Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cultural Understanding not elsewhere classified'

In the UK, over the past decade, the rhetoric of ‘Third Way’ governance informed cultural policy. The research sets out how the agenda for cultural policy converged with priorities for economic and social policy, in policies implemented by Arts Council England, in the commissioning of publicly funded visual art and within culture-led regeneration. Hence visual art production was further instrumentalized for the purposes of marketization and privatization. The practice-based research examines the problems issues and contingencies for visual art production in this context. Public sphere theory is used to examine ideas of publics and publicness in Third Way cultural policy context, in state cultural institutions and programming. Using Jürgen Habermas’ conception of the public sphere, the research proposes that cultural policy functioned as ‘steering media’, as publicity for the state to produce social cohesion and affirmative conceptions of the social order, i.e. the management of publics. In contrast, public sphere theory is concerned with societal processes of opinion formation, of selfforming, deliberating and rival publics. The research also applies theories of the public sphere to the theories of art and participation associated with socially-engaged art practice - theories that articulate art in relation to its publics. While socially-engaged artists have produced new modes of art practice that have shifted arts ontology, the research points to how Third Way cultural policy was quick to seize upon socially-engaged art for its own agenda. Public sphere theory informed the strategies and tactics of the Freee art collective (Dave Beech, Andy Hewitt, Mel Jordan) in the production of publicly-funded artworks. The artworks were a means to test the hypothesis and to find evidence by intervening in Third Way cultural policy with alternative ideas. Freee’s public spherian art proposes new modes of participative art to counter Third Way cultural policy - a ‘counter-public art’.

This thesis explores forms of Pop Art on the territory of the former Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 1970s, seeking to identify its local variants. Yugoslavia, a single party state, built on the legacy of the anti-fascist Partisan struggle, principles of solidarity, egalitarianism, self-management and a strong sense of internationalism due to its founding role in the Non-Aligned Movement, was, at the same time, a country immersed in what has been termed 'utopian consumerism'. The thesis examines how Yugoslav artists during this period dealt with the burgeoning consumer society and media boom, kitsch and the Westernization of Yugoslav culture, phenomena which were ideologically at odds with the country’s own socialist principles. Starting from an analysis of the role of the artist in post-war Yugoslav system of self-management, the thesis proposes that Pop in Yugoslavia can be read as a critical site of articulation and negotiation of that role. Yugoslavia’s founding principles, formed as a legacy of the People’s Liberation Struggle (1941 – 1945), were based upon self-management and the introduction of social property, with art being a democratizing force with a central emancipatory role in the building of the new socialist state. But socialist modernism gradually relegated culture to a more illustrative role, as a form of ‘soft power’ for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The thesis proposes a reading of artists’ diverse engagements with popular culture and materials as varied expressions of resistance to the severing of links with Yugoslavia’s founding principles. My original contribution to knowledge lies in the identification of two strands of Pop in the country–‘Yugoslav Pop Reactions’ and ‘Yugoslav Countercultural Pop’ which each turned to popular culture and cheap everyday materials as an alternative channel through which to respond to socialist modernism. My claim is that the two positions represent two diametrically opposed responses to the disenchantment with socialist modernism and artists’ roles in society – both using the language of Pop Art but representing two different conceptual positions. The thesis is structured around three core questions. Firstly it asks whether it is possible to retrospectively apply the category of Pop Art to artworks which never originally claimed this term. Secondly it examines ways in which Pop tendencies altered the position of Yugoslav female artists, who, marginalised in a heavily male-dominated environment, looked to Pop as an enabling force, allowing new working methods and‘giving licence’ to new types of practices. The third question is concerned with the relationship between power, politics and Pop Art in Yugoslavia, asking to what extent Yugoslav Pop was a form ofpolitical practice, and to what extent is it was a local adaptation of international currents and themes. This thesis is associated with Tate’s multiannual research into ‘global pop’, which culminated in the exhibition ‘The World Goes Pop’ (September 2015 – January 2016, Tate Modern) through a Collaborative Doctoral Award (AHRC). This involved an advisory role in the exhibition research on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, identifying artists and artworks for potential inclusion in the exhibition. The methodology of the thesis was in part shaped by this context, beginning with close studies of artworks, their critical reception, and the study of their context–the sites of production and exhibition in the country at the time. Whilst both local and international literature on Yugoslav art history, global Pop Art as well as Yugoslav material culture and political context has been important, the core research involved oral histories, and visits to artists’ studios, museum collections, depots and archives in search of original artworks. The thesis draws on approximately twenty interviews with artists, curators, art historians and other art workers who were active in 1960s and 1970s, combined with the above-mentioned scholarship.

Computer systems analysts arrange to meet users to find out what is required of software to support an improved human x computer system. Bostrom (1989) successfully uses the precision model to help users explain what they want. Double-loop learning should help analysts hear what users say, but this is difficult to use (Salaway 1987). This research found a majority of analysts had primitive models of users. First meetings are specially difficult: a. Users rapidly pour out masses of information. b. Analysts experience cognitive overload. C. There is less opportunity to use reflective technique. Three discrete populations of analysts were detected: GROUP ANALYSTS' VIEW OF PROBLEMS: A1: The analyst is the problem; A2: Systems thinking aids this difficult task. Why won't my colleagues use it? Any problems are due to users. IT MANAGERS' VIEW OF THIS ANALYST: Few problems; Perhaps naive; Very effective; Hard to control; Too often on users' side; Users complain, analyst doesn't care. In order to introduce analysts to systems thinking about people, the following models were designed: a. MENDAC, a cybernetic model of how people think while talking about computer requirements, designed to introduce technical experts to human-centered issues via the technical paradigm (avoids challenging the technical paradigm, because computer experts often reject human issues rather than question their existing values and assumptions). b. Management of disconfirming evidence: a model of how people might, decide when they could risk double-loop learning. c. H-structures, a model of both views in arguments concerning values. This highlights assumptions of semantic equivalence between one side's fear and the other side's aspirations.

The Christian cultural heritage of north Africa is ancient and rich, but at risk after recent political events. Many Christian minority communities living in Islamic environments feel at risk of persecution. This is a topical and timely PhD. The Christian, Coptic heritage of Egypt remains poorly studied from the perspective of heritage management and is also at risk from a number of factors. Using first-hand study and analysis based upon original fieldwork, the thesis offers a state of the art assessment to risks facing Coptic monuments in Egypt today. It does this by situating Egyptian heritage policy within the English framework, and it establishes theoretical approaches to value, significance, meaning, and interpretation in Egyptian heritage within a wider global framework. It is based on the analysis of three markedly different Egyptian Christian Coptic sites, each with their own unique management issues and it offers a series of solutions and ideas to preserve, manage and interpret this unique material culture and to emphasise community solutions as being the most viable and sustainable approaches, whilst taking into account the varied levels of significance of these monuments.

In the Australian sugar industry, sugar cane is smashed into a straw like material by hammers before being squeezed between large rollers to extract the sugar juice. The straw like material is initially called prepared cane and then bagasse as it passes through successive roller milling units. The sugar cane materials are highly compressible, have high moisture content, are fibrous, and they resemble some peat soils in both appearance and mechanical behaviour. A promising avenue to improve the performance of milling units for increased throughput and juice extraction, and to reduce costs is by modelling of the crushing process. To achieve this, it is believed necessary that milling models should be able to reproduce measured bagasse behaviour. This investigation sought to measure the mechanical (compression, shear, and volume) behaviour of prepared cane and bagasse, to identify limitations in currently used material models, and to progress towards a material model that can predict bagasse behaviour adequately. Tests were carried out using a modified direct shear test equipment and procedure at most of the large range of pressures occurring in the crushing process. The investigation included an assessment of the performance of the direct shear test for measuring bagasse behaviour. The assessment was carried out using finite element modelling. It was shown that prepared cane and bagasse exhibited critical state behavior similar to that of soils and the magnitudes of material parameters were determined. The measurements were used to identify desirable features for a bagasse material model. It was shown that currently used material models had major limitations for reproducing bagasse behaviour. A model from the soil mechanics literature was modified and shown to achieve improved reproduction while using magnitudes of material parameters that better reflected the measured values. Finally, a typical three roller mill pressure feeder configuration was modelled. The predictions and limitations were assessed by comparison to measured data from a sugar factory.

This research study explores the gamification of SandBoxModel's Project Team Builder, a project management simulation software. Scope, time and cost are the three constraints of project management with quality being the fourth dimension. The software provides a simulated environment where the students are responsible for handling the aforementioned constraints with the objective of executing a complete project. The software is used to teach project management concepts to students who take the CNIT 480 - Managing Information Technology Projects course at Purdue University. The perception survey was used to analyze whether gamification had a significant effect on student understanding of project execution concepts. The triple constraint survey was used to analyze students' level of comprehension regarding the triple constraints after using the simulation software. Gamification was not a success in enhancing project execution concepts since no significant differences were found in student perceptions on comparing the data of the three semesters. However, simulation independent of gamification was successful in improving students' understanding of triple constraint.

Science is an area of study with unique particularities concerning what “counts” as scientific practices where some learners are legitimized, while other learners are not. Such is the case for preservice elementary teachers (hereafter PSETs) –a population characterized by the literature as being in-need of science intervention. However, most of the literature deficiently conceptualizes PSETs’ science learning, so I sought for ways to refigure their learning positively. Drawing from Van Horne and Bell’s (2017) constructs of practice-linked and disciplinary identity, I offer that PSETs have nuanced, complex science identities that are influenced by their lived experiences inside and outside the classroom. To investigate the lived experiences of PSETs both inside and outside the classroom, 10 video-recorded, focus-group interviews were done while PSETs were undertaking an undergraduate chemistry-content course. Students were asked about their relationships with science as past elementary and high school students, as well as current undergraduate students. Students were also asked how they perceived their learning in the chemistry-content course. The research questions this work seeks to answer are:

Engineering students are expected to develop professional skills in addition to their technical knowledge as outcomes of accredited engineering programs. Among the most critical professional skills is the ability to work effectively in a team. Working effectively in teams has learning benefits and also provides an environment for developing other professional skills such as communication, leadership skills, and time management. However, students will develop those skills only if their teams function effectively.

This dissertation includes three studies that together inform team formation and management practices to improve team dynamics. The first study investigates mixed-gender team dynamics to determine whether those teams are realizing their potential. The second study explores the relationship of individual psychological safety and students’ team member effectiveness and the moderating effects of team-level psychological safety. The third study explores self-rating bias among first-year engineering students and its relationship to student characteristics and dimensions of team-member effectiveness.

Although mixed-gender teams had equal team dynamics with all-male teams, more team facilitation and training are needed to improve the experience of mixed-gender teams. Asian, Black, and Hispanic/Latino students, as well as students with lower GPA, report lower psychological safety, which is associated with lower team-member effectiveness. Team-level psychological safety moderated this effect for Asian and Hispanic/Latino students. Students’ effort in teams was associated with lower self-rating bias, likely an indication of greater self-awareness. Together, these studies and their findings contribute to a broader understanding that there are interrelationships among team composition, team dynamics, and team-member effectiveness, and that these relationships differ based on student characteristics such as race/ethnicity, gender, and prior knowledge. This work adds to the body of research demonstrating the importance of teaching students about effective teamwork, conducting regular peer evaluations of team functioning, and interpreting those peer evaluations carefully to avoid perpetuating any biases. This work also demonstrates the usefulness of psychological safety as an important indicator of marginalization.

The impetus of this research to explore cross-cultural differences and conflicts between Singaporean Chinese Managers and their western MNCs managers was due to the researcher's 12 years real-life, working experiences in western MNCs. The interest was extended to discover how these managers are able to deal with the corresponding cross-cultural conflict that is embedded in the day-to-day interaction between himself and his superiors from the west The research has found out that despite the changing cultural influence on Singaporean Chinese Managers, they still exhibit a substantial number of Confucian behavioural characteristics that was inherited from their Chinese forefathers, in the area of work attitudes; the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic work attributes; the commitment to the organisation they work for; and from the job itself. Singaporean Chinese Managers are also found to be less confrontational in nature when dealing with conflicts, and are less incline to express their dissatisfaction, or even have a face-to-face argument with their superiors. The research also found that there is a growing 'compromisers' cluster, a group of people who only moderately uphold traditional values regarding family, education and morale, who are open to innovation and whose aim in life is to be socially and financially successful. It further reveals that younger Singaporean Chinese Managers are now more vocal and more confrontational than their older counterparts and possesses more westernised behavioural characteristics. Therefore, this research provides an insight into the way in which Singaporean Chinese Managers both construct and maintain a notion of identity and also explores the evolving cultural shift in the next generation of managers in the Singaporean Chinese community.

Effective collaboration in a team is a crucial skill. When people interact together to perform physical tasks, they rely on gestures to convey instructions. This thesis explores gestures as means to assess physical collaborative task understanding. This research proposes a framework to represent, compare, and assess gestures’ morphology, semantics, and pragmatics, as opposed to traditional approaches that rely mostly on the gestures’ physical appearance. By leveraging this framework, functionally equivalent gestures can be identified and compared. In addition, a metric to assess the quality of assimilation of physical instructions is computed from gesture matchings, which acts as a proxy metric for task understanding based on gestural analysis. The correlations between this proposed metric and three other task understanding proxy metrics were obtained. Our framework was evaluated through three user studies in which participants completed shared tasks remotely: block assembly, origami, and ultrasound training. The results indicate that the proposed metric acts as a good estimator for task understanding. Moreover, this metric provides task understanding insights in scenarios where other proxy metrics show inconsistencies. Thereby, the approach presented in this research acts as a first step towards assessing task understanding in physical collaborative scenarios through the analysis of gestures.

This thesis examines the present status and enduring significance of the story “Scott of the Antarctic.” It critically reviews the story’s century-long history of interpretation and, via literary analysis, considers its meaning for a contemporary audience. It argues that while Captain Robert Scott’s historic hut is being conserved as an icon of the heroic era of Antarctic exploration, the story which gives that hut its meaning is in a less satisfactory condition and is also in need of conservation. In keeping with the twofold nature of its subject—a story which is based on fact—the thesis acknowledges both historiographical and literary critical perspectives. In addition, it draws on a wide range of data: manuscript letters and journals, newspaper and magazine commentary, historical monographs, biographies, literary works and film. The thesis reviews recent scholarly commentary on Scott’s story and identifies a variety of shortcomings. These include the polarized nature of the discussion, heavy uncritical use of a single influential debunking biography and a concomitant neglect of earlier sources. A detailed analytical survey of the story’s interpretation, from its genesis to the present, highlights principal themes and the influence of intellectual fashions. Veneration of the central character has always been accompanied by criticism. But judgements of Scott’s last expedition necessarily lack full knowledge of the circumstances, and many exhibit partisanship, faulty reasoning and the bias of hindsight. Two aspects of the story that have remained surprisingly unexamined are critiqued: the saintly reputation of Lawrence Oates, and the methods and accounts of the other contender for the South Pole, Roald Amundsen. Despite some recent favourable appraisals of Scott, evidence is presented that the character assassination that began in the late 1970s persists today. The final part of the thesis directs attention away from judicial and historical debates, and seeks the story’s deeper resonances through literary analysis. Although the quality of Scott’s writing and the tragic nature of his story are often mentioned, they have previously received scant critical attention. Aspects of the explorer’s literary skill are examined, and comparisons explored between his story and Greek tragedy as described in Aristotle’s Poetics. The discussion locates a large part of the transhistorical meaning of “Scott of the Antarctic” in its tragic qualities, and concludes by considering how the story’s potential has been exploited in imaginative renderings.

As globalization continues to increase, the demand for culturally intelligent employees is central for navigating everyday intercultural business interactions. For college students preparing to enter the workforce, cultural intelligence is trained at universities through cultural training courses and study abroad experiences. Although cultural training courses and study abroad experiences are recognized as important factors in developing cultural intelligence, their effects are often assumed. Additionally, research indicates that international travel alone does not enhance a person’s overall cultural intelligence. This research examined a university program designed using Bandura’s Social Learning Theory to increase undergraduate students’ cultural intelligence through an on-campus cultural training course followed by a study abroad experience. Study 1 compared the effectiveness of a university program consisting of a cultural training course with a study abroad experience against a comparison control group. Multi-level modeling analyses suggest that students who participated in the cultural training course followed by a study abroad experience significantly increase in motivation, cognitive, metacognitive, and behavior CQ. Furthermore, interaction analyses examined the relationship between the two study groups, students’ self-assigned cultural development goals, the quality of their reflective journal entries, and an examination of any potential cultural mentor effects. None of these variables was associated with CQ growth. Study 2 compared two study abroad groups who either spent 3- or 6-weeks abroad after completing a shared cultural training course. Both groups experienced a statistically significant increase in all four CQ domains relative to a comparison group. When comparing the 3- and 6-week study abroad groups, there were no differences in motivation, cognitive, or behavior CQ; however, in metacognitive CQ, the 3-week group experienced a statistically significant increase compared to the 6-week group. No student-level predictors (age, gender identity, ethnicity, year in school, previous overseas experience, and grade point average) or program-level predictors (cultural mentor, number of countries visited) had a significant relationship with CQ development. These results demonstrate that a university intercultural development program that combines a cultural development training course with an instructor-led study abroad experience can help students improve their cultural intelligence, regardless of a student’s background, and that students can experience significant CQ growth in as little as 3-week abroad.

Black women are inventing new epistemologies to better fit their own experience, and they are putting these new ways of knowing into action within their communities to generate collective change through art. Black women’s theories of their own lived experience publicly have been consistently limited by narrow definitions of what it means to create a “Theory.” In this thesis, I will analyze the work of three contemporary Black woman performance artists, Ntozake Shange, Jamila Woods, and Nitty Scott, to identify the ways in which Black women do indeed theorize within these public spaces in ways that are innovative and complex. I focus on these artists insights on three critical sites: home, school, and community. I read Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, Woods’ Legacy!Legacy!, and Scott’s Creature! alongside Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought and bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress to explore the innovative theoretical spaces Black women have created in their art. Ultimately, I argue that acknowledging this process of using popular culture as a space for theoretical discourse can provide innovative tools for expression for Black women who do not, cannot, or do not wish to participate in academic discourses. Understanding these tools can empower Black women to explore their humanity and to understand the contexts, which Collins refers to as “domains,” in which Black women can claim and expand their power.

This dissertation focused on better understanding the fundamental processes that control organic and inorganic contaminant interaction with plastic plumbing pipes. Plastic pipes are increasingly being installed for drinking water plumbing, but their role in affecting drinking water quality has received little study. It is well-known that plastic pipes can sorb and release organic contaminants and be difficult to decontaminate. Several problems were identified in the literature and through discussions with industry: (1) Past guidance issued to communities affected by petroleum contaminated water does not seem to specifically consider plastic plumbing pipe remediation, (2) investigators have also identified heavy metals can accumulate on pipe inner walls, (3) Others have proposed certain heavy metals can catalyze plastic water pipe degradation, (4) No nondestructive cleaning methods were found for removing metal scales from plastic pipes. These topics were a basis for studies conducted because lack of information inhibits greater protection of public health, safety, and welfare.

This dissertation involved the application of knowledge and techniques from the environmental engineering and science, polymer engineering, and material science disciplines. Chapter 1 focused on the response of copper and plastic pipes (i.e., chlorinated polyvinylchloride (cPVC), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), crosslinked polyethylene (PEX)) exposed to petroleum contaminated drinking water. Bench-scale results revealed that pipe rinsing followed by a single 3 day water stagnation period removed target monoaromatic hydrocarbons (MAH) from copper pipes, but much longer (>15 days) time was required for decontaminating cPVC, HDPC, and PEX pipes. Benzene, trimethylbenzene and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, some of which are not typically considered in drinking water contamination investigations, were found desorbed into clean drinking water from pipes. Future plumbing decontamination guidance should consider the conditions necessary for plastic pipe remediation. Chapter 2 describes the influence of drinking water conditions on heavy metal contaminant – low density polyethylene (LDPE) pellet surface interactions. Mixed metal drinking water solutions were applied and contained Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn at 30 µg/L. LDPE was selected as the model polymer because of its prior use for piping in Europe, use in bench-scale studies by others, and similarity to products used for the manufacture of more complex materials in the USA (HDPE, PEX). As expected, metal loadings were about 5 times greater for aged LDPE pellets suspended in solution compared to new LDPE pellets. This difference was attributed to the aged plastic surfaces having oxygen containing functional groups, increased surface area, and enhanced hydrophilicity. Metal loading was lower at pH >9.5 and in the presence of dissolved organic contaminants. The presence of free chlorine and corrosion inhibitor also decreased metal adsorption onto LDPE pellets. These factors likely enabled metal precipitation thereby not allowing metal species to adsorb to LDPE pellets suspended in water. XPS results showed deposited metals (i.e., Cu, Pb, Zn) primarily consisted of hydroxides and oxides. To further understand heavy metal – plastic pipe interactions, Chapter 3 involved the use of metal and plastic pipe rigs and exhumed PEX plumbing pipes. Exhumed cold and hot water PEX pipes contained a noticeable amount of heavy metals (i.e., most abundant metals were 2049 mg/m² Fe, 400 mg/m² Ca, 438 mg/m² Zn and 150 mg/m² P). Metal release and deposition onto PEX pipe was examined using bench-scale pipe rigs that contained new PEX pipe, brass valves, and copper pipe. Two water matrices (pH 4 and 7.5) and two temperatures (23^oC and 55^oC) were explored. The pH 4 water often accelerated metal leaching from brass valves, and a greater amount of heavy metals deposited on PEX pipes at high water pH and temperature (pH 4 and 55^oC) conditions. Oxygen containing functional groups were detected on PEX pipes connected to a brass valve or a brass valve combined copper pipe, but were not found on PEX pipe only (controls) samples, indicating that certain configurations may facilitate plastic pipe degradation. The last chapter describes the ability of a new lignin derived ligand to remove metal deposits from exhumed PEX plumbing pipes. When the ligand concentration was ≥ 5mM, more than 95% of sorbed metals (i.e., Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn) were removed. The ligand favored certain metals over others (Cu > Zn > Fe > Mn > Pb) and heavy metal removal mechanisms were proposed. This dissertation provides insights into the role of plastic pipes on drinking water quality. As plastic pipes continue to be installed, it is in the interest of public health, welfare, and safety to understand their role in positively and negatively affecting drinking water safety.

This investigation into the status of English in Iran and cultural presentations in Iranian English has two areas of emphasis. The first is a sociolinguistic profile of English in Iran in which the status, functions, uses and users of this language are described within in the country’s social and political contexts. In this part, contributing factors to the growth of English in three political periods, including the Qajar dynasty (1796 -1925), the Pahlavi era (1925-1979) and post-Revolutionary time (1979 – present), are elaborated upon to establish the historical and political bases for the second area of focus.

The second focus is the cultural content in the locally developed English textbooks used from 1939 to the present time (2020). Accordingly, the content of four generations (across five textbook series) of Iranian high school English textbooks are analyzed based on an evaluation scheme which the author has developed. This research finds answers to the questions on the status of culture in the Iranian English textbooks; distribution of Iranian and non-Iranian cultures; dominance of cultural elements (products, practices and perspectives) in each English textbooks series; and the political and ideological influence of each era on the content of English textbooks.

This investigation finds that the English textbooks which were developed before the Islamic Revolution (first and second generations) were highly cultural compared to the post-Revolution materials (third and fourth generations). Also, non-Iranian cultural components (particularly the American and British cultures) were more represented in the English textbooks of the Pahlavi period, whereas Western cultures were all eliminated in the post-Revolution textbooks, replaced by the Islamic/Revolutionary cultures. Additionally, cultural perspectives outnumbered cultural products and practices in the first and second generations of English textbooks (Pahlavi era) whereas cultural products dominated the post-Revolutionary English materials. This study finds that political and ideological hegemony of each era have directly influenced the textual and illustrative content of locally developed English textbooks in Iran.

Several researchers have claimed that passively viewing manipulable objects results in automatic motor activation of affordances regardless of intention to act upon an object. Support for the automatic activation account stems primarily from findings using stimulus-response compatibility paradigms in which responses are fastest when there is correspondence between one’s response hand and an object’s handle. Counter to this view is the spatial coding account, which suggests that past findings are a result of abstract spatial codes stemming from salient object properties and their left-right correspondence with responses. Although there is now considerable support for this account, there has been little attention paid to determining whether evidence in favor of the automatic activation account will be evident after accounting for the spatial issues demonstrated by the spatial coding account.

The present study involved five experiments conducted to bridge this gap in two steps. First, I aimed to demonstrate the importance of considering spatial issues and left-right correspondence when studying object-based motor activation by numerous objects championed by past researchers who attempted to similarly address the aforementioned issue (Experiments 1 and 2). Second, I sought to determine whether evidence favoring the automatic activation account could be obtained when the possibility for left-right correspondence was absent in a novel set of stimuli created specifically for this purpose (Experiments 3, 4, and 5).

Experiment 1 examined a stimulus set that some researchers have suggested can more definitively tease apart evidence for automatic activation from the influence of spatial factors studies. Experiment 2 was more narrowly focused and investigated a single object presented in different horizontal orientations. These experiments effectively demonstrated the importance of giving more consideration to the nature of the stimuli used in object-based compatibility studies and how they are presented. The results of Experiment 1 suggest that a stimulus set that has been claimed to sidestep spatial confounds does not, in fact, do so. Moreover, Experiment 2 demonstrated that performance could be influenced by simple rotation of the object to which a response was required.

Having established the importance of controlling the stimuli used to investigate automatic activation of afforded responses, I turned to determining whether a novel stimulus set would yield findings favoring the automatic activation account even after accounting for left-right correspondence (Experiments 3, 4, and 5). Three sets of novel object stimuli were developed that do not allow for left-right correspondence and could iteratively assess support for the automatic activation account based on criteria for activation that have been put forth in the literature. The three sets of stimuli contained no information about shape nor functionality (i.e., silhouette iteration) or information about shape and functionality (i.e., functional iteration), or they were an intermediate between the two other types (i.e., intermediate iteration).

Critically, the three latter experiments progressively approached the conditions that researchers have suggested are ideal for automatic activation of afforded responses to occur. Experiment 3 tasked participants with completing a color discrimination task in which they viewed only one of the three object iterations and responded with button presses. Experiment 4 used the same experimental configuration, but instead, required participants to respond with a grasping response. Finally, Experiment 5 required participants to complete a reach-and-grasp response in an object discrimination task using both the silhouette and functional iterations.

Across Experiments 3, 4, and 5, no support for the automatic activation account of afforded responses was found. Although the automatic activation account would predict that individuals should be fastest at responding to the functional stimuli than to the other two object iterations, no such evidence was observed. Given that the possibility for left-right correspondence was removed from the novel stimulus set studied here, these results provide indirect support for the spatial coding account of prior results and further indicate that past findings favoring the automatic activation account have largely been a result of left-right correspondence.