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Globally, literacy can be conceived of in different ways. Two perspectives that have influenced adult literacy policy internationally are the economic functionalist and the sociocultural. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Maori educators have repeatedly advanced a matauranga Maori perspective of literacy. This perspective has parallels with the embodied, practice-based multiliteracies and sociomateriality of the sociocultural perspective but less so with the dominant functionalist perspective. To address how Maori views have been side-lined in adult literacy policy development, we seek to clarify this view and foreground Maori-led policy recommendations that date back to the creation of the New Zealand Adult Literacy Strategy in 2001. We also highlight the relevance of this perspective by sharing the success and effectiveness of Maori-led adult literacy programmes. In doing so, we demonstrate the need for a biliteracy approach to adult literacy policy to reflect our bicultural nation and ensure Maori aspirations for literacy are met.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact global psychological wellbeing. To investigate the sustained impact of COVID-19 on wellbeing, the current study longitudinally assessed fear of COVID-19, anxiety, depression, intolerance of uncertainty, worry, sleep quality, loneliness and alcohol use during the pandemic in the United Kingdom. Timepoint 1 (T1; N = 445) took place in February 2021 following the highest number of pandemic-related deaths in the UK. Timepoint 2 (T2, N = 198) took place in June 2021 when pandemic-related deaths had declined considerably, and many had been vaccinated. At T1, COVID-19 fear predicted elevated levels of anxiety, depression, intolerance of uncertainty, worry, sleep quality and loneliness. At T2, we observed that levels of COVID-19 fear, depression, loneliness and sleep quality decreased. However, COVID-19 fear continued to predict elevated intolerance of uncertainty, worry and impaired sleep quality. These findings demonstrate the longitudinal impact of COVID-19 fear on psychological wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approach-avoidance paradigms create a competition between appetitive and aversive contingencies and are widely used in nonhuman research on anxiety. Here, we examined how instructions about threat and avoidance impact control by competing contingencies over human approach-avoidance behavior. Additionally, Experiment 1 examined the effects of threat magnitude (money loss amount) and avoidance cost (fixed ratio requirements), whereas Experiment 2 examined the effects of threat information (available, unavailable and inaccurate) on approach-avoidance. During the task, approach responding was modeled by reinforcing responding with money on a FR schedule. By performing an observing response, participants produced an escalating 'threat meter'. Instructions stated that the threat meter levels displayed the current probability of losing money, when in fact loss only occurred when the level reached the maximum. Instructions also stated pressing an avoidance button lowered the threat level. Overall, instructions produced cycles of approach and avoidance responding with transitions from approach to avoidance when threat was high and transitions back to approach after avoidance reduced threat. Experiment 1 revealed increasing avoidance cost, but not threat magnitude, shifted approach-avoidance transitions to higher threat levels and increased anxiety ratings, but did not influence the frequency of approach-avoidance cycles. Experiment 2 revealed when threat level information was available or absent earnings were high, but earnings decreased when inaccurate threat information was incompatible with contingencies. Our findings build on prior nonhuman and human approach-avoidance research by highlighting how instructed threat and avoidance can impact human AA behavior and self-reported anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive avoidance behavior, in which an instrumental action prevents an upcoming aversive event, is a defining feature of anxiety disorders. Left unchecked, both fear and avoidance of potentially threatening stimuli may generalize to perceptually related stimuli and situations. The behavioral consequences of generalization mean that aversive learning experiences with specific threats may lead to the inference that classes of related stimuli are threatening, potentially dangerous, and need to be avoided, despite differences in physical form. Little is known however about avoidance generalization in humans and the learning pathways by which it may be transmitted. In the present study, we compared two pathways to avoidance--instructions and social observation--on subsequent generalization of avoidance behavior, fear expectancy and physiological arousal. Participants first learned that one cue was a danger cue (conditioned stimulus, CS+) and another was a safety cue (CS). Groups were then either instructed that a simple avoidance response in the presence of the CS+ cancelled upcoming shock (instructed-learning group) or observed a short movie showing a demonstrator performing the avoidance response to prevent shock (observational-learning group). During generalization testing, danger and safety cues were presented along with generalization stimuli that parametrically varied in perceptual similarity to the CS+. Reinstatement of fear and avoidance was also tested. Findings demonstrate, for the first time, generalization of socially transmitted and instructed avoidance: both groups showed comparable generalization gradients in fear expectancy, avoidance behavior and arousal. Return of fear was evident, suggesting that generalized avoidance remains persistent following extinction testing. The utility of the present paradigm for research on avoidance generalization is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]