Social Interaction Mechanisms Research Articles

THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF AN AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY IN FORMATION OF INTELLECTUAL POTENTIAL OF HUMAN CAPITAL

THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF AN AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY IN FORMATION OF INTELLECTUAL POTENTIAL OF HUMAN CAPITAL

Projects and institutions: towards understanding their mutual constitution and dynamics

Institutions are long-term and stabilizing mechanisms of social interaction that provide much of the groundwork for projects as temporary systems. Due to amassed change ambitions in contemporary projects, not least reflected in their increasing complexity, such systems to a greater extent revolve around processes of institutional change. This development sparks scholarly inquiries emphasizing the need for better understanding the linkages between projects and institutions, and how projects cope with and trigger institutional change. This introductory paper seeks to provide a background and backdrop to the study of the interlinkages between projects and institutions – to demonstrate how they are mutually constituting each other. However, this paper also points to various problems associated with them and the process in practice, and what problems require particular scholarly attention. Further, we discuss how the papers of this special issue inform a revised research agenda for the study of projects and institutions, and how they help us better understand some of the identified challenges.

Mechanism of social interaction

Mechanism of social interaction

Особенности институционализации волонтерского движения в современном российском обществе

We analyze the peculiarities of the process of institutionalization of the volunteer movement in Russia. The genesis of the concept of “institutionalization of the volunteer movement” as a mechanism of social and state interaction, support of volunteer initiatives for social efficiency of volunteer activity is considered. We characterize new types of volunteering (educational, corporate volunteering, family, volunteering in the media). The process of institutionalization of the volunteer movement is defined through the prism of the model of development of the social movement, which includes seven phases (latent, articulatory, organizational, ideological, quantita-tive, organizational, institutional). Volunteer movement is defined as mobile, with a clear organi-zational structure (formal and non-formal), uniting various social groups, transmitting the ideas of volunteerism as a response to the solution of acute social problems. We focuse on the institutional processes in the field of volunteer activities, pursuing the goals of the best volunteer social and cultural actions. The main institutional elements of volunteer movements (volunteer programs, volunteer actions, specialized congresses, forums, conferences, specialized networks of volunteer organizations; volunteer associations, unions, councils; funds for support and development of volunteering; volunteer information networks; state and municipal programs to support volunteer initiatives; legal support of volunteer activities) are highlighted. The perspective directions of the volunteer movement institutionalization in Russia are revealed.

A cross-brain neural mechanism for human-to-human verbal communication.

Neural mechanisms that mediate dynamic social interactions remain understudied despite their evolutionary significance. The interactive brain hypothesis proposes that interactive social cues are processed by dedicated brain substrates and provides a general theoretical framework for investigating the underlying neural mechanisms of social interaction. We test the specific case of this hypothesis proposing that canonical language areas are upregulated and dynamically coupled across brains during social interactions based on talking and listening. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was employed to acquire simultaneous deoxyhemoglobin (deOxyHb) signals of the brain on partners who alternated between speaking and listening while doing an Object Naming & Description task with and without interaction in a natural setting. Comparison of interactive and non-interactive conditions confirmed an increase in neural activity associated with Wernicke’s area including the superior temporal gyrus (STG) during interaction (P = 0.04). However, the hypothesis was not supported for Broca’s area. Cross-brain coherence determined by wavelet analyses of signals originating from the STG and the subcentral area was greater during interaction than non-interaction (P < 0.01). In support of the interactive brain hypothesis these findings suggest a dynamically coupled cross-brain neural mechanism dedicated to pathways that share interpersonal information.

WHY DO WE LIKE COMMENTING AND SHARING IN SOCIAL MEDIA? AN ONLINE APPROCH OF LUXURY BRAND COMMUNICATION

WHY DO WE LIKE COMMENTING AND SHARING IN SOCIAL MEDIA? AN ONLINE APPROCH OF LUXURY BRAND COMMUNICATION

An observational learning task using Barnes maze in rats.

Observational learning, which modulates one's own behavior by observing the adaptive behavior of others, is crucial for behaving efficiently in social communities. Although many behavioral experiments have reported observational learning in monkeys and humans, its neural mechanisms are still unknown. In order to conduct neuroscientific researches with recording neural activities, we developed an observational learning task for rats. We designed the task using Barnes circular maze and then tested whether rats (observers) could actually improve their learning by observing the behavior of other rats (models) that had already acquired the task. The result showed that the observer rats, which were located in a metal wire mesh cylinder at the center of the maze and allowed to observe model rats escaping to the goal in the maze, demonstrated significantly faster escape behavior than the model rats. Thus, the present study confirmed that rats can efficiently learn the behavioral task by observing the behavior of other rats; this shows that it is conceivable to elucidate the neural mechanisms of social interaction by analyzing neural activity in observer rats performing the observational learning task.

Simulating the dynamics of social agents and information flows in BIM-based design

Abstract Design work entails collaboration that increasingly requires dynamic and complex information exchanges among multi-disciplinary teams. Although Building Information Modelling (BIM) is frequently advocated as a solution to myriad issues, poor workflow still plagues the design process resulting in rework, delays, cost overruns, and errors which are detrimental to the project. This can be attributed to a lack of consideration of inherent problems in communication and behaviours of design teams when adopting BIM. This study aims to examine whether BIM adoption can improve design workflow by concurrently considering social interaction mechanisms and information flow dynamics. Accordingly, the research method adopts agent-based modelling and social network analysis to analyse and measure information flow in BIM-based design. Cross-analyses of results from a case study indicate that using BIM as production tool does not explicitly improve workflow or achieve the full potential unless fundamental conditions are present, namely collaboration and changes in traditional mindsets.

Feasibility of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to Investigate the Mirror Neuron System: An Experimental Study in a Real-Life Situation.

The mirror neuron system (MNS), mainly including the premotor cortex (PMC), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), superior parietal lobule (SPL), and rostral inferior parietal lobule (IPL), has attracted extensive attention as a possible neural mechanism of social interaction. Owing to high ecological validity, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has become an ideal approach for exploring the MNS. Unfortunately, for the feasibility of fNIRS to detect the MNS, none of the four dominant regions were found in previous studies, implying a very limited capacity of fNIRS to investigate the MNS. Here, we adopted an experimental paradigm in a real-life situation to evaluate whether the MNS activity, including four dominant regions, can be detected by using fNIRS. Specifically, 30 right-handed subjects were asked to complete a table-setting task that included action execution and action observation. A double density probe configuration covered the four regions of the MNS in the left hemisphere. We used a traditional channel-based group analysis and also a ROI-based group analysis to find which regions are activated during both action execution and action observation. The results showed that the IFG, adjacent PMC, SPL, and IPL were involved in both conditions, indicating the feasibility of fNIRS to detect the MNS. Our findings provide a foundation for future research to explore the functional role of the MNS in social interaction and various disorders using fNIRS.

When the context matters: Identity, secession and the spatial dimension in Catalonia

Regional and national identities are significant determinants of people's support for secession. Most previous works, however, have implicitly assumed that national identity has a linear unconditional effect. We complement previous works by showing that the relationship between identity and support for secession changes as a function of the context in which an individual interacts, an effect particularly important among those with mixed national and regional identities. The first stage of our empirical analysis is based on a pool of 22,000 individuals in the context of Catalonia (Spain). Findings confirm that dual-identity individuals are especially affected by their immediate surroundings: the probability to vote in favour of independence among them substantially increases when the percentage of people speaking Catalan increases. On a second stage, we explore the existence of a social interaction mechanism by employing a survey that measures the preferences of people's close networks. We show that individual's interaction in like-minded networks modifies the relationship between identity and secession, with the effect being again strong among dual-identity individuals. This group is six times more likely to vote for secession when having only pro-secession close contacts, as compared to having none. These results have implications for studies on regionalism and preferences for territorial decentralization.

Stags, Hawks, and Doves: Social Evolution Theory and Individual Variation in Cooperation.

One of the triumphs of evolutionary biology is the discovery of robust mechanisms that promote the evolution of cooperative behaviors even when cooperation reduces the fertility or survival of cooperators. These mechanisms include, kin selection, reciprocity, and direct benefits to cooperation that are often nonlinear. Though they have been extensively studied separately, investigating the joint action of these mechanisms has been more difficult. Moreover, how these mechanisms shape variation in cooperation is not well known. Such variation is crucial for understanding the evolution of behavioral syndromes and animal personality. Here, I use the tools of kin selection and evolutionary game theory to build a framework that integrates these mechanisms for pairwise social interactions. Using relatedness as a measure of the strength of kin selection, responsiveness as a measure of reciprocity, and synergy as a measure of payoff nonlinearity, I show how different combinations of these three parameters produce directional selection for or against cooperation or variation in levels of cooperation via stabilizing or diversifying selection. Moreover, each of these outcomes maps uniquely to one of four classic games from evolutionary game theory, which means that modulating relatedness, responsiveness, and synergy effectively transforms the payoff matrix from one the evolutionary game to another. Assuming that cooperation exacts a fertility cost on cooperators and provides a fertility benefit to social partners, a prisoner's dilemma game and directional selection against cooperation occur when relatedness and responsiveness are low and synergy is not too positive. Enough positive synergy in these conditions generates a stag-hunt game and diversifying selection. High levels of relatedness or responsiveness turn cooperation from a fitness cost into a fitness benefit, which produces a mutualism game and directional selection for cooperation when synergy is not too negative. Sufficiently negative synergy in this case creates a hawk-dove game and stabilizing selection for cooperation. I extend the results with relatedness and synergy to social groups and show that how group size changes the effect of relatedness and synergy on selection for cooperation depends on how the per capita benefit of cooperation changes with group size. Together, these results provide a general framework with which to generate comparative predictions that can be tested using quantitative genetic techniques and experimental techniques that manipulate investment in cooperation. These predictions will help us understand both interspecific variation in cooperation as well as within-population and within-group variation in cooperation related to behavioral syndromes.

Frontal temporal and parietal systems synchronize within and across brains during live eye-to-eye contact

Human eye-to-eye contact is a primary source of social cues and communication. In spite of the biological significance of this interpersonal interaction, the underlying neural processes are not well-understood. This knowledge gap, in part, reflects limitations of conventional neuroimaging methods, including solitary confinement in the bore of a scanner and minimal tolerance of head movement that constrain investigations of natural, two-person interactions. However, these limitations are substantially resolved by recent technical developments in functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a non-invasive spectral absorbance technique that detects changes in blood oxygen levels in the brain by using surface-mounted optical sensors. Functional NIRS is tolerant of limited head motion and enables simultaneous acquisitions of neural signals from two interacting partners in natural conditions. We employ fNIRS to advance a data-driven theoretical framework for two-person neuroscience motivated by the Interactive Brain Hypothesis which proposes that interpersonal interaction between individuals evokes neural mechanisms not engaged during solo, non-interactive, behaviors. Within this context, two specific hypotheses related to eye-to-eye contact, functional specificity and functional synchrony, were tested. The functional specificity hypothesis proposes that eye-to-eye contact engages specialized, within-brain, neural systems; and the functional synchrony hypothesis proposes that eye-to-eye contact engages specialized, across-brain, neural processors that are synchronized between dyads. Signals acquired during eye-to-eye contact between partners (interactive condition) were compared to signals acquired during mutual gaze at the eyes of a picture-face (non-interactive condition). In accordance with the specificity hypothesis, responses during eye-to-eye contact were greater than eye-to-picture gaze for a left frontal cluster that included pars opercularis (associated with canonical language production functions known as Broca's region), pre- and supplementary motor cortices (associated with articulatory systems), as well as the subcentral area. This frontal cluster was also functionally connected to a cluster located in the left superior temporal gyrus (associated with canonical language receptive functions known as Wernicke's region), primary somatosensory cortex, and the subcentral area. In accordance with the functional synchrony hypothesis, cross-brain coherence during eye-to-eye contact relative to eye-to-picture gaze increased for signals originating within left superior temporal, middle temporal, and supramarginal gyri as well as the pre- and supplementary motor cortices of both interacting brains. These synchronous cross-brain regions are also associated with known language functions, and were partner-specific (i.e., disappeared with randomly assigned partners). Together, both within and across-brain neural correlates of eye-to-eye contact included components of previously established productive and receptive language systems. These findings reveal a left frontal, temporal, and parietal long-range network that mediates neural responses during eye-to-eye contact between dyads, and advance insight into elemental mechanisms of social and interpersonal interactions.

Does like seek like?: The formation of working groups in a programming project

In a course of the degree of computer science, the programming project has changed from individual to teamed work, tentatively in couples (pair programming). Students have full freedom to team up with minimum intervention from teachers. The analysis of the couples made indicates that students do not tend to associate with students with a similar academic performance, maybe because general cognitive parameters do not govern the choice of academic partners. Pair programming seems to give great results, so the efforts of future research in this field should focus precisely on how these pairs are formed, underpinning the mechanisms of human social interactions.

Social Interaction and Technology Adoption: Experimental Evidence from Improved Cookstoves in Mali

We investigate the role of social interaction in technology adoption by conducting a field experiment in urban Mali. We invite women to attend a training session, where information on a more efficient cooking stove is provided along with the opportuinity to purchase the product at market price. During that session we randomly assign participants to receive information on a peer's actual purchase of an improved cookstove. We find that women are more likely to purchase during our intervention and use the product in the following six to nine months if the information they receive is on a peer who purchased the product and whose opinion is respected. In general, we find positive direct and spillover effects on attending the session. We then investigate whether social interaction plays a role in the natural diffusion of this technology by putting forward evidence that women who participated in the session and did not buy are more likely to later adopt the product when more women living around them own it. We investigate the various mechanisms of social interaction potentially at play and provide evidence supporting imitation effects, rather than social learning or constraint interaction.

知识–权力视角下的专业社会工作和志愿服务的差异研究

本文尝试借用福柯眼中的知识与权力关系，通过专业社会工作与志愿服务的差异分析，从服务的主体、方式以及客体三个方面阐释专业社会工作困窘的缘由。文章从建立社会工作服务和志愿服务的社会互动机制、加强社会工作专业人才队伍建设培育体系和“社工 + 义工”联动机制方面提出建议，以期倡导有助于专业社会工作发展的实践环境，促进和实现社会工作本土化。 The paper borrows the theory about the intertwining of knowledge and power which is taken from Foucault by analysis of the difference between professional social work and voluntary ser-vice to describe the reason of social work’s predicament from the three aspects including the main body of service, the way of service and the object of service. At the end, the paper puts forward some proposals from building social work service and social interaction mechanism of voluntary service, strengthening the construction of the training system of social work profes-sionals and “social worker and volunteers” linkage mechanism with a view to promoting the development of professional social work practice environment, and realizing the localization of social work.

Biografías de Género en Contextos de Cambio. Chile 1973-2010

El objetivo del estudio fue analizar las percepciones de hombres y mujeres respecto de cambios en las relaciones de género ocurridos en contextos de transformaciones políticas, económicas e institucionales en Chile entre 1973 y 2010 y las condiciones facilitadoras de sus entornos familiares, sociales, laborales, culturales e institucionales para cuestionar las desigualdades de género. El estudio adoptó una metodología cualitativa de tipo descriptiva y con un enfoque biográfico. La muestra intencionada estuvo constituida por 25 hombres y mujeres profesionales, pertenecientes a 2 generaciones de acuerdo a su momento de ingreso al mercado laboral (1973-1989 y 1990-2010), con quienes se realizaron relatos de vida. Los/as narradores/ras de ambas generaciones reconocieron cambios importantes en las relaciones de género en distintos ámbitos sociales, destacando las positivas consecuencias de ello, especialmente para las mujeres. Señalaron, además, condiciones a nivel familiar, laboral, educacional y social que favorecieron las transformaciones de las relaciones de género. Se pudieron identificar en los relatos de hombres y mujeres mecanismos de interacción social que reproducen desigualdades, lo que evidencia la complejidad de las transformaciones del orden de género.

Cooking in the Iberian Culture (Sixth–Second Century bc)

In this article we analyse the structures and features related to food processing or preparation and their social and economic implications among the protohistoric communities of the Iberian culture during the Iron Age (sixth–second century bc). Different types of facilities are considered, including ovens, hearths, fireplaces and grinding areas, according to their specific location within the settlements (indoor or outdoor areas). We also look at the evidence from the artefacts involved in these processes and the contextualisation of their functional need within the urban structure/planning. The presence of collective facilities located outside the houses implies, on the one hand, an organised collaborative practice and management network and, on the other, the transfer of certain specific household activities to the public sphere. The organisation of management and use of those facilities would have affected various aspects of Iberian societies, such as the dynamics and routine of everyday life, not only through arranging and scheduling the availability of the facility, but also by operating as a mechanism of social interaction among both equals and persons of different statuses.

Designing a Mixed Carpool Mechanism on the Online Cab Service

In this paper, we proposed a mixed carpool strategy via social interaction mechanism in the online cab service market. Considering other two individual strategies on cab service, we made a comparison to examined under which conditions existed, the mixed carpool strategy dominated the others. We emphasized the impact of two crucial factors, information heterogeneity between informed and less-informed passengers as well as information exchange insufficiency, on the cabdriver’s earning. Finally, we made a suggestion to the ISPs which exerted themselves in the online cab service.

From the Construction of Community to Play as a Mechanism for Social Interaction

From the Construction of Community to Play as a Mechanism for Social Interaction

Mensajería instantánea y construcción compartida de significados: una experiencia de aprendizaje colaborativo en el Prácticum de Maestro de Educación Primaria

Recent years research on the relationship between ICT and collaborative learning is under extensive development, however it does not focus on the use of instant messaging as a tool to promote this shared construction of learning from descriptive, relational and interpretive approach. This paper is focused on the partial results of a research about the evaluation of instant messaging. The latter is used as a resource to foster collaborative learning by improving the involvement of students, professors and Practicum II supervisors. The building of shared meanings as social interaction mechanisms for collaborative learning that were carried out Online chat seminars is analysed by means of qualitative methodology. The results shown that these mechanisms are shown by long debates generated from the discussions and disagreements about the different themes arisen, by the manifestation of solidarity to contribute to find out solutions to suggested problems as well as by the raising of issues of concern.