“. . .delivered from the lie of being truth”: The Affective Force of Disinformation, Stickiness and Dissensus in Randy Ribay’s Patron Saints of Nothing

Waged in 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs has claimed over 20,000 lives according to human rights groups. The Duterte administration’s own count is significantly lower: around 6,000. The huge discrepancy between the government’s official count and that of arguably more impartial organizations about something as concretely material as body count is symptomatic of how disinformation is central to the Duterte administration and how it can sustain the approval of the majority of the Philippine electorate. We suggest that Duterte’s populist politics generates what Boler and Davis (2018) call “affective feedback loops,” which create emotional and informational ecosystems that facilitate smooth algorithmic governance. We turn to Patron Saints of Nothing, a recently published novel by Randy Ribay about a Filipino-American who goes back to the Philippines to uncover the truth behind the death of his cousin. Jay’s journey into the “heart of darkness” as a “hyphenated” individual (Filipino-American) allows him access to locally networked subjectivities but not its affective entanglements. Throughout the novel, he encounters numerous versions of the circumstances of Jun’s demise and the truth remains elusive at the end of the novel. We argue that despite the constant distortion of fact and fiction in the novel, what remains relatively stable or “sticky” throughout the novel are the letters from Jun Reguero that Jay carries with him back to the Philippines. We suggest that these letters can potentially serve as a form of “dissensus” that challenges the constant redistribution of the sensible in the novel.

WRITTEN CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK APPLIED BY ENGLISH TEACHER AT THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP NU PALANGKA RAYA

This study was aimed at investigating written corrective feedback applied by an English teacher in writing class at eighth grade students of SMP NU Palangka Raya. Two research questions were formulated in this study. (1) How is the teacher written corrective feedback technique applied in English class of SMP NU Palangka Raya; (2) What are written feedback patterns applied by an English teacher in writing class at eighth grade students of SMP NU Palangka Raya. This study was case study with qualitative approach. For the data collection, it was used the instruments such as observation equipped with observation checklist, interview equipped with interview guideline, documentation and field notes. To analyze the data, it was through the techniques: data collection, data display, data reduction, and conclusion/drawing. For the data endorsement, it was used triangulation technique. The results showed that the teacher applied written corrective feedback technique in the class by some steps. The written corrective feedback applied by the teacher focuses on correct word choice, punctuation, grammar, organization, spelling, and content. The teacher also used affective feedback which feedback in the form of motivation on teacher’s writing. The patterns of written corrective feedback were feedback sandwich and gold star. Students’ response through written corrective feedback applied were: (1) teacher written feedback was objective, (2) teacher written feedback was clear, (3) teacher written feedback assisted the students (4) teacher written feedback was encouraging

The Impact of Teachers' Linguistic and Affective Feedback on Iranian EFL Students' Writing Skills

Errors and error correction are two basic elements of an EFL writing class, and Iranian EFL teachers have always been grappling with the students’ mistakes and errors. Tracking down applicable techniques and efficient strategies for correcting students’ mistakes and errors has forced teachers to carefully scrutinize the students’ behaviour, skills, aptitudes, and the conditions of the class. On the other hand, one of the students’ needs in EFL writing courses is a clear assessment of their progress. Therefore, teachers may have to respond and comment on the students’ progress according to their performance. This study was an attempt to investigate the impact of teachers’ feedback and comments on EFL students’ writing skill improvement. To answer this question, a one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was carried out and the results confirmed the existence of a significant effect of teachers’ feedback and comments on EFL students’ writing. Students were motivated to write more creatively and at the same time they had more improvement in the writing skill. The findings based on the reports given by the teachers also suggest that students’ negative attitude toward writing perceived as a boring, difficult, time consuming, and unimportant task gradually leaned toward a positive one.

Aging and Decisions From Experience: Differences in Information Search and Subsequent Decision Quality

Across a wide variety of choice tasks requiring information to be learned prior to a decision be made, older adults have been found to search for less information than their younger adult counterparts. This dissertation proposed and investigated several potential causes of this age-related decline in the extent of information search: (1) Domain familiarity; (2) Search patterns; (3) Affect; and (4) Risk. The results of four experiments are presented. In each, no significant age-related decline in the extent of information search was found. Despite this, each experiment presents novel findings, adding to our understanding of how information search and subsequent decision quality in choice changes with age. Experiment 1 revealed an age-related shift in search pattern selection during pre-decisional information search. Older adults showed a preference for the use of a comprehensive, infrequent-switch, pattern during search. Experiment 2 demonstrated the significant impact that search patterns can have on decision quality. Search pattern use was strictly enforced and it was found that searching using a piecewise search pattern resulted in a significant improvement in performance, relative to comprehensive search, across both younger and older adult age groups, despite older adults showing declines in their fluid intelligence. Experiment 3 investigated the role of affective feedback on decision quality. When given affect-rich and affect-poor feedback, an interaction of age and affective feedback on decision quality was observed. Younger adults’ performance was greater when they were provided with affect-poor performance feedback compared to affect-rich feedback, but a similar trend was not observed in older adults. Experiment 4 found older adults to be no less efficient in identifying higher value outcomes than younger adults. Overall, this dissertation presents several novel findings in the field of decision-making research. The importance of search pattern selection on decision quality was demonstrated. More critical is the finding that older adults are no less effective in their decisions across a wide array of tasks and manipulations, despite existing stereotypes and evidence of age-related declines in cognitive abilities. Moving forward, the work presented here could be used to guide the future creation of decision aids and new approaches to choice.

Aging and Decisions From Experience: Differences in Information Search and Subsequent Decision Quality

Across a wide variety of choice tasks requiring information to be learned prior to a decision be made, older adults have been found to search for less information than their younger adult counterparts. This dissertation proposed and investigated several potential causes of this age-related decline in the extent of information search: (1) Domain familiarity; (2) Search patterns; (3) Affect; and (4) Risk. The results of four experiments are presented. In each, no significant age-related decline in the extent of information search was found. Despite this, each experiment presents novel findings, adding to our understanding of how information search and subsequent decision quality in choice changes with age. Experiment 1 revealed an age-related shift in search pattern selection during pre-decisional information search. Older adults showed a preference for the use of a comprehensive, infrequent-switch, pattern during search. Experiment 2 demonstrated the significant impact that search patterns can have on decision quality. Search pattern use was strictly enforced and it was found that searching using a piecewise search pattern resulted in a significant improvement in performance, relative to comprehensive search, across both younger and older adult age groups, despite older adults showing declines in their fluid intelligence. Experiment 3 investigated the role of affective feedback on decision quality. When given affect-rich and affect-poor feedback, an interaction of age and affective feedback on decision quality was observed. Younger adults’ performance was greater when they were provided with affect-poor performance feedback compared to affect-rich feedback, but a similar trend was not observed in older adults. Experiment 4 found older adults to be no less efficient in identifying higher value outcomes than younger adults. Overall, this dissertation presents several novel findings in the field of decision-making research. The importance of search pattern selection on decision quality was demonstrated. More critical is the finding that older adults are no less effective in their decisions across a wide array of tasks and manipulations, despite existing stereotypes and evidence of age-related declines in cognitive abilities. Moving forward, the work presented here could be used to guide the future creation of decision aids and new approaches to choice.

Anxiety and Depression Related Abnormalities in Socio-affective Learning

High anxiety may be related insufficient sensitivity to changing reinforcement during operant learning. Whether such findings are specific to anxiety is unclear given a wider literature relating negative affect to abnormal learning and the possibility that relationships are not consistent across incentive types (i.e. punishment and reward) and outcomes (i.e., positive or negative). In two separate samples ( = 76; = 49), participants completed an operant learning task with positive, negative, and neutral socio-affective feedback, designed to assess adaptive responses to changing environmental volatility. Contrary to expectations, general affective distress, rather than anxiety or depression specifically, was related to an increase, rather than a decrease, in the rate of learning for negative outcomes in volatile, relative to stable, environments. Our results suggest an important but general role in anxiety and depression of overweighting negative feedback when the value of an action becomes uncertain, as when environmental volatility increases.