Concrete Concepts Research Articles

Abstract concepts and expertise: the case of institutional concepts

Recent views recognize that abstract concepts encompass a variety of exemplars, each relying on different dimensions, including not only sensorimotor but also inner, linguistic, and social experiences. How these dimensions characterize types of abstract concepts, and whether their weight varies across contexts and individuals remains an open question. We investigated the role of linguistic and social situations in the processing of institutional concepts, such as justice, by individuals with different levels of expertise. In a priming study, legal experts and non-experts were asked to respond to target words (go-trials) consisting of different kinds of abstract (institutional, theoretical) and concrete concepts (food, tools) and to ignore filler words (no-go trials). The verbal stimuli were primed by pictures depicting social-action, linguistic-social, linguistic-textual situations, and a control condition. As predicted, critical priming modulated performance on abstract concepts, likely due to their highly context-dependent meaning. Interestingly, we found that the processing of institutional concepts was selectively facilitated by social action prime, suggesting that this situational content may be integrated to support their representation. Crucially, the dialogic context, the linguistic social prime, affected more non-experts than law-experts, who tended to frame institutional concepts as shared idea for regulating social practices. Our results show that linguistic and social inputs become differently salient for institutional concepts representation depending on individual competence.

Semantic feature salience matters: new values of significance and relative weight for the Spanish feature norms for young and older adults

Abstract To determine the semantic importance of certain features has been a topic of interest for many semantic memory models. Diverse measures have been proposed in the last years. Semantic significance, the latest measure proposed by Montefinese and colleagues, is both sophisticated and comprehensive. Given the cultural and linguistic variability of semantic measures, this study presents values of significance and relative weight for the Spanish-speaking population corresponding to 400 concrete concepts. First, we presented data for both young and older adults. Second, we assessed the effect of significance on response times in two speeded feature verification tasks. Third, we compared significance values with the existing Italian significance norms. To evaluate the effect of significance to predict response times, two speeded verification tasks (Experiment 1 and 2) were carried out, selecting a total of a 130 concepts for analysis. In Experiment 1, subjects were presented with a feature followed by a concept, while in Experiment 2, the order of stimulus presentation was reversed (i.e., the concept was presented before the feature). An independent linear mixed model showed that significance was a good predictor of response latencies in Experiments 1 and 2. Moreover, results revealed a strong positive correlation between the Spanish and Italian significance values. Findings are discussed in terms of recent theories of semantic cognition.

Reevaluating student-centred education: uncovering learning difficulties stemming from empiricist epistemological assumptions

ABSTRACT This paper demonstrates that recurrent difficulties students encounter in learning subject-matter knowledge can be traced, in part, to assumptions about how students best learn knowledge that significantly shape instructional approaches. First, I review the significant influence of empiricist epistemological assumptions on education, covering student-centred pedagogical principles and instructional methods applied in progressive, constructivist, and conventional education. Empiricist epistemological assumptions presume that students learn best by relying primarily on and directly building upon their existing knowledge, experiences, and reasoning, particularly those familiar from everyday life. These assumptions have shaped pedagogical principles and methods such as relying on students' preinstructional knowledge and reasoning, concrete experiences, direct observations, or concrete visual images for learning. Next, I review evidence that empiricist-informed instructional applications often induce learning difficulties, such as erroneous inferences stemming from students' preinstructional knowledge, difficulty understanding content that diverges from students' prior knowledge, and confusion between concrete supports and abstract concepts. By tracing these difficulties to empiricist epistemological assumptions, this paper employs a genealogical epistemological analysis, which tracks the influence of epistemological assumptions on education across several levels, from pedagogical principles to instructional methods, down to students' learning. This analysis (a) explains the roots of certain learning difficulties and aids in anticipating them, (b) challenges pedagogical approaches by questioning their epistemological foundations, and (c) examines how the influence of problematic assumptions is connected to alignment with internationally promoted educational purposes. The influence of epistemological assumptions on education is significant yet understudied. Thus, the genealogical epistemological analysis proves crucial to critically analyze education.

Research Progress on Electrical Properties of Self-sensing Concrete

In order to effectively avoid the different degrees of impact and damage to the existing buildings and structures, it is particularly important to strengthen the health detection of such structures and facilities, which is also an important research field in the development of green building discipline. Smart concrete is both structural and functional, and has the potential of self-monitoring of concrete structures. This paper reviews the basic concepts of self-sensing concrete, including the research progress of self-sensing concrete materials, and summarizes the classification of different conductive phase materials and their conductive properties. Secondly, the basic mechanical properties and electrical properties of self-sensing concrete are discussed. The factors affecting the perceptual performance of self-sensing concrete considered by different scholars are summarized. It is concluded that few scholars have studied the mechano-electric interaction evaluation mechanism that takes the electrical parameters into account the stress, strain, crack or damage of concrete, and evaluates mechanical properties and crack propagation length through the change of electrical signals. Finally, the importance of self-sensing performance of intelligent concrete is emphasized, and the prospect of future research is put forward.

Neural representations of concreteness and concrete concepts are specific to the individual.

Different people listening to the same story may converge upon a largely shared interpretation while still developing idiosyncratic experiences atop that shared foundation. What linguistic properties support this individualized experience of natural language? Here, we investigate how the "concrete-abstract" axis - i.e., the extent to which a word is grounded in sensory experience - relates to within- and across-subject variability in the neural representations of language. Leveraging a dataset of human participants of both sexes who each listened to four auditory stories while undergoing functional MRI, we demonstrate that neural representations of "concreteness" are both reliable across stories and relatively unique to individuals, while neural representations of "abstractness" are variable both within individuals and across the population. Using natural language processing tools, we show that concrete words exhibit similar neural representations despite spanning larger distances within a high-dimensional semantic space, which potentially reflects an underlying representational signature of sensory experience - namely, imageability - shared by concrete words but absent from abstract words. Our findings situate the concrete-abstract axis as a core dimension that supports both shared and individualized representations of natural language.Significance Statement The meaning of spoken language is often ambiguous. As a result, people may form different interpretations despite being presented with the same information. What properties of language does the brain leverage to form this diverse, individual experience? Analyses of functional MRI data demonstrated that "concreteness", the extent to which language is related to sensory experience, evoked reliable neural patterns that were unique to individual subjects and allowed us to identify individuals solely based on their neural data. Application of machine learning methods showed that sets of concrete concepts, but not abstract concepts, show stable neural patterns, potentially due to a sensory signature: imageability. Overall, this study characterizes concreteness as a central property supporting the individualized experience of real-world language.

Technological Innovation in The Exploration of 5.0 Education Based Self Esteem-Exceed Model on Gifted Intelligent Students

To be able to achieve success in their life, gifted intelligent students do not only need to optimize their cognitive function, but also to manage their self esteem. There have been many cases where students with high intellectual capacity failed in their life and work. This study aims to integrate technological innovation with the exploration of 5.0 educational based self esteem model or Exploration of Self Esteem Model (Exseed) in order to strengthen the character of gifted intelligent students. 5.0 education emphasizes the use of technology as an instrument to enrich learning experience. 5.0 educational approach enables the integration of technology such as Artificial Intelligent (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR) into the learning process. In this study, technology is used as a tool to create an immersive learning experience in order to help gifted intelligent students to understand abstract concepts as well as they understand concrete concepts. Research method used in this study was the waterfall method. Waterfall method has five stages, namely, analyzing requirements, designing, applying, testing, and maintaining. The result of this study is a technological product for the Exploration of 5.0 Educational Based Self Esteem Model which is called Exseed to strengthen the characters of gifted intelligent students. Practical implication of this study includes the development of Exseed learning platform which can be adjusted with the individual need of gifted intelligent students as well as the improvement of learning involvement through the use of technology. Technology Integration in 5.0 educational based Exseed to explore self esteem of gifted intelligent students can be a progressive step to strengthen characters in the context of inclusive learning centered on them.

Representational visuals of abstract financial concepts: A means to foster financial literacy

Financial literacy is crucial for making sound financial decisions and living a better life. However, the field of finance is full of abstract concepts, such as inflation, liquidity, asset allocation and credit. Abstract concepts may be harder to comprehend than concrete concepts due to their lack of tangible referents in the physical world. In contrast, concrete concepts (e.g., car or house) have a palpable form and can be directly experienced through the senses. Against this background, the question arises of how instructional material can be designed in a way that helps people acquire knowledge about abstract financial concepts. Multimedia learning theories suggest complementing verbal information with visuals that represent the respective topic or concept. Since abstract financial concepts lack palpable, concrete forms, these representational visuals are not simply available but have to be developed. Based on grounded cognition theory, this article discusses three approaches, ‘situations’, ‘emotions’ and ‘metaphors’, which might be used to generate representational visuals of abstract financial concepts. This study aims to provide ideas and enhance our understanding of how grounded cognition theory can be utilized as a guideline to create representational visuals of abstract financial concepts and thus multimedia learning material, which in turn may support increasing people's financial literacy.

Conceptual structure of emotions.

Theories of semantic organization have historically prioritized investigation of concrete concepts pertaining to inanimate objects and natural kinds. As a result, accounts of the conceptual representation of emotions have almost exclusively focused on their juxtaposition with concrete concepts. The present study aims to fill this gap by deriving a large set of normative feature data for emotion concepts and assessing similarities and differences between the featural representation of emotion, nonemotion abstract, and concrete concepts. We hypothesized that differences between the experience of emotions (e.g., happiness and sadness) and the experience of other abstract concepts (e.g., equality and tyranny), specifically regarding the relative importance of interoceptive states, might drive distinctions in the dimensions along which emotion concepts are represented. We also predicted, based on constructionist views of emotion, that emotion concepts might demonstrate more variability in their representation than concrete and other abstract concepts. Participants listed features which we coded into discrete categories and contrasted the feature distributions across conceptual types. Analyses revealed statistically significant differences in the distribution of features among the category types by condition. We also examined variability in the features generated, finding that, contrary to expectation, emotion concepts were associated with less variability. Our results reflect subtle differences between the structure of emotion concepts and the structure of, not only concrete concepts, but also other abstract concepts. We interpret these findings in the context of our sample, which was restricted to native English speakers, and discuss the importance of validating these findings across speakers of different languages. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Thinking and Unthinking the Present: Philosophy after Foucault

What might a contemporary philosophical practice after and following Foucault look like? After briefly analyzing Foucault’s rather ambiguous stance towards academic philosophy in his posthumously published Le discours philosophique, we argue for continuing his historico-philosophical practice of diagnosing the present. This means taking up his analytic heuristic (with its three dimensions of power, knowledge and subjectivity) rather than his more concrete diagnostic concepts and the specific historical results they yield. We argue that the common methodological operation on each of the three axis is to shift the perspective from the given legitimacies, norms, identities and selves to their historical, conflict-ridden emergence. Practicing philosophy in this way allows developing Foucauldian contributions in two contemporary philosophical debates: critical ontology and political epistemology. While ontology and epistemology might seem surprising fields to work in for philosophers inspired by and critically loyal to Foucault, we attempt to dispel these reservations and illustrate the stakes in both debates, pointing to the urgent issues of ecological questions and of the problematization of untruths in politics respectively.

The differential illusion memory for high-associated abstract concepts (DIM-HA) effect.

A vast body of evidence has shown that concrete concepts are processed faster and more accurately than abstract concepts in a variety of cognitive tasks. This phenomenon is widely known as the concreteness effect, and explanations for its occurrence seem to reflect differences in processing and organization for both types of representations. While there is considerable evidence to support this concreteness effect, the nature of these differences is still controversial. In developing an explanation, we have proposed a relatively different approach from a false memory perspective using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. To explore the implications of the association in creating false memories, we explore behavioral and electrophysiologically the false memory effect, where targets were manipulated according to their association strength and their concreteness. Results showed that false recognition rates differed significantly between concrete and abstract critical words when they were associated strongly with their respective lists, which led to a higher proportion of abstract false alarms both in behavioral and electrophysiological experiments. The principal outcome, which was called the DIM-HA effect, was discussed in terms of theories of associative activation and qualitatively different representation.

Mechanism of healing, strength, and durability concepts of bacteria concrete - a review

Abstract Research work is going on to explore the concept of self-healing concrete. Outcome of the investigation reveals potential of bacteria concrete. Self-healing capacity imparted to the concrete by incorporating bacteria. Traditional methods reported in the literature such as epoxy injection, grouting, drilling, and plugging and gravity filling method have environmental impact, require more maintenance and are time consuming. The self-healing mechanism can be a better alternative to compensate these defects due to ecofriendly nature. Self-healing mechanism involves the production of CaCO3 precipitate deposites in crack region. Review paper focused on self-healing efficiency, water permeability, chloride penetration, compressive strength, flexural strength and recovery of water tightness, percentage weight loss of both conventional and bacterial concrete. For good environment tomorrow and better sustainability, self-healing conceptin concrete structure contributes promising technology.

Curriculum Implementation Index for Geography Learning in East Java, Indonesia

Curriculum changes often occur in Indonesia. However, studies regarding the gap between curriculum planning and implementation are still very limited. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the Curriculum Implementation Index for Geography Learning in East Java. In this study, we used a curriculum implementation index for geography subjects. This study used purposive sampling with several considerations, such as the region distribution of geography teachers and school accreditation. The number of respondents is determined by selecting the person directly related to geography learning and its relation to curriculum implementation. We observed 30 geography teachers to determine curriculum implementation. The curriculum implementation index was used to evaluate consistency between curriculum planning and implementation, as indicated by teachers’ activities and several concepts in geography learning. The results show that the readiness of teachers to implement the curriculum in the laboratory, literature, and media aspects is in the low category. This is indicated by a laboratory index of 1.03, a literature index of 1.58, and a media index of 1.87. This low index means that geography learning does not meet the 2013 curriculum standards, especially in physical geography material, which needs laboratories and media to explain concrete concepts in geography learning. Implementing the 2013 curriculum in geography learning has not met the characteristics of the concrete idea of geography learning, which requires visualization for physical and environmental aspects.Keywords: Curriculum Implementation; Geography Learning; Index; East Java

Шинжлэх ухааны салбаруудын ангиллын шинэ үзэл баримтлал

It’s become necessary to consider the general classifications of the scientific field in order to organize fundamental issues such as educational contents, methodology and evaluation. When it comes to the new concept of classification of the branches of the sciences, there are two main groups: formal sciences and empirical sciences. This does not clash with the traditional classifications of both Herbert Spencer nor Charles Sanders Pierce. It can be seen through studies that this is the most suitable classification when it comes to the basics of philosophy of sciences. Mathematics and all branches of computer sciences falls under formal sciences while other sciences fall under empirical sciences. From a perspective of metaphysical view on the existence of all beings, formal sciences study an abstract concept system, while empirical sciences study a concrete concept system. From a perspective of epistemology, formal sciences are based on mental learning and empirical sciences are based on sensory learning. From a perspective of logic, formal sciences do analytic procedure and concludes a deduction while empirical sciences do synthetic procedure and concludes induction. From a perspective of the theory of knowledge, the outcome of formal sciences creates a priori knowledge while the outcome of empirical sciences creates a posteriori knowledge.

Ethical Discourse of Responsibility in The Covid19 Pandemic Humanitarian Disaster

This article aims to elaborate on how Emmanuel Levinas' discourse on the ethics of responsibility applies to the humanitarian crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Levinas offers a concrete ethical concept for addressing humanitarian issues, distinguishing himself from earlier ethical philosophy experts. The research method employed is qualitative, utilizing a literature review approach. The findings and discussion reveal that Levinas' perspective on the ethics of responsibility emphasizes concrete responsibility in encounters with the 'Face of the Other'. Furthermore, responsibility represents a form of human identity from a humanitarian perspective when facing the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Levinas, unconditional responsibility is not something we receive or a rule we agree to bind ourselves to, but rather something that exists before we make any decisions. Unconsciously, we already have unlimited responsibility towards others. The conclusion drawn is that adhering to health protocols is a concrete manifestation of Levinas' ethics of responsibility in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it is oriented towards the safety of others. Levinas' ethics of responsibility is asymmetrical. The ethical discourse on responsibility discussed in this study is limited to the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, thus it has limitations in broader explanations. Although Levinas' grand ideas may not suffice to solve all the ethical issues we face, their strength lies in reminding us of the inherent nature of ethical demands that should underpin all moral theories. Levinas invites us to reconsider the essence of ethical responsibility, which transcends formal rules and agreements, towards a deeper understanding of our relationships with others

Learning of Concepts: A Review of Relevant Advances Since 2010 and Its Inspirations for Teaching

This article reviews the psychological and neuroscience achievements in concept learning since 2010 from the perspectives of individual learning and social learning, and discusses several issues related to concept learning, including the assistance of machine learning about concept learning. In terms of individual learning, current evidence shows that the brain tends to process concrete concepts through typical features (shared features); and for abstract concepts, semantic processing is the most important cognitive way. In terms of social learning, interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) is considered the main indicator of efficient knowledge transfer (such as teaching activities between teachers and students), but this phenomenon only broadens the channels for concept sources and does not change the basic mode of individual concept learning. Ultimately, this article argues that the way the human brain processes concepts depends on the concept’s own characteristics, so there are no “better” strategies in teaching, only more “suitable” strategies.

Barriers and Enablers for Green Concrete Adoption: A Scientometric Aided Literature Review Approach

Green concrete is a concept of concrete that uses waste materials to reduce its environmental impact and has various benefits for the environment, economy, and society, such as lower construction cost, less landfill waste, new waste markets, and better quality of life. This study aims to investigate and analyze the barriers and enablers for green concrete development and implementation, based on a mixed-method approach that combines a scientometric analysis and a literature review. The Scopus database was explored first and then these data were used to investigate and capture six categories of barriers and enablers: awareness, technical, economic and market, implementation, support/promotion, and social. Results reveal that the technical and operational aspects are the main challenges for green concrete, while the awareness and social acceptance are not major issues. The current study surpasses the mere popularization of green concrete. Instead, it delves into its multifaceted dimensions, that is, technical, economic, social, and institutional. By meticulously analyzing a diverse group of research articles, key challenges and opportunities associated with green concrete are pinpointed. The findings not only deepen our understanding of the barriers impeding the widespread adoption of green concrete, but also shed light on potential solutions. In summary, this work bridges theory and practice, providing invaluable insights for future researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in the sustainable construction domain.

Okul Öncesi Eğitimde Yeni Gelişen Bir Kavram Olarak Dijital Vatandaşlık

The preschool period is a process in which the child learns basic concepts. In this respect, learning takes place thanks to the experiences gained with concrete concepts. In particular, various tools and materials help to make the concepts used in daily life permanent. The most important of these are the technological devices brought by the age. Technological devices that exist in all areas of life have also become an indispensable element in the life of children in the preschool period. Technology offers various possibilities for many areas of interest of the child. Technology, which offers numerous opportunities for playing games, having fun, exploring and learning activities, can make a positive contribution to children when used correctly. It can be useful in preparing children for school in the preschool period. However, the widespread use of technological tools facilitates access and sharing of information and provides positive contributions such as problem solving, analytical and creative thinking, having fun, peer communication, while also increasing situations that may pose a risk to children and negatively affect them. Digital technology, which is an integral part of daily life, also causes the importance of children's outdoor activities to decrease. With the increase in the time given to technological devices, the games that the child communicates face-to-face and plays as a group have been replaced by individual games. Excessive television viewing and passive media use by a child cause delayed speech, social withdrawal problems, reduced cooperation and sharing skills, nutrition and sleep disorders. Key Words: Preschool Education, Development, Progress, Digital Citizenship

Verbal Symbols Support Concrete but Enable Abstract Concept Formation: Evidence From Brain‐Constrained Deep Neural Networks

AbstractConcrete symbols (e.g., sun, run) can be learned in the context of objects and actions, thereby grounding their meaning in the world. However, it is controversial whether a comparable avenue to semantic learning exists for abstract symbols (e.g., democracy). When we simulated the putative brain mechanisms of conceptual/semantic grounding using brain‐constrained deep neural networks, the learning of instances of concrete concepts outside of language contexts led to robust neural circuits generating substantial and prolonged activations. In contrast, the learning of instances of abstract concepts yielded much reduced and only short‐lived activity. Crucially, when conceptual instances were learned in the context of wordforms, circuit activations became robust and long‐lasting for both concrete and abstract meanings. These results indicate that, although the neural correlates of concrete conceptual representations can be built from grounding experiences alone, abstract concept formation at the neurobiological level is enabled by and requires the correlated presence of linguistic forms.

Poeticizing medical moods during pandemics: a cognitive psychoanalysis of COVID-19 metaphors in doctors’ poetry

ABSTRACT This paper is a cognitive psychoanalysis of COVID-19 metaphors in four poems composed by doctors during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to demonstrate the efficacy of Metaphor as a vehicle for expressing different medical temperaments and modeling doctors’ psychological responses to the pandemic. Using Conceptual Metaphor theory as the theoretical framework, the study investigates the metaphorical expressions doctors use by framing them in terms of concrete concepts to make the abstract moods behind them more easily comprehensible. The study finds that doctors use medical imagination to generate metaphorical devices related to Hospital, Heart, Military, and Climate to express feelings of stress depression, self-affirmation, and elation. The study attempts to respond to the enormous need of the literary-stylistic investigation of Medicinal poetry as a representation of constructive collaboration between medicine and literature and offering reflections of the accounts of human psychology in times of global health crises.

SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIATION OF HOMONYMOUS NOUNS OF THE MODERN GERMAN LANGUAGE

The article explores the semantic features of homonyms and the methods used to differentiate them in speech. A comprehensive sampling from the explanatory dictionaries Duden (2023), Langenscheidt (2019), and Wahrig (2018) revealed 2,128 homonymous nouns, which were grouped into 1,018 homonymous series. A component analysis of these homonymous nouns indicated that the majority refer to people or groups of people, as well as artificial objects. Other significant lexical-semantic groups, in descending order, encompass human social status, place names, fauna, mechanisms and devices, food and drink, measurements, actions, flora, art, language, human attributes, buildings, abstract concepts, natural things, and spatial objects. Statistical analysis shows that concrete concepts are more likely to be listed as the first or second homonym in the dictionary, while abstract concepts typically appear in third to fifth positions. This pattern reflects a broader principle in human activity organization, including language, where development progresses from simple to complex, from familiar to unfamiliar, and from observable to abstract. It has been determined that, in the majority of cases (86%), homonyms belong to different lexical and semantic groups, providing a natural form of differentiation within the language system. Homonyms that belong to the same lexical-semantic group are distinguished by factors such as grammatical gender, different plural forms, and social, regional, stylistic, or chronological markers. These distinctions enable a clear understanding of their meanings, reducing the ambiguity traditionally associated with homonymy. This observation suggests that the common belief that homonymy is a significant obstacle to communication may be overstated, as the above-mentioned factors allow for effective differentiation, ensuring that the risk of misinterpretation is not as frequent as one might expect.