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This thesis investigates how variations in individual social contexts account for the existence of ethnic differences in educational outcomes. Four questions are answered. First, how are school ethnic and poverty compositions associated with ethnic differences in educational progress? Second, how are individual and school cohort level religious attitudes and behaviours associated with ethnic differences in the likelihood of aspiring to university? Third, how are parenting behaviours and closed parental networks at the individual and school cohort levels associated with ethnic differences in positive schoolwork attitudes and behaviours? Fourth, how are variations in the duration of residence in England and in additional language use, at the individual and school cohort levels, associated with ethnic differences in English language proficiency? English data from wave 1 of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU) and from the National Pupil Database (NPD) matched to the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) are used to answer these questions. Both datasets are used to analyse outcomes for a sample of the school cohort that turned 14 in the academic year 2009/10. The key findings are as follows. First, increases in school ethnic minority density are associated with increased progress; increases in school average poverty are associated with decreased progress. Second, individual level religiosity is positively associated with university aspirations, but cohort level religiosity has no association. Third, positive parenting behaviours are associated with improved schoolwork attitudes, whilst parental closure has positive effects at the individual level but not at the cohort level. Fourth, the duration of residence in England is a positive predictor of English language proficiency, whilst there is no effect of using an additional language. This thesis addresses a highly relevant social issue from a novel perspective, and has important implications for both policy and future research on this topic.

本研究主要以背景效果的理論為基礎，在前後廣告不同的品牌關係下，探討兩者訴求一致性的高低，如何使前置廣告對受試者評價後置廣告時所產生的影響效果出現差異，並以後置廣告訊息類別與受試者產品知識為調節變數，進一步探討這兩者如何增強或削弱前述背景效果的強度。 經由前測選出數位相機和洗面乳為正式實驗題材，兩個產品類別的前置廣告品牌分別是SONY和DOVE，訴求焦點分別是「專業型相機」和「滋潤保濕效果佳」；而兩產品後置廣告的副品牌分別是SONY-Master和DOVE-Scent，虛擬品牌分別是DigiXpert和AROMA。兩產品後置廣告訴求焦點，在與前置廣告訴求具高一致性者分別是「鏡頭品質」、「畫素高」、「含有甘油成分」、「洗後不緊繃」，在與前置廣告訴求具低一致性者分別是「預設模式多」、「價格便宜」、「含有水楊酸配方」、「超強洗淨力」。根據上述前測結果，設計出一個2(訴求一致性：高與低)×2(訊息類別：深層訊息與表層訊息)×2(產品知識：高與低)的實驗，並以政大大學部學生為樣本，回收984份有效問卷進行統計分析。 研究結果顯示，當後置廣告之品牌為一虛擬品牌時，不論是在數位相機或是洗面乳產品，均證實當後置廣告訴求與前置廣告訴求具有高度一致性時，受試者對後置廣告的產品評價，會受到前置廣告主要訴求的影響，使其評價在該訴求點上展現出同化效果；當後置廣告訴求與前置廣告訴求具有低度一致性時，受試者對後置廣告的產品評價，則會受到前置廣告主要訴求的影響，使其評價在該訴求點上產生對比效果。當後置廣告之品牌為前置廣告品牌之副品牌時，也得到類似的結果，除了在洗面乳產品/訴求一致性高的情境下，受試者對副品牌後置廣告的評價的確展現出預期的對比效果，與受試者對虛擬品牌後置廣告在相同情境下的評價有所差異，與本研究預期相符；其他情境出現的背景效果種類均與受試者對虛擬品牌後置廣告在相同情境下的評價類似，而與本研究預期不符。 整體而言，本研究結果提醒廣告主除了廣告本身的內容之外，廣告所處溝通環境中的其他廣告也會對廣告效果產生相當的影響作用，尤其對於P＆G、J＆J、Unilever等擁有眾多產品品牌的大型公司來說，當它們對媒體進行聯合採購時，等於對廣告的背景環境有了部分的掌握能力，更應該善用這樣的優勢，妥善安排廣告順序，以提昇廣告效果、或避免廣告品牌間自相殘殺。除此之外，根據目標受眾的產品知識調整廣告訊息的呈現方式，也可以適度的改變上述效果的強度。 / The purpose of this study is to investigate the contextual effects the former ad will exert on the evaluation of the latter ad, under different consistency of appeals and branding strategies between these two ads. Moreover, the message type in the latter ad and the product knowledge of the participants are also discussed to understand how they could moderate the above assimilation or contrast effects. Digital camera and facial cleanser are selected as the test product categories. In the digital camera category, SONY was chosen as the brand of the former ad. SONY-Master (sub-brand condition) and DigiXpert (virtual brand condition) were the brands of the latter ads. In the facial cleanser category, DOVE was chosen as the brand of the former ad. DOVE-Scent and AROMA were the brands of the latter ads. A 2 (appeal consistency: high versus low)×2 (message type: deep cue versus surface cue)×2 (product knowledge: high versus low) factorial experimental design was applied on 984 college student samples. The main effect of the appeal consistency suggested that when the latter ad carried the virtual brand and under the condition of high appeal consistency between two ads, participants’ evaluation of the latter ad on the dimension of the former ad appeal showed an assimilation effect. On the other hand, participants’ evaluation of latter ad on the dimension of the former ad appeal, under the condition of low appeal consistency between two ads and with a virtual brand, revealed a contrast effect. The above effects occurred in both product categories. When product in the latter ad used a sub-brand strategy, participants’ evaluations of the latter ad on the dimension of former ad appeal were similar to those when the latter ad carried the virtual brand. The only exception was the high appeal consistency condition in facial cleanser category, under which participants’ evaluations revealed a contrast effect. In general, this study suggests the advertisers who have multiple brands, such as P&G, pay attention to the contexts of ads. With their powerful bundle media purchase, they are granted with more influence over the contexts. Marketers should take this advantage to enhance ad effects or avoid mutual damage between brands. Finally, advertisers could also adjust the message type of the ad appeal according to the product knowledge of consumers to moderate the above contextual effects.

In a contemporary Europe symptomized by concurrent trends of economic and demographic transformation it is increasingly important to trace how individuals are navigate their everyday contexts when making major life course decisions.  Placed within an emerging tradition of sub-national demographic research, this study focuses on how municipal economic conditions affect entry into parenthood throughout Sweden.   Employing event-history analysis using individual and multi-level regression models on Swedish register data for the period 2000 to 2007 the study seek answers to whether growing regional economic disparities are conducive to a fault line between contexts in terms of how individuals enter parenthood.    Further it problematizes the measures traditionally used to model contextual economic conditions by introducing a measure of vulnerability as a covariate alongside traditional unemployment rates. The findings reveal that poor economic conditions, in combination with individual characteristics, distinctly affect entry into parenthood and are mostly composed of a timing-effect.

The primary visual cortex (V1) has long been considered the main low level visual analysis area of the brain. The classical view is of a feedfoward system functioning as an edge detector, in which each cell has a receptive field (RF) and a preferred orientation. Whilst intuitive, this view is not the whole story. Although stimuli outside a neuron’s RF do not result in an increased response by themselves, they do modulate a neuron’s response to what’s inside its RF. We will refer to such extra-RF effects as contextual modulation. Contextual modulation is thought to underlie several perceptual phenomena, such as various orientation illusions and saliency of specific features (such as a contour or differing element). This gives a view of V1 as more than a collection of edge detectors, with neurons collectively extracting information beyond their RFs. However, many of the accounts linking psychophysics and physiology explain only a small subset of the illusions and saliency effects: we would like to find a common principle. So first, we assume the contextual modulations experienced by V1 neurons is determined by the elastica model, which describes the shape of the smoothest curve between two points. This single assumption gives rise to a wide range of known contextual modulation and psychophysical effects. Next, we consider the more general problem of encoding and decoding multi-variate stimuli (such as center surround gratings) in neurons, and how well the stimuli can be decoded under substantial noise levels with a maximum likelihood decoder. Although the maximum likelihood decoder is widely considered optimal and unbiased in the limit of no noise, under higher noise levels it is poorly understood. We show how higher noise levels lead to highly complex decoding distributions even for simple encoding models, which provides several psychophysical predictions. We next incorporate more updated experimental knowledge of contextual modulations. Perhaps the most common form of contextual modulations is center surround modulation. Here, the response to a center grating in the RF is modulated by the presence of a surrounding grating (the surround). Classically this modulation is considered strongest when the surround is aligned with the preferred orientation, but several studies have shown how many neurons instead experience strongest modulation whenever center and surround are aligned. We show how the latter type of modulation gives rise to stronger saliency effects and unbiased encoding of the center. Finally, we take an experimental perspective. Recently, both the presence and the underlying mechanisms of contextual modulations has been increasingly studied in mice using calcium imaging. However, cell signals extracted with calcium imaging are often highly contaminated by other sources. As contextual effects beyond center surround modulation can be subtle, a method is needed to remove the contamination. We present an analysis toolbox to de-contaminate calcium signals with blind source separation. This thesis thus expands our understanding of contextual modulation, predicts several new experimental results, and presents a toolbox to extract signals from calcium imaging data which should allow for more in depth studies of contextual modulation.

In contrast to the decline of New Public Management (NPM) in many countries, reports on executive agency policy in Korea point to its success. To explore why it has been successful, this study investigates the relationship between multi-level culture and work motivation (i.e., job satisfaction and organizational commitment). This study develops a multi-level framework and examines direct, moderating, and varying contextual effects in the relationships among organizational cultures (clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy), individual perceptions of organizational culture, and work motivation, using survey data from 1,535 public employees in 46 executive agencies in Korea and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Key findings include, first, clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy organizational cultures all have positive associations with organizational commitment; however, individual perceptions of organizational market and hierarchy cultures are negatively related to organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Second, market and hierarchy cultures have positive varying contextual effects in relationships with organizational commitment. Third, organizational culture has more explanatory power than individual perceptions of organizational culture. Finally, efforts to develop and sustain balanced organizational culture evidently led to the success of the executive agency system in Korea. The findings support the argument that NPM reforms need to be examined through the lens of a multi-level culture and balanced culture perspective. / Ph. D.

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