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Social factors play a critical role in motivating player participation and commitment to online multiplayer games. Many popular mobile massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) adopt social network embeddedness (SNE) functions to optimise players' social play experience. SNE changes the traditional pattern of MMOG social play by porting acquaintance relationships (e.g., Facebook friends) from social networking sites to the virtual game world. However, little understanding exists on how SNE impacts mobile MMOG players' game participation results such as play performance and play frequency. Drawing on the affordance framework and social capital literature, this research proposes a theoretical model that integrates the factors of SNE technology affordance (identity transparency and information transparency), players' social experience (social interaction, social support, shared vision, and social pressure), plus affordance effects (play performance and play frequency). The model was validated through a longitudinal field study, in which both subjective and objective data were collected from Game for Peace players. Our findings indicate that identity transparency and information transparency positively correlate with social interaction, social support, shared vision, and social pressure, which, taken together, significantly affect play frequency. The results also show that social interaction and shared vision positively impact players' play performance. The study enhances the theoretical understanding of social relationships in players' game participation results from the SNE aspect. Finally, we lend insights on how game operators can improve player game experience and stickiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research has predominantly regarded (private) socialisation‐oriented social media (SoSM) use at work as a counterproductive behaviour and has thus focussed more on its dark side. However, given the prevalence of social media in today's work life and the various affordances this technology can have, social media might have important bright sides. In this research, drawing on the affordance perspective, we propose that the day‐to‐day use of SoSM at work is positively associated with perceptions of social connectedness, which is further positively associated with life satisfaction and task performance. We examined our hypotheses using an experience sampling study of 134 full‐time employees in China across 10 consecutive workdays. The results of multilevel modelling showed that, as expected, daily SoSM use at work related positively with employees' perceptions of social connectedness, which in turn predicted their daily life satisfaction and daily task performance. We also found that the relationship between daily SoSM use at work and perceived social connectedness was stronger for employees with higher, rather than lower, perceived workloads. We suggest this moderating effect occurs because social media is an efficient medium, providing greater affordances, through which busy workers can meet their belongingness needs. Overall, our study sheds light on the previously less‐studied positive effects of social media use at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Drawing on the theory of polymedia and on the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in (re)defining the articulation between the private and the public, this introduction reflects on what ICT does to and for families around the world. Background: Through the development of networking platforms, video call applications, personal sites, and collaborative information platforms, ICT has changed the way people live, love, and interact. It has also afforded new ways to "do family." Method: By featuring studies from a variety of national and regional contexts (Canada, Chile, Ghana, Greece, Moldova, South Korea, Ukraine, the Netherlands, United States, and Turkey), it establishes a dialogue between disciplines and a fruitful cross‐fertilization of research topics, methodologies, analyses, and theoretical perspectives. Results: This special issue explores (a) the nexus among family life, relationships, and ICT and (b) the relation between the everyday lived experiences of family members and the broader social structures that circumscribe the width and breadth of those experiences. Conclusion: The contributions show the porosity of the boundary between public and private spaces. Alternative forms of expertise and parenting norms are emerging online. ICTs are integrated into parents' information‐seeking and sharing practices, and emotional support. They sustain relationships between family members across distance. However, inequalities regarding access to the Internet and computer literacy still jeopardize digital citizenship and democratization. Implication: The contributions in this special issue highlight the need for better structuring of interventions and policies to support families by using up‐to‐date ICT systems and creating mentorship programs and digital mediation for family professionals and beneficiaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The truth‐conditions of many utterances have components that do not correspond to any uttered morpheme. This happens because linguistic acts are always a supplement to whatever else is available to agents engaged in a conversation. Unarticulated constituents result from the informational trade‐off between what is available in the situation of utterance and what needs to be linguistically articulated. Unarticulated constituents are constituents of propositions, that is, of classifying tools that are neutral with respect to the way in which what is given in a situation interacts with the words uttered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal control has a considerable impact on individual perception of the indoor climate. This paper's objective is to shed more light on the perception of personal control at office workplaces by analysing: 1) the impact of perceived control on perception of indoor climate, 2) the effect of office type and season on level of control perceived, 3) objectively available adaptive opportunities; 4) subjective perception of their availability; 5) occupants' desire for certain adaptive opportunities; 6) how often and which controls were exercised; and 7) reasons for not exercising available adaptive opportunities. New variables were introduced: i) consistency of perception of controls and ii) conformity to expectation of controls, and their correlation with the level of personal control perceived hypothesised. A longitudinal survey was carried out in three office buildings (two mixed‐mode, one free‐running) in the hot‐summer Mediterranean climate of Amman, Jordan during four seasons. Indoor climate perception correlates positively with perceived control. Office type affects level of perceived control but not season. Most frequent stated reason for not exercising available adaptive opportunities was 'no need to change'. In this study, perceived control is not correlated with consistency of perception of controls but correlated with conformity to expectation of controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of affordances has become central in information systems literature. However, existing perspectives fall short in providing details on the relational aspect of affordances, which can influence actors' perception of them. To increase granularity and specificity in this regard, researchers have suggested that it be supplemented with other concepts or theories. In this article, we argue that the Heideggerian concepts of 'familiarity' and 'referential totality' are well suited for increasing our understanding of the relational aspects of affordances in information systems research. To explore this idea, we conducted a case study of a project concerning the development of a digital twin (i.e., digital representation of a physical asset) in the Norwegian grid sector. We found that users' familiarity with the digital twin totality enabled them to perceive digital twin affordances, and that without this familiarity, affordances remained latent for the users. Through our study, we offer a nuanced perspective on the relational aspect of affordance perception, contributing to affordance theory in that regard. Further, we contribute to practice and information systems research by providing valuable insights into how digital twins are understood and applied in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kahneman's theory of two systems assumes that human decision making in Economy is based on two cognitive systems, one that is automatic, intuitive and mostly unconscious, and one that is reflexive, rational and fully conscious. The authors consider Kahneman's approach incomplete and limited in accounting for the creativity of embodied agents grasping the opportunities afforded by physical and social environments. This limitation leads us to argue for the existence of a third system in decision making in Economy, the creative intuition based on direct perception of affordances, addressing not only the dispositions and goals of agents but also the social and environmental responsibility of corporations and governments. The authors argue that the third decision‐making system the authors propose implies a concept of intuition that is different from the type of association process discussed by Morewedge and Kahneman [2] and gives an example of the third system operation, the Bolsa Família in Brazil, and finding new options for the funding of similar programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recycling is increasingly visible in archaeological descriptions of technology. This has a range of benefits as we attempt to engage with the full complexity of the material past. However, this paper examines in more detail whether a singular focus on recycling is positive for archaeological science. It considers the historical relationship between recycling and the chemical analysis of early copper alloys, the constraints of the different conceptual and statistical techniques that can be employed, and broader ideas of metal mutability and the characterisation hypothesis. Overall, anything that widens our conceptual toolkit should be welcomed. However, it is most helpful to have recycling emerge from case study data as part of a broader approach, rather than to focus on it as a sole aim. Similarly, the prioritisation of provenance has sometimes not helped the field. Engaging with a wider 'characterisation hypothesis' would bring several benefits, and help build collaborations with other areas of archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The data‐rich articles in this special issue invite readers to consider how grammar and multimodality enact social practices. In particular, they propose a reconceptualization of grammar, moving beyond an autonomous system of items and combinatorial rules to demonstrate how grammar is an embodied resource for social interaction. In this discussion, I build on this important reconceptualization of grammar in order to identify cross‐cutting themes—themes that result from combining research methodologies and connecting the research reported on here with that originating from other disciplines, especially that inspired by complex dynamic systems theory. My intention is to urge all researchers not only to pursue their own research agendas but also to build on existing common ground, in order to overcome fractionalization and to contribute to our mutual understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationalism today interacts in complicated ways with advanced information and communication systems, regularly leading to unanticipated consequences. Popular online nationalism in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is a case in point: In the PRC, digital nationalism has become a central feature of political discourse and decision‐making, at times powerfully shaping the state's policy efforts. This article explores a missing puzzle piece in how state‐led and popular nationalism interact in Chinese politics: the role that advanced information and communication technologies play in such processes. This is a question that is not only relevant to scholars of China but also to anyone interested in the role that digital media and communication play in the formation and spread of contemporary nationalism. How do interactions in complex sociotechnical systems affect nationalism today? To answer this question, the article analyses and traces interaction and feedback loops in Chinese digital environments during Sino‐Japanese disputes over the East China Sea. It shows how the interactions between humans, organisations and technologies create unexpected variations in outcome that resonate through China's internet and create the conditions from which digital nationalism can powerfully emerge to shape legitimation and policy‐making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely claimed that information and communications technology (ICT) enables entrepreneurship among refugees. However, the specific impact ICT has on refugee entrepreneurship is not fully understood. This study addresses the research gap by investigating the role ICT plays in enabling entrepreneurial activities among refugees in the Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi. Drawing on 25 structured interviews we explore the opportunities and challenges faced by refugee entrepreneurs in this context. A critical realist approach is leveraged to identify the stages of business growth where ICT is an important driver and uncover other mechanisms that both enable and/or constrain entrepreneurship. Analysis suggests four generative mechanisms that either enable or constrain refugee business entrepreneurship. The most important finding is that the survival of refugee businesses is facilitated by the market mechanism, with only the growth stage significantly influenced by ICT. Our findings directly conflict with the existing literature that suggests ICT is essential for fostering business entrepreneurship among refugees. This work offers a unique framework for policy interventions that provides guidance on the circumstances, the type of technology and the way it should be leveraged in order to facilitate entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last twenty‐five years, there has been an increase in the availability of published checklists and schedules which allow practitioners to identify the strengths of children and young people, including those with special educational needs. While helpful, these assessments are unable to tell us about the nature of contextual factors which support the expression of particular strengths. In this study, we took a situative perspective to explore how specific classroom practices facilitated strengths. A multiple case study design was used to analyse practices nominated by three children/young people with special educational needs. Qualitative analysis revealed how aspects of practice afforded the opportunity for each child to participate in ways which they equated with their strengths. This style of strength‐based assessment led to a more sustained examination of supportive practice features than would have been achieved through interview alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perceptual-motor coordination relies on the accurate coupling of the perceptual and movement systems. However, individuals must also be able to recalibrate to perturbations to perceptual and movement capabilities. We examined the effects of fatigue and load carriage on perceptual-motor coordination for a maximal leaping task. 23 participants completed an incremental fatigue protocol (light to fatiguing intensity stages) on two separate occasions (loaded/unloaded). At baseline and the end of every stage of the protocol, participants made perceptual judgments for the affordance of leaping. The accuracy of responses and reaction times were calculated and mean differences were assessed across exercise intensity and load carriage conditions. No interaction of exercise intensity and load carriage was detected, or main effect of load carriage. A main, quadratic effect of exercise intensity was detected on reaction times, with times decreasing through the moderate stage and increasing through post-fatigue. No effect of exercise/fatigue was detected on perceptual accuracy. The results indicate that exercise at high intensities through fatigue has a significant effect on perceptual-motor calibration. Contrastingly, in response to an action-scaled task, individuals can adequately recalibrate to increased load carriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional educational giants and natural language processing companies have launched several artificial intelligence (AI)‐enabled digital learning applications to facilitate language learning. One typical application of AI in digital language education is the automatic scoring application that provides feedback on pronunciation repeat outcomes. This research is motivated by the usage of automatic scoring‐empowered digital learning tools by language learners, and set out to uncover the influencing mechanisms of AI‐enabled automatic scoring application affordances on learners' continuous learning intention. Specifically, based on affordance theory, we found several automatic scoring application affordances through in‐depth interviews. Considering the current lack of investigations on the mechanisms underlying automatic scoring application and its implications for learners' learning behaviors, we built a model to examine the role of automatic scoring application affordances on cognitive/emotional engagement and following continuous learning intention. We further examined the moderation role of in‐job learners and student learners on the above relationships. The model was tested using a survey of 260 Chinese foreign language learners who used AI‐empowered learning tools to facilitate their language learning practices. This study explores why learners continuously use AI‐enabled automatic scoring applications by identifying the affordances that differentiate it from traditional educational technologies. Practitioners could take the identified affordances into account when designing AI‐enabled language learning applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws from a multi‐disciplinary, multi‐institutional research project on digital work practices and graduate work readiness. Utilising the concept of technology affordances, we focus on the potential for domain‐specific learning experiences within design education. For the purpose of this project, we have articulated digital capabilities in design by adapting affordance categories in terms of three levels of complexity for scaffolded learning: functional, perceptual and adaptive. In order to further develop the relationship between technology affordances and design education, we analyse data from an industry roundtable in relation to our developed digital capability descriptor. The findings suggest that employers need designers with highly adaptive capabilities to work in increasingly complex interdisciplinary work environments. We also found that the role of designers has changed significantly in recent years that require higher educational institutions to involve industry when developing curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how consumers categorize new hybrid products (NHPs). Given the limitations of the classical theories of categorization in the specific case of NHP, affordance, mobilized infrequently in marketing, turned out to be a useful categorization concept. Five types of NHP categorizations by consumers, based on the degree of affordance (low vs. high) and type of innovation (incremental vs. radical), have been detected and filled a gap in the literature on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigated how item formats and their inherent affordances influence test‐takers' cognition under uncertainty. Adult participants solved content‐equivalent math items in multiple‐selection multiple‐choice and four alternative grid formats. The results indicated that participants' affirmative response tendency (i.e., judge the given information as True) was affected by the presence of a grid, type of grid options, and their visual layouts. The item formats further affected the test scores obtained from the alternatives keyed True and the alternatives keyed False, and their psychometric properties. The current results suggest that the affordances rendered by item design can lead to markedly different test‐taker behaviors and can potentially influence test outcomes. They emphasize that a better understanding of the cognitive implications of item formats could potentially facilitate item design decisions for large‐scale educational assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a method to recognize functional attributes of everyday objects for vision system of partner robots. On the related research, there is a method to optimize recognition result with dense (fully connected) conditional random field (CRF), which uses the estimation result of functional attribute for each pixel. However, since this method is optimized from RGB data, it is not able to sufficiently consider the shape of object, which has a relationship with the function attribute. In the proposed method, the recognition accuracy of functional attributes is improved by considering the object shape with the dense CRF describing the three‐dimensional positional relationship. As a result of the experiment, the recognition rate of the proposed method is 77.0%, which is 3.8% higher than the related method. In addition, we confirmed that the processing speed is high as a side effect by reducing processing cost by oversegmentation of input data and using high‐speed identification by Random Forests. The mean processing speed per an object was 109 ms in the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the re‐channeling of language. It asks: what role does the material environment play in turning a visual language into a tactile language? To pursue that question, I examine language and infrastructure among DeafBlind people at Gallaudet University. Since 2005, aspects of the local urban landscape have been designed with the practices of Deaf people in mind. Recently, under the influence of the protactile movement, attention has turned to the tactile dimensions of design. As advisors, practitioners, and consultants contributing to these efforts, DeafBlind people seek not only to broaden the range of sensory channels linking them to their environment, but also to create environments that reinforce those connections across linguistic, sensory, and environmental domains. Drawing on the notion of "channel" as it has been applied and developed in linguistic anthropology and related fields, I argue that the re‐channeling of language among DeafBlind people at Gallaudet implicates channels of transmission. It cannot, however, be reduced to an effect of their affordances. Rather, the signer's perceptions of what is possible in communication are shaped by more general perceptions of what is possible in life, and what is possible in life depends on infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the Ankave of Papua New Guinea, the important moments in men's and women's lives (birth, initiation, marriage and death) are marked by rituals and exchanges. Analysis of these moments reveals four major principles that organize how the Ankave think about human existence and its continuity: (1) a radical asymmetry between men and women in how they reach physical and reproductive maturity; (2) symbolic proximity between bodily substances and certain plants and minerals; (3) the power of life and death that maternal kin have over their nephews and nieces on account of their shared blood; and (4) the distance between the agent of an action and the action's beneficiary (‘action for another’). This article explores the registers in which these principles operate in order to grasp the Ankave understanding of life. The register of substances predominates in Ankave discourse about good health and growth, while the register of daily activities dominates when it comes to marking gender distinctions during infancy and childhood. The register of transformations and relations is dominant during male initiations – it is during these rituals that relations between novices and specific categories of kinswomen are transformed – and in discourse about what happens to boys’ bodies during these rituals. Analyses of Ankave discourse on life and on the rituals and exchanges that accompany life‐cycles show how these four principles operate concretely and how the registers of substances, activities, transformations and relations are articulated to form a specific way of understanding human existence and its continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on identifying the technical and cognitive processes that imbue artefacts and practices with forms of efficacy central to the relations the Owa people have with surrounding invisible entities. In particular, it aims to describe the correspondences between the schemas at work, on the one hand, in material logics, by analysing the making of magical artefacts and, on the other hand, in ritual logics, through an analysis of the practices and representations involved in Owa rituals. These two domains – technical action and ritual action – are both locally understood as ways of acting on and in the world. This efficacy rests on the relationships established between vital processes and technical processes, or more precisely on the co‐construction, by specialized humans and by invisible entities, of artificial devices that reproduce visible phenomena considered by the Owa to be visible manifestations of powerful entities’ effective capacity to intervene (mana‐ity/mana‐ization) in the world. These include a broad category of phenomena that can be seen in the atmosphere and on the bodies of living organisms and which all display, in different ways, chromatic distortions that are mobilized and imitated by Owa carvers, who apply them to the surface of magical artefacts. By illustrating one of the ways in which Owa craftsmen imitate vital processes through artefacts, this article examines what this imitation indicates about how the Owa conceive the renewal of life and act upon life in an attempt to control it. The idea of ‘vital processes’ should be understood here in a broad sense to include all the processes that benefit life and result from non‐human action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article takes an evolutionary “reverse engineering” standpoint on Homo discens, learning man, to track down the (learning) mechanisms that played a pivotal role in the natural selection of human being. The approach is “evolutionary sociological”—as opposed to gene‐centred or psychologising—and utilises notions of co‐evolutionary organism–environment transactions and niche construction. These are compatible with a Deweyan theory of action, which entails that in action one cannot but learn and one can only learn in action. Special attention is paid to apprentice‐like learning‐by‐doing peculiar to human socio‐cultural niches since the Pleistocene, which has permitted each subsequent generation to learn the many habits and skills needed in utilising the affordances of action that constitute their ecological niche. Affordances and actions have changed over the history of human–environment transactions, but the core mechanisms of human learning have not changed much. It is increasingly important to appreciate these mechanisms now in the global age “knowledge society,” which is in a way similar to the Pleistocene era: characterised by uncertainty and life‐determining problem‐situations without any ready‐made solutions, it calls for capacities to adapt to changing circumstances, and thus apprentice‐like learning in action supported by savvy epistemological engineering of learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In city centres where public space is at a premium, checklists and images of design quality attributes generated from observations of successful public spaces are increasingly being utilised in designs of new or refurbished areas. This replication assumes the success and popularity of these elements will generalise to other locations. However, the accuracy and reliability of observations in using current methods of behaviour mapping can miss important details in the small and often crowded successful public spaces. Coding of time interval photographic records of public spaces in Geographic Information System ( GIS) is introduced as a data collection methodology for mapping and analysing behaviour. The results indicate that actualised affordance is a function of the spatial configuration of design elements with respect to the number of users, the availability of choice, climate (sun and shade), and the enclosure and exposure of design elements within subspaces. Although design elements are selected for their potential affordance, actualised affordance is defined by the configuration within which elements are embedded in a specific location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial control systems increasingly use standard communication protocols and are increasingly connected to public networks-creating substantial cybersecurity risks, especially when used in critical infrastructures such as electricity and water distribution systems. Methods of assessing risk in such systems have recognized for some time the way in which the strategies of potential adversaries and risk managers interact in defining the risk to which such systems are exposed. But it is also important to consider the adaptations of the systems' operators and other legitimate users to risk controls, adaptations that often appear to undermine these controls, or shift the risk from one part of a system to another. Unlike the case with adversarial risk analysis, the adaptations of system users are typically orthogonal to the objective of minimizing or maximizing risk in the system. We argue that this need to analyze potential adaptations to risk controls is true for risk problems more generally, and we develop a framework for incorporating such adaptations into an assessment process. The method is based on the principle of affordances, and we show how this can be incorporated in an iterative procedure based on raising the minimum period of risk materialization above some threshold. We apply the method in a case study of a small European utility provider and discuss the observations arising from this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Public interest and policy debates surrounding the role of the Internet in terrorist activities is increasing. Criminology has said very little on the matter. By using a unique data set of 223 convicted United Kingdom–based terrorists, this article focuses on how they used the Internet in the commission of their crimes. As most samples of terrorist offenders vary in terms of capabilities (lone‐actor vs. group offenders) and criminal sophistication (improvised explosive devices vs. stabbings), we tested whether the affordances they sought from the Internet significantly differed. The results suggest that extreme‐right‐wing individuals, those who planned an attack (as opposed to merely providing material support), conducted a lethal attack, committed an improvised explosive device (IED) attack, committed an armed assault, acted within a cell, attempted to recruit others, and engaged in nonvirtual network activities and nonvirtual place interactions were significantly more likely to learn online compared with those who did not engage in these behaviors. Those undertaking unarmed assaults were significantly less likely to display online learning. The results also suggested that extreme‐right‐wing individuals who perpetrated an IED attack, associated with a wider network, attempted to recruit others, and engaged in nonvirtual network activities and nonvirtual place interactions were significantly more likely to communicate online with co‐ideologues. Policy Implications: Collectively the results provide insight into violent radicalization as a whole and not just into violent online radicalization. The results also largely confirm the results found in von Behr, Reding, Edwards, and Gribbon (2013) and in Gill and Corner (2015). The current study and the two previous studies have tackled these questions by using numerous methodological approaches and data sources and have arrived at similar conclusions. The Internet is largely a facilitative tool that affords greater opportunities for violent radicalization and attack planning. Nevertheless, radicalization and attack planning are not dependent on the Internet, and policy needs to look at behavior, intentions, and capabilities and not just at beliefs. From a risk assessment perspective, the study also highlights the fact that there is no easy offline versus online violent radicalization dichotomy to be drawn. It may be a false dichotomy. Plotters regularly engage in activities in both domains. Often their behaviors are compartmentalized across these two domains. Threat management policies would do well to understand the individuals’ breadth of interactions rather than relying on a dichotomous understanding of offline versus online, which represent two extremes of a spectrum that regularly provide prototypical examples in reality. A preoccupation with only checking online behaviors may lead an intelligence analyst to miss crucial face‐to‐face components of a plot's technical development or a perpetrator's motivation. Policy and practice may benefit from adopting insights from emerging research arguing in favor of disaggregating our conception of the “terrorist” into discrete groups (e.g., foreign fighters vs. homegrown fighters, bomb‐makers vs. bomb‐planters, and group‐actors vs. lone‐actors; Gill and Corner, 2013; LaFree, 2013) rather than disaggregating the radicalization process into discrete groups (e.g., online radicalization and prison radicalization). We need to understand the drives, needs, and forms of behavior that led to the radicalization and attack planning and why the offender chose that environment rather than purely looking at the affordances the environment produced. By looking at the Internet as an affordance opportunity that some forms of terrorist or terrorist violence require more than others do, the focus is shifted from the radicalization process toward an understanding of how crimes are committed. In other words, we are looking at crime events rather than at the underlying dispositions behind the criminality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scholarship on aesthetics and materiality has studied how objects help shape identity, social action and subjectivity. Objects, as 'equipment[s] for living' (Luhmann 2000), become the 'obligatory passage points humans have to contend with in order to pursue their projects (Latour 1991). They provide patterns to which bodies can unconsciously latch onto, or help human agents work towards particular states of being (DeNora 2000, 2003). Objects are central in the long term process of taste construction, as any attachment to an object is made out of a delicate equilibrium of mediators, bodies, situations and techniques (Hennion and his collaborators (Hennion and Fouquet 2001; Hennion and Gomart 1999). In all of these accounts objects are the end result of long-term processes of stabilization, in which the actual material object (a musical piece, a sculpture, an art installation, a glass of wine, the oeuvre of Bach as we know it) is both a result and yet a key co-producer of its own generation.Whereas the literature has been generous and detailed in exploring the processes of assembling and sustaining object-centered attachments, it has not sufficiently engaged with what happens when the aesthetic elements of cultural artifacts that have produced emotional resonance are transformed: what do these artifacts morph into?What explains the transition (or not) of different cultural objects? And relatedly, what happens to the key aesthetic qualities that were so central to how the objects had been defined, and to those who have emotionally attached to them? To answer these questions, this article uses as exemplars two different cases of attachment, predicated on the distinctive features of a cultural object - the transcendence of opera and the authenticity of a soccer jersey - that have undergone transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parietal operculum (OP) contains haptic memory on the geometry of objects that is readily transferrable to the motor cortex but a causal role of OP in memory-guided grasping is only speculative. We explored this issue by using online high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). The experimental task was performed by blindfolded participants acting on objects of variable size. Trials consisted in three phases: haptic exploration of an object, delay, and reach-grasp movement onto the explored object. Motor performance was evaluated by the kinematics of finger aperture. Online rTMS was applied to the left OP region separately in each of the three phases of the task. The results showed that rTMS altered grip aperture only when applied in the delay phase to the OP. In a second experiment a haptic discriminative (match-to-sample) task was carried out on objects similar to those used in the first experiment. Online rTMS was applied to the left OP. No psychophysical effects were induced by rTMS on the detection of explicit haptic object size. We conclude that neural activity in the OP region is necessary for proficient memory-guided haptic grasping. The function of OP seems to be critical while maintaining the haptic memory trace and less so while encoding it or retrieving it. Hum Brain Mapp 36:4262-4271, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infants change their behaviours in accordance with the objects they are exploring. They also tailor their exploratory actions to the physical context. This selectivity of exploratory actions represents a foundational cognitive skill that underlies higher-level cognitive processes. The present study compared the development of selective exploratory behaviours in high and low socio-economic status (SES) infants. Sixty-one 6-8- and 10-12-month-old infants were presented with rigid and flexible cubes on a tray that was half rigid and half flexible. There were SES effects for each category of exploratory behaviours: object only, surface only and object-surface interactions. Low-SES infants engaged in comparable amounts of exploratory behaviours with high-SES infants, but they exhibited behaviours less conducive to information uptake, compared with high-SES infants. The results suggest difficulty for low-SES infants in transitioning to more mature exploration strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term affordance describes an object's utilitarian function or actionable possibilities. Product designers have taken great interest in the concept of affordances because of the bridge they provide relating to design, the interpretation of design and, ultimately, functionality in the hands of consumers. These concepts have been widely studied and applied in the field of psychology but have had limited formal application to packaging design and evaluation. We believe that the concepts related to affordances will reveal novel opportunities for packaging innovation. To catalyse this, presented work had the following objectives: (a) to propose a method by which packaging designers can purposefully consider affordances during the design process; (b) to explain this method in the context of a packaging-related case study; and (c) to measure the effect on package usability when an affordance-based design approach is employed. © 2014 The Authors. Packaging Technology and Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes whole-class discussions between a teacher and her students in a Latin American Colonial literature course at the college level. The study is theoretical-exploratory in nature in that it (a) articulates theoretical assumptions inherent in an ecological perspective on second language learning and teaching and (b) attempts to operationalize the affordance construct (van Lier, , ) in the context of a second language (L2) literature classroom. The study's findings underscore the importance of teacher reformulations in whole-class discussions as well as students' engagement with and awareness of the unfolding talk. Furthermore, how the teacher dynamically interacts with one student and his/her contribution potentially affects other students' understanding of the ongoing discussion which, in turn, can influence their comprehension of the literary texts under analysis. Teacher reformulations during whole-class discussions therefore can serve as affordances for learning. Theoretical implications of the affordance construct, in addition to implications for L2 language and literature teaching, are delineated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the seated activity among children educated in special schools and their adult carers in two sensory gardens in the United Kingdom. Seated activity was established whether the seating was used as intended or whether users preferred to sit on other attributes during their learning session. The objectives of this study are to explore opportunities for users' activity and their engagement with the attributes, whether activity is possible or if opportunities are not being actualised because of barriers. Observation and behaviour mapping methods were carried out alongside affordance theory. The outcome suggests that the number of users, the number of attributes and the total area of the zone did not relate to the median time spent per user; rather, it was the richness of the attributes that did so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model for individual social behavior, B, that incorporates the contributions of both the personality of the actor, P, and the relevant features of the situation, S, in which he or she is performing. In analyzing the original formula by Lewin, viz., B = f( P. S), the paper first considers the importance accorded the situation in previous theorizing about ' Asianness'. It then analyzes the contributions of the actor's personality, noting in particular that actors come to develop broad expectancies for situational outcomes, P( S), associated with situations they encounter. Those situations are glossed for social psychological purposes in terms of their affordances for potential yields relative to the actor's motivations for sociality and status. These situational affordances are defined by the normative prescriptions believed to be operative in that situation for acceptable enactments of behaviors aimed at attaining the actor's goals for sociality and status. That normative pressure is objective, though it may be judged by the actor, and is termed the O( S) component of the situation. It is held with some degree of consensus, CO( S), by others in, or observers of, the situation. These two components specify the 'strength' of the situation for social psychological purposes, yielding an elaborated Lewinian formula B = f( P. P[ S]. O[ S]. CO[ S]). The culture of the participants, national, organizational, familial or dyadic, will determine the beta weights linking the components of the formula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a reflection on the role of material objects in the creative process and explores the potential links between creativity and the theory of affordances (Gibson, ), conceptualized from a sociocultural perspective. From this standpoint, creativity can be defined as a process of perceiving, exploiting, and 'generating' novel affordances during socially and materially situated activities. Illustrations are offered for each of the above from a research project investigating traditional Easter egg decoration activities in rural Romania. This brief case study exemplifies the discovery of existing action potentials, the generation of objects with novel affordances, and the transgression of conventional procedures, all resulting in creative forms of expression. In the end, some conclusions are drawn regarding the ways in which an affordance theory of creativity can enrich our understanding of the phenomenon and contribute to the development of a new program of research concerned with situated and distributed creative acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animated pedagogical agents (APAs) are known to possess great potential in supporting learning because of their ability to simulate a real classroom learning environment. But research in this area has produced mixed results. The reason for this remains puzzling. This paper is written with two purposes: (1) to examine some recent research and organize the findings in terms of classroom characteristics, and (2) to discuss and reveal any uncovered issues pertaining to the findings and provide input whenever possible. A framework formed by using APA characteristics, APA presentation, and learners' characteristics is used to analyse past research findings. The findings from the analysis reveal that because APAs are regarded as social members similar to humans, they are more effective in engaging learners in environments that require social communication and interactions. They therefore produce more definitive results in terms of affective gain and group learning. But such conditions also impose greater demand on designers to create more complex learning environments that can provide interactions with several agents and yet maintain a mode of communication that is pedagogically effective. The challenges for creating such environment include using an agent's gestures to duplicate its speech in instruction, which is usually uncommon in human practice, overcoming the needs to use input–output interface for communication and taking into consideration the possible influence of the learners' characteristics such as their sensory preference. This paper suggests that APAs' application in instruction should be seen in the light of affordances and be designed within its own practical limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent policy initiatives in England have focused on promoting ‘interactive’ teaching in schools, with a clear expectation that this will lead to improvements in learning. This expectation is based on the perceived success of such approaches in other parts of the world. At the same time, there has been a large investment in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources, and particularly in interactive whiteboard technology. This paper explores the idea of interactive teaching in relation to the interactive technology which might be used to support it. It explains the development of a framework for the detailed analysis of teaching and learning in activity settings which is designed to represent the features and relationships involved in interactivity. When applied to a case study of interactive teaching during a lesson involving a variety of technology-based activities, the framework reveals a confusion of purpose in students' use of an ICT resource that limits the potential for learning when students are working independently. Discussion of relationships between technical and pedagogical interactivity points a way forward concerning greater focus on learning goals during activity in order to enable learners to be more autonomous in exploiting ICT's affordances, and the conclusion identifies the variables and issues which need to be considered in future research which will illuminate this path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issues raised by the design and development of technologies to enhance learning has led to a demand for an appropriate language and form of conceptualization. However, we are insufficiently familiar with the way in which different types of mediated tool use occur, to develop the theoretical models needed for the development of this language and form of conceptualization. In its absence a somewhat eclectic variety of concepts and research, such as the concept of affordance, are recruited in accounts of learning with new technologies. In looking briefly at the relevant area in philosophy this paper will consider whether or not the use of concepts such as affordance give adequate weight to social practice, meaning and knowledge in the design of educational technology. A fruitful source for work in this field which has not been sufficiently exploited is philosophy, particularly recent work in epistemology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiential learning is the process of creating knowledge through the transformation of experience and has been adopted in an increasing number of areas. This paper investigates the possibility of technological support for experiential learning. A learning activity flow (or script) and a mobile technology system were designed to facilitate students in experiential learning. An experiment was conducted on two fifth-grade classes at an elementary school, one class using personal digital assistants (PDAs) and the other working without them. The results indicate that mobile technologies are effective in improving knowledge creation during experiential learning. The interplay between the mobile technology affordances and the proposed learning flow for experiential learning is thoroughly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores some design possibilities and constraints for 3D enhancements of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). This is done with the aim of conveying more information in less screen space, while avoiding visual clutter. Design elements include the use of ‘slapped-back’ windows obtained by projecting windows and icons into three dimensions; ‘trays’, an alternative to folders or piles; the use of transparent ‘beams’ for indicating hierarchy; and the use of ‘periphs’ for a form of fisheye projection on window borders. In addition we employ shading and shadows to enhance the interface, and automatic placement algorithms to prevent visually confusing occlusion. By considering these approaches together, rather than in isolation, the interactions between the different modifications are made explicit. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research shows that simultaneously executed grasp and vocalization responses are faster when the precision grip is performed with the vowel [i] and the power grip is performed with the vowel [ɑ]. Research also shows that observing an object that is graspable with a precision or power grip can activate the grip congruent with the object. Given the connection between vowel articulation and grasping, this study explores whether grasp‐related size of observed objects can influence not only grasp responses but also vowel pronunciation. The participants had to categorize small and large objects into natural and manufactured categories by pronouncing the vowel [i] or [ɑ]. As predicted, [i] was produced faster when the object's grasp‐related size was congruent with the precision grip while [ɑ] was produced faster when the size was congruent with the power grip (Experiment 1). The effect was not, however, observed when the participants were presented with large objects that are not typically grasped by the power grip (Experiment 2). This study demonstrates that vowel production is systematically influenced by grasp‐related size of a viewed object, supporting the account that sensory‐motor processes related to grasp planning and representing grasp‐related properties of viewed objects interact with articulation processes. The paper discusses these findings in the context of size–sound symbolism, suggesting that mechanisms that transform size‐grasp affordances into corresponding grasp‐ and articulation‐related motor programs might provide a neural basis for size‐sound phenomena that links small objects with closed‐front vowels and large objects with open‐back vowels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper addresses a fundamental dilemma in the design of intelligent language learning environments: the more freedom a system offers to learners in the use of the target language, the more unwieldy the data is which the learners produce and the less able the system is to support inferences about learners from that data. It is shown how in a platform where learners and teachers interact, the teachers' feedback which is archived in the system and indexed to the learners' target language production can constitute affordances that support a process of bootstrapping from raw language output to potential insights into the learners' interlanguage and gaps in their grasp of the target language. The approach is illustrated with three types of learner errors uncovered in the corpus of learner English through this bootstrapping heuristic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]