Socio-cognitive Aspects Research Articles

BIOMETRIC CITIZENS in smart cities

Abstract This article addresses the socio-cognitive conceptualizations of the notion of ‘citizenship’ within the space of smart cities. It discusses how smart cities expos are endowed with ideological bearings that mark a shift in these conceptualizations. This ideological shift is explored in the policy releases of Barcelona expo media centre 2019/2020 as retrieved from the Smart City Expo World Congress website. The framework accounts for the socio-cognitive aspects that are brought to the smart expos’ discussions, reframing it within the paradigms of Posthumanism and neoliberal urbanism. It is found that citizenship within smart city discourse is characterized by series of subjugating conflations between biovalues and biometrics, the body, technology, and the city and the citizen. These subjugations are discovered by contesting the metaphors of CITIZEN-FOCUSED URBANISM, VULNERABLE CITIZENS, and TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONISM with their reframed counterparts of BIOMETRIC CITIZEN, INFRASTRUCTURE CITIZENSHIP, and TECHNOLOGICAL PATERNALISM.

Unpacking Novice English Language Teachers’ Cognitions about Global Englishes Pedagogy: An Activity-Theoretic Analysis

Within the last two decades, theorizing and research on language teaching and teachers have witnessed a fundamental shift of attention and orientation towards socio-cognitive aspects of teaching. This epistemic shift has been paralleled by the global reach of the English language, inspiring scholars to call for a paradigm shift in Applied Linguistics to drift away from Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) to Global Englishes (GE) Language Teaching (GELT). While the expanding body of the literature on GE pedagogy has focused on different aspects of this fundamental transformation, teachers’ voices and cognitions have been often neglected in such discussions, despite their being an important element involved in the process. Against this backdrop, and guided by an activity-theoretic perspective as its analytical framework, the present qualitative study explored two Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ cognitions about GE and GELT using semi-structured interview, stimulated recall protocol, and non-participant classroom observation. Despite differences in the cognitions of our participants regarding GELT, the results generally indicated that both teachers tended to prioritize the use of standard American or British English in their teaching practice, bearing testimony to the fact that there is still a theory-practice schism between disciplinary reality and folk reality when it comes to GE-related issues in the English language teaching (ELT) enterprise. Our analysis offers a depiction of the challenges related to introducing GELT into the curriculum. The results are deliberated in relation to the feasibility of GE-oriented pedagogy, questioning whether it is achievable or is merely an idealistic notion. Implications of the findings for second language teacher education are discussed in the end.

Virtual reality assisted engineering education: A multimedia learning perspective

Virtual Reality (VR) is a powerful technology that can enhance engineering education by providing immersive and interactive learning experiences. However, many VR studies in engineering education lack a clear theoretical or pedagogical framework to guide their design and evaluation. This scoping review analyzes 51 studies on VR-assisted engineering education and reveals the trends and gaps in the current research. We argue that engineering VR studies should be informed by theories of learning and instruction that address the cognitive and socio-cognitive aspects of learning. We also suggest that VR-assisted engineering education research should incorporate multimedia design and pedagogical principles to optimize the effectiveness of VR applications. Our perspective aims to inspire engineering educators, practitioners, and instructional designers to develop VR contents and formulate VR research imperatives grounded in sound educational theories and multimedia learning principles.

DECODING SOCIO-COGNITIVE ELEMENTS IN INDONESIAN ONLINE NEWS: A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

This study explores the representation of socio-cognitive components in Indonesian political multimodal news text using the framework of Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA). With the increasing prominence of multimedia in contemporary news production, understanding how socio-cognitive aspects are conveyed through multiple modes becomes essential. Drawing on SF-MDA, which combines systemic functional linguistics and multimodal analysis, the study examines how Indonesian political news texts incorporate social and cognitive elements to shape meaning and influence audience perceptions. This study was undertaken qualitatively involving three online news published by Indonesia’s publishers as the data. The result reveals that the visual and verbal modes merged in the news tend to highlight the good image of the political figures. It means that the meanings of visual and verbal components of the news persuasively work together to create the good impressions among readers to the human actor in the news. As the implication, multimodal resources are strategically employed to shape public opinion and promote specific political ideologies. Ultimately, this research aims to contribute to the development of critical media literacy and foster a more nuanced understanding of the socio-political dynamics in contemporary Indonesia.

A critical discourse analysis of selected political interviews in Nigerian news media

Several studies have been carried out on political discourse using different linguistic approaches of Pragmatics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Stylistics as well as implicature. However, little attention has been given to the blend of Critical Discourse Analysis and rhetoric as a means to unravel different ideological stances in political discourse. Thus, this paper investigated how ideological beliefs of individuals or groups were conveyed through linguistic expressions to manipulate those of others in political interviews of Nigerian politicians. A total of two (2) interviews conducted by Channels Television were randomly selected. The data for the study were video files downloaded from the official YouTube page of the Channel Tv station and were transcribed so as to draw out relevant extracts. van Dijk’s 2006 socio cognitive aspects of Critical Discourse Analysis and rhetoric were used as its theoretical framework. Findings revealed that ideology is an individual’s perception or experience of the world. It also revealed that the interviewees in the selected interviews deployed language as a strategy of domination and supremacy by exploiting lexical items and strong imperatives which allow them to impose their views on others. Commonly, it was found that they created asymmetrical power relations of privileged ‘we’, ‘us’ and less privileged ‘they’, ‘them’ through positive self-presentation of us and negative other presentation of them. It was also revealed that certain rhetorical and ideological strategies such as actor description, polarisation, burden, categorisation, comparison, consensus, populism, vagueness and appeal to emotions among others present in the selected political interviews are implicitly used to project different ideological positions of the politicians.

Piaget, Vygotsky and young people's argumentation: Sociocognitive aspects and challenges of reasoning “together” and “alone”

Piaget, Vygotsky and young people's argumentation: Sociocognitive aspects and challenges of reasoning “together” and “alone”

Strategizing organizational capabilities for industrial digitalization – exploring managers' technological frames

PurposeThis study draws on technological frames to provide an understanding of organizational processes of strategizing by exploring how strategizing organizational capabilities for industrial digitalization could be understood through managers' perceptions of digital technology applications. This study complements earlier research focused on industry outcomes by addressing technological frames to understand how strategizing organizational capabilities within industrial digitalization may provide insight into socio-cognitive aspects which may affect technology-induced organizational change.Design/methodology/approachThe single case study uses 14 in-depth interviews collected over two years (October 2020 to February 2022). The study follows an interpretative research design exploring managers' perceptions of industrial digitalization through a digitalization project.FindingsThe case study contributes to research by emphasizing socio-cognitive aspects through technological frames exploring how and why managers' perceptions of industrial digitalization affect strategizing organizational capabilities. The study contributes to practice by bringing attention to the disparate views of industrial digitalization. By illustrating how socio-cognitive aspects shape organizational capabilities, this study offers managers valuable insight into the relationship between an organization's capabilities, the individual and the shared structures affecting a digitalization project.Research limitations/implicationsThe case study is limited to Swedish manufacturing industries and is not aiming to be transferred or generalized to other industrial contexts or countries.Originality/valueThis study recognizes that strategizing organizational capabilities depends on managers' ability to illuminate the socio-cognitive aspects. Hence, the study contributes to practice by bringing attention to the disparate views among managers on the enhancement efforts made using digital technologies.

Expressive Pragmatics and Prosody in Young Preschoolers are More Closely Related to Structural Language than to Mentalizing

ABSTRACT Pragmatics lies at the point where language meets the social world and encompasses both the linguistic and the social dimensions of communication. However, the relationship between pragmatic abilities, other language skills, and socio-cognitive aspects such as mentalizing is still a matter of wide debate. This study sets out to investigate the status of pragmatic abilities by testing from a developmental angle their relationship with other linguistic skills and mentalizing. We examined the role of structural language and mentalizing on both expressive pragmatic and prosodic skills in typically developing preschool children. A total of 105 3-to 4-year-old children were assessed on pragmatics and prosody with the Audiovisual Pragmatic Test, as well as on structural language skills (vocabulary and syntax) and a series of mentalizing measures (false belief, emotion understanding, and metacognitive vocabulary). A combined approach including correlations, regressions, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. Structural language was a strong positive predictor of both pragmatic and prosodic scores, while mentalizing predicted neither pragmatic nor prosodic performance. We suggest that in preschool years, expressive pragmatics and prosodic skills are more closely related to structural language skills than to mentalizing.

Anatomical and neurophysiological basis of face recognition

Face recognition is a highly developed and efficient human function that involves multiple neural networks. A main pathway links the occipital cortex, where an occipital face area (OFA) has been identified, to a fusiform face area (FFA) in the fusiform gyrus, which plays a critical role in face recognition. This core pathway deals with invariant aspects of the face. Another pathway, including the superior temporal sulcus, is involved in the perception of more changeable aspects of the face such as gaze orientation, face expression and lip movements. It has been defined by some authors as a “third pathway of visual recognition”, i.e. a lateral pathway in addition to the “what” and “where” pathways. It deals with sociocognitive aspects of face perception. Many other accessory functional systems are connected to the core system of visual recognition to act in concert with it: the intraparietal sulcus (for the management of spatial attention), the primary auditory cortex (prelexical perception of speech), the amygdala, the insula and the limbic system (perception of emotions), the anterior temporal pole (access to the identity of the individual, his name, biographical information), etc. Functional brain imaging has made remarkable progress in the understanding of face perception, which in the early years was limited to the description of single cases of brain-damaged patients. This progress has made it possible to better analyse the many face recognition disorders, sometimes subtle, other times confusing, observed in human pathology.

Go Virtual to Get Real: Virtual Reality as a Resource for Spinal Cord Treatment

Increasingly, refined virtual reality (VR) techniques allow for the simultaneous and coherent stimulation of multiple sensory and motor domains. In some clinical interventions, such as those related to spinal cord injuries (SCIs), the impact of VR on people′s multisensory perception, movements, attitudes, and even modulations of socio-cognitive aspects of their behavior may influence every phase of their rehabilitation treatment, from the acute to chronic stages. This work describes the potential advantages of using first-person-perspective VR to treat SCIs and its implications for manipulating sensory-motor feedback to alter body signals. By situating a patient with SCI in a virtual environment, sensorial perceptions and motor intention can be enriched into a more coherent bodily experience that also promotes processes of neural regeneration and plasticity. In addition to the great potential of research, the most significant areas of interest concern is managing neuropathic pain, motor rehabilitation, and psychological well-being.

An Exploration of Intermediary’s Role in Participatory Product Design at the Bottom of the Pyramid: The Case of Improvised Pedal-Operated Chaak

Abstract Design, development, and delivery of a new product to fulfill the needs and aspirations of marginalized people living at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) is a challenging endeavor. This is challenging, as the dynamic integration of sociocognitive aspects of the BoP with technological factors is a complicated task. Therefore, the participatory design approach is essential, as it facilitates dialogue among experts from multiple domains. This article presents the case of improvised pedal-operated Chaak (IPC) to appraise a realistic view of a participatory approach in the design and delivery of a new product in the BoP. The role played by Rural Technology Action Group as an intermediary to facilitate co-creation of knowledge during design and delivery of IPC is also discussed. This study infers that the IPC will improve productivity and has the capability to reduce the health drudgery of pottery artisans in Assam, India. This study demonstrates how nonbusiness actors (e.g., academia, non-government organizations, etc.) and local fabricators can constructively participate in the product design and delivery for sustainable community development at the BoP.

Towards understanding socio-cognitive behaviors of crowds from visual surveillance data

The problem of understanding socio-cognitive aspects of crowd behavior is a challenging yet critical task particularly for human-computer interaction applications. This issue is considered an important component of both current surveillance systems and futuristic interactions between intelligent agents and crowds of humans. In this paper, a probabilistic formulation of different categories of socio-cognitive crowd behavior is proposed. This framework models in a hierarchical manner relationships between the movements of entities within the crowd to differentiate between various crowd behaviors. Functionally, the framework can be considered a mid-level layer between purely visual analysis (i.e. detection and tracking of crowd components) and detailed semantics of crowd behaviors. In the presented study, the proposed framework extends a Gaussian Mixture Model of Dynamic Textures detection (GMM-of-DT) technique using Kalman filtering for the hierarchical motion representation of the crowds, simultaneously at micro (individual crowd members) and macro (groups of individuals) levels. Thereon, socio-cognitive crowd behaviors are categorized into individual, group, leader-follower and social interaction types. The proposed approach is validated on exemplary sequences from a benchmark PETS dataset (and, preliminarily, on other publicly available datasets), where the actual detection/tracking results are employed to evaluate probabilities of various socio-cognitive behaviors, and to compare the outputs of the proposed models to manually annotated ground-truth data.

Diferencias de Género en Distintas Dimensiones del Vínculo Humano-Perro: Estudio Descriptivo en Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Las mujeres parecen presentar más respuestas de afecto positivo hacia los animales. Sin embargo, hombres y mujeres refieren tener un vínculo intenso con sus mascotas. Los estudios sobre el tema han recibido diversos cuestionamientos. Considerando esto, se realizó un estudio descriptivo que comparó hombres y mujeres adultos custodios de perros (n=425) en tres grupos etarios (i.e., jóvenes, mediana edad y mayores), en seis dimensiones relacionales (i.e., interacción, cercanía emocional, costos, antropomorfismo, voluntad de adaptación y beneficios). Las mujeres mostraron mayores puntajes de cercanía emocional y antropomorfismo. Además, solo los hombres jóvenes mostraron mayor percepción de costos que las mujeres jóvenes. No se observaron diferencias en las demás dimensiones de acuerdo con el sexo del custodio. Se discute la significancia de los resultados considerando algunos aspectos sociocognitivos potencialmente implicados.

Dynamics Without a Framework? Towards an Ecological-Enactive Approach to the Dynamical View of Metaphor

Recently several attempts were undertaken to unite the field of metaphor studies, trying to reconcile the conceptual/cognition and linguistic/discourse approaches to metaphor (Hampe 2017b). The dynamic view of metaphor espoused by amongst others Gibbs (2017a) as a way to unify the field of metaphor studies is said to converge on findings and theoretical predictions found in cognition and discourse approaches. The author argues this focus on dynamical models to explain the multi-scale socio-cognitive aspects of metaphor as an emergent phenomenon is not robust enough. Complexity and dynamical systems are merely a modelling technique to deploy theory for empirical testing of hypotheses; a dynamic view of metaphor needs a coherent background theory to base its dynamic modelling of metaphor in action on (Chemero, 2009). I argue that it can be successfully based on the ecological-enactive framework available within the modern paradigm of 4E cognitive science. This framework makes possible explanation of both 'lower' cognition and 'higher' cognition emerging in the interaction of an organism with its environment. In addition, I sketch how recent theoretical insights from ecological-enactivism (Baggs and Chemero 2018) concerning Gibson's notion of environment apply to the attempted unification of the field of metaphor studies. I close by suggesting how an understanding of metaphor as an ecological affordance of the socio-cultural environment can provide a rich basis for empirical hypotheses within a dynamical science of metaphor.

ARGUMENTAÇÃO EM TEXTOS MULTIMODAIS PUBLICITÁRIOS

Este texto está situado nas vertentes sócio cognitiva e Semiótica Social da Análise Crítica do Discurso e tem por tema a composição argumentativa de anúncios publicitários multimodais impressos. Objetiva-se examinar a inter-relação imagem, cores e palavras; analisar a distribuição dos elementos textuais em sua espacialização e verificar as estratégias argumentativas utilizadas na produção textual. Justifica-se a pesquisa, devido à preferência dada aos textos multimodais na pós-modernidade, de forma a merecerem estudos para se entender, com um enfoque interacional, a sua produção/compreensão. Entende-se que todas as formas de conhecimento são produzidas no e pelo discurso, sendo que as cognições sociais são tanto grupais como extragrupais. Com um procedimento teórico-analítico, os resultados foram obtidos por método qualitativo. Tais resultados indicam que o texto publicitário multimodal é construído com um conjunto de estratégias argumentativas guiadas para produzir a sedução do outro, transformando-o em consumidor.

Linguistic Representation of Professional Values in Popular Science Discourse of IT: Axiological and Pragmatic Perspective

The article examines how professional values acquire linguistic form and spread via the modern discourse of Information Technology. As an extremely dynamic sphere of human activity, the industry of information technology reflects the processes that take place in the society and influence the way people interact, share information, process data and implement knowledge. As a result, the language that is employed for describing, informing, reporting and promoting IT products and ideas inevitably reflects the most important concepts that are typical of this sphere, i.e., values. The article explores the way the discourse of IT is shaped and linguistically conditioned by a certain professional value system and its features. This is the area that has not been thoroughly explored from the standpoint of linguistics, but which, however, requires substantial research due to apparent societal and scientific relevance. The study of popular science discourse as presented in the biggest technology magazines revealed that values determine the language means, modality of the texts, communication aims, all of which are set by the addresser. Moreover, when viewed from the perspective of linguistics, values are found to depend on the language both for the cognitive and pragmatic purposes. Identification and interpretation of the most prominent values of the popular science discourse of IT is aimed to bridge socio-cognitive, linguistic and pragmatic aspects of these entities: an interdisciplinary study that has not been conducted before.

An Automatic Group Formation Method to Promote Student Interaction in Distance Education Courses

This article proposes an automatic group formation method applying the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to boost the quality of students' online interactions. The groups were heterogeneous regarding their levels of knowledge and their interests, and three different leadership roles were distributed among group members. A case study with 66 undergraduate students was performed. Discourse analysis was applied using two coding schemes to measure the critical thinking apparent in the students' online discussions and evaluate the socio-cognitive aspects of group interactions. The results provided evidence that groups of undergraduate students formed by the proposed method achieved better scores in most categories analyzed when compared to the randomly formed groups.

The relationship between dispositional empathy and prefrontal cortical functioning in patients with frontal lobe epilepsy.

Background & Objective:Rehabilitation focuses brain-behavior relationship which highlights interaction between psychological and neurobiological factors for better patient care. There is a missing link in the literature about socio-cognitive aspects of frontal lobe epilepsy. Our objective was to examine prefrontal cortical functioning (PCF) and empathic abilities in patients with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE). Further, we analyzed whether any relationship between components of dispositional empathy and PCF exists in patients with FLE.Methods:The study was designed in an experimental paradigm. Sixty patients with FLE were recruited from Sheikh Zayed and Jinnah hospital, Pakistan. Sixty healthy individuals in response to an advertisement took part in the study as control subjects. Participants completed interpersonal reactivity index. Following they performed clock drawing test and word-color identification task switching experiment.Result:Patients with FLE demonstrated weaker PCF (i.e., cognitive flexibility and executive function) as compared to healthy control subjects. Patients with FLE scored lesser on cognitive empathy as compared to healthy control subjects. On contrary, there was no significant difference between patient and control group on affective empathy. Cognitive not affective empathy was potential predictor of PCF.Conclusion:Cognitive empathy is a significant marker of prefrontal cortical functioning (PCF) in FLE. Higher cognitive empathy would lead to efficient PCF.

Modelling sociocognitive aspects of students’ learning

We present a computational model of sociocognitive aspects of learning. The model takes into account a student’s individual cognition and sociodynamics of learning. We describe cognitive aspects of learning as foraging for explanations in the epistemic landscape, the structure (set by instructional design) of which guides the cognitive development through success or failure in foraging. We describe sociodynamic aspects as an agent-based model, where agents (learners) compare and adjust their conceptions of their own proficiency (self-proficiency) and that of their peers (peer-proficiency) in using explanatory schemes of different levels. We apply the model here in a case involving a three-tiered system of explanatory schemes, which can serve as a generic description of some well-known cases studied in empirical research on learning. The cognitive dynamics lead to the formation of dynamically robust outcomes of learning, seen as a strong preference for a certain explanatory schemes. The effects of social learning, however, can account for half of one’s success in adopting higher-level schemes and greater proficiency. The model also predicts a correlation of dynamically emergent interaction patterns between agents and the learning outcomes.

Ideação suicida e depressão entre travestis e transexuais: estudo exploratório

Aim: To analyze the association between suicidal ideation, suicide, its risk factors and social representations in the life of transvestites and transsexuals. Method: a qualitative exploratory study with quantitative analytical approach, conducted with transvestites and transsexuals associated to a non-governmental organization in the State of Rio Grande do Norte using semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data will be analyzed by inferential statistics with the application of chi-square, Mann Whitney and Pearson correlation tests. Qualitative data will be interpreted using content and social representation analysis. Expected results: the aim is to identify suicidal ideation, depressive state and social representations about suicide for transvestites and transsexuals, especially with regard to promoting mental health by identifying signs and risk factors for suicide, reduction of harm in the gender transit experiences, and health prevention in socio-cognitive aspects that surround the phenomenon.