736 research outputs found
Northeastern Illinois University, Academic Catalog 2023-2024
https://neiudc.neiu.edu/catalogs/1064/thumbnail.jp
Undergraduate and Graduate Course Descriptions, 2023 Spring
Wright State University undergraduate and graduate course descriptions from Spring 2023
Multisensory processing, affect and multimodal manipulation: A cognitive-semiotic empirical study of travel documentaries
Multisensory processing represents the mirror image of multimodal meaning-making, in that interpreting multimodal discourse predominantly requires multisensory processing, even when different modes rely on the same sensory channels (Khateb et al., 2002), for example images and text in a book (Gibbons, 2012, p. 40). Remley (2017) makes a similar point when discussing the neuroscience of multimodal persuasive messages, when he asserts that “[t]he term ‘multisensory integration’ is the biological equivalent of the term ‘multimodal’ in rhetoric” (p. 9). An understanding of multisensory processing can therefore be (and presumably is) exploited at the stage of text-production as a resource for manipulative multimodal discourses, with all the ideological consequences that entails.
The concept of manipulation has been a matter of discussion in critical discourse studies (CDS) and pragmatics for more than a decade. Agreement on how to define and analyse the latter has yet to be reached, although most scholars seem to agree that Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1995) can provide a useful entry point thanks to its theorisation of variable contexts and individual cognitive environments (de Saussure, 2005; Maillat, 2013; Maillat and Oswald, 2009; Oswald, 2014). Moreover, the concept of epistemic vigilance (Sperber et al., 2010) has been used to investigate the cognitive barriers that need to be bypassed in order for manipulation to work (Hart, 2013; Mazzarella, 2015). Finally, Sorlin (2017: 133) recently highlighted the need to focus not only on the cognitive aspects influencing manipulation, but also on “the psychological aspect of manipulation that often consists in exploiting the target's weaknesses”, thus pointing towards the dimension of affect as a further explanatory force.
This paper begins with an overview of the concepts of manipulation and epistemic vigilance, before discussing insights from the field of multisensory processing in the neurosciences. Then, drawing on some principles from Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1995) and looking at some data from travel documentary programmes and their viewers, examples are offered of how manipulation is attempted and achieved through this specific multimodal genre in individual case studies. The focus of the analysis will be on bottom-up (i.e. text-driven) processes and the interpretation/reaction of an audience. The research draws on a novel methodological approach (Castaldi, 2021) that integrates Audience Research (e.g., Schrøder et al., 2003) and Social Semiotics (e.g. Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996, 2001; van Leeuwen, 1999; Machin and Mayr, 2012) in order to analyse media interactions in their individuality.
Results suggest that the affective dimension, predominantly attended to through sonic and visual modes, plays a key role for multimodal manipulation to successfully occur
Age differences in conspiracy beliefs around Covid-19 pandemic and (dis)trust in the government
Objective: Times of societal crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, during which people need to make sense of a chaotic world and to protect their health and lives, according to psychological research, represent suitable ground for the development of conspiracy theories about origins, spread, and treatment of the threat (coronavirus). Although numerous studies have been conducted on this issue since the beginning of the pandemic until today, most of the studies were conducted on the adult population with limited insights into development of the conspiracy beliefs in adolescence or over the lifespan. Objective of this study is precisely to explore how conspiracy beliefs regarding COVID-19 pandemic differentiate between multiple age groups (cross-sectional design), what are their sources and contexts, and how do they relate with the tendency to trust the government.
Methodology: Data were gathered through eight focus group discussions with four age groups (11-12, 14-15, 18-19, 30+) in Serbia.
Results: Based on critical discourse analysis, this paper identifies the differences in content and the
sources of conspiracy thinking and how it relates to trust in the government. Study shows that high
distrust in Serbian government is associated with conspiracy beliefs both within youth and adults.
However, while among adolescents this finding is exclusively related with their beliefs that ruling
structures have financial gain from the pandemic, against the interests of citizens, among adults it is related to the belief that the government (un)intentionally submits to the new global order that is
managed by one or more powerful actors who are coordinated in secret action to achieve an outcome that is of public interest, but not public knowledge.
Conclusion: The results will be discussed within current socio-political climate in Serbia, as well as the basis for understanding psychological factors which may underlie these tendencies in conspiracy theorizing, such as social identification, collective narcissism, authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation
LIPIcs, Volume 277, GIScience 2023, Complete Volume
LIPIcs, Volume 277, GIScience 2023, Complete Volum
12th International Conference on Geographic Information Science: GIScience 2023, September 12–15, 2023, Leeds, UK
No abstract available
Chapter 34 - Biocompatibility of nanocellulose: Emerging biomedical applications
Nanocellulose already proved to be a highly relevant material for biomedical
applications, ensued by its outstanding mechanical properties and, more importantly, its biocompatibility. Nevertheless, despite their previous intensive
research, a notable number of emerging applications are still being developed.
Interestingly, this drive is not solely based on the nanocellulose features, but also
heavily dependent on sustainability. The three core nanocelluloses encompass
cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs), and bacterial nanocellulose (BNC). All these different types of nanocellulose display highly interesting biomedical properties per se, after modification and when used in
composite formulations. Novel applications that use nanocellulose includewell-known areas, namely, wound dressings, implants, indwelling medical
devices, scaffolds, and novel printed scaffolds. Their cytotoxicity and biocompatibility using recent methodologies are thoroughly analyzed to reinforce their
near future applicability. By analyzing the pristine core nanocellulose, none
display cytotoxicity. However, CNF has the highest potential to fail long-term
biocompatibility since it tends to trigger inflammation. On the other hand, neverdried BNC displays a remarkable biocompatibility. Despite this, all nanocelluloses clearly represent a flag bearer of future superior biomaterials, being
elite materials in the urgent replacement of our petrochemical dependence
Actor & Avatar: A Scientific and Artistic Catalog
What kind of relationship do we have with artificial beings (avatars, puppets, robots, etc.)? What does it mean to mirror ourselves in them, to perform them or to play trial identity games with them? Actor & Avatar addresses these questions from artistic and scholarly angles. Contributions on the making of "technical others" and philosophical reflections on artificial alterity are flanked by neuroscientific studies on different ways of perceiving living persons and artificial counterparts. The contributors have achieved a successful artistic-scientific collaboration with extensive visual material
Science and corporeal religion: a feminist materialist reconsideration of gender/sex diversity in religiosity
This dissertation develops a feminist materialist interpretation of the role the neuroendocrine system plays in the development of gender/sex differences in religion. Data emerging from psychology, sociology, and cognitive science have continually indicated that women are more religious than men, in various senses of those contested terms, but the factors contributing to these findings are little understood and disciplinary perspectives are often unhelpfully siloed. Previous scholarship has tended to highlight socio-cultural factors while ignoring biological factors or to focus on biological factors while relying on problematic and unsubstantiated gender stereotypes. Addressing gender/sex difference is vital for understanding religion and how we study it. This dissertation interprets this difference by means of a multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological approach. This approach builds upon insights from the cognitive and evolutionary science of religion, affect theory and affective neuroscience, and social neuroendocrinology, and it is rooted in the foundational insights of feminist materialism, including that cultural and micro-sociological forces are inseparable from biological materiality. The dissertation shows how a better way of understanding gender/sex differences in religion emerges through focusing on the co-construction of biological materiality and cultural meanings. This includes deploying a gene-culture co-evolutionary explanation of ultrasociality and an understanding of the biology of performativity to argue that religious behavior and temperaments emerge from the enactment and hormonal underpinnings of six affective adaptive desires: the desires for (1) bonding and attachment, (2) communal mythos, (3) deliverance from suffering, (4) purpose, (5) understanding, and (6) reliable leadership. By hypothesizing the patterns of hormonal release and activation associated with ritualized affects—primarily considering oxytocin, testosterone, vasopressin, estrogen, dopamine, and serotonin—the dissertation theorizes four dimensions of religious temperament: (1) nurturant religiosity, (2) ecstatic religiosity, (3) protective/hierarchical religiosity, and (4) antagonistic religiosity. This dissertation conceptualizes hormones as chemical messengers that enable the diversity emerging from the imbrication of physical materiality and socio-cultural forces. In doing so, it demonstrates how hormonal aspects of gender/sex and culturally constructed aspects of gender/sex are always already intertwined in their influence on religiosity. This theoretical framework sheds light on both the diversity and the noticeable patterns observed in gender/sex differences in religious behaviors and affects. This problematizes the terms of the “women are more religious than men” while putting in place a more adequate framework for interpreting the variety of ways it appears in human lives
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