Bulletin of NTU "KhPI". Series: Problems of Electrical Machines and Apparatus Perfection. The Theory and Practice / Вісник Національного технічного університету "ХПІ". Серія: Проблеми удосконалювання електричних машин і апаратів. Теорія і практика
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A data set linking large-scale, individual semantic networks and cognitive performance
No full textWe report data from a proof-of-concept study involving the concurrent assessment of large-scale individual semantic networks and cognitive performance. The data include 10,800 free associations--collected using a dedicated web-based platform over the course of 2-4 weeks--and responses to several cognitive tasks, including verbal fluency, episodic memory, associative recall tasks, from four younger and four older native German speakers. The data are unique in scope and composition and shed light on individual and age-related differences in mental representations and their role in cognitive performance across the lifespan
The Progressive Case against Antimonopolism
No full textContemporary interest among American progressives in using antitrust law to address wealth inequality lacks a firm intellectual foundation. Indeed, both the original American progressives of a century ago, as well as Thomas Piketty, whose work sparked contemporary interest in inequality, agree that inequality’s source is scarcity, rather than monopoly, and so inequality will persist even in perfectly competitive markets. The only real solution is taxation, not a potentially destructive campaign of breakup. Why, then, is antimonopolism so popular among American progressives today? There are two reasons. The first is American anti-statism, which has closed off tax policy as a viable political solution to inequality, forcing progressive scholars and activists to seek a second- or third-best workaround in antitrust policy. The second is the American press, which is actively promoting antimonopolism as a way of fighting back against Google and Facebook, two companies that have badly outcompeted the press for advertising dollars in recent years
The “Big Two” and Socially Induced Emotions: Agency and Communion Jointly Influence Emotional Contagion and Emotional Mimicry
No full textThree studies investigated the effects of two fundamental dimensions of social perception on emotional contagion (i.e., the transfer of emotions between people). Rooting our hypotheses in the Dual Perspective Model of Agency and Communion (Abele & Wojciszke, 2014), we predicted that agency would strengthen the effects of communion on emotional contagion and emotional mimicry (a process often considered a key mechanism behind emotional contagion). To test this hypothesis, we exposed participants to happy, sad, and angry senders characterized by low vs. high communion and agency. Our results demonstrated that, as expected, the effects of the two dimensions on socially induced emotions were interactive. The strength and direction of these effects, however, were consistent with our predictions only when the senders expressed happiness. When the senders expressed sadness, we found no effects of agency or communion on participants’ emotional responses, whereas for anger a mixed pattern emerged. Overall, our results align with the notion that emotional contagion and mimicry are modulated not only by the senders’ traits but also by the social meaning of the expressed emotion
Generalization of auditory expertise in audio engineers and instrumental musicians
No full textFrom auditory perception to general cognition, the ability to play a musical instrument has been associated with skills both related and unrelated to music. However, it is unclear if these effects are bound to the specific characteristics of musical instrument training, as little attention has been paid to other populations whose auditory expertise could match or surpass that of musicians in specific auditory tasks or more naturalistic acoustic scenarios. We explored this possibility by comparing conservatory-trained instrumentalists to students of audio engineering (along with naive controls) on measures of auditory discrimination, auditory scene analysis, and speech in noise perception. We found that both musicians and audio engineers had generally lower psychophysical thresholds than controls, with pitch perception showing the largest effect size. Musicians performed best in a sustained selective attention task with two competing streams of tones, while audio engineers could better memorise and recall auditory scenes composed of non-musical sounds, when compared to controls. Additionally, in a diotic speech-in-babble task, musicians showed lower signal-to-noise-ratio thresholds than both controls and engineers. We also observed differences in personality that might account for group-based self-selection biases. Overall, we showed that investigating a wider range of forms of auditory expertise can help us corroborate (or challenge) the specificity of the advantages previously associated with musical instrument training
Why Has Personality Psychology Played an Outsized Role in the Credibility Revolution?
No full textPersonality is not the most popular subfield of psychology. But, in one way or another, personality psychologists have played an outsized role in the ongoing “credibility revolution” in psychology. Not only have individual personality psychologists taken on visible roles in the movement, but our field’s practices and norms have now become models for other fields to emulate (or, for those who share Baumeister’s (2016) skeptical view of the consequences of increasing rigor, a model for what to avoid). In this article we discuss some unique features of our field that may have placed us in an ideal position to be leaders in this movement. We do so from a subjective perspective, describing our impressions and opinions about possible explanations for personality psychology’s disproportionate role in the credibility revolution. We also discuss some ways in which personality psychology remains less-than-optimal, and how we can address these flaws
Mexico's 20 years of North American Free Trade Agreement: Socio-Environmental Trends and Unequal Exchange
No full textThe North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is the most influential trade agreement, signed by the governments of USA, Canada and Mexico in 1992. It came into effect the 1st of January of 1994 promising economic growth and better employment opportunities to reduce Mexican emigration. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), a civil resistance movement against capitalist neo-liberalism, protested the agreement, warning that it would feed social inequalities and threaten indigenous rights, autonomy, land access and use of natural resources. The Zapatistas feared the NAFTA would reinforce a master-servant relationship where Mexican human and natural resources are displaced, undermined or employed for the benefit of USA-CAN. In this paper we use Multiregional Input-Output Analysis based on the EORA model to examine changes in the carbon, land material, water and employment footprints in Mexico derived from the NAFTA agreement. We pay particular attention to the fairness of the resource exchange between USA and Mexico. We find all the consumption-based footprints grew between the period of 1990-2015. The carbon footprint increased by 50%, land by 32%, material by 46% and water by 566%. Territorial based employment rose by 7% and consumption based employment by 14%. Consumption of land and water considerably sped up after NAFTA. Remarkably, the land footprint doubled between 1994 and 2003, whereas GDP only increased by 20%. After that peak, the changes in land footprints retracted and stabilized at a 32% yearly increase until 2015, which corresponded to a 65% increase in GDP. Carbon intensity per unit of GDP has noticeably decreased after the NAFTA, nevertheless rising consumption heavily drives carbon emissions, eating-up efficiency gains.
We confirm that the unequal trade has increased after the NAFTA, with surpluses for carbon, materials and more heavily for labour -meaning Mexico has become a net source for these resources. Not so for land and water, where Mexico remains a net consumer (2) We confirm that a large portion of the increases in Mexico’s carbon, material and water are destined to satisfy USA-CAN consumption. (3) We confirm a master-servant dynamic where the employment embodied in trade leaves Mexico with a 73% surplus -a net supplier of labor among NAFTA partners
The Development of the Rank-Order Stability of the Big Five Across the Life Span
No full textSeveral studies have suggested that the rank-order stability of personality increases until midlife and declines later in old age. However, this inverted U-shaped pattern has not consistently emerged in previous research; in particular, a recent investigation implementing several methodological advances failed to support it. To resolve the matter, we analyzed data from two representative panel studies and investigated how certain methodological decisions affect conclusions regarding the age trajectories of stability. The data came from Australia (N = 15,465; Study 1) and Germany (N = 21,777; Study 2), and each study included four waves of personality assessment. We investigated the life span development of the rank-order stability of the Big Five for 4-, 8-, and 12-year intervals. Whereas Study 1 provided strong evidence for an inverted U-shape with rank-order stability declining past age 50, Study 2 provided more mixed results that nonetheless generally supported the inverted U-shape. This developmental trend held for single personality traits as well as for the overall pattern across traits; and it held for all three retest intervals—both descriptively and in formal tests. Additionally, we found evidence that health-related changes accounted for the decline in rank-order stability in older age. This suggests that if analyses are implicitly conditioned on health (e.g., by excluding participants with missing data on later waves), the decline in stability in old age will be underestimated or even missed. Our results provide further evidence for the inverted U-shaped age pattern in personality stability development but also extend knowledge about the underlying processes
Assessing malingering and personality styles in dissociative identity disorder: A case study
No full textDissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder, is characterised by two or more identities that control a patient’s actions, each typically with a distinct personal history, self-awareness, and name. They are believed to be the result of trauma-related dissociative defence mechanisms. Substantial progress has been made to determine the psychometric signatures of dissociative identities. However, tools to discriminate genuine DID individuals from malingerers are still lacking. Here, we present the case of a DID patient who exhibited nine different identities. After clinically ruling out malingering and factitious behaviour, we assessed her primary identity and two alternate identities (a trauma identity and an avoidant identity) using the Millon Index of Personality Styles. We found three very distinct personality profiles, with evident differences between primary and alternate identities. The profiles had high consistency scores and moderate to low negative and positive impression scores, respectively, thus supporting the profile’s validity for interpretation. This was supported by a malingering test as well. Future studies should employ personality inventories that go beyond psychopathological symptoms to describe the consistency and adaptation style of dissociative identities when assessing malingering
A simple reorganization of childcare centre with positive effects on self-regulation and play behaviour
No full textIn the present study, we used a cuasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of changing the organization of preschool centres in children’s self regulation and socio-emotional development. The changes included giving the children the opportunity to choose activities, the conformation of multi-aged groups during part of the day, and promoting a higher commitment of educators to specific aspects of the curriculum. Our results show that children in the intervention group display improved self-regulation, particularly in a decrease in negative affectivity, conduct problems and emotional symptoms. Additionally, they showed increase complexity in their play behaviours and more peer-interactions in social play. The intervention proved to be a low-cost, easy to implement alternative with promising results in a country with restricted financial resources in education
Information about herd immunity through vaccination and empathy promote COVID-19 vaccination intentions
No full textObjective: An effective vaccine against COVID-19 is a desired solution to curb the spread of the disease. However, vaccine hesitancy might hinder high uptake rates and thus undermine efforts to eliminate COVID-19 once an effective vaccine became available. The present contribution addresses this issue by examining two ways of increasing the intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Methods: Two pre-registered online studies were conducted (N = 2,315 participants from the UK) in which knowledge about and beliefs in herd immunity through vaccination, as well as empathy for those most vulnerable to the virus, were either measured (Study 1) or manipulated (Study 2). As a dependent variable, individuals’ self-reported vaccination intention once a vaccine against COVID-19 became available was assessed.
Results: In Study 1 (N = 310), the intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19 was correlated with knowledge about and belief in herd immunity (r = .58, p < .001), as well as with empathy for those most vulnerable to the virus (r = .26, p < .001). In Study 2 (N = 2,005), information about herd immunity (Cohen’s d = 0.13, p = .003) and empathy (Cohen’s d = 0.22, p < .001) independently promoted vaccination intention.
Conclusions: The motivation to get vaccinated against COVID-19 was related to and could be causally promoted by both mere information about herd immunity and by empathy. As such, the present research provides a better understanding of the intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19