Functionally referential signals: a promising paradigm whose time has passed

Finding the evolutionary origins of human language in the communication systems of our closest living relatives has, for the last several decades, been a major goal of many in the field of animal communication generally and primate communication specifically.1–4 The so-called “functionally referential” signals have long been considered promising in this regard, with apparent parallels with the semantic communication that characterizes language. The once-prominent idea that functionally referential signals are word-like, in that they are arbitrary sounds that refer to phenomena external to the caller, has largely been abandoned.5 However, the idea that these signals may offer the strongest link between primate communication and human language remains widespread, primarily due to the fact the behavior of receivers indicates that such signals enable them to make very specific inferences about their physical or social environment. Here we review the concept of functional reference and discuss modern perspectives that indicate that, although the sophistication of receivers provides some continuity between nonhuman primate and human cognition, this continuity is not unique to functionally referential signals. In fact, because functionally referential signals are, by definition, produced only in specific contexts, receivers are less dependent on the integration of contextual cues with signal features to determine an appropriate response. The processing of functionally referential signals is therefore likely to entail simpler cognitive operations than does that of less context-specific signals. While studies of functional reference have been important in highlighting the relatively sophisticated processes that underlie receiver behavior, we believe that the continued focus on context-specific calls detracts from the potentially more complex processes underlying responses to more unspecific calls. In this sense, we argue that the concept of functional reference, while historically important for the field, has outlived its usefulness and become a red herring in the pursuit of the links between primate communication and human language

Zur Beziehung zwischen Architektur und Ort. Architekturtheoretische Reflexionen zum kontextuellen Entwerfen am Beispiel des herrschaftlichen Profanbaus im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert

Architektur zeichnet sich in besonderem Maße durch ihre enge Bindung zum Ort aus, denn sie ist untrennbar mit ihm verbunden. Während bei den konkret geplanten und ausgeführten Projekten stets eine Auseinandersetzung mit dem Ort erfolgte und der Umgang mit diesem vom Architekten individuelle Lösungen forderte, so fragt der vorliegende Beitrag danach, ob und wie sich das Problem des Ortsbezugs auf der theoretischen Ebene niederschlug. Die architekturtheoretischen Schriften des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts bilden hierfür die Quellenbasis, auf deren Grundlage die theoretischen Reflexionen zum Thema Ortsbezug am Beispiel des herrschaftlichen Profanbaus untersucht werden

The Meaning of Collective Terrorist Threat: Understanding the Subjective Causes of Terrorism Reduces Its Negative Psychological Impact

This article hypothesized that the possibility to construct intellectual meaning of a terrorist attack (i.e., whether participants can cognitively understand why the perpetrators did their crime) reduces the negative psychological consequences typically associated with increased terrorist threat. Concretely, the authors investigated the effect of intellectual meaning (induced by providing additional information about potential economic, cultural, and historical reasons for the terrorist attack) on perceived terrorist threat and associated emotional well-being. Study 1 revealed that pictures of terrorist attacks elicited less experienced terrorist threat when they were presented with background information about the terrorists’ motives (meaning provided) rather than without additional background information (no meaning provided). Study 2 replicated this effect with a different manipulation of terrorist threat (i.e., newspaper article) and clarified the underlying psychological process: Participants in the high terror salience condition with meaning provided experienced less terrorist threat and thus more emotional well-being in the face of crisis than participants in the high terror salience condition without meaning provided. Theoretical and practical implications in the context of psychological health and mass media effects are discussed

Nested Identification in Community Enterprises: Exploring the dynamics of temporal nested identification processes among volunteers in the Finnish community enterprise Livonsaari

One hot topic in the sustainable development debate is the call for alternative business models, focusing not only on financial but also on social and environmental values. A widely underappreciated and underexplored organizational form in this debate is community entrepreneurship. As academics suggest that volunteerism is a crucial element for the existence of community enterprises, this study delves into the organizational structures of community-based enterprises with a particular focus on identification dynamics of volunteers within a community setting. Thus, based on the concept of nested identities, the following intensive single case study, which was conducted in a community-based enterprise (CBE) in the Naantali municipality in Southern Finland, sheds light on identification processes of volunteers and how they, over the course of a seven months program, identify with other individuals, workgroup relationships and the community within a given organizational setting. Our study follows the principles of an ethnographic research design and builds generalizable theory for the two phenomena community enterprising and volunteerism. As an inductive-abductive approach was used for the data analysis procedure, this study furthermore provides empirical validity and contributes to existing theories on temporal nested identification processes. Through our research study, we have generated three key theoretical insights on temporal nested identification processes. First, the identification process appears to be negatively affected when an organizational setting does not enable individuals to pursue their motives within a given time frame. Second, the workgroup target seems to play an integral role in the process, which we found to be tightly connected to the temporality of the volunteer program. Last, our findings suggest that a continuously strong identification with the organizational target appears to have a positive effect on other identification targets over time. Additionally, our findings give reason to suspect that external factors that occur during a timely limited program shape identification dynamics. While events and interactions spur identification in the short-run, the accumulation and mismanagement of tensions appears to impinge on processes in the long-run

Modelling and Fostering Creativity: Two Post- Secondary EAL Teachers’ Journey

Comprend des références bibliographiquesScholarly literature is replete with suggestions for fostering creativity in both teachers and students; however, few articles exist where practitioners appraise these methods and generate theories of their own. After a semester of team teaching using a creative project-based learning (PBL) approach, we reviewed, through a mutual interview process, the theory that underpinned and resulted from our experiences in our English language learning (ELL) classrooms. Our experience with this approach confirmed previous findings on creative teaching, but also included unanticipated challenges and benefits, such as a greater need for feedback and an increased sense of empowerment and ownership in our students

Modelling and Fostering Creativity: Two Post- Secondary EAL Teachers’ Journey

Scholarly literature is replete with suggestions for fostering creativity in both teachers and students; however, few articles exist where practitioners appraise these methods and generate theories of their own. After a semester of team teaching using a creative project-based learning (PBL) approach, we reviewed, through a mutual interview process, the theory that underpinned and resulted from our experiences in our English language learning (ELL) classrooms. Our experience with this approach confirmed previous findings on creative teaching, but also included unanticipated challenges and benefits, such as a greater need for feedback and an increased sense of empowerment and ownership in our students

Modelling and Fostering Creativity: Two Post- Secondary EAL Teachers’ Journey

Scholarly literature is replete with suggestions for fostering creativity in both teachers and students; however, few articles exist where practitioners appraise these methods and generate theories of their own. After a semester of team teaching using a creative project-based learning (PBL) approach, we reviewed, through a mutual interview process, the theory that underpinned and resulted from our experiences in our English language learning (ELL) classrooms. Our experience with this approach confirmed previous findings on creative teaching, but also included unanticipated challenges and benefits, such as a greater need for feedback and an increased sense of empowerment and ownership in our students

MONICA in Hamburg: Towards Large-Scale IoT Deployments in a Smart City

Modern cities and metropolitan areas all over the world face new management challenges in the 21st century primarily due to increasing demands on living standards by the urban population. These challenges range from climate change, pollution, transportation, and citizen engagement, to urban planning, and security threats. The primary goal of a Smart City is to counteract these problems and mitigate their effects by means of modern ICT to improve urban administration and infrastructure. Key ideas are to utilise network communication to inter-connect public authorities; but also to deploy and integrate numerous sensors and actuators throughout the city infrastructure - which is also widely known as the Internet of Things (IoT). Thus, IoT technologies will be an integral part and key enabler to achieve many objectives of the Smart City vision. The contributions of this paper are as follows. We first examine a number of IoT platforms, technologies and network standards that can help to foster a Smart City environment. Second, we introduce the EU project MONICA which aims for demonstration of large-scale IoT deployments at public, inner-city events and give an overview on its IoT platform architecture. And third, we provide a case-study report on SmartCity activities by the City of Hamburg and provide insights on recent (on-going) field tests of a vertically integrated, end-to-end IoT sensor application.Comment: 6 page