EXPRESS: Can arrows change the subjective perception of space? Exploring symbolic attention repulsion

The attention repulsion effect (ARE) refers to distortions in the perception of space for areas nearby the focus of attention. For instance, when attending to the right-hand side of the visual field, objects in central vision may appear as though they are shifted to the left. The phenomenon is likely caused by changes in visual cell functioning. To date, research on the ARE has almost exclusively used exogenous manipulations of attention. In contrast, research exploring endogenous attention repulsion has been mixed, and no research has explored the effects of non-predictive arrow cues on this phenomenon. This gap in the literature is unexpected, as symbolic attention appears to be a unique form of attentional orienting compared to endogenous and exogenous attention. Therefore, the current study explored the effects of symbolic orienting on spatial repulsion and compared it to an exogenously generated ARE. Across four experiments, both exogenous and symbolic orienting resulted in AREs; however, the magnitude of the symbolic ARE was smaller than the exogenous ARE. This difference in magnitude persisted, even after testing both phenomena using stimulus timing parameters known to produce optimal effects in traditional attentional cueing paradigms. Therefore, compared to symbolic attention, it appears that exogenous manipulations may tightly constrict attention resources on the cued location, in turn potentially influencing the functioning of visual cells for enhanced perceptual processing.

Mindfulness meditation moderates the relationship between five prohibitions of Buddhism and subjective wellbeing

Vietnam is a country of religious diversity, in which Buddhism has the most significant participation. In addition to practicing the Five Precepts, many Vietnamese people have registered for active mindfulness meditation classes recently. This fact has received significant attention from scientists to add to the evidence of previous studies. Enrich the research literature, so the study explores the role of mindfulness meditation practice as a moderator of the relationship between five precepts practice and subjective perception well-being of Vietnamese adults. This study was conducted through a cross-sectional survey using an intentional sampling technique (n=200). Multivariable linear regression analysis and moderator regression were applied to prove the hypotheses. Research results show a positive and meaningful relationship between practicing mindfulness meditation, practicing the five precepts and feeling subjective happiness. In particular, mindfulness meditation acts as a moderating variable between the practice of the five sexes and the subjective feeling of happiness.

Implicit ways to express the author’s opinion in the publicistic discourse of Runet blogosphere

The modern analysis of journalist discourse is based on many extralinguistic factors: ethnocultural characteristics of the social environment, creating and sustaining discourse; conditions of political loyalty and the orientation of journalist discourse to the target audience, sources of discourse replenishment and conditions for its self-development in the general discourse-forming environment. These factors have a direct impact on specific ways of delivering information by the authors of the journalistic message to the individual recipient and the mass audience. The relevance of the research is determined, first of all, by the study of the features of the Russian language functioning on the Internet, which fits into the foremost problems of modern Russian studies. The novelty is associated with the analysis of specific ways of linguistic expression of the authors position in Runet journalism, which have not been specially studied so far. The purpose of the research is to consider the ways of expressing evaluation in the texts of the Runet blogs authors. The article shows that implicit ways of expressing the authors evaluation in the Runet texts have the same function as any other evaluative statements: to specifically influence the addressee. The studied material shows that the evaluativeness of the Runet blogosphere authors statements, closely interacting with expressiveness and emotionality, depends on their subjective perception of information and helps them express their point of view. The article highlights the implicit ways of expressing the authors position, which allow in an implicit but understandable form to convey the meaning of the statement to the recipient. The study used materials from Runet blogs, which most vividly and representatively show the features of the Russian-language network journalistic discourse. When working with speech material, analytical methods were used - descriptive (descriptive-analytical) and contrastive, which revealed the linguistic specifics of journalistic discourse, identified and interpreted intra-contextual and intertextual connections, established communication features. The research approaches of discourse analysis and stylistics were also used. The studied material and the results allow to conclude that implicit ways of expressing the authors position have the same goals as explicit value judgments: they emotionally affect the recipient and accurately convey the meaning of the statement. At the same time, implicitness in the Russian language successfully solves the problem of creating and maintaining the authors individuality. The prospects for this study are seen in further scientific development of various implicit ways of expressing the authors position in Runet journalism for further understanding of new processes in the Russian language, in the formation of journalistic discourse and in Russian communication in the digital space.

Perceptions and Expressions Pertaining to Cultural Ecosystem Services in Urban Green Spaces Using Text Mining Techniques

Objectives: To distinguish between the differences in cultural services based on the type of urban green area, through atypical expressions.Context: Urban green spaces provide important ecosystem services, with cultural ecosystem services (CES) playing a significant role in citizens’ lives. Nevertheless, these are often undervalued as it is difficult to quantitatively evaluate the characteristics of an individuals’ subjective perception of urban space. By examining social media content, we can analyze the content created by users and grasp demand values. Methods: This study analyzed urban green areas in the inland of Ansan city in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Data were collected twice, on October 3, 2017 and October 4, 2018, to verify that the extracted keywords were representative. We extracted keywords from blog posts related to CES and evaluated the possibility of using them as quantitative indicators. Results: The results indicate that the perceived expression words were different depending on the type of green space. Certain CES such as “exhibit” and “climbing” are affected by green space type. However, it was difficult to identify emotional responses to CES. We found that some words contained double meanings, which made it difficult to evaluate individuals’ perceptions of CES based on the frequency of specific words.Conclusions: This study demonstrates that social media data on CES greatly extends the type and, especially, the volume and scale of information derived from traditional survey methods. The significance of this study lies in its attempt to quantitatively evaluate the recognition of CES in daily life.

Subjective perceptions of students and teachers to environmental noise in public schools

Formal education takes place in the classroom, where learning involves intensive verbal communication between teachers and students. Therefore, classrooms must offer the necessary conditions for good teaching and learning activities, especially teacher-student communication. It is in this context that the importance of classroom acoustics is highlighted. Therefore, this work aimed to evaluate the acoustic quality in two classrooms. To this end, the perception of teachers and students about the noise inside and outside the classroom was investigated through questionnaires. Then, the background noise levels and the reverberation time values ​​inside the classrooms were evaluated in situ. These results were compared with the assessment of the subjective perception of the questionnaires. The levels of background noise found in classrooms were above what NBR 10152 recommends. The subjective assessment showed that students and teachers perceive the noise in classrooms and consider them bothersome. According to the teachers, noise is a factor that negatively affects teaching. In conclusion, the results obtained in this work show the lack of acoustic comfort in classrooms and highlight the need for interventions.

Therapeutic Education and Physiotherapy in Low Back Pain Management

BACKGROUND: Low-back pain (LBP) is one of the most common musculoskeletal problems; it is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Therapeutic patient education is a method that enables health care professionals to pass on their knowledge and experience to patients so that they can participate consciously and actively in their recovery. AIM: The present study aims to examine the effect of therapeutic education (TE) combined with a specific physiotherapy (PT) approach in people with LBP. МАTERIALS AND METHODS: This was an experimental pre- and post-study design. The study involved 25 patients, mean age 43.08 ± 12 years, divided into two groups: experimental group (EG), with TE (n =18) and control group (CG), without TE (n = 7). The PT treatment frequency and duration were consistent between groups. The patients were monitored for one month, and the intervention under supervision – face-to-face and self-monitored home-based PT have been organized. The included outcome measures were Oswestry Disability Index, Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia, STarT Back Screening Tools, and the movement-induced pain in the lumbar spine. RESULTS: At the end of the study improved pain-free movements in the lumbar region, functionality, reduced catastrophizing was observed in both groups. There is a tendency for better results in the EG compared to the CG in terms of functionality and pain-free movement. The subjective feeling of the catastrophizing was reduced only in the EG below the cut-off score from 45.2 ± 7.7 to 33.2 ± 3.3 points. CONCLUSION: TE in combination with PT interventions improves functional abilities, decreases the pain during movements, and the subjective perception of kinesiophobia. The results suggest TE should be included in a LBP management approach.