Konceptualne metafore sa sastavnicama ŽIVOT i SMRT u Kamenom spavaču Maka Dizdara

Conceptual metaphor is a cognitive mechanism often and gladly used in all discourse types, but it shows its maximum potentials in literature as it demystifies in an efficient and unique manner the experience, perception and mental schemas of a particular speaker – as both a member of a group and an individual. This paper analyzes the application of conceptual metaphorization in Mehmedalija Mak Dizdar’s Stone Sleeper with the concepts of LIFE and DEATH in the position of target domains with the aim of questioning its purpose, motivation and originality. The conceptual metaphors used in the collection are a clear reflection of the notion of human existence in the Bogumil spiritual tradition (the extremely negative intonation of the worldly and the rather positive intonation of the otherworldly reality) but, as it also turned out, in universal human thought. With each new insight into the motivic-thematic world of Dizdar’s poetics, its formal exceptionality and inexhaustibility of content are reaffirmed. This time, it was achieved using the apparatus of cognitive linguistics, i. e. by finding innovative metaphorical linguistic units expressing conventional conceptual metaphorization in Stone Sleeper.

OPTIMIZING THE BEHAVIOR OF THE EMERGING ADULT BY DECREASING OF MALADAPTIVE MENTAL SCHEMAS

The article presents the research results on the effects of a program for optimizing emerging adults’ behavior in Romania. Behavior optimization was achieved by improving maladaptive mental schemas through group cognitive-behavioral interventions. The research was conducted in two stages. The research's initial stage consisted of an investigation of a group of 212 young people (19-30 years old) belonging to the NEET category (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). The psychological tools assessed the personality, the level of manifestation of cognitive and emotional maladaptive schemas, Personal Autonomy, and Self Efficacy. The second stage of the research involved 48 NEET young people who participated in a personal development program to optimize behavior for a period of 18 months. Participants experienced improvements in dysfunctional mental schemas, reported increases in personal autonomy and flexibility, and adaptive changes in personality structure. This research is a first in Romania and joins the efforts to improve the psycho-social condition of young NEETs in Romania (currently at 16.8%).

The Use of Audio-Visual Materials in the Education of Students with Hearing Loss

Learning is the process of restructuring mental schemas through adaptation to new experiences. Instructional materials help form a suitable and individualized educational environment for students with hearing loss while facilitating lexical development and comprehension of academic content. This case study aims to demonstrate the contribution of visual and audiovisual materials to the efficiency of the Social Studies Course for 4th-grade students with hearing loss. Findings of the study have been collected through video recordings of the lessons, validity meetings, the research log, realia, photographs/images, graphic organizers, and educational videos/documentaries. Data analysis demonstrates that the use of visual and audiovisual materials contributes substantially to students’ (a) comprehension of the questions and explanations, (b) participation in and drawing conclusions from classroom discussions, and (c) understanding of new vocabulary and concepts. Based on the results, it can be argued that the use of visual and auditory materials presented so as to cater to the individual needs of the students, together with various educational strategies, provides significant advantages in the acquisition of academic knowledge by students with hearing loss.

Infinite Interpretations? A Corpus-based Study for the Identification and Interpretation of Competing Frames in Parliament-representations in Hungary

Political communication highly depends on generic figurative frames such as Politics Is War, Object, Sport, Art and Politics Is Landscape. Regarding political art, it is suggested that artists use complex cognitive solutions (e.g. parallel issue-specific frames) in creative ways which are connected with one of the major generic frames. The study discusses parliament-representations (made between 2006 and 2015) which are not only attractive elements of the cityscape; thus, not literary representations of the building. Using the method of visual framing, the analyses (1) describe the artworks, (2) interpret the occurring symbols and metaphors determined contextually, and (3) reveal the ideological and power relations. Summing up, political artworks can be comprehended according to conventional mental schemas. However, artists usually create a minimum of two competing specifications of the general frames occurring at the same time, and let the viewer choose the one that fits better with their worldview.

Cognitive Flexibility in Schoolchild Through the Graphic Representation of Movement

Neuroconstructivism postulates the progressive complexity of mental representation over the course of cognitive development and the role of the graphic representation of movement in the transformation of mental schemas, cognitive flexibility, and representational complexity. This study aims to: (1) understand children’s resources in the drawing of movement (5–8 years); and (2) verify whether there are differences in the graphic representation of movement as an indicator of cognitive flexibility. The participants were N = 240 children aged 5–8 years; 1,440 drawings were collected representing 2,880 characters (both animate and inanimate) from six stories. The analysis consisted: (1) data quality control, using the kappa coefficient, and Generalizability Theory to test the instrument’s validity and reliability; (2) Multivariate General Analysis and Mixed Linear Analysis of the factors (age and stories); (3) Multivariate General Analysis of the graphic components: categories and microcategories, as well as the elements that make up the macrocategories: “Static,” “Indication,” and “Movement”; and (4) calculation of the generalizability coefficient (G-coefficient). The results show that: (a) age best explains variability, with a high effect size (η2 = 0.732) across all components (F = 153.445; p < 0.001), thus increasing its complexity and (b) at ages 6 and 7, “Indication” appears as a modulator of “Static” (age 5) toward “Movement” (age 8). The generalizability coefficient is optimal (0.995). It is concluded that changes in the initial graphic representation of movement may interactively transform mental representation, thus increasing cognitive flexibility and prompting teaching applications to optimize such changes.

Entitlement Disconnect: Exploring Management Graduates’ Mental Schema in Their Anticipatory Psychological Contract

In this paper, we expanded on the psychological contract theory by exploring the mental schemas of graduates’ anticipatory psychological contract before they start employment. With this research, we aimed to explore and substantiate themes associated with the mental schemas of graduates, so that the psychological contract formation theory can be expanded by investigating the role of entitlement disconnect and its influence on the anticipatory psychological contract. Literature regarding the formulation of the psychological contract is still underdeveloped, especially regarding the anticipatory phase thereof. Entitlement disconnect has also not been focused on in past literature, especially as a component of the anticipatory psychological contract that can have an impact on graduates’ career schema and voluntary turnover intention. A qualitative approach to research was adopted consisting of interviews with 18 final-year economics and management sciences graduate students in the final phase of their degrees to derive themes associated with the mental schemas of graduates’ anticipatory psychological contract. The findings suggest that graduates already have a developed mental schema that was based on their entitlement. It was also confirmed that graduates had a disposition towards voluntary turnover intuition before organisational entry, which was due to an entitlement disconnect perception. The final and most surprising finding was that some graduates already displayed pre-employment violations, where graduates already anticipated psychological contract breach before entering an employment relationship. This research suggests that graduates’ mental schemas in their anticipatory psychological contract play a much bigger role in the development of their psychological contract, after organisational entry than what was initially thought.

Entitlement Disconnect: Exploring Management Graduates’ Mental Schema in Their Anticipatory Psychological Contract

In this paper, we expanded on the psychological contract theory by exploring the mental schemas of graduates’ anticipatory psychological contract before they start employment. With this research, we aimed to explore and substantiate themes associated with the mental schemas of graduates, so that the psychological contract formation theory can be expanded by investigating the role of entitlement disconnect and its influence on the anticipatory psychological contract. Literature regarding the formulation of the psychological contract is still underdeveloped, especially regarding the anticipatory phase thereof. Entitlement disconnect has also not been focused on in past literature, especially as a component of the anticipatory psychological contract that can have an impact on graduates’ career schema and voluntary turnover intention. A qualitative approach to research was adopted consisting of interviews with 18 final-year economics and management sciences graduate students in the final phase of their degrees to derive themes associated with the mental schemas of graduates’ anticipatory psychological contract. The findings suggest that graduates already have a developed mental schema that was based on their entitlement. It was also confirmed that graduates had a disposition towards voluntary turnover intuition before organisational entry, which was due to an entitlement disconnect perception. The final and most surprising finding was that some graduates already displayed pre-employment violations, where graduates already anticipated psychological contract breach before entering an employment relationship. This research suggests that graduates’ mental schemas in their anticipatory psychological contract play a much bigger role in the development of their psychological contract, after organisational entry than what was initially thought.

To thine communication partner be true: The effect of presentation consistency on perceived authenticity and liking after making a first impression online

This experiment examines the effects of presentation consistency on perceived authenticity and liking in computer-mediated communication, differentiating between profile views and short online text-based conversations. The experimental design is a 2 (presentation-consistent vs. -inconsistent) × 2 (profile view vs. short conversation) between-subjects experiment using university students (N = 173) in Singapore. Results show higher perceived authenticity (η2p = .29) and liking (η2p = .16) after short conversations than after profile views without conversations. When there is only a profile view, perceived authenticity is lower when the profile photo is inconsistent with the profile text than when it is consistent (η2p = .05). We discuss these findings in terms of schema tuning, where presentation inconsistencies can be accommodated over time as individuals develop unique mental schemas about their communication partners.

Conflicting Evidence for Mental Schemas in Language Production and Processing

This study examines the influence of mental schemas on language production and processing in German morphology. For the purposes of this study, mental schemas are defined as an association between a certain form and a function. It is argued that the so-called weak declension class of German masculine nouns is constructed around a mental schema: Prototypically, members of this class are polysyllabic nouns that are stressed on the penultimate syllable, end with a schwa, and refer to human beings (e.g., Matróse ‘sailor’). There is strong empirical evidence that this schema influences language production. However, language processing has not been studied so far. The study fills this gap using a self-paced reading task with pseudo-nouns to test the influence of mental schemas on reading times. While the study validates the effect of schemas on language production, no influence on language processing could be found.

Initial development of the Hookah Smoker Scale: Assessing young adults’ mental schemas about hookah “smokers”

Many young adult hookah tobacco users do not consider themselves hookah “smokers,” but data on this topic are limited. There are no existing measures of young adults’ mental schemas of hookah “smokers.” We examined the factor structure and reliability of the Hookah Smoker Scale and examined associations with perceived harm and addictiveness and attitudes toward hookah. Two hundred and forty-six young adult (ages 18–30) hookah smokers participated in a cross-sectional online study. Participants completed items assessing schemas characterizing hookah smokers and valid measures of perceived harm and addictiveness of hookah smoking, risk appraisals, and attitudes toward hookah. Exploratory factor analysis using principal axis factoring with oblique rotation extracted a 12-item scale with three dimensions (Regular Use, Social-Enabled Use, and Self-Enabled Use). The scale explained 69.7% of the variance (eigenvalue = 9.2). Cronbach’s α for the scale was .89, with Cronbach’s α ≥ .80 for four-item subscales. Higher subscale scores indicate stronger beliefs that the dimension characterizes a hookah smoker. Higher Regular Use scores (score variance = 46.9%; eigenvalue = 5.6) were associated with greater perceived harm and addictiveness (β = 0.21, p = .01), greater risk appraisals (β = 0.20, p = .02), and more negative attitudes toward hookah (β = −0.18, p = .03). The Hookah Smoker Scale is a promising measure that can be used to identify targets for preventing and reducing young adults’ hookah tobacco use. Findings also suggest young adults associate health risks of hookah with daily smoking, but not with intermittent social smoking patterns.