Search

Abstract 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.

The article examines the semiotic features of the virtual narrative in the projects of RIA.Lab platform of the leading Russian news agency “Russia Today”. The aim is to analyze the structural, linguistic and iconic elements of the virtual narrative in relation to the projects of immersive journalism, highlighting their features, taking into account the multimodal nature of virtual reality and the simulative aspect of the sign system of immersive works. Virtual space is not only a narrative environment with special topos, chronotope and other narrative elements, but is itself a semiotic element, participating in the process of semiosis, the space of virtual “language game”. The thesis is put forward that VR, being an element of the multimodal information and communication universe, contains in its structure other modalities (TV, radio, cinema, print formats), and is multidimensional, a kind of “modus in modus”. The thesis on the priority of the modeling approach to the creation of immersive mass-media content over the simulative one and the necessity of observing the balance between modeling and simulation in immersive journalism are discussed. The specifics of conventional conditions of interpretation of simulacra signs in virtual space, which depend on the degree of their identity to the signs of real reality and the “rules of the virtual game”, set by the authors, are outlined. The directions of increasing the pragmatic efficiency of virtual narrative through the variability of its affords, the use of emphases, haptics (tactile experience) and other means of VR are outlined.

Bearded capuchin monkeys at Fazenda Boa Vista, Piauí, Brazil older than 8 years routinely crack palm nuts with a stone hammer and anvil. An embodied, perception–action stance hypothesizes that monkeys' improving skill at this task is enabled by learning affordances of spatial and force relations produced with objects. Affordances are individual-relative opportunities for action that may change across development. We evaluated predictions linking behaviours with nuts and stones and body mass to success at nut cracking in young bearded capuchins (1.3–6.3 years old) and adults over three annual observation periods. Behaviours with nuts and stones reflected the monkeys' learning affordances for cracking; body mass constrained affordances for cracking. For each period in which they were observed, individuals were assigned to novice, intermediate or expert classes in accord with their success at cracking nuts. Novices did not crack nuts, despite striking them with stones. Body mass was modestly associated with intermediates', but not experts', likelihood of cracking a nut. Experts exhibited higher proportions of manipulation devoted to positioning nuts on the anvil and shorter bouts of cracking than intermediates; intermediates exhibited greater variability in these variables than experts or novices. The strongest classification model predicting individuals' assignments to skill class with 89% accuracy combined average bout duration and the ratio of manipulation devoted to positioning to other manipulation. The findings suggest practise using the body-pus-tool system for cracking palm nuts supports affordance learning and results in gradual mastery of this skill and that changing body mass plays a small role in this process. • Most monkeys <7 years old did not have adult (expert) skill at cracking nuts. • Body mass had little to no effect on monkeys' skill at cracking nuts. • Experts cracked nuts in short bouts and relatively frequently positioned the nut. • Less skilled monkeys used long bouts and varied duration and action more over bouts. • Monkeys slowly learn affordances of the body-plus-tool system for nut cracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the post-pandemic situation, enhancing digital heritage services has become one of the key issues for the recovery of tourism. Disruptive innovation in human–computer interaction technology has brought new opportunities for digitalization and intelligent transformation in the contemporary cultural tourism industry. Existing research on the adoption behavior of digital heritage services primarily focuses on users' assessments of behavior results. There is a considerable gap in research about the interaction and value co-creation between users and digital intelligence services and users' cognitive construction logic of digital heritage services. Following reciprocal determinism, we propose a conceptual model to deconstruct the detailed transmission path of interactive affordance and sensory affordance to digital heritage adoption. In Study 1, a lab experiment in an AI-assisted smart screen digital heritage service context revealed that interactive affordance and user adoption of digital heritage services were partially mediated by psychological distance. Findings from a between-subject online experiment in Study 2 confirmed that embodied cognition and psychological distance play a parallel intermediary role in the impact of sensory affordance on adoption. In Study 3, a lab experiment in a VR-based digital museum context further verified that information overload moderates the influence of embodied cognition on psychological distance. This research reveals the deep-bounded, rational decision-making logic of digital heritage service adoption and provides significant practical enlightenment for the optimization of the affordance experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Orientation Scolaire et Professionnelle (OSP) is the property of Institut National d'Etude du Travail et d'Orientation Professionnelle and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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]

How should sociologists understand the everyday lives of those living in adversity, coping with the experience of structural violence? In this article, focusing on the urban experience, we suggest a perspective on 'everyday life' that can encompass corporeal, mental, relational and social dimensions, which we term 'niche sociality'. First, we use Gibson's niches and affordances to enrich the post-representationalist understanding of human beings as embodied/cultural/environmentally embedded organisms. Second, we enrich Gibson's niches and affordances with theories for 'small-scale' sociality drawn from social practice theory and interaction ritual chains. Third, we illustrate the productivity of these ideas throughout the article, by grounding our conceptual work in empirical examples that analyse the everyday lives and mental life of migrant workers in Shanghai. Niche sociality, we argue, is a way of framing the experience of the everyday, a perspective that could – perhaps should – provoke novel ecosocial studies of adversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdsourcing holds great potential: macro-task crowdsourcing can, for example, contribute to work addressing climate change. Macro-task crowdsourcing aims to use the wisdom of a crowd to tackle non-trivial tasks such as wicked problems. However, macro-task crowdsourcing is labor-intensive and complex to facilitate, which limits its efficiency, effectiveness, and use. Technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) might overcome these limits by supporting the facilitation of crowdsourcing. However, AI's potential for macro-task crowdsourcing facilitation needs to be better understood for this to happen. Here, we turn to affordance theory to develop this understanding. Affordances help us describe action possibilities that characterize the relationship between the facilitator and AI, within macro-task crowdsourcing. We follow a two-stage, bottom-up approach: The initial development stage is based on a structured analysis of academic literature. The subsequent validation & refinement stage includes two observed macro-task crowdsourcing initiatives and six expert interviews. From our analysis, we derive seven AI affordances that support 17 facilitation activities in macro-task crowdsourcing. We also identify specific manifestations that illustrate the affordances. Our findings increase the scholarly understanding of macro-task crowdsourcing and advance the discourse on facilitation. Further, they help practitioners identify potential ways to integrate AI into crowdsourcing facilitation. These results could improve the efficiency of facilitation activities and the effectiveness of macro-task crowdsourcing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore the production of socio-cultural values around blue-green solutions (BGS) through the perspective of care. We explore how values and preferences are formed through the complexity of everyday life engagements in a BGS environment. The data come from a questionnaire answered by 328 households in the neighborhood of Augustenborg in Malmö, Sweden. The questionnaire collects detailed information about inhabitants' possible recreational use (through Likert scale questions) and willingness to pay (WTP) (estimated through contingent valuation). The study evaluates if and how people care to use, care to live with, and care to pay for BGS. The result shows that people in Augustenborg relate in different and sometimes contradictory ways to BGS. A well-used BGS environment does not per se make the environment successful or result in people preferring a BGS environment in the future. Building awareness about BGS seems to increase the willingness to pay, whereas recreational use seems to decrease it. The study reveals a landscape of care that is constantly being formed and transformed. This suggests that both planning and research needs to focus more on the relation between BGS and social use over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With humor, which has long been known as a coping mechanism in extreme crises, punning memes, armed with words and images, have become weapons of 'mass disruption' influencing the hearts and minds of a target audience. This invites the examination of how memes detailing Russian-Ukrainian war employ verbo-visual puns as a strategic tool of information warfare to counter president Putin's military aggression and misleading political messaging. This article1 proposes an interdisciplinary template for the analysis of puns drawing on multimodal social semiotics, cognitive linguistics, critical discourse analysis and crisis communication analysis. The data sampled for this research comprises 87 memes about Russian-Ukrainian war that employ verbo-visual puns with 6 cases described in this paper. The article proposes a taxonomy, in which verbo-visual puns can be classified in accordance with mechanisms that are used to classify wordplay (homonymy, polysemy, and paronymy). Evidence is thus provided to show that this typology is applicable to the taxonomy of multimodal signs as well. The results of this research reveal cognitive and semiotic triggers of puns as well as their potential to serve as a tool generating public reaction to Russia's military aggression in Ukraine and reaching the intended goals of crisis communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This practitioner paper explores the positive impact playwork could have for Australian OSHC (Outside School Hours Care) environments and in turn, educators and children. Through a discussion of four theoretical perspectives pertaining to physical space from a playworkers perspective, the authors show how developing a conceptual understanding of these can support Australian OSHC settings nurture a place for play. With a focus on affordance theory, compound flexibility, liminality and psychogeography, this paper breaks down these theories and posits their practical applications within an OSHC setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article extends our understanding of inland waterways by theorising the temporary absences of water in canals and rivers as possibilities for action, that is, affordances. The interplay of temporary absence and presence of water in the inland waterways provides a range of potentialities for various activities and practices. Affordance theory can help us to further theorise material absences and position them as important elements of performing, practicing and interpreting place. We show how temporary absence of water can create spatial, historical and communicative affordances, affording the movement of boats, revealing and recreating the past and raising environmental awareness. The paper is based on semi-ethnographic research on the rivers and canals in the United Kingdom and Italy, featuring document analysis, participant observation and semi-structured interviews with various waterway users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of theorists have looked to the enactivist approach in philosophy of mind or the affordancebased approach from ecological psychology to make sense of a wide variety of phenomena; some theorists believe that these theoretical accounts can offer rich insights about the nature of mental disorders, their etiology, and their characteristic symptoms. I argue that theorists who adopt such approaches also should embrace the further claim that all mental disorders are affective disorders. First, enactivist accounts of mental disorder push us towards such a view insofar as they characterise such conditions in terms of disordered sensemaking and conceptualise sense-making as fundamentally affective. Second, conceptions of mental disorders that emphasise affordance perception likewise motivate such a view insofar as they highlight the role that affectivity plays in the disclosure of action possibilities. What is more, both sense-making and affordance disclosure are best understood as processes of selective attention and responsiveness that rely heavily on affectivity. To illustrate and support these claims, I discuss how (a) language disturbances in schizophrenia and (b) "context blindness" in autism both result from disruptions to affectivity and selective attention that make it difficult for subjects to engage effectively with relevant affordances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the interdisciplinary study of time we see a shift from a physicalistic paradigm, as we know it from Julius T. Fraser's work, to a rather more cognitive-theoretical approach, as advanced, for instance, by Allen Newell, who takes mental activity to consist of a complex, active search through a problem space. In this article, I compare some recent efforts of physically oriented researchers Prigogine and Barbour with the cognitive approach taken by chronopsychologists Lakoff, Gibson, Jones, Leyton and others. It stipulates that the classical notion of temporality as an absolute property of the universe has in fact been replaced by versions of local time. Recent examples of timing on the basis of local time include temporal information processing according to the demands of metaphor, scripts, dynamic attention, and more. The common ground appears to be that time is a derived entity, based on embodied (inborn) as well as situated (acquired) processing activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Philosophy & Canon Law is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Slaskiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores teachers' perceptions of the affordances of an e-portfolio of intercultural competence (EPIC). The EPIC was implemented during an 8-week intervention carried out in a Norwegian lower secondary school. Data were collected from various sources (e.g., learners' texts, focus group interviews), but this paper draws on the data from three individual teacher interviews conducted in the spring semester 2018. This study extends our understanding of the way an e-portfolio can be integrated into the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom as a tool for promoting intercultural competence. The findings underscore the affordances of the e-portfolio to track the learners' reflections on their own complex selves and others; moreover, the use of the e-portfolio enabled the teachers to create flexible and varied learning spaces, which in turn provided opportunities for intercultural language learning. Pedagogical implications are provided on how foreign language (FL) teachers might support intercultural competence development through the use of the e-portfolio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts out from a radical embodied analysis of German modals. The merit of this proposal is that it provides a framework for the conceptualization of these constructions as part of a broader continuity between perception, memory and consciousness. According to the interpretation and defense of this view offered here, I will argue that modal events in German are constructed as instances of the embodied information encoded by specific constructional attachment patterns. The results of the corpus study in the latter part of the paper reveal that syntactic content (rather than lexical information alone) is crucial for the reduction of both surprise and entropy, as it reflects cognitive processes associated with affordance mapping and the speakers' need to increase epistemic capital. This shows that humans make use of stored perceptual maps, the combination of which allows us to construct and manipulate complex event representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación is the property of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseno y Comunicacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Dating apps have become an indispensable part of lesbian lives in China and Hong Kong. These platforms give queer women the choice to use identity labels to describe their gender presentations and dating preferences. For example, T and TB signify masculine presentation; P and TBG signify femininity and attraction to T and TB; H describes inbetween-ness; pure refers to feminine women who are exclusively attracted to other feminine women; and no label indicates a rejection of all labels. Drawing from seven indepth interviews and participant observations, this article illustrates how these women creatively interact with the apps' affordance to strategically self-present. It demonstrates that these women feel ambivalent about using labels, which they see as both effective and restrictive, and argues that their app experiences can directly shape their own selfidentity. Finally, this case study provides important insights into the challenges identity categories pose for dating app users of nonnormative sexuality and gender, which might be relevant to other cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the evolving landscape of cultural participatory platforms. Scientific research on this subject tends to identify and describe two opposing phenomena: on the one hand, amateur platforms rooted in participatory culture, and on the other, institutional platforms, often embodied as crowdsourcing tools. We argue for the interest in overcoming this opposition and for studying the circulation across distinct digital spaces with diverse affordances. Based on the concept of 'cross-media,' we aim to propose a new theoretical and empirical approach for analyzing and designing cultural participatory platforms. A complex methodology, combining quantitative and qualitative techniques, is defined to analyze the different digital (amateur and institutional) spaces related to the 1 Day 1 Soldier project. Building upon this case study, this paper contributes a theoretical and empirical framework for understanding participatory platforms as dynamic, multi-space environments that accommodate diverse collective and individual needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposal of Cognition and the Built Environment (MØYSTAD, 2017) is that architecture is a basic mode of human cognition. The production as well as the use of our environment is a cognitive process in and of itself. Building human environment relates to and is informed by the prior built environment. One of Christopher Alexander’s observations (1987) was that “building cities” actually means changing cities. Project by project. This insight carries implications for how we understand architecture, for how we understand the human brain and for how they interact. This paper will outline (1) the interaction between some spatial and morphological properties of the built environment on one hand, and (2) some of the recently discovered properties of the brain on the other, which seem to mirror similar properties of the external environment. Based on these two sets of properties I will then (3) make a brief discussion of some theories that seem to suggest an outline, not complete but still useful, of the cognitive relationship between (1) and (2).

This paper looks at the representation of Bly Manor across different adaptations of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw (1898). The focus is on adaptations that emphasize Bly as an intricate space that limits the possibilities of actions that the main characters have. The theory of affordance states that places “afford” different uses of the space. Locked inside a place with uneasily determined affordances and clearly established rules, the main characters of these adaptations experience how different intersections of identities are afforded differently within the stately home. The paper traces the intertextual conversation through adaptations such as Jack Clayton’s film The Innocents (1961), the readaptation of James’s premise in Ruth Ware’s novel The Turn of the Key (2019), before ending with the intertextual and temporal dimensions of haunted space in Mike Flanagan’s streaming miniseries The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020). These iterations of the story showcase the voyeuristic elements of Bly as the characters are repeatedly watched by those who have come before them. At the same time, they show the ongoing appeal of James’s story as its legacy continues into the twenty-first century.

Cyberbullying on social networking sites (SNS bullying) is an emerging societal challenge related to the deviant use of technologies. To address the research gaps identified in the literature, we draw on crime opportunity theory and the affordance perspective to propose a meta-framework that guides our investigation into SNS bullying. The meta-framework explains how SNS affordances give rise to the evaluation of favorable SNS environmental conditions for SNS bullying, which, in turn, promote SNS bullying. The research model was empirically tested using a longitudinal online survey of 223 SNS users. The results suggest that the evaluation of SNS environmental conditions predict SNS bullying, and SNS affordances influence the evaluation of these environmental conditions. This work offers a new theoretical perspective to study SNS bullying, highlighting the critical impacts of environmental conditions in shaping such behavior. It also provides actionable insights into measures that combat SNS bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many apps require consumers to evaluate products by swiping them to the right or left. This work explores whether product orientation affects the product evaluations communicated by swiping movements, compared with those made by pressing onscreen buttons. Building on stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) theory, which suggests that irrelevant product display features can activate certain behavioral responses when the product display and the behavioral response share a common dimension, this study predicts that the horizontal direction (left to right or right to left) cued by a product’s orientation should facilitate a swipe movement in the congruent direction. Five studies indicate that when people use swiping movements to evaluate objects, their evaluations are influenced by the object’s orientation, whereas evaluations conveyed through button presses reveal no orientation effect. The orientation effect for swiping responses also disappears when the objects contain a direction cue that is incongruent with their orientation, and when only one directional swipe movement is defined as a valid response option. Moreover, the effect holds for subjective evaluations but is eliminated for objective judgments, when these involve no time pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. The study is aimed at studying the role of affordances in the representation of an object and the influence of motor programs on the process of visual search within the framework of the skipping search continuation paradigm (SPPP). A hypothesis was put forward about the occurrence of the effect of compatibility/congruence in the process of searching for real objects among distractors by running motor programs. Methods. The study involved 60 people from 18 to 30 years old, with normal or corrected vision, without disorders of the musculoskeletal system. The subjects had to search for target stimuli among the distractors, simultaneously performing a movement with a non-dominant hand, which could be congruent, not congruent, partially congruent to the target given by the word. Results. As a result of data analysis, there were no significant differences in accuracy and reaction time depending on the congruence of movement towards the search object in both groups. However, the effect of PPPP was observed in all groups, regardless of the congruence of movement towards the object. Discussion of the results. Since previous studies used the task of naming or categorization rather than visual search, a possible explanation for the results may be the following factors: the movement was performed by a non-dominant hand, the target stimulus was given by a word, irrelevant programs were launched, it was impossible to form an affordance situation due to the perception of objects with different from the target motor programs. Conclusion _ The study outlines the boundary of the position on the inclusion of functional knowledge in the representation of an object and the influence of the compatibility effect on the process of visual search. The launch of motor programs does not necessarily lead to a significant impact on the process of finding the target stimulus among distractors - there is a compatibility effect. Achieving a state of affordance is probably the key factor for the emergence of such an influence.

Behavioral studies in team sports are typically constrained by dynamic factors, such as positioning of defenders for interception. Handball player have to coordinate their steps when running to throw a ball on goal from a different positions. In this study were analyzed the movement patterns during locomotors pointing, throwing velocity and accuracy of 12 succesful elite handball players under defensive constraints (defender- absent, defender-far, defender-near, or defender pairing). It was captured data from the locomotors patterns of the attacking participant by speed camera with 120Hz, throwing speed by sports radar gun and throwing accuracy by camera. ANOVA with repeated measures and Bonferroni post hoc test and Friedman test was used to analyze effects of these constraints on gait and throwing parameters. In addition to Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficient test was used to analyze speed-accuracy trade off (P

In the second half of the 20th century, ecological theory of perception presented a new concept of perception according to which it is not a one-sided process within the perceiver, in the form of representation and interpretation of sensory data obtained from the environment, but a process within direct and continuous interaction between the percipient and the environment. Opposing the almost intuitive acceptance of numerous dualities based on the traditionally accepted separation of subject and object, ecological theory introduces an innovative concept of affordance. At about the same time, the initial ideas of an equally innovative theory of the organism-environment system arise, and in this paper they are connected in the context of the interpretation of perception. The goal of the paper is to present the concept of affordance and point out its affinity with the theory of the unity of organism and environment, as well as the need for further introduction of similar theoretical concepts, and with this intention, the concept of ecological perceptual holism is proposed.

Using human tools can significantly benefit robots in many application domains. Such ability would allow robots to solve problems that they were unable to without tools. However, robot tool use is a challenging task. Tool use was initially considered to be the ability that distinguishes human beings from other animals. We identify three skills required for robot tool use: perception, manipulation, and high-level cognition skills. While both general manipulation tasks and tool use tasks require the same level of perception accuracy, there are unique manipulation and cognition challenges in robot tool use. In this survey, we first define robot tool use. The definition highlighted the skills required for robot tool use. The skills coincide with an affordance model which defined a three-way relation between actions, objects, and effects. We also compile a taxonomy of robot tool use with insights from animal tool use literature. Our definition and taxonomy lay a theoretical foundation for future robot tool use studies and also serve as practical guidelines for robot tool use applications. We first categorize tool use based on the context of the task. The contexts are highly similar for the same task (e.g., cutting) in non-causal tool use, while the contexts for causal tool use are diverse. We further categorize causal tool use based on the task complexity suggested in animal tool use studies into single-manipulation tool use and multiple-manipulation tool use. Single-manipulation tool use are sub-categorized based on tool features and prior experiences of tool use. This type of tool may be considered as building blocks of causal tool use. Multiple-manipulation tool use combines these building blocks in different ways. The different combinations categorize multiple-manipulation tool use. Moreover, we identify different skills required in each sub-type in the taxonomy. We then review previous studies on robot tool use based on the taxonomy and describe how the relations are learned in these studies. We conclude with a discussion of the current applications of robot tool use and open questions to address future robot tool use.

Anthropologists, like neoliberal economists, have often assumed that competition (re)orders society in broadly predictable ways. By contrast, we contend that competition always facilitates changes beyond its anticipated outcomes and disciplinary effects. We argue that the outcomes of competition are contingent on the varied and co-existing interpretations of audiences, arbiters, and competitors about the nature of competition, what is worth competing for, and how to go about it. Hence, although it is often instituted with the intention of authoritatively determining value, generating order, or engineering predefined changes, competition inherently affords alternative and unexpected possibilities for sociality. In doing so, competition mediates divergent social orders and modes of relating, rather than instituting one order or another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored how COVID-19 survivors construct their digital memories of the pandemic by analyzing 110 online memory narratives of COVID-19 survivors on Zhihu, China's most popular question-and-answer platform. Social media grounded theory was used to identify themes and interpret the results. Four recurring themes emerged from the data: life during treatment, life after treatment, the role of bio/informational technologies, and the motivation for remembrance. The results show how COVID-19 survivors activated the affordances of Zhihu to record the life stories neglected in the state-led memory-making process and transformed them into prospective memories aimed at justice for such survivors. This study contributes to our understanding of how the politics of memory and the politics of platform entangle with each other in the Chinese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colorblindness is a condition in which the person affected is unable to identify a particular shade of color when it comes in contact with another shade of color in adverse lighting conditions, causing confusion in visual interfaces. Visual experiences on a computer interface consist of many data such as infographics, images, videos, graphs, presentation, maps, diagram, games, etc. Anything that has any kind of color-coded information is affected by color blindness. So, when a colorblind person is exposed to these colors and some conflicting colors are used in these elements, he/she may miss critical information. The graphical user interface (GUI) was introduced to quickly allow users to learn about the essential features of an operating system, thereby increasing productivity. With the evolution of GUI, software manufacturers started developing and including accessibility features in operating systems to cater to the extreme or benchmark users. However, there is still a lot of scope for improvement in the area of color blindness in a computer interface. This article intends to study the problems that occur/may occur for colorblind users with an objective to come up with better design solution to include colorblind users as mainstream user category in a computer interface and expand the user base of existing operating systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, study abroad (SA) programs have undergone an urgent transfer to the online format. Although SA online has many merits toward sustainable international education in the post-COVID era, assuring the quality of these programs and sustaining students' learning motivation have been key issues of concern. Moreover, there is still a lack of evidence derived from in-depth qualitative inquiries. To address these gaps, this study takes a close look at an individual's story using a narrative approach to data analysis and employs an ecological perspective focusing on intentionality as the theoretical framework for exploring how the participant conquered the challenges when they transitioned to SA online. Successful plots identified include setting up the online learning environment, optimising the benefits of online learning, and sustaining students' motivation to study. Several obstacles remained unsolved, such as the loss of interpersonal connection and empathy in online communication. This study concludes that the participant's successful and unsuccessful encounters in enacting the affordances of online education were manifested by developed or undeveloped intentional actions as a result of individual-environment mutuality. Some implications are offered for constructing sustainable online SA environments that can diversify and innovate future international education experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I examine a set of exceptional aesthetic experiences that remove us from our pragmatic everyday life and involve a specific type of unaffordability. I then extend this notion of unaffordability to experiences of awe and its relation to the sublime. My analysis is guided by considerations of the phenomenologically inspired enactivist approach that supports an affordance-based accounts of aesthetic experience. I review some recent neurophenomenological studies of the experience of awe, and I then sketch out a phenomenology of awe as it approaches the sublime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been an increase in research on Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers’ identity worldwide, limited attention has been drawn to CFL teachers’ positioning and affordances to interpret their identity construction in an overseas context. To fill the gap, this study investigated seven novice CFL teachers’ identity construction as Chinese language teachers in primary schools in New Zealand from positioning and affordance perspectives. Retrospective semi-structured interviews were adopted to understand how the novice CFL teachers were positioned, how they positioned themselves, and what affordances they perceived to be influential to their Chinese language teacher identity construction. The findings showed that the novice CFL teachers’ identity construction was subject to the social, institutional, and individual levels of being positioned, self-positioning, and affordances. Specifically, (1) consistent self-positioning at the social, institutional, and individual levels could largely determine the novice CFL teachers’ identity construction; (2) inconsistency of identities between being positioned and self-positioning at the social, institutional, and individual levels might weaken the novice CFL teachers’ identity construction; (3) affordances as opportunities at the social, institutional, and individual levels could strengthen the novice CFL teachers’ identity construction, whereas affordances as challenges could not. The study concluded with implications and limitations to inform future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perception-action coupling, the ability to 'read and react' to the environment, is essential for military personnel to operate within complex and unpredictable environments. Exposure to military operational stressors (e.g., caloric restriction, sleep loss, physical exertion), including around-the-clock operations, may compromise perception-action coupling, thereby impacting performance and safety. We examined the combined effects of simulated military operational stress (SMOS) and time-of-day on perception-action coupling. Fifty-seven active duty and reservist military personnel (45 M; 26.4 ± 5.6 years) completed a 5-day SMOS protocol that included two consecutive days of caloric restriction, and sleep restriction, and disruption. Participants completed a tablet-based perception-action coupling task (PACT) that involves perceiving whether virtual balls fit through virtual apertures. Familiarization occurred on day 0. Eight trials across day 1 (18:00, 22:00), 2 (04:00, 18:00, 22:00) and 3 (04:00, 18:00, 22:00) were analyzed. Mixed models were run to examine the interactive and main effects of day, and time-of-day on PACT response speed and accuracy outcomes. PACT response speed and accuracy outcomes improved at 18:00 and 22:00, whereas performance at 04:00 deteriorated across days. Perception-action coupling performance was resilient to SMOS, except in the early morning when the circadian drive for sleep is high, and the effects of sleep loss are more prominent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a social phenomenology of naturalism. Starting from Stefan Bargheer's Moral entanglements (2018), it argues that to understand the transformations of naturalist practices, we have to focus both on the shifting typifications of activity and their organizational moorings, but also on the experiential affordances of practice. Drawing on the work of Schutz and Merleau-Ponty, I focus on the transformation of animals from background into figure, the peculiar province of meaning that naturalist practice entails, as well as the experience of "play" that Bargheer highlights. Doing so, I argue that the affordances of experience are a constitutive aspect of any historical account of practice: that a phenomenological approach is crucial not only for the micro-sociology of interaction and experience, but for understanding larger historical processes and transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the self-perceived effectiveness of a nested EFL learning model designed to create an affordance-rich learning ecology to help EFL learners realize the co-evolution of vocabulary knowledge and communicative competence. Adopting an action research approach, this study examined the predicament college students encountered under the CLT paradigm in the Chinese context, and the learning difficulties were identified. A nested EFL learning model was designed to address the issue by creating an effective learning environment in which micro, meso and exo systems interacted with each other to provide multi-mode usage events for the EFL learners' language development. Quantitative data was collected from two online surveys (N=91) and analyzed with IBM SPSS 26, and qualitative data was elicited from students' reflective accounts. The results revealed that the model positively affected students' language development regarding their vocabulary acquisition, listening and speaking proficiency. Other benefits derived from the learning experience outside the classroom, represented by an innovative WeCo (We Connect) reports project based on WeChat, are reflected in students' growing self-confidence as EFL learners and their awakening consciousness to learn English by using the language. Some constructive suggestions were proposed to improve the model. The design in this study provides a solution to the learning difficulties perplexing most EFL learners. It sheds light on how teacher-guided self-regulated English learning beyond the classroom can be augmented by modern technologies to develop communicative competence accompanied by the growth of productive vocabulary knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open e-Government scholarship is meant to address the twin dimensions of openness: greater transparent access to data and more inclusive participation in design. Extant research, however, rarely addresses the inclusive design of e-Government, which is the focus of our research. We focus on broad desire for inclusive e-Government design by analyzing data from three countries – United Kingdom, Lebanon, and Qatar – involving (a) a qualitative survey of users seeking their input on e-Government design improvements and (b) interviews with service providers to elicit their views on inclusive e-Government design. Our findings highlight that inclusion may begin with seeking design input only; however, once the process is triggered, it can lead to what we call a landscape of inclusive e-Government design. More importantly, our paper contributes to the literature by elaborating the granular underpinnings of this landscape encompassing an emergent mechanism of inclusive e-Government design that consists of the following three components: (i) the enabling social inclusion affordances; (ii) the supporting processes; and (iii) the enabling organizational capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on the "weapons effect" indicates that simply seeing a weapon can prime aggressive thoughts and appraisals and increase aggressive behavior. But how and why does this happen? I begin by discussing prevailing explanations of the weapons effect and propose that these accounts tend to be over-intellectualistic insofar as they downplay or overlook the important role played by affectivity. In my view, insights from the fields of situated affectivity and enactivism help us to understand how cognitive and affective processes jointly contribute to the weapons effect. Insofar as the presence of weapons alters subject's bodily-affective orientation and thereby brings about embodied mindshaping, it changes the way they engage with and understand their surroundings. To understand the weapons effect, we will need to examine the constitutive interdependency of appraisal and affectivity and the way in which they jointly motivate action. My proposed account emphasizes the role of affectivity in affordance perception and the way in which subjects gauge the meaning of an object according to its action-possibilities. [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]

This paper examines how the integration of big data in forensic accounting practices is reshaping fraud detection processes. To capture the effects of this integration we used the perspective of affordances enabled by big data, an approach derived from sociomateriality. The research adopts a qualitative approach based on seventeen semi-structured interviews with forensic accountants. This qualitative approach allows us to identify dispositional and relational affordances. Findings show that big data enables some significant affordances. As dispositional affordances, big data and big data analytics tools ensure a greater depth of the analysis. The power of visual analytics in fraud detection is highlighted in both dispositional and relational affordances. • Big data can significantly enhance fraud detection. • Big data and big data analytics produce affordances that can generate advantages for anti-fraud strategies. • Big data analytics can produce both dispositional and relational affordances. • Forensic accounting practices are legitimized through the use of big data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]