Cognition

""This study aims to examine language dominance and language switching effects in a series of monolingual and multilingual lexical decisions in which participants have to decide if the presented letter string is a word or not, regardless of language. Thirty participants (12 French-English bilinguals and 18 French-English-Spanish trilinguals) were recruited for two different
experiments. In Experiment 1, 12 bilinguals processed two monolingual lists (L1 and L2) followed by a bilingual list (with L1 and L2 words). The results indicate faster answers and better accuracy for L1 words compared to L2 words in both lists, and a general slowdown of processing in the bilingual list, highlighting language switching effects (switch from L2 to L1 faster than from L1 to L2). In Experiment 2, 18 trilinguals performed successively monolingual (L1, L2 and L3), bilingual (L1L2, L1L3, L2L3) and
trilingual (L1L2L3) lists. The results show a slowdown of word processing as a function of number of languages involved, even for the dominant language (L1). Moreover, a language switching effect was found for all multilingual lists, in larger proportions when the list involves the two weakest languages (L2 and L3). Results are discussed in the light of interactive models of bilingual visual word processing.""

"Abstract:
In nowadays it is noticeable a new social dynamic in which scientific communication take a more preponderant place. In contemporary, inserted in the information society, knowledge is set as a productive force and as the main agent in the organization of power. The channels of popularization of science, integrated with the information technologies of communication, become privilege sources in the construction of a world perception and the generation of new skills, providing to the individual new sets of tools capable of applying these know ledges in
the administrative possibilities of life.

Resumo:
Na atualidade percebe-se uma nova dinâmica social em que a comunicação científica ocupa um lugar preponderante. Na contemporaneidade, inseridos na Sociedade da Informação, o conhecimento configura-se como força produtiva e como agente principal na organização do poder. Os canais da popularização da ciência, integrados às Tecnologias da Informação da Comunicação, passam a ser fontes privilegiadas na construção da percepção do mundo e para a geração de novas habilidades, proporcionando ao sujeito instrumentos capazes para a aplicação desse conhecimento nas possibilidades e administração da vida."

Apesar de as decisões serem essenciais ao planejamento, esse conceito não tem recebido a devida atenção na literatura, especialmente se considerarmos os avanços obtidos em outros campos do conhecimento, com especial destaque para as abordagens do apoio à decisão construtivista e da psicologia comportamental. Este artigo faz um breve apanhado de alguns desses avanços e, a partir deles, explora as repercussões de sua incorporação e reenquadramento em uma teoria do planejamento urbano. Para isso, inicialmente define o conceito de decisão adotado e propõe uma classificação das decisões em três tipos: executivas, substantivas e processuais. Em seguida, explora quatro aspectos essenciais do planejamento cujo entendimento pode ser aprofundado sob a ótica da decisão: a) a construção de convicção sobre o problema; b) o caráter dinâmico da formulação do problema; c) a dificuldade e a necessidade de estimar desdobramentos futuros; d) as relações entre meios, fins e os conflitos de interesses envolvidos; e e) a necessidade de abrangência e exaustividade. Por fim, esses aspectos são utilizados como base para a identificação de fragilidades nos atuais esforços de elaboração de planos de desenvolvimento urbano e de oportunidades de aperfeiçoamento na direção processos mais justos, democráticos e eficazes.

The reminiscence bump is the effect that people recall more personal events from early adulthood than from childhood or adulthood. The bump has been examined extensively. However, the question of whether the bump is caused by differential encoding or re-sampling is still unanswered. To examine this issue, participants were asked to name their three favourite books, movies, and records. Furthermore, they were asked when they first encountered them. We compared the temporal distributions and found that they all showed recency effects and reminiscence bumps. The distribution of favourite books had the largest recency effect and the distribution of favourite records had the largest reminiscence bump. We can explain these results by the difference in rehearsal. Books are read two or three times, movies are watched more frequently, whereas records are listened to numerous times. The results suggest that differential encoding initially causes the reminiscence bump and that re-sampling increases the bump further.

The reminiscence bump is the tendency to recall relatively many personal events from the period in which the individual was between 10 and 30 years old. This effect has only been found in autobiographical memory studies that used participants who were older than 40 years of age. The increased recall of recent events possibly obscures the reminiscence bump in the results of younger participants. In this study, a model was proposed that removes the increase for recent events from the temporal distribution. The model basically estimates a retention function based on the 10 most recent years from the observed distributions and divides the observed distributions by predictions derived from the estimated retention function. The model was examined with three simulated data sets and one experimental data set. The results of the experiment offered two practical examples of how the model could be used to investigate the temporal distribution of autobiographical memories.

Using a managerial cognition lens, we investigate the organisational design issues facing multinational corporation (MNC) managers. We apply concepts hitherto untested in the international management (IM) literature to a longitudinal study of reconfiguration efforts within a large, Asian MNC. We focus on how organisational design outcomes can be affected through mental interventions that provoke changes in senior executives’ mental representations of what the MNC is and can be to achieve a strategic re-direction and redesign. We draw on extensive interview and other qualitative data. Our study contributes to the literatures on MNC design and to our understanding of the important, but largely neglected, micro-foundational role of cognition in IM. This field research on executive judgment and decision-making in real time offers unique insights into the dynamics of MNC design.

The reminiscence bump is the higher prevalence of autobiographical memories from adolescence and early adulthood. The reminiscence bump has also been found in the memory for public events, which Koppel and Berntsen (2014) recently suggested could be explained by cultural life scripts. Life scripts are culturally shared knowledge about the order and timing of life events in an idealized life course. They are examined by categorizing which events are expected to occur in a prototypical person’s life and when these events are supposed to occur. The present study found, however, no support for life scripts as an explanation for the reminiscence bump in the memory for public events. Most public events were expected to occur before the reminiscence bump period. Although there was some agreement about which public events are likely to happen in a prototypical person’s life, there was little agreement about when these events are supposed to occur.