Visual short‐term memory for overtly attended objects during infancy

We investigated limitations in young infants’ visual short‐term memory (VSTM). We used a one‐shot change detection task to ask whether 4‐ and 8.5‐month‐old infants (N = 59) automatically encode fixated items in VSTM. Our task included trials that consisted of the following sequence: first a brief (500 ms) presentation with a sample array of two items, next a brief (300 ms) delay period with a blank screen, and finally a test array (2,000 ms) identical to the sample array except that the color of one of the two items is changed. In Experiment 1, we induced infants to fixate one item by rotating it during the sample (the other item remained stationary). In Experiment 2, none of the items rotated. In both experiments, 4‐month‐old infants looked equally at the fixated item when it did and did not change color, providing no evidence that they encoded in VSTM the fixated item. In contrast, 8.5‐month‐old infants in Experiment 1 preferred the fixated item when it changed color from sample to test. Thus, 4‐month‐old infants do not appear to automatically encode fixated items in VSTM.     

Understanding Policy Instruments for Steering Nonprofit Organizations in China: Only Carrots and Sticks?

Government–nonprofit relations in China have transformed over the past three decades. Building on policy instrument theory, this article explores which policy instruments have been used to steer nonprofits at the central level and how the use of policy instruments has changed over time. This article is based on a content analysis of 300 central-level policy documents for nonprofits using NVivo. The results show that 22 kinds of policy instruments have been used to steer nonprofits. A steep upward trend is evident in the use of four categories of policy instruments for nonprofits: authority, incentive, information, and organization. Policy instruments for nonprofits have advanced in diversity, emphasizing indirect control. The central government continues to show a significant predisposition toward regulatory instruments, which have evolved from ex ante regulation to process and ex post regulation. This article contributes to the public management literature by identifying which policy instruments governments use to shape government–nonprofit relations.

     

Effects of temperature and habitat complexity on an urban tree pest (Tinocallis kahawaluokalani), natural enemies,and predation services in the city

Urban Ecosystems - Trees provide many ecosystem services in our urban environments. However, city trees are often stressed by pests and hot urban temperatures. Our research highlights how...     

Continuity,change and complexity in the performance of masculinity among elite young footballers in England

Following recent research evidencing that young men are redefining the essential components of what it is to be a man, this paper draws on qualitative interviews with 22 elite‐level, English Premier League academy level football (soccer) players to investigate their performances and understandings of masculinity in relation to decreasing homohysteria. Even in this gender‐segregated, near‐total institution, these working‐class, non‐educationally aspiring adolescents evidence an attenuated performance of ‘maleness’ and improved attitudinal disposition toward homosexuality. Congruent with insights developed by inclusive masculinity scholars, respondents maintained emotional closeness and physical tactility with male teammates and friends. These more inclusive attitudes and homosocial behaviours were, however, slightly more conservative than in other recent research. We close by explaining this variation with reference to theoretical apparatus’ provided by Goffman and Bourdieu to advance theoretical debates about social class and masculinities.     

Intergenerational Support and Marital Satisfaction: Implications of Beliefs About Helping Aging Parents

Everyday support given to aging parents is a salient aspect of married life that may have implications for marital quality. Among 132 middle‐aged couples drawn from Wave 1 of the Family Exchanges Study, the authors examined the moderating effects of each spouse's normative and motivational beliefs about helping parents on associations between the frequency of everyday support that wives and husbands gave to their own parents and marital satisfaction. Husbands' more frequent provision of support was linked to wives' greater marital satisfaction when reports of personal rewards linked to helping parents were high for wives or low for husbands. Conversely, wives' more frequent provision of support was linked to husbands' lower marital satisfaction when reports of filial obligation were low for husbands or high for wives. Findings highlight the interdependence within couples and indicate that both spouses' perceptions are important in understanding linkages between intergenerational support and marital satisfaction.     

Proactive or Protective? Dimensions of and Advocacy Activities Associated with Reported Policy Change by Nonprofit Organizations

Nonprofit and voluntary associations have a long history of defending the rights of their members, clients, and the public. Despite a burgeoning literature on advocacy by nonprofit organizations, few studies attempt to answer a central question: what factors influence nonprofit success in achieving the changes they aim to affect? Using original data from nearly 400 US nonprofits, we examine the extent to which they were involved in changing public policy, the nature of this engagement, and advocacy activities, organizational characteristics and relationships with others associated with reported policy change. More than three quarters of respondents reported having enacted, stopped, or modified policy. Nonprofits more often reported proactively changing policy when working in partnership and reactively stopping or modifying policy when facing opposition groups. Providing expertise and attending meetings was associated with reported policy change, whereas placing opinion ads was not.     

Marital Outcomes and Consideration of Divorce Among Orthodox Jews After Signing a Religious Prenuptial Agreement to Facilitate Future Divorce

This study examined marital satisfaction, marital adjustment, and consideration of divorce among Orthodox Jews in North America (N = 2,652). These marital outcomes were compared for individuals who signed or did not sign a religious prenuptial agreement that facilitates a woman’s future ability to receive a religious divorce from her husband. Results indicated a higher level of marital satisfaction among those who signed the religious prenuptial agreement, and no significant difference in marital adjustment or tendency to consider divorce between groups of individuals who signed or did not sign the religious prenuptial agreement.     

My Freudian Cocaine Fantasia: Altering Consciousness,Theorizing Desire

This paper speculates that Freud’s use of cocaine during the formative years of his theorizing shaped a particular conception of the nature of desire. One can draw correspondences between the phenomenology of cocaine intoxication and certain aspects of Freud’s ideas about desire: desire as appetitive, solipsistic, focused on discharge, defined by a quality of “drivenness,” subordinating of pleasure. Although relational reconsiderations have expanded our conception of desire, many contemporary people remain stringently Freudian in our experience of desire, as I use some clinical material to substantiate. In this sense we are all heirs to Freud’s cocaine consciousness.

In an imaginative leap, I link the wide cultural currency attained by psychoanalysis to its consilience with the logic of a coincident expanding capitalist economy—a mode of political economy that has now brought us to the brink of environmental destruction. I conclude that the future of civilization will depend on our ability to find other ways to live our desire.     

Using the predictive distribution to determine control limits for the Bayesian MEWMA chart

Bayesian control charts have been proposed for monitoring multivariate processes with the multivariate exponentially weighted moving average (MEWMA) statistic. It has been suggested that we use limits based on the predictive distribution of the MEWMA statistic. This analysis, however is based on the erroneous result that the average run length (ARL) is a function of the exceedance probability, that is, the probability that the first point exceeds the control limit. We show how this result can be corrected and we discuss how the Bayesian MEWMA chart with limits based on the predictive distribution compares with other multivariate control chart procedures.