scholarly journals Number Concepts Are Constructed through Material Engagement: A Reply to Sutliff, Read, and Everett

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karenleigh A. Overmann
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Perceptual Experience ◽  
Explicit Construction ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Number Concepts ◽  
Mathematical Ideas ◽  
Current Anthropology ◽  
Material Engagement ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Grammatical Number

I respond to three responses to my 2015 Current Anthropology article, “Numerosity Structures the Expression of Quantity in Lexical Numbers and Grammatical Number.” This study examined the categorical and geographical distribution of lexical numbers, also known as counting numbers, and grammatical number, the ability to linguistically distinguish singular and plural. Both these features of language conform to the perceptual experience of quantity, which consists of subitization, the ability to rapidly and unambiguously identify one, two, and three, and magnitude appreciation, the ability to appreciate bigger and smaller in the numerical quantity of groups when the difference lies above a threshold of noticeability. My reply to Sutliff disagrees with her contention that mathematical ideas are mentally innate on the grounds that this ignores their explicit construction through the interaction of human psychological, physiological, and behavioral abilities with materiality. My reply to Read expands on the idea that language obscures cross-cultural conceptual variability in number concepts because everything that translates as “three” does not necessarily have the same numerical properties. Finally, my reply to Everett notes that investigating numerical origins means discarding the deeply entrenched assumption of linguistic primacy on the grounds that material forms make numerical intuitions tangible, visible, and manipulable in ways that language cannot and, moreover, provide an alinguistic bootstrap mechanism that accounts for the emergence of both concepts of number and words for the concepts.

scholarly journals Corpus-based analysis of the collocational profiles of the terms denoting the mentally challenged

2017 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liana Markelova
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
American English ◽  
Public Attitude ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Web Pages ◽  
Gradual Change ◽  
Web Based ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Semantic Prosody

The present study aims to trace the evolution of public attitude towards the mentally challenged by means of the corpus-based analysis. The raw data comes from the two of the BYU corpora: Global Web-Based English (GloWbE) and Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). The former is comprised of 1.8 million web pages from 20 English-speaking countries (Davies/Fuchs 2015: 1) and provides an opportunity to research at a cross-cultural level, whereas the latter, containing 400 million words from more than 100,000 texts ranging from the 1810s to the 2000s (Davies 2012: 121), allows to carry on a diachronic research on the issue. To identify the difference in attitudes the collocational profiles of the terms denoting the mentally challenged were created. Having analysed them in terms of their semantic prosody one might conclude that there are certain semantic shifts that occurred due to the modern usage preferences and gradual change in public perception of everything strange, unusual and unique.

scholarly journals Collect Your Happiness: A Case Study of Using Positive Psychology Principles in Technology Design (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lekai Zhang ◽  
Shouqian Sun ◽  
Kejun Zhang ◽  
Kevin Wolterink ◽  
Baixi Xing
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Multimedia Database ◽  
Technology Design ◽  
Interactive Applications ◽  
Future Technology ◽  
Human Happiness ◽  
The Difference

BACKGROUND More and more of our daily activities depend on smartphones and applications. Thus, an increasing number of studies are interested in whether interactive applications can be used to improve happiness of individuals. OBJECTIVE The study aimed to develop and test a digital application designed for happiness. METHODS This paper presents an application called Collect Your Happiness (CYH) that is based on some positive psychology principles. It can not only enhance people’s happiness by collecting their daily happy moments, but provide small tasks to improve their happiness levels. A cross-cultural measurement between the Chinese and Dutch was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of this intervention by SHS, SWLS, PGWBI, and MAAS. In addition, collected moments were coded based on Selig- man’s PERMA model to analyze the cultural differences. RESULTS Results show that CYH can help people from both countries improve their happiness. The Chinese tended to find their happiness in relationships (R) with their friends and family, however, the Dutch tended to search for meaning (M) and engagement (E) in their lives. CONCLUSIONS In this paper, we developed an application that provided recording positive things, reminders for the past happy moments and tasks for users to gain happiness. The CYH successfully enhance the happiness of the cross-cultural users for four weeks. We also explored the difference of happiness between the Dutch and the Chinese based on Seligman’s PERMA model, and established a multimedia database of happiness for future research. Despite some limitations, most users found the application helpful to improve their happiness. By directly measuring subjective and multidimensional perspectives of happiness, there is potential to more successfully promote people’s happiness. Overall, our study not only complement existing positive psychological interventions that enhance human happiness, but it also suggests novel ways of applying positive psychology principles in the future technology design.

scholarly journals NOTES ON SOME INSECTS OF NOVA SCOTIA AND CANADA

1871 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 141-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Walker
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Arctic Regions ◽  
Concentric Circles ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Nova Scotian ◽  
And Diffusion

The following communication is introductory to a few remarks on the Nova Scotian and Canadian Insects which I have received through the kindness of J.M. Jones, Esq., W. Saunders, Esq., and Prof. Croft.The study of the geographical distribution of Insects has become more interesting by the differnece of opinion as to the origin and diffusion of species. The insects of seperate arctic regions have a great muttual resemblance, and the difference between them increases in the successive concentric circles from the above regions towards the equator.

scholarly journals Cross-Cultural Variations in Extreme Rejecting and Extreme Affirming Response Styles

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (8) ◽  
pp. 955-971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tieyuan Guo ◽  
Roy Spina
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Response Style ◽  
Response Styles ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Cultural Variations ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Individual

Previous research has discussed cultural differences in moderacy vs extremity response styles. The present research found that cultural differences in response styles were more complex than previously speculated. We investigated cross-cultural variations in extreme rejecting versus affirming response biases. Although research has indicated that overall Chinese have less extreme responses than Westerners, the difference may be mainly driven by extreme rejecting responses because respondents consider answering survey questions as a way of interacting with researchers, and extreme rejecting responses may disrupt harmony in relationships, which is valued more in Chinese collectivistic culture than in Western individualistic cultures. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that Chinese had less extreme rejecting response style than did British, whereas they did not differ in extreme affirming response style. Study 2 further revealed that the cross-cultural asymmetry in extreme rejecting versus affirming response styles was partially accounted for by individualism orientation at the individual level. Consistently, Study 3 revealed that at the country level, individualism was positively associated with extreme rejecting response style, but was not associated with extreme affirming response style, suggesting that individualism accounted for the asymmetric cultural variation in extreme rejecting versus affirming response styles.

Chromosome Painting in Vanellus chilensis: Detection of a Fusion Common to Clade Charadrii (Charadriiformes)

2015 ◽  
Vol 146 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Kretschmer ◽  
Ricardo J. Gunski ◽  
Analía del Valle Garnero ◽  
Patricia C.M. O'Brien ◽  
Malcolm A. Ferguson-Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Chromosome Painting ◽  
Genomic Organization ◽  
Diploid Number ◽  
Molecular Cytogenetics ◽  
Gallus Gallus ◽  
Ancestral Karyotype ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Burhinus Oedicnemus

The Southern lapwing (Vanellus chilensis) is endemic to America and is well-known because of the vast expansion of its geographical distribution and its involvement in air accidents. Despite its popularity, there is no information concerning the genomic organization and karyotype of this species. Hence, because other species of the genus Vanellus have variable diploid numbers from 2n = 58 to 76, the aim of this report was to analyze the karyotype of V. chilensis by means of classical and molecular cytogenetics. We found that 2n = 78 and chromosome painting using probes of Gallus gallus (GGA) and Leucopternis albicollis revealed an organization similar to the avian putative ancestral karyotype, except for the fusion of GGA7 and GGA8, also found in Burhinus oedicnemus, the only Charadriiforme species analyzed by FISH so far. This rearrangement may represent a cytogenetic signature for this group and, in addition, must be responsible for the difference between the diploid number found in the avian putative ancestral karyotype (2n = 80) and V. chilensis (2n = 78).

Measuring Mental Wealth: Indices of Social Inequality for Cross-Cultural Investigations

2014 ◽  
Vol 613 ◽  
pp. 468-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir M. Petrov ◽  
Lidia A. Mazhul
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Mental Development ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Ratio Scale ◽  
Method Of Measurement ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Given ◽  
Cross Cultural Studies

There exist various sociological (and pseudo-sociological) legends about distribution of the population of different countries over the level of mental development, cultural activeness, and related matters. Some of these distributions are supposed to deal with sharp social inequality within the population; on the contrary, other legends treat such distributions as rather homogeneous. So it is desirable to compare appropriate distributions in different countries, the method of measurement being free of concrete cultural peculiarities capable of distorting the results (the phenomenon which is usual in sociological and psychological cross-cultural studies). Exactly such method of measurements was derived in the framework of the systemic-informational approach. The model comes to a certain index measured in the ratio scale. So the sociological investigation involving a sample of the population, should be realized, permitting to build the so-called Lorenzs curve dependence of the share of the population with the given value of the index, on the values of the index. The difference between this distribution and absolutely democratic one (homogeneous, responding to equal mental wealth of all respondents), is Gini coefficient, which can be used to measure the degree of mental inequality within the population of each region or country, irrespective of its national cultural peculiarities. Such measurements were realized in several sociological investigations involving about 50 000 respondents; this approach can be used to compare cultural inequality in different countries.

scholarly journals An asymmetric outer retinal response to drifting sawtooth gratings

2016 ◽  
Vol 115 (5) ◽  
pp. 2349-2358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Riddell ◽  
Laila Hugrass ◽  
Jude Jayasuriya ◽  
Sheila G. Crewther ◽  
David P. Crewther
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Experience ◽  
Temporal Frequency ◽  
Luminance Contrast ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Sine Wave ◽  
Frame Rate ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Dc Potential ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Retinal Response

Electroretinogram (ERG) studies have demonstrated that the retinal response to temporally modulated fast-ON and fast-OFF sawtooth flicker is asymmetric. The response to spatiotemporal sawtooth stimuli has not yet been investigated. Perceptually, such drifting gratings or diamond plaids shaded in a sawtooth pattern appear brighter when movement produces fast-OFF relative to fast-ON luminance profiles. The neural origins of this illusion remain unclear (although a retinal basis has been suggested). Thus we presented toad eyecups with sequential epochs of sawtooth, sine-wave, and square-wave gratings drifting horizontally across the retina at temporal frequencies of 2.5–20 Hz. All ERGs revealed a sustained direct-current (DC) transtissue potential during drift and a peak at drift offset. The amplitudes of both phenomena increased with temporal frequency. Consistent with the human perceptual experience of sawtooth gratings, the sustained DC potential effect was greater for fast-OFF cf. fast-ON sawtooth. Modeling suggested that the dependence of temporal luminance contrast on stimulus device frame rate contributed to the temporal frequency effects but could not explain the divergence in response amplitudes for the two sawtooth profiles. The difference between fast-ON and fast-OFF sawtooth profiles also remained following pharmacological suppression of postreceptoral activity with tetrodotoxin (TTX), 2-amino-4-phosphonobutric acid (APB), and 2,3 cis-piperidine dicarboxylic acid (PDA). Our results indicate that the DC potential difference originates from asymmetries in the photoreceptoral response to fast-ON and fast-OFF sawtooth profiles, thus pointing to an outer retinal origin for the motion-induced drifting sawtooth brightness illusion.

scholarly journals (IR)Reverently Telling the Otherness through Paratextual Narrative

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-14
Author(s):  
Nicoleta-Loredana Morosan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Host Country ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Cultural Intelligence ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Cultural Belonging ◽  
Inherent Component ◽  
Cultural Interactions

Abstract An inherent component of relocation narratives is the description of the protagonists’ process of building up their intercultural competence - whose range will vary from one expatriate narrator to another. Closely connected to all the four types of cultural intelligence (CQ), in general, and to the metacognitive CQ, in particular, the account of the sojourn in foreign lands conjures up a raft of reflections on what exactly gives one the sense of cultural belonging. Noticing the difference, analysing it, integrating or dismissing it are as many steps taken during/after cross-cultural interactions. This paper addresses the verbalisation of the cultural differences in accounts that sometimes embrace and other times reject them, by resorting to risqué language in snide remarks meant to perform an evaluation of the received ideas in relation to both the native and the host country of the expatriate. The corpus examined is the construction of the paratext prefiguring the spot-on satire comprised by the text.

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