Individual Differences In Style Research Articles

Review of Research on Development of Speech Act Theory and Its Application

Speech Act Theory has been the focus of linguistic research since its introduction in the early 1960s. This paper reviews the literature on Speech Act Theory collected from core journals at home and abroad and finds that the theory has been constantly revised and supplemented by domestic and international academics in the process of development; it also finds that Speech Act Theory has been well developed and applied in literature, journalism and communication, education and other fields in recent years, but not much research has been conducted in the field of political speech act. The former focuses on speech strategies, while the latter focuses on individual style differences. By reviewing the development of Speech Act Theory at home and abroad, we can help understand its development prospects and provide a theoretical framework for political speech act research; by reviewing applied research in different fields, we can better understand the application value of Speech Act Theory and provide inspiration on research methods for future political speech act research.

Investigating Everyday Musical Interaction During COVID-19: An Experimental Procedure for Exploring Collaborative Playlist Engagement.

Musical Group Interaction (MGI) has been found to promote prosocial tendencies, including empathy, across various populations. However, experimental study is lacking in respect of effects of everyday forms of musical engagement on prosocial tendencies, as well as whether key aspects—such as physical co-presence of MGI participants—are necessary to enhance prosocial tendencies. We developed an experimental procedure in order to study online engagement with collaborative playlists and to investigate socio-cognitive components of prosocial tendencies expected to increase as a consequence of engagement. We aimed to determine whether mere perceived presence of a partner during playlist-making could elicit observable correlates of social processing implicated in both MGI and prosocial behaviors more generally and identify the potential roles of demographic, musical, and inter-individual differences. Preliminary results suggest that for younger individuals, some of the social processes involved in joint music-making and implicated in empathic processes are likely to be elicited even by an assumption of virtual co-presence. In addition, individual differences in styles of listening behavior may mediate the effects of mere perceived partner presence on recognition memory.

Shifting feminisms

PurposeThe paper aims to shed light on how a group of feminist managers/leaders, in education and social studies departments, a notably under-explored and under-theorised group, “do power” in the increasingly corporatized education marketplace.Design/methodology/approachThe research draws on the narratives of a small group of feminist women who hold authority positions at middle or senior levels. It draws on data from ethnographic interviews and participant observation carried out as part of an in-depth narrative inquiry (Andrews et al., 2008), carried out at three higher education institutions in the UK.FindingsFrom a small sample such as this, any findings are necessarily tentative. Nonetheless, findings suggest that, whilst taking account of individual differences in styles, there has been a shift, over time, in the ways that the management role is approached by some feminist women. Analysis of the data also reveals that gendered expectations remain for those who carry the “feminist” label and asks whether these expectations are realistic.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample group is small which raises questions about what can and cannot be claimed. However, along with Maguire (2008), the author’s purpose is not with generalizability but seeks to explore issues and open up further areas of study.Originality/valueThis paper is an original empirical research which explores an under-researched group of women, namely, feminist managers and leaders who operate within the education marketplace. As they negotiate the challenges of working within the neoliberal academy, these women try, to varying degrees, to remain true to their feminist values and beliefs.

Semantic and emotional content of imagined representations in human occipitotemporal cortex

Mental imagery is a critical cognitive function, clinically important, but poorly understood. When visual objects are perceived, many of their sensory, semantic and emotional properties are represented in occipitotemporal cortex. Visual imagery has been found to activate some of the same brain regions, but it was not known what properties are re-created in these regions during imagery. We therefore examined the representation during imagery for two stimuli in depth, by comparing the pattern of fMRI response to the patterns evoked by the perception of 200 diverse objects chosen to de-correlate their properties. Real-time, adaptive stimulus selection allowed efficient sampling of this broad stimulus space. Our experiments show that occipitotemporal cortex, which encoded sensory, semantic and emotional properties during perception, can robustly represent semantic and emotional properties during imagery, but that these representations depend on the object being imagined and on individual differences in style and reported vividness of imagery.

Attachment theory as a framework for explaining engagement with Facebook

Research on the relation between personality and styles of engagement with social media is surprisingly limited and has generated mixed results. The present research applied attachment theory to illuminate individual differences in styles of Facebook engagement. Two studies (N=583) supported a mediational model explaining various forms of active Facebook use as stemming from attachment anxiety, which predisposes individuals to sensitivity about social feedback, thereby leading them to engage in attention-seeking social media behavior. These results held while controlling for extraversion, neuroticism, and self-esteem. Attachment avoidance predicted restrained Facebook use, primarily due to its association with (low) extraversion. These findings resolve inconsistencies in previous research and demonstrate that attachment theory is a particularly useful framework through which to study the influence of personality on social-media behavior.

Multicompetence in L2 Language Play: A Longitudinal Case Study

Humor and language play have been recognized as important aspects of second language (L2) development. Qualitative studies that have documented the forms and functions of language play for adult and child L2 users have taken place largely in classroom settings. In order to gain a fuller understanding of such creative manipulations by L2 users, it is necessary to examine these phenomena across a variety of contexts. In this article, we explore the ways that two L2 users marshal resources to play with language across communicative activities, for various purposes, and with a variety of interlocutors in interaction. Our goal is to gain a fuller view of our participants as multicompetent language users, specifically with respect to their playful communicative repertoires. The data consist of informal conversations which were recorded approximately every 2 weeks over 10–12 months. Episodes framed by the participants as playful were identified across all recordings and were analyzed qualitatively to document patterns of use and participation. Despite individual differences in style, both participants demonstrated sensitivity to context in their use of language play and an awareness of the ways humor functions as a social practice, subtly adjusting their strategies to changing social situations.

I’d Like to Introduce You to My Desktop: Toward a Theory of Social Human-Computer Interaction

Entire industries have grown up around the physiological, cognitive, and economic demands of technology on users, but there is little research into the specific psychological processes and implications of the social function of human-computer interaction (HCI), especially when the computer is programmed to mimic human norms. To understand this issue better, it is necessary to find the limits of what HCI with social capacity means. The Computers are Social Actors paradigm, or CASA (Reeves & Nass, 1996) began this exploration. We begin by replicating aspects of a study on acts of reciprocity toward a computer (Fogg 1997), then we consider the role of agreeableness in the number of favors a human performs for a computer. Finally, we examine individual differences in styles of altruism and if a strange computer is treated similarly to an unknown human. We hypothesize a) that a helpful computer elicits more favors than an unhelpful computer, b) that high agreeable people are more generous to a software agent than low agreeable people, and c) that a positive correlation exists between the number of favors performed for a computer and an individual’s trait of reciprocal altruism. Data analysis of 54 participants shows that the helpfulness of the computer is not significantly correlated to the number of favors performed for it, that agreeableness has a negative correlation to number of favors performed when the computer is helpful, and that reciprocal altruism is negatively correlated to the number of favors performed for a computer. A discussion of the possible limitations and implications of the research follows.

Strategies for accommodating individuals’ styles and preferences in flexible learning programmes

AbstractThere has been a considerable growth in the use of flexible methods of delivery for workplace learning and development. However, in designing programmes of flexible learning there is often the assumption that learners will exhibit uniformity in the ways in which they process and organise information (cognitive style), in their predispositions towards particular learning formats and media (instructional preferences) and the conscious actions they employ to deal with the demands of specific learning situations (learning strategies). In adopting such a stance one runs the risk of ignoring important aspects of individual differences in styles, preferences and strategies. Our purpose in this paper will be to: (i) consider some aspects of individual difference that are pertinent to the delivery of flexible learning in the workplace; (ii) identify some of the challenges that extant differences in styles and preferences between individuals may raise for instructional designers and learning facilitators; (iii) suggest ways in which models of flexible learning design and delivery may acknowledge and accommodate individual differences in styles and preferences through the use of an appropriate range of instructional design, learning and support strategies.

Cognitive style and instructional preferences

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between learners' cognitive styles and their instructional preferences. The sample consisted of 240 business studies students at a UK university. Subjects' cognitive styles were assessed using theCognitive Styles Analysis (which assesses the wholist-analytical and verbaliser-imager dimensions of style) and their instructional preferences assessed using an instructional preferences inventory which consisted of three sub-inventories (instructional method, instructional media and assessment method). Overall subjects favoured dependent methods, print based media and informal assessment methods. There was a significant main effect of wholist-analytical style on collaborative method preference (role play, group discussions and business games) and non-print based media preference (overhead transparencies, slides and videos). There was an interaction of the two dimensions of style and gender in their effect on informal assessment method preferences (individual and group assignments and multiple choice and short answertype questions). The findings are discussed in terms of: (i) models of the cognitive style construct; (ii) the practical implications of individual differences in style and preference.

Individual Differences in Complexity Preference and Artistic Style: Neoclassical versus Expressionistic Aesthetics

Individual differences in style and emotional content of artwork created in an expressive therapy group were correlated with individual aesthetic preferences for visual complexity in order to investigate the dichotomy between classical and expressionistic/romantic aesthetic models. Twenty-two subjects produced artwork rated according to Simon's theory of styles. A dimension varying from vivid, nonrealistic, and painterly art to muted, realistic, and linear art was found to be moderately stable across sessions and reliable across raters. This dimension further correlated with subjects' scores on the Barron-Welsh Art Scale, assessing their preference for visual complexity, as well as with ratings of anxious and angry content in their art. These results were interpreted in light of recent models of hemispheric lateralization in complex emotional/visual information processing, in particular, in terms of individual biases in right vs. left cortical arousal.

Cognitive Style and Learning Strategies: Some Implications for Training Design

In designing learning materials there is often the assumption that all trainees will learn in a similar manner. This approach ignorees the important issue of individual differences in cognitive style. Cognitive style may be defined as an individual’s consistent approach to organising and processing information during thinking. Style does not appear to be related to intelligence and reflects qualitative rather than quantitative differences between individuals in their thinking processes. Here the authors argue that conventional training design methodologies (whilst acknowledging learning style) appear to lack the theoretical and empirical bases to acknowledge the important role played by cognitive style in determining learning performance. The aim of the article is to consider the relationship between learning performance, learning strategies and cognitive style and to suggest ways in which human resource development practitioners may accommodate individual differences in style in order that the effectiveness of training and development interventions may be improved.

Appetite and Eating Behavior in Children

The authors propose that individual differences among children in the controls of food intake can be viewed in terms of differences in balance of power in feeding. They also argue that the individual differences in styles of intake control that emerge by adolescence and adulthood, including chronic dieting, eating disorders, and out-of-control eating, begin in the early balance of control in the feeding context. Limited evidence suggests that the course of development of shared control differs for intermeal interval, food selection, and meal size.

The relation of maternal language to variation in rate and style of language acquisition

The main thrust of this paper is to question whether in earlier studies the 'motherese hypothesis' has been adequately tested. The present study first explores concurrent relations between maternal and child language at an early age, using the Snyder, Bates & Bretherton (1981) questionnaire to assess vocabulary at 1;1. With a large sample of 45 subjects, videotaped at 1;1 and 1;8, it was possible to analyse earlier talkers separately from later talkers. The results indicate pre-existing differences between the mothers of earlier and later talkers as early as 1;1--some 5 months before other studies have examined the possible facilitative effects of 'motherese'. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, when the sample was divided according to stylistic preference at 1;8, several associations between maternal language at 1;1 and MLU at 1;8 emerged for the non-expressive group which were non-existent for the expressive group. These results imply that earlier studies may have been looking for the effectiveness of maternal input too late. Moreover, it may continue to be difficult to demonstrate consistent effects of child-directed speech as long as researchers continue to ignore individual differences in style of language acquisition.

Obesity and eating disorders: A developmental perspective

The development of the controls of food intake during the early years of life is discussed, with particular emphasis on the possible role of early experience in the development of eating disorders and obesity. During the first years of life, the change from suckling to feeding occurs. The infant’s successful transition from reliance on a single food to consuming a varied diet is essential to adequate growth and health. Infants are probably the only depletion-driven human eaters. By the end of the preschool period, eating occurs as a result of a complex interaction of social, cultural, and environmental factors with physiological cues. Learning and early experience of food and eating play a central role in the development of food-acceptance patterns. During the early years, children are introduced to the diet of their culture and acquire food preferences and aversions, and they learn rules of cuisine, such as when to eat, and even how much to eat. A major theme of this review is that learning, and especially associative conditioning to the social contexts and the physiological consequences of eating, makes major contributions to the formation of food-acceptance patterns during early childhood. This view implicates early experience of eating in the development of individual differences in styles of intake control and could be heuristically useful in the investigation of the etiology of eating disorders and obesity.

Obesity and eating disorders: A developmental perspective

The development of the controls of food intake during the early years of life is discussed, with particular emphasis on the possible role of early experience in the development of eating disorders and obesity. During the first years of life, the change from suckling to feeding occurs. The infant’s successful transition from reliance on a single food to consuming a varied diet is essential to adequate growth and health. Infants are probably the only depletion-driven human eaters. By the end of the preschool period, eating occurs as a result of a complex interaction of social, cultural, and environmental factors with physiological cues. Learning and early experience of food and eating play a central role in the development of food-acceptance patterns. During the early years, children are introduced to the diet of their culture and acquire food preferences and aversions, and they learn rules of cuisine, such as when to eat, and even how much to eat. A major theme of this review is that learning, and especially associative conditioning to the social contexts and the physiological consequences of eating, makes major contributions to the formation of food-acceptance patterns during early childhood. This view implicates early experience of eating in the development of individual differences in styles of intake control and could be heuristically useful in the investigation of the etiology of eating disorders and obesity.

Mapping the Development of Feelings about the City: A Longitudinal Study of New Residents' Affective Maps

Although many geographers have argued that the individual's behaviour in the environment relates as much to his feelings about this environment as they do to his knowledge of it, most empirical studies of cognitive mapping have so far not attempted to encompass such affective factors. However, the nature and development of an individuals's affective image of the city-his feelings and impressions about places--can be mapped using Wood's experimental mapping language, Environmental A, in the same way as sketch maps have been used to study the individual's knowledge of places as a 'cognitive map'. As a sample of new residents of a city developed their 'affective maps' over a period of three months, there was evidence that the main character- ization of the city had already stabilized after three weeks. The first few hours' impressions may derive from the confirmation or disconfirmation of various expectations about the physical appearance of the city; these are quickly supplanted by a new or modified set of feelings as the individual increases not only his knowledge but his involvement with particular places within the city. Although considerable individual differences in style of affective mapping were found in this study, these did not relate to indices of environmental sensitivity, or to the sex or previous mobility of the subject; nor did such stylistic differences indicate that consensual images of places failed to emerge. Rather, Environmental A proved to be a mapping language sensitive enough to measure consensus feelings about the city's different sub-areas; and it is recommended that further use is made of the language in future empirical research in environmental perception.

Category development in early language.

ABSTRACTDeveloping knowledge of the vehicle, animal, and fruit categories was traced in six children from 1; 0 to 1; 8. Data from mothers' language diaries and from bi-monthly sessions with the children were pooled to analyse the growth, content, and internal structure of the three categories over time. The children developed some grasp of most of the focal concepts in each category, but they made fewer differentiations than adults do. Overextension of a single concept term to encompass a cluster of related referents was common. The frequent discrepancies between comprehension and production of concept terms highlighted the importance of examining both modes. The data showed marked individual differences in style of category acquisition.

Individual differences in memory organization as related to word‐association, object‐sorting, and word‐matching styles

The aims of the study were to examine the possibility of consistent individual differences in styles of clustering in free recall, and to relate these differences to styles of organization reflected in other tasks. Fifty‐seven subjects were presented with seven repetitions of a list of 33 words which could be grouped into 11 conceptual categories or, alternatively, into 11 associative categories of three words each. Subjects were found to converge consistently upon one or the other mode of organization with successive presentations of the list. Number of words recalled was more strongly related to associative than to conceptual clustering. Individual differences in amount and style of clustering yielded complex relationships with variables derived from object‐sorting, word‐association, and word‐matching tasks. The implications of the results to the idea of different modes of organizing events were discussed.

Fatigue effects on patterns of movement.

The standing broad jump and four other gross body movements were analysed by colour-coded multiple-image photography before and after three kinds of fatigue-inducing exercise. For each movement marked individual differences in style of performance were found which tended to persist despite the effects of fatigue. Certain linear and angular measures taken from the movement patterns proved to be sensitive to fatigue effects. The amount and significance of change in the different indices varied with the method used for inducing fatigue.