Ancient Egyptian Image-Writing: Between the Unspoken and Visual Poetics

This article highlights the significance of considering the visual mediums of the ancient Egyptian (henceforth AE) writing system, in reading and translating AE literary texts. Despite their importance for understanding the internal mechanism of AE literary expressions, modern scholarship has not assimilated these visual mediums into its exploration. A possible theoretical framework for AE morphology structure may identify two input systems,, one visual for visually presented materials that are more related to visual comprehension, and the other phonological for material presented using the auditory modality. The studied examples confirm that the AE writers had the opportunity to invite their receivers to take part in two experiential tasks (visual and phonological) to provoke two different behaviours, to get the right meaning intended by the resourceful writer. The article is divided into two parts. The first part is concerned with the role of innovative imagination in forming both the “eloquent content” and its inseparable “poetic vocal form,” with full consideration of the creative relationship between these two elements. The second part is related to the ancient and modern reader’s reception of such visual-verbal interactions. The article demonstrates the significance of looking into such visual aesthetics—which were mainly designed to stimulate the eyes of the indigenous readers—to shape any theory related to the literary nature of ancient Egyptian writing.

Time preferences are reliable across time-horizons and verbal versus experiential tasks

Individual differences in delay-discounting correlate with important real world outcomes, for example education, income, drug use, and criminality. As such, delay-discounting has been extensively studied by economists, psychologists and neuroscientists to reveal its behavioral and biological mechanisms in both human and non-human animal models. However, two major methodological differences hinder comparing results across species. Human studies present long time-horizon options verbally, whereas animal studies employ experiential cues and short delays. To bridge these divides, we developed a novel language-free experiential task inspired by animal decision-making studies. We found that the ranks of subjects’ time-preferences were reliable across both verbal/experiential and second/day differences. Yet, discount factors scaled dramatically across the tasks, indicating a strong effect of temporal context. Taken together, this indicates that individuals have a stable, but context-dependent, time-preference that can be reliably assessed using different methods, providing a foundation to bridge studies of time-preferences across species.Editorial note: This article has been through an editorial process in which the authors decide how to respond to the issues raised during peer review. The Reviewing Editor's assessment is that all the issues have been addressed (see <xref ref-type="decision-letter" rid="SA1">decision letter</xref>).

Time preferences are reliable across time-horizons and verbal vs. experiential tasks

Individual differences in delay-discounting correlate with important real world outcomes, e.g. education, income, drug use, & criminality. As such, delay-discounting has been extensively studied by economists, psychologists and neuroscientists to reveal its behavioral and biological mechanisms in both human and non-human animal models. However, two major methodological differences hinder comparing results across species. Human studies present long time-horizon options verbally, whereas animal studies employ experiential cues and short delays. To bridge these divides, we developed a novel language-free experiential task inspired by animal decision-making studies. We find that subjects’ time-preferences are reliable across both verbal/experiential differences and also second/day differences. When we examined whether discount factors shifted or scaled across the tasks, we found a surprisingly strong effect of temporal context. Taken together, this indicates that subjects have a stable, but context-dependent, time-preference that can be reliably assessed using different methods; thereby, providing a foundation to bridge studies of time-preferences across species.

Developing Creative and Critical Thinking Abilities in Business Graduates

Educational programmes should promote an ethos of lifelong learning and develop in graduates the capacity for long-term personal and professional development through self-learning and reflection. A business degree programme should seek to produce graduates who are confident, creative thinkers with the capacity to solve problems, think creatively, negotiate, make decisions and resolve conflict. The development of these capabilities should not be left to chance, but should be addressed explicitly in the programme. Whether creativity and critical thinking skills are innate or learned, there is little disagreement that experience deepens and expands these abilities. A module entitled ‘Critical Thinking’ has been introduced into a bachelor's degree in Business Studies. In this module both individual and team experiential tasks are used to develop creative thinking. These tasks are relevant to business activities in product development, marketing, and process development. Experiential exercises in decision making and conflict resolution abilities build skills necessary to face challenges from new technologies, competition or the business environment.