Norms for Familiarity, Concreteness, Valence, Arousal, Wordlikeness, and Recall Accuracy for Swahili–Portuguese Word Pairs

Normative studies are common in cognitive psychology because they allow us to estimate with more precision the attributes of the stimuli used in empirical studies. The studies reported here had four aims. The first three aims were to obtain estimates for (a) familiarity, concreteness, valence, and arousal for a single set of words in Brazilian Portuguese; (b) wordlikeness (similarity to Portuguese) of a set of foreign words (Swahili); and (c) recall accuracy of Swahili–Portuguese word pairs in a multitrial learning task. The fourth aim was to investigate if any of the assessed measures predicts recall accuracy. One-hundred twenty-eight participants took part in one of the three studies. In Studies 1a and 1b, participants judged 80 Portuguese words for familiarity, concreteness, valence, and arousal and 80 corresponding Swahili words for wordlikeness; in Study 2, participants carried out three study–test cycles of a set of Swahili–Portuguese word pairs. Overall, word-attribute estimates were reliable ( rs = .94–.98) and participants’ responses had high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .84–.98). Moreover, the relative difficulty of word pairs was retained across trials ( rs = .65–.88). Although different variables correlated with recall accuracy at different time points, multiple regressions indicate that none of the word-attribute variables predicted recall accuracy across trials. These norms may prove fruitful not only for Brazilian human memory researchers but also for international research teams, as it will enable the development of more controlled cross-cultural studies in this field.

Critical Review of the Mu'tazilī Theory of the Creation (Ḥudūth)of the Qur’an in Qāḍī Abd al-Jabbār’s Opinion, Regarding Imam Reza's Narrations

The issue of creation/origin (Ḥudūth) or pre-eternity (Qidam) of the Qur’an was one of the oldest theological debates in Muslim world which has been discussed under the title of the word (Kalām or speech) attribute of God. Qāḍī Abd al-Jabbār, one the most important scholars of the Mu’tazilī school, gives several reasons to prove the origin and creation of the Qur’an. Referring to the hadiths (narrations) of Imam Reza (AS), his arguments lead to the temporal origin and gradual descent of the words and sounds of the Qur'an. However, since this is related to the word of God, the arguments of Abdul Jabbār require temporal origin, composition and change in the Divine nature, according to His Word attribute. For, the attribute could not be separated from the attributed and the sentence of creation or pre-eternity pass to each other, as well. The creation of the Qur’an and confining the Divine word in words and sounds provide you with basic challenges, which may not be accepted easily.