Bakgrund och problem: Företag ägnar idag betydande utrymme i sina årsredovisningar till berättande information som ska ge investeraren en helhetsbild av företaget och dess verksamhet, vilket ska öka användbarheten vid beslutsfattande. Investerare värderar den kontextuella informationen högt men anser samtidigt att den saknar aktualitet och objektivitet. Ett problem med den berättande informationen är att företagen kan framställa sina prestationer och framtidsutsikter på ett opportunistiskt sätt. Med utgångspunkt i att framvagnen består av berättande information och är en viktig del av företags årsredovisning är det av vikt att undersöka framvagnen. Läsbarheten av den berättande informationen har visats påverka icke-professionella investerare i en bedömnings- och beslutssituation, varför det är intressant att undersöka hur framvagnens läsbarhet påverkar investeringsbeslutet. Syfte: Syftet är att förstå hur framvagnen används som kommunikationskanal och förklara hur interaktionen mellan framvagnens läsbarhet och nivån på de finansiella nyheterna, positiva respektive negativa, påverkar icke-professionella investerares investeringsbeslut. Metod: Studien utgår från både en kvalitativ och en kvantitativ ansats. För att förstå hur framvagnen används som kommunikationskanal har vi genomfört semistrukturerade intervjuer, med en projektledare för årsredovisningen och två användare av framvagnen för få att deras syn på sambandet mellan framvagnen och de resterande delarna av årsredovisningen samt vikten av läsbarheten av och tilliten till framvagnen. Vi genomförde ett experiment på tredjeårsstudenter på civilekonomprogrammet vid Linköpings universitet där vi undersökte hur interaktionen mellan framvagnens läsbarhet och nivån på de finansiella nyheterna, positiva respektive negativa, påverkar icke-professionella investerares investeringsbeslut. Slutsats: Vi fann att framvagnen används för att kommunicera en berättelse om företaget men även för att sätta de finansiella rapporterna i ett tydligare sammanhang, vilket ska ge investeraren en känsla för varför den ska investera i företaget. En högre läsbarhet av framvagnen underlättar kommunikationen mellan företaget och dess investerare då samtliga investerare förstår informationen samtidigt som det undermedvetet ökar tilliten till informationen. Experimentet indikerade att läsbarheten i kombination med nivån på de finansiella nyheterna har en viss påverkan på icke-professionella investerares sannolikhet att investera och tillit till informationen. En framvagn med en högre läsbarhet som innehåller positiva finansiella nyheter torde öka icke-professionella investerares sannolikhet att investera i företaget. När framvagnen har en högre läsbarhet har de icke-professionella investerarna en större tillit till de positiva finansiella nyheterna. Har framvagnen däremot en lägre läsbarhet har de icke-professionella investerarna en större tillit till de negativa finansiella nyheterna. / Background & Problem: Today, companies devote significant space in their annual reports to narrative information, which provide investors with a complete picture of the company and its operations. The narrative information enhances the documents’ decision usefulness. Investors consider the contextual information valuable even though it is lacking timeliness and objectivity. One problem with the narrative information is that companies can present their achievements and prospect in a favourable way. Because the-state-of-the-company report consists of narrative information and is a significant part of the annual report it is of importance to explore. The readability of the narrative information has been shown to influence non-professional investors’ investment decision, therefore it is of interest to explore how the readability of the-state-of-the-company report influences the investment decision. Aim: The aim is to understand how the-state-of-the-company report is used as a communication channel and to explain how the interaction between the readability of the state-of-the-company report and the level of financial news, positive or negative, influence investors’ decisions. Method: The study is based on both a qualitative and a quantitative method. We conducted semi-structured interviews to understand how the-state-of-the-company report is used as communication channel. Interviews were conducted with a project manager for the annual report and two users of the state-of-the-company report. The purpose with the interviews were to get their view of the relationship between the state-of-the-company report and the financial reporting part of the annual report, as well as the importance of the readability of and reliance on the state-of-the-company report. We have conducted an experiment on third grade business students at Linköping University to explain how the interaction between the readability of the state-of-the-company report and the level of financial news, positive or negative, influence non-professional investors’ investment decisions. Conclusion: We found that the state-of-the-company report is used to communicate a story about the company, but also to contextualize the numbers, which gives the investor a sense of why they should invest in the company. A higher readability of the-state-of-the-company report enhances the communication between the company and its investors, since all investors can comprehend the information at the same time as it subconsciously increases their reliance on the information. The experiment indicated that the readability, in combination with the level of financial news (positive or negative), has some influence on non-professional investors’ likelihood to invest and their reliance on the information. A state-of-the-company report with a higher readability consisting positive financial new should increase non-professional investors’ likelihood to invest. When the state-of-the-company report has higher readability, non-professional investors have a greater reliance on the positive financial news. If the state-of-the-company report instead has lower readability, non-professional investors have a greater reliance on the negative financial news. The readability has not the same influence on professional investors because they have a more critical perspective on the state-of-the-company report.

The modern computerised era in which we live means that all areas of society are subjected to information technology. Children are increasingly exposed to and have access to computers, which necessarily have an influence on their education and development. Seeing that children are the most receptive group when it comes to exposure to new technology, this may have enriching effects on computer literacy, which is often considered part of general literacy. With regards to literacy, reading is one of the skills which pose a high challenge. It is also a key skill that opens the world of information, as most information is received through reading. Any reading stimulation via electronic or printed media that encourages learners to read is considered to improve reading ability, reading speed, reading comprehension and phonetic awareness. The aim of this study was to determine whether there was a correlation between early computer exposure and experience (both computer access and use) and reading ability of grade 1 learners. In this study a one shot cross-sectional survey design was used. Schools with grade 1 learners in the Umvoti district of Kwa Zulu Natal were selected to participate in the study - stratified sampling was used. The grade 1 classes were selected on the basis of random sampling. The selected classes (N=4; 85 learners) participated 'intact' in the study. The data was analysed using descriptive as well as inferential statistics (e.g. MANCOVA). / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Le vieillissement normal est associé à une réorganisation cérébrale qui peut être influencée par plusieurs facteurs. Des théories comme la réserve cognitive de Stern (2002) tentent d’expliquer les effets de ces différents facteurs. Certains, le niveau de scolarité par exemple, sont encore mal connus. Pourtant, le niveau de scolarité est connu pour avoir un impact sur les performances cognitives tout au long de la vie. Le but de ce mémoire est d’étudier les effets du niveau de scolarité sur l’oxygénation cérébrale de personnes âgées en santé lors d’une tâche d’évocation lexicale orthographique et sémantique. Chaque tâche est divisée selon un critère « plus productive » et « moins productive ». Les âgés faiblement scolarisés produisent moins de mots que les âgés fortement scolarisés. De plus, la différence de mots produits entre le critère plus productif et moins productif est plus grande pour la tâche sémantique que pour la tâche orthographique. Du point de vue hémodynamique, les deux groupes ont des activations semblables, contredisant le phénomène HAROLD. De plus, les participants peu scolarisés tendent à activer de façon plus importante l’hémisphère gauche, peu importe la tâche ou la condition. Par contre, les activations varient selon la tâche et la condition dans le cas du groupe fortement scolarisé. / Normal aging is associated with cerebral reorganisation which can be influenced by many factors. For example, the theory cognitive reserve (Stern, 2002) is trying to explain how those factors can have an impact on the reorganization. However, some factors, such as educational level, are known to have an impact on cognitive performance. The aim of this dissertation is to study the effect of educational level in cerebral oxygenation of healthy older adults during both phonologic and semantic verbal fluency tasks. Each task is divided into two criteria: more productive and less productive. Behavioural data showed that less educated elderly generate fewer words than more educated ones for both tasks. Moreover, the differences between the number of words for the more productive criterion and the less productive one are higher for the semantic than for the phonologic task. NIRS data showed that both groups activated prefrontal cortex, without difference between them. In addition, less educated participants tend to have bigger activations in the left hemisphere regardless of the task and the criterion. On the other hand, higher educated participants’ activations vary according to the task and the criterion unlike the HAROLD model’s predictions.

La mémoire épisodique donne la capacité de voyager mentalement dans son propre passé. En cela,elle permet de faire fi du temps qui passe pour pouvoir revivre des événements passés. Ce travail dethèse évalue l’hypothèse selon laquelle la mémoire épisodique et la sensation de revivre un événementpassé (i.e., conscience autonoëtique) sont basées sur une fluence dans la reconstruction de l’épisode,reconstruction impliquant une mise à jour égocentrée. Cette proposition est développée dans le modèlede Gomez et collaborateurs (Gomez, Rousset & Baciu, 2009) qui propose que la mise à jourégocentrée permette de ré-instancier un point de vue spatialisé égocentré sur l’évènement remémoré.Ce travail de thèse a amené de nouveaux arguments en faveur de ce modèle, en évaluant à la foisl’approche attributionnelle de la mémoire épisodique et le lien fonctionnel entre la mise à jourégocentrée en ligne et la mémoire épisodique. Une première série d’études met en évidence uneinfluence de la fluence du processus de mise à jour égocentrée sur la conscience autonoëtique.L’augmentation artificielle de la fluence de mise à jour égocentrée, lors de la reconnaissance,augmente le sentiment de conscience autonoëtique et ce uniquement lorsque la reconnaissanceimplique une reconstruction. Une seconde série d’études permet de mettre en évidence un effetd’interférence du processus de mise à jour égocentrée en ligne sur la récupération épisodique.Actualiser sa position dans l’espace lors d’un déplacement a beau être un processus automatique, celaralentit spécifiquement le rappel de source. Enfin, une étude impliquant des patients atteints de lamaladie d’Alzheimer, met en évidence une dissociation entre les compétences en mise à jourégocentrée chez ces patients. Ces résultats sont discutés dans le cadre du modèle de Gomez etcollaborateurs et en regard d’une conception incarnée et située de la cognition. / Episodic memory makes it possible to mentally travel back in our own past; it breaks the law of theunidirectionality of time, and allows us to mentally relive past events. The main goal of this work wasto investigate whether episodic memory and the subjective feeling of reliving a past event (i.e.,autonoetic consciousness) arise from the fluency of the reconstruction process of the event. Thisreconstruction would involve the process of egocentric spatial updating with self-motion. Thishypothesis was first developed in Gomez and colleagues' model (Gomez, Rousset, & Baciu, 2009) thatsuggests that egocentric updating re-instances an egocentric spatial point of view on the rememberedevent. The present work brings additional behavioral evidences to this model by assessing both theconception of attributional episodic memory and the functional link between online egocentricupdating with self-motion and episodic memory. A first set of studies showed that enhancingartificially the fluency of the egocentric updating process, during the recognition phase, increasedautonoetic consciousness. Moreover, such phenomenon only happened when recognition involved areconstruction process. A second set of studies showed that performing an online egocentric updatingwith self-motion interfered with remembering. Although the updating of its own position though selfmotionis automatic, it specifically slows down source recall. Finally, a last study showed adissociation between preservations of and deficits of egocentric spatial updating abilities in patientssuffering from Alzheimer's disease. The results of these studies are discussed in the context of Gomezand colleagues' model, and in terms of embodied and situated cognition.

The modern computerised era in which we live means that all areas of society are subjected to information technology. Children are increasingly exposed to and have access to computers, which necessarily have an influence on their education and development. Seeing that children are the most receptive group when it comes to exposure to new technology, this may have enriching effects on computer literacy, which is often considered part of general literacy. With regards to literacy, reading is one of the skills which pose a high challenge. It is also a key skill that opens the world of information, as most information is received through reading. Any reading stimulation via electronic or printed media that encourages learners to read is considered to improve reading ability, reading speed, reading comprehension and phonetic awareness. The aim of this study was to determine whether there was a correlation between early computer exposure and experience (both computer access and use) and reading ability of grade 1 learners. In this study a one shot cross-sectional survey design was used. Schools with grade 1 learners in the Umvoti district of Kwa Zulu Natal were selected to participate in the study - stratified sampling was used. The grade 1 classes were selected on the basis of random sampling. The selected classes (N=4; 85 learners) participated 'intact' in the study. The data was analysed using descriptive as well as inferential statistics (e.g. MANCOVA). / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

La mémoire épisodique donne la capacité de voyager mentalement dans son propre passé. En cela,elle permet de faire fi du temps qui passe pour pouvoir revivre des événements passés. Ce travail dethèse évalue l’hypothèse selon laquelle la mémoire épisodique et la sensation de revivre un événementpassé (i.e., conscience autonoëtique) sont basées sur une fluence dans la reconstruction de l’épisode,reconstruction impliquant une mise à jour égocentrée. Cette proposition est développée dans le modèlede Gomez et collaborateurs (Gomez, Rousset & Baciu, 2009) qui propose que la mise à jourégocentrée permette de ré-instancier un point de vue spatialisé égocentré sur l’évènement remémoré.Ce travail de thèse a amené de nouveaux arguments en faveur de ce modèle, en évaluant à la foisl’approche attributionnelle de la mémoire épisodique et le lien fonctionnel entre la mise à jourégocentrée en ligne et la mémoire épisodique. Une première série d’études met en évidence uneinfluence de la fluence du processus de mise à jour égocentrée sur la conscience autonoëtique.L’augmentation artificielle de la fluence de mise à jour égocentrée, lors de la reconnaissance,augmente le sentiment de conscience autonoëtique et ce uniquement lorsque la reconnaissanceimplique une reconstruction. Une seconde série d’études permet de mettre en évidence un effetd’interférence du processus de mise à jour égocentrée en ligne sur la récupération épisodique.Actualiser sa position dans l’espace lors d’un déplacement a beau être un processus automatique, celaralentit spécifiquement le rappel de source. Enfin, une étude impliquant des patients atteints de lamaladie d’Alzheimer, met en évidence une dissociation entre les compétences en mise à jourégocentrée chez ces patients. Ces résultats sont discutés dans le cadre du modèle de Gomez etcollaborateurs et en regard d’une conception incarnée et située de la cognition. / Episodic memory makes it possible to mentally travel back in our own past; it breaks the law of theunidirectionality of time, and allows us to mentally relive past events. The main goal of this work wasto investigate whether episodic memory and the subjective feeling of reliving a past event (i.e.,autonoetic consciousness) arise from the fluency of the reconstruction process of the event. Thisreconstruction would involve the process of egocentric spatial updating with self-motion. Thishypothesis was first developed in Gomez and colleagues' model (Gomez, Rousset, & Baciu, 2009) thatsuggests that egocentric updating re-instances an egocentric spatial point of view on the rememberedevent. The present work brings additional behavioral evidences to this model by assessing both theconception of attributional episodic memory and the functional link between online egocentricupdating with self-motion and episodic memory. A first set of studies showed that enhancingartificially the fluency of the egocentric updating process, during the recognition phase, increasedautonoetic consciousness. Moreover, such phenomenon only happened when recognition involved areconstruction process. A second set of studies showed that performing an online egocentric updatingwith self-motion interfered with remembering. Although the updating of its own position though selfmotionis automatic, it specifically slows down source recall. Finally, a last study showed adissociation between preservations of and deficits of egocentric spatial updating abilities in patientssuffering from Alzheimer's disease. The results of these studies are discussed in the context of Gomezand colleagues' model, and in terms of embodied and situated cognition.

[pt] Essa dissertação investiga uma possível relação entre comprometimentos no domínio sintático e dificuldades de leitura. Mais especificamente, busca-se verificar se dificuldades na compreensão oral de estruturas altamente custosas – interrogativas QU mais N de objeto (OWH mais N) e relativas de objeto (ORCs) – preveem problemas na compreensão leitora, quando tais estruturas estão envolvidas. 78 alunos (idade média: 12) do sexto ano de três escolas públicas do Rio de Janeiro participaram desse estudo. Suas habilidades sintáticas foram inicialmente testadas. Dois grupos foram criados para participarem dos testes de leitura: com possível comprometimento sintático (SI) (n igual 25) e controle (CT) (n igual 53). Um teste de reconhecimento de palavras e outro de leitura de palavras/pseudopalavras isoladas foram elaborados e realizados, uma vez que a fluência em leitura requer que dificuldades nessas habilidades sejam superadas. Novos grupos (SI e CT), sem problemas nesse nível, foram definidos (com 12 participantes cada). Dois experimentos foram conduzidos, buscando testar suas habilidades de fluência (velocidade, precisão e prosódia) em leitura com OWH mais N e ORCs em sentenças isoladas (tarefa de identificação de imagens) e no discurso (tarefa de leitura automonitorada). No último caso, o sujeito interveniente foi manipulado quanto à complexidade estrutural (DP completo ou pronome). Um aspecto da prosódia (uso adequado de pitch) distinguiu os grupos, com menor desempenho no grupo SI em ambas as tarefas. Um aspecto da precisão (número de disfluências) também os distinguiu quando as sentenças investigadas foram apresentadas no discurso (mais disfluências no grupo SI). A compreensão foi particularmente afetada quando as sentenças foram lidas isoladamente. Fatores relacionados à escolha lexical, bem como fatores discursivos podem criar demandas diferenciadas para as sentenças no discurso e isso pode ter minimizado efeitos de grupo. O efeito de intervenção foi obtido na direção prevista nas interrogativas QU mais N (OWH mais N), em que uma demanda maior foi observada nas condições de DP completos. Já no caso das relativas de objeto (ORC), um efeito significativo não foi obtido, possivelmente devido a dificuldades na atribuição de força ilocucionária interrogativa às perguntas SIM /NÃO. Uma amostra de sentenças com diferentes estruturas e com pontuação variada foi examinada, a fim de se obter uma análise geral de fluência em leitura. Novamente o pitch é indicativo de comprometimento sintático. Comprometimentos na interface sintaxe-prosódia podem explicar esses resultados. / [en] This dissertation intends to verify whether syntactic impairment, as detected in in the oral comprehension of costly structures - object WH plus N questions (OWH plus N) and object relative clauses (ORCs) -, predicts difficulties in reading fluency and comprehension. The syntactic abilities of 6th graders from three public schools in Rio de Janeiro were evaluated, giving rise to syntactically impaired (SI) and control (CT) groups. Those who satisfied criteria at the word level in word-recognition/reading tasks proceeded. Two experiments assessed reading fluency (rate, accuracy, prosody) and the comprehension of each of the target structures in isolation (picture-identification task) and in discourse (self-paced reading task). In the latter, the intervening subject was manipulated for structural complexity (full nominal phrase and pronoun). One aspect of prosody (pitch contour) distinguished the groups, with lower scores in the SI group in both tasks. An aspect of accuracy (number of disfluencies) distinguished them in the discourse task (more disfluencies in the SI group). The comprehension of the target-sentences is isolation was harder for the SI group. Lexical/discourse factors can create differential demands for sentences in discourse, minimizing group effects. The effect of intervention was in the predicted direction for OWH plus N sentences (more demands for full nominal phase subjects). As for RC, this effect was not significant, possibly due to difficulties in the ascription of illocutionary force to YES/NO questions. In an overall analysis of reading fluency in discourse (different structures/punctuation marks), the pitch contour indicates syntactic impairment. Impairment at the syntax-prosody interface can account for these results.

A presente dissertação refere-se a um estudo de caso sobre as práticas de leitura e escrita das crianças de 6 anos da classe de alfabetização de uma escola pública de Porto Alegre, imersas em um cotidiano digital, viabilizado pelo projeto Um Computador por Aluno (UCA). Seu objetivo foi investigar as práticas realizadas pelos estudantes, bem como as possibilidades e condições necessárias para que o computador fosse instrumento para inscrevê-los no mundo letrado, superando a relação estritamente escolar com a escrita, além de analisar as implicações para o processo de conceituação. Partiu-se do pressuposto de que a saturação tecnológica em uma escola na modalidade em que foi implantado o projeto UCA (cada criança com o seu laptop) implicaria mudanças nas práticas de leitura e de escrita realizadas pelos estudantes. Portanto, essas práticas dos alunos foram examinadas segundo duas unidades de análise: propostas da professora e as realizadas espontaneamente. Para cada unidade, foram construídos três eixos de categorias, relacionadas a letramento, alfabetização e fluência digital. O estudo de caso também apresentou uma terceira unidade, com a análise de cinco casos emblemáticos de alunos representativos à investigação. Conforme característica de um estudo de caso, a pesquisa teve início com uma proposição teórica, sustentada pelas experiências anteriores da investigadora e pelo referencial teórico utilizado, que foi gradativamente comparada com os dados encontrados no campo. Ao final do estudo, considerou-se que a proposição teórica deveria ser ajustada enfatizando a proposta pedagógica para crianças em processo inicial de aprendizagem da língua escrita. Conclui-se que a utilização cotidiana do laptop em rede permitirá às crianças a exploração da língua em situações reais, construindo um ambiente simbólico propício para a compreensão da função e do sentido da língua escrita (letramento) e, portanto, criará a necessidade de compreensão da sua estrutura (alfabetização), favorecendo o processo de conceituação, desde que incorporada a propostas e intervenções pedagógicas adequadas às necessidades e possibilidades da criança. Na classe analisada, algumas condições foram necessárias para que isso acontecesse. Entre elas, destacam-se o trabalho por projetos, a relação de um laptop por aluno em sala de aula, a conexão à Internet e o uso de um ambiente virtual. / This thesis refers to a case study about the practices of reading and writing of six-year-old children of a literacy class in a public elementary school of Porto Alegre city (RS/Brazil), immersed in a digital quotidian, made viable by One Computer per Student (UCA) project. Its objective was to investigate the practices carried out by students, as well as the possibilities and necessary conditions for the computer to be a tool to make them able to enter the “literate world”, overcoming the strictly scholar relationship with the writing, besides analysing the implications for the conceptualization process. It was presupposed that the technological saturation in a school in the modality in which UCA project was implemented (each child with his own laptop) would change the practices of reading and writing carried out by students. Therefore, these practices of the students were examined according to two units of analysis: practices proposed by the teacher and proposals carried out spontaneously. For each unit, three categories were built, related to literacy, alphabetization and digital fluency. The case study has also presented a third unit, with the analysis of five emblematic cases of students which were representative to the investigation. As typical in a case study, the research has begun with a theoretical proposition, based on previous experiences of the researcher and on the theoretical framework used, which was gradually compared to the data found in the field. At the end of the study, it was considered that the proposition should be adjusted emphasizing the pedagogic proposals for children in initial process of written language learning. It is concluded that daily use of laptops in a network will allow children to use language in real situations, building a symbolic environment propitious to the comprehension of the function and meaning of written language (literacy) and, thus, will create the necessity of understanding of its structure (alphabetization), facilitating the conceptualization process, as long as it is incorporated to appropriate proposals and pedagogic interventions to the needs and possibilities of the child. In the class which was analysed, some conditions were necessary for that to happen. The work by projects, the relation of one laptop per student in the classroom, the connection to the Internet and the use of a virtual learning environment are among them.