Showing papers on "Context (language use) published in 1992"

Thought and language

Abstract: From aphasics' self records, common experience, changes in signification of sentences according to a verbal or non-verbal context, animals and non speaking children performances, it seems possible to get some evidence that thought is distinct from language even though there is a permanent interaction between both in normal adult human beings. Some considerations on formalisation of language suggests that the more formalised it is, the less information it contains. If it is true, it is not reasonable to hope that a formalised language like that used by computers may be a model for thought. Finally, the lack of status of thought, as far as it is a subjective experience and the impossibility of giving it a definition as far as it exceeds language, make it clear that in spite of progress in scientific psychology, thought, per se, is not an object for science.

Modality-specific retrograde amnesia of fear.

Abstract: Emotional responses such as fear are rapidly acquired through classical conditioning. This report examines the neural substrate underlying memory of acquired fear. Rats were classically conditioned to fear both tone and context through the use of aversive foot shocks. Lesions were made in the hippocampus either 1, 7, 14, or 28 days after training. Contextual fear was abolished in the rats that received lesions 1 day after fear conditioning. However, rats for which the interval between learning and hippocampal lesions was longer retained significant contextual fear memory. In the same animals, lesions did not affect fear response to the tone at any time. These results indicate that fear memory is not a single process and that the hippocampus may have a time-limited role in associative fear memories evoked by polymodal (contextual) but not unimodal (tone) sensory stimuli.

Estimating and interpreting the instantaneous frequency of a signal. I. Fundamentals

Abstract: The concept of instantaneous frequency (IF), its definitions, and the correspondence between the various mathematical models formulated for representation of IF are discussed. The extent to which the IF corresponds to the intuitive expectation of reality is also considered. A historical review of the successive attempts to define the IF is presented. The relationships between the IF and the group-delay, analytic signal, and bandwidth-time (BT) product are explored, as well as the relationship with time-frequency distributions. The notions of monocomponent and multicomponent signals and instantaneous bandwidth are discussed. It is shown that these notions are well described in the context of the theory presented. >

On the fit of models to covariances and methodology to the Bulletin.

Abstract: It is noted that 7 of the 10 top-cited articles in the Psychological Bulletin deal with methodological topics. One of these is the Bentler-Bonett (1980) article on the assessment of fit in covariance structure models. Some context is provided on the popularity of this article. In addition, a citation study of methodology articles appearing in the Bulletin since 1978 was carried out. It verified that publications in design, evaluation, measurement, and statistics continue to be important to psychological research. Some thoughts are offered on the role of the journal in making developments in these areas more accessible to psychologists.

Context, cortex, and dopamine: a connectionist approach to behavior and biology in schizophrenia.

Abstract: Connectionist models are used to explore the relationship between cognitive deficits and biological abnormalities in schizophrenia. Schizophrenic deficits in tasks that tap attention and language processing are reviewed, as are biological disturbances involving prefrontal cortex and the mesocortical dopamine system. Three computer models are then presented that simulate normal and schizophrenic performance in the Stroop task, the continuous performance test, and a lexical disambiguation task. They demonstrate that a disturbance in the internal representation of contextual information can provide a common explanation for schizophrenic deficits in several attention- and language-related tasks. The models also show that these behavioral deficits may arise from a disturbance in a model parameter (gain) corresponding to the neuromodulatory effects of dopamine, in a model component corresponding to the function of prefrontal cortex.

Choice in Context: Tradeoff Contrast and Extremeness Aversion:

Abstract: Consumer choice is often influenced by the context, defined by the set of alternatives under consideration. Two hypotheses about the effect of context on choice are proposed. The first hypothesis, ...

Support seeking and support giving within couples in an anxiety-provoking situation: The role of attachment styles.

Abstract: This study examined how adult attachment styles moderate spontaneous behavior between dating couples when 1 member of the dyad is confronted with an anxiety-provoking situation Eighty-three dating couples were unobtrusively videotaped for 5 min in a waiting room while the woman waited to participate in an "activity" known to provoke anxiety in most people Independent observers then evaluated each partner's behavior on several dimensions Results revealed that persons with more secure attachment styles behaved differently than persons with more avoidant styles in terms of physical contact, supportive comments, and efforts to seek and give emotional support Findings are discussed in the context of theory and research on attachment Recently, a growing number of researchers have begun to explore how different attachment styles influence what transpires within adult relationships (eg, Collins & Read, 1990; Feeney & Noller, 1990; Hazan & Shaver, 1987; Levy & Davis, 1988; Simpson, 1990) Virtually all of this research has been guided by Bowlby's (1969,1973,1980) attachment theory Bowlby sought to understand why infants forge strong emotional bonds to their primary caregivers and why they often exhibit pronounced anxiety and distress when they are separated from them Adopting an evolutionary- ethological perspective, he argued that the specific sequence of behavioral and emotional reactions associated with separation—protest, despair, and detachment—might reflect the operation of an innate attachment system designed to promote close physical contact between vulnerable infants and their primary caregivers By maintaining close proximity with their caregivers, infants would be more likely to survive, to reproduce, and ultimately to pass attachment and proximity-seeking propensities on to subsequent generations Although the tendency to seek proximity seems to be universal in infants, its development and elaboration over time is sensitive to specific environmental conditions, especially transactions between the infant and his or her primary caregiver Past empirical research has examined characteristic patterns of attachment behavior that develop between infants and their caregivers that signify different types of infant-caregiver relationships Using the Strange Situation paradigm, Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall (1978) identified three primary patterns

Rethinking Context: Language As An Interactive Phenomenon

Abstract: 1. Rethinking Context: an introduction Charles Goodwin, and Alessandro Duranti 2. The indexical ground of Deictic Reference William F. Hanks 3. Language in context and language as context: the Samoan respect vocabulary Alessandro Duranti 4. Context contests: debatable truth statements on Tanna (Vanuatu) Lamont Lindstrom 5. Contextualization, tradition, and the dialogue of contexts: Icelandic Legends of the Kraftaskald Richard Bauman 6. Assessments and the construction of context Charles Goodwin, and Marjorie Harness Goodwin 7. In another context Emanuel A. Schegloff 8. Contextualization and understanding John Gumperz 9. Contextualization in Kalapalo narratives Ellen Basso 10. Radio talk-show therapy and the pragmatics of possible worlds Frank Gaik 11. The interpenetration of communicative contexts: examples from medical encounters Aaron Cicourel 12. The routinization of repair in courtroom discourse Susan U. Philips 13. The negotiation of context in face-to-face interaction Adam Kendon 14. Indexing gender Elinor Ochs.

Alliance capitalism : the social organization of Japanese business

Abstract: Business practices in Japan inspire fierce and even acrimonious debate, especially when they are compared to American practices. This book attempts to explain the remarkable economic success of Japan in the post-war period - a success it is useful to understand in a time marked by controversial trade imbalances and concerns over competitive industrial performance. Gerlach focuses on what he calls the intercorporate alliance, the innovative and increasingly pervasive practice of bringing together a cluster of affiliated companies that extends across a broad range of markets. The best known of these alliances are the "keiretsu", or enterprise groups, which include both diversified families of firms located around major banks and trading companies and vertical families of suppliers and distributors linked to prominent manufacturers in the automobile, electronics and other industries. In providing a key link between isolated local firms and extended international markets, the intercorporate alliance has had profound effects on the industrial and social organization of Japanese businesses. Gerlach casts his net widely. He not only provides a rigorous analysis of intercorporate capitalism in Japan, making useful distinctions between Japanese and American practices, but he also develops a broad theoretical context for understanding Japan's business networks. Addressing economists, sociologists and other social scientists, he argues that the intercorporate alliance is as much a result of overlapping political, economic and social forces as traditional Western economic institutions such as the public corporation and the stock market. Most compellingly, "Alliance Capitalism" raises important questions about the best method of exchange in any economy. It identifies situations where cooperation among companies is an effective way of channelling corporate activities in a world marked by complexity and rapid change, and considers in detail alternatives to hostile takeovers and other characteristic features of American capitalism. The book also points to the broader challenges facing Japan and its trading partners as they seek to coordinate their distinctive forms of economic organization.

Control Theory In Strategic Human Resource Management: The Mediating Effect Of Administrative Information

Abstract: This study examined the relationship between strategic context, viewed in terms of product-market variation, work flow integration, and firm size, and executive use of human resource management con...

Context-sensitive half-time in multicompartment pharmacokinetic models for intravenous anesthetic drugs.

Abstract: Elimination half-life is the pharmacokinetic parameter used most commonly to describe duration of pharmacologic action, including that expected of intravenous anesthetic drugs administered by continuous infusion. Little consideration has been given, however, to the relevance of elimination half-life in describing plasma (central compartment) drug concentrations in the context of relevant infusion durations. Therefore, simulations were performed with multicompartment pharmacokinetic models for six intravenous anesthetic drugs. These models had elimination half-lives ranging from 111 to 577 min. The input in each simulation was an infusion regimen designed to maintain a constant plasma drug concentration for durations ranging from 1 min to 8 h and until steady state. The time required for the plasma drug concentration to decline by 50% after terminating each infusion in each of the models was determined and was designated the "context-sensitive half-time," where "context" refers to infusion duration. The context-sensitive half-times were markedly different from their respective elimination half-lives and ranged from 1 to 306 min. The half-times were explained by posing each pharmacokinetic model in the form of a hydraulic model. These simulations demonstrate that elimination half-life is of no value in characterizing disposition of intravenous anesthetic drugs during dosing periods relevant to anesthesia. We propose that context-sensitive half-times are a useful descriptor of postinfusion central compartment kinetics.

Middle management involvement in strategy and its association with strategic type: A research note

Abstract: This paper reports the results of a study that investigated the strategic involvement of 259 middle managers in 25 organizations. Drawing from previous clinical research, a theoretical typology of middle management roles in strategy is developed. Measures for each role are derived, and the relationship between middle management strategic involvement and Miles and Snow's (1978) strategic type is examined. Results suggest the usefulness of these measures in assessing both the level and type of middle management strategic activity. In addition, the findings show that middle managers in Prospectors report significantly higher levels of upward and divergent forms of strategic involvement than those in Analyzers and Defenders. Traditionally, middle-level managers have not been considered part of the strategy process except in providing informational inputs and directing implementation. Contemporary theory and descriptions suggest, however, that middle managers regularly attempt to influence strategy and often provide the impetus for new initiatives (Burgelman, 1983a,b; Mintzberg and Waters, 1985). Bower (1970) was one of the first to recognize the contributions of middle managers: they '... are the only men [sic] in the organization who are in a position to judge whether [strategic] issues are being considered in the proper context' (297-298). More recently, empirical research has confirmed middle management's upward influence on strategic decisions (Schilit, 1987)

Capital Mobility in Neoclassical Models of Growth

Abstract: The main purpose of this paper is to construct a model of economic growth that is consistent with the growing body of evidence on convergence. We want in particular to explain gradual convergence in output and income per person while allowing for an international credit market that equates the real interest rates across economies. The key to our model is that capital is only partially mobile: borrowing is possible to finance accumulation of physical capital but not accumulation of human capital. We show that the assumption of partial capital mobility imbedded in an open-economy version of the neoclassical growth model can explain the evidence on convergence. Perhaps the model in this paper is best applied not to countries or even states but to families. The model may in this context be useful for explaining the dynamics and distribution of wealth. It would predict that the most patient families would tend to be the most highly educated and they would own most of the economys physical capital. Physical non-human wealth would be more highly concentrated than human wealth. (authors)

Information technology diffusion: a review of empirical research

Abstract: Innovation diffusion theory provides a useful perspective on one of the most persistently challenging topics in the IT field, namely, how to improve technology assessment, adoption and implementation. For this reason, diffusion is growing in popularity as a reference theory for empirical studies of information technology adoption and diffusion, although no comprehensive review of this body of work has been published to date. This paper presents the results of a critical review of eighteen empirical studies published during the period 1981-1991. Conclusive results were most likely when the adoption context closely matched the contexts in which classical diffusion theory was developed (for example, individual adoption of personal-use technologies), or when researchers extended diffusion theory to account for new factors specific to the IT adoption context under study. Based on classical diffusion theory and other recent conceptual work, a framework is developed to guide future research in IT diffusion. The framework maps two classes of technology (ones that conform closely to classical diffusion assumptions versus ones that do not) against locus of adoption (individual versus organizational), resulting in four IT adoption contexts. For each adoption context, variables impacting adoption and diffusion are identified. Additionally, directions for future research are discussed.

Doing Gender: Feminism, Feminists and Research Methods in Human Geography

Abstract: Recently, there has been a marked growth of interest in research methods in geography. Stimulated in part by the epistemological questions raised by feminist and post-modem critiques of 'scientific' method, this interest took a severely practical turn when the Economic and Social Research Council required a taught component, including methods, to be part of all postgraduate training. This led to the development of courses on alternative methodological strategies in geography and, especially for human geographers, an interest in developing teaching about feminist methods. In this paper, I discuss some of the issues that may arise from the adoption of explicitly feminist approaches to geographical research. Recognition of the positionality of the researcher and her/his subjects and the relations of power between them, as Pile argued in a different context in his recent paper in this journal, raises important questions for geographers that we are just beginning to address.

Rethinking Context: An Introduction

Abstract: Samenvatting When the issue of context is raised it is typically argued that the focal event cannot be properly understood, interpreted approprately, or described in a relevant fashion, unles on looks beyond the event itself tot othre phenomena (for example cultural setting, speech situation, shared background assumtions) within the event is embedded, or alternatively that features of talk itself invoke particular background assumptions relevant tot the organization of subsequent interaction. The context is thus a frame that surrounds the event being examined and provides resources for its appropriate interpretation. The notion of context thus involves a fundamental juxtaposition ot two entities: (1) a focal event; and (2) a field of action within which that event is embedded. About context in language

Management interface for license management system

Abstract: A distributed computer system employs a license management system to account for software product usage. A management policy having a variety of alternative styles and contexts is provided. Each licensed product upon start-up makes a call to a license server to check on whether usage is permitted, and the license server checks a database of the licenses, called product use authorizations, that it administers. If the particular use requested is permitted, a grant is returned to the requesting user node. The product use authorization is structured to define a license management policy allowing a variety of license alternatives by values called "style", "context", "duration" and "usage requirements determination method". The license administration may be delegated by the license server to a subsection of the organization, by creating another license management facility duplicating the main facility. The license server must receive a license document (a product use authorization) from an issuer of licenses, where a license document generator is provided. A mechanism is provided for one user node to make a call to use a software product located on another user node; this is referred to as a "calling card", by which a user node obtains permission to make a procedure call to use a program on another node. A management interface allows a license manager at a server to modify the license documents in the database maintained by the server, within the restraints imposed by the license, to make delegations, assignments, etc. The license documents are maintained in a standard format referred to as a license document interchange format so the management system is portable and can be used by all adhering software vendors. A feature of the database management is the use of a filter function.

Appropriating Scientific Discourse: Findings from Language Minority Classrooms.

Abstract: We report a study of the effects of a collaborative inquiry approach to science on language minority students' (middle and high school) learning The emphasis in this approach is on involving the students, most of whom have never studied science before and some of whom have had very little schooling of any kind, in "doing science" in ways that practicing scientists do The question addressed in this study is, To what extent do students appropriate scientific ways of knowing and reasoning as a result of their participation in collaborative scientific inquiry? The focus of our analysis was on changes in students' conceptual knowledge and use of hypotheses, experiments, and explanations to organize their reasoning in the context of two think aloud problems In September the students' reasoning was nonanalytic and bound to personal experience They responded as if they were being asked to answer questions in a reading comprehension task In contrast, by June they reasoned in terms of a larger explanatory syst

Retention of Inferred and Given Word Meanings: Experiments in Incidental Vocabulary Learning

Abstract: One of the much debated issues in foreign/second language (henceforth L2) pedagogy presently is the following question: What is more effective and efficient for L2 vocabulary acquisition: (a) letting L2 learners infer the meaning of an unknown word occurring in an L2 text, using the information contained in the context, or (b) simply giving learners the meaning of the unknown word right away, e.g. by providing a translation in the mother tongue (Ll) or a synonym in L2? Some researchers (e.g. Bialystok, 1983; Nation, 1982; Nation and Coady, 1988; Schouten-van Parreren, 1985, 1986) have suggested that new words can best be learnt when presented in texts and when their meaning must be inferred from context by learners themselves. This point of view is based on two assumptions (Craik and Tulving, 1975; Jacoby, 1978; Jacoby and Craik, 1979; Jacoby, Craik and Begg, 1979): (a) When subjects have to infer or induce the solution of a problem, they will invest more mental effort than when they are given the solution to the problem. (b) Information that has been attained with more mental effort can later be better retrieved and recalled than information that has been attained with less mental effort.

The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas

Abstract: The Ethics of Deconstruction, Simon Critchley's first book, was originally published to great acclaim in 1992 The first book to argue for the ethical turn in Derrida's work, it powerfully shows how deconstruction has persuasive ethical consequences that are vital to our thinking through of questions of politics and democracy Moving away from using deconstruction to find the contradictions inherent in any text, Critchley concerns himself with the philosophical context the ethical impetus Derrida's ethics to be understood in relation to his engagement with the work of Levinas, and lays out the details of their philosophical confrontation New for this edition: A new preface where Critchley reveals the origins, motivations, and reception of The Ethics of Deconstruction, plus three new appendices, which reflect upon and deppend the book's argument

Attachment to Place and the Representation of the Life Course by the Elderly

Abstract: Attachment to place is a set of feelings about a geographic location that emotionally binds a person to that place as a function of its role as a setting for experience. In other words, life experiences may have an emotional quality that suffuses the setting to produce an affective bond with the place itself. Attachment and attachment behavior have traditionally been viewed as arising from early life experiences (Bowlby, 1958). This chapter takes a complementary view, that attachment behavior and concerns are life course phenomena. For older people in particular, place attachment is related to experience of the life course and themes of self-identity that span that life course. While attachment to place may be lived either currently or as part of memory, it exists within the larger context of the events of the life course, how they are interpreted, and the need to maintain a coherent sense of self over time.

International environment conventions: The case of uniform reductions of emissions

Abstract: Several serious environmental problems have a global character. International cooperation to reduce emissions for this type of problems often takes the form of an agreement among the cooperating countries to cut back emissions by a uniform percent rate compared with some base year. This type of agreements has two disadvantages. In the first place, it is well known from environmental economics that equal percentage reductions of emissions from different sources usually gives an inefficient outcome, in the sense that the same environmental goals could be achieved at lower costs through a different distribution of emission reductions. A second problem with agreements of equal percentage reductions is that not all countries will find it in their interest to participate in such agreements. In the paper, it is assumed that the set of countries which participate in an agreement is endogenously determined, with a country participating in an agreement provided that this makes the country better off than it would have been in a situation without any agreement. The agreement among the participating countries is assumed to be a uniform percentage reduction of their emissions. The countries have different opinions about what this uniform percentage should be. In the paper, it is assumed that the outcome is determined by the median country of the participating countries. The assumptions above lead to a particular equilibrium, in which some but not all countries cooperate. The equilibrium reduction of emissions for the cooperating countries is also derived. This equilibrium compared with the first best optimum within the context of simple numerical example.

The Politics of Performance : Radical Theatre as Cultural Intervention

Abstract: The Politics of Performance^ addresses fundamental questions about the social and political purposes of performance through an investigation into post-war alternative and community theatre. It proposes a theory of performace as ideological transaction, cultural intervention and community action, which is used to illuminate the potential social and political effects of radical performance practice. It raises issues about the nature of alternative theatre as a movement and the aesthetics of its styles of production, especially in relation to progressive counter-cultural formations. It analyses in detail the work of key practitioners in socially engaged theatre during four decades, setting each in the context of social, political and cultural history and focusing particularly on how they used that context to enhance the potential efficacy of their productions. The book is thus a detailed analysis of oppositional theatre as radical cultural practice in its various efforts to subvert the status quo. Its purpose is to raise the profile of these approaches to performance by proposing, and demonstrating how they may have had a significant impact on social and political history.

Cycles of organizational change

Abstract: Much of the theory and research about change in organizations, by being presented free of rich context, creates a certain amount of confusion in the literature. This paper seeks to help remedy that situation by developing a comprehensive framework of change by organizations, built on various cycles: concentric to represent the contents and levels of change, circumferential to represent the means and processes of change, tangential to represent the episodes and stages of change, and spiraling to represent the sequences and patterns of change. This framework is fleshed out in conclusion by developing three models of change experienced by major world religions, labeled enclaving, cloning, and uprooting.

In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures

Abstract: After the Second World War, nationalism emerged as the principle expression of resistance to Western imperialism in a variety of regions from the Indian subcontinent to Africa, to parts of Latin America and the Pacific Rim. With the Bandung Conference and the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement, many of Europe's former colonies banded together to form a common bloc, aligned with neither the advanced capitalist "First World" nor with the socialist "Second World." In this historical context, the category of "Third World literature" emerged, a category that has itself spawned a whole industry of scholarly and critical studies, particularly in the metropolitan West, but increasingly in the homelands of the Third World itself. Setting himself against the growing tendency to homogenize "Third World" literature and cultures, Aijaz Ahmad has produced a spirited critique of the major theoretical statements on "colonial discourse" and "post-colonialism," dismantling many of the commonplaces and conceits that dominate contemporary cultural criticism. With lengthy considerations of, among others, Fredric Jameson, Edward Said, and the Subaltern Studies group, "In Theory" also contains brilliant analyses of the concept of Indian literature, of the genealogy of the term "Third World," and of the conditions under which so-called "colonial discourse theory" emerged in metropolitan intellectual circles. Erudite and lucid, Ahmad's remapping of the terrain of cultural theory is certain to provoke passionate response.

Workfare versus Welfare Incentive Arguments for Work Requirements in Poverty-Alleviation Programs

Abstract: Whether those who claim benefits should face a work requirement has been an issue of long-standing social concern. Important examples of schemes which require work are the Californian workfare program, Indian food security schemes and the English Poor Law of 1834. We present two arguments for demanding work for benefits: first, a work requirement can scree the truly needy from those who are not in need of support and second, it can provide incentives for people to invest in skills which enable them to avoid poverty. In the context of a simple model of a target population with two ability types we find conditions under which a work requirement reduces the costs of poor relief, and those when it does not. We concentrate on a case when work done in return for benefits has no social value, showing that even if this is true, work requirements may be a valuable policy tool.