Physical Environmental Context Research Articles

Environmental context sculpts spatial and temporal visual processing in thalamus.

Behavioral state modulates neural activity throughout the visual system; this is largely due to changes in arousal that alter internal brain state. However, behaviors are constrained by the external environmental context, so it remains unclear if this context itself dictates the regime of visual processing, apart from ongoing changes in arousal. Here, we addressed this question in awake head-fixed mice while they passively viewed visual stimuli in two different environmental contexts: either a cylindrical tube, or a circular running wheel. We targeted high-density silicon probe recordings to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) and simultaneously measured several electrophysiological and behavioral correlates of arousal changes, and thus controlled for them across contexts. We found surprising differences in spatial and temporal processing in dLGN across contexts, even in identical states of alertness and stillness. The wheel context (versus tube) showed elevated baseline activity, faster visual responses, and smaller but less selective spatial receptive fields. Further, arousal caused similar changes to visual responsiveness across all conditions, but the environmental context mainly changed the overall set-point for this relationship. Together, our results reveal an unexpected influence of the physical environmental context on fundamental aspects of visual processing in the early visual system.

The Long-Term Efficacy of "Social Buffering" in Artificial Social Agents: Contextual Affective Perception Matters.

In dynamic (social) environments, an affective state of “stress” can be adaptive and promote agent wellbeing, but maladaptive if not appropriately regulated. The presence of (and interactions with) affect-based social support has been hypothesised to provide mechanisms to regulate stress (the “social buffering” hypothesis), though the precise, underlying mechanisms are still unclear. However, the hormone oxytocin has been implicated in mediating these effects in at least two ways: by improving social appraisals and reducing the short-term release of stress hormones (i.e., cortisol), and adapting an agent’s long-term stress tolerance. These effects likely facilitate an agent’s long-term adaptive ability by grounding their physiological and behavioural adaptation in the (affective) social environment, though these effects also appear to be context-dependent. In this paper, we investigate whether two of the hypothesised hormonal mechanisms that underpin the “social buffering” phenomenon affect the long-term wellbeing of (artificial) social agents who share affective social bonds, across numerous social and physical environmental contexts. Building on previous findings, we hypothesise that “social buffering” effects can improve the long-term wellbeing of agents who share affective social bonds in dynamic environments, through regular prosocial interactions with social bond partners. We model some of the effects associated with oxytocin and cortisol that underpin these hypothesised mechanisms in our biologically-inspired, socially-adaptive agent model, and conduct our investigation in a small society of artificial agents whose goal is to survive in challenging environments. Our results find that, while stress can be adaptive and regulated through affective social support, long-term behavioural and physiological adaptation is determined by the contextual perception of affective social bonds, which is influenced by early-stage interactions between affective social bond partners as well as the degree of the physical and social challenges. We also show how these low-level effects associated with oxytocin and cortisol can be used as “biomarkers” of social support and environmental stress. For socially-situated artificial agents, we suggest that these “social buffering” mechanisms can adapt the (adaptive) stress mechanisms, but that the long-term efficacy of this adaptation is related to the temporal dynamics of social interactions and the contextual perception of the affective social and physical environments.

Social-Emotional-Sensory Design Map for Affective Computing Informed by Neurodivergent Experiences

One of the grand challenges of artificial intelligence and affective computing is for technology to become emotionally-aware and thus, more human-like. Modeling human emotions is particularly complicated when we consider the lived experiences of people who are on the autism spectrum. To understand the emotional experiences of autistic adults and their attitudes towards common representations of emotions, we deployed a context study as the first phase of a Grounded Design research project. Based on community observations and interviews, this work contributes empirical evidence of how the emotional experiences of autistic adults are entangled with social interactions as well as the processing of sensory inputs. We learned that (1) the emotional experiences of autistic adults are embodied and co-constructed within the context of physical environments, social relationships, and technology use, and (2) conventional approaches to visually representing emotion in affective education and computing systems fail to accurately represent the experiences and perceptions of autistic adults. We contribute a social-emotional-sensory design map to guide designers in creating more diverse and nuanced affective computing interfaces that are enriched by accounting for neurodivergent users.

An observation system to assess physical activity of children with developmental disabilities and delays in preschool

BackgroundPhysical activity (PA) behaviors during preschool settings can influence the health and development of children with developmental disabilities (DD). There is a need for a direct observation system that simultaneously assesses PA and preschool environmental contexts. ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to develop an observation instrument for measuring PA and related contextual factors of preschoolers with DD, and to establish content validity and reliability. MethodsContent validity was established through consultation with experts, informal observations in inclusive and special education preschools, and literature reviews. Categories and codes were identified and modified from existing observational systems for young children. Reliability was assessed in a convenience sample of preschool children with DD using a cross-sectional design. Data were collected using a momentary time sampling system (5-sec observe, 25-sec record) following a focal child. Inter-rater reliability was assessed during 20% of the observation sessions. ResultsThe instrument development process resulted in ten coding categories that accounted for PA levels, types, and social and physical environmental contexts relevant to preschoolers with disabilities. Observers completed 137.5 observation sessions, yielding 5498 30-s observation intervals. Interval-by-interval percent agreement was excellent (91%–100%) and kappa values were high (0.82–0.99). ConclusionsThe instrument was found to be a reliable measure of PA of preschoolers with DD and provided important contextual information about PA behaviors in early childhood special education settings. Additionally, it allowed for the simultaneous measurement of specific types and contexts of PA behaviors of preschoolers with DD and will be useful for describing PA and informing future interventions.

An ontology-based approach to integrate TV and IoT middlewares

Internet of Things (IoT) is the interconnection of physical devices, known of smart objects, that share data and collaborate among them to support users. There are IoT usage scenarios in several domains. In-home domain, the use of smart objects may support monitoring and automation of the environment. In a home, the TV is one of the most used devices. It may also collaborate with the smart objects to enhance the interactive experience of viewers on watching. To support such a meeting, we propose an (i) conceptual model, IoTTV-Ont, that allows modeling entire homes, with smart objects, people’ profile, and viewers’ interaction events with TV applications; (ii) a software architecture that integrates and interoperates digital TV and IoT middleware. This architecture allows the TV applications: to be aware of the physical environment context, to change aspects of the physical environment, to identify the viewers, and to receive multimodal interactions performed by viewers. We demonstrate our work through use cases. For this, we implement a prototype of our software architecture and modeled home using IoTTV-Ont. Then we developed usage scenarios that enhance TV viewers’ experience by supporting features such as content adaptation, multi-sensorial immersive experience, and multimodal user interaction.

ISOLATING THE INDIVIDUAL: THEOLOGY, THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION, AND THE PROBLEM OF ABSTRACT INDIVIDUALISM

AbstractDebates about the theological implications of recent research in the cognitive and evolutionary study of religion have tended to focus on the question of theism. The question of whether there is any disagreement about the conceptualization of the individual human being has been largely overlooked. In this article, I argue that evolutionary and cognitive accounts of religion typically depend upon a view of cognition that conceptually isolates the mind from its particular social and physical environmental contexts. By embracing this view of the mind, these accounts also unwittingly embrace an abstract individualist view of individual personhood that Christian theologians have explicitly battled against. Taken as a whole, the field leaves sufficient room for supplementary theories that are compatible with theological accounts of the relational individual, but in practice, no effort has been made to engage, or even to accommodate, any other view of individual personhood.

Applying Organizational Health Literacy to Maternal and Child Health.

Purpose Describe the development of an innovative teaching activity that applies organizational health literacy to maternal and child health (MCH). DescriptionHealth literacy is a strong predictor of health behavior and outcomes. While the study of health literacy has traditionally been confined to skills and capacities of individuals, the significant role of the social and physical environmental contexts in facilitating or hindering one's ability to obtain, understand, and make informed decision about their health has been recognized. MCH organizations play a critical role in influencing health literacy across system levels. This teaching activity aims to equip students with knowledge and skills needed to foster organizational health literacy. Assessment The teaching activity is assembled within a toolkit which includes the following: (1) instructor lesson plan; (2) interactive PowerPoint presentation with instructor notes; (3) field assignment description; (4) health literacy attribute assessment worksheets; and (5) grading rubric. The teaching tool was pilot tested by a student research team member to assess the educational value and assignment logistics, resulting in minor edits (i.e., addition of interviewer probes, and option of a group project-format to permit triangulation of multiple organizational interviews). Conclusion The field of MCH is expanding in complexity, and the demands of health systems on women, children, and families must be mediated by conscious efforts within organizations. Through teaching the importance and function of organizational health literacy to students in MCH, educators can prepare an emerging workforce to improve health literacy, and ultimately the quality of healthcare for women, children, and families.

La Política Social de Vivienda en Chile: Una Mirada Crítica

La vivienda, constituye por sobre su condición de bien transable, un derecho y un requerimiento básico para que cualquier familia resuelva sus necesidades de sobrevivencia. Ella se vincula también con el abrigo diario y la seguridad básica que reporta tener un lugar donde estar, compartir, disfrutar y protegerse. Además, la vivienda contribuye a satisfacer otros requerimientos tales como la privacidad, la identidad y pertenencia a un lugar, un grupo y un territorio. La conferencia mundial sobre habitat realizado en Vancouver el año 76, recoge esta multidimensionalidad de la vivienda. Todos los organismos allí presentes, concordaron que la vivienda no sólo es una unidad que acoge a la familia, sino también un sistema integrado por el terreno, la infraestructura de urbanización y de servicios, el equipamiento social- comunitario dentro de un contexto cultural, socioeconómico, político, físico-ambiental, así como un proceso al cual concurren como actores las personas y entidades de los sistemas público, privado, técnico-profesional y poblacional, entre otros". “Entregar" entonces vivienda o ayudar para que el ejercicio de este derecho se concrete implica, no solo la distribución equitativa de recursos materiales, casas o departamentos, sino también que dicho proceso contribuya a la distribución de capacidades y al mejoramiento de la calidad de vida. Ello implica necesariamente, una acción que asegure no sólo la universalidad (cobertura) que ha sido lo buscado históricamente por la política pública, sino también: la calidad. Lo anterior se relaciona con la oportunidad y pertinencia de la solución y para esto último es fundamental la participación de los destinatarios y el desarrollo de sus capacidades. En esta línea se transforman en componentes estratégicos la gestión descentralizada, articulada y participativa. En este artículo se hace una revisión crítica de la Política de Vivienda desde el Ministerio de Vivienda, hoy el SERVIU Metropolitano. Esto, como una forma de desafiar esa política pública, la que, junto con responder al mandato de la universalidad, de la distribución de recursos materiales en forma masiva, debiera imperativamente hacerse cargo de la diversidad de realidades que afectan a los sujetos a los cuales se dirige, como de constituirse para ellos en un instrumento para la redistribución de poder y capacidades.

Parenting styles, food-related parenting practices, and children's healthy eating: A mediation analysis to examine relationships between parenting and child diet

Parents exert a strong influence on their children's diet. While authoritative parenting style is linked to healthier weight and dietary outcomes in children, and authoritarian and permissive parenting styles with unhealthy eating, little is known about the mechanisms that mediate these relationships. Feeding styles are often examined in relation to child diet, but they do not consider the social and physical environmental contexts in which dietary behaviors occur. Therefore, this study examined whether parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive) were associated with three specific food-related parenting practices - mealtime structural practices (e.g., eating meals as a family), parent modeling of healthy food, and household food rules and whether these parenting practices mediated the association between parenting styles and children's diet. Participants were 174 mother-child dyads. Mothers (68% married, 58% college graduates, Mage = 41 years [SD = 6.2]) reported on their parenting practices using validated scales and parenting style using the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire. Children (52% female, Mage = 10 years [SD = 0.9]) completed two telephone-based 24-hour dietary recalls. Dietary outcomes included the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2010 score, and fruit and vegetables and added sugar intake. Using PROCESS, multiple mediation cross-sectional analyses with parallel mediators using 10,000 bootstraps were performed. Significant indirect effects were observed with mealtime structure and the relationships between authoritative parenting and HEI-2010 score (b = 0.045, p < .05, CI = [0.006, 0.126]), authoritarian parenting and HEI-2010 score (b = −0.055, p < .05, CI = [-0.167, −0.001]), and permissive parenting and HEI-2010 score (b = −0.093, p < .05, CI = [-0.265, −0.008]). Child diet quality is affected by mealtime structural practices. Further examination of the features by which mealtime structural practices serve as a mechanism for parents to support healthy eating among their children may improve children's diet quality.

Converging disciplinary understandings of social aspects of resilience

Resilience thinking has developed separately in the bodies of literature on social-ecological systems, and that published principally within developmental psychology and mental health on the resilience of individuals. This paper explores what these bodies of literature might learn from the other towards a more integrated and enriched understanding of both social-ecological systems and social resilience. The psychology-based literature recognises a strong set of factors that enhance the strengths of individuals and communities, but lacks a sophisticated integration of the physical environmental context. The social-ecological systems literature offers an excellent foundation in complex adaptive systems, but tends to superimpose ecological concepts of system function onto the human domain, and needs to include an array of core social science concepts that are important to a full understanding of social-ecological systems. An example on north eastern Australia suggests how a converged understanding of social resilience could assist managers to acknowledge, enhance and foster social resilience in linked social-ecological systems.

Individual and contextual correlates of obesity-related behaviours and obesity: the SPOTLIGHT project.

Individual and contextual correlates of obesity-related behaviours and obesity: the SPOTLIGHT project.

Neighbourhood environment and physical activity in older adults

Rationale.The neighbourhood socio-physical environment has effects on health in later life including health behaviours, chronic illnesses, mental health and mortality. Few studies have examined the relationship of both physical environmental features and social aspects of neighbourhood with older adults' physical activity. ObjectiveThis study examined the relationship of neighbourhood physical and social environment with physical activity among older adults. MethodsA cross-sectional telephone survey was conducted with 434 older adults in eight neighbourhoods in greater Vancouver, Canada and Portland, United States. Data included participants' perceptions of their neighbourhood built and social environment factors and levels of physical activity. A logistic regression analysis was conducted to understand the relationship between these factors. ResultsParticipants engaged in physical activity most frequently at home (87.1%) or in close proximity of home (76.5%). Neighbourhood walkability, presence of amenities and accessibility were not significantly associated with meeting physical activity requirements. Participation in a recreational program with friends was associated with increased likelihood of physical activity. ConclusionThe home and its immediate physical environmental context has potentially important relevance in supporting physical activity in older adults. Also, neighbourhood social aspects have a positive influence on activity levels.

Overweight and Obesity in Southern Italy: their association with social and life-style characteristics and their effect on levels of biologic markers.

Abstract Background: In the last decades, overweight and obesity have been transformed from minor public health issues to a major threat to public health affecting the most affluent societies and also the less developed ones. Objectives: To estimate overweight-obesity prevalence in adults, their association with some social determinants and to assess the effect of these two conditions on levels of biologic and biochemical characteristics, by means of a population-based study. Methods: A random sample of the general population of Putignano was drawn. All participants completed a general pre-coded and a Food Frequency questionnaire; anthropometric measures were taken and a venous blood sample was drawn. All subjects underwent liver ultra-sonography. Data description was done by means of tables and then Quantile Regression was performed. Results: Overall prevalence of overweight and obesity were 34.5% and 16.1% respectively. Both overweight and obesity were more frequent among male, married and low socio-economic position subjects. There were increasing frequencies of normal weight with higher levels of education. Overweight and obese subjects had more frequently Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Hypertension and altered biochemical markers. Quantile regression showed a statistically significant association of age with overweight and obesity (maximum about 64.8 yo), gender (female) and low levels of education in both overweight and obesity. More than 10 gr/day of wine intake was associated with overweight. Conclusions: The prevention and treatment of overweight/obesity on a population wide basis are needed. Population-based strategies should also improve social and physical environmental contexts for healthful lifestyles.

Population-Based Prevention of Obesity

Obesity is a major influence on the development and course of cardiovascular diseases and affects physical and social functioning and quality of life. The importance of effective interventions to reduce obesity and related health risks has increased in recent decades because the number of adults and children who are obese has reached epidemic proportions. To prevent the development of overweight and obesity throughout the life course, population-based strategies that improve social and physical environmental contexts for healthful eating and physical activity are essential. Population-based approaches to obesity prevention are complementary to clinical preventive strategies and also to treatment programs for those who are already obese. This American Heart Association scientific statement aims: 1) to raise awareness of the importance of undertaking population-based initiatives specifically geared to the prevention of excess weight gain in adults and children; 2) to describe considerations for undertaking obesity prevention overall and in key risk subgroups; 3) to differentiate environmental and policy approaches to obesity prevention from those used in clinical prevention and obesity treatment; 4) to identify potential targets of environmental and policy change using an ecological model that includes multiple layers of influences on eating and physical activity across multiple societal sectors; and 5) to highlight the spectrum of potentially relevant interventions and the nature of evidence needed to inform population-based approaches. The evidence-based experience for population-wide approaches to obesity prevention is highlighted.

Transdisciplinary, multilevel action research to enhance ecological and psychopolitical validity

AbstractThe authors explore the implications of recent proposals for a focus on power and social change in community psychology research and add needed contextual and methodological specificity. An expanded model of psychopolitical validity is presented that merges Isaac Prilleltensky's (this issue, pp. 116–136) domains, or stages of empowerment (oppression, liberation, wellness), with four ecological context domains (physical, sociocultural, economic, political) and greater clarity regarding levels of analysis. The physical–environmental context is used to illustrate some of the questions that may be generated by the expanded model. After discussing the role of democratic freedoms and institutions and the equitable distribution of decision‐making power in sustainable community development, the case is made for action research as a potent paradigm to move the field toward those goals. Multilevel and spatial analyses and transdisciplinary research (conceptually and/or methodologically integrative collaboration across multiple disciplines) are underutilized in Community Psychology. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Social and Environmental Psychology

Linkage between social and environmental psychology is illustrated through examination of the theoretical and empirical implications of a concept of "group space" defined as collectively inhabited and socioculturally controlled physical settings. This concept is applied to three levels of environmental settings, that is, school buildings, a university cafeteria, and urban residential areas. Such social-dynamic processes as group territorialities, group conflicts, social regulation of space-use, formation of group identity, and differentiation of public, semipublic, and private space were situated in physical environmental contexts. Three pilot studies revealed that (a) social space such as cafeteria and school buildings are differentiated and hierarchically integrated in terms of multifaceted group space depending on the social group, (b) groups exhibited different space-maintaining strategies and rules that strengthen socialization of group members, and (c) radical changes in the physical environment of a community initiated group-conflicts and renegotiation of group space.