The article describes the question of trust and credibility of university teachers, i.e. fulfilling the expectations and obligations towards students who have placed their trust in the teachers. It focuses on the importance of credibility understood as expectations concerning relations. The discussion aims at presenting of the significance of academic teachers’ credibility for students and finding the answer to the question about the basis on which the teachers’ credibility is evaluated in students’ opinion. The conclusions base on the analysis of (...) the subject literature and the author’s own research results. The article explains the notions of trust, credibility and expectations, discusses ideas and various meanings of a trusted person’s credibility. The author refers to the theoretical model of trust by P. Sztompka, particularly credibility as a relation, as well as classification of credibility as instrumental, moral and care-taking one basing on characteristics of expectations and obligations. The research results exemplify the fulfilled and unfulfilled expectations of students on the basis of which the author attempts to create a system of expectations referring to the mentioned above credibility variants. Conclusions point to mutual benefits following from the fact that a university teacher is credible in the opinion of students. The area under discussion seems to be particularly interesting as credibility is a model of the interpersonal capital and the credibility capital in turn defines the notion of authority. (shrink)

Intrauterine insemination is one of many treatments provided to infertility patients. Many factors such as, but not limited to, quality of semen, the age of a woman, and reproductive hormone levels contribute to infertility. Therefore, the aim of our study is to establish a statistical probability concerning the prediction of which groups of patients have a very good or poor prognosis for pregnancy after IUI insemination. For that purpose, we compare the results of two analyses: Cluster Analysis and Kohonen Neural (...) Networks. The k-means algorithm from the clustering methods was the best to use for selecting patients with a good prognosis but the Kohonen Neural Networks was better for selecting groups of patients with the lowest chances for pregnancy. (shrink)

Can social phenomena be understood by analyzing their parts? Contemporary economic theory often assumes that they can. The methodology of constructing models which trace the behavior of perfectly rational agents in idealized environments rests on the premise that such models, while restricted, help us isolate tendencies, that is, the stable separate effects of economic causes that can be used to explain and predict economic phenomena. In this paper, I question both the claim that models in economics supply claims about tendencies (...) and also the view that economics, when successful, necessarily follows this method. When economics licenses successful policy interventions, as it did in the case of the Federal Communications Commission spectrum auctions, its method is not to study tendencies but rather to study the phenomenon as a whole. Key Words: economic models • tendencies • economic experiments • policy making • John Stuart Mill. (shrink)

The ability to be creative is often considered a unique characteristic of conscious beings and many efforts have been directed at demonstrating a relationship between creativity and the personality construct of psychoticism. The present study sought to investigate this link explicitly by focusing on discrete facets of creative cognition, namely the originality/novelty dimension and the practicality/usefulness dimension. Based on Eysenck’s conceptualisation of psychoticism as being characterised by an overinclusive cognitive style, it was expected that higher levels of psychoticism would accompany (...) a greater degree of conceptual expansion and elevated levels of originality in creative imagery, but would be unrelated to the practicality/usefulness of an idea. These hypotheses were confirmed in 80 healthy participants who were contrasted based on their EPQ psychoticism scale scores. Our findings suggest that the link between psychoticism and creativity is based on associative thinking and broader but weak top-down activation patterns rather than on goal-related thinking. (shrink)

This article presents the pedagogical paradigm of reflexive interaction and its application in the field of technology-enhanced learning and children’s musical creativity. The main feature of reflexive interaction is the repetition-variation mechanism: something is repeated and varied during the interaction, through a continual process of imitation and variation. In the context of the MIROR project (EU-ICT Project), we exploited the educational potential of the reflexive interaction paradigm and implemented the MIROR platform, an educational device consisting of a set of softwares (...) that implement the reflexive paradigm not only in music improvisation (as was the case for the first interactive reflexive system), but also in the field of music composition and dance. The platform was conceived as a tool to stimulate and develop musical and motor creativity in children, although it can also be used to teach a specific musical instrument. The hypothesis of the MIROR project was that reflexive interaction sustains and promotes the learning and creative expression processes of music and movement. This initial hypothesis, which stemmed mainly from the pilot study in which we observed children who were interacting with the first prototype of the interactive reflexive musical system, was subjected to a series of empirical studies conducted within the MIROR project, and was theoretically defined in order to lay down the foundations of the reflexive interaction paradigm and its pedagogical implications. This article summarizes the state-of-the-art of the project and brings together, in a comprehensive overview, the theoretical framework, the pedagogical concepts, the empirical studies, and the description of the MIROR platform, with the aim to reflect on the results achieved so far and point out the contribution of the reflexive perspective to the field of children’s instrumental learning and creativity. (shrink)

Tematem niniejszego artykułu jest próba odpowiedzi na pytanie, czy i jak zmienił się język niemiecki pod wpływem jego feministycznej krytyki. Wtym celu autorka analizuje dwa pochodzące z tygodnika "Der Spiegel" artykuły, z których jeden - Grete im Wunderland - ukazał się w 1996 roku, a drugi - Die Alpha-Mädchen - w roku 2007. Prezentowana ananliza opiera się na zainicjowanej przez Trömel-Plötz w 1978 r. feministycznej krytyce języka niemieckiego oraz postulowanych przez wyżej wymienioną oraz Louise F. Pusch zmianach tegoż języka.

Foreword from the Guest Editor to the special issue of Diametros – “Enlightenment and Secularism.”.

dwarfs loved Snow White). We report here results from two experiments with young speakers of Modern Greek which support the opposite conclusion: namely, that..

Recent research has demonstrated an asymmetry between the origins and endpoints of motion events, with preferential attention given to endpoints rather than beginnings of motion in both language and memory. Two experiments explore this asymmetry further and test its implications for language production and comprehension. Experiment 1 shows that both adults and 4-year-old children detect fewer within-category changes in source than goal objects when tested for memory of motion events; furthermore, these groups produce fewer references to source than goal objects (...) when describing the same motion events. Experiment 2 asks whether the specificity of encoding source/goal relations differs in both spatial memory and the comprehension of novel spatial vocabulary. Results show that endpoint configuration changes are detected more accurately than source configuration changes by both adults and young children. Furthermore, when interpreting novel motion verbs, both age groups expect more fine-grained lexical distinctions in the domain of endpoint configurations compared to that of source configurations. These studies demonstrate that a cognitive-attentional bias in spatial representation and memory affects both the detail of linguistic encoding during the use of spatial language and the specificity of hypotheses about spatial referents that learners build during the acquisition of the spatial lexicon. (shrink)

Anna Ribera Carbó es investigadora titular de tiempo completo en la Dirección de Estudios Históricos del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) desde 1992. Licenciada, Maestra y Doctora en Historia por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Miembro del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores. Imparte clases de Historia de México e Historia de las Culturas en preparatoria desde 1987. Se ha especializado en la historia política y social mexicana de la primera mitad del siglo XX. Ha publicado artículos en (...) revistas nacionales y extranjeras, así como capítulos en libros colectivos. Editora de los apuntes personales del general Francisco J. Múgica, publicados en la colección “Memorias Mexicanas” del Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes y autora de los libros La patria ha podido ser flor. Francisco J. Múgica, una biografía política (1999) y La Casa del Obrero Mundial. Anarcosindicalismo y revolución en México (2010) publicados por el INAH. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to show the activities of the non-governmental organization ‘Memorial’ that are aimed at building historical memory and developing civic awareness of state terror and crimes committed by the communist regime. ‘Memorial’ also aims to show the politics of memory pursued by the Russian authorities after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The questions "What is the purpose of religious ethics?" and "What is the rationale behind the field?" are addressed in this research study. The aim of research is determining the ethics and divinity the research study also explain the moral philosophy through the lens of religious traditions in the European context. It first illustrates how Christian ethicists have provided justifications for conducting research in the area to pinpoint an Anti-Reductive Paradigm that an Egalitarian Imperative informs. The work in the sector (...) is guided by that imperative, which serves as a thin, minimal morality of equality and inclusivity. Second, the essay examines the goals of the field. Here, the emphasis moves from values that influence the field's practices to values that can characterize the goals of the field. The research study based on philosophical theories also that explain the traditions context related to religious. This change necessitates that we consider a thick morality rather than a thin one that prioritizes substantive virtues over procedural ones. Within the framework of Critical Humanism, the essay presents a practical, significant idea. The study of religious ethics is justified by critical humanism as an endeavour to broaden one's moral imagination by exposing oneself to diversity. Four ideals influence it: environmental responsibility, social critique, post-critical thinking, and cross-cultural fluency. Third, the paper explains how to relate these goals to the flimsy morality of equality and inclusion, unifying the argument's two halves. The research study goal is to make us consider the power of scholarship in the guild and morals, which is why it focuses on the politics and ethics of religious ethics. (shrink)

The main theme of the paper is the role of the mass media in the production, creation, retention, protection and defense of a social order, or in carrying out revisions, or cosmetic and extensive changes to it. In the first section, the author explains the Power of the Mass Media by looking at Foucauldian leprosy/plague management. The second part, Docile Mass Media Producers Under Panoptic Control, deals with the routinization of the mass media craft. Finally, the Social Order of Docile (...) Individuals who Feel Freedom takes a closer look at the social order and how it is created by mass media producers (as professionals in their craft). (shrink)

A series of five experiments investigated the extent of subliminal processing of negation. Participants were presented with a subliminal instruction to either pick or not pick an accompanying noun, followed by a choice of two nouns. By employing subjective measures to determine individual thresholds of subliminal priming, the results of these studies indicated that participants were able to identify the correct noun of the pair – even when the correct noun was specified by negation. Furthermore, using a grey-scale contrast method (...) of masking, Experiment 5 confirmed that these priming effects were evidenced in the absence of partial awareness, and without the effect being attributed to the retrieval of stimulus–response links established during conscious rehearsal. (shrink)

In the 21st century what the future holds for young learners is unclear, what is clear is that they need to be confident, capable and resilient. As wider communication about education is increasing there is a developing understanding that children in settings across the globe learn in the same ways and have the same needs. This book considers international and multicultural learning environments from both theoretical and practical perspectives, written by specialists in early years education in the UK and in (...) international contexts. The theoretical perspectives are supported by eight case studies, from Uganda, Indonesia, Mexico, Qatar, Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom and Romania. (shrink)