Master of Science / Department of Psychological Sciences / Richard J. Harris / The revised hierarchical model assumes a strong lexical link from L2 to L1 and a strong conceptual link from L1 to L2, with both links being contingent on L2 fluency. The bilingual memory literature has discussed the role of L2 fluency in bilingual lexical and semantic retrieval; however, little is known on how priming for a target language (L1 or L2) may affect lexical and semantic access or how it is affected by L2 proficiency. The present study utilized the revised hierarchical model to examine how language priming and intermediate levels of L2 fluency affects bilingual lexical and semantic retrieval in a yes/no image/word task. 181 participants read four paragraphs of discourse to prime for a specific target language (English or Spanish) and performed a modified picture-word interference task (MPWI), in which they had to determine if image/word pairs were congruent (matched) or incongruent (did not match). The main dependent variables were accuracy and RT on the MPWI task. Additional DVs were accuracy and RT on comprehension questions over the content of the priming discourse and question type (explicit, factual, and pragmatic). Across intermediate levels of L2 fluency, those more fluent performed faster and were more accurate on the MPWI task than those less fluent. No differences were observed when the image/word pairs were congruent for English or Spanish, yet there was a language difference when incongruent for Spanish. Readers had highest percent correct for explicit questions and lowest for pragmatic questions, took longer on factual than pragmatic question, and took longer to respond when priming discourse and questions were in Spanish than when in English. The results are interpreted and discussed in terms of the revised hierarchical model, in that fluency, at least at the intermediate level, affects processing time more than accuracy. Limitations of the study, future directions, and implications for L2 educators are also discussed.

M.A. / Traditional measures often used in the assessment of cognitive functions of individuals, are regarded as unsuitable for two reasons. Firstly, since a particular language is utilized in the test items and instructions of most cognitive tests, the overall lower verbal test scores of culturally diverse individuals often is an indicator of poor verbal knowledge and language proficiency that in effect has a bearing on an invalid lower Full Scale IQ score. The verbal item content fail to provide important information regarding the potential learning and reasoning abilities of a person from a different culture. Secondly, due to past standardization practices in the construction of measuring instruments, important elements regarding the cultural relevance of the content of the measures, have often failed to be included. In order to address such problems, this research examined the suitability of the S.O.N.-R 5 % - 17 according to three objectives: (a) to cognitively assess the non-verbal intelligence of 400 secondary school children from four culturally diverse groups in the Johannesburg metropolitan area, viz. Afrikaans-, English-, Sotho- and Zulu-speaking learners who are in grades 8-10; (b) to determine whether home language, grade level, socio-economic status (SES), gender, handedness and the use of visual aids (spectacles/contact lenses) were important variables in determining subtest total scores; and (c) to determine the appropriateness of the S.O.N.-R 5%- 17 for local use in terms of its psychometric properties, viz. reliability (internal consistency) as well as its construct and predictive validity. Apart from providing the developmental aspects pertaining to the cognitive development of adolescents, other important theoretical aspects of intelligence were discussed from a cross-cultural perspective in reference to various conceptual frameworks from which intelligence was viewed as a function of the internal (innate) psychological processes of the individual and the external (socio-cultural) psychological processes of the individual. An outline based on the psychometric and cultural implications for such theories of intelligence was also delineated in an effort to define the concept of intelligence as related to culture-fair testing.

Mobbning på arbetsplatsen kan definieras som återkommande psykiska kränkningar, ofta riktade mot en person från en eller flera kolleger. Dessa handlingar sker frekvent och över en längre period. Konsekvenser till följd av mobbning är psykiska, psykosomatiska och sociala besvär. Olika mätmetoder kan ge upphov till skilda resultat och frekvenser för förekomsten av mobbning på arbetsplatsen. Ett korrekt mått på utsatthet för mobbning är viktigt för samhälle och organisation för att kunna anpassa resurser för att hantera problemet. Ett internationellt ofta använt verktyg för att mäta utsatthet för mobbning på arbetsplatsen är Negative Acts Questionnaire Revised (NAQ-R), som har dokumenterad validitet och visat på goda psykometriska egenskaper. Syftet med den aktuella studien var att översatta och validera NAQ-R till svenska samt att jämföra resultaten med tidigare valideringar. Ett urval på 133 personer besvarade en webbenkät med NAQ-R, skalor för arbetsbelastning, rollkonflikter samt hälsa. Ett antal analyser genomfördes för att testa reliabilitet, begreppsvaliditet, samband med variabler som tidigare visat sig ha ett samband med mobbning, samt faktorstruktur. Resultatet visade hög intern konsistens, begreppsvaliditet samt starka samband med arbetsbelastning och rollkonflikter vilka är faktorer som i tidigare forskning visats kunna leda till mobbning på arbetsplatsen. Resultatet visar också ett starkt samband med ohälsa som en konsekvens av mobbning vilket går i linje med tidigare forskning. Sammantaget tyder aktuell studie på att den svenska översättningen av NAQ-R (NAQ-R-S) är ett tillförlitligt och trovärdigt instrument för att mäta mobbning på arbetsplatsen.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between economic development and pollution in the middle- and high-income countries for the period between 1960 and 2014. The study is conducted by first testing the environmental Kuznets curve, an economic theory that income has an inverted U-shape relationship with environmental degradation. Later, the Revised environmental Kuznets curve is tested, an economic theory that countries undergoing economic development at a later period will have a lower peak of environmental degradation compared to countries undergoing economic development at an earlier period. Empirical tests of carbon dioxide (CO2) per capita and income (GDP per capita) were conducted in two different panel tests containing middle-income countries in one and high-income countries in the other. The observed relationship shows that a country's early economic development degrades the environment until what is called the turning point is reached, after which the environment improves with further economic development. Thus, the expected inverted U-shape is observed for both MIE and HIE. Furthermore, the tests tell us that the turning point for MIE is significantly lower than for HIE, which is the expected result.

Sufficient research exists indicating that the brain mechanisms involved with use of whole brain teaching (WBT) techniques will likely lead to improved academic achievement and that academic self-concept (ASC) is both a cause and consequence of academic achievement. However, it is not known if there is a relationship between WBT and ASC. Given the benefits derived from positive ASC, it becomes important to assess WBT as a predictor variable of positive ASC. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between different levels of exposure to WBT techniques and the mean difference in ASC, as measured by the general-school, mathematics, and reading subscores on the Self Description Questionnaire I, between treatment conditions. Self-concept theory as posited by Shavelson et al. and the Marsh/Shavelson revision, the skill development approach to self-concept enhancement, and the reciprocal effect model provide the theoretical foundations of this dissertation. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to determine if the mean ASC scores differed among 191 second and third grade students exposed to three levels of the WBT factor. Results of the three-group MANOVA failed to support use of WBT techniques to improve ASC. Reconfiguration of the quasi-independent variable into two groups revealed that general-school ASC scores were significantly lower in the group exposed to limited to no WBT techniques. Assessing students at risk for educational problems may reveal more convincing evidence for WBT as an effective ASC intervention. The implications for social change include encouraging WBT practitioners to make more empirically sound claims and decisions regarding their practice, thereby allowing students an educational experience grounded in scientific findings, rather than subjective assumptions.

Drug offenders continue to cost citizens and governments money, while drug courts attempt to rehabilitate offenders and reduce recidivism. The Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) is a risk assessment tool used by courts and probation offices to determine needs and risks of offenders, and often determine levels of supervision. The purpose of this quasi experimental study was to determine if there is a statistically significant association between the initial LSI-R scores of offenders entering drug courts and their successful completion of the drug court program. Therapeutic jurisprudence theory, the theoretical framework for this study, suggests that the courts and the law are therapeutic to people and that drug treatment will promote positive behavior changes for the offenders. Data for this study were acquired from a database provided by a Kansas drug court, including initial LSI-R scores, completion records, and demographics of 210 drug court participants. A one-way ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses. Significant statistical results were found, indicating that drug court success was positively associated with the LSI-R score. The study may lead to social change by providing information about participants, most likely to benefit from drug court programs, which will save governments money and make room in the programs for more successful candidates, thus producing more productive citizens in the community.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間健康科学) / 甲第21305号 / 人健博第61号 / 新制||人健||5(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科人間健康科学系専攻 / (主査)教授 足立 壯一, 教授 藤井 康友, 教授 羽賀 博典 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human Health Sciences / Kyoto University / DFAM

Science has recently begun showing interest in the different mechanisms of the psychopathic brain, and current scientific research points to deficits in the structural and functional brain regions of psychopaths. Psychopathy is a disorder distinguished by its persistent antisocial behavior, emotional callousness, grandiose self-estimation, and lack of empathy. Further, it is also a disorder which is hard to classify. Notably, the Hare-Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) is the most common clinical rating scale used to diagnose psychopaths. This current systematic review aims to scrutinize literature that reviews psychopathy, delving into articles on neural correlates of emotion recognition of psychopaths. By using the PRISMA guidelines, this systematic research was conducted through, MEDLINE EBSCO, Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus. Through predisposed eligibility criteria, articles were chosen and reviewed. All selected articles found a significant result where psychopaths performed poorly on emotion recognition and important areas such as the prefrontal cortex and amygdala could be seen to perform worse. Notably, due to different test methods, one is unable to properly evaluate the results between the studies. Therefore, upcoming studies need to shed light on performing the same tests to provide stronger and equal evidence. This systematic review was done to shed better light on the disorder.

This study explores the phenomenon of computational thinking indicated by the use of Bloom's taxonomy's cognitive domain verbs in the Scratch community, the online, collaborative environment for the Scratch Visual Programming Language (VPL). A corpus of 660,984 words from three Scratch community sub-forums provide the data for this study. By semantically aligning cognitive domain verbs of Bloom's revised taxonomy to computational thinking (CT) dimensions, the occurrences of the verbs in Scratch community sub-forums are used to indicate instances of computational thinking. The methodology utilizes qualitative coding and analysis with R® and RStudio®. The findings show language attributes such as expressions of imagination, sharing of creative details, collaborative development ideas, teaching, modeling, innovating, solutions focused, and technical support to be indicative of computational thinking and CT dimensions. The computational thinking dimension referred to as computational perspectives occurs most frequently within Scratch community participant discourse. The environmental factors found to contribute to computational thinking and the CT dimensions are supporting tools, personalized learning, supportive organizational culture, social learning, and organizational support. Common among the three computational dimensions is the contributing environmental factor described as supportive organizational culture, with the computational perspectives dimension prevailing among the corpora. The characteristics of computational perspectives and supportive organizational culture suggest a desire for human connection in the attainment of technological skills and knowledge.

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