The Influence of Freedom and Choice in Action Selection and the Valence of Action-outcomes on the Sense of Agency

Sense of agency (SoA) refers to the subjective experience that one is the author of their actions and the ensuing outcomes of these actions. Previous research have suggested that both sensorimotor processes and high level inferences can contribute to the SoA. In five experiments, the present thesis examined the effects of action selection processes and the valence of action-outcomes on the SoA. The majority of these experiments measured the SoA by obtaining both subjective feeling of control (FoC) judgments over the action-outcomes, and assessing the size of intentional binding. Intentional binding refers to the perceived temporal attraction between actions and their outcomes, and has been suggested as an implicit measure of the SoA. Experiment 1 manipulated the number of action alternatives as low, medium, and high and examined the effect of choice-level on intentional binding. The results showed that binding was strongest when participants had the maximum number of alternatives, intermediate when they had medium choice-level, and lowest when they had no choice. Experiment 2 recruited western and non-western participants and focused on the impact of pleasantness of action outcomes on both intentional binding and FoC judgment. The results revealed that both western and non-western groups showed greater FoC ratings for the pleasant compared to unpleasant outcomes. Moreover, for the western group only, binding was stronger for pleasant compared to unpleasant outcomes. In Experiment 3, participants performed freely selected and instructed actions, which could produce pleasant or unpleasant outcomes. The results revealed stronger binding and higher FoC ratings in the free- compared to instructed-choice condition. Additionally, FoC ratings were higher for the pleasant compared to the unpleasant outcomes. Similarly, Experiment 4 varied the choice-level between one (instructed), two, three, and four alternatives while the outcome of any choice could be pleasant or unpleasant. The results showed that binding was stronger in the four-choice condition compared to one-, two-, and three-choice conditions, while FoC ratings were systematically increased as the choice-level varied from one to four, and were higher for pleasant compared to unpleasant outcomes. In Experiment 5, participants were primed with either action or neutral images and performed either free or instructed actions. Free actions could be preceded by either neutral (neutral-free) or action primes (primed-free), and instructed actions indicated performing either prime-compatible or prime-incompatible actions. The findings showed that both binding and FoC ratings indicated stronger SoA in the neutral-free condition compared to all remaining modes of action selection. Moreover, these two measures of the SoA were significantly correlated. The overall results from these studies indicate that situational factors surrounding actions determine the contribution of predictive, prospective, and retrospective mechanisms to intentional binding and subjective judgments of agency. Among these factors, the present thesis highlights that one’s freedom in action selection and the availability of various action alternatives can strongly influence the SoA

Change detection and landscape similarity comparison using computer vision methods

Human-induced disturbances of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems continue at alarming rates. With the advent of both raw sensor and analysis-ready datasets, the need to monitor ecosystem disturbances is now more imperative than ever; yet the task is becoming increasingly complex with increasing sources and varieties of earth observation data. In this research, computer vision methods and tools are interrogated to understand their capability for comparing spatial patterns. A critical survey of literature provides evidence that computer vision methods are relatively robust to scale and highlights issues involved in parameterization of computer vision models for characterizing significant pattern information in a geographic context. Utilizing two widely used pattern indices to compare spatial patterns in simulated and real-world datasets revealed their potential to detect subtle changes in spatial patterns which would not otherwise be feasible using traditional pixel-level techniques. A texture-based CNN model was developed to extract spatially relevant information for landscape similarity comparison; the CNN feature maps proved to be effective in distinguishing agriculture landscapes from other landscape types (e.g., forest and mountainous landscapes). For real-world human disturbance monitoring, a U-Net CNN was developed and compared with a random forest model. Both modeling frameworks exhibit promising potential to map placer mining disturbance; however, random forests proved simple to train and deploy for placer mapping, while the U-Net may be used to augment RF as it is capable of reducing misclassification errors and will benefit from increasing availability of detailed training data

Graduate studies calendar

1994 /Titre du dos et de la couv.: Graduate studies calendarLa couv. porte en outre: Thirty years of graduate studies, 1964-199

But where will they build their nest? Liberalism and communitarian resistance in American cinematic portrayals of Jewish-Gentile romances

This dissertation analyzes approximately fifty American films that feature predominantly heterosexual interfaith/intercultural romantic, sexual or marital relations between Jewish and Gentile protagonists. It asks what political or social ideals can be illustrated by these portrayals, and how these films can be taken cumulatively to explore trends in modern life. The author places liberalism at the heart of the mainstream Hollywood discourse on intermarriage, and shows how films that run counter to the expectations of liberal romances may reflect communitarian critiques of liberal tenets.The issue of intermarriage is contextualized with a discussion of the endogamous tradition in Judaism, and by an exploration of American liberalism. Tools used to read the films include genre theory, representational discourses and Thomas Wartenberg's narrative theory of the unlikely couple in film (1999) as a mode of social critique. Main political philosophy theorists engaged include Michael Walzer and Charles Taylor. Some of the key films explored are Keeping the Faith (2000), the 1927 and 1980 versions of The Jazz Singer, and Crossing Delancey (1988).This dissertation does not argue that these films are made with explicitly liberal or communitarian goals, but that they are evocative of the efforts of Americans to contend with modern issues. While close reading of the films themselves was the main goal and method of the work, the author makes suggestions for ways in which future work can examine the impact of these films on the Jewish community, especially in terms of gender relations.Drawing on scholarship of the Jewish image in film, this work builds on previous knowledge in the fields 'of Jewish cultural studies and film studies by giving extensive attention to the intimate relations between Jews and Gentiles. By addressing not only the Hollywood "happy ending" but also the negative outcomes, this work advances new ways of seeing resistance to universalizing tendencies in romance and a critique of the historically dominant liberal ideology in American film. iii; 328 pages.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada), 2010.School code: 1101

Meaning in ancient synagogue art: A study in methodology

Thesis (M.A.)--Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada), 1984.School code: 1101

Witnessing from a distance: Postwar literary representations of the Holocaust

This thesis concerns itself with the possibilities and limits of witnessing the Holocaust from a distance. It analyzes the ways in which the notion of distance -- temporal, geographical, linguistic, and aesthetic -- influences, shapes, and alters the act of bearing witness to a remote historical event, which, because of its enormity, seemingly defies the act of witnessing and thus of representation This study investigates the long-lasting impact of the Holocaust on subsequent generations, particularly on third-generation descendants of victims and perpetrators, and explores how the traumatic legacy of the Holocaust locates new forms of representation within the context of postmodernism, which, because of its emphasis on fragmentation, on the loss of teleology and causality, and its suspicion of master narratives, offers innovative and experimental representational strategies for what has commonly been regarded as unrepresentable.By focussing on the figure of the distant witness, that is, on members of postwar generations, this thesis highlights the representational complexities prompted by the complication of attempting to remember and to represent an event whose very extremities and incomprehensibilities render it, in itself, unrepresentable. Investigating the ways in which memory is constructed and in turn represented, and how this representation, or non-representation, of traumatic memory affects cultural and collective identities, and the ethical responsibility for ongoing remembrance, this thesis ultimately explores the ways in which the notion of distance, as an integral part of the act of witnessing, influences, determines, and shapes how a culture situates itself in relation to its past.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada), 2010.School code: 1101

Special issue on negotiations: introduction

No abstract available© The Author(s) 201

Lavoro e imprenditoria degli italiani in Canada, tra vecchie e nuove generazioni

Il Canada per molto tempo ha costituito una delle mete preferite dell’emigrazione italiana. Nel grande paese nordamericano i nostri connazionali hanno saputo con il tempo dare vita a grandi ed influenti comunità ancora oggi in vita. Attraverso le diverse generazioni gli italiani hanno scalato posizioni sociali e sono arrivati nel tempo a fondare imprese di varia natura. Oggi il Canada è invece meta di un numero minore di italiani ma con professionalità molto elevate, secondo una tendenza da alcuni anni viva nel nostro paese