A critique of the Capability Approach’s potential for application to career guidance

In this article, we provide a balanced critique of Sen’s Capability Approach (CA) with reference to its potential to inform career guidance theory and practice. There are varying understandings and interpretations of the CA. Some see capabilities as universal, whilst others favour a more relativist view. The CA is also vulnerable to misunderstanding. Critiques based on misunderstanding are easily dismissed, so our focus is on substantive conceptual and practical critiques. Three main challenges are explored: conceptual debates about the nature of freedom and justice; limitations arising from the disciplinary origins of the CA; and challenges in operationalising the CA.

When scenes speak louder than words: Verbal encoding does not mediate the relationship between scene meaning and visual attention

The complexity of the visual world requires that we constrain visual attention and prioritize some regions of the scene for attention over others. The current study investigated whether verbal encoding processes influence how attention is allocated in scenes. Specifically, we asked whether the advantage of scene meaning over image salience in attentional guidance is modulated by verbal encoding, given that we often use language to process information. Sixty subjects studied 30 scenes for 12 seconds each in preparation for a scene recall task. Thirty of the subjects engaged in a secondary articulatory suppression task (digit repetition) concurrent with scene viewing. Meaning and saliency maps were quantified for each of the 30 scenes. In both conditions we found that meaning explained more of the variance in visual attention than image salience did, particularly when we controlled for the overlap between meaning and salience. Based on these results, verbal encoding processes do not appear to modulate the relationship between scene meaning and visual attention, or to play a role in encoding scenes for later recall. Our findings suggest that semantic information in the scene steers the attentional ship, consistent with cognitive guidance theory.

An Older Adult Study of Concurrent Visual Feedback in Learning Continuous Balance

This investigation manipulated concurrent visual feedback for older adults learning to perform a continuous balance task. We randomly assigned 21 older adults to one of three knowledge of results (KR) groups with varying concurrent but always 100% terminal feedback percentages during acquisition: 100% Concurrent and Terminal (100% C&T), 50% Concurrent and 100% Terminal (50% C & 100% T), and 0% Concurrent and 100% Terminal (0% C & 100% T). The continuous balance task involved learning to maintain balance on a circular platform that moved simultaneously on both anterior/posterior and medial/lateral axes. We tested participants before acquisition phase learning and two days afterwards (retention test). At retention testing, participants in the 50% C & 100% T and those in the 0% C & 100% T conditions demonstrated significantly greater accuracy and stability than did participants in the 100% C&T condition. These findings extend previous research with young adults in supporting the guidance theory that too frequent a provision of concurrent knowledge of results negatively affects learning.

Association between maxillary lateral incisors' root volume and palatally displaced canines: An instrumental variables approach to the guidance theory

ABSTRACT Objectives: To evaluate association and causation between maxillary lateral incisors' (MxI2) apical root volume (ARV) and palatally displaced canines (PDC). Materials and Methods: In a retrospective cross-sectional study, computed tomography scans of 179 patients with unilateral PDC were analyzed. MxI2 root length and volume on the impaction and eruption side were measured. A mixed logit model was used to infer the association between ARV and PDC and an instrumental variables approach to interpret causality. Results: MxI2 root length on the impaction side was shorter in 42%, equal in 33% and longer in 25% of the patients. ARV amounted for 13.5% of total root volume on the impaction and 14.9% on the eruption side. Reduced ARV was significantly associated with the impaction side (P < .001). The causal effect of ARV on PDC in the instrumental variable approach amounted to less than half of the association in a standard noncausal approach. Conclusions: An association between PDC and reduced MxI2 root length and volume was confirmed. However, the lack of causality did not allow the researchers to draw a conclusion as to whether a reduced ARV is causing PDC or resulting from it; this should be considered in etiologic theories.