<p> </p><p>In studies on Near Death Experiences (NDE) data has been collected by using the recently developed scaling methods, the scale developed by Ring and the Greyson NDE Scale. In order to illustrate the problems in the empirical study of NDEs, my intention is to compare the Greyson NDE-scale with the most common theories on NDEs.  After series of modifications the final scale consisted of a questionnaire consisting of sixteen different questions, that yielded into four different areas, <em>Cognitive components, Emotional components, Paranormal components, </em>and<em> Transcendental components</em>.</p><p>In the end the theory that has the most likely possibility to explain NDEs in the future must be the Dying Brain theory, but one should not disclose the different features of the Afterlife theory (but without the origin explanation).</p><p> </p>

<p>Ansatsen; Deltagande design inom MDI förespråkar att användare är med under hela designprocessen, även under det tidigaste skedet, före det har skissats på någon prototyp över huvudtaget. Medverkan innebär då att användarna får klargöra sina behov, åsikter och önskemål om en produkt. En speciell deltagarteknik har utvecklats för att göra detta möjligt och heter Contextual inquiry. I detta arbete har tekniken tillämpats på hyresgäster inom Skövdebostäder och har gällt produkten elektronisk anslagstavla. Hypotesen har varit att inställningen till en produkt är mer positiv när användare har deltagit i det tidigaste stadiet i designprocessen och skulle då förklaras med hjälp av ett psykologiskt "fenomen" som kallas Hawthorne-effekten. Resultatet från studien kunde inte ge stöd för hypotesen, det fanns med andra ord ingen signifikant skillnad mellan experimentgrupp och kontrollgrupp.</p>

<p>The investigation aims to clarify to what extent non-conscious thought has efficacy in for instance decision making,and also examine some aspects of the question whether decisions are caused by free will. This is done by an analysisof new research in neuroscience, economics, the combination of the two within neuroeconomics, evolutionarytheory and especially the new theory of Unconscious thought (Nordgren & Dijksterhuis 2006), which will enjoyspecial scrutiny due to its recentness in the scientific field. A decision strategy ought to put high-level consciouscognition to use where it is most effective, and this is on a different level than the canonized one. Meta decisionmaking is decision making concerning which decisions ought to be made consciously. It is the area where the largestamount of freedom can be obtained wherein the largest amount of thought effort ought to be invested. There alsoseems to be no basis to assume that non-conscious decisions or for that matter emotively based decisions would beless "rational" than conscious ones. The strategy is also analyzed via happiness research to examine how to makedecisions render happiness rather than other values. The result stresses that one ought not to use economic or othermeasures in decision making, rather trust one's visceral intuitions to a larger extent since those are representations ofone's wishes. Empirical results established a connection between decision making, creativity and problem solvingpertaining to the evidence showing that also the latter benefits from unconscious thought rather than consciousthought. This new evidence ought to change our view of problem solving at large. Rather than it being a purelyconscious process one would reach better results in relying to a larger extent also on non-conscious processes.</p>

<p>Syftet med denna studie var att belysa vilken betydelse utövandet av ett kognitivt förhållningssätt skulle kunna ha för tonåringar i deras vardag. Metoden som användes var halvstrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer med fem personer som var utbildade och insatta i den kognitiva terapin. Intervjuerna tolkades och analyserades utifrån en hermeneutisk ansats. Resultatet visade att det kognitiva förhållningssättet med utgångspunkt i den kognitiva terapin, har betydelse för tonåringar. Genom att arbeta utifrån den kognitiva terapins ram kan professionella få den unge att fundera kring samband mellan tanke, känsla och handling. Förhållningssättet visade sig också i viss mån kunna tillämpas som en slags självhjälp samt som en förebyggande insats inom t.ex. skolan. Studiens resultat är främst relevant för behandlingspedagoger och andra professionella som träffar tonåringar i sin yrkesvardag.</p>

Syftet med denna studie var att belysa vilken betydelse utövandet av ett kognitivt förhållningssätt skulle kunna ha för tonåringar i deras vardag. Metoden som användes var halvstrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer med fem personer som var utbildade och insatta i den kognitiva terapin. Intervjuerna tolkades och analyserades utifrån en hermeneutisk ansats. Resultatet visade att det kognitiva förhållningssättet med utgångspunkt i den kognitiva terapin, har betydelse för tonåringar. Genom att arbeta utifrån den kognitiva terapins ram kan professionella få den unge att fundera kring samband mellan tanke, känsla och handling. Förhållningssättet visade sig också i viss mån kunna tillämpas som en slags självhjälp samt som en förebyggande insats inom t.ex. skolan. Studiens resultat är främst relevant för behandlingspedagoger och andra professionella som träffar tonåringar i sin yrkesvardag.

Spoken language as a means of communication contains huge amounts of information apart from the linguistic message that is conveyed. It is often the first channel of interaction between people and based on the speaker’s manner of talk, we create a mental image of the speaker as a person, of the speaker’s background, origin and personal qualities. Through five case studies, this dissertation investigates how immigrants to Sweden are judged based on their foreign accents (Cases 1—3) and how the use of an interpreter in court can affect the legal process and the judging of the immigrant (Cases 4—5). Case 1 investigated Swedish students’ attitudes towards immigration and immigrants through a survey-based study and revealed that Swedish students hold predominantly positive attitudes towards immigrations and immigrants. Case 2, using accent imitation, asked if Swedish speakers have a cognitive prototype for British English accented Swedish and found that this was the case. This demonstrated that Swedes have models of accented Swedish accents. Case 3 asked Swedish students to rate their impressions of speakers of nine foreign accented Swedish voices on 18 six-point semantic differential scales. They also rated their impressions of each voice for five social factors. The results suggest that the listeners evaluated the voices based on perceived social desirability, or perceived cultural distance between the listener and the voice’s country of origin. Juxtaposing these findings with those of Case 1 suggests that even among a group who are positive to immigrants and immigration some groups of immigrants are more welcome than others. Case 4 examined discourse disfluencies in a bilingual court hearing and a Swedish-Polish bilingual court hearing in detail. The case showed that most of the dialogue-related difficulties have other sources than the interpreter, even if the interpreter at first glance often appeared to be part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Case 5 examined the interpreter’s role in courtroom dialogue situations through interviews with a court interpreter and a lay judge. The study found that the picture of the interpreter’s role differs between the various actors in the court setting. This, in combination with a lack of knowledge about cultural differences in dialogue strategies, creates complications, can have an impact on the perception of the witness and, ultimately, affect the legal rights of the accused. Furthermore, as the interpreter most frequently speaks foreign accented Swedish, the perception and evaluation of their foreign accented Swedish can further place some immigrant groups at a double legal disadvantage when being judged.

Underlättar kongruens mellan sinnestillstånd och påstående (vad gäller dess värdeladdning) vid bedömning av ett påståendes sanningshalt? Denna fråga uppkom via studier av embodiment och lögner, forskning från de båda områdena påvisar nämligen att olika ”kroppsliga signaler” kan hjälpa oss att avslöja om andra människor ljuger. Frågan har undersökts via en faktoriell design med repeterade mätningar där deltagarna försattes i olika sinnestillstånd varpå de utsattes för olika stimuli och fick göra olika bedömningar. Resultatet visade att kongruenta betingelser varken underlättar eller påskyndar vid bedömning av ett påståendes sanningshalt, däremot erhölls ett signifikant resultat som indikerade att kongruenta betingelser ökar människans konfidensnivå (högre grad av säkerhet vad gäller att en korrekt bedömning gjorts) vid bedömning av falska påståenden.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a client-centered, directive approach for behavior change. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a theory of human motivation and self-determined growth. Both of these social-cognitive theories aim to explain motivation and health behavior change and have generated a lot of research on how to increase human motivation. However, MI lacks a definite theory on mechanisms of behavior change and SDT offers a theory of motivation based on extensive research on human interactions. This paper aims to critically look at facilitators of client motivation for behavior change in-session from a social-cognitive perspective on one hand, and neural correlates related to client behavior change on the other hand. MI and SDT somewhat similarly explain what most importantly determines client motivation for change in-session. However, SDT mainly focus on psychological needs such as fostering client autonomy, and MI focus on the therapeutic alliance and on generating client change talk in-session. Efforts to bridge the two methods aim at generating a clearer definition of motivation in MI, and a better framework of practice in SDT. Studies on neural correlates of behavior change support and challenge elements of both approaches, indicating the importance of autonomy and relatedness for motivating positive behavior change.

Judgments of Learning (JOL) that are made after a delay, instead of immediately after study, are more accurate in terms of predicting later recall (the delayed JOL effect). The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (SFP) theory explains the delayed JOL effect as the result of a testing effect. In the current study we tested the prediction that performing delayed JOLs leads to a memory improvement. During learning, 79 participants studied Swahili-Swedish word pairs, immediately followed by a cued recall test, and then made either one single or three repeated, spaced JOLs. A final cued recall test was given after either 5 minutes or 1 week. Making repeated JOLs did not increase memory performance compared to the single JOL condition, hence lending no support to the SFP theory. However, making repeated JOLs did improve their relative accuracy, which suggests that the delayed JOL effect mainly concerns memory monitoring and not performance.

<p>Uppsatsen presenterar två studier som med den socialpsykologiska modellen ’teorin om planerat beteende’ (Ajzen, 1991) undersöker hur väl en webbaserad måltidsplaneringstjänst lyckas med att få dess användare att regelbundet äta varierat.</p><p>Tjänsten bestod huvudsakligen av en sökbar receptdatabas på 250 recept, en kalender för att planera in recepten i, och en inköpslista som genererades automatiskt utifrån recepten i kalendern. Tjänsten byggdes under tiden som uppsatsen skrevs, och författaren deltog som interaktionsdesigner i detta projekt.</p><p>I  uppsatsen presenteras  två sekventiella studier för att mäta användarnas intention till beteendet. I vardera studie presenteras först webbtjänsten och den funktionalitet den hade vid tiden för testet. Detta följs av en hypotes om tjänstens påverkan över användarnas vilja att äta varierat. I vardera studie genomfördes sedan ett användartest av tjänsten, där 13 respektive 15 personer fick använda webbsidan och svara på enkätfrågor. Enkäterna mätte attityd, subjektiv norm, upplevd beteendekontroll och intention till beteendet att regelbundet äta varierat, och en mätning gjordes före och en efter användartestet av tjänsten.</p><p>Testen visade på signifikanta ökningar för användarna givet att de skulle använda tjänsten; för upplevd beteendekontroll i den första studien; för subjektiv norm i den andra studien, och för intention i båda studierna.</p><p>Uppsatsen presenterar också interaktionsdesignsbeslut tagna för att anpassa tjänsten efter resultaten av mätningarna av användarnas intention. Avslutningsvis lyfter författaren fram forskningsfrågor för framtida studier i ämnet att förjupa sig i.</p> / <p>This report used the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991); a model from social psychology, to determine how well an online meal planning service succeeds in making its users regularly eat varied.</p><p>The service consisted mainly of a searchable recipe database of 250 recipes, a calendar to schedule the recipes, and a shopping list that was generated automatically from the recipes in the calendar. The service was being constructed during the time that this report was written, and the author participated as an interaction designer in this project.</p><p>The report consists of two sequential studies to measure the users’ intention to the behavior of interest. In each study are first presented the meal planning service and its current functionality by the time of the testing; followed by a hypothesis about the effect it should have on the user's intent to regularly eat varied. In each study were then held a user testing of the product, where 13 and 15 people, respectively, were using the website and answering survey questions. The questionnaires were measuring attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and intention to the behavior to regularly eat varied, and these measurements were made once before and once after the user test of the product.</p><p>The tests showed significant increases for the users given that they would use the service; for perceived behavioral control in the first study; for subjective norm in the second study, and for intention in of both studies.</p><p>The report also presents interaction design decisions made to adapt the service due to the results of the measurements of the users' intention. Finally, the author presents his proposals for future research work in this domain.</p>