Why do we draw the boundaries between “blue” and “green”, where we do? One proposed answer to this question is that we categorize color the way we do because we perceive color categorically. Starting in the 1950’s, the phenomenon of “categorical perception” (CP) encouraged such a response. CP refers to the fact that adjacent color patches are more easily discriminated when they straddle a category boundary than when they belong to the same category. In this paper, I make three (...) related claims. (1) Although what seems to guide discrimination performances seems to indeed be categorical information, the evidence in favor of the fact that categorical perception infl uences the way we perceive color is not convincing. (2) That CP offers a useful account of categorization is not obvious.While aiming at accounting for categorization, CP itself requires an account of categories. This being said, CP remains an interesting phenomenon. Why and how is our discrimination behavior linked to our categories? It is suggested that linguistic labels determine CP through a naming strategy to which participants resort while discriminating colors. This paper’s fi nal point is (3) that the naming strategy account is not enough. Beyond category labels, what seems to guide discrimination performance is category structure. (shrink)

This paper presents a cross-sectional study that demonstrates how King Abdulaziz University has responded to the lockdown imposed by the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of students and faculty towards assessment that had to take place online due to physical or social distancing rules and lockdowns. A descriptive mixed-method study was conducted with two different self-administered questionnaires that were developed for students and faculty, (...) respectively. A total of 547 responses were received from undergraduate students and 213 from faculty. The main finding suggests the need for a multilevel approach to the problems of cheating and plagiarism, including raising student awareness and ethics, training teachers to detect cheating methods, and institutions activating their code of practice and applying severe sanctions on those who engage in such practices. (shrink)

Recent events at Enron, K-Mart, Adelphia, and Tyson would seem to suggest that managers are still experiencing ethical lapses. These lapses are somewhat surprising and disappointing given the heightened focus on ethical considerations within business contexts during the past decade. This study is designed, therefore, to increase our understanding of the forces that shape ethical perceptions by considering the effects of business school education as well as a number of other individual-level factors (such as intra-national culture, area of specialization within (...) business, and gender) that may exert an influence on ethical perceptions. We found significant effects for business education, self-reported intra-national culture, area of specialization within business, and gender for some and/or all areas of ethics examined (i.e., deceit, fraud, self-interest, influence dealing, and coercion). One of our most encouraging findings is that tolerance for unethical behavior appears to decrease with formal business education. Despite the prevalent stereotype that business students are only interested in the bottom line or that business schools transform idealistic freshman into self-serving business graduates, our results suggest otherwise. Given the heightened criticism of the ethicality of contemporary managerial behavior, it is heartening to note that, even as adults, individuals can be positively affected by integration of ethics training. (shrink)

IntroductionIncivility is defined as an interpersonal misconduct involving disregard for others and a violation of norms of respect . This phenomenon has been extensively investigated in workplaces . However, only a few studies have focused their attention on the academic setting, investigating both student and faculty general incivilities .While previous studies’ theoretical framework was mainly informed by organizational and psychosocial theories , this study suggests viewing incivility through the lens of justice psychology, which examines individual justice concerns . According to (...) this theory, in order to understand psychological processes, individual experiences should be considered alongside objective environmental conditions . Drawing on justice psychology, the way students in .. (shrink)

Field dependence-independence (FDI) is a widely studied dimension of cognitive styles designed to measure an individual’s ability to identify embedded parts of an organized visual field as entities separate from that given field. The research aims to determine whether the brain activity features that are considered to be perceptual switching indicators could serve as robust features, differentiating Field-Dependent (FD) from Field-Independent (FI) participants. Previous research suggests that various features derived from event related potentials (ERP) and frequency features are associated with (...) the perceptual reversal occurring during the observation of a bistable image. In this study, we combined these features in the context of a different experimental scheme using ambiguous and unambiguous stimuli during participants’ perceptual observations. We assessed the participants’ FD-I classification with the use of the Hidden Figures Test (HFT). Results show that the peak amplitude of the frontoparietal positivity, the late positive deflection in frontal and parietal areas, is higher for the FD group at specific locations of the left lobe, whereas it occurs later for the FD group at the central and occipital electrodes. Additionally, the FD group exhibits higher levels of gamma power before stimulus onset at channel TP10 and higher gamma power during reversal at the right centroparietal electrodes (T8, CP6 and TP10). The peak amplitude of the reversal positivity, the positive deflection during the reversal, is higher for the FD group at the rear right lobe (P4). (shrink)

Bistable figures provide a fascinating window through which to explore human visual awareness. Here we demonstrate for the first time that the semantic context provided by a background auditory soundtrack can modulate an observer’s predominant percept while watching the bistable “my wife or my mother-in-law” figure . The possibility of a response-bias account—that participants simply reported the percept that happened to be congruent with the soundtrack that they were listening to—was excluded in Experiment 2. We further demonstrate that this crossmodal (...) semantic effect was additive with the manipulation of participants’ visual fixation , while it interacted with participants’ voluntary attention . These results indicate that audiovisual semantic congruency constrains the visual processing that gives rise to the conscious perception of bistable visual figures. Crossmodal semantic context therefore provides an important mechanism contributing to the emergence of visual awareness. (shrink)

The perception of two key stakeholders such as policymakers and scientists on genetic modification (GM) technology was examined in Ghana and Nigeria using semi-structured interviews. A total sample of 20 policymakers (16 at ministries and 4 at parliament/cabinet) and 58 scientists (43 at research institutes and 15 at universities) participated at the interviews. This study revealed respondents perspectives on potential benefits and risks of GM technology, status and development of biosafety regulatory frameworks, role of science and technology innovation in (...) agricultural development, intellectual property right and related issues. The study also shed some light on a possible influence of the European Union and United States in the development and potential adoption of GM technology. More importantly, the article suggests that most respondents including policymakers believe that GM technology has great potential to solve part of agricultural problems in both countries. But, lack of appropriate regulatory framework, lack of trained personnel, weak institutions and poor equipped laboratory among others represent a significant challenge in introducing GM technology in this part of Africa. (shrink)

It is known that issues related to destiny are among the most vivid questions and problems of religious thought and life. As far as the history of Islamic thought is concerned, it is seen that some differences of approach regarding destiny have been discussed on political and theological grounds. Because of this debate, deep divisions have emerged among Muslims rather than mutual exchange of ideas and understanding. Muslims still engage in problematic practices and thoughts caused by some wrong perceptions of (...) destiny. It is necessary to scrutinize the problematic areas in terms of the transmission of this situation from generation to generation. In this context, considering that individuals acquire their beliefs and perceptions of destiny by being influenced by environments such as family and school, it is thought that the approaches and attitudes of teachers who provide religious education in formal educational institutions towards the belief in destiny are decisive and effective on students. The subject and purpose of our study is to examine the results of teachers’ perceptions of destiny, how they are shaped and what kind of readiness they are in regarding the issue. In this study, which was conducted with a sample group consisting of teachers working at the Ministry of National Education, the perceptions of destiny of Imam Hatip High School Vocational Lessons and RCMK teachers were tested through various socio-demographic variables and questions prepared by the researcher. Imam Hatip High School Vocational Lessons and RCMK teachers’ perceptions of destiny were measured with a survey method consisting of questions that are different from each other and in which the correlation between them is tried to be kept strong and meaningful. According to the findings, it is observed that there are some problematic areas in the sample group considering the intensity of the answers given to questions such as sectarian affiliation, religious knowledge, being able to correctly interpret the basic reference sources of religion, knowing the basic concepts and approaches related to destiny and being able to use them correctly. In addition, a significant difference was found in the sample group’s approaches to some sectarian issues depending on the age variable. This shows that as a result of this and similar studies, the principles of Islamic belief should be examined in accordance with their authentic structure and the natural difference between religion and religious interpretation should be preserved. With this study, the importance of some methodological sensitivities, such as how religion and sectarian should be understood, seems to have increased further. (shrink)

Universities introduce intermediate assessment because it is understood to have positive effects on student behaviour and achievement. Yet, how intermediate assessment is perceived might be conditional for its success. The current study investigates both teachers’ and students’ perceptions of intermediate assessment. Teachers and students were interviewed and Student Evaluations of Teaching were examined. Results indicate that both teachers and students had generally positive perceptions of intermediate assessment. However, the two groups provided different reasons for their positive (...) perceptions. Teachers and students agreed that intermediate assessment helps students to keep up with their study work. Moreover, teachers mentioned that they could assess various knowledge and skills with intermediate assessment, whereas students preferred intermediate assessments to test the same knowledge and skills as the final exam. This finding suggests that teachers and students in our study had different goals... (shrink)

This paper offers a relatively comprehensive assessment of government anti-smoking policies (both taxation and other regulatory measures). I conclude that interventions to engender in smokers and prospective smokers an accurate perception of tobacco's health risks are justified, that except in the case of adolescents addiction by itself does not justify intervention beyond providing adequate information, that the proper goal of tobacco taxation policy should be to recoup only the extra costs that smokers place on others (at most a (...) $1/pack tax on cigarettes), and that passive smoke's imposition of harm on unconsenting others strongly supports at least the development of a safe-to-others smokeless cigarette, if not direct intervention. (shrink)

This study focuses on students’ learning approaches in the context of a competency‐based program on Applied Sciences, with portfolio assessment as its core mode of assessment. The study examines students’ perceptions of these assessment practices and the relationships to their learning approaches. Additionally, differences in perceptions and learning approaches between first‐year students and second‐year students, who already have one year of experience with the portfolio assessment practice, are investigated. A total of 110 students completed two questionnaires (...) at the end of the academic year: the Revised SPQ was used to measure their approaches to learning and the AEQ was used to measure their perceptions of the assessment practice. The results indicate that, when implementing portfolio assessment, feedback is essential. Moreover, it seems not to be the assessment design, but rather how it is implemented, and how students’ learning is stimulated through the assessment, that influences the quality of learning. (shrink)

Moral perception, for the purposes of this article, is taken to be the perception of moral properties, unless contexts dictate otherwise. While both particularists and generalists agree that we can perceive the moral properties of an action or a feature, they disagree, however, over whether rules play any essential role in moral perception. The particularists argue for a ‘no’ answer, whereas the generalists say ‘yes’. In this paper, I provide a limited defense of particularism by rebutting several (...) powerful generalist arguments. It is hoped particularism can thus be made more attractive as a theory of moral perception. Positive arguments for particularism will also be provided along the way. (shrink)

Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, Volume 21, Issue 2, Page 139-157, April 2022. This article examines the pedagogical potential and challenges of the design jury as an assessment method from the perceptions of the tutor/jury member and the design students. It aims to gain an understanding of the factors that create opportunities for, and barriers to, the promotion of learning in the design jury. It inquires the possible contributions of the jury into formative evaluation processes in design education. (...) The results show that the communication modalities, and the evaluation criteria influence the way tutors and students perceive design jury as a pedagogical method. While the hierarchy between the jury member and the student creates a barrier to constructive feedback, a balance between formative and summative evaluations is essential in the design jury. Transparency of evaluation criteria decreases design students’ concern for grade. The design jury could also serve for formative evaluation. A student-centred approach to design jury engenders experiences of deep learning. (shrink)

Traditional approaches to measurement of violations of academic integrity may overestimate the magnitude and severity of cheating and confound panic with planned cheating. Differences in the severity and level of premeditation of academic integrity violations have largely been unexamined. Results of a study based on a combined sample of business students showed that students are more likely to commit minor cheating offenses and engage in panic-based cheating as compared to serious and planned cheating offenses. Results also indicated there is a (...) significant interaction between severity and type of cheating. We hypothesized serious and planned cheating offenses would be related to justifications and found the largest differences were between panic and planned. Finally, panic and minor cheating were associated with two self-control-related personality traits. Implications for cheating research are discussed. (shrink)

Greenway is a kind of corridors in the city that takes natural elements as the main constituent foundation and connects open spaces with functions such as leisure and recreation. The assessment of the built greenway is a review of the past construction experiences, and it is also a supplement and improvement to the future greenway planning concept system, which has important academic and application value. This study will explore how greenway design factors influenced the local cyclists’ perception of (...) the landscape using on-site questionnaire and photo rating method. The results indicated that greenways with continuous cycling paths, high security awareness, open landscapes, and rich human activities evoke positive perceptions. Among the visual elements, natural elements such as plants and sky are more favorable than artificial elements. The research results show that the formation of greenway cyclists’ landscape imagery is affected by visual perception elements, which suggests that special consideration should be given to the laws of cyclists’ mental perception when designing greenways. (shrink)

This study investigated the effect of obstructive sleep apnea on the neural mechanism of visual perception. A preliminary case-control study was conducted. Seventeen patients with moderate to severe OSA in the sleep center of Civil Aviation General Hospital and 20 healthy controls matched for age, sex, and education were recruited. The participants accepted the perceptual contour integration task, compared the differences in behavioral indicators between the two groups, and compared the differences in electroencephalography data between the two groups through (...) event-related potential technology. The groups did not differ significantly in age and gender, but they differed significantly in body mass index. The groups were not statistically different in terms of sleep structure and total sleep time. AHI, sleep efficiency, and minimal SaO2 value in the OSA group were significantly different from those of the control group. The results showed that the average reaction time of the OSA group was significantly longer than that of the healthy control group in the contour integration task. There was no significant difference in the accuracy rate. The results of EEG showed that the amplitudes of N100 of the OSA group were significantly higher than those of the control group at O1, Oz, and O2 electrodes. There was no significant difference in latency between the two groups. At the FCz electrode, the amplitudes of N200 of the OSA group were significantly higher than those of the control group. Therefore, we concluded that in the early stage of the perceptual integration task, although the neural response activity of patients with moderate and severe OSA was not accelerated, they need to call on more psychological resources, activate more neurons in the contour global recognition processing stage, and the compensatory effect of frontal lobe appeared in the stage of visual perception. (shrink)

Governments and citizens of nearly every nation have been compelled to respond to COVID-19. Many measures have been adopted, including contact tracing and risk assessment algorithms, whereby citizen whereabouts are monitored to trace contact with other infectious individuals in order to generate a risk status via algorithmic evaluation. Based on 38 in-depth interviews, we investigate how people make sense of Health Code, the Chinese contact tracing and risk assessment algorithmic sociotechnical assemblage. We probe how people accept or resist (...) Health Code by examining their ongoing, dynamic, and relational interactions with it. Participants display a rich variety of attitudes toward privacy and surveillance, ranging from fatalism to the possibility of privacy to trade-offs for surveillance in exchange for public health, which is mediated by the perceived effectiveness of Health Code and changing views on the intentions of institutions who deploy it. We show how perceived competency varies not just on how well the technology works, but on the social and cultural enforcement of various non-technical aspects like quarantine, citizen data inputs, and cell reception. Furthermore, we illustrate how perceptions of Health Code are nested in people’s broader interpretations of disease control at the national and global level, and unexpectedly strengthen the Chinese authority’s legitimacy. None of the Chinese public, Health Code, or people’s perceptions toward Health Code are predetermined, fixed, or categorically consistent, but are co-constitutive and dynamic over time. We conclude with a theorization of a relational perception and methodological reflections to study algorithmic sociotechnical assemblages beyond COVID-19. (shrink)

Rapid Ethical Assessment (REA) is a form of rapid ethnographic assessment conducted at the beginning of research project to guide the consent process with the objective of reconciling universal ethical guidance with specific research contexts. The current study is conducted to assess the perceived relevance of introducing REA as a mainstream tool in Ethiopia.

The Body Image Questionnaire-20 (FKB-20) is one of the most applied self-report measures in the context of body image assessment in German-speaking regions. A version of the FKB-20 capturing an ideal concept of body image is also available. A special property of the scale is its high sensitivity for individuals suffering from anorexia nervosa. The present research provided a short version of this scale (for both variants) and examined its validity in a representative sample (N= 2,347) of the German (...) population. We utilized factor analysis methods to identify the optimal short scale of the measure, finding excellent model fit and reliability for a two-factor model (FKB-6) for both real and ideal body image. Both versions of the FKB-6 can be considered invariant across sex and age groups. Good reliability indices were shown for both versions of the FKB-6. The reliability indices were similar to those mentioned in previous studies. Our study also revealed, that large discrepancies between the real and an ideal body image are correlated with somatic and body dysmorphic symptoms. Finally, we provided norm values for comparisons of individual scores with the general population. The FKB-6 is a valid and a reliable measure that economizes assessments by clinicians and researchers. (shrink)

The attainment of good governance is often perceived to bringpolitical stability which in turn, facilitates sound and effective governmentadministration. In the case of Malaysia, good governance serves as the coreelement in public policy reforms. This can be seen through the implementationof National Transformation Policy which was introduced in 2010.The NTP comprises of two major plans, namely Government TransformationPlan and Economic Transformation Plan. Since its inception,the NTP has brought unprecedented changes in policy management throughthe establishment of the National Key Result Areas (...) and NationalKey Economic Areas. The NTP has been commended due to itsinclusiveness which is in line with good governance practices. The NTPaddresses fundamental policy issues in areas such as public transportation,socio-economic improvement, public sector performance and political stability.This study has revealed that the implementation of NTP has been reasonablyaccepted by many, despite nuances on the policy outcomes. The NTP embracesgood governance principles as the study confirmed the positive associationbetween these two. This transformation agenda seems to be the genesis ofMalaysia’s road to good governance. However there is still a long way to go tofully achieve the goal. (shrink)

Background Rapid Ethical Assessment is a form of rapid ethnographic assessment conducted at the beginning of research project to guide the consent process with the objective of reconciling universal ethical guidance with specific research contexts. The current study is conducted to assess the perceived relevance of introducing REA as a mainstream tool in Ethiopia. Methods Mixed methods research using a sequential explanatory approach was conducted from July to September 2012, including 241 cross-sectional, self-administered and 19 qualitative, in-depth interviews (...) among health researchers and regulators including ethics committee members in Ethiopian health research institutions and universities. Results In their evaluation of the consent process, only 40.2% thought that the consent process and information given were adequately understood by study participants; 84.6% claimed they were not satisfied with the current consent process and 85.5% thought the best interests of study participants were not adequately considered. Commonly mentioned consent-related problems included lack of clarity, inadequate information, language barriers, cultural differences, undue expectations and power imbalances. About 95.4% believed that consent should be contextualized to the study setting and 39.4% thought REA would be an appropriate approach to improve the perceived problems. Qualitative findings helped to further explore the gaps identified in the quantitative findings and to map-out concerns related to the current research consent process in Ethiopia. Suggestions included, conducting REA during the pre-test phase of studies when applicable. The need for clear guidance for researchers on issues such as when and how to apply the REA tools was stressed. Conclusion The study findings clearly indicated that there are perceived to be correctable gaps in the consent process of medical research in Ethiopia. REA is considered relevant by researchers and stakeholders to address these gaps. Exploring further the feasibility and applicability of REA is recommended. (shrink)

Perception is one of the most pervasive and puzzling problems in philosophy, generating a great deal of attention and controversy in philosophy of mind, psychology and metaphysics. If perceptual illusion and hallucination are possible, how can perception be what it intuitively seems to be, a direct and immediate access to reality? How can perception be both internally dependent and externally directed? Perception is an outstanding introduction to this fundamental topic, covering both the perennial and recent work (...) on the problem. Adam Pautz examines four of the most important theories of perception: the sense datum view; the internal physical state view; the representational view; and naïve realism, assessing each in turn. He also discusses the relationship between perception and the physical world and the issue of whether reality is as it appears. Useful examples are included throughout the book to illustrate the puzzles of perception, including hallucinations, illusions, the laws of appearance, blindsight, and neuroscientific explanations of our experience of pain, smell and color. The book covers both traditional philosophical arguments and more recent empirical arguments deriving from research in psychophysics and neuroscience. The addition of chapter summaries, suggestions for further reading and a glossary of terms make Perception essential reading for anyone studying the topic in detail, as well as for students of philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology and metaphysics. (shrink)

This study extends the examination of moral content in the media by exploring moral messages in television programming and viewer characteristics predictive of the ability to perceive such messages. Generalisability analyses confirmed the reliability of the Media’s Moral Messages (MMM) rating form for analysing programme content and the existence of 10 moral themes prevalent in television media. Standard regression analyses yielded evidence indicating viewers’ moral expertise, as measured by the Defining Issues Test (DIT), familiarity with the programme and level of (...) education predicted their ability to perceive moral messages in a television drama popular in the USA at the time of data collection. Identification of patterns in moral content represented in television programming, as well as knowledge of how viewer characteristics relate to their ability to perceive such content, can provide parents and educators with a means for better comprehending messages regarding human interaction to which they or their children are exposed. (shrink)

To have enough financial literacy, an investor must be able to make intelligent investment choices, and on the other hand, the heuristic bias, the framing effect, cognitive illusions, and herd mentality are all variables that contribute to the formation of behavioral biases, also known as illogical conduct, in the decision-making process. The current research looks specifically at behavioral biases and financial literacy influence investment choices, particularly on stock market investment. For the research, a representative sample of 450 individual investors was (...) evaluated. A structured questionnaire was designed using the Likert’s scale method to elicit the research variables, and the data acquired were analyzed using the SEM method. According to the findings, there was a statistically significant link between heuristic bias and the development of behavioral bias in decision-making. Nevertheless, cognitive illusions, the herd mentality, and the framing effect all have a deleterious impact on behavioral biases. In addition, investors often adhere to heuristic biases rather than other irrational strategies when making investment judgments. Therefore, individual investors’ financial literacy level greatly influences the choices made about investments in the stock market. (shrink)

There are two truths in this world: one of the laboratory, and the other of the media. What people perceive as the truth is truer in a democracy than some grubby little experiment in a laboratory notebook.(1).

This study examined auditors'' perceptions of the relative level of risk of fraud and material irregularities associated with the presence of six red flag factors and also evaluated the quality of auditors'' judgements. The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, subjects were asked to rank the importance of 15 factors that proxy the existence of material misstatements. Based on the responses to this questionnaire, 6 of the most important factors were identified and included in the second (...) stage, a lens model experiment. In the lens model experiment, 30 experienced auditors from a cross-section of Big 6 firms were used as subjects in a repeated-measures ANOVA design. Results showed that misstatements in prior audits and indicators of going-concern problems were perceived to be the most significant factors in alerting auditors to the risk of fraud and material irregularities. In making these judgements, auditors demonstrated a relatively high level of consensus and consistency. However, the two most important factors in the lens model experiment are not the same as the results of the first survey suggesting that the first group of respondents, faced with a simple questionnaire, used heuristics in their decision making. The results have implications for audit practice. (shrink)

Research on the cognitive consequences of bilingualism typically proceeds by labeling participants as “monolingual” or “bilingual” and comparing performance on some measures across these groups. It is well-known that this approach has led to inconsistent results. However, the approach assumes that there are clear criteria to designate individuals as monolingual or bilingual, and more fundamentally, to determine whether a communication system counts as a unique language. Both of these assumptions may not be correct. The problem is particularly acute when participants (...) are asked to classify themselves or simply report how many languages they speak. Participants' responses to these questions are shaped by their personal perceptions of the criteria for making these judgments. This study investigated the perceptions underlying judgments of bilingualism by asking 528 participants to judge the extent to which a description of a fictional linguistic system constitutes a unique language and the extent to which a description of a fictional individual's linguistic competence qualifies that person as bilingual. The results show a range of responses for both concepts, indicating substantial ambiguity for these terms. Moreover, participants were asked to self-classify as monolingual or bilingual, and these decisions were not related to more objective information regarding the degree of bilingual experience obtained from a detailed questionnaire. These results are consistent with the notion that bilingualism is not categorical and that specific language experiences are important in determining the criteria for being bilingual. The results impact interpretations of research investigating group differences on the cognitive effects of bilingualism. (shrink)

We can see a theft, hear a lie, and feel a stabbing. These are morally important perceptions. But are they also moral perceptions--distinctively moral responses? In this book, Robert Audi develops an original account of moral perceptions, shows how they figure in human experience, and argues that they provide moral knowledge. He offers a theory of perception as an informative representational relation to objects and events. He describes the experiential elements in perception, illustrates moral perception in relation (...) to everyday observations, and explains how moral perception justifies moral judgments and contributes to objectivity in ethics. -/- Moral perception does not occur in isolation. Intuition and emotion may facilitate it, influence it, and be elicited by it. Audi explores the nature and variety of intuitions and their relation to both moral perception and emotion, providing the broadest and most refined statement to date of his widely discussed intuitionist view in ethics. He also distinguishes several kinds of moral disagreement and assesses the challenge it poses for ethical objectivism. -/- Philosophically argued but interdisciplinary in scope and interest, Moral Perception advances our understanding of central problems in ethics, moral psychology, epistemology, and the theory of the emotions. (shrink)

BackgroundSocial networking sites (SNSs) have penetrated all aspects of health care professionals’ (HCPs’) professional and private lives. A new term, e-professionalism, has emerged, which describes the linking of traditional values with this new dynamic online environment for HCPs. The four aims of this study were: (1) to examine their SNS prevalence and usage habits, (2) to examine their perception of e-professionalism, (3) to develop an e-professionalism assessment compatibility index and (4) to investigate their tendencies and differences in values (...) of the e-professionalism assessment compatibility index (ePACI).MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among MDs and DMDs in Croatia via email using a questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to all MDs and DMDs who were members of their respective chambers. In addition to descriptive statistics, Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test when appropriate, t-test, ANOVA and Mann–Whitney U tests were used to determine differences between groups. A principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was used to investigate dimensionality. Results of the PCA were compared to the coding based on the Social Media e-Professionalism rubric in order to create the ePACI.ResultsOf the 1013 gathered responses, 753 were from valid SNS users and suitable for further analysis. Facebook (91.6%) and Instagram (63.1%) were the predominant SNSs used. Both groups have a good understanding of e-professionalism. The newly developed ePACI deviates slightly in the “conservative” direction in the cases of both, MDs (t506 = 19.033, p < 0.001) and DMDs (t245 = 12.991, p < 0.001). HCPs who are older (r = 0.308, p < 0.001), who have fewer SNS profiles (rs = −0.142, p < 0.001), and who access their profiles less frequently (r = −0.166, p < 0.001) have statistically significantly more conservative ePACI values.ConclusionsMDs and DMDs in Croatia are frequent SNS users, with Facebook and Instagram being the main SNSs used. Both groups have a good understanding of e-professionalism. The newly developed ePACI deviates slightly towards the conservative side regarding perception of the e-professionalism content for both groups. The development of the ePACI, and its subsequent usage in further research, will have a direct influence in its validation, gathering comparable data, and be able to direct efforts in oversight, regulation and education. (shrink)

Research aimed at developing and validating an instrument to assess secondary school students? perceptions of assessment tasks was conducted. Following a review of literature, a five?scale instrument of 40 items was trialled with a sample of 658 science students in 11 English secondary schools. Based on internal consistency reliability data and exploratory factor analysis, refinement decisions resulted in a five?scale instrument called the Perceptions of assessment tasks inventory (PATI). The scales of the PATI are Congruence with planned learning, (...) Authenticity, Student consultation, Transparency and Diversity. (shrink)

Research conducted within the past decade contributes much to an understanding of the role and potential value of formative assessment in learning. As an Advisory Teacher within a local authority, the researcher was interested to find out how teachers actually perceive formative assessment. This study therefore set out to investigate the range and nature of such perceptions and whether any relationships exist between them and independent variables such as school phase and length of teacher experience. The sample was (...) drawn from teachers working in 24 lower and middle schools within one local authority and the research was conducted in two phases. This paper will focus on Phase 1, during which data was drawn from a questionnaire survey which elicited both quantitative and qualitative responses from 67 teachers. Analysis of this data revealed a range of perceptions about formative assessment among teachers. In particular, they acknowledged the value of formative assessment in promoting learning. However, these findings suggest that perhaps teachers were less confident than they claimed to be in putting actual strategies in place, supporting the findings of Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, and Wiliam . Statistical analysis revealed some significant relationships between some of these perceptions and both school phase and length of teacher experience. Both theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations made for future policy and practice. (shrink)

Objectives: To explore the effect of social support and ability perception on stress coping strategies for competitive stress, and to reveal the mediating effects of primary and secondary evaluation, so as to further improve the theoretical model of stress coping in soccer players.Methods: A total of 331 male athletes from 22 teams in the Chengdu Middle School Campus Football League were taken as survey samples, and surveys were conducted on their stress experience, social support, ability perception, cognitive (...) class='Hi'>assessment, and coping strategies for competition stress. SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 statistical analysis software were used. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were used to process the obtained data.Results: Positive primary assessment acted as a full mediator in the relationship between social support and secondary assessments, and negative primary assessment acted as a partial mediator in the relationship between competence perception and secondary assessments; Secondary assessment played a partial mediating role between positive primary assessment and positive coping strategies, and a full mediating role between negative primary assessment and positive coping strategies; Secondary assessments played the mediator neither between social support and a coping strategy for stress nor competence perception and a coping strategy for stress; Positive primary assessment, positive negative assessment, and secondary assessment all had significant positive benefits for positive coping. Still, the impact of positive primary assessment on positive coping was significantly better than negative primary assessment and secondary assessment.Conclusion: The coping strategy for the competitive stress model proposed by this study has a very good fit for the causal model. It can be used to explain the observed data from soccer players in middle schools. The primary and secondary assessments play different roles in the model. The combination of problem focuses and emotional focus on the positive stress coping strategy is suitable in the field of competitive sports. Still, the relevant research results need to be further explored and verified in the future. (shrink)

There are many ways to assess face perception skills. In this study, we describe a novel task battery FEAST (Facial Expression Action Stimulus Test) developed to test recognition of identity and expressions of human faces as well as stimulus control categories. The FEAST consists of a neutral and emotional face memory task, a face and object identity matching task, a face and house part-to-whole matching task, and a human and animal facial expression matching task. The identity and part-to-whole matching (...) tasks contain both upright and inverted conditions. The results provide reference data of a healthy sample of controls in two age groups for future users of the FEAST. (shrink)

According to the cognitive penetrability hypothesis, our beliefs, desires, and possibly our emotions literally affect how we see the world. This book elucidates the nature of the cognitive penetrability and impenetrability hypotheses, assesses their plausibility, and explores their philosophical consequences. It connects the topic's multiple strands (the psychological findings, computationalist background, epistemological consequences of cognitive architecture, and recent philosophical developments) at a time when the outcome of many philosophical debates depends on knowing whether and how cognitive states can influence (...) class='Hi'>perception. All sixteen chapters were written especially for the book. The first chapters provide methodological and conceptual clarification of the topic and give an account of the relations between penetrability, encapsulation, modularity, and cross-modal interactions in perception. Assessments of psychological and neuroscientific evidence for cognitive penetration are given by several chapters. Most of the contributions analyse the impact of cognitive penetrability and impenetrability on specific philosophical topics: high-level perceptual contents, the epistemological consequences of penetration, nonconceptual content, the phenomenology of late perception, metacognitive feelings, and action. The book includes a comprehensive introduction which explains the history of the debate, its key technical concepts (informational encapsulation, early and late vision, the perception-cognition distinction, hard-wired perceptual processing, perceptual learning, theory-ladenness), and the debate's relevance to current topics in the philosophy of mind and perception, epistemology, and philosophy of psychology. (shrink)

Exposure to pesticides during infancy is associated with numerous adverse health outcomes. The assessment of knowledge and perception of pesticides exposure and risk among children has not been thoroughly studied. The aim of the study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of a questionnaire that measures the knowledge and perception of exposure to organophosphate pesticides among rural schoolchildren. The questionnaire was administered to 151 schoolchildren between 9 and 13years from four Chilean rural schools. An internal consistency (...) analysis of the ordinal alpha coefficient and a polychoric factor analysis for categorical data were used. The results show that the ordinal alpha was 0.95. Polychoric matrices of rotated components show the 17 questions summarized pesticide knowledge in five factors extracted after promax rotation. This factorial model explains 56.3% of the variance. The questions were grouped as follows: knowledge about pesticides ; knowledge of health effects related to pesticides exposure ; pesticide exposure through the growing of fruits and vegetables ; perception and action against pesticides exposure at school ; and perception and action against pesticides exposure at home. The questionnaire provides a useful tool for examining pesticide exposure in agricultural regions, allowing younger community members to participate. (shrink)

In this chapter I examine past and recent theories of unconscious inference. Most theorists have ascribed inferences to perception literally, not analogically, and I focus on the literal approach. I examine three problems faced by such theories if their commitment to unconscious inferences is taken seriously. Two problems concern the cognitive resources that must be available to the visual system (or a more central system) to support the inferences in question. The third problem focuses on how the conclusions of (...) inferences are supposed to explain the phenomenal aspects of visual experience, the looks of things. Finally, in comparing past and recent responses to these problems, I provide an assessment of the current prospects for inferential theories. (This paper is reprinted in Hatfield 2009, Perception and Cognition: Essays in the Philosophy of Psychology, Clarendon Press, 124-152.). (shrink)