EMs from 20 companies in the construction industry, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to identify the SC factors of EMs, and validate the extracted factors, respectively. Multivariate analysis of variance was undertaken to examine mean differences in perceptions of SC by personal characteristics. Three SC factors for EMs encapsulating 16 variables were identified through EFA. The hypothesized CFA model for a three-factor structure derived from EFA showed a satisfactory goodness-of-fit, composite reliability, and construct validity. Three SC factors were identified, namely: (a) safety management commitment, safety resources, and safety communication; (b) employee's involvement and workmate's influence; and (c) perception of safety rules, procedures and risks. The perceptions of SC differed significantly by nationality, marital status, the number of family members supported, and drinking habit. This study reveals the perception of EMs toward SC. The findings highlight the areas for safety improvement and provide leading indicators for safety performance of EMs. The findings are also enlightening for countries with a number of EMs, such as the United Sates, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and the Middle East. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Qualification Users' Perceptions and Experiences of Assessment Reliability

Science.gov (United States)

Chamberlain, Suzanne

2013-01-01

This paper presents the findings of a study designed to explore qualification users' perceptions and experiences of reliability in the context of national assessment outcomes in England. The study consisted of 17 focus groups conducted across six sectors of qualification users: students, teachers, trainee teachers, job-seekers, employers and…

Impact of an educational program on nursing students’ caring and self-perception in intensive clinical training in Jordan

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Khouri RI

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Rawda KhouriAl Hussein Bin Talal University, Princess Aisha Bint Al Hussein College Of Nursing, Ma’an, JordanBackground: Framing and development of clinical skills in nursing students during their clinical practice is critical because this can shape their future caring skills. Professional caring empowers patients and contributes to their well-being and health. Education may enhance the capacity of nurses to be effective caring practitioners. Their study program encourages caring behavior in nursing students, consequently affecting their professional self-perception.Methods: The present study investigated the effect of an educational program on caring behavior and professional self-perception in nursing students using a controlled pre/post test study design. The study sample consisted of 50 nursing students undertaking their final year in 2010–2011. Subjects were randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group. The study was conducted in two critical care units affiliated to the Ma’an and Queen Rania hospitals in the south of Jordan. The instruments utilized were the Caring Dimensions Inventory, Nursing Students Attitude Observational Checklist, and Professional Self-Concept of Nurses Instrument.Results: The study findings favor the effect of the educational program because there was increased knowledge and understanding of caring theory and related concepts, a more holistic approach to care, enhanced caring practices, and improved self-perception in the study group compared with the control group during different periods of assessment. The study group showed significantly better caring perception in psychological, technical, and professional terms than the control group during different periods of assessment. There was a significant positive trend of overall professional self-perception for the study group compared with the control group.Conclusion: Nursing curricula should incorporate concepts and principles that guide

Perceptions on Multimedia technology by College of Education Teachers

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Nachi Muthu

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Multimedia means, combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video and interactivity content forms delivered electronically. e-learning is a process and e-content is a product. The objectives of the study are to find out the significant relationship between the college of education teachers’ perception towards multimedia technology on the basis of gender wise, locality wise, maritial wise, subject wise, technical skill wise, experience wise and possessing degree wise. Evaluation of Multimedia Perception scale (EMPS developed by the investigator with a relaibility of 0.89 and it collected 350 teachers from Tamil Nadu State of Indian Context. From the analysis, there is no significant differences between the perceptions of multimedia technology in terms of gender, locality and maritial status. The same perception was rejected on the basis of  subject, technical skills, higher degree level and their experiences. The quality of learning depends not only on the form of how the process is carried out but also on what content is taught and how the content is presented.

A Questionnaire-Based Study on the Perceptions of Canadian Seniors About Cognitive, Social, and Psychological Benefits of Digital Games.

Science.gov (United States)

Duplàa, Emmanuel; Kaufman, David; Sauvé, Louise; Renaud, Lise

2017-06-01

This study explored the perceptions of seniors who play digital games on the potential benefits of these games and on the factors associated with these perceptions. We developed and administered a questionnaire to a sample of 590 Canadian seniors in British Columbia and Quebec that addressed demographics, digital game practices, and perceived benefits. Results of administering the questionnaire showed that cognitive benefits were reported more frequently than social or psychological benefits. First language and gender were associated with the benefits reported, with fewer Francophones and women reporting benefits. The most important factor found was whether or not they played online, as playing online was associated with greater perceptions of social, as well as cognitive, benefits. Social and cognitive benefits are reported by seniors from playing digital games and should be investigated through future experimental and quasi-experimental research.