The purpose of the study was twofold: Experiment 1 tested the possibility that the mere recollection of food aroused a state of hunger and that different types of food influenced the state of hunger differently; Experiment 2 tested the possibility that food cues affected altruistic behavior. In Experiment 1, 28 participants reported how hungry they felt before and after their recollection of certain foods. Results suggest that recollection of food increased hunger and that the type of food influenced the degree (...) of hunger = 31.88, p <.001, η2 =.54). In Experiment 2, 63 participants were randomly assigned to one of three recollection conditions: noodles, pudding, and control. Participants in the two conditions described each food in detail; control group participants did not. Participants were then asked how much they would be willing to participate in an ostensible experiment. Results indicate that recollection-induced hunger reduced altruistic behavior = 4.11, p =.021, η2 =.12). Cue reactivity theory and the hierarchy of needs could explain these results. (shrink)

BackgroundThe objective of this study was to describe, through measurement of physical activity and observation of free outdoor play, the relation between children’s free play and the spatial layout of the playground. To accomplish this, we altered the spatial layout of the same playground to see how the layout affects the play activity and the physical activity levels in the same children.MethodsParticipants were six young children. Participants’ physical activity level and the duration of different types of action that occurred in (...) each area and their transitions were compared before and after the alteration of the play-equipment layout using the data from accelerometers and video recordings.ResultsA significant increase in physical activity occurred after the spatial layout alteration, which was related to action differences. Before the alteration, children tended to play in a similar manner for a given play area; however, after the alteration, pronounced interindividual variation in play activity across children was observed.ConclusionThe present pilot study found that in free play situations in the outdoor playground, the spatial layout of playground affects the pattern of play activity and the physical activity levels of young children. (shrink)

Japanese English learners have difficulty speaking Double Object than Prepositional Object structures which neural underpinning is unknown. In speaking, syntactic and phonological processing follow semantic encoding, conversion of non-verbal mental representation into a structure suitable for expression. To test whether DO difficulty lies in linguistic or prelinguistic process, we conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging. Thirty participants described cartoons using DO or PO, or simply named them. Greater reaction times and error rates indicated DO difficulty. DO compared with PO showed parieto-frontal (...) activation including left inferior frontal gyrus, reflecting linguistic process. Psychological priming in PO produced immediately after DO and vice versa compared to after control, indicated shared process between PO and DO. Cross-structural neural repetition suppression was observed in occipito-parietal regions, overlapping the linguistic system in pre-SMA. Thus DO and PO share prelinguistic process, whereas linguistic process imposes overload in DO. (shrink)

Uma característica distintiva das sociedades da modernidade tardia é a extensão significativa a qual estas são dependentes do conhecimento para seu funcionamento. Contrário a como o conhecimento era visto nas sociedades pré-modernas, o conhecimento agora tende a ser entendido como informação, isto é, consistindo em representações objetificadas, mercantilizadas, abstratas e descontextualizadas. A superabundância de informação na modernidade tardia torna a sociedade da informação cheia de tentações. Isso nos leva a pensar que o conhecimento como informação é objetivo e existe independentemente (...) dos seres humanos; que tudo pode ser reduzido à informação; e que a geração de quantidades cada vez maiores de informações aumentará a transparência da sociedade e, portanto, levará ao gerenciamento racional de problemas sociais. No entanto, como discutido neste artigo, a sociedade da informação está repleta de paradoxos que a impedem de satisfazer as tentações que cria. Mais informações podem levar a menos compreensão; mais informações podem enfraquecer a confiança; e mais informações podem tornar a sociedade menos racionalmente governável. Essas reivindicações são ilustradas com exemplos do Reino Unido e dos Estados Unidos. (shrink)