Cognitive skills in the reading process: a review

Some current problems in reading, as viewed by cognitive psychology, are discussed around a summary of a symposium on Reading and Lexical Access held ac, part of the International Conference on Practical Aspects of Memory (Gruneberg, Morris arid Sykes, 1978). The analysis of component processes in reading, and the analysis of reading dynamics provide apparently opposing approaches to the study of reading, but they often lead to similar conclusions about reading behaviour and are seen here to be complementary approaches. Prompted by the discussion of phonological mediation in a number of the papers we are led to the conclusion that whereas phonological reading can be observed to be used on some occasions, it is not necessaryfor word recognition and reading. Three hypotheses of its use by skilled readers are suggested—for sequential attention control, for the generation of a working memory code, and for the resolution of ambiguity by prosodics. The beginning reader may have a further use in gaining a spoken representation, and therefore recognition, of new words.     

Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model to Explain to Whom “#Black Lives Matter” … And to Whom it Does Not

Officer-involved shootings have become an unfortunate regular part of news coverage. After such events, the media often select expert sources to explain the news to the public. Social media has changed this media–source dynamic. Today, laypeople—often African Americans—can go online and provide information that counters the media’s narrative. This analysis examines the effect people’s perception of sources has on their opinion of the Black Lives Matter Movement (#BLM). It also tests what other factors shape audiences’ beliefs about this issue. It finds that people who oppose #BLM have a strong orientation toward social dominance, are less likely to view America as the land of opportunity, and have ideas akin to those of modern racists, in that they oppose Affirmative Action and other race-based programs. This analysis also proposes a change to the Elaboration Likelihood Model, which serves as its theoretical basis. On racially charged issues, the personal relevance of an issue does not appear to matter; people will evaluate such topics via central processing.     

Fear of Isolation and Perceived Affordances: The Spiral of Silence on Social Networking Sites Regarding Police Discrimination

The spiral of silence (SoS) framework elaborates the factors that determine whether individuals are willing to express their opinions in public. Although previous scholarship has examined differences in between face-to-face and computer-mediated communication, research studies have rarely tested how perceived affordances of the channel influence whether individuals express opinions or self-censor. In this study (N = 399), we examine several propositions of SoS within the context of discussing police discrimination on Facebook. To extend the theory’s relevance to social networking sites, we examined how users’ perceptions of network association, social presence, anonymity, and persistence related to opinion expression. Findings indicate support for some of the theory’s original tenets, as well as the role of multiple perceived affordances in determining whether people will express an opinion to their online social network. We discuss the implications for measuring and understanding political expression and silencing on social media as well as offline.     

模糊对象和模糊性的逻辑

本文最初写于2001年,旨在探究语言上的、概念上的与本体论中的模糊性问题.文章始于这样一个问题,即模糊性仅仅是一个词的特征,抑或它也是我们的概念的特征,甚或是实在的特征?其中主要的关注点在于模糊对象的问题和相关的模糊同一性的问题.本文首先论证,即便模糊概念总可以得到进一步澄清,每个概念工具也必定是模糊的.其次,本文认为,如果不仅仅是词语,而且这些词语所表达的概念也是模糊的,那么可以论证,对象也必定是模糊的.第三,那种认为模糊对象必定具有模糊的同一性的思路是一种误解.最后一点尤为重要,因为对于模糊对象的抵制部分就来自于下述观念,即这种对象是不可能的,因为它们不遵守逻辑的同一律.本文也论述了,通过放弃二值原则以使得模糊陈述具有真和假之间的某个值或根本就没有真值的办法,也无助于解决模糊性问题,而且恰恰会造成相反的情况,即妨碍我们找到问题的解决之道.本文表明,在为真和既不真又不假之间,难以清晰地划分界限,正如在模糊的情形下要在真和假之间划界一样困难.本文的方法是利用量化模态逻辑的框架和语义学来处理这些问题.基于哥德尔模式的模态逻辑系统T,本文提出了一种关于清晰性和模糊性的量化逻辑,其中利用清晰性算子来代替必然性算子.文章还进一步讨论了模糊性和概念工具的发展之间的关联.     

Men in limbo: former students with special educational needs caught between economic independence and social security dependence

Individuals in their mid-thirties are expected to be employed and economically independent. However, people with disabilities and health problems – for example, former students with special educational needs (SEN) – may have problems in this domain of adult life. In Norway, individuals with SEN frequently rely on social security and support measures from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). This article is based on the narrative analysis of life course trajectories of seven young adult males over a period of 17 years – from their enrolment in upper secondary school with special needs teaching whilst in their teens to their participation in various NAV programmes whilst in their mid-thirties. The life course approach, with an emphasis on transitions and trajectories, has been used as the theoretical framework for analysing the presented data. The hope is that, taken together, these seven stories provide a deeper insight than one individual story could offer. We find that both social structures and the earlier life course affect one’s opportunities for joining the labour market.     

Science and the diffusion of knowledge

Scientists, social scientists and politicians frequently credit basic science with stimulating technological innovation, and with it economic growth. Despite a substantial body of research investigating this general relationship, relatively little empirical attention has been given to understanding the mechanisms that might generate this linkage. This paper considers whether more rapid diffusion of knowledge, brought about by the norm of publication, might account for part of this effect. We identify the importance of publication by comparing the patterns of citations from future patents to three groups of focal patents: (i) those that reference scientific (peer-reviewed) publications, (ii) those that reference commercial (non-scientific) publications; and (iii) those that reference neither. Our analyses strongly implicate publication as an important mechanism for accelerating the rate of technological innovation: Patents that reference published material, whether peer-reviewed or not, receive more citations, primarily because their influence diffuses faster in time and space.     

Complexity, networks and knowledge flow

Because knowledge plays an important role in the creation of wealth, economic actors often wish to skew the flow of knowledge in their favor. We ask, when will an actor socially close to the source of some knowledge have the greatest advantage over distant actors in receiving and building on the knowledge? Marrying a social network perspective with a view of knowledge transfer as a search process, we argue that the value of social proximity to the knowledge source depends crucially on the nature of the knowledge at hand. Simple knowledge diffuses equally to close and distant actors because distant recipients with poor connections to the source of the knowledge can compensate for their limited access by means of unaided local search. Complex knowledge resists diffusion even within the social circles in which it originated. With knowledge of moderate complexity, however, high-fidelity transmission along social networks combined with local search allows socially proximate recipients to receive and extend knowledge generated elsewhere, while interdependencies stymie more distant recipients who rely heavily on unaided search. To test this hypothesis, we examine patent data and compare citation rates across proximate and distant actors on three dimensions: (1) the inventor collaboration network; (2) firm membership; and (3) geography. We find robust support for the proposition that socially proximate actors have the greatest advantage over distant actors for knowledge of moderate complexity. We discuss the implications of our findings for the distribution of intra-industry profits, the geographic agglomeration of industries, the design of social networks within firms, and the modularization of technologies.