The effects of age on prototype- and exemplar-based categorization

The need to learn new concepts and categories persists through the lifespan, yet little is known about how aging affects concept learning and generalization. Here, we trained young and older adults to classify typical and boundary category members and then tested category generalization to new stimuli. During training, older adults had increased difficulty compared to young adults learning category labels for boundary items, but not typical items. At test, categorization performance that included new items at all levels of typicality was comparable across age groups, but formal categorization models indicated that older adults relied to a greater degree on generalized (prototype) category representations than young adults. These findings align with the proposal that older adults are able to form category representations based on central tendency even when they have difficulty learning and remembering individual category members. More broadly, the results contribute to our understanding of multiple categorization strategies and the limited strategy flexibility in older adults. They also highlight how reliance on

The Necessity of Legal Typologies in Crisis and Emergency

Legal analysis necessarily uses concepts, distinctions and typologies. These tools suffer challenges when the object of analysis or application is a crisis or emergency. The article looks into two examples of legal typologies of emergencies in the works of Gross and Ní Aiolaín and Agamben respectively. Based on this four levels of analysis for legal responses to emergencies is proposed: 1) explicit descriptions of actions by actors themselves, 2) positivist legal categories available in the context, 3) meta/comparative categories, and 4) philosophical/ontological concepts and categories that question or inquire into all the previous categories. The article concludes by discussing how these levels of analysis overlaps, merge and needs to be combined in order to grasp the complex phenomena of law in crisis.

Easter Trope Quem queritis in the Lead-up to the Liturgical Drama

При изучении средневековой культуры бывает довольно сложно провести четкие границы между понятиями, категориями, поскольку многие из них либо сформировались позже, либо со временем наполнились другими смыслами. К таковым относятся драма и богослужение, на стыке которых возникло то, что в XIX веке получило название «литургическая драма». Вместо того чтобы прочертить между ними границу и исследовать изолированно, мы попробовали устремить взгляд на пограничные зоны: пространственные (взаимодействие песнопений внутри богослужения, их перемещение, поведение монахов в храме) и временные (этапы возникновения, становления и трансформации). В статье рассматриваются вопросы возникновения внутри пасхального богослужения драматического элемента - тропа-диалога Quem queritis («Что ищете»), его предполагаемых текстовых и интонационных литургических истоков, а также обратного воздействия тропа на канонические песнопения, благодаря которому стало возможным формирование литургической драмы как цельного, сюжетно и музыкально выстроенного эпизода внутри службы. It is quite difficult sometimes to draw a strict line between some concepts and categories while analyzing the medieval culture. The reasons are either these categories, which researchers are trying to define, appeared much later, or the meaning behind them was being changed through the centuries. One of the problematic areas is the concepts of drama and liturgy. Right on the border between them, there have appeared something that have received a name “liturgical drama” in the 19 century. Instead of trying to split these phenomena apart and study them separately, we have decided to switch our attention to the borders itself, both spatial (the chant interaction inside the liturgy, their replacement, the monks' behavior in the cathedral's space) and temporal (stages of origin, becoming and transformation). In this article, the attention is focused on the two main subjects. The first one is the genesis of the dialogue trope Quem queritis (“Whom do you seek”), which was the first dramatic element within the Easter liturgy. The second one is the reverse impact of the trope to the traditional liturgical chants, which made possible the appearance of the liturgical drama as a solid, all-in-one episode with the fine and logical textual and musical subject.

Consumer protection

The textbook has been prepared taking into account the current state of legislation and the practice of its application. The main concepts and categories in the field of consumer protection are considered, specific examples are given, practical recommendations are given. It contains samples of documents: claims, statements, complaints, petitions, statements of claim, etc. on various issues in the field of consumer protection. It is intended for students, practitioners, as well as anyone interested in consumer protection issues.

Criminalizing Villainy

In juridical theory, a villainy implied a malicious offence in word or deed that took on a legal dimension if it was particularly grievous, and thus warranted judicial redress. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the juridical concepts and categories of crime that were associated with ‘villainous’ or ‘foul’ allegations known as vilains cas. From the late fifteenth century, the notion of vilain cas expanded to include the very worst crimes (those dubbed vilains et énormes). Chapter 1 ends with two case studies of vilains cas, showing how in practice, punishing a villainy and even identifying a villain in law was far from straightforward.

CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS: ISSUES OF THE CONCEPTING-CATEGORIAL APPARATUS

The article analyzes the changes in the conceptual and categorical apparatus of the sciences of the criminal-legal block in connection with the updating of the criminal and criminal procedural legislation of Ukraine. Reforming of criminal and criminal procedural legislation in Ukraine, normative introduction of new terms has created a certain cognitive dissonance in the system of concepts and categories, which negatively affects both law enforcement activities and research of legal phenomena. It is noted that the normative introduction of new categories into circulation without proper theoretical justification generates a number of contradictions in solving many problems of criminal proceedings. The necessity of bringing the concepts and categories of the branch and applied sciences of the criminal-legal block to a systematic nature is stated, which is the key to making correct procedural and tactical decisions in the course of criminal proceedings. The conclusion is formulated that the conceptual-categorical apparatus acquires the qualities of systematic and consistency only when the process of forming concepts and categories consistently goes through all the stages – from theoretical hypotheses (sentences) to their practical testing and legalization. The development of the conceptual and categorical apparatus of the sciences of the criminal law block (its system and consistency) is an important tool of cognitive activity in research and in the practical activities of criminal proceedings. As experience shows, it is inevitable to avoid gaps and contradictions in legislation and scientific concepts, which put, in particular, pre-trial investigation bodies, in a dead end and cause dubious decisions in the conditions of adversarial process. The stated position, of course, concerns certain problematic concepts and categories, does not claim the status of absolute truth and recognition and is an invitation to further analysis of this issue.

Hacking Higher Education: Rethinking the EduHack Course

The paper presents a report that discuss the experience of participation of the authors in the EduHack, an online course designed to train university teachers in the use of digital techniques and learning strategies. This study highlights two issues of great interest in pandemic times. The first one is the structure and the organization of the EduHack course with some suggestions related to its improvement; the second one is Drag&Fly, the project idea of an e-learning web platform developed by the authors during the collaborative part of the course. The experience of participation to EduHack course has been analyzed by authors using concepts and categories of analysis widespread in the pragmatic theoretical tradition, enhancing the possibility of changing the teachers’ approach to the design and the implementation of a higher education e-learning course.