Memória de reconhecimento em indivíduos adultos com mais de 45 anos

As we grow old, there are many cognitive processes which decline in the human brain. One of them is the memory, a function that allows retention and posterior use of knowledge learned during the life, understood as a result of multiple systems highly organized and spread in several neural regions. This work aimed to evaluate the recognition memory in adults over 45 years old through words and pictures recognition tasks and the use of two codification or learning conditions (same distracters and different distracters). Twelve individuals were studied (6 men and 6 women) aged between 45 and 88 years old and with similar demographic characteristics. They presented better performance on picture tasks rather than word tasks. Better results were also verified when the codification context had different distracters, which significantly reflected in a long term principally in elderly individuals. The results reached suggest that the codification context influenced the lists of pictures and words learning, mainly for the elderly ones, when compared to adults, and that these results can be related to the phenomena involved with the recognition memory, the recollection and familiarity

Estampa temporal na memória de reconhecimento em estudantes universitários

Several studies have shown that there is a circadian modulation of explicit memory. This modulation can occur independently in each one of the mnemonic processes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of time of training on short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM), using a recognition task. Moreover, a possible circadian modulation in retrieving was investigated when this process matched the acquisition hour (time stamp). The chronotype variable was also considered. Fifty-seven undergraduate students aging between 18 and 25 years (21,72 ± 2,14; 28 ♂) participated in this study. In the training phase (acquisition) the subjects heard a ten word list. Following this, they answered a recognition test to evaluate STM and one week later they answered a recognition test to evaluate LTM. In each chronotype, the subjects were divided in groups according to the training hour, part of them in the morning and the other in the afternoon. One week later some of the subjects in each group underwent LTM testing in the morning and others in the afternoon. When the subjects performances were analyzed together, independently of the chronotypes, a training hour effect was found in the LTM. The subjects trained in the afternoon had better performance. No time of day effect was found in the STM and in retrieving from the LTM. However, the morning types who were trained and tested in the same hour had a better performance in the LTM when compared to morning types trained and tested in different hours. This effect did not occur when the other chronotypes were analyzed. The circadian modulation seems to occur at least in two different ways. First, there is a circadian modulation in the acquisition/consolidation processes, with a better performance occuring in the afternoon. Secondly, there is a modulation in the retrieval mnemonic process, called time stamp phenomenon. This phenomenon, that occurred in the morning types, is showed for the first time in humans

Avaliação das características de afetividade em crianças e jovens com síndrome de down

This work presents the processes and the results of a research concerning the affectivity in children suffering from the Down´s Syndrome (DS). The relevance of the study is justified due to the need of the development of researches, in the area of psychological evaluation of people who suffers from Down´s Syndrome (DS), that are backed by the use of appropriate instruments for such purpose. The thematic discussed focuses the characteristics of the affectivity of children suffering from Down´s Syndrome. Affectivity, conceptually, is considered a wide phenomenon, including several aspects such as emotions, passions, anxiety, anguish, sadness, happiness and even the pleasure sensations and pain. The general objective of the study consisted of investigating the manifestation of the affectivity in children and young with Down´s Syndrome and the parents´ and educators´ perception concerning the expression of the affectivity in the behavior and in the social activities. The specific objectives were: to identify the parents' perceptions about the several manifestations of indicative behaviors of affectivity; to verify in the social atmosphere, outside home, through the teachers' perception, the several forms and intensities of the expression of the affectivity; and, to make possible the use of the technique of Zulliger (Z-test) in people with Down´s Syndrome. 70 (seventy) children and young with Down´s Syndrome participated in the research, in the age group from 04 to 26 years old, which are attended by Institutions of Paraíba and of Rio Grande do Norte. The instruments used were two questionnaires, applied with the parents and teachers, and the projective technique, Z-test, applied, individually, with the children and young with Down´s Syndrome. For analysis of the data of the questionnaires, the program Trideux-Mots was used, with the intention of selecting the main outstanding words for the parents and teachers concerning the expression of the children's affectivity and young with Down´s Syndrome. For so much, it was organized a database that was processed by that program and, soon after, interpreted through the Factorial Analysis by Correspondence (AFC), looking for to clear the modalities of presented answers in an organized way, through a graph. The data of the Z-test were analyzed, taking in consideration the need to characterize the aspects of the affectivity and the elaboration of specific norms for this sample type, through normalized scores. In agreement with the data presented by Tri-deux-Mots, it was observed that in the affective behavior and in the relationship with the other, home and in the school, the children and young with Down´s Syndrome they express your affectivity through positive and negative characteristics, in the same way that any other child that doesn't have to syndrome. The Z-test made possible initial elements to work with that population, however it is necessary that grow other researches with the intention of investigating the reason of the answers they present not the specific categories that you/they are related to the affectivity, since it was well-known the diversity of affective characteristics presented by the researched group

Sentidos e perspectivas atribuídos por crianças à sua condição de estar para adoção

Considering the Brazilian current context, where many children are in institutional shelter waiting for adoption, the aim of this study was to know the meaning that sheltered children (whose families had already lost their custody or were in the process of losing it, at the moment of the field work) gave to their adoption condition. The research was carried out with three children in the shelter where they lived, in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The field work took six months approximately. In order to meet the objective of this research, individual procedures were structuralized using figures and drawing material. With these procedures the children could speak directly or indirectly about the application of the legal measure of institutional shelter, about their lives before the application of this legal measure and what happened since then, and their original families and future perspectives. The content of the procedures was tape recorded and registered in the field work diary. The analysis of the corpus occurred with the Thematic Content Analysis, considering the theoretical methodological perspective of the Net of Meanings approach. The analysis of the corpus showed the ambiguity of the children, who consider good to live in the institution where they are, recognizing the responsibility of the original caregivers for their sheltered condition and, at the same time, they miss their relatives and wish to be with them. The subjects recognize the perspective of adoption and imagine it in a positive way. However, when the children were questioned about what could happen to them in the future, they said that they did not know, expressing uncertainty concerning their destinations

A água nossa de cada dia : percepção, uso e predisposições comportamentais de alunos do ensino médio de Natal, Rio Grande do Norte

Embora a escassez de água seja reconhecida como um dos principais problemas mundiais a ser enfrentado pela humanidade, padrões comportamentais ecologicamente insustentáveis ainda persistem. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi analisar determinantes do comportamento pró-ambiental relativo à água, bem como os significados que lhe são atribuídos por alunos do ensino médio do Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica do Rio Grande do Norte, em Natal. Compuseram a amostra de conveniência 315 estudantes, 146 mulheres e 169 homens, que responderam a um questionário sobre uso e percepção da água, contendo também indicadores de pró-ambientalismo, cuidado ambiental, desenvolvimento sustentável, perspectiva temporal, externalidades e coletivismo, além de inquérito sócio-demográfico. Para os participantes, água é sinônimo de vida, muito embora a relação que mantém com ela parece dúbia e, muito mais funcional que ecológica; consideram-na um recurso finito, um patrimônio indispensável à vida, contudo não foi observada coerência entre as concepções manifestadas e os comportamentos auto-relatados de uso da água. Os resultados encontrados apontaram preditores importantes do comportamento pró-ambiental relativo à água: sexo do respondente, Escala Novo Paradigma Ecológico e deixar forma de contato para participar de campanhas futuras. Seja para aprofundamento teórico em novos estudos, seja para auxiliar na elaboração de programas de educação ambiental, que poderiam contribuir para inibir os efeitos de uma cultura de consumo e de uma visão utilitarista da água, ampliando esforços individuais e coletivos para a preservação de bens comuns, como a água. Palavras-chave: psicologia ambiental; sustentabilidade; água; comportamento próambiental. x xi Abstract Although water scarcity is recognized as one of the main world-wide problems to be faced by human kind, ecologically unsustainable patterns of behavior still persist. Thus, the objective of this study was to analyze pro-environmental behavior related to water, as well as meanings associated to it by high school students of Federal Center of Technological Education of Rio Grande do Norte, in Natal. The convenience sample was composed by 315 students, 146 women and 169 men, who answered a questionnaire about use and perception of water, containing indicators of proenvironmentalism, environmental care, sustainable development, time perspective, externalities and collectivism, besides socio-demographic items. According to participants, water is synonymous of life, even though the relationship they present with it is ambiguous, much more functional than ecological; they consider it a finite resource, an indispensable life patrimony, however there was no coherence between such conceptions and the self-reported behaviors of water use. Results indicated three important predictors of pro-environmental behavior: sex of respondent, New Ecological Paradigm Scale and telephone/address left for eventual contact to participate in future environmental campaigns. They may be used in additional studies for theoretical development, or to assist in the planning of programs of environmental education, aimed at the inhibition of the effects of a culture of consumption and of an utilitarian perception of water, extending individual and collective efforts towards the preservation of common resources as water

Compromisso social do psicólogo em artigos publicados em periódicos científicos no Brasil

Psychologist s social commitment in scientific articles published in scientific papers in Brazil. A situation analysis of the scientific production concerning psychologist s social commitment can aid the historical constitution of this theme and also subsidize reflections about the course of this profession in Brazil. In order to contribute to this debate, the theme social commitment of psychologist was analyzed in the scientific literature concerning psychologist profession in the country. Specifically, papers about the profession that mentioned the theme social commitment were characterized and their approach of this matter was analyzed. In order to accomplish these goals, two research stages were fulfilled: first, in a systematic search for scientific literature in internet databases, studies about the psychologist profession in the country were gathered; in the second stage, scientific papers relating to social commitment in their titles, abstracts or keywords were selected. 61 papers were retrieved, organized in electronic database and full-text analyzed, based in two axis: scientometric and thematic. The papers were identified, in general, as recent, of theoretic character and aligned with several Psychology subareas; mainly produced in public universities, in country s southwest; were of conjunctural interest to the authors research projects, individually published, by professors in touch with post-graduation; published in open access journals, with high Qualis evaluation. It was verified that there is no consensus on the meaning of the theme, prevailing definitions concerning the understanding of the social reality, to the majority of people or to a progressive-aligned professional performance. Are adduced as committed agents: the psychologist (sometimes together with other kinds of professionals or with users), the academia, and the representative entities of the profession. Depending on the subareas and the nature of study, all papers mentioned at least one of the following criteria: expansion of target-audience, renewal of practices, political direction, defined theoretical approach or adequate technical competence, sometimes relating each other. In short, psychologist s social commitment is a contradictory issue which have earned projection in scientific literature, reiterating the historical custom of evaluate the psychologist profession. As conclusion, it is regarded as indispensable to intensify the reflection about the role whose psychologist plays in a class-cleaved society and the limits and potentials of his performing in that framework.

Gravidez tardia: bem-estar subjetivo e percepção da gestação

The subjective well- being (SWB) is formed by global judgments of satisfaction with life, or with peculiar domains the positive and the negative emotional experiences. The perception in turn, is the process of interpretive process of sensory data with cognitive or informative sense, absorbed in function of a context. From this perspective, the research aimed to evaluate SWB and the perception of advanced age pregnant women. Participated in the survey 80 pregnant with 35 years old or older (Group A or older) and 80 pregnant aged between 20 and 34 years old (Group B or young adults). The instruments used were: the scale of subjective well-being and a questionnaire, that included sociodemographic informations, items about pregnancy and a statement based on the Free Association of Words Technique (FAWT) to approach the perception of pregnancy. The data from the questionnaire and scale, in order to compare the data between groups suffered descriptive and inferential statistical analyzes. The analyzes performed with chi-square test among groups, which had values that were statistically significant, with the sociodemographic variables the type of contraceptive and health problems. The indicators of the SWB had further more by means in groups. The results of the Wilcoxon's test that there were no differences between the groups referred above. In the relation indicators of well being with variables age, education and income, some associations were significant. In addition, the words derived from the (FAWT) were analyzed using the software Programmer s Permenttant l´Analyse des Evocation (EVOC2000) and categorized according to content analysis of Bardin in three thematic categories (positive and negative affects, perception of gestation and implications of pregnancy) discussed as a group, since most of words were common. The study highlights shown how similar were the presented data by pregnant women surveyed. It is supposed about this fact the similarity is related to the social context. The relevance of this study for the health care network is to help with proposals aimed at specific improvements to the public and the sector, beside demonstrate that advanced age pregnant women and young adulst in the researched context showed no differences in the most of the studied characteristics

A Praça André de Albuquerque, Natal/RN, na visão de seus frequentadores

The study offers a global and interpretative view of the person-environment inter-action at André de Albuquerque Plaza, in Natal, RN, according to a descriptive-exploratory approach that aimed at learning about the space converted into place, as it is perceived and experienced by users, who attribute meaning to it. The main objective was to critically analyze the relationship person-plaza, based on data collected about users perception, utilization and ascribed meaning. I have employed an Environmental Psychology multi-method approach, including informal observations, interactive poster session, videotaping and interviews. The results indicated that the plaza, besides being a passage point, is also a spot of urban convergence for several groups, particularly taxi drivers, flanelinhas, skate boarders and students. In regard to the perception of the place, an overall positive evaluation of the plaza was verified, since people perceive selectively what interests them. In terms of usage, different groups of users presented diverse patterns of utilization, also observed in the attributed meanings. The plaza is a work place for taxi drivers and flanelinhas and a sports arena for the skate boarders, with a practical meaning for both groups. For students and other users it is a place for meeting and leisure, revealing a stronger affective quality, responsible for feelings of well being, tranquility and relaxation. The data so obtained could contribute for future government projects of intervention in those spaces, aiming at its preservation as an open spot among the concrete of city buildings, offering better quality of life, not only for today, but also for future generations

A Água nossa de cada dia: percepção, uso e predisposições comportamentais de alunos do ensino médio de Natal, Rio Grande do Norte

Although water scarcity is recognized as one of the main world-wide problems to be faced by human kind, ecologically unsustainable patterns of behavior still persist. Thus, the objective of this study was to analyze pro-environmental behavior related to water, as well as meanings associated to it by high school students of Federal Center of Technological Education of Rio Grande do Norte, in Natal. The convenience sample was composed by 315 students, 146 women and 169 men, who answered a questionnaire about use and perception of water, containing indicators of proenvironmentalism, environmental care, sustainable development, time perspective, externalities and collectivism, besides socio-demographic items. According to participants, water is synonymous of life, even though the relationship they present with it is ambiguous, much more functional than ecological; they consider it a finite resource, an indispensable life patrimony, however there was no coherence between such conceptions and the self-reported behaviors of water use. Results indicated three important predictors of pro-environmental behavior: sex of respondent, New Ecological Paradigm Scale and telephone/address left for eventual contact to participate in future environmental campaigns. They may be used in additional studies for theoretical development, or to assist in the planning of programs of environmental education, aimed at the inhibition of the effects of a culture of consumption and of an utilitarian perception of water, extending individual and collective efforts towards the preservation of common resources as water

Ações educativas com portadores de diabetes Mellitus através da educação popular em saúde

Popular Health Education in its emancipatory dimension refers to individuals and groups to exchange knowledge and experiences, allowing them to associate health to the outcomes of their living conditions. Under this view, health workers and health users are subjects of the educative process. Thus, this study aims to identify the key clinical and socio sanitary attributes and promote educational activities with patients with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in a Family Health Care Unit of the Western Sanitary District, in the city of Natal / RN. It is an action research which uses the references of the Theory of Liberating Education, which is based on a problem-solving pedagogy and that values dialogue in the process of understanding oneself and the world. Thirty-six diabetics, who are residents of the area covered by the health care unit, and thirty health workers participated in the survey. Each group had an average of twelve participants, and the meetings took place at the Unit´s hall, using conversation wheels, group dynamics, life narratives, experiences telling, movie exhibition and discussions, music, knowledge telling, desires, limitations, beliefs and values socially constructed. Data collection took place during the second half of two thousand and thirteen through Free Word Association Technique (FWAT), recordings of conversation wheels, participative observation, group dynamics, testimonies, questionnaires, life narratives and photographs. The empirical material was organized and subjected to three analyzes: thematic content (Bardin), textual statistics analysis by software IRAMUTEQ (Ratinaud), and photographic analysis (Edmund Feldman). The data analyses originated words, expressions, categories, themes and creative situations showing that popular health education is in process of construction, but still very incipient in primary care. The National Policy on Popular Health Education shows us the necessary ways for the transformation of health practices and the build of a more shared and solidary society. The meetings could be place to reverse that normative logic that has been happening over the years in primary care, but that by itself is not enough. It is possible to conclude that the use of active practices, increasing of listening and training on Popular Health Education will enable changes in the scenario where users and health workers deal with diabetes mellitus. Thus we see the popular health education is being timidly incorporated to the educational process of the subjects involved in this study, and far away from the principles of participation, organization of political work, increase opportunities for dialogue, respect, solidarity and tolerance among different actors involved in addressing the health problems that are fundamental to the improvement in building healthy practices of primary care

Uma Análise Comparativa entre Sistemas de Combinação de Classificadores com Distribuição Vertical dos Dados

In systems that combine the outputs of classification methods (combination systems), such as ensembles and multi-agent systems, one of the main constraints is that the base components (classifiers or agents) should be diverse among themselves. In other words, there is clearly no accuracy gain in a system that is composed of a set of identical base components. One way of increasing diversity is through the use of feature selection or data distribution methods in combination systems. In this work, an investigation of the impact of using data distribution methods among the components of combination systems will be performed. In this investigation, different methods of data distribution will be used and an analysis of the combination systems, using several different configurations, will be performed. As a result of this analysis, it is aimed to detect which combination systems are more suitable to use feature distribution among the components

O planejamento turístico e o comércio ambulante : uma análise à luz da teoria das representações sociais

The Social Representation Theory provides subsidies to scientifically analyze what is called common sense, suggesting that thought be given credibility to the individual, from the assignment of logic to it. The Representations allow us to interpret, understand, explain and thus classify information, events and people. In this sense, this study aimed to analyze how social representations of the actors of the intinerant traders who operate in Ponta Negra/RN can be used as an element for tourism planning. To achieve the desired goals, we conducted a qualitative study, from a descriptive study, using methods of data collection the research literature, the technique of free association of words and the questionnaire, applied with 90 intinerant traders who work in Ponta Negra/RN beach. As tools of data analysis were used to analyze literature, and software EVOC and SPHINX. This research has revealed the predominance of people in itinerant male, between 18 and 28 years, with incomplete primary education, no contributors of Previdência Social and working seven days a week. The core elements of representations brings that explain that their knowledge is guided by collectively shared knowledge in the culture of tourism, which is seen as something that brings economics benefits (money) to the society, from the travel and entertainment. The plan represents the forward thinking, based on development plans that seek improvements and organization. The structure and operation of tourism planning in Natal/RN, there were no representation of intinerant traders. It is concluded that understanding the needs of itinerant traders provides grants to developing strategies for the development of tourism. This is achieved from its inclusion in tourism planning, since it enables tourism managers to understand how they are capturing, interpreting and acting on their next reality, since these representations are fundamental in forming opinions and the establishment of individual attitudes and collective. Thus, it is an important theory to be used to subsidize social research with individuals living reality and local needs, but which is the margin of decision-making processes of economic in the Brazil

Lembranças de alunos, imagens de professores: narrativas e diálogos sobre a formação médica

Se trata de una incursión histórica por el pensamiento y por la enseñanza médica, discutiéndose la formación médica de manera contextualizada, con el objetivo de comprenderla para interpretarla a través del recuerdo que haya sido fijado por los alumnos. Se dará un enfoque a la mediación pedagógica de esa formación, intentando proporcionar el diálogo entre la historia social de la Medicina y los recuerdos de alumnos, ubicándolas en un contexto histórico-social y cultural, al mismo tiempo en que se ha buscado sujetar las imágenes de los profesores que hayan dejado huellas significativas en la vida de los alumnos, en cuestiones profesionales, sociales y culturales. Se configura, asimismo, una memoria de la formación médica de la Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), desde su creación en el 1955, como Faculdade de Medicina de Natal, hasta el 1963, como Faculdade de Medicina da UFRN. Los recuerdos han sido recolectados por medio de entrevistas temáticas con alumnos ya formados de las tres primeras turmas concluyentes, de los años del 1961, 1962 y 1963, de la referida Facultad y fueron interpretadas utilizándose la cartografía como técnica que envuelve la construcción de cuadros interpretativos, teniendo como unidad de análisis las palabras representativas de los elementos constituyentes de la mediación pedagógica, sacadas de las narrativas de los sujetos, que cargan también las imágenes de los profesores que han compuesto dicho diálogo por sus contribuciones para la existencia del saber y hacer de la educación médica en Natal/RN. Aún se comprende que esa Facultad fue creada en un momento histórico-social y cultural en que Brasil y el mundo todavía intentaban encontrar nuevos caminos, después de turbulencias causadas por la Segunda Guerra Mundial, y la intelectualidad natalense visualizaba el encaje de la ciudad en los parámetros de la modernidad. El currículum implantado era técnico/racional, pero al ser interpretado por la acción, a través de la reconstrucción de los recuerdos de los alumnos, en los vestigios de la mediación pedagógica de la formación médica y en las imágenes de los profesores todavía vivas en sus memorias, se vuelve posible entender que a esos alumnos ha sido enseñado: un saber relacional que permitía el diálogo, la transmisión de experiencia y el compromiso médico con vista a un atendimiento a la populación en primer lugar, siguiéndole el sentimiento que fomentaba deseos de ayuda al próximo, siendo los propios profesores el ejemplo, conformándose, así, con un saber contextual, agregado a una participación política y de responsabilidad ética para con la sociedad

A representação social de educação tecnológica de docentes da Rede Federal de Educação Profissional e Tecnológica: CEFETs do Rio Grande do Norte

The aim of this study was to investigate the social representation of technological education teachers at the Federal Technological Education Network. The survey was conducted from 2007 to 2010, and the respondents were 275 teachers, 135 of the Federal Center for Technological Education (CEFET in portuguese) in the state of Amazonas, in Manaus unit headquarters; 140 of the CEFET in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, a unit based in Natal. We adopt the concept of technological education as the top level of professional education, that is to say, the undergraduate programs of short duration called technological courses. The Federal Technological Education Network gathers hundreds of related institutions, coordinated and supervised by the Office of Vocational and Technological Education of the Ministry of Education. Although many of these institutions offer courses in technology education, no research addressing this subject from the perspective of Social Representations Theory (SRT) was found in the literature. We seek to unravel the social representation of technological education of the teachers by adopting the procedural approach of SRT. This is a qualitative approach, focusing on significant aspects of the representative activity and the formation mechanisms of the representation. Therefore, we search the socio-genesis of the representation in the articulations between discourses, social institutions and practices. We initiated the research through applying critical reading and an analytical perspective on the historical and regulatory documents of technological education in Brazil, from the early twentieth century to the present day. We adopt the Procedure for Multiple Classifications (PMC) from the Free Words Association Technique (FWAT) to access the elements of representational content. For the analysis of the data obtained with FWAT and selection of major words / phrases pertinent to the semantic field of education technology, we used Hamlet II software. For the data analysis of PMC and Free Classification (FC) we used the SPSS ® (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 17.0 and used the method of multidimensional scaling - Multidimensional scaling - (MDS). The output from the central MDS takes the form of a set of scatterplots - "perceptual maps" - of which the points are the elements of the representational content. For the FC data analysis we used the Scalogram Multidimensional Analysis (SMA) - which makes use of the original data in its raw form and allows categorical data to be interpreted in the map as measures of (di)similarity. In order to help with the understanding of the settings of the perceptual maps of FC, we used the Content Analysis of the discourse fragments of the teachers interviewed. The results confirm our initial hypothesis regarding the presence of a single plot among the socio-cognitive study subjects, which is the basis for a social representation of technological education in line with the historic assumption of the dichotomy between mental and manual labor. In spite of the three merging representational elements of the representational content, the perceptual maps compiled from the MSA statistics corroborates the dichotomy, with the exception of the map relating to the subgroup of teachers belonging to the humanities

Conhecimento sobre energia eólica: um estudo exploratório a partir das redes semânticas naturais de estudantes da cidade de Natal

The human being has a fundamental role in issues concerning scarcity of energy resources as well as in the success of technologies which favor the use of renewable sources, such as wind energy. But what does wind energy mean for people? What are the psychological meanings concerning this term? Aiming to answer these questions, the general objective of this dissertation was to identify and to analyze the knowledge about wind energy taking into account a network of psychological meanings. One hundred and ninety one (191) university students from Natal-RN participated in the study, being male the majority (53%); aged between 17 and 51 years old (M=23.3 years; SD=5.7). Participants responded to self reports using the Natural Semantic Networks (NSW) technique, as well as to several sociodemographic questions. The results showed a consistent, positive and useful general semantic network. In this semantic network, knowledge about wind energy was represented by words that correspond to the appeal of (pro) environmental stance (e.g., clean and nature), that evinced both the technological aspect (e.g., force) and the economic aspect (e.g., economy). Results from different groups were also analyzed. The first set of groups (non-environemental and environmental) was divided considering the course (e.g., ecology and economy). The second set of groups(non-caretaker and caretaker) was divided based on the practice of environmental care expressed. Subtle differences were observed in the semantic networks of caretakers, who emphasized environment, an attribute not mentioned by non-caretakes. This indicates a construction of knowledge that is influenced by the presence or absence of the environmental commitment. Such findings may be useful in the construction of instruments for surveys and in the development of public and educational policies. Additionally, they may assist the media towards a more objective performance concerning wind energy