Ringing phones are common in work space environments in the 21th century and while capturing the attention of the call-taker they also tend to disrupt people in the surrounding environment. This study aims to investigate the attentional capturing effect of ringtones by comparing sudden and increasing onsets with quiet and noise masking conditions while participants undertook a test of short-term memory for serial order (serial recall). The experiment presented new evidence that increasing ringtone sounds have a disruptive effect on serial recall processing. A masking noise background, however, successfully eliminated the effect of the increasing ringtone sound.  In contrary to what was anticipated, the ringtone with the sudden onset did not cause an attentional capture effect, suggesting at least in behavioural terms, it was successfully ignored. The results are discussed in relation to the literature on looking effects. Increasing ringtone sounds may appear looming, with sudden onset sounds decreasing in volume appearing receding. The central idea is that looming sounds are more disruptive to serial recall because they cause a diversion of attention from the serial recall task so as to react to the apparently approaching sound. The disruption attributable to looming sounds may be a form of attentional capture that is more specific than those triggered by deviant events within a to-be-ignored stream of sounds.

<p>The role of attention and perceptual resources were studied in a one-back task and a letter-search task, both using the same stimuli. In the letter task, pictures were used as task-irrelevant and distracting emotional stimuli. The emotional processing of the pictures was measured through the Late Positive Potential (LPP), an event-related potential (ERP) recorded with EEG. LPP activity was significantly greater to emotional than neutral stimuli during the one-back task; this shows that emotional stimuli were processed during an easy task (low load). However, LPP activity dropped for all stimuli during the difficult perceptual task (high load). Selective processes of attention are discussed, in relation to Load Theory and the ability to ignore task-irrelevant, but emotionally significant, stimuli.</p>

The role of attention and perceptual resources were studied in a one-back task and a letter-search task, both using the same stimuli. In the letter task, pictures were used as task-irrelevant and distracting emotional stimuli. The emotional processing of the pictures was measured through the Late Positive Potential (LPP), an event-related potential (ERP) recorded with EEG. LPP activity was significantly greater to emotional than neutral stimuli during the one-back task; this shows that emotional stimuli were processed during an easy task (low load). However, LPP activity dropped for all stimuli during the difficult perceptual task (high load). Selective processes of attention are discussed, in relation to Load Theory and the ability to ignore task-irrelevant, but emotionally significant, stimuli.

This study was carried out in Lebow a Bantustan, situated in the Northern Transvaal Region of the Republic of South Africa. This study covered the period 1989 to 1992. This period was marked by considerable unrest and upheaval in Black education. The Black education crisis was compounded by a political climate created by the unbanning of political parties, release of political prisoners and the return of exiles in 1990, whereby several petitions for demands were handed over to the LED's Head Office and Circuit Offices, among others, by teachers (LED Annual Report, 1990: 20). The following factors were, inter alia, identified as having contributed to the educational crisis in Lebowa bantustan (LED Annual Report, 1990: 22): - * * * * * * * general campaign waged by some teachers for lawlessness, defiance and intimidation of authority; the influence of external organisations on the schools; backlogs in the provisioning of basic educational facilities; irrelevant school curriculum; teacher's low morale; lack of meaningful parental involvement in education; and limited participative decision-making and management in the schools. The mentioned factors aroused dissatisfaction and discontent among teachers. Furthermore, teachers considered education provided by the LED as perpetuating apartheid, characterised by vast disparities and uneven distribution of resources. The protesting teachers started to share this discontent. In the words of Jenkins and Perrow (1977: 250) when widespread and shared discontent increases, collective efforts to alleviate this state of affairs occur. In the case of protesting teachers the South African Democratic Teachers' Union was founded. The focus of this study, therefore, will be to describe and analyze the occurrences and effects of teacher protest activities in Lebowa for the period between 1989 and 1992. The more specific research questions will concern: * Socio-political, administrative, demographic, physical, financial and educational conditions existed, in which a teacher protest movement could take root. These factors aroused discontent and a resultant general belief among some teachers that the education received by blacks was inferior; * Transformation of collective beliefs into collective actions and mobilisation. * Teachers became convinced that movement participation was an effective way of redressing grievances. As such SADTU attempted to mobilise consensus among the protesting teachers. Consensus mobilisation was done through the aid of frame alignment processes (e.g. bridging, amplification and transformation) and four group processes (e.g. consciousness-raising, collective empowerment, polarisation and collective decision-making). The latter created a willingness to sacrifice personal welfare for a collective cause; and the impact of teacher protest activities on the Lebowa government, the LED's official duties, pupil/student performances and the parents. Not only did the disruptions and protests retard the learning process in schools, but also contributed towards the poor std 10 examination results. The LED officials were adversely affected by these actions. Some teachers and principals were intimidated and threatened (Case Register no's: 123/11/91 at Police stations and 48/10/92 at Gompies Police Station). Protesting teachers advocated for defiance campaigns against LED's authorities, inspectors and principals (TUATA, 1990: 26). Parents and community at large lost trust and confidence in the teachers for the education of their children. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 1995. / gm2014 / Humanities Education / unrestricted

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:23:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Antonio Mendes Feitosa Junior.pdf: 1264713 bytes, checksum: 06fa7914c647373fb99daf1cfc837d11 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-15 / This paper deals with the non-social security tax on indemnities. We seek to study what the IRS has done to encompass these indemnifications in the calculation of the levy on the payroll, saw definitions and concepts of wage and salary always arguing the unconstitutionality of no impact of these funds on the basis of such calculation social contribution, without forgetting to analyze all the precepts and language studies and tax species. Fundamental basis for the study / O presente trabalho trata da não incidência das contribuições previdenciárias sobre as verbas de caráter indenizatório. Buscamos estudar o que o fisco tem feito para englobar essas verbas indenizatórias na base de cálculo da contribuição sobre a folha de salário; vimos definições e conceitos de salário e remuneração, sempre argumentando pela inconstitucionalidade da não incidência destas verbas sobre a base de cálculo deste tipo de contribuição social, sem esquecermo-nos de analisar todos os preceitos e estudos da linguagem e das espécies tributárias. Fundamento basilar para o estudo realizado

The primate visual system is organised and wired in a topological manner. From the eye well into extrastriate visual cortex, a preserved spatial representation of the vi- sual world is maintained across many levels of processing. Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), together with probabilistic tractography, is a non-invasive technique for map- ping connectivity within the brain. In this thesis I probed the sensitivity and accuracy of DWI and probabilistic tractography by quantifying its capacity to detect topolog- ical connectivity in the post mortem macaque brain, between the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and primary visual cortex (V1). The results were validated against electrophysiological and histological data from previous studies. Using the methodol- ogy developed in this thesis, it was possible to segment the LGN reliably into distinct subregions based on its structural connectivity to different parts of the visual field represented in V1. Quantitative differences in connectivity from magno- and parvo- cellular subcomponents of the LGN to different parts of V1 could be replicated with this method in post mortem brains. The topological corticocortical connectivity be- tween extrastriate visual area V5/MT and V1 could also be mapped in the post mortem macaque. In vivo DWI scans previously obtained from the same brains have lower resolution and signal-to-noise because of the shorter scan times. Nevertheless, in many cases, these yielded topological maps similar to the post mortem maps. These results indicate that the preserved topology of connection between LGN to V1, and V5/MT to V1, can be revealed using non-invasive measures of diffusion-weighted imaging and tractography in vivo. In a preliminary investigation using Human Connectome data obtained in vivo, I was not able to segment the retinotopic map in LGN based on con- nections to V1. This may be because information about the topological connectivity is not carried in the much lower resolution human diffusion data, or because of other methodological limitations. I also investigated the mechanisms of perceptual learning by developing a novel task-irrelevant perceptual learning paradigm designed to adapt neuronal elements early on in visual processing in a certain region of the visual field. There is evidence, although not clear-cut, to suggest that the paradigm elicits task- irrelevant perceptual learning, but that these effects only emerge when practice-related effects are accounted for. When orientation and location specific effects on perceptual performance are examined, the largest improvement occurs at the trained location, however, there is also significant improvement at one other 'untrained' location, and there is also a significant improvement in performance for a control group that did not receive any training at any location. The work highlights inherent difficulties in inves- tigating perceptual learning, which relate to the fact that learning likely takes place at both lower and higher levels of processing, however, the paradigm provides a good starting point for comprehensively investigating the complex mechanisms underlying perceptual learning.

The main aim of the study was (1) to identify errors committed by learners in financial mathematics and (2) to understand why learners continue to make such errors so that mechanisms to avoid such errors could be devised. The following has been hypothesised; (1) errors committed by learners are not impact upon by language difficulties, (2) errors committed by learners in financial mathematics are not due to prerequisite skills, facts and concepts, (3) errors committed by learners in financial mathematics are not due to the application of irrelevant rules and strategies. Having used Polya’s problem-solving techniques, Threshold Concept and Newman’s Error Analysis as the theoretical frameworks for the study, a four-point Likert scale and three content-based structured-interview questionnaires were developed to address the research questions. The study was conducted by means of a case study guided by the positivists’ paradigm where the research sample comprised of 105 Grade-10 Mathematics Literacy learners as respondents. Four sets of structured-interview questionnaires were used for collecting data, aimed at addressing the main objective of the study. In order to test the reliability and consistency of the questionnaires for this study, Cronbach’s Alpha was calculated for standardised items (α = 0.705). Content analysis and correlation analysis were employed to analyse the data. The three hypotheses of this study were tested using the ANOVA test and hence revealed that, (1) errors committed by learners in financial mathematics are not due to language difficulties, as all the variables illustrated a statistical non-significance (2) errors committed by learners in financial mathematics are not due to prerequisite skills, facts and concepts, as the majority of the variables showed non-significance and (3) errors committed by learners in financial mathematics were due to the application of irrelevant rules and strategies, as 66.7% of the variables illustrated a statistical significance to the related research question.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of irrelevant thoughts on golf performance.26 junior golfers participated in a repeated measures experiment where the effects ofirrelevant thoughts, through a working memory task, on golf performance was investigated.The participants got to hit 12 golf shots, 6 without working memory task and 6 with workingmemory task. A significant difference was found in both dependent variables lateral deviationand time. The participants had bigger lateral deviation and took longer time to complete theirshots when having a working memory task. The results from the study indicates thatirrelevant thoughts could impair junior golfers performance, although more research is neededon the subject for senior golfers. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka effekten av irrelevanta tankar på golfprestation. 26 juniorgolfare deltog i ett upprepat mätnings experiment där effekterna av irrelevanta tankar,genom ett arbetsminnestest, på golfprestation undersöktes. Deltagarna fick slå 12 golfslag, 6 utan arbetsminnestest och 6 med arbetsminnestest. En signifikant skillnad hittades i båda beroende variablerna spridning i sidled samt tid. Deltagarna hade större spridning och tog längre på sig att slå sina slag när de hade ett arbetsminnestest. Resultaten från studien indikerar att irrelevanta tankar kan försämra juniorgolfares prestation, däremot behövs vidareforskning kring ämnet för seniorgolfare.

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Die Arbeit stellt eine nationale Bildungsstudie zur Erfassung von Schreibkompetenzen vor und untersucht das angewandte Verfahren auf drei ausgewählte Validitätsaspekte. In Studie I wird geprüft, ob es sich bei Schreibkompetenz sowie den Schreibkompetenzdimensionen Inhalt, Stil und sprachliche Richtigkeit um textmusterunabhängige oder textmusterspezifische Konstrukte handelt. Darüber hinaus wird die interne Struktur von Schreibkompetenz betrachtet. Die vorwiegend auf Modellvergleichen basierenden Analysen zeigen, dass es sich bei allgemeinen Schreibkompetenzen sowie bei inhaltlichen und stilistischen Schreibkompetenzen um textmusterspezifische Konstrukte handelt, bei der orthografisch-grammatischen Schreibkompetenz hingegen um ein textmusterunabhängiges Konstrukt. Für alle Textmuster zeigt sich eine zweidimensionale Struktur. In Studie II wird untersucht, inwiefern Lesefähigkeiten bei der Messung von Schreibkompetenzen aufgrund der textuellen Präsentation der Aufgabeninstruktion miterfasst werden. Der Einfluss der Lesekompetenz wird dabei als Zusammenhangsstärke zwischen Lese- und Schreibkompetenz in Abhängigkeit von leseschwierigkeitsquantifizierenden Merkmale via Mehrebenen¬moderatoranalysen geprüft. Es zeigen sich statistisch bedeutsame, aber praktisch kaum relevante Effekte für zwei der Merkmale: syntaktische Komplexität und Seltenheit der Wörter. In Studie III wird untersucht, ob eine von der sprachlichen Richtigkeit unabhängige Beurteilung inhaltlicher und stilistischer Schreibkompetenzen erfolgt oder ob Halo-Effekte zutage treten. In Anschlussanalysen wird geprüft, ob diese Halo-Effekte von Art und Anzahl der Fehler, Textlänge, Textkomplexität und Textmuster abhängen. Es zeigen sich keine Urteilsverzerrungen bei der inhaltlichen, jedoch bei der stilistischen Bewertung. Diese Verzerrungen sind größer bei syntaktisch komplexeren Texten und bei höherer Fehleranzahl, vor allem unter Vorliegen grammatischer Fehler und syntaktisch relevanter Zeichensetzungsfehler. / The dissertation presents a national educational study assessing writing competencies in German. The underlying process of measuring writing competencies is investigated regarding three selected aspects of validity. The first study addresses the question, whether writing competence as well as the writing competence dimensions, i.e. contentual, stylistic and orthographic-grammatic writing competencies are discourse mode dependent or independent constructs. Additionally the internal structure of writing competence is investigated. Analyses, predominantly based on comparison of IRT-models, reveal that general writing competencies as well as the contentual and stylistic dimensions are discourse-mode-specific constructs, whereas the orthographic-grammatic writing competence is discourse mode independent. The second study raises the question to what extent, due to the fact that the writing task instructions are given textually, reading competencies are included when measuring writing. Therefore two-level moderator analyses are computed, modelling the correlation between reading and writing competence dependent on reading difficulty quantifying aspects. Statistically significant but practically hardly relevant effects obtain for two of these aspects: syntactic complexity of the instruction text and (in)frequency of the used words. The third study investigates whether the evaluation of contentual and stylistic writing competencies takes place regardless of orthographic and grammatic features of the underlying texts or whether halo effects occur. Further analyses examine possible rating shifts in dependence of error types, error amount, text length, text complexity and discourse type. The results reveal that stylistic, but not contentual rating shifts occur. These shifts are more pronounced in regard to syntactically more complex texts as well as higher error quantities and arise particularly under the presence of grammatical and syntactically relevant punctuation errors.