Environmental Learning of Social Cues: Evidence From Enhanced Gaze Cueing in Deaf Children

The susceptibility to gaze cueing in deaf children aged 7–14 years old (N = 16) was tested using a nonlinguistic task. Participants performed a peripheral shape-discrimination task, whereas uninformative central gaze cues validly or invalidly cued the location of the target. To assess the role of sign language experience and bilingualism in deaf participants, three groups of age-matched hearing children were recruited: bimodal bilinguals (vocal and sign-language, N = 19), unimodal bilinguals (two vocal languages, N = 17), and monolinguals (N = 14). Although all groups showed a gaze-cueing effect and were faster to respond to validly than invalidly cued targets, this effect was twice as large in deaf participants. This result shows that atypical sensory experience can tune the saliency of a fundamental social cue.     

Microclimate inside a semi-confined environment: Valuation of suitability for the conservation of heritage materials

The microclimatic analysis of the Petrarca's tomb in Arquà Petrarca, Padua (Italy) was performed to assess the suitability of a closed environment located outdoors respect to the conservation requirements of heritage materials. Results showed that the thermo-hygrometric conditions inside the tomb were not suitable for the conservation of organic materials, like bones and wood. The orientation (north or south) was the main responsible for the different damage features of the two sides of the wooden case housing the human remains inside the tomb. Technical solutions were finally implemented to improve the conservation conditions, thus avoiding further damage.     

The role of content management systems in publishing firms

This paper investigates the interaction between technological and organizational parameters. Recent studies have been focused on the information and communication impact on organizational parameters, owing to the growing need to acquire and process information. We focus on the impact of the content management system on publishing firms and through the study of ten Italian cases we identify the socio-technical context which favor the adoption of technology as well as the organizational parameters influenced by the technology use.     

Eliciting Behavior From Interactive Narratives: Isolating the Role of Agency in Connecting With and Modeling Characters

A key component differentiating interactive storytelling from non-interactive media is agency, or control over character choices. A series of experiments show that providing agency over a character increased the user-character connection, which then increased engagement in a character-consistent charitable act. Findings were observed in technologically simple online narratives that controlled for navigation/controller differences, graphics, sounds, lengthy play, and avatar customization. Effects emerged even though users did not practice these acts by making their character behave charitably. Findings were robust across happy and unfortunate endings and across first-, second-, and third-person narrative perspectives. Findings suggest promise for developing inexpensive “storygames” to encourage supportive behaviors.     

Increasing Knowledge Flows between the Agricultural Research and Advisory System in Italy: Combining Virtual and Non-virtual Interaction in Communities of Practice

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to analyse the use of Communities of Practice and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance knowledge sharing between researchers and advisors. The associated research question is to what extent ICT supported a virtual Community of Practice and has been effective in counteracting fragmentation between research and advisory systems in terms of knowledge sharing between these two pillars of the Italian Agricultural Knowledge System (AKS).

Design/Methodology/approach: The paper uses a mixed methods approach: a questionnaire submitted to the Community of Practice participants on their experiences, observation of interaction between Community of Practice participants and data on the use of the ICT platform.

Findings: The ICT supported Community of Practice approach appears to improve knowledge sharing between researchers and advisors, and also draws in other actors of the broader Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System in which the AKS is embedded. However, ICT based tools alone are not sufficient and need to be complemented with face-to-face (non-virtual) interactions. A clear theoretical implication of this study is that this is an iterative process in which virtual and non-virtual interaction mutually reinforce each other: ICT interaction spurs real life and face-to-face interaction, and ICT supports follow-up on real life face-to-face interaction.

Practical Implications: Communities of Practice can be a useful tool for knowledge sharing between research and advisory systems, but should have a degree of flexibility in terms of the topics they address and should accommodate new members when appropriate. ICT is supportive, but should be complemented by real life meetings.

Originality/Value: The paper connects recent frameworks of the use of Communities of Practice with literature on ICT in agriculture and adds insights on the contribution of combining virtual and non-virtual interaction in Communities of Practice aimed at knowledge sharing.     

Instructional models for the acquisition of English as bridges into school science: effects on the science achievement of U.S. Hispanic English language learners

Science educators have suggested that, for minority and low-income students, gaps between home and school science cultures necessitate ‘border crossing’ for successful learning in science. Our analysis used National Assessment of Educational Progress 2000 and 2005 data to assess the impact of U.S. state-level policy regarding instructional models for language acquisition for the learning of science. Specifically, we assessed whether policy favouring structured English immersion led to better student outcomes than bilingual education among Hispanic English language learners in 4th and 8th grades in the U.S. We found significantly higher science achievement among 4th grade Hispanic ELLs in states with stronger bilingual emphasis in their policy, suggesting that policy support for bilingual education could provide a better bridge to span the cultural gap between home and school science, at least for younger students.     

Children's attitudes towards ADHD,depression and learning disabilities

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression and general learning disabilities (LD) are common difficulties for British primary school children. It has been found that characteristics associated with these difficulties can result in negative attitudes and stigma from other children, causing problems with peer relationships. Furthermore, problematic peer relations can intensify the difficulties associated with these disorders. Packages such as ‘Tackling Stigma: A Practical Toolkit’ aim to combat stigma in schools. However, these packages have not been based on evidence regarding children's attitudes towards different disorders. This study aims to explore children's attitudes towards ADHD, depression and LD from a conative (measure of social distance) and cognitive (measure of positive or negative attributes ascribed to a person) perspective. Participants were 273 children (M= 9.2 years). Vignettes were used to describe a child with ADHD, depression, or LD or a ‘normal’ child. The Shared Activities Questionnaire was utilised to assess conative attitudes, and the Adjective Checklist was utilised to assess cognitive attitudes. Results showed that children generally displayed more negative attitudes to vignettes describing mental health difficulties (MHD) (ADHD and depression) than LD. Children had more negative attitudes towards the ADHD (externalising disorder) vignette than the depression vignette (internalising disorder). Younger children had more positive conative attitudes than older children. Those who had previous contact with children with ADHD, depression and LD had more positive attitudes. These findings can enhance current stigma reduction interventions through contributing a deeper understanding of children's attitudes towards the most common MHD and LD in childhood.     

Congruency as a nonspecific perceptual property contributing to newborns' face preference

Past research has shown that top-heaviness is a perceptual property that plays a crucial role in triggering newborns' preference toward faces. The present study examined the contribution of a second configural property, congruency , to newborns' face preference. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that when embedded in nonfacelike stimuli, congruency induces a preference of the same strength as that induced by facedness. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that the attentional biases toward facedness and congruency produce a cumulative effect on newborns' visual preferences according to an additive model. These findings were extended by those of Experiment 5, showing that the additive model holds true when congruency is added to top-heaviness in nonfacelike stimuli displaying more elements in the upper portion.     

Educational Justice and Occupational Mobility: The Role of Civic Commitment and of Imagination

In Italy, the exploration of, and debate on, problems of educational rights and justice are not subsumed under the comprehensive rubric of “Urban Education”. They are rather studied from disciplinary realms and approaches such as social education or intercultural education that aim to understand and respond to issues of pressing social, political and educational concerns relative to migration, educational inclusion of immigrants’ and minorities’ children, recognition of cultural diversities as teaching and learning resources, among others. In this article the intercultural perspective is focused on the Italian occupational minority of the fairground and circus people, whose intensely mobile way of life impacts on their children’s school attendance and learning, and on the schools’ capacity to elaborate effective educational paths also able to valorize those people’s cultural diversity. Three relevant “bottom up” projects are here presented that mean to positively answer the mismatch between the mobility of the attractionist students and the schooling curricula, the annual teaching schedule and the attendance requirements.     

Effect of Cognitive Style on Topographical Learning Across Life Span: Insights From Normal Development

Notwithstanding its well-established role on high-demanding spatial navigation tasks during adulthood, the effect of field dependence–independence during the acquisition of spatial navigation skills is almost unknown. This study assessed for the first time the effect of field dependence–independence on topographical learning (TL) across the life span: 195 individuals, including 54 healthy young-adults (age-range = 20–30), 46 teenagers (age-range = 11–14), and 95 children (age-range = 6–9) participated in this study. Field dependence–independence interacted with age in predicting TL. Also during childhood higher field independence was associated with better performances but not later in the life, that is, during adolescence and adulthood. This result suggests that field dependence–independence may have a role in fostering the acquisition of TL.