Music, Science, and Culture

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
CROSS IAN
Keyword(s):  
Operational Definition ◽  
Complex Pattern ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Science And Culture ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Evolutionary Emergence ◽  
Culturally Embedded

Music is conceptualized as a product and a process of imagination. It is often assumed that engagement in music initiates the developmental and evolutionary emergence of imagination. This conception of music and its relationship to human powers of imagining is treated differently in science and musicology. For science, music is simply a complex pattern of sound or the experience of structured sound. For musicology and ethnomusicology, music cannot be separated from the cultural contexts in which they are embedded. This chapter proposes a broad operational definition of music which can be acceptable and applicable cross-naturally. This radical redefinition of music may provide ways of understanding music as both a culturally embedded practice and biologically grounded structure. Apart from providing a redefinition of music, the chapter also investigates some of the potential implications and consequences of this radical redefinition of music such as the possibility that the human capacity for culture may have been supported and consolidated by the emergence and presence of musicality.

The evolutionary nature of musical meaning

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (2_suppl) ◽  
pp. 179-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Cross
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Honest Signal ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Shared Intentionality ◽  
Semantic Fields ◽  
Music And Language ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
Definition Of

The paper will draw on ethnomusicological, cognitive and neuroscientific evidence in suggesting that music and language constitute complementary components of the human communicative toolkit. It will start by outlining an operational definition of music as a mode of social interaction in terms of its generic, cross-cultural properties that facilitates comparison with language as a universal human faculty. It will argue that, despite the fact that music appears much more heterogeneous and differentiated in function from culture to culture than does language, music possesses common attributes across cultures: it exploits the human capacity to entrain to external (particularly social) stimuli, and presents a rich set of semantic fields while under-determining meaning. While language is held to possess both combinatoriality and semanticity, music is often claimed to be combinatorial but to lack semanticity. This paper will argue that music has semanticity, but that this semanticity is adapted for a different function from that of language. Music exploits the human capacity for entrainment, increasing the likelihood that participants will experience a sense of ‘shared intentionality’. It presents the characteristics of an ‘honest signal’ while under-specifying goals in ways that permit individuals to interact even while holding to personal interpretations of goals and meanings that may actually be in conflict. Music allows participants to explore the prospective consequences of their actions and attitudes towards others within a temporal framework that promotes the alignment of participants’ sense of goals. As a generic human faculty music thus provides a medium that is adapted to situations of social uncertainty, a medium by means of which a capacity for flexible social interaction can be explored and reinforced. It will be argued that a faculty for music is likely to have been exaptive in the evolution of the human capacity for complex social interaction.

Understanding functional illiteracy from a policy, adult education, and cognition point of view: Towards a joint referent framework

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-122
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Bulajić ◽  
Miomir Despotović ◽  
Thomas Lachmann
Keyword(s):  
Adult Education ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Functional Illiteracy ◽  
Scale Levels ◽  
Components Of Reading ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract. The article discusses the emergence of a functional literacy construct and the rediscovery of illiteracy in industrialized countries during the second half of the 20th century. It offers a short explanation of how the construct evolved over time. In addition, it explores how functional (il)literacy is conceived differently by research discourses of cognitive and neural studies, on the one hand, and by prescriptive and normative international policy documents and adult education, on the other hand. Furthermore, it analyses how literacy skills surveys such as the Level One Study (leo.) or the PIAAC may help to bridge the gap between cognitive and more practical and educational approaches to literacy, the goal being to place the functional illiteracy (FI) construct within its existing scale levels. It also sheds more light on the way in which FI can be perceived in terms of different cognitive processes and underlying components of reading. By building on the previous work of other authors and previous definitions, the article brings together different views of FI and offers a perspective for a needed operational definition of the concept, which would be an appropriate reference point for future educational, political, and scientific utilization.

“The Unconscious” in Current Psychology

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Norman
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Verbal Report ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Apparent Lack ◽  
Unconscious Processing ◽  
Unconscious Processes ◽  
Intermediate States ◽  
Definition Of

A series of vignette examples taken from psychological research on motivation, emotion, decision making, and attitudes illustrates how the influence of unconscious processes is often measured in a range of different behaviors. However, the selected studies share an apparent lack of explicit operational definition of what is meant by consciousness, and there seems to be substantial disagreement about the properties of conscious versus unconscious processing: Consciousness is sometimes equated with attention, sometimes with verbal report ability, and sometimes operationalized in terms of behavioral dissociations between different performance measures. Moreover, the examples all seem to share a dichotomous view of conscious and unconscious processes as being qualitatively different. It is suggested that cognitive research on consciousness can help resolve the apparent disagreement about how to define and measure unconscious processing, as is illustrated by a selection of operational definitions and empirical findings from modern cognitive psychology. These empirical findings also point to the existence of intermediate states of conscious awareness, not easily classifiable as either purely conscious or purely unconscious. Recent hypotheses from cognitive psychology, supplemented with models from social, developmental, and clinical psychology, are then presented all of which are compatible with the view of consciousness as a graded rather than an all-or-none phenomenon. Such a view of consciousness would open up for explorations of intermediate states of awareness in addition to more purely conscious or purely unconscious states and thereby increase our understanding of the seemingly “unconscious” aspects of mental life.

An Analysis of the Demand for Reporting on Internal Control

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather M. Hermanson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Individual Investors ◽  
Internal Auditors ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
User Groups ◽  
Definition Of

The purpose of this study is to analyze the demand for reporting on internal control. Nine financial statement user groups were identified and surveyed to determine whether they agree that: (1) management reports on internal control (MRIC) are useful, (2) MRICs influence decisions, and (3) financial reporting is improved by adding MRICs. In addition, the paper examined whether responses varied based on: (1) the definition of internal control used (manipulated as broad, operational definition vs. narrow, financial-reporting definition) and (2) user group. The results indicate that financial statement users agree that internal controls are important. Respondents agreed that voluntary MRICs improved controls and provided additional information for decision making. Respondents also agreed that mandatory MRICs improved controls, but did not agree about their value for decision making. Using a broad definition of controls, respondents strongly agreed that MRICs improved controls and provided a better indicator of a company's long-term viability. Executive respondents were less likely to agree about the value of MRICs than individual investors and internal auditors.

Shape Dynamics and the Linking Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavio Mercati
Keyword(s):  
Phase Space ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Line Element ◽  
Hamiltonian Formulation ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Extended Phase Space ◽  
Extended Phase ◽  
Problem Of Time ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Matter Fields

This chapter explains in detail the current Hamiltonian formulation of SD, and the concept of Linking Theory of which (GR) and SD are two complementary gauge-fixings. The physical degrees of freedom of SD are identified, the simple way in which it solves the problem of time and the problem of observables in quantum gravity are explained, and the solution to the problem of constructing a spacetime slab from a solution of SD (and the related definition of physical rods and clocks) is described. Furthermore, the canonical way of coupling matter to SD is introduced, together with the operational definition of four-dimensional line element as an effective background for matter fields. The chapter concludes with two ‘structural’ results obtained in the attempt of finding a construction principle for SD: the concept of ‘symmetry doubling’, related to the BRST formulation of the theory, and the idea of ‘conformogeometrodynamics regained’, that is, to derive the theory as the unique one in the extended phase space of GR that realizes the symmetry doubling idea.

scholarly journals The scale of effect depends on operational definition of forest cover—evidence from terrestrial mammals of the Brazilian savanna

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Amiot ◽  
Cyntia Cavalcante Santos ◽  
Damien Arvor ◽  
Beatriz Bellón ◽  
Hervé Fritz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Cover ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Brazilian Savanna ◽  
Terrestrial Mammals ◽  
Scale Of Effect ◽  
Definition Of

scholarly journals Spiritual nursing care: A concept analysis

Curationis ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia V. Monareng
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Care ◽  
Concept Analysis ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
The Body ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Spiritual Needs ◽  
Optimal Care ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Definition Of

Although the concept ‘spiritual nursing care’ has its roots in the history of the nursing profession, many nurses in practice have difficulty integrating the concept into practice. There is an ongoing debate in the empirical literature about its definition, clarity and application in nursing practice. The study aimed to develop an operational definition of the concept and its application in clinical practice. A qualitative study was conducted to explore and describe how professional nurses render spiritual nursing care. A purposive sampling method was used to recruit the sample. Individual and focus group interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Trustworthiness was ensured through strategies of truth value, applicability, consistency and neutrality. Data were analysed using the NUD*IST power version 4 software, constant comparison, open, axial and selective coding. Tech’s eight steps of analysis were also used, which led to the emergence of themes, categories and sub-categories. Concept analysis was conducted through a comprehensive literature review and as a result ‘caring presence’ was identified as the core variable from which all the other characteristics of spiritual nursing care arise. An operational definition of spiritual nursing care based on the findings was that humane care is demonstrated by showing caring presence, respect and concern for meeting the needs not only of the body and mind of patients, but also their spiritual needs of hope and meaning in the midst of health crisis, which demand equal attention for optimal care from both religious and nonreligious nurses.

scholarly journals What is professionalism in occupational therapy? A concept analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 000841742199437
Author(s):  
Alexandra Lecours ◽  
Nancy Baril ◽  
Marie-Josée Drolet
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Therapy ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Occupational Therapists ◽  
Concept Analysis ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Analysis Design ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Extract Information

Background. Professionalism has been given different definitions over time. These are, commonly theoretical and difficult to operationalize. Purpose. This study aimed to provide an operational definition of the concept of professionalism in occupational therapy. Method. Based on a concept analysis design, a meta-narrative review was conducted to extract information from 30 occupational therapy manuscripts. Findings. Professionalism is a complex competence defined by the manifestation of distinct attitudes and behaviours that support excellence in the occupational therapy practice. In addition, professionalism is forged and evolves according to personal and environmental characteristics. The manifestation of professionalism can lead to positive consequences for occupational therapists, clients, and the discipline, notably contributing to a positive and strong professional identity. Moreover, professionalism is also subject to cultural influences, which leads to variations in its development, manifestations, and consequences. Implications. This study offers a contemporary operational definition of professionalism and levers to promote its development and maintenance.

scholarly journals Searching for an Operational Definition of Frailty: A Delphi Method Based Consensus Statement. The Frailty Operative Definition-Consensus Conference Project

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leocadio Rodríguez-Mañas ◽  
Catherine Féart ◽  
Giovanni Mann ◽  
Jose Viña ◽  
Somnath Chatterji ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Delphi Method ◽  
Consensus Statement ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Consensus Conference ◽  
Definition Of
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document