Grassland leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha) as indicators of habitat condition - a comparison of between-site and between-year differences in assemblage composition

The Auchenorrhyncha (leafhoppers) show great potential as indicators of grassland habitat quality, which would make them useful as a conservation tool. However, they are known to have labile populations. The relative importance of site identity and the year of sampling in the composition of leafhopper assemblages on chalk grassland are assessed for two sets of sites sampled twice. The study included a total of 95 sites (one set of 54, the other of 41), and demonstrated that for both sets the vegetation community and geographical location had high explanatory value, while the influence of year was small. The conclusion is that, notwithstanding population fluctuations, the leafhopper assemblages are a good indicator of habitat quality, and represent a potentially valuable tool in grassland conservation and restoration.

Exploring the construction of social class in educational discourse: the rational order of the nation state versus global uncertainties

This article aims to create intellectual space in which issues of social inequality and education can be analyzed and discussed in relation to the multifaceted and multi-levelled complexities of the modern world. It is divided into three sections. Section One locates the concept of social class in the context of the modern nation state during the period after the Second World War. Focusing particularly on the impact of 'Fordism' on social organization and cultural relations, it revisits the articulation of social justice issues in the United Kingdom, and the structures put into place at the time to alleviate educational and social inequalities. Section Two problematizes the traditional concept of social class in relation to economic, technological and sociocultural changes that have taken place around the world since the mid-1980s. In particular, it charts some of the changes to the international labour market and global patterns of consumption, and their collective impact on the re-constitution of class boundaries in 'developed countries'. This is juxtaposed with some of the major social effects of neo-classical economic policies in recent years on the sociocultural base in developing countries. It discusses some of the ways these inequalities are reflected in education. Section Three explores tensions between the educational ideals of the 'knowledge economy' and the discursive range of social inequalities that are emerging within and beyond the nation state. Drawing on key motifs identified throughout, the article concludes with a reassessment of the concept of social class within the global cultural economy. This is discussed in relation to some of the major equity and human rights issues in education today.

Intergenerational transmission of social anxiety: the role of social referencing processes in infancy

Responses to an unfamiliar adult were examined in infants of mothers with social phobia (N = 79) and infants of nonanxious comparison mothers (N = 77) at 10 and 14 months in a social referencing paradigm. On each occasion, a female stranger first interacted with the mother and then approached and interacted with the infant. Over time, infants of mothers with social phobia showed increasing avoidance of the stranger, particularly when they were behaviorally inhibited. In boys, maternal social phobia was associated with increasing fearful responses. Infant avoidance was predicted by expressed maternal anxiety and low levels of encouragement to interact with the stranger. The findings are discussed in relation to theories concerning the intergenerational transmission of social anxiety.

The use of social and salience cues in early word learning

This article explores young infants' ability to learn new words in situations providing tightly controlled social and salience cues to their reference. Four experiments investigated whether, given two potential referents, 15-month-olds would attach novel labels to (a) an image toward which a digital recording of a face turned and gazed, (b) a moving image versus a stationary image, (c) a moving image toward which the face gazed, and (d) a gazed-on image versus a moving image. Infants successfully used the recorded gaze cue to form new word-referent associations and also showed learning in the salience condition. However, their behavior in the salience condition and in the experiments that followed suggests that, rather than basing their judgments of the words' reference on the mere presence or absence of the referent's motion, infants were strongly biased to attend to the consistency with which potential referents moved when a word was heard. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Transmission of social anxiety from mother to infant: an experimental study using a social referencing paradigm

In this experiment we investigated the impact of indirect expressions of maternal social anxiety on infant interactions with a stranger. A social referencing paradigm was used in which infants first observed their mothers interacting with a stranger and then interacted with the stranger themselves. Mothers made no direct communicative gestures to the infant concerning the stranger throughout the procedure. There were two experimental conditions experienced by all mother-infant pairs (N = 24; 12 boys)-non-anxious and socially anxious-and there were two male strangers. Infants were between 12 and 14 months (M = 12.8, SD =.76). Order of condition and stranger presentation were counterbalanced. Before testing, mothers, none of whom were significantly socially anxious, were trained to behave in a non-anxious and a socially anxious manner on the basis of clinical and empirical descriptions of social phobia. The results showed that, compared to their responses following their mothers interacting normally with a stranger, following a socially anxious mother-stranger interaction, infants were significantly more fearful and avoidant with the stranger. Infant-stranger avoidance was further modified by infant temperament; high fear infants were more avoidant in the socially anxious condition than low-fear infants. We discuss these findings in light of the possible mechanisms underpinning infant affective and behavioral responsiveness. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Maternal psychosocial adversity and the longitudinal development of infant sleep

Research has identified associations between indicators of social disadvantage and the presence of child sleep problems. We examined the longitudinal development of infant sleep in families experiencing high (n = 58) or low (n = 64) levels of psychosocial adversity, and the contributions of neonatal self-regulatory capacities and maternal settling strategies to this development. Assessments of infant sleep at 4-, 7-, and 12-weeks postpartum indicated no differences in sleeping difficulties between high- and low-adversity groups. However, more infant sleep difficulties were reported in the high- versus low-adversity groups at 12- and 18-month follow-ups. Neonatal self-regulatory capacities were not related to the presence or absence of adversity, or to subsequent infant sleep quality. However, there were group differences in maternal settling strategies that did predict subsequent infant sleep difficulties. The pattern of sleep disturbance observed in association with maternal psychosocial adversity at 18-months was consistent with risk for broader impairments in child functioning.

Processing of faces and emotional expressions in infants at risk of social phobia

Individuals with social phobia display social information processing biases yet their aetiological significance is unclear. Infants of mothers with social phobia and control infants' responses were assessed at 10 days, 10 and 16 weeks, and 10 months to faces versus non-faces, variations in intensity of emotional expressions, and gaze direction. Infant temperament and maternal behaviours were also assessed. Both groups showed a preference for faces over non-faces at 10 days and 10 weeks, and full faces over profiles at 16 weeks; they also looked more to high vs. low intensity angry faces at 10 weeks, and fearful faces at 10 months; however, index infants' initial orientation and overall looking to high-intensity fear faces was relatively less than controls at 10 weeks. This was not explained by infant temperament or maternal behaviours. The findings suggest that offspring of mothers with social phobia show processing biases to emotional expressions in infancy.

the implication of social cognition for experimental economics From the issue entitled "Special issue on Experimental economics and the social embedding of economic behavior and cognition"

Can human social cognitive processes and social motives be grasped by the methods of experimental economics? Experimental studies of strategic cognition and social preferences contribute to our understanding of the social aspects of economic decisions making. Yet, papers in this issue argue that the social aspects of decision-making introduce several difficulties for interpreting the results of economic experiments. In particular, the laboratory is itself a social context, and in many respects a rather distinctive one, which raises questions of external validity.

Position paper on the future of social networking

Social networking mediated by web sites is a relatively new phenomenon and as with all technological innovations there continues to be a period of both technical and social adjustment to fit the services in with people’s behaviours, and for people to adjust their practices in the light of the affordances provided by the technology. Social networking benefits strongly from large scale availability. Users gain greater benefit from social networking services when more of their friends are using them.This applies in social terms, but also in eLearning and professional networks. The network effect provides one explanation for the popularity of internet based social networking sites (SNS) because the number of connections between people which can be maintained by using them is greatly increased in comparison to the networks available before the internet. The ability of users to determine how much they trust information available to them from contacts within their social network is important in almost all modes of use. As sources of information on a range of topics from academic to shopping advice, the level of trust which a user can put in other nodes is a key aspect of the utility of the system.