Distinct neural substrates of visuospatial and verbal-analytic reasoning as assessed by Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices

Recent studies revealed spontaneous neural activity to be associated with fluid intelligence (gF) which is commonly assessed by Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices, and embeds two types of reasoning: visuospatial and verbal-analytic reasoning. With resting-state fMRI data, using global brain connectivity (GBC) analysis which averages functional connectivity of a voxel in relation to all other voxels in the brain, distinct neural correlates of these two reasoning types were found. For visuospatial reasoning, negative correlations were observed in both the primary visual cortex (PVC) and the precuneus, and positive correlations were observed in the temporal lobe. For verbal-analytic reasoning, negative correlations were observed in the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and temporoparietal junction, and positive correlations were observed in the angular gyrus. Furthermore, an interaction between GBC value and type of reasoning was found in the PVC, rIFG and the temporal lobe. These findings suggest that visuospatial reasoning benefits more from elaborate perception to stimulus features, whereas verbal-analytic reasoning benefits more from feature integration and hypothesis testing. In sum, the present study offers, for different types of reasoning in gF, first empirical evidence of separate neural substrates in the resting brain

How harmful are survey translations? A test with Schwartz's human values instrument

One major challenge in international survey research is to ensure the equivalence of translated survey instruments across different cultures. In this study, we examine empirically the extent to which equivalence of survey instruments to measure human values can be established across cultures sharing the same language as opposed to cultures having a different language. We expect cultures using the same language to exhibit higher levels of equivalence. Our examination made use of a short (i.e., a 21-item) survey instrument to measure Schwartz’s human values based on data from the second and the third rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS). The empirical results support our expectations

How Harmful are Survey Translations? A Test with Schwartz's Human Values Instrument

One major challenge in international survey research is to ensure the equivalence of translated survey instruments across different cultures. In this study, we examine empirically the extent to which equivalence of survey instruments to measure human values can be established across cultures sharing the same language as opposed to cultures having a different language. We expect cultures using the same language to exhibit higher levels of equivalence. Our examination made use of a short (i.e., a 21-item) survey instrument to measure Schwartz's human values based on data from the second and the third rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS). The empirical results support our expectation

Governing through choice: Food labels and the confluence of food industry and public health discourse to create ‘healthy consumers’

Food industry and public health representatives are often in conflict, particularly over food labelling policies and regulation. Food corporations are suspicious of regulated labels and perceive them as a threat to free market enterprise, opting instead for voluntary labels. Public health and consumer groups, in contrast, argue that regulated and easy-to-read labels are essential for consumers to exercise autonomy and make healthy choices in the face of food industry marketing. Although public health and food industry have distinct interests and objectives, I argue that both contribute to the creation of the food label as a governmental strategy that depends on free-market logics to secure individual and population health. While criticism of ‘Big Food’ has become a growth industry in academic publishing and research, wider critique is needed that also includes the activities of public health. Such a critique needs to address the normalizing effect of neoliberal governmentality within which both the food industry and public health operate to reinforce individuals as ‘healthy consumers’. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s lectures at the Collège de France, I examine the food label through the lens of governmentality. I argue that the rationale operating through the food label combines nutrition science and free-market logics to normalize subjects as responsible for their own health and reinforces the idea of consumption as a means to secure population health from diet-related chronic diseases

Structuring for serendipity: family wealth creation, farmer autonomy and the pursuit of security in an uncertain Australian countryside

The social and economic particularities of family farms have captured researchers’ attention for many years; but rural scholarship still lacks a clear, analytical sense of how and why family farms are organised in the ways that they are. This thesis critically examines the internal logics underpinning the socio-economic organisation of Australian farms. It adopts Johnsen’s (2003) conceptualisation of farm enterprises as three-way coalitions between farm businesses, farm households and the respective property holdings. Changes to the Australian agricultural property regime are used as the lens through which to observe how the organisational logics of farm enterprises are recalibrated in response to environmental policy reforms; specifically, the separation of land and water titles. Despite the obvious economic significance of separating land and water titles, the impacts on farm organisation remain under-researched. Hence, this thesis uniquely brings together scholarship on family farming with that of water reforms. A qualitative research method – farm life history – is used to generate narratives of the development of 40 farms in Victoria, Australia. Twenty-one of these are from an irrigation district where land and water titles have been separated, and nineteen from a dry land region unaffected by the reforms. The interpretive chapters comprise an analysis of the ways in which the ownership configurations of farm businesses, land and water assets embody farmers’ aspirations for building wealth and maintaining autonomy. These aspirations are jointly articulated in the concept of ‘structuring for serendipity’, which elevates the notions of risk, uncertainty and security as critical drivers shaping farm-level responses to contemporary conditions. The thesis concludes that the organisational forms observed within the Australian agricultural sector ultimately represent farmers’ pursuit of a sense of security in a constantly changing and uncertain countryside