Do your friends make you smarter?: An analysis of social strategies in online information seeking

Prior research in the social search space has focused on the informational benefits of collaborating with others during web and workplace information seeking. However, social interactions, especially during complex tasks, can have cognitive benefits as well. Our goal in this paper is to document the methods and outcomes of using social resources to help with exploratory search tasks. We used a talk-aloud protocol and video capture to explore the actions of eight subjects as they completed two “Google-hard” search tasks. Task questions were alternated between a Social and Non-Social Condition. The Social Condition restricted participants to use only social resources—search engines were not allowed. The Non-Social Condition permitted normal web-based information sources, but restricted the use of social tools.     

Developmental associations between verbal and visual short-term memory and the acquisition of decoding skill

This study longitudinally investigated the relationships between verbaland visual short-term memory (STM) and the acquisition of decoding from thepre-reading through the early acquisition stages in 63 Hebrew-speakingchildren Test waves occurred in kindergarten, first grade and second grade.IQ, visual and verbal STM and decoding ability were assessed. The dataindicated that while both verbal and visual STM in kindergarten were significantlycorrelated to later decoding skill, pre-reading visual STM was a stronger predictor.The results further showed that pre-reading performance on the WISC-R BlockDesign test predicted later decoding ability, while performance on theWISC-R Vocabulary test did not. Lastly decoding skill in grade 1 was foundto predict only visual in grade 2. These results indicate that visualparameters may make a crucial contribution to the acquisition of decodingskills. The size of pre-reading visual STM capacity appears to play a rolein this process. The relationship between visual STM and decoding may bebidirectional, as learning to decode appears to develop visual STM. It issuggested that either language-related or task-related factors may accountfor these counter-to-mainstream results.     

A temperament perspective of nonverbal immediacy

This study examined several dimensions of personality (extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism) as advanced by Eysenck and Eysenck (1985) and their relationship to nonverbal immediacy. It was found that extraversion was positively correlated with nonverbal immediacy and that neuroticism and psychoticism were negatively correlated with nonverbal immediacy. These results support the argument that personality plays an influential role in how people communicate.     

The association between school exclusion,delinquency and subtypes of cyber- and F2F-victimizations: Identifying and predicting risk profiles and subtypes using latent class analysis

This purpose of this paper is to identify risk profiles of youth who are victimized by on- and offline harassment and to explore the consequences of victimization on school outcomes. Latent class analysis is used to explore the overlap and co-occurrence of different clusters of victims and to examine the relationship between class membership and school exclusion and delinquency. Participants were a random sample of youth between the ages of 12 and 18 selected for inclusion to participate in the 2011 National Crime Victimization Survey: School Supplement. The latent class analysis resulted in four categories of victims: approximately 3.1% of students were highly victimized by both bullying and cyberbullying behaviors; 11.6% of youth were classified as being victims of relational bullying, verbal bullying and cyberbullying; a third class of students were victims of relational bullying, verbal bullying and physical bullying but were not cyberbullied (8%); the fourth and final class, characteristic of the majority of students (77.3%), was comprised of non-victims. The inclusion of covariates to the latent class model indicated that gender, grade and race were significant predictors of at least one of the four victim classes. School delinquency measures were included as distal outcomes to test for both overall and pairwise associations between classes. With one exception, the results were indicative of a significant relationship between school delinquency and the victim subtypes. Implications for these findings are discussed.     

Sixth graders in Israel recount their experience of verbal abuse by teachers in the classroom

AimThis study adopts a children’s rights perspective stated in Articles 3, 12, 19, 28 of the Convention on the Rights of Children (1989) with the goal of listening to Israeli children articulate their experience of verbal abuse by teachers in 6th grade classroomsMethodsA purposeful sample of sixty students was individually interviewed and content analysis was performed following Strauss’ (1987) constant comparative method.ResultsStudents reported teachers’ yelling, name-calling and put-downs when failing to pay attention, complete their work, or obtain good grades. They condemned teachers as particularly hurtful and cruel for publically humiliating them in class. However, awareness of teachers’ authority and fear of reprisal led to students’ silence and reluctance to report the abuse to their parents or principal. Covert opposition was nevertheless exhibited as students engaged in a silent monologue telling teachers they had no right to mistreat them (females), silently cursing (males) and/or withdrawing participation (both genders). Repeated public humiliation and scapegoating resulted in the loss of interest in teacher’s opinion and school and on rare occasions to the direct verbal confrontation or acting-out behaviour of the abused student.ConclusionThis study stresses the importance of gaining insight into the world of children by having them articulate their experience and denounce any form of abuse by teachers in the classroom. A child-safe school culture that listen to children’s view and make them feel safe when reporting any form of abuse in the classroom are preconditions to serving children’s best interests and wellbeing in schools.     

九一八事变与日本退出国联

一战后,为了保全在中国和太平洋地区已经攫取的各项利益,日本以求通过协调外交来变换在亚太地区的侵略扩张政策。但是,当日本独霸中国和太平洋地区扩张欲望无限膨胀时,这种同列强间的协调侵略政策必将被强硬政策所取代。于是,日本通过发动九.一八事变和退出国联,向凡尔赛-华盛顿体制发起严厉挑战,并最终退出世界裁军条约,一手造成了太平洋地区的无条约时代。     

英语言语幽默中指称语的语用解读

指称语是在言语会话中引起幽默的一种重要手段。为了产生言语幽默效果,交际双方对于指称语的选择是一种动态的心理过程。Sperber和Wilson的关联理论对于解释英语言语幽默中发话人如何选择合适的指称语作为语言交际衔接手段的动因和受话人如何筛选并确定指称关系的心理过程有着重要的作用。指称语的语用解读能进一步丰富理解英语言语幽默的方法,提高读者对幽默的鉴赏力。     

When “Sugar and Spice” Turn to “Fire and Ice”: Factors Affecting the Adverse Consequences of Relational Aggression among Adolescent Girls

This study investigated factors affecting the relative harm of relationally aggressive acts among adolescent girls. One hundred twenty-seven high school girls completed a survey in which they described an event where another girl did something to them that was mean or hurtful. Girls also completed measures of the extent to which the aggressive act threatened their positive face, and the extent to which the aggressive act led them to experience negative affect. Results supported the prediction that aggressive acts committed by girls who were more popular than the victim were associated with greater perceived face threat and negative affect than aggressive acts committed by girls who were equally popular or less popular than the victim. In addition, events in which the perpetrator involved other individuals in the commission of aggression were associated with greater perceived face threat and greater negative affect than events in which the perpetrator acted alone. Contrary to predictions, degree of interpersonal closeness between the victim and the perpetrator just prior to the aggressive act was not associated with perceived face threat or degree of negative affect.     

The Consequences of Verbal Aggression in the Workplace: An Application of the Investment Model

The purpose of the current study was to improve our theoretical and practical understanding by examining the influence of a supervisor's verbal aggression on his or her employees’ job satisfaction and commitment, accounting for investment size and the quality of alternatives. And to account for reasons why organizations fail to fully realize the benefits associated with employee retention. A structural equation model was developed to emulate the investment model to determine the veracity of the model in the work setting and to answer the question as to why employees remained in communicatively hostile work environments. The findings shed light on the dynamics that take place within a work environment in which employees are targets of verbal aggression by their supervisors. The findings also indicated that the data fit the structural equation model and confirmed the applicability of the investment model in the workplace.     

Linguistic Synchrony in Parasocial Interaction

Social media can be used to assess public opinions and emotions during different stages of a crisis. Guided by the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) model, this study examined a systematic sample of 2,881 tweets from a corpus of over one million tweets posted during the initial, maintenance, and resolution stages of the 2015 California measles outbreak. It found that the public showed the greatest interest (as measured by the number of tweets and retweets) in the initial stage of the crisis, but their interest drastically declined afterward. The expression of humor/sarcasm was significantly more frequent in the initial stage than in the maintenance or resolutions stage, while the expression of reassurance increased significantly from the initial, maintenance, and resolution stage. The emotion of alarm/concern was most frequently expressed during the initial stage. For message types, the public were more likely to tweet about their personal opinions and less likely to tweet about resources during the initial stage. These findings allow public health professionals to better design messages in response to the public’s concerns and emotions during public health crises.