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To aid in resolving some of the ambiguity in the literature about the impact of different forms of WOM on brand performance, this dissertation investigates how WOM influences three consumer responses to WOM: purchase, WOM retransmission, and additional information search. The author investigates these questions by analyzing a database comprising more than three years of detailed WOM data from a unique, nationally representative panel merged with other secondary sources that provide various measures of brand strength (the American Consumer Satisfaction Index and Harris Interactive’s Equitrend). Using a series of hierarchical regression models, the results from this study reveal numerous insights into the contextual factors that moderate the impact of a WOM episode. For example, negative WOM about a brand has a larger absolute effect on consumer purchase intentions than positive WOM, but positive WOM has a larger positive effect on WOM retransmission than the positive effect of negative WOM. Offline WOM tends to exacerbate the effect of positive and negative brand sentiment on purchase intentions. WOM between stronger social ties tends to have greater impact on brand-related responses than WOM between weak ties, except in the case of motivating additional information search. The results also indicate that strong brands (those with higher levels of brand equity) tend to reap greater benefits from WOM. For example, negative, mixed, or neutral WOM has greater influence on purchase, and WOM from weak social ties about strong brands motivates higher levels of information search than when WOM from weak ties is about weaker brands.

Relationships between various types of orthographic processing and word reading were explored in a sample of 90 second and third grade students in a one and a half year longitudinal study. Participants were administered tests of lexical and sublexical orthographic knowledge, orthographic learning, word reading accuracy, word reading fluency, irregular word reading, nonword decoding, phonological awareness, and nonverbal reasoning. Cross-lag hierarchical regression analyses were used in order to predict growth in the dependent variable. In all analyses, the controls of age, nonverbal reasoning, phonological awareness, and an earlier measure of the dependent variable were entered into the regression before the predictor variable. Generally, it was found that orthographic knowledge measures did not predict growth in word reading (with the exception of irregular word reading), whereas word reading measures predicted growth in orthographic knowledge. Orthographic learning did significantly predict growth in all measures of word reading except nonword decoding. Only word reading accuracy predicted growth in orthographic learning measures. Implications for reading development theory and reading education are discussed.

As a major project, this work studies the spoken word genre as a response to, and interpretation of, oppression and examine my own spoken word performance through the lens of narratology, narrative-making and auto-ethnography. This project is composed of two parts: a full-length spoken word performance and a curatorial analysis of this performance. While attempting to re-enact the trauma of oppression, this performance dually recognizes the impossibility within the task. Maurice Blanchot writes in The Writing of the Disaster, “The disaster, unexperienced. It is what escapes the very possibility of experience- it is the limit of writing. This must be repeated: the disaster de- scribes.” This project aims to perform the places of de-scription. In poems detailing experiences of trauma, racism, misogyny, and relationships, this spoken word performance will offer an account of the subject for whom the act of narration is subversive. In this, the performance is self-aware and self-reflective; it communicates experiences for which the language to describe such experiences is either unavailable or nonexistent. The continuous theme of ‘home’ is maintained throughout the performance- how its absence marks the absence of the oppressed subject, how its absence implies the absence of language for the subject, and how spoken word can begin the outlining of a narrative, a foundation, for the subject. My accompanying curatorial paper will examine similar themes. As spoken word is an art form deeply linked to activism, my paper will begin with an analysis of how this art has taken place, what its role has been in community development, and how it continues to function as a teaching tool. My paper argues that spoken word is instrumental in tying learning to voice; by offering young people a medium that both gives them a forum to voice the issues directly impacting their lives, while giving them a means of developing skills in language, presentation and communicating ideas effectively, spoken word acts as a unique and important teaching tool. / Thesis (Master, Cultural Studies) -- Queen's University, 2014-01-07 02:07:39.286

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Simply put, Crown liability doctrine in Crown/Aboriginal Law in Canada is a mess. Demonstrably, there are fiduciary-based duties, fiduciary-based principles, an over-arching honour of the Crown principle, Crown honour-based duties, and a constitutional Crown/Aboriginal “reconciliation” imperative. How the various pieces are meant to fit together is atypically unclear. In this project, Ronald Dworkin’s rights thesis is invoked as a conceptual tool in an attempt to help bring some order to the disarray. It is argued that the Supreme Court of Canada made a fundamental (Dworkinian) mistake in the manner in which they adopted fiduciary concepts into the core of Crown/Aboriginal Law; that this mistake has led to a dysfunctional doctrine; and that the Supreme Court has implicitly acknowledged their error and are now in the process of incrementally mending their materially flawed doctrine. Crown liability doctrine in Crown/Aboriginal Law in Canada is now centrally organized around the principle that the honour of the Crown must always be upheld in applicable government dealings with Aboriginal peoples. Enforceable Crown honour-based “off-shoot” duties operate to regulate the mischief of Crown dishonour in constitutional contexts. The Supreme Court has now stated that a (non-conventional and fundamentally unresolved) Crown/Aboriginal fiduciary obligation is one such “off-shoot” duty. This emergent “essential legal framework” is meant to protect and facilitate the over-arching project of reconciling the pre-existence of Aboriginal societies with the de facto sovereignty of the Crown, which reconciliation project, it is argued here, is to be fundamentally undertaken by the executive and legislative branches of government working collaboratively with Aboriginal peoples. The judicial branch of government is then largely limited to the more modest task of regulating the mischief of constitutional Crown dishonour. This project ultimately purports to theorize this relatively new Crown honour-based framework, and to conceptualize what residual role there is for fiduciary accountability to play in applicable Crown/Aboriginal contexts moving forward. It is concluded there is likely only a narrow jurisdiction remaining for fiduciary accountability in Crown/Aboriginal contexts, which jurisdiction appears destined to take the form of conventional fiduciary doctrine which, as will be demonstrated, has itself been fundamentally reconfigured in recent years.

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Purpose: Between 13% and 20% of two year olds are late to talk; of those, up to 25% are at risk of persistent language impairment. This highly exploratory study examined whether a dynamic assessment (DA) of single word learning could be used to predict medium term development trajectory and thus provide better information regarding which late talkers were most at risk of continued language delay. Method: Six novel non-words were taught within a scripted play activity, which controlled for number of exposures. Retention and recall of each novel word was tested following both 3 and10 exposures using a predetermined hierarchy of prompts. Participants were 20 typically developing children and 20 late talkers aged 24-29 months. The late talking group (mean age 26 months) was tracked for 8 to 9 months with re-administration of the DA task 3 months after the initial testing. The task employed a graduated prompting framework because it is highly scripted and can be completed within a single brief session; advantageous for screening purposes. Results: Findings indicated that the DA scores for single word learning were associated with change over an 8 to 9 month period. The association between the task and standardised assessment (PLS) change scores was observed to increase over a 3 month period, when the average age of the late talking participants was 29 months. At this time, participants achieving DA scores more closely approximating those of typically developing children were operating within the normal range on standardised testing (PLS) 5 to 6 months later. Conclusions: More accurate differentiation of children who were late blooming versus those likely to be language impaired was achieved closer to 2 ½ years of age. Implications for service provision in terms of directing input to where it is most needed and also in identifying most optimal timing for input are discussed.

Syfte och frågeställningar: Syftet är att belysa hur ICA och Lidl kommunicerar och marknadsför sig via Facebook, samt att se huruvida de även använder det för att skapa mer symmetriska band med sin publik. Frågeställningar berör vilka mönster som finns i kommunikationen och hur interaktionerna mellan företagen och de som kommenterade ser ut. Metod och teori: En kvantitativ innehållsanalys och en kvalitativ textanalys har används i uppsatsen. Materialet består av Facebook-inlägg från respektive företag, samt tillhörande kommentarer. Dessa har analyserats med hjälp av teorier inom kommunikation, marknadsföring, retorik samt tidigare forskning kring inlägg företag lägger upp på Facebook och hur det påverkar läsarens beteende. Resultat: Facebook användes främst som ett marknadsföringsverktyg av bägge företagen. Innehållet i en viss del av inläggen som lades upp tydde på en vilja att bjuda in till dialog. Lidl och ICA verkade dock vara selektiva angående vilka inlägg de besvarade. Negativa kommentarer fick i flera fall inget svar Rent retoriskt präglades både ICA och Lidl:s språk främst av logos. Utifrån urvalet som studerades gick det inte att säga att de bedrev symmetrisk tvåvägskommunikation. Intentionerna finns dock där till viss del – men i sådana fall behöver både ICA och Lidl ställa fler öppna frågor till läsarna och även bemöta de mer negativa kommentarerna mer konsekvent. Dålig eller utebliven respons ökar risken för negativ word-of-mouth – vilket potentiellt kan försämra relationen med deras kunder.