Experimenting on Contextualism: Between-Subjects vs. Within-Subjects

According to contextualism, vast majority of natural-language expressions are context-sensitive. When testing whether this claim is reflected in Folk intuitions, some interesting methodological questions were raised such as: which experimental design is more appropriate for testing contextualism – the within- or the between-subject design? The main thesis of this paper is that the between-subject design should be preferred. The first experiment aims at assessing the difference between the results obtained for within-subjects measurements (where all participants assess all contexts) and between-subject measurements (where respondents evaluating different contexts are distinct groups). It is shown that the within-subject design provides data that seems to support contextualism. However, I present an alternative, invariantist interpretation of these results, therefore showing that the within-subject design does not allow to empirically distinguish between contextualism and invariantism. The second experiment further elaborates the issue of how perceiving the contrast between contexts can affect subjects’ judgments – I show that certain kinds of contexts may elicit opposite intuitions when contrasted with different contexts

Spectral barcode label for fighting illegal waste dumps

Illegal waste dumping is one of the biggest problem in environment protection. Shipments of waste are left in wastelands, forests or dumped into the sea. These activities are difficult to suppress because technologies available to track the waste, and hence the people responsible, are very limited.(1) This research focuses on developing an effective, low-cost way of labelling and detecting bulk waste material shipments. The technology is based on an easily retrievable material in the form of micro/nano magnets which are used as carrier for the spectral signal transducers (e.g. dyes and pigments). These pigment carrying magnetic particles are chemically and physically stable, can form unique spectral pattern to use as identifier tag. The project is divided into two parts: (i) the modification of the magnet particles with various dyes and pigments to form spectral codes (ii) the development of analytical technique for code readou

Spectral barcode label for fighting illegal waste dumps

Illegal waste dumping is one of the biggest problem in environment protection. Shipments of waste are left in wastelands, forests or dumped into the sea. These activities are difficult to suppress because technologies available to track the waste, and hence the people responsible, are very limited.(1) This research focuses on developing an effective, low-cost way of labelling and detecting bulk waste material shipments. The technology is based on an easily retrievable material in the form of micro/nano magnets which are used as carrier for the spectral signal transducers (e.g. dyes and pigments). These pigment carrying magnetic particles are chemically and physically stable, can form unique spectral pattern to use as identifier tag. The project is divided into two parts: (i) the modification of the magnet particles with various dyes and pigments to form spectral codes (ii) the development of analytical technique for code readout

Innowacje metodyczne w glottodydaktyce

Kluczem do efektywnego nauczania jest wzbudzenie u uczniów zainteresowania danym przedmiotem. W dobie technologii staje się to coraz trudniejsze. Każdego dnia jesteśmy bombardowani tysiącami obrazów i dźwięków płynących z telewizji, Internetu, czy telefonów komórkowych. Nasze zmysły przyzwyczajają się do tego bogactwa doznań i nie potrafimy wyobrazić sobie życia bez technologii. Nic dziwnego, że podręczniki zdaniem wielu osób to przeżytek. Jednak w większości szkół są one głównym, a czasami jedynym narzędziem w rękach nauczyciela. Lekcje, podczas których uczniowie korzystają wyłącznie z podręczników nie są zbyt interesujące dla młodych umysłów. A przecież wystarczy dodać kilka nowych elementów, aby przyciągnąć ich uwagę. Przygotowanie lekcji opartej o inne materiały niż klasyczny podręcznik wcale nie musi być pracochłonne i wymagać zaawansowanych umiejętności informatycznych – istnieją ogromne bazy materiałów, które przypadną do gustu uczniom w każdym wieku. Niniejszy artykuł poświęcony jest tracycyjnym i nowoczesnym metodom nauczania języka angielskiego. Nie można jednoznacznie stwierdzić, które z nich są bardziej efektywne. Jednak, gdy spojrzymy na obie grupy oczami współczesnego ucznia, innowacyjne metody wydają się być bardziej interesujące. W artykule zawarto również informacje o stosowanych środkach dydaktycznych, które mogą być wykorzystane w szkołach, na kursach językowych, a także do samodzielnej nauki języka angielskiego. Niektóre z nich związane są z technologią, inne wymagają tylko uruchomienia wyobraźni i możliwe sa do zastosowania w różnych grupach wiekowych, a także na różnych poziomach zaawansowania

Kultywując sztukę umierania. W;t Margaret Edson – pomiędzy dramatem a filmem

As death returned to make its mark on the world with the COVID-19 pandemic and, consequently, resurfaced in the social imaginary, we have found ourselves once again full-throatedly asking questions about what it means to die well. These issues lie at the heart of W;t, an American play penned in the early 1990s by Margaret Edson, which could be situated alongside other fictional and true stories that “provide social scripts for dying” (Knox). The play might also be viewed as a modern reference to the medieval tradition of ars bene moriendi and the morality plays linked with that tradition in a symbiotic, synergistic manner. The essay attempts to demonstrate that the meaning underlying Edson’s play (and its television adaptation of 2001) derives primarily from its grappling with the subject of human’s agency in the face of the inevitable. In its close reading of the play, the essay moves between the text, first published in print in 1999, and the screen, to best tap into the interpretive potential of comparing the drama and its film adaptation.As death returned to make its mark on the world with the COVID-19 pandemic and, consequently, resurfaced in the social imaginary, we have found ourselves once again full-throatedly asking questions about what it means to die well. These issues lie at the heart of W;t, an American play penned in the early 1990s by Margaret Edson, which could be situated alongside other fictional and true stories that “provide social scripts for dying” (Knox). The play might also be viewed as a modern reference to the medieval tradition of ars bene moriendi and the morality plays linked with that tradition in a symbiotic, synergistic manner. The essay attempts to demonstrate that the meaning underlying Edson’s play (and its television adaptation of 2001) derives primarily from its grappling with the subject of human’s agency in the face of the inevitable. In its close reading of the play, the essay moves between the text, first published in print in 1999, and the screen, to best tap into the interpretive potential of comparing the drama and its film adaptation