Multiracial children constitute one of the fastest growing racial groups in the United States. However, biracial children, in particular Black-White biracial children, often are not recognized in the educational system. For instance, the current classification of Black-White biracial students in the state and federal educational systems is not disaggregated and does not allow for analyses of educational outcomes for this population. Not only is this population invisible in state education data, the demographic data at the school level often fail to represent this population. Not acknowledging multiple heritages dismisses the identity and experiences of students who are multiracial and thus symbolically negates a part of who they are. Additionally, multiracial students may be classified in a single category by administrators for the purposes of schools and funding. This study offers the perspective of administrators and current state and federal policies on this issue as applied to Black-White self-identified children and describes the complexities and relevance of addressing multiracial policies in educational systems. An ecological theoretical framework is used to explore four research questions in this area. Data were collected from seven school district administrators across Oregon through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Relationships in the data between responses and procedures from the seven sampled school districts are examined. Results suggest that across the seven school districts in this study, implementation of the policies and procedures of racial and ethnic categorization varied substantially. Furthermore, even though this revised race and ethnicity reporting policy was in part created to more accurately represent the multiracial population, it may actually be obscuring the multiple identities of these students. Detailed policy implications are discussed in further details in the Conclusions chapter.

abstract: Emergent processes can roughly be defined as processes that self-arise from interactions without a centralized control. People have many robust misconceptions in explaining emergent process concepts such as natural selection and diffusion. This is because they lack a proper categorical representation of emergent processes and often misclassify these processes into the sequential processes category that they are more familiar with. The two kinds of processes can be distinguished by their second-order features that describe how one interaction relates to another interaction. This study investigated if teaching emergent second-order features can help people more correctly categorize new processes, it also compared different instructional methods in teaching emergent second-order features. The prediction was that learning emergent features should help more than learning sequential features because what most people lack is the representation of emergent processes. Results confirmed this by showing participants who generated emergent features and got correct features as feedback were better at distinguishing two kinds of processes compared to participants who rewrote second-order sequential features. Another finding was that participants who generated emergent features followed by reading correct features as feedback did better in distinguishing the processes than participants who only attempted to generate the emergent features without feedback. Finally, switching the order of instruction by teaching emergent features and then asking participants to explain the difference between emergent and sequential features resulted in equivalent learning gain as the experimental group that received feedback. These results proved teaching emergent second-order features helps people categorize processes and demonstrated the most efficient way to teach them. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2015

Dans ce travail de thèse, nous avons tenté de répondre à la question suivante : Comment un observateur extérieur –ou témoin– détecte-t-il une situation observée comme discriminatoire ? Notre objectif était donc d'élaborer un modèle général de détection de la discrimination de la part de l'observateur extérieur. En nous basant sur les conceptions scientifiques, légales et profanes de la discrimination, ainsi que sur la littérature traitant de cet objet, nous avons formulé la thèse suivante. La discrimination étant conceptualisée comme un comportement intergroupe contre-normatif, la détection de la discrimination serait déterminée par a) la différenciation des catégories sociales du discriminateur et de la victime et le caractère de leur échange, et b) l'évaluation de la légitimité du comportement du discriminateur. La première partie de ce travail de thèse traite du premier point cité. Nous avons défendu l'hypothèse que la détection de la discrimination était fonction de la perception de l'échange entre le discriminateur et la victime comme intergroupe plutôt qu'interpersonnel. Afin de tester cette hypothèse, nous avons manipulé la distinctivité catégorielle des groupes sociaux du discriminateur et de la victime, ainsi que le rapport entretenu entre le discriminateur et la victime. Les cinq études de la première partie permettent de soutenir l'hypothèse que la catégorisation sociale des acteurs et la perception de leur échange détermine la détection de la discrimination. La seconde partie de ce travail de thèse traite du second point cité. Nous avons défendu l'hypothèse que la légitimité perçue du comportement du discriminateur modère l'effet de la distinctivité catégorielle sur la détection de la discrimination. Les deux études de la seconde partie fournissent des arguments empiriques qui soutiennent cette hypothèse. Globalement, l'ensemble de ce travail permet d'appréhender le processus de détection de la discrimination comme relevant de l'interaction entre un processus perceptif –la catégorisation sociale des acteurs–, et un second processus, davantage délibératif, qui implique l'évaluation normative du comportement du discriminateur et/ou de ses motivations. / In this research, we attempt to answer the following question: How a distant observer – or witness – will detect an observed situation as discriminatory? Our aim is to elaborate a general model of discrimination detection by the distant observer. Based on scientific, legal, and lay definition of discrimination, we propose the following argument: As discrimination is defined as a counter-normative intergroup behavior, discrimination detection will depend on a) the distinctiveness of both perpetrator and victim social categories, and by the nature of these actors exchange, and b) the perceived legitimacy of the perpetrator's behavior. The first part of this research deals with the first point quoted above. We made the hypothesis that discrimination detection will depend on the nature of the perceived exchange between the perpetrator and the victim as intergroup rather than interpersonal. In order to test this hypothesis, we manipulated the distinctiveness of the respective social categories of perpetrator and victim. The five studies of this research first part support the hypothesis that the social categorization of perpetrator and victim and the following perception of their exchange impact discrimination detection. The second part of this research deals with the second point quoted above. We defended the hypothesis that the perceived legitimacy of the perpetrator's behavior moderates the effect of social categories distinctiveness on discrimination detection. The two studies of the second part of this work support this hypothesis. Broadly speaking, this work allows to understand the discrimination detection process as the interaction between a perceptive process –the social categorization of the actors–, and a deliberative process, which imply the normative evaluation of perpetrator's behavior and/or motivations.

abstract: Previous research has shown that people can implicitly learn repeated visual contexts and use this information when locating relevant items. For example, when people are presented with repeated spatial configurations of distractor items or distractor identities in visual search, they become faster to find target stimuli in these repeated contexts over time (Chun and Jiang, 1998; 1999). Given that people learn these repeated distractor configurations and identities, might they also implicitly encode semantic information about distractors, if this information is predictive of the target location? We investigated this question with a series of visual search experiments using real-world stimuli within a contextual cueing paradigm (Chun and Jiang, 1998). Specifically, we tested whether participants could learn, through experience, that the target images they are searching for are always located near specific categories of distractors, such as food items or animals. We also varied the spatial consistency of target locations, in order to rule out implicit learning of repeated target locations. Results suggest that participants implicitly learned the target-predictive categories of distractors and used this information during search, although these results failed to reach significance. This lack of significance may have been due the relative simplicity of the search task, however, and several new experiments are proposed to further investigate whether repeated category information can benefit search. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2014

Para verificar como a noção de categoria é utilizada historicamente nas linguagens documentárias, partimos de uma breve sistematização das propostas de categorização na filosofia, tal como ela se apresenta em Aristóteles, Kant e Wittgenstein, na semântica cognitiva, segundo Lakoff, com base em Rosch, e na sociologia do conhecimento, com Mauss. Analisamos, em seguida, reflexões feitas sobre a categorização nas linguagens documentárias realizadas por autores clássicos da Biblioteconomia - Shera, Dahlberg, Piedade, Fonseca, Grolier - e pelos autores contemporâneos - Blair e Iyer. O levantamento permitiu verificar que as noções de categoria e de categorização, embora nem sempre trabalhadas de modo explícito na literatura da Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação, permeiam os princípios de elaboração das linguagens documentárias refletindo, de certo modo, as várias formas de conceber os conceitos. Os sistemas enciclopédicos de classificação tendem a utilizar o conceito a partir de Aristóteles, aplicando-o prioritariamente como noção de classe que se divide, de modo apriorístico e sucessivo, em gêneros e espécies etc., procedimento que se altera gradativamente por influência de Kant, quando a noção passa a privilegiar as propriedades dos objetos e fenômenos. Atualmente existe uma tendência fugaz de categorização nas linguagens documentárias de acordo com as variações socioculturais, enfatizando as funções e locais onde estas variações ocorrem. Este procedimento confere maior flexibilidade à linguagem documentária. / In order to find out how the concept of category is historically used in documentary language we start from a limited systematization of philosophy categorization as proposed by Aristotle, Kant and Wittgenstein, the cognitive semantic categorization according to Lakoff who based his proposal on Rosch, and in knowledge sociology as per Mauss. We then proceed to analyze categorization of documentary language as presented by Librarianship classic authors such as Shera, Dahlberg, Piedade, Fonseca, and Grolier. We also looked into the contemporary authors Blair and Iyer. The investigation allowed us to see that although not always apparent in the literature of Librarianship and Information Science, the notion of category and categorization is implicit in the principles of documentary language elaboration which influences the several ways of elaborating concepts. The encyclopedic classification systems have a tendency of utilizing concepts according to Aristotle, applying it as a notion of class which breaks down according to priority, successiveness, genre, type, etc. This classification style was gradually altered by Kant, where the concept of category and categorization first emphasizes the properties of objects and phenomena. Today we see a brief tendency to categorizing documentary language according to social and cultural variations, observing the functions and sites where the processes occur. This tendency allows more flexibility to documentary language.

Somalis are often portrayed negatively in the media which we consider to be simplistic andreducing of the subjective identity. This thesis therefore intends to examine how people withSomali background experience their identity and how categorization may have importance totheir identity in relation to the majority population. This is in order to examine howcategorization affects the integration process. The empiric material was conducted through semi-structured interviews using a qualitativeresearch method. The result is based on seven interviews with individuals aged 20–46 years,some of whom were born in Sweden, while others immigrated at different ages. The informantsidentify both as both Somalis and Swedes in different ways. The Somali identity finds its originsin their upbringing, often referred to as something "one only is", whilst the Swedish identityderives from the socialization to the Swedish society and the internalization of Swedish norms.In interaction with the majority population, the informants are categorized as non-Swedes. Theinformants subjective sense of belonging therefore loses importance due to others defining whothey are. The categorization of informants is not exclusively practiced by the majoritypopulation, but also by other Somalis. The result is divided into themes of various meetings toshowcase the contextuality and relationality of identification. Additionally, this thesis alsodemonstrates how the informants deal with such categorization. The result serves a possibleexplanation to the struggle concerning the integration of Somalis in Sweden. The theories usedas tools to understand and analyze the empirical material is Jenkins theory of social identity,Berger and Luckmann’s theory of primary and secondary socialization and Charles Tilly’stheory about durable inequality.

The current study investigated the developmental course of how young children label various facial expressions of emotion. 160 children (2 to 5 years) freely produced labels for six prototypical facial expressions of emotion and six animals. Even 2-year-olds were able to correctly label 5 of 6 animals, but the proportion of correct specific emotion category responses for this age group was < .30 for each of the six facial expressions. The 5-year-olds' proportion of correct specific emotion category labels was at ceiling for the happy and angry faces, but significantly lower for each of the other four facial expressions, and at floor level for the disgust face. The type of errors in labeling facial expressions changed with age: when incorrect, the youngest children produced any emotion label; older children produced labels of the correct valence; and the majority of the 5-year-olds' responses were of the correct specific emotion category. These results indicate that the free-labeling task per se is not too difficult even for 2-year-olds, but that children's use of emotion terms is not initially linked to facial expressions. Thus, the children's production of emotion terms far exceeded their proportion of correct specific emotion category labels. With age, children's implicit definition of emotion terms develops to include the associated facial expression, though this process is not complete for all expressions before the age of 6 years. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

A área de reconhecimento de objetos tem assistido a um impressionante progresso na última década. O estudo de descritores, aliado à estratégias de amostragem usando quantizações espaciais e a combinação de classificadores têm permeado o estado da arte nos últimos anos. Neste trabalho é proposta uma nova quantização espacial com número arbitrário de níveis e subdivisões arbitrárias de regiões. Regiões adjacentes possuem sobreposição gerando redundância na representação destas regiões de fronteiras e, assim, evitando as quebras que acontecem nas pirâmides espaciais tradicionais que prejudicam a interpretação das formas. Apesar de melhorar o desempenho da abordagem do saco de palavras, as pirâmides espaciais não são robustas a variações na orientação dos objetos na imagem. Foi também proposto neste trabalho, uma divisão espacial utilizando regiões circulares concêntricas que aumentam a robustez a rotação dos objetos na imagem em aproximadamente 80% quando comparada às pirâmides espaciais. Além das novas divisões espaciais, é proposto neste trabalho um novo descritor baseado na aplicação de granulometria morfológica no mapa de bordas da imagem original. Este descritor foi utilizado na criação de modelos de classes em aplicações de categorização de objetos utilizando uma base de dados pública com resultados superiores aos do melhor descritor baseado em bordas reportado pela literatura. Todas estas novas técnicas propostas foram utilizadas em um problema desafiador de categorização de objetos de classes muito parecidas. Foi utilizado um subconjunto da base de pássaros Caltech-UCSD Birds-200 2011 com resultados comparáveis aos melhores resultados reportados pela literatura. A abordagem proposta cria uma classificação de dois níveis e utiliza modelos específicos por classe o que é intuitivo, pois cada espécie de pássaro possui características muito sutis que as diferenciam das demais espécies testadas. Vários descritores são utilizados na criação dos modelos de classes e uma combinação de classificadores gera a rotulação final para a amostra. O descritor proposto neste trabalho esteve presente no melhor modelo de 11 das 13 classes testadas e o resultado final obtido pela técnica de categorização proposta é o melhor resultado utilizando a abordagem do saco de palavras. / The object recognition area has experienced an impressive progress in the last decade. The study of descriptors, together with a sampling strategy using spatial quantization and the combination of classifiers have been presented in the state of art in recent years. This work proposes a new spatial quantizations with an arbitrary number of levels and divisions in each level. Adjacent regions have overlapping areas that generate redundant representation and avoid breakages in the structures that are in their border regions as it happens in the traditional spatial pyramids and impairs the correct interpretation of these structures. Despite spatial pyramids to improve the performance of the bag-of-words approach in object recognition, they are not robust to changes in object orientation in the image. It was also proposed, in this work, a spatial division using concentric circular regions that is almost 80% more robust to rotation of objects when compared to the spatial pyramids using rectangular divisions. In addition to the new spatial division of the image, it is proposed a new granulometric-based descriptor that it is applied to the map of edges of the original image. This descriptor was used in the building of categorys models for object categorization in a public database and showed a better performance than the most used edge-based descriptor reported in literature. All these new proposed techniques were used in a challenge problem of object categorization of very similar classes. It was used a subset of the public database Caltech-UCSD Birds-200 2011 and the method obtained results compared to the best results reported in the literature. The proposed approach uses a 2-level classification and builds class-specific models that are an intuitive way to model the species of birds as very subtle characteristics differ in each tested class of birds. Many descriptors are used in the building of models of species and a combination of classifiers generates the final label for a tested sample. The descriptor proposed here were presented in 11 of 13 best models of birds classes. The final result obtained by the proposed object categorization method is the best one using the bag-of-words approach.

This diploma thesis deals with the categorization of criminal offenses in the Czech Criminal Code, it is a fundamental issue related to criminal liability. The recodification of the Criminal Code in 2009 brought with it several changes, one of the most discussed areas was the new categorization of crimes, which moved from a monopartite to a bipartite of crimes (misdemeanour and crime). However, the "new" categorization of criminal offenses was not the only change brought about by the Czech Criminal Code. Among others is the issue of the concept of crime, respectively. its change from material-formal to formal conception. However, in today's Criminal Code, thanks to the principle of subsidiarity of criminal repression, we do not have a formal concept in its pure form, but rather a materialized formal concept. In Czech criminal law, we have two correctives - the principle of subsidiarity of criminal repression, as a substantive corrective and the principle of opportunity, as a corrective of procedural law. The need for two correctives is debatable and opinions differ widely. For this reason, I described them in my thesis and I allowed myself to present my opinion on this issue. In order to describe the topic of the diploma thesis as comprehensively and in mutual context, I divided the work into three...

Organic Chemistry has been described as a challenging and confusing course for undergraduate students. Novices in the field have been struggling to understand fundamental concepts relating to organic mechanisms and organize their knowledge around surface features such as functional groups rather than deep underlying features. At the University of Ottawa, a new “Mechanistic patterns and principles” curriculum was designed and implemented, organized by the underlying mechanistic patterns that govern reactions rather than the traditional surface features approach. The redesigned curriculum emphasizes principles of reactivity in organic chemistry and is organized in a gradient of difficulty. The three studies included within this work act as part of a larger evaluation of the redesigned curriculum, specifically investigating an instrument to assess the formation of expertise in organic chemistry and an instrument to capture self-efficacy beliefs in organic chemistry as students progress throughout the curriculum. In the first two studies, an open and closed online categorization task was delivered to Organic Chemistry II students at both the beginning and end of their course. The open sort provided insights regarding how participants choose to sort, while the closed sort measured participants' ability to categorize reactions according to their underlying mechanistic pattern. In the first study, we provide an in-depth analysis of the changes in expertise that occur with respect to the expertise of their choices and ability. Findings from this work demonstrated a positive shift from students attending to surface to process-oriented features in the open sort, as well as an increase in students’ ability in the closed sort. The following-up study investigates the relationship between the expertise demonstrated by participants in the open and closed sorts. Additionally, this work compares these measures of expertise against varies other metrics, including a high-stakes categorization task, and academic performance to increase the validity, and probes at the reliability of findings. Findings from this work demonstrate a strong relationship between the expertise demonstrate in the online task and academic performance, as well as describe an evolving relationship between the expertise demonstrated in students’ choice and ability as they progress throughout the course. While previous work in the evaluation of the curriculum demonstrated that students possess greater ability, it is unknown whether this also translates to an increase in their beliefs about their abilities. The last study included within this work moves beyond cognitive outcomes of the curriculum to investigating the role of self-efficacy beliefs in the curriculum. Self-efficacy beliefs are defined as an individual’s belief in their capability to perform a specific task or objective successfully. This work intends to construct and validate a task-specific, multi-dimensional self-efficacy beliefs instrument for undergraduate students in the domain of organic chemistry. Pre-administration validity evidence, including test content and response process validity, was collected. Data for internal structure validity evidence was collected from a single administration with Organic Chemistry I students (N=78) to 7-factor structure within the final 39 item instrument. Due to the small sample size, these results are interpreted with extreme caution. Future work with this instrument aims to improve the validity evidence collected by expanding the sample size and evaluate the influence curriculum on self-efficacy beliefs, and who, based on demographic variables, may be benefiting the most from the transformed curriculum.