Through space, relations, and thoughts

This paper aims to describe the morphosyntax and semantics of postpositions in Karijona, a Cariban language from Northwest Amazonia. The data, collected in the Karijona settlement of Puerto Nare (Colombia), were analyzed according to Basic Linguistic Theory and Cognitive Semantics. Like other Cariban languages, Karijona has a typologically unusual system of postpositions, which can cross-reference person and number, and form complex stems consisting of locative roots and locative suffixes. In terms of their semantics, the system distinguishes among spatial, relational, and ‘mental state’ postpositions. The first type encodes noun classification, orientation, and distance. While the second type has prototypical relational meanings, the third refers to cognitive and emotional states. This paper presents the first systematic description of the Karijona postpositions.

Examining Automatic Stereotyping From a Propositional Perspective: Is Automatic Stereotyping Sensitive to Relational and Validity Information?

Research on automatic stereotyping is dominated by the idea that automatic stereotyping reflects the activation of (group–trait) associations. In two preregistered experiments (total N = 391), we tested predictions derived from an alternative perspective that suggests that automatic stereotyping is the result of the activation of propositional representations that, unlike associations, can encode relational information and have truth values. Experiment 1 found that automatic stereotyping is sensitive to the validity of information about pairs of traits and groups. Experiment 2 showed that automatic stereotyping is sensitive to the specific relations (e.g., whether a particular group is more or less friendly than a reference person) between pairs of traits and groups. Interestingly, both experiments found a weaker influence of validity/relational information on automatic stereotyping than on non-automatic stereotyping. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on automatic stereotyping.

Examining automatic stereotyping from a propositional perspective: Is automatic stereo-typing sensitive to relational and validity information?

Research on automatic stereotyping is dominated by the idea that automatic stereotyping reflects the activation of (group-trait) associations. In two preregistered experiments (total N=391) we tested predictions derived from an alternative perspective that suggests that automatic stereotyping is the result of the activation of propositional representations that, unlike associations, can encode relational information and have truth values. Experiment 1 found that automatic stereotyping is sensitive to the validity of information about pairs of traits and groups. Experiment 2 showed that automatic stereotyping is sensitive to the specific relations (e.g., whether a particular group is more or less friendly than a reference person) between pairs of traits and groups. Interestingly, both experiments found a weaker influence of validity/relational information on automatic stereotyping than on non-automatic stereotyping. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on automatic stereotyping.

Does Field Substitution Impact the Educational Profile of the Belgian Health Interview Survey Net Sample?

Background Although controversial as a sampling technique, field substitution of non-respondents is applied in the Belgian Health Interview (BHIS) since its start in 1997. The target number of participants to obtain is predefined and set at 10,000 individuals. Based on data derived from the National Register, non-participating households are substituted by at most three households matched on statistical sector, age group of the households’ reference person (administrative contact of the household) and household size, thus creating a cluster. In this study, the impact of field substitution on the educational composition of the net sample is assessed. Methods The educational level of the household’ reference person derived from the Census 2001 and Census 2011, was used as a proxy for socio-economic position and was linked with respectively BHIS 2001 and BHIS 2013 paradata on the use of field substitution using a unique identifier. Given the high level of missing data on the educational level (+/-16%) in the Census, regression based multiple imputations (m=5) procedures were applied, presuming missingness at random. Response rates by educational level at any stage of the substitution process stage were calculated. Differences in response rates were assessed by applying the Delta method. Results At any stage of the substitution process, the participation rate was the lowest in the lowest educated households and significantly higher in the middle and highest educated households. Throughout the substitution process, the participation rate dropped from 51.6% to 42.7% for low educated households and from 61.7% to 46.3% for high educated households. Conclusions It is concluded that field substitution introduces higher levels of non-participation but does not affect the educational composition of the net sample.

Presupposition Failure and Intended Pronominal Reference: Person Is Not So Different from Gender After All

This article aims to show that (one of) the main argument(s) against the presuppositional account of person is not compelling if one makes appropriate assumptions about how the context fixes the assignment. It has been argued that unlike gender features, person features of free pronouns cannot yield presupposition failure (instead, can yield only falsity) when they are not verified by the referent. The argument is flawed, however, because the way the referent is assigned is not made clear. If it is assumed to be the individual that the audience can recognize as the referent intended by the speaker, the argument is reversed.

The ›Head of Household‹

The household forms an important category in social science research. It is used to collect data, to classify it and to represent the results. However, what seems to be a simple listing of facts becomes less clear when a basic question is raised: What is a household? Is it a family living under one roof? Is a roof limited to a house, or does a flat already constitute a household? Do members of a household have to be officially related, meaning married, adopted etc., or even related by blood? And how do households and definitions of households differ over time and space? Some definitions like the United Nations’s dwelling concept, for example, sound pragmatic with little regard to the social relationships of the actual human beings living in a household. However, there are indeed power relations within a household (e.g. between parents and children). Social scientists also observed these everyday asymmetries and therefore constructed a hierarchy in social classifications when they placed the household in a specific class according to the ›Head of Household‹ or the ›Household Reference Person‹, the ›Chief Wage Earner‹, the ›Householder‹ etc. The different designations of the reference person indicate that it is not an easy task to name this person or to define this person without a normative bias. By taking the example of Great Britain, this article demonstrates that the definition of the ›Head of Household‹ was a normative category rather than a descriptive one, meaning that it was less able to facilitate analysis of social reality and that it fortified a normative view with the help of statistics. While feminists and other historical actors in different states, for example the U.S., already criticised the normative bias of the definition in the 1960s and 1970s, a different question seems to be of equal or even greater importance to the historian: How, when and why did different nations and professions decide to drop the normative in favour of a descriptive definition of the ›Head of Household‹? This leads to a more general question: How did administrators, statisticians and other survey researchers deal with the aim of long-term stability of statistical categories for the sake of comparability, e.g. in a national census, on the one hand, and with adaption to societal change on the other hand? In taking the example of the United Kingdom, the following story combines aspects of a history of knowledge with administrative history.

Gender Differences, Social Loss Aversion and Sports Performance in Japanese Schoolchildren

In this paper, we investigated the relationship between social loss aversion and the competitive sports performance. We found that social loss aversion significantly affected the competitive sports performance in a homogeneous group of male students, but not female students, and that these effects were consistent across various sports drills. In particular, the gender of a reference person was pivotal to determining the effects of social loss aversion. We also showed that social risk aversion did not significantly affect performance in competitive sports drills.

Gender Differences, Social Loss Aversion and Sports Performance in Japanese Schoolchildren

In this paper, we investigated the relationship between social loss aversion and the competitive sports performance. We found that social loss aversion significantly affected the competitive sports performance in a homogeneous group of male students, but not female students, and that these effects were consistent across various sports drills. In particular, the gender of a reference person was pivotal to determining the effects of social loss aversion. We also showed that social risk aversion did not significantly affect performance in competitive sports drills.