Growing intimate privatepublics: Everyday utopia in the naturecultures of a young lesbian and bisexual women’s allotment

The Young Women’s Group in Manchester is a ‘young women’s peer health project, run by and for young lesbian and bisexual women’, which runs an allotment as one of its activities. At a time when interest in allotments and gardening appears to be on the increase, the existence of yet another community allotment may seem unremarkable. Yet we suggest that this queer allotment poses challenges for conventional theorisations of allotments, as well as for understandings of public and private. In this article we explore how the allotment project might be understood to be intensely engaged in ‘growing intimate publics’, or what we term ‘privatepublics’. These are paradoxical intimacies, privatepublic spaces which are not necessarily made possible in the usual private sphere of domestic homes. Here we focus on the work involved in materialising the allotment, which we understand as a queer privatepublic ‘natureculture’ (Haraway, 2008) which appears as an ‘everyday utopia’ (Cooper, 2014)

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) and the malleability of ageist attitudes

The current study examined the malleability of implicit attitudes using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). In Experiment 1, “similar” and “opposite” were presented as response options with the sample terms “old people” and “young people” and various positive and negative target stimuli. Results showed significantly faster response latencies for consistent (e.g., Similar- Positive-Young People) compared to inconsistent tasks (e.g., Similar-Positive-Old People). Explicit measures did not correlate with this IRAP effect. Experiment 2 determined whether prior exposure to pictures of admired and disliked old and young individuals had an impact on IRAP performance. Results revealed that pro-old exemplars reduced the pro-young IRAP effect, but reversed the anti-old effect, and this held for 24 h; explicit measures were largely unaffected. The findings suggest that the IRAP provides an informative measure of attitudechange following pro- versus anti-exemplar training

Exploring Screen Presentations in the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP)

The current study attempted to systematically manipulate stimulus presentations in the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) to determine the potential impact of this variable on implicit responding. The study comprised of four conditions that systematically manipulated the positions of the sample stimuli and the response options. Specifically, the Random-Random Condition randomized both sample stimuli and response options; Random-Fixed randomized sample stimuli, but response options remained in fixed locations; Fixed-Random Condition fixed sample stimuli but randomized response options; and Fixed-Fixed Condition fixed both sample stimuli and response options. The results demonstrated strong and predicted IRAP effects in all four conditions. Although the Random-Fixed presentation generated the strongest D-IRAP score, the randomization of the sample stimuli and response options were both critical to producing strong and significant D-IRAP scores because the Random-Random and Fixed-Random Conditions were only marginally smaller. The implications of the findings for existing and future research with the IRAP are discussed

Establishing mand emergence: The effects of three training procedures and modified antecedent conditions

This study examined the effects of a modified antecedent during probes for emergent mands following listener versus tact training for children with autism. Eight students, aged 7 to 11, were trained to respond to 3 sets of relational responses (front/back, left/right, on/under), each assigned a nonsense label. Three training types were evaluated: listener training, tact training, and listener– tact training combined. Following the experimental training, probes for emergent mands were conducted under modified antecedent conditions. Results showed that modified antecedent conditions were critical in demonstrating mand emergence for some participants

Using Action-congruent Language Facilitates the Motor Response during Action Observation: A Combined Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Eye-tracking Study.

There is evidence that action observation (AO) and the processing of action-related words are associated with increased activity in cortical motor regions. Research has examined the effects of AO and action verb processing on activity in the motor system independently. The aim of this experiment was to investigate, for the first time, the modulation of corticospinal excitability and visual attention during the concurrent processing of action verbs and AO stimuli. Twenty participants took part in an integrated transcranial magnetic stimulation and eye-tracking protocol. Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation was delivered to the hand representation of the left motor cortex during (i) observation of a static hand, (ii) AO of a hand squeezing a sponge, (iii) AO of the same action with an audio recording of the word "squeeze," and (iv) AO of the same action with an audio recording of the word "green". Motor evoked potentials were recorded from the abductor pollicis brevis and abductor digiti minimi muscles of the right hand. Eye gaze was recorded throughout the four conditions as a proxy for visual attention. Interviews were conducted to discuss participants' preferences and imagery use for each condition. The AO and action verb condition resulted in significantly increased motor evoked potential amplitudes in the abductor pollicis brevis; participants also made significantly more fixations on the sponge and reported wanting to move their hand. The inclusion of auditory action verbs, alongside AO stimuli, in movement simulation interventions could have implications for the delivery of AO interventions for motor (re)learning

An experimental test of a cognitive defusion exercise.

This study investigated the impact of defusion on a nonclinical sample ( n = 60) in the context of negative (e.g., “I am a bad person”) and positive (e.g., “I am whole”) self-statements. Participants were assigned to one of three experimental conditions (Pro-Defusion, Anti-Defusion, and Neutral) that manipulated instruc - tions about the impact of a defusion strategy. Defusion was also manipulated through the visual presentation of the self-statements, with each presented in three formats (Normal, Defused, Abnormal). Participants rated each self-state - ment for comfort, believability, and willingness. Although the instructions did not affect ratings, negative statements presented in the defused format de - creased discomfort and increased willingness and believability relative to the nondefused statements. The findings suggest using defusion strategies in coping with negative psychological conten