Alokacja i redystrybucja zasobów mieszkaniowych w Polsce w kontekście koncepcji sprawiedliwości społecznej (Rowlsa i Dworkina)

The article concentrates on social justice in the context of housing allocation and redistribution in Poland, especially the stock of social housing. Consideration is given to the changes currently taking place, which are leading to an increase in social justice, understood in accordance with John Rawls’ concept of distributive justice. The aim of the article is to answer the question of whether the concept of social justice (which is anchored in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland) has an impact on the implemented housing policy. If so, how is horizontal and vertical equity realised in the face of changes and reforms in housing programmes? The analysis of the concept of social justice in housing policy covers the period from 2006, when the programme supporting the purchase of the first flat ‘Rodzina na swoim’ was established, to 2019 and the programme ‘Mieszkanie Plus.’Artykuł koncentruje się na sprawiedliwości społecznej w kontekście lokacji i redystrybucji zasobów mieszkaniowych w Polsce, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem zasobów społecznych. Uwzględniono zachodzące zmiany, wpływające na zwiększenie sprawiedliwości społecznej, rozumianej zgodnie z koncepcją sprawiedliwości dystrybutywnej J. Rawlsa (1971). Celem artykułu jest odpowiedź na pytanie, czy koncepcja sprawiedliwości społecznej (mającej umocowanie w Konstytucji RP) ma wpływ na realizowaną politykę mieszkaniową? Jeśli tak, to w jaki sposób realizowana jest sprawiedliwość pozioma i pionowa w obliczu zmian i reform programów mieszkaniowych? Analiza koncepcji sprawiedliwości społecznej w polityce mieszkaniowej obejmuje okres od roku 2006, kiedy to powołano program wspierający zakup pierwszego mieszkania „Rodzina na swoim”, do roku 2019 i programu Mieszkanie Plus

Evaluating creative ideas:Insights from erps and changes in the upper alpha bank

Thus far, electrophysiological research on creativity has employed production tasks and measured changes in the alpha band in time windows lasting several seconds, while participants produced creative ideas. These studies had, however, limited temporal resolution, which made it difficult to identify specific cognitive processes underlying creative thinking. In the current study, we employed a modified version of the alternate uses task, in which participants evaluated word pairs representing the common, creative, and impossible uses of objects according to how (im)possible and (un)common they seemed. In the even-related potential (ERP) analysis, a graded effect was found, with impossible uses evoking the largest, common the lowest, and creative intermediate N400 amplitudes. Moreover, greater power in the upper alpha band was observed in the creative than common condition in the time window between 400–1000ms. Interestingly, this effect was absent in the lower alpha band, which differs from previous reports in which an increase in both the upper and lower alpha bands was found. The graded N400 effect can be interpreted as reflecting increased activity in semantic memory needed to evaluate the creative word pairs. The difference in the upper alpha band might index increased semantic processing demands and larger inhibition of task-irrelevant information on creative than common trials. Since task demands remain comparable on all trials, these findings seem directly related to cognitive processes involved in evaluating creative ideas

Alokacja i redystrybucja zasobów mieszkaniowych w Polsce w kontekście koncepcji sprawiedliwości społecznej (Rowlsa i Dworkina)

Artykuł koncentruje się na sprawiedliwości społecznej w kontekście lokacji i redystrybucji zasobów mieszkaniowych w Polsce, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem zasobów społecznych. Uwzględniono zachodzące zmiany, wpływające na zwiększenie sprawiedliwości społecznej, rozumianej zgodnie z koncepcją sprawiedliwości dystrybutywnej J. Rawlsa (1971). Celem artykułu jest odpowiedź na pytanie, czy koncepcja sprawiedliwości społecznej (mającej umocowanie w Konstytucji RP) ma wpływ na realizowaną politykę mieszkaniową? Jeśli tak, to w jaki sposób realizowana jest sprawiedliwość pozioma i pionowa w obliczu zmian i reform programów mieszkaniowych? Analiza koncepcji sprawiedliwości społecznej w polityce mieszkaniowej obejmuje okres od roku 2006, kiedy to powołano program wspierający zakup pierwszego mieszkania „Rodzina na swoim”, do roku 2019 i programu Mieszkanie Plus

Re-Representing Metaphor: Modeling Metaphor Perception Using Dynamically Contextual Distributional Semantics

In this paper, we present a novel context-dependent approach to modeling word meaning, and apply it to the modeling of metaphor. In distributional semantic approaches, words are represented as points in a high dimensional space generated from co-occurrence statistics; the distances between points may then be used to quantifying semantic relationships. Contrary to other approaches which use static, global representations, our approach discovers contextualized representations by dynamically projecting low-dimensional subspaces; in these ad hoc spaces, words can be re-represented in an open-ended assortment of geometrical and conceptual configurations as appropriate for particular contexts. We hypothesize that this context-specific re-representation enables a more effective model of the semantics of metaphor than standard static approaches. We test this hypothesis on a dataset of English word dyads rated for degrees of metaphoricity, meaningfulness, and familiarity by human participants. We demonstrate that our model captures these ratings more effectively than a state-of-the-art static model, and does so via the amount of contextualizing work inherent in the re-representational process

Improving Vocabulary Knowledge in Primary Education: An Analysis of an Intervention Programme for Polish-Speaking Children Aged 7–9

This paper discusses a vocabulary intervention programme for monolingual Polish children. Vocabulary instruction was conducted in a group of children aged 7–9 (N = 77) attending a primary school near Gdansk in Poland. Following a pre-test an intervention group (22 pupils receiving instruction over 10 weeks) and a control group (55 pupils) were selected. The taught vocabulary consisted of 20 Polish words. Additionally, another 20 words were carefully selected to form an untaught vocabulary list (control list). Although the intervention group did not achieve a higher mean post-test result in taught words than the control group, the mean increase was larger in the intervention group, confirmed by a test for two means (p = 0.036). The difference was not confirmed for untaught words (p = 0.236). A linear regression model was used to explain which factors influenced post-test results. For taught words only pre-test results had an impact. For untaught words pre-test results and interaction of pre-test results with groups had an impact. The number of sessions attended also influenced post-test results. The paper includes the results of a survey where teachers and parents provided feedback. Although the intervention programme increased children’s vocabulary, it raised some important questions concerning the size of the gain, word selection and conditions of the instruction.This paper discusses a vocabulary intervention programme for monolingual Polish children. Vocabulary instruction was conducted in a group of children aged 7–9 (N = 77) attending a primary school near Gdansk in Poland. Following a pre-test an intervention group (22 pupils receiving instruction over 10 weeks) and a control group (55 pupils) were selected. The taught vocabulary consisted of 20 Polish words. Additionally, another 20 words were carefully selected to form an untaught vocabulary list (control list). Although the intervention group did not achieve a higher mean post-test result in taught words than the control group, the mean increase was larger in the intervention group, confirmed by a test for two means (p = 0.036). The difference was not confirmed for untaught words (p = 0.236). A linear regression model was used to explain which factors influenced post-test results. For taught words only pre-test results had an impact. For untaught words pre-test results and interaction of pre-test results with groups had an impact. The number of sessions attended also influenced post-test results. The paper includes the results of a survey where teachers and parents provided feedback. Although the intervention programme increased children’s vocabulary, it raised some important questions concerning the size of the gain, word selection and conditions of the instruction

Use a Spoon as a Spade?: Changes in the Upper and Lower Alpha Bands in Evaluating Alternate Object Use

Previous electrophysiological research on human creative cognition has related creative ideation to increased activity in the alpha band, an effect which mainly reflects increased general attentional demands. Research on alpha unrelated to creativity has revealed different functional roles of the upper (semantic processes) and lower (attentional processes) alpha sub-bands. At the same time, the need to dissect creative thinking into specific cognitive operations, such as, semantic processing, re-representation, or conceptual expansion has become evident. The main aim of the reported study was to test whether increased semantic processing demands linked to creating conceptual re-representations of objects required for evaluating alternate uses modulate activity in the upper and/or lower alpha sub-bands. For this purpose, we performed an alternate use evaluation task (AUeT), in which participants saw word pairs representing common uses, alternate uses, and unrelated word pairs, and evaluated whether a given use was common or uncommon (question 1), and how usable it was (question 2). Such an approach allowed us to examine the time-course of semantic processing involved in evaluating alternate uses. Additionally, the results could be contrasted with event-related potential (ERP) studies on creative language and semantic processing. We assumed that demands related to access and integration of semantic information needed to create a re-representation of objects (alternate uses) would be larger than in the case of common uses, which do not require creating a re-representation. This should be reflected in more activity in the alpha band in response to alternate than common uses, which was observed in the analysis of the upper alpha band over parieto-occipital sites. In the lower alpha band, more activity over the left than right anterior sites was observed for alternate uses, which might reflect increased attentional demands. Additionally, in the ERP analysis, alternate uses evoked larger N400 (400–500 ms) amplitudes than common uses, a pattern that extended to later time windows (500–1,000 ms). Overall, the results indicate increased semantic processing demands in alternate use evaluation, possibly linked to the creation of conceptual re-representations

Dyslexic individuals orient but do not sustain visual attention:Electrophysiological support from the lower and upper alpha bands

Individuals with developmental dyslexia have been characterized by problems with attentional orienting. In the current study, we specifically focused on possible changes in endogenous visual orienting that may be reflected in the electroencephalogram. A variant of the Posner cuing paradigm was employed with valid or invalid central cues that preceded target stimuli that were presented in the left or right visual field. The target stimuli consisted of vertical or horizontal stripes with low (two thick lines) or high (six thin lines) spatial frequencies. We examined lateralized alpha power in the cue-target interval as recent studies revealed that a contra vs. ipsilateral reduction in alpha power relates to the orienting of attention. An initial orienting effect in the lower alpha band was more pronounced for dyslexic individuals than for controls, suggesting that they oriented at an earlier moment in time. However, in contrast with controls, at the end of the cue-target interval no clear contralateral reduction in the upper alpha band was observed for dyslexic individuals. Dyslexic individuals additionally displayed slower responses, especially for invalidly cued high spatial frequency targets in the left visual field. The current data support the view that dyslexic individuals orient well to the cued location but have a problem with sustaining their attention

Re-representing metaphor:Modeling metaphor perception using dynamically contextual distributional semantics

In this paper, we present a novel context-dependent approach to modeling word meaning, and apply it to the modeling of metaphor. In distributional semantic approaches, words are represented as points in a high dimensional space generated from co-occurrence statistics; the distances between points may then be used to quantifying semantic relationships. Contrary to other approaches which use static, global representations, our approach discovers contextualized representations by dynamically projecting low-dimensional subspaces; in these ad hoc spaces, words can be re-represented in an open-ended assortment of geometrical and conceptual configurations as appropriate for particular contexts. We hypothesize that this context-specific re-representation enables a more effective model of the semantics of metaphor than standard static approaches. We test this hypothesis on a dataset of English word dyads rated for degrees of metaphoricity, meaningfulness, and familiarity by human participants. We demonstrate that our model captures these ratings more effectively than a state-of-the-art static model, and does so via the amount of contextualizing work inherent in the re-representational process

Figurative language impairment in aphasic patients: the effects of the type of figurative trope

Research conducted into the processing of figurative language by aphasic patients has repeatedly demonstrated that such patients experience difficulties comprehending nonliteral forms of discourse such as metaphors, idiomatic expressions, proverbs or irony (see, for example, The aim of the study described in this paper is thus verifying the effect of the type of figurative trope on the aphasic patients' figurative performance. In order to obtain a comprehensive examination of aphasic patients' figurative language skills, a figurative language battery was prepared, consisting of four parts, each of which focuses on a different figurative trope (idioms, metaphors, proverbs, and similes), and employs different tasks (multiple choice test presented on the computer screen, completion of the unfinished metaphorical expression presented orally). Idiomatic expressions used in the figurative battery varied with regard to their well/ill-formedness, opaqueness/transparency and non/literalness; metaphors varied along the dimension of conventionality (conventional vs. novel) and structure (nominal, verbal, adjectival); whereas similes differed in the number of words following the comparative word as. All of the proverbs used in the test were highly familiar, as confirmed in the norming study conducted with a group of Polish healthy adults. The obtained results confirm the essential role of various dimensions of idiom and metaphor variability in influencing figurative language processing in aphasia

The impact of spatial and verbal working memory load on semantic relatedness judgements

Studies using a relatedness judgement task have found differences between prime17 target word pairs that vary in the degree of semantic relatedness (Balota & Paul, 1996; Kuperberg et al., 2008). However, the influence of working memory load on semantic processing in this task and the role of the type of working memory task have not yet been investigated. The present study therefore investigated for the first time the effect of working memory load (low vs. high) and working memory type (verbal vs. spatial) on semantic relatedness judgements. Semantically strongly related (e.g. hip – KNEE), weakly related (e.g. muscle – KNEE) and unrelated (e.g. office – KNEE) Polish word pairs were presented in an experiment involving a dual working memory and semantic relatedness task. The data revealed that, relative to semantically unrelated word pairs, responses were faster for strongly related pairs but slower for weakly related pairs. Importantly, the verbal working memory task decreased facilitation for strongly related pairs and increased inhibition for weakly related pairs relative to the spatial working memory task. Furthermore, working memory load impacted only weakly related pairs in the verbal but not in the spatial working memory task. These results show that working memory type and load influence semantic relatedness judgements, but the direction and size of the impact depend on the strength of semantic relation