Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Using The Visual World Paradigm To Study Retrieval Interference In Spoken Language Comprehension, Irina A. Sekerina, Luca Campanelli, Julie A. Van Dyke

Publications and Research

The cue-based retrieval theory (Lewis et al., 2006) predicts that interference from similar distractors should create difficulty for argument integration, however this hypothesis has only been examined in the written modality. The current study uses the Visual World Paradigm (VWP) to assess its feasibility to study retrieval interference arising from distractors present in a visual display during spoken language comprehension. The study aims to extend findings from Van Dyke and McElree (2006), which utilized a dual-task paradigm with written sentences in which they manipulated the relationship between extra-sentential distractors and the semantic retrieval cues from a verb, to the spoken …

Open Cuny: 24 Colleges, 5 Boroughs, 1 Repository, Megan Wacha

Publications and Research

In March 2015, CUNY Libraries launched an open access institutional repository, CUNY Academic Works, to collect and provide public access to the intellectual output of the students, faculty, and staff at the City University of New York. This presentation details a collaborative model in which the Office of Library Services at the Central Office partners with libraries at each of CUNY’s campuses to adopt more open practices.

A Study Of Flipped Information Literacy Sessions For Business Management And Education, Madeline Cohen, Alison Lehner-Quam, Jennifer Poggiali, Robin Wright

Publications and Research

This presentation reports the results of a quantitative study of flipped classroom approaches to information literacy instruction in business and education classes. The presenters used pre- and post-tests to assess learning objectives for students in traditional class sessions and flipped sessions. The findings of our study show a statistically significant improvement in student achievement on pre-tests for those students in the flipped group, but no statistically significant difference in learning outcomes on the post-tests. We discuss the implications of these and other results, as well as the design and execution of the classes.

Decisions At The Brink: Locomotor Experience Affects Infants’ Use Of Social Information On An Adjustable Drop-Off, Lana B. Karasik, Catherine S. Tamis-Lemonda, Karen E. Adolph

Publications and Research

How do infants decide what to do at the brink of a precipice? Infants could use two sources of information to guide their actions: perceptual information generated by their own exploratory activity and social information offered by their caregivers. The current study investigated the role of locomotor experience in using social information—both encouragement and discouragement—for descending drop-offs. Mothers of 30 infants (experienced 12-month-old crawlers, novice 12-month-old walkers, and experienced 18-month-old walkers) encouraged and discouraged descent on a gradation of dropoffs (safe “steps” and risky “cliffs”). Novice walkers descended more frequently than experienced crawlers and walkers and fell while attempting to …

Converging On Nutrition Education Competencies: Aligning Library Instruction With Undergraduate Pre-Professional Program Requirements, Lee Ann Fullington, Margrethe Horlyck-Romanovsky, Susan Jakuboski

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Environmental Heritage And Wellness Assessment: Applying Quantitative Techniques To Traditional Ecological Knowledge And Wellness Relationships, Kristina Baines

Publications and Research

This paper quantifies relationships between health and traditional ecological knowledge/practices in a Mopan Maya community in southern Belize, illuminating how changes in daily practices might be related to changes in wellness. Findings from statistical analyses of data related to household practices are presented. These data were collected using a Likert survey designed based on previously collected ethnographic and pile sort data related to health and heritage, and then administered to households in the community (n=64). The paper concludes that the data, while exploratory, show links between higher scores on both the health and heritage indices and warrant further engagement with …

Women Of Color In Academia And The Influence Of Religious Culture On Self-Promotion: A Collaborative Autoethnography, Joni Schwartz, Emam Mosharafa, S. Lenise Wallace

Publications and Research

Much has been written about self-promoting communication by women in business, and some about self-promotion and women in academia. However, few studies specifically focus on Women of Color in academia in regard to how their religious backgrounds impact learned self-promotion communication and acclimation to academic culture. This collaborative autoethnography addresses this gap in the literature. Through two of the authors’ life experiences in the Black/African American church and Islamic faith, self-promotion is explored as it relates to their current work in academia.

Career Opportunities: Connecting Design Students With Industry, M. Genevieve Hitchings

Publications and Research

Given an era of rapid advances in communications and graphic techniques, students of design need exposure to the hectic, highly competitive world of design – well before their student days are over. Is the design hub of New York a closed circuit among industries led by alumni from private colleges and universities? Are student opportunities and career outcomes significantly different depending on the type of institution they attend, rather than the type of degree they earn? In looking at five design institutions in New York City (New York City College of Technology (CUNY), Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY), Pratt Institute, …

A Divided Community: The Ethics And Politics Of Activist Research, Christopher Anthony Loperena

Publications and Research

In this article, I draw upon over two years of fieldwork in a Garifuna community in Tela Bay, Honduras, to explore the ethical and political contradictions bound up with activist-oriented ethnographic research. The rise of tourism as a means of national development and a driver of local economic desires has fractured communal politics in Triunfo de la Cruz, particularly around questions pertaining to land tenure and territorial belonging. I analyze the challenges of doing politically engaged anthropology in such a context. My open collaboration with land rights activists and ongoing support for the struggle to defend Garifuna collective property rights …

The Benefits Of Multicultural Eclectic Service Delivery, Eugena Griffin

Publications and Research

To date, Blacks in America are often misdiagnosed or mistreated due to the failure of mental health practitioners to provide services from a multicultural eclectic purview. It is necessary to attend to the past and present influences of psychosocial variables related to real and perceived discrimination on minority achievement, behavior, and clinically health outcomes. When providers do not take into consideration these factors, they have a limited conceptualization of their clients’ needs. Such psychosocial variables can exacerbate behaviors, symptoms, and at times be the antecedent that onset those symptoms. Thus, it is imperative that health providers learn methods to investigate …

From Marginality To Mattering: Linguistic Practices, Pedagogies And Diversities At A Community-Serving Senior College, Andrea Springirth, Hannah Göppert

Publications and Research

The cultural diversification of colleges and universities which initially targeted the needs of a specific minoritized group raises questions concerning the inclusion of every individual and the maintenance of the advances which have been made for the original population. This paper provides insight into the challenges and merits at the intersection of linguistic and racial/ethnic diversification within CUNY’s Medgar Evers College. Historically tied to the Black Campus Movement, the college is committed to being an agent of social transformation for the surrounding community. Aiming to understand the perspectives on language and diversity of the key stakeholders at the college, a …

Crime In Developing Countries: The Contribution Of Crime Science, Mangai Natarajan

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Race Matters: Recruitment & Retention: Diversifying The Library Profession, Wilma L. Jones

Publications and Research

Since the implementation of affirmative action, increasing diversity of faculty and staff continues to be a priority for many higher education institutions. However, while we recognize the value of having a diverse workforce, we need to pay more attention to recruitment and retention activities that would yield better results in outreach and opportunities for underrepresented-excluded groups who wish to become part of the library profession. How can CUNY library leaders help develop an inclusive environment: one conducive to retention of a diverse workforce, starting with the role of Search Committees, to mentors within and outside the library, to diversity professional …

Do Catastrophes In Poor Countries Lead To Event-Related Policy Change? The 2010 Earthquake In Haiti, Denise D. P. Thompson

Publications and Research

Prompted by Birkland and Warnement‘s (2014) findings that the earthquake was not a significant focusing event in Haiti, the author reassessed the issue. Using the 2010 earthquake as the starting point, a detailed content analysis of evaluation and strategy report and DRR and developmental plans to find the level of policy adopted and implemented after the earthquake. Using the criterion of event-related implementation as a proxy for event-related policy change the author judges whether and to what extent was the earthquake a focusing event. Among the findings are that not only were there event-related policy change inside and outside of …

Adopting Universal Design In Libraries: Collaborating For Student Success, Stefanie Havelka, Rebecca Arzola

Publications and Research

Faculty grapple with resources such as skill (experience with accessible features and devices), time (teaching students how to navigate software and devices in the library), and expense (software, hardware, eBooks, databases). This presentation will provide an overview of accessible features in library research databases, computer technology, mobile devices, and apps. The presenters will report on their collaboration with Lehman College’s Access and Technology Center (ATC) and Student Disability Services to share how to better approach issues and challenges in order to more successfully support students’ access needs. We will also consider the following questions:

• As librarians and faculty, how can …

Uncovering Email Notification Issue In Aleph: Contributing Factors And Solutions, Gordon Xu

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Die Hard: The Impossible, Absolutely Essential Task Of Saving The Web For Scholars, Robin Camille Davis

Publications and Research

The web is fragile and littered with broken links. This poses a problem for the scholarly record and one’s own academic history. In this presentation given at the Association of College & Research Libraries – Eastern New York chapter conference, I review the stats on link rot and reference rot, and I give a brief overview of web archiving and its challenges. I review some web archiving tools: the Internet Archive, Perma.cc, WebRecorder, and GitHub. I advise creators of web projects to design their websites to be accessible and archivable, and to think about preservation (afterlife) of their projects from …

Working For Food Stamps: Economic Citizenship And The Post-Fordist Welfare State In New York City, Maggie Dickinson

Publications and Research

In the United States, the number of people receiving state-subsidized food aid has risen dramatically since 2001. This increase complicates the well-worn story that the post-Fordist welfare state has been continuously cut back in the neoliberal era, indicating instead that it is expanding to subsidize poor workers’ participation in the formal labor market. In New York City, welfare office workers operationalize policies that ease access to food assistance for poor workers who can demonstrate that they are formally employed. Meanwhile, workfare programs punish the unemployed and marginal workers by making them work for food stamps. This conservative, paternalistic welfare regime …

Gifts Among Strangers: The Social Organization Of Freecycle Giving, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

The Freecycle Network, with its millions of members gifting objects to strangers, is a stalwart fixture of the increasingly popular sharing economy. Unlike the wildly profitable Airbnb and Uber, the Freecycle Network prohibits profit-making, or even barter, providing an altruism-based alternative to capitalist markets while keeping tons of garbage out of landfills. Why do millions of people give through Freecycle instead of selling, donating, or throwing away items? Utilizing participant observation of two overlapping Freecycle groups and a survey of their members, I investigate motivations for giving and the social norms that guide it. I find that while members of …

Rapid Assessment Of “Eve Teasing” (Sexual Harassment) Of Young Women During The Commute To College In India, Mangai Natarajan

Publications and Research

Many countries have taken action in recent times to address harassment in the work place and violence in the home, but little attention has been paid to sexual harassment in public places, specifically during women’s journey to work and school. In developing countries, many more women are seeking education and employment than previously, which has increased the opportunity for sexual harassment in public places. In India, the study location, this harassment is known as “eve teasing”. Eve teasing includes cat calling, lewd remarks, and inappropriate sexual contact such as rubbing and fondling. Tolerance of such incidents could lead to more …

Reversing The Realities Of Mass Incarceration: The Role Of American Business, Jeremy Travis

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Body-Worn Cameras And Civilian Policy Oversight: A Camden Case Study (Presentation Slides From Nacole Symposium 2016 Held At John Jay College), Maria Ponomarenko, Barry Friedmann

Publications and Research

Throughout its Final Report, the Presidential Task Force on 21st Century Policing repeatedly called for a new form of civilian oversight: for police departments to involve community members in the process of developing and reviewing department policies on a variety of topics from use of new technologies to police training. The Task Force stressed that this sort of engagement is essential to promoting external legitimacy and building trust between policing agencies and the communities they serve. Yet as a number of police officials have acknowledged, community engagement around matters of policy raises a number of difficult questions—and there are few …

Early Warning/Intervention Systems (Presentation Slides From Nacole Symposium 2016 Held At John Jay College), Jennifer Helsby, Samuel Carton, Kenneth Joseph, Ayesha Mahmud, Youngsoo Park, Joe Walsh, Lauren Haynes

Publications and Research

Adverse interactions between police and the public harm police legitimacy and produce high costs due to harms to both officers and the public as well as litigation. Early intervention systems (EIS) that flag officers considered most likely to be involved in one of these adverse situations are an important tool for police supervision and for targeting of interventions such as counseling or training. However, the EIS that exist are often not data-driven and are based on supervior intuition. We have developed a prototype data-driven EIS that uses a diverse set of data sources from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and machine …

Self-Identified Feminist Mothers' Naming Practices For Their Children: Accepting Being "As Feminist As Everyone" Else, Amy Eshleman, Jean Halley

Publications and Research

In this study, we apply the complexities of feminism to feminists’ choices regarding the surnames of their children. Along with other progressive movements, feminism acknowledges that names matter. Across diverse perspectives within feminism, we do not want to be called girls, but women. We do not want to be called chairmen, but chair or chairperson. We want the title we earned, Dr., or the title we share with all women, Ms., not Miss or Mrs. Given this awareness, and given feminist scholars’ privileged position in the world, we examine the often-patrilineal naming decisions of self-identified feminist faculty members.

Uncertainty And War Duration, Zachary C. Shirkey

Publications and Research

The article argues private information plays an important role in explaining long wars. Existing rationalist explanations of long, intensely fought wars focus on commitment problems rather than private information as the cause of such wars. Commitment problem explanations of long wars claim that while private information can explain short wars, battles and exchanges of offers for settlement should quickly reveal private information thereby leading to an early peace. Commitment problems, on the other hand, may take years to resolve and therefore can explain long, intense wars for unitary actors. However, while commitment problems are an important explanation for long wars, …

Make A Twitter Bot In Python: Iterative Code Examples, Robin Camille Davis, Mark E. Eaton

Publications and Research

A tutorial based upon the LACUNY Emerging Technologies Committee’s “Build Your Own Twitter Bot” day in December 2015, which was billed as a gentle introduction to programming in Python.

Affirmative Action Debates In American Government Introductory Textbooks, Sherrie L. Wallace, Marcus D. Allen

Publications and Research

Affirmative action debates remain hotly contested across America. Given how the topic is presented in respective disciplines and core textbooks, students are often misinformed. Introductory textbooks may be one of the few places where students are exposed to significant discussions on affirmative action. In this study, we examine affirmative action policy in American government introductory textbooks published between 2005 and 2014. Our study is modeled on previous, similar analyses of introductory textbooks. We use content analysis to examine the extent to which affirmative action discussions challenge or reinforce affirmative action myths and meritocracy. We conclude that textbook discussions that emphasize …

Inquiry Into The Implementation Of Bush’S Executive Order 13211 And The Impact On Environmental And Public Health Regulation, Elizabeth Ann Glass Geltman, Gunwant Gill, Miriam Jovanovic

Publications and Research

Executive Order 13211, promulgated in 2001, requires the federal government to consider the impact of federal action on energy independence as part of the George W. Bush’s National Energy Policy. This law review examines whether EO 13211 was used to curtail environmental protection and natural resource conservation. The article begins with a review of the procedure required of federal agencies under EO 13211 and its associated documents. The paper then examines case law and published federal rulemaking proceedings and examines how federal agencies apply tests to evaluate the potential energy effect. The study concludes that EO 13211 strikes a reasonable …

How To Find A Particular Article Or Journal In A Library Database: Using The E-Journal Portal, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

In most cases, the research process begins with a topic: one types some keywords into a database or search engine, gets a result list, selects appropriate/reliable/useful articles, and is (hopefully) satisfied. But what happens if you already know what you’re looking for, because you have an exact citation? Or if you are looking for a specific journal that you would like to browse? How do you know which journal is included in which database? The author discusses the York College Library's e-journal portal, a subscription product from Serials Solutions.

Reducing The Role Of The Food, Tobacco, And Alcohol Industries In Noncommunicable Disease Risk In South Africa, Peter Delobelle, David Sanders, Thandi Puoane, Nicholas Freudenberg

Publications and Research

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) impose a growing burden on the health, economy, and development of South Africa. According to the World Health Organization, four risk factors, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets, and physical inactivity, account for a significant proportion of major NCDs. We analyze the role of tobacco, alcohol, and food corporations in promoting NCD risk and unhealthy lifestyles in South Africa and in exacerbating inequities in NCD distribution among populations. Through their business practices such as product design, marketing, retail distribution, and pricing and their business practices such as lobbying, public relations, philanthropy, and sponsored research, national and transnational …