"Ei vittu, mennään röökille" : tutkimus sitaattien tehtävistä ja tekemisestä kaunokirjallis-journalistisissa lehtijutuissa

This research deals with direct speech quotations in magazine articles through two questions: As my major research question, I study the functions of speech quotations based on a data consisting of six literary-journalistic magazine articles. My minor research question builds on the fact that there is no absolute relation between the sound waves of the spoken language and the graphemes of the written one. Hence, I study the general thoughts on how utterances should be arranged in the written form based on a large review of literature and textbooks on journalistic writing as well as interviews I have made with magazine writers and editors, and the Council of Mass Media in Finland. To support my main research questions, I also examine the reference system of the Finnish language, define the aspects of the literary-journalistic article and study vernacular cues in written speech quotations. FUNCTIONS OF QUOTATIONS. I demonstrate the results of my analysis with a six-pointed apparatus. It is a continuum which extends from the structural level of text, all the way through the explicit functions, to the implicit functions of the quotation. The explicit functions deal with the question of what is the content, whereas the implicit ones base mainly on the question how the content is presented. 1. The speech quotation is an distinctive element in the structure of the magazine article. Thereby it creates a rhythm for the text, such as episodes, paragraphs and clauses. 2. All stories are told through a plot, and in magazine articles, the speech quotations are one of the narrative elements that propel the plot forward. 3. The speech quotations create and intensify the location written in the story. This location can be a physical one but also a social one, in which case it describes the atmosphere and mood in the physical environment and of the story characters. 4. The quotations enhance the plausibility of the facts and assumptions presented in the article, and moreover, when a text is placed between quotation marks, the reader can be assured that the text has been reproduced in the authentic verbatim way. 5. Speech quotations tell about the speaker's unique way of using language and the first-hand experiences of the person quoted. 6. The sixth function of speech quotations is probably the most essential one: the quotations characterize the quoted speaker. In other words, in addition to the propositional content of the utterance, the way in which it has been said transmits a lot of the speaker's character (e.g. nature, generation, behaviour, education, attitudes etc.). It is important to notice, that these six functions of my speech quotation apparatus do not exlude one another. It means that every speech quotation basically includes all of the functions discussed above. However, in practice one or more of them have a principal role, while the others play a subsidiary role. HOW TO MAKE QUOTATIONS? It is not suprising that the field of journalism (textbooks, literature and interviews) holds heterogeneous and unestablished thoughts on how the spoken language should be arranged in written quotations, which is my minor research question. However, the most frequent and distinctive aspects can be depicted in a couple of words: serve the reader and respect the target person. Very common advice on how to arrange the quotations is − firstly, to delete such vernacular cues (e.g. repetitions and ”expletives”) that are common in spoken communication, but purposeless in the written language. − secondly, to complete the phonetic word forms of the spoken language into a more reader-friendly form (esim. punanen → punainen, 'red'), and − thirdly, to enhance the independence of clauses from the (authentic) context and to toughen reciprocal links between them. According to the knowledge of the journalistic field, utterances recorded in different points in time of an interview or a data-collecting session can be transferred as consecutive quotations or even merged together. However, if there is any temporal-spatial location written in the story, the dialogue of the story characters should also be situated in an authentic context – chronologically in the right place in the continuum of the events. To summarize, the way in which the utterances should be arranged into written speech quotations is always situationally-specific − and it is strongly based on the author's discretion.

Porvoon maalaiskunnan haja-asutusalueen tiennimet

Kymmenkunta vuotta sitten monessa Suomen kunnassa jouduttiin suureen nimeämistyöhön, kun kuntien keskusjärjestöt suosittivat osoitejärjestelmän luomista myös haja-asutusalueille. Kunnille annetut ohjeet käsittelivät lähinnä osoitejärjestelmän teknistä toteuttamista, eikä nimistönsuunnittelun vaativuutta tajuttu. Tärkein asia eli teiden nimeäminen jäi lähes täysin kunnallisten virkamiesten ja poliitikkojen harkinnan varaan. Varsinkin kaksikielisissä kunnissa jouduttiin hankaluuksiin: tiennimet piti luoda kahdella kielellä, vaikka vanha paikannimistö olisi yksikielistä. Tilannetta mutkisti se, että nimistönsuunnittelun suhtautuminen vanhan paikannimistön kääntämiseen ja mukauttamiseen oli murroksessa juuri osoitteistamisprosessin alussa, eikä uusia periaatteita tuotu selvästi julki ennen 1990-luvun puoliväliä. Vielä 1980-luvulla paikannimien kääntämistä ja mukauttamista suositeltiin, mutta nykyään pidetään jo selvänä, että vanhaa paikannimistöä ei pidä perusteetta muokata vaan sitä voidaan käyttää sellaisenaan. Käypiä nimiä ovat siis niin Kråköntie kuin Koivulavägen. Porvoon maalaiskunnassa nimeämistyö aloitettiin vuonna 1989. Hankkeelle määrättiin virkamiesvalmistelija, joka työskenteli yhdessä toimikunnan kanssa. Tiekunnat saivat ehdottaa teilleen nimiä, ja valtaosaehdotuksista otettiinkin huomioon, mutta alkuvaiheessa lähes kaikki ruotsinkieliset paikannimet käännettiin tai mukautettiin. Koska toimikunnan jäsenillä ei ollut asiantuntemusta, nimien käännökset olivat usein epäonnistuneita ja oikeinkirjoitus horjui. Nähtävilläolon jälkeen alkuvuonna 1991 toimikunta päätti turvautua Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskuksen apuun. Tiekunnat eivät hyväksyneet käännöksiä ja mukaelmia, joten ne neuvojen jälkeen poistettiin. Myöhemmin käännökset palautettiin luontonimiin perustuviin tiennimiin, mutta suurimmalta osalta vanha nimistö säilyi muuttamattomana. Emmintöjen jälkeen kunnanhallitus hyväksyi nimistön syksyllä 1995. Suurin osa Porvoon maalaiskunnan 790:stä haja-asutusalueen tiennimestä perustuu vanhaan paikannimistöön (81 %) tai on muuten paikkaan liittyvää (15 %). Vain pieni osa nimistä (4 %) on harkinnaisia.Vanhaan paikannimistöön perustuvissa tiennimissä on eniten tilannimen (41 %), maastonimen (26 %) ja kylännimen (14 %) sisältäviä nimiä. Yleisimmät jälkiosat ovat tie (86 %), kuja (5 %) ja polku (5 %). Määriteosaltaan tyystin suomenkielisiä nimipareista on 14 % (Aholantie-Aholavägen) ja ruotsinkielisiä 36 % (Bodöntie-Bodövägen). Tiekuntien nimet ja uudet tiennimet ovat eri asioita, mutta noin kolmannes uusista tiennimistä sisältää tiekunnan nimessä esiintyvän nimen. Näin Porvoon maalaiskunnan tiekuntien nimissä esiintyvistä 252 määriteosasta 193:a (77 %) on hyödynnetty 245 uudessa tiennimessä. Ennen tiennimiä osoitteissa käytettiin yleensä vain postinumeroa ja postitoimipaikkaa. Jonkin verran käytössä oli myös osoitenimiä (esim. Björkebo, Kappeli). Niistäkin valtaosa (73 %) esiintyy uusissa tiennimissä. Laskelma pohjautuu postin osoitetietojärjestelmään. Uusi tiennimistö perustuu usein jo käytössä oleviin tien- ja paikannimiin, joten se ei uhkaa vanhan nimistön asemaa. Uuden nimistön vaikutusta vähentää sekin, että sitä tarvitsevat lähinnä ulkopuoliset. Kotitienoot hahmotetaan edelleenkin vanhojen ja vakiintuneiden paikannimien avulla, mutta toki uudet tiennimet tuovat esiin monia vähän käytettyjä paikannimiä ja tarjoavat mainion katsauksen seudun kulttuuriperintöön. Ei siis ole samantekevää, miten teitä nimetään. Huonoiksi koetut uudet nimet eivät välttämättä edes vakiinnu käyttöön. Porvoon maalaiskunnan tulosten vertaaminen koko Suomen kattavaan materiaaliin osoittaa hankkeen edenneen hitaasti, mutta kaksikielisyyden ja työvoiman vähyyden huomioon ottaen kohtalaisesti. Vertailu kuuden muun uusmaalaisen kunnan kanssa paljastaa eroja paitsi hankkeen toteuttamistavoissa myös työn tuloksessa eli nimistössä. Yleensä tiekunnat ja asukkaat ovat saaneet tehdä ehdotuksia ja nimistön ovat laatineet virkamiehet ja nimitoimikunnat ilman palkattua asiantuntijaa. Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskuksen puoleen on sentään käännytty. Tärkeä havainto on se, että kaksikieliset kunnat ovat halunneet vaalia kulttuuriarvoja ja säilyttää keskeisen vanhan paikannimistönsä koskemattomana. Avainsanat: Tiennimet, osoitenimet, osoitejärjestelmä, nimistönsuunnittelu

Tundranenetsin todennäköisyysmoduksista ja niiden merkityksistä

Tundranenetsin kielessä on monimutkainen modusjärjestelmä, ja kielen kuvauksissa modusten määrä vaihtelee viidestä kahdeksaantoista. Tutkielmassani tarkastelen kielen tiettyjä verbimoduksia ja niiden merkityksiä. Tutkimukseni kohteena on seitsemän sellaista modusta, jotka aiemman kirjallisuuden mukaan ilmaisevat puhujan arviota kerrotun tapahtuman todennäköisyydestä eli episteemistä modaalisuutta. Työn tavoitteena on tarkastella modusten käyttöä ja esiintymisrajoituksia sekä muotojen merkityksiä. Aineistona käytän N. M. Tereštšenkon (1965) nenetsi-venäjä-suursanakirjan esimerkkilauseiden korpusta. Moduslauseiden merkityksiä tarkastelen teoreettisen nenetsin kielen taitoni sekä lauseiden leksikaalisen ja morfologisen analysoinnin sekä esimerkkilauseiden venäjännösten avulla. Modusten merkitysten tarkastelussa kiinnitän erityisesti huomiota toisaalta puhujan oman arvion ilmaisemiseen, episteemisyyteen, toisaalta puhujan tietolähteen ilmaisemiseen, evidentiaalisuuteen sekä näiden kahden merkityskategorian välisiin eroihin ja yhtäläisyyksiin. Tarkastelen myös modusten esiintymistä eri aspekti- ja tempusympäristöissä ja havainnoin modaalisten merkitysten lisäksi moduslauseiden temporaalisia ja aspektuaalisia merkityksiä. Työssäni totean probabilitatiiveiksi nimitettyjen modusten merkitykset inferentiaalisiksi tai harvemmin myös miratiivi-siksi. Inferentiaalisessa merkityksessä puhujan kertoma asia perustuu loogiseen päätelmään, joka tehdään muun tiedossa olevan asian perusteella. Miratiivisessa merkityksessä modusta käytetään kuvaamaan tapahtumaa, joka on puhujan näkökulmasta odotuksenvastainen tai yllättävä. Miratiivinen funktio on tulkintani mukaan ainoastaan varsinaisilla probabilitatiiveilla, ja niin kutsutut hyper- ja superprobabilitatiivi ilmaisevat inferentiaalisuutta eli ne korostavat puhujan tietolähdettä. Approksimatiiveiksi kutsutut kolme modusta ilmaisevat toisaalta kuvaannollisena, ei konkreettisesti tulkittavana kerrottavaa tapahtumaa. Toisaalta ne ilmaisevat puhujan subjektiivista arviota tilan tai tapahtuman toteutumis- tai voimassaolomahdollisuudesta. Modaalisen merkityksen lisäksi moduksilla on temporaalinen merkitys. Approksimatiivien ja probabilitatiivien ryhmissä on imperfektiiviseksi ja perfektiiviseksi kutsuttu modusmuoto. Imperfektiivisiksi kutsuttujen modusten temporaalinen merkitys vastaa aoristitempusta, joka lauseen aspektin mukaisesti viittaa joko juuri loppuun saatet-tuun tai nykyhetkessä tapahtuvaan. Lauseen aspekti on verbin aspektin mukaisesti hetkellinen tai jatkuva. Perfektiivisiksi kutsutut modukset viittaavat menneeseen aikaan. Perfektiivisen approksimatiivin status morfologisena moduksena voidaan aineistoni perusteella kyseenalaistaa. Menneeseen aikaan viitataan sen sijaan useammin imperfektiivisen approksimatiivin preterititempuksella. Probabilitatiivin ja preterititempuksen yhdistelmää ei aineistossani esiinny. Approksimatiivien ryhmässä on myös futuurinen variantti, joka viittaa yleensä tulevaan aikaan. Tulevaan viittaavat myös imperfektiivisen probabilitatiivin ja approksimatiivin muodot liittyessään johto-opillisen futuuritempukseen. Aineistoni modusesimerkit rajoittuvat usein yhden virkkeen kontekstiin, joten modusten merkitysten analysointi eri käyttöympäristöissä on työssäni vaikeaa. Vaikka onnistun hyvin hahmottelemaan tarkastelemien modusten keskeisimmät merkitysfunktiot aineistoni perusteella, tutkimuksen jatkaminen analyysin tarkentamiseksi on tarpeen.

Vepsän kielen momentaaniset ja frekventatiiviset verbijohdokset : Johdosten rakenteen, merkityksen ja käytön tarkastelua

Tutkielmani käsittelee vepsän kielen momentaanisia ja frekventatiivisia verbijohdoksia. Tutkimus on aineistolähtöinen. Selvitän eri-ikäisistä tekstilähteistä kokoamani korpuksen valossa, minkälaista vepsän verbijohto on muihin itämerensuomalaisiin kieliin, erityisesti suomeen ver-rattuna. Yhtäältä näkökulmani on morfologinen. Toisaalta kiinnostukseni kohteena on verbijohdon silmiinpistävä runsaus ja produktiivisuus. Pohdin, missä ympäristöissä johdoksia käytetään ja minkälaisia merkityksiä niillä ilmaistaan. Taustalla on aiemmassa tutkimuksessa esitetty hypoteesi venäjän verbiaspektin vaikutuksesta vepsän verbijohdon runsastumiseen ja merkityskehitykseen. Teoreettiset katsaukset luon derivaatiomorfologiaan ja aspektin tutkimukseen typologian ja itämerensuomalaisten kielten näkökulmasta. Sivuan myös hieman venäjän kielen aspektia. Tutkimuksessani tulee näkyviin diakroninen muutos, sillä 1900-luvun alussa puhuttua vepsän kieltä 2000-luvun kieleen verrattaessa erityisesti frekventatiivijohdosten käyttö näyttää lisääntyneen. Frekventatiivijohtimet voivat liittyä moniin sellaisiin kantasanatyyppeihin, joihin ne eivät semanttisista tai morfotaktisista syistä vepsän lähisukukielessä suomessa liity. Sekä momentaanisten että frekventatiivisten johdinten valikoima on 2000-luvulla käytännössä supistunut 1900-luvun alun teksteissä esiintyvistä ja aiemmassa kirjallisuudessa mainituista useista johdinvarianteista äänteellisesti lyhyempiin, frekventatiivisiin -(e)le- ja momentaanisiin -(a)hta-johtimiin. Johdoksilla ilmaistuista merkityksistä olen tulkinnut erityisesti habituaalisuuden merkitystä merkittävän frekventatiivijohdoksin. Toisinaan vaikuttaa, että frekventatiivijohdoksilla halutaan korostaa toiminnan imperfektiivisyyttä suhteessa johtamattomaan kantaverbiin. Momentaanijohdoksia aineistossani on vähemmän, mutta niilläkin voi katsoa olevan aspektuaalisiin suhteisiin viittaavaa käyttöä. Voidaan sanoa, että vepsän verbijohtimin ilmaistaan aspektuaalisia suhteita laajemmin kuin suomessa. Avoimeksi jää, voiko imperfektiivisyyden ja habituaalisuuden tai perfektiivisyyden merkitsemistä verbijohdoksin pitää tietyissä konteksteissa pakollisena.

Scheffleriläinen rationaalisuus ja kasvatustodellisuuden monikerroksisuus : Jännitteitä ja ratkaisuja Israel Schefflerin kasvatusfilosofiassa

The study is a philosophical analysis of Israel Scheffler’s philosophy of education, focusing on three crucial conceptions in his philosophy: the conception of rationality, the conception of human nature, and the conception of reality. The interrelations of these three concepts as well as their relations to educational theorizing are analysed and elaborated. A conceptual problem concerning Scheffler’s ideal of rationality derives from Scheffler’s supposition of the strong analogy between science education and moral education in terms of the ideal of rationality. This analogy is argued to be conceptually problematic, since the interconnections of rationality, objectivity, and truth, appear to differ from each other in the realms of ethics and science, given the presuppositions of ontological realism and ethical naturalism, to which Scheffler explicitly subscribes. This study considers two philosophical alternatives for solving this problem. The first alternative relates the analogy to the normative concept of personhood deriving from the teleological understanding of human nature. Nevertheless, this position turns out to be problematic for Scheffler, since he rejects all teleological thinking in his philosophy. The problem can be solved, as it is argued, by limiting Scheffler’s rejection of teleology – in light of his philosophical outlook on the whole – in a manner that allows a modest version of a teleological conception of human nature. The second alternative, based especially on Scheffler’s later contributions, is to suggest that reality is actually more complex and manifold than it appears to be in light of a contemporary naturalist worldview. This idea of plurealism – Scheffler’s synthesis of pluralism and realism – is represented especially in Scheffler’s contributions related to his debate with Nelson Goodman dealing with both constructivism and realism. The idea of plurealism is not only related to the ethics-science-distinction, but is more widely related to the relationship between ontological realism and the incommensurable systems of description in diverse realms of human understanding. The Scheffler-Goodman debate is also analysed in relation to the contemporary constructivism-realism debate in educational philosophy. In terms of educational questions, Scheffler’s plurealism is argued as offering a fruitful perspective. Scheffler’s philosophy of education can be interpreted as searching for solutions to the problems deriving from the tension between the tradition of analytical philosophy and the complexity and multiplicity of educational reality. The complexity of reality combined with the supposition of the limitedness of human knowledge does not lead Scheffler to relativism or particularism, but, in contrast, Schefflerian formulations of rationality and objectivity preserve the possibility for critical inquiry in all realms of educational reality. In light of this study, Scheffler’s philosophy of education provides an exceptional example of combining ontological realism, epistemological fallibilism, and the defence of the ideal of rationality, combined with a wide-ranging understanding of educational reality.

School and choice : Anethnography of a primary school with bilingual classes

Based on a one-year ethnographic study of a primary school in Finland with specialised classes in Finnish and English (referred to as bilingual classes by research participants), this research traces patterns of how nationed, raced, classed and gendered differences are produced and gain meaning in school. I examine several aspects of these differences: the ways the teachers and parents make sense of school and of school choice; the repertoires of self put forward by teachers, parents and pupils of the bilingual classes; and the insitutional and classroom practices in Sunny Lane School (pseudonym). My purpose is to examine how the construction of differentness is related to the policy of school choice. I approach this questions from a knowledge problematic, and explore connections and disjunctions between the interpretations of teachers and those of parents, as well as between what teachers and parents expressed or said and the practices they engaged in. My data consists of fieldnotes generated through a one-year period of ethnographic study in Sunny Lane School, and of ethnographic interviews with teachers and parents primarily of the bilingual classes. This data focuses on the initial stages of the bilingual classes, which included the application and testing processes for these classes, and on Grades 1─3. In my analysis, I pursue poststructural feminist theorisations on questions of knowledge, power and subjectivity, which foreground an understanding of the constitutive force of discourse and the performative, partial, and relational nature of knowledge. I begin by situating my ethnographic field in relation to wider developments, namely, the emergence of school choice and the rhetoric of curricular reform and language education in Finland. I move on from there to ask how teachers discuss the introduction of these specialised classes, then trace pupils paths to these classes, their parents goals related to school choice, teachers constructions of the pupils and parents of bilingual classes, and how these shape the ways in which school and classroom practices unfold. School choice, I argue, functioned as a spatial practice, defining who belongs in school and demarcating the position of teachers, parents and pupils in school. Notions of classed and ethnicised differences entered the ways teachers and parents made sense of school choice. Teachers idealised school in terms of social cohesiveness and constructed social cohesion as a task for school to perform. The hopes parents iterated were connected to ensuring their children s futurity, to their perceptions of the advantages of fluency in English, but also to the differences they believed to exist between the social milieus of different schools. Ideals such as openmindedness and cosmopolitanism were also articulated by parents, and these ideals assumed different content for ethnic majority and minority parents. Teachers discussed the introduction of bilingual classes as being a means to ensure the school s future, and emphasised bilingual classes as fitting into the rubric of Finnish comprehensive schooling which, they maintained, is committed to equality. Parents were expected to accommodate their views and adopt the position of the responsible, supportive parent that was suggested to them by teachers. Teachers assumed a posture teachers of appreciating different cultures, while maintaining Finnishness as common ground in school. Discussion on pupils knowledge and experience of other countries took place often in bilingual classes, and various cultural theme events were organized on occasion. In school, pupils are taught to identify themselves in terms of cultural belonging. The rhetoric promoted by teachers was one of inclusiveness, which was also applied to describe the task of qualifying pupils for bilingual classes, qualifying which pupils can belong. Bilingual classes were idealised as taking a neutral, impartial posture toward difference by ethnic majority teachers and parents, and the relationship of school choice to classed advantage, for example, was something teachers, as well as parents, preferred not to discuss. Pupils were addressed by teachers during lessons in ways that assumed self responsibility and diligence, and they assumed the discursive category of being good, competent pupils made available to them. While this allowed them to position themselves favourably in school, their participation in a bilingual class was marked by the pressure to succeed well in school.

Kehittävän kuntoutuksen mahdollisuudet. : Tutkimus Aslak -kuntoutuksen työkytkennän ja asiakkuuden rakentumisesta.

The possibilities of developmental rehabilitation. A study on the construction of work relatedness and the customer in Aslak rehabilitation The challenge of work-related rehabilitation is to anticipate the factors threatening work ability and to affect them. The purpose of this study was to analyze how work-related rehabilitation is constructed in practice and what are the challenges and, at the same time, the possibilities of an innovative transformation of rehabilitation when trying to achive this goal. The theoretical basis is cultural-historical activity theory and developmental work research. Based on a historical analysis, I studied rehabilitation activity empirically using the data gathered from one Aslak programme (Aslak = occupationally oriented medical rehabilitation) over two years. I described and analysed the construction of Aslak using ethnographic data and interviews. The data includes audio- and video-recordings of the Aslak course, fieldnotes, documents and other materials used in the course. The study aimed to reveal rehabilitation practices from different perspectives carried out by different stakeholders and participants in the Aslak course. It focused on the Aslak trajectory produced by a multiorganizational subject. I analyzed the rehabilitation activity using the method of ethnographic analysis of infrastructure. The method of analyzing the construction of the object of rehabilititation the customer was a membership categorization analysis (MCD) based on the ethnomethodological research tradition. I analyzed the meanings denoting customers given by different parties during one Aslak process and the relations between the meanings. Based on this analysis, I studied the disturbances, ruptures, and innovations in the rehabilitation activity. The results of the study show that the infrastructure of Aslak has different basic ideas. Aslak is constructed most explicitly on the infrastructure of medical rehabilitation. The second layer has been provided with some tools of identifying and preventing well-defined occupation-specific load factors. However, it has failed to perform a new structure, as Aslak has encountered, at the same time, rapid changes in working life. The study identified some promising markers representing new kinds of work-related rehabilitation ideas, but they proved to be incomplete and fragile. As a consequence of the multilayered infrastructure, the contents of the Aslak course were split into fragmented phases and disconnected themes, which were blocked in by the master idea of medical orientation. Its relationship to work remained weak and obscure. The categorizations of customers in Aslak were manifold and contradictory. According to the results, the possibilities for transforming work-related rehabilitation lie both in changing the orientation to the customer to be more relevant to changing working life and forging the infrastructural innovations related to this change. The results showed that a new work-relatedeness would be difficult but possible to construct. What is needed is the construction of an infrastructure that will support a coherent master idea of work-related rehabilitation over the entire trajectory of a process. A shared idea of a rehabilitation object must be constructed in close collaboration between different stakeholders, such as Kela (the Social Insurance Institution of Finland), occupational health services, work organizations, and rehabilitation institutes. Key words: Aslak rehabilitation, work-related rehabilitation, development of rehabilitation, customer of rehabilitation, developmental work research, analysis of infrastructure, membership category analysis

Half-occlusion processing in stereoscopic vision

This study investigated questions related to half-occlusion processing in human stereoscopic vision: (1) How does the depth location of a half-occluding figure affect the depth localization of adjacent monocular objects? (2) Is three-dimensional slant around vertical axis (geometric effect) affected by half-occlusion constraints? and (3) How the half-occlusion constraints and surface formation processes are manifested in stereoscopic capture? Our results showed that the depth localization of binocular objects affects the depth localization of discrete monocular objects. We also showed that the visual system has a preference for a frontoparallel surface interpretation if the half-occlusion configuration allows multiple interpretation alternatives. When the surface formation was constrained by textures, our results showed that a process of rematching spreading determines the resulting perception and that the spreading can be limited by illusory contours that support the presence of binocularly unmatched figures. The unmatched figures could be present, if the inducing figures producing the illusory surface contained binocular image differences that provided cues for quantitative da Vinci stereopsis. These findings provide evidence of the significant role of half-occlusions in stereoscopic processing.

Factors related to seat belt use : A Turkish case

Seat belts are effective safety devices used to protect car occupants from severe injuries and fatalities during road vehicle accidents. Despite the proven effectiveness of seat belts, seat belt use rates are quite low, especially in developing countries, such as Turkey. The general aim of the present study was to investigate a large variety of factors related to seat belt use among Turkish car occupants using different perspectives and methods and therefore, to contribute to the design of effective seat belt use interventions for increasing seat belt use rates in Turkey. Five sub-studies were conducted within the present study. In the first sub-study, environmental (e.g., road type) and psycho-social factors (e.g., belt use by other car occupants) related to the seat belt use of front-seat occupants were investigated using observation techniques. Being male, of a young age, and traveling on city roads were the main factors negatively related to seat belt use. Furthermore, seat belt use by the drivers and front-seat passengers was highly correlated and a significant predictors of each other. In the second sub-study, the motivations of the car occupants for seat belt use and non-use were investigated using interview techniques. Situational conditions, such as traveling on city roads and for short distances, and not believing in the effectiveness and relevance of seat belt use for safety, were the most frequently reported reasons for not using a seat belt. Safety, habit and avoiding punishment were among the most frequently reported reasons for using a seat belt. In the third sub-study, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Health Belief Model (HBM) were applied to seat belt use using Structural Equation Modeling techniques. The TPB model showed a good fit to the data, whereas the HBM showed a poor fit to the data. Within the TPB model, attitude and subjective norm were significant predictors of intentions to use a seat belt on both urban and rural roads. In the fourth sub-study, seat belt use frequency and motivations for seat belt use among taxi drivers were investigated and compared between free-time and work-time driving using a survey. The results showed that taxi drivers used seat belts more when driving a private car in their free-times compared to when driving a taxi during their work-times. The lack of a legal obligation to use a seat belt in city traffic and fear of being attacked or robbed by the passengers were found as two specific reasons for not using a seat belt when driving a taxi. Lastly, in the fifth sub-study, the relationship of seat belt use to driver and health behaviors was investigated using a survey. Although seat belt use was related both to health and driver behaviors, factor analysis results showed that it grouped with driver behaviors. Based on the results of the sub-studies, a tentative empirical model showing different predictors of seat belt use was proposed. According to the model, safety and normative motivations and perceived physical barriers related to seat belt use are the three important predictors of seat belt use. Keywords: Seat belt use; environmental factors; psycho-social factors; safety and normative motivations; the Theory of Planned Behavior; the Health Belief Model; health behaviors; driver behaviors; front-seat occupants; taxi drivers; Turkey.

Cortical processing of speech and non-speech sounds in adults and newborns

Comprehension of a complex acoustic signal - speech - is vital for human communication, with numerous brain processes required to convert the acoustics into an intelligible message. In four studies in the present thesis, cortical correlates for different stages of speech processing in a mature linguistic system of adults were investigated. In two further studies, developmental aspects of cortical specialisation and its plasticity in adults were examined. In the present studies, electroencephalographic (EEG) and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings of the mismatch negativity (MMN) response elicited by changes in repetitive unattended auditory events and the phonological mismatch negativity (PMN) response elicited by unexpected speech sounds in attended speech inputs served as the main indicators of cortical processes. Changes in speech sounds elicited the MMNm, the magnetic equivalent of the electric MMN, that differed in generator loci and strength from those elicited by comparable changes in non-speech sounds, suggesting intra- and interhemispheric specialisation in the processing of speech and non-speech sounds at an early automatic processing level. This neuronal specialisation for the mother tongue was also reflected in the more efficient formation of stimulus representations in auditory sensory memory for typical native-language speech sounds compared with those formed for unfamiliar, non-prototype speech sounds and simple tones. Further, adding a speech or non-speech sound context to syllable changes was found to modulate the MMNm strength differently in the left and right hemispheres. Following the acoustic-phonetic processing of speech input, phonological effort related to the selection of possible lexical (word) candidates was linked with distinct left-hemisphere neuronal populations. In summary, the results suggest functional specialisation in the neuronal substrates underlying different levels of speech processing. Subsequently, plasticity of the brain's mature linguistic system was investigated in adults, in whom representations for an aurally-mediated communication system, Morse code, were found to develop within the same hemisphere where representations for the native-language speech sounds were already located. Finally, recording and localization of the MMNm response to changes in speech sounds was successfully accomplished in newborn infants, encouraging future MEG investigations on, for example, the state of neuronal specialisation at birth.

Paremmin tietäjän paikka ja toisin tietämisen tila : Opettajuus (ja tutkijuus) pedagogisena suhteena

The position of knowing better and the space for knowing otherwise. Pedagogical mode of address in teaching (and in research) This book is a study of teaching, research, and expertise – the position of “knowing better” – as a pedagogical relationship. The focus of the study is empirical research of the classroom practices of four primary school teachers in a Finnish comprehensive school, and the interpretative discussions on those practices between the researcher and the teachers. To know, or knowing, is considered an interactive action: it is different ways of knowing and encounters between the better and the other knowledge. In these encounters, the different pedagogical modes of address construct space for interaction and relationships between the speakers in the space. In teaching and researching one is involved in practices connected to power/knowledge systems and conceptions of the hierarchies of different knowledges. Teaching is considered as a special interactive relationship interrelating knowledge and power through the discourses of the culturally and historically constructed school institution, discourses which operate in the practices and narratives of the teaching, teacher, and the pedagogical dialogue. This study uses the feminist poststructural perspective in which the discursive construction of the subject position is considered as an ambivalent process of subjectification and in which such concepts as marginality and otherness are salient. The pedagogical dialogue of these discursive practices address the learner and learning, and space is constructed for different positions, and for thinking and knowing otherwise. The ethnographic data on everyday pedagogical practices of teachers in the school institution was constructed jointly by the researchr, teachers and pupils durint the empirical study. The analysis and interpretations concentrate on the pedagogical practices in teaching and how teachers talk about them. In other words, how do the teachers enter the culturally and historically constructed, institutional space of the teacher in the classrooms of the comprehensive school, how do they take the position of the teacher and what kind of pedagogical address do they use? And, by taking those positions and using different modes of address, how do they position their pupils in the pedagogical interaction? These pedagogical practices are considered as surrounded and modified by the discourses that can be found in the cultural images of a school teacher, the historical and theoretical narratives about teaching and teachers of the school institution, and in the educational policy texts. The same discourses are also repeated, transformed and intertwined in the practices and narratives of the academic institution. These are considered in the study through the positionings of the researcher in the process of empirical research. The researcher and research are constructed in terms of the production of the power/knowledge dynamics. These dynamics are examined in the construction of the theoretical perspective and in the considerations of the methodology, epistemology and ethics of the study.

Soveltuvuuskokeella täydennetty opiskelijavalinta : Seurantatutkimus eräiden sosiaali- ja terveysalan teknisluonteisten koulutusohjelmien (apuvälinetekniikka, hammastekniikka ja optometria) opiskelijavalinnan toteuttamisesta

Aptitude-based student selection: A study concerning the admission processes of some technically oriented healthcare degree programmes in Finland (Orthotics and Prosthetics, Dental Technology and Optometry). The data studied consisted of conveniencesamples of preadmission information and the results of the admission processes of three technically oriented healthcare degree programmes (Orthotics and Prosthetics, Dental Technology and Optometry) in Finland during the years 1977-1986 and 2003. The number of the subjects tested and interviewed in the first samples was 191, 615 and 606, and in the second 67, 64 and 89, respectively. The questions of the six studies were: I. How were different kinds of preadmission data related to each other? II. Which were the major determinants of the admission decisions? III. Did the graduated students and those who dropped out differ from each other? IV. Was it possible to predict how well students would perform in the programmes? V. How was the student selection executed in the year 2003? VI. Should clinical vs. statistical prediction or both be used? (Some remarks are presented on Meehl's argument: "Always, we might as well face it, the shadow of the statistician hovers in the background; always the actuary will have the final word.") The main results of the study were as follows: Ability tests, dexterity tests and judgements of personality traits (communication skills, initiative, stress tolerance and motivation) provided unique, non-redundant information about the applicants. Available demographic variables did not bias the judgements of personality traits. In all three programme settings, four-factor solutions (personality, reasoning, gender-technical and age-vocational with factor scores) could be extracted by the Maximum Likelihood method with graphical Varimax rotation. The personality factor dominated the final aptitude judgements and very strongly affected the selection decisions. There were no clear differences between graduated students and those who had dropped out in regard to the four factors. In addition, the factor scores did not predict how well the students performed in the programmes. Meehl's argument on the uncertainty of clinical prediction was supported by the results, which on the other hand did not provide any relevant data for rules on statistical prediction. No clear arguments for or against the aptitude-based student selection was presented. However, the structure of the aptitude measures and their impact on the admission process are now better known. The concept of "personal aptitude" is not necessarily included in the values and preferences of those in charge of organizing the schooling. Thus, obviously the most well-founded and cost-effective way to execute student selection is to rely on e.g. the grade point averages of the matriculation examination and/or written entrance exams. This procedure, according to the present study, would result in a student group which has a quite different makeup (60%) from the group selected on the basis of aptitude tests. For the recruiting organizations, instead, "personal aptitude" may be a matter of great importance. The employers, of course, decide on personnel selection. The psychologists, if consulted, are responsible for the proper use of psychological measures.

Studies of working memory in interrupted human-computer interaction

Distraction in the workplace is increasingly more common in the information age. Several tasks and sources of information compete for a worker's limited cognitive capacities in human-computer interaction (HCI). In some situations even very brief interruptions can have detrimental effects on memory. Nevertheless, in other situations where persons are continuously interrupted, virtually no interruption costs emerge. This dissertation attempts to reveal the mental conditions and causalities differentiating the two outcomes. The explanation, building on the theory of long-term working memory (LTWM; Ericsson and Kintsch, 1995), focuses on the active, skillful aspects of human cognition that enable the storage of task information beyond the temporary and unstable storage provided by short-term working memory (STWM). Its key postulate is called a retrieval structure an abstract, hierarchical knowledge representation built into long-term memory that can be utilized to encode, update, and retrieve products of cognitive processes carried out during skilled task performance. If certain criteria of practice and task processing are met, LTWM allows for the storage of large representations for long time periods, yet these representations can be accessed with the accuracy, reliability, and speed typical of STWM. The main thesis of the dissertation is that the ability to endure interruptions depends on the efficiency in which LTWM can be recruited for maintaing information. An observational study and a field experiment provide ecological evidence for this thesis. Mobile users were found to be able to carry out heavy interleaving and sequencing of tasks while interacting, and they exhibited several intricate time-sharing strategies to orchestrate interruptions in a way sensitive to both external and internal demands. Interruptions are inevitable, because they arise as natural consequences of the top-down and bottom-up control of multitasking. In this process the function of LTWM is to keep some representations ready for reactivation and others in a more passive state to prevent interference. The psychological reality of the main thesis received confirmatory evidence in a series of laboratory experiments. They indicate that after encoding into LTWM, task representations are safeguarded from interruptions, regardless of their intensity, complexity, or pacing. However, when LTWM cannot be deployed, the problems posed by interference in long-term memory and the limited capacity of the STWM surface. A major contribution of the dissertation is the analysis of when users must resort to poorer maintenance strategies, like temporal cues and STWM-based rehearsal. First, one experiment showed that task orientations can be associated with radically different patterns of retrieval cue encodings. Thus the nature of the processing of the interface determines which features will be available as retrieval cues and which must be maintained by other means. In another study it was demonstrated that if the speed of encoding into LTWM, a skill-dependent parameter, is slower than the processing speed allowed for by the task, interruption costs emerge. Contrary to the predictions of competing theories, these costs turned out to involve intrusions in addition to omissions. Finally, it was learned that in rapid visually oriented interaction, perceptual-procedural expectations guide task resumption, and neither STWM nor LTWM are utilized due to the fact that access is too slow. These findings imply a change in thinking about the design of interfaces. Several novel principles of design are presented, basing on the idea of supporting the deployment of LTWM in the main task.

Tohtoriksi tulemisen tarina

The study examines the dissertation process. The thesis is based on twenty-three autobiographical stories. They were collected from PhDs who had taken their doctoral degrees at the University of Helsinki. The purpose is to investigate the experiences of these PhD recipients and find out what they recall of the events, traditions, and meanings associated with their PhD studies. An anthology collected from PhDs in the historical sciences, which was published in 1998, was used as reference material. This study begins with a general presentation of the history and values of the university and the traditions of the academic community in Finland. Thereafter, the data and the methodological framework of the study are presented. Attention is paid to the discipline background, sex and age of these PhDs, which may have affected their storytelling. The former studies concerning the academic life together with the experiences of the writers revealed that the process of becoming a PhD graduate is generally considered as an academic rite of passage. The change from student status to becoming a fully accepted professional member of one’s field is real, transforming and at certain points, ritualized. The finding of an inner logic to the doctoral process, which included meaningful turning points, was central to the narrative analysis approach. During the process there were different kinds of struggles and highlights. The family background, university studies and time in employment had directed the doctoral studies of some PhD students enormously. But generally the most memorable and value laden were the phases of actually writing the dissertation, the public examination, and the celebration party in the evening called “karonkka”. The picture that emerged from these various life-stories demonstrated that there was no ivory tower where doctoral candidates live an isolated existence. Everyday cares in ordinary life and tasks in academic life are both demanding and rewarding at the same time. The main point is that the academic community in general and PhD supervisors in particular should concentrate not only on the thesis-writing process their students but also on the doctoral students´ wider life situation. Doctoral students need scientific, financial, and mental support. Somebody must be available to inspire and offer encouragement otherwise the process will be disturbed. The successful completion of the PhD ritual gives the PhD graduate self-confidence and respect but its’ influence on the doctors’ subsequent academic career is diverse. The dissertation process is a personal and unique experience. The aim of the PhD graduation is that this traditional ritual leads to a successful completion and ensures a positive reward for the PhD graduate and the academic community. Keywords: autobiography, narratives, academic traditions, PhD graduates.

Visual search and eye movements: Studies of perceptual span

In visual search one tries to find the currently relevant item among other, irrelevant items. In the present study, visual search performance for complex objects (characters, faces, computer icons and words) was investigated, and the contribution of different stimulus properties, such as luminance contrast between characters and background, set size, stimulus size, colour contrast, spatial frequency, and stimulus layout were investigated. Subjects were required to search for a target object among distracter objects in two-dimensional stimulus arrays. The outcome measure was threshold search time, that is, the presentation duration of the stimulus array required by the subject to find the target with a certain probability. It reflects the time used for visual processing separated from the time used for decision making and manual reactions. The duration of stimulus presentation was controlled by an adaptive staircase method. The number and duration of eye fixations, saccade amplitude, and perceptual span, i.e., the number of items that can be processed during a single fixation, were measured. It was found that search performance was correlated with the number of fixations needed to find the target. Search time and the number of fixations increased with increasing stimulus set size. On the other hand, several complex objects could be processed during a single fixation, i.e., within the perceptual span. Search time and the number of fixations depended on object type as well as luminance contrast. The size of the perceptual span was smaller for more complex objects, and decreased with decreasing luminance contrast within object type, especially for very low contrasts. In addition, the size and shape of perceptual span explained the changes in search performance for different stimulus layouts in word search. Perceptual span was scale invariant for a 16-fold range of stimulus sizes, i.e., the number of items processed during a single fixation was independent of retinal stimulus size or viewing distance. It is suggested that saccadic visual search consists of both serial (eye movements) and parallel (processing within perceptual span) components, and that the size of the perceptual span may explain the effectiveness of saccadic search in different stimulus conditions. Further, low-level visual factors, such as the anatomical structure of the retina, peripheral stimulus visibility and resolution requirements for the identification of different object types are proposed to constrain the size of the perceptual span, and thus, limit visual search performance. Similar methods were used in a clinical study to characterise the visual search performance and eye movements of neurological patients with chronic solvent-induced encephalopathy (CSE). In addition, the data about the effects of different stimulus properties on visual search in normal subjects were presented as simple practical guidelines, so that the limits of human visual perception could be taken into account in the design of user interfaces.