Access to multiliteracies: A critical ethnography

This paper reports the key findings of a critical ethnography, which documented the enactment of the multiliteracies pedagogy in an Australian elementary school classroom. The multiliteracies pedagogy of the New London Group is a response to the emergence of multimodal literacies in contemporary contexts of increased cultural and linguistic diversity. Giddens' structuration theory was applied to the analysis of systems relations. The key finding was that students, who were culturally and linguistically diverse, had differential access to multiliteracies. Existing degrees of access were reproduced among the student cohort, based on the learners' relation to the dominant culture. Specifically, students from Anglo-Australian, middle-class backgrounds had greater access to transformed designing than those who were culturally or socio-economically marginalized. These experiences were influenced by the agency of individuals who were both enabled and constrained by structures of power within the school and the wider educational and social systems

On the pitfalls of conceptualizing excessive physical exercise as an addictive disorder: Commentary on Dinardi et al. (2021)

This commentary challenges some of the proposals made in the opinion paper entitled “The expanded interactional model of exercise addiction” by Dinardi, Egorov, and Szabo (2021). We first question the usefulness of the (expanded) interactional model of exercise addiction to determine the psychological processes underlying distress and functional impairment in excessive physical exercise. We then consider the authors’ use of the Self-Determination Theory to model exercise addiction, which risks the misclassification of strenuous, but adaptive, patterns of physical exercise as exercise addiction. We finally address broader concerns regarding the idea that maladaptive exercising could be conceptualized as an addictive disorder.Luxembourg National Research Fund C18/BM/12552025Spanish Research Agency (Agencia Espanola de Investigacion)Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion) (MCIN/ AEI) PID2020116535GB-I00Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique - FNR

Commentary on Englund et al.: The advantages and downsides of online focus groups for conducting research on addictive online behaviours.

As the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic prompted new ways of doing research, Englund et al. [1] highlight the benefits and challenges that online experiments bring to the scientific investigation of addictive behaviours. Likewise, this commentary further reflects on how online focus groups may constitute particularly sound opportunities for studying addictive online behaviour

Heavy social drinkers score higher on implicit wanting and liking for alcohol than alcohol-dependent patients and light social drinkers

Abstract Background and objectives Automatic hedonic ("liking") and incentive ("wanting") processes are assumed to play an important role in addiction. Whereas some neurobiological theories suggest that these processes become dissociated when drug use develops into an addiction (i.e. "liking" becomes weaker, whereas "wanting" becomes exaggerated; e.g. Robinson & Berridge, 1993), other theories suggest that there is a linear relationship between these two processes (i.e. both "liking" and "wanting" increase equally; e.g. Koob & Le Moal, 1997). Our aim was to examine "wanting" and "liking" in three groups of participants: alcohol-dependent patients, heavy social drinkers, and light social drinkers. Methods Participants performed two different single target implicit association tests (ST-IATs; e.g. Bluemke & Friese, 2007) and explicit ratings that were designed to measure "liking" and "wanting" for alcohol. Results Our results are in sharp contrast with the theories of both Robinson and Berridge and Koob and Le Moal: heavy drinkers had higher scores than light drinkers and alcohol-dependent patients on both the wanting ST-IAT and the liking ST-IAT. There were no differences between alcohol-dependent patients and light drinkers. Explicit ratings mirrored these results. Limitations These findings suggest that our ST-IATs are not valid measures of "wanting" and "liking". Instead, they might assess more complex knowledge regarding participants' experiences and goals. Conclusions These findings suggest that the relationship between drug consumption and appetitive drug associations is not linear, highlighting the importance of testing both sub-clinical and clinical samples in future research.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Examining Neural Reactivity to Gambling Cues in the Age of Online Betting

The goal of this review is to provide new insights as to how and why functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research on gambling cue reactivity can contribute to significant progress towards the understanding of gambling disorder. After having offered a detailed description of experimental paradigms and a comprehensive summary of findings related to gambling cue reactivity, the present review suggests methodological avenues for future research. The fMRI literature on problem gambling has identified the main neural pathways associated with reactivity to gambling cues. Yet, the current knowledge on the key factors underlying cue reactivity in gambling is still very incomplete. Here, we suggest that the recent expansion of online sports betting calls for a new line of research offering a fine-grained and up-to-date approach of neural cue reactivity in gambling disorder. Experimental designs that investigate individual-specific and study-specific factors related to sports betting have the potential to foster progress towards efficient treatment and prevention of gambling disorder

Strategies for self-controlling social media use: Classification and role in preventing social media addiction symptoms.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Many people present excessive patterns of social networking site (SNS) use and try to self-regulate it. However, little is known regarding the strategies employed by young adult SNS users and their role in preventing the emergence of addiction-like symptoms in relation to SNS use. METHODS: In Study 1, we employed a naturalistic-qualitative approach for finding commonly employed self-control strategies in relation to SNS use. In Study 2, we examined differences between the frequency and difficulty of the strategies identified in Study 1 and tested the process through which trait self-control exerts influence on reducing SNS addiction symptomology. RESULTS: Study 1 revealed six families of self-control strategies, some reactive and some proactive. Study 2 pinpointed the most commonly used and most difficult to enact ones. It also showed that the difficulty to enact self-control strategies in relation to SNS use partially mediates the effect of trait self-control via SNS use habit on SNS addiction symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, the present findings revealed that strategies for self-controlling SNS use are common and complex. Their theoretical and clinical significance stems from their ability to prevent the translation of poor trait self-control and strong SNS use habit to the emergence of excessive use as manifested in SNS addiction-like symptoms

Commentary on: Are we overpathologizing everyday life? A tenable blueprint for behavioral addiction research : On functional and compulsive aspects of reinforcement pathologies

Background This paper is a commentary to a debate article entitled: “Are we overpathologizing everyday life? A tenable blueprint for behavioral addiction research”, by Billieux et al. (2015). Methods and aim This brief response focused on the necessity to better characterize psychological and related neurocognitive determinants of persistent deleterious actions associated or not with substance utilization. Results A majority of addicted people could be driven by psychological functional reasons to keep using drugs, gambling or buying despite the growing number of related negative consequences. In addition, a non-negligible proportion of them would need assistance to restore profound disturbances in basic learning processes involved in compulsive actions. Conclusions The distinction between psychological functionality and compulsive aspects of addictive behaviors should represent a big step towards more efficient treatments

Identifying the psychological processes delineating non-harmful from problematic binge-watching: A machine learning analytical approach

As on-demand streaming technology rapidly expanded, binge-watching (i.e., watching multiple episodes of TV series back-to-back) has become a widespread activity, and substantial research has been conducted to explore its potential harmfulness. There is, however, a need for differentiating non-harmful and problematic binge-watching. This is the first study using a machine learning analytical strategy to further investigate the distinct psychological predictors of these two binge-watching patterns. A total of 4275 TV series viewers completed an online survey assessing sociodemographic variables, binge-watching engagement, and relevant predictor variables (i.e., viewing motivations, impulsivity facets, and affect). In one set of analyses, we modeled intensity of non-harmful involvement in binge-watching as the dependent variable, while in a following set of analyses, we modeled intensity of problematic involvement in binge-watching as the dependent variable. Emotional enhancement motivation, followed by enrichment and social motivations, were the most important variables in modeling non-harmful involvement. Coping/escapism motivation, followed by urgency and lack of perseverance (two impulsivity traits), were found as the most important predictors of problematic involvement. These findings indicate that non-harmful involvement is characterized by positive reinforcement triggered by TV series watching, while problematic involvement is linked to negative reinforcement motives and impulsivity traits

Increased ventral anterior insular connectivity to sports betting availability indexes problem gambling

With the advent of digital technologies, online sports betting is spurring a fast-growing expansion. In this study, we examined how sports betting availability modulates the brain connectivity of frequent sports bettors with [problem bettors (PB)] or without [non-problem bettors (NPB)] problematic sports betting. We conducted functional connectivity analyses centred on the ventral anterior insular cortex (vAI), a brain region playing a key role in the dynamic interplay between reward-based processes. We re-analysed a dataset on sports betting availability undertaken in PB (n = 30) and NPB (n = 35). Across all participants, we observed that sports betting availability elicited positive vAI coupling with extended clusters of brain activation (encompassing the putamen, cerebellum, occipital, temporal, precentral and central operculum regions) and negative vAI coupling with the orbitofrontal cortex. Between-group analyses showed increased positive vAI coupling in the PB group, as compared with the NPB group, in the left lateral occipital cortex, extending to the left inferior frontal gyrus, the anterior cingulate gyrus and the right frontal pole. Taken together, these results are in line with the central assumptions of triadic models of addictions, which posit that the insular cortex plays a pivotal role in promoting the drive and motivation to get a reward by ‘hijacking’ goal-oriented processes toward addiction-related cues. Taken together, these findings showed that vAI functional connectivity is sensitive not only to gambling availability but also to the status of problematic sport betting