Painting descriptions can aid children’s learning and development in museums. Previous research has shown that painting descriptions can influence people’s visual attention towards paintings and...Show morePainting descriptions can aid children’s learning and development in museums. Previous research has shown that painting descriptions can influence people’s visual attention towards paintings and possibly their aesthetic appreciation, which are both important for the perception of art. However, little is known about the effects of painting descriptions when specifically tailored to children’s level of understanding and development. Therefore, this research investigated the question: “How do tailored painting descriptions impact children’s visual attention and aesthetic appreciation of art?”. Compared to receiving no (tailored) painting descriptions, it was expected that children show increased visual attention towards paintings after receiving a tailored painting description and that they would show a difference in their visual exploration and aesthetic appreciation of the paintings. An ecological experiment was conducted at Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam with 62 children aged 10-12. The children were asked to view three different paintings. Before viewing these paintings, the children either received a painting description tailored to children (child description condition, CDC), a painting description written for adults (adult description condition, ADC), or no painting description (free viewing condition, FVC). Their visual attention towards the paintings was measured using a wearable eye-tracker. Their aesthetic appreciation was measured using an adapted version of the AESTHEMOS questionnaire. Both statistical and qualitative analyses were used to investigate differences in visual attention and aesthetic appreciation between the conditions. Results showed that children in the CDC displayed more visual attention towards areas mentioned in the descriptions compared to ADC and FVC. There was no significant difference in children’s visual attention between the ADC and FVC. Also, children in the CDC showed slightly decreased visual exploration of the paintings. Lastly, no results were found regarding the effects of painting descriptions on children’s aesthetic appreciation. The findings underline the effectiveness of tailoring information to children’s level of understanding and development in influencing their visual attention. Also, it suggests that giving more complicated information written for adults might be just as ineffective as giving no information at all. Museum educators can apply this knowledge to further improve children’s learning in museums and the overall museum experience. The effects of tailored information for children may also be studied to improve children’s engagement and understanding of information in other settings, such as general education or healthcare, or when providing safety information. Lastly, these results strengthen the body of evidence for understanding children’s visual attention in real-world settings.Show less
China desires to gain knowledge that is required to sophisticate its economy. This primarily involves investments in strategic sectors in Europe, which is increasingly received with anxiety and...Show moreChina desires to gain knowledge that is required to sophisticate its economy. This primarily involves investments in strategic sectors in Europe, which is increasingly received with anxiety and scepticism by European leaders. Therefore, an alternative for China to attain significant technological insights is open innovation. This research argues that this is a useful way of obtaining mutually profitable research and development. However, such a partnership requires confidence that is currently lacking. Therefore, this research answers the question: To what extent does the EU’s perception of China impede the Sino-EU cooperation on innovation? This dissertation examines this issue by analysing how the EU view on China influences trust towards this partner, and what this entails for open innovation. It is found that present preconceived negative notions on China lead to distrust. On certain issues, control mechanisms compensate for this lack of trust. However, more trust or control remains to be needed in order for future open innovation in this bilateral relationship to blossom.Show less
This thesis works to address the following proposed obstacle to researchers: potential nuances of small-scale farming in prehistory are likely lost to archaeologists who are personally...Show moreThis thesis works to address the following proposed obstacle to researchers: potential nuances of small-scale farming in prehistory are likely lost to archaeologists who are personally inexperienced with subsistence living. Without a breadth of agricultural knowledge, it is challenging to understand the extensive possibilities for and reasons behind regional differentiation in food production, farmyard organization, animal husbandry, and local ecological constraints. My aim is to propose an interdisciplinary approach to why regional differentiation occurred and how farmers dealt with the necessity of small-scale adaptation to their immediate environment. This thesis assumes that farming skill relies on an intelligent interaction with the environment and an ability to respond to constant fluctuations in material composition and behavior. I approach the question, ‘how can one formulate a scientific approach to subjective experience?’, by asking ‘Why is perception, defined as any sensory input, relevant to agricultural soil identification as used in archaeology, and can perception be incorporated into soil typologies within the context of the ecological and archaeological record of the Middle Bronze Age of West Frisia, Netherlands?’ To answer these questions, this thesis reinterprets agriculture in Middle Bronze Age West Frisia within the framework of craft theory. Craft theory is used as a methodological framework to propose perceptive categories that work explore the agricultural relevance of soil composition and identification strategies. These categories, contextualized within the format of a farming chaîne opératoire, work to show the how of skilled soil identification as relevant to agricultural craft. By ethnographic examples of agriculturally relevant perceptive land categorization, a chemical understanding of taste, and empirical findings into the relationship between a subject’s taste experience and a soil’s chemical pH, the feasibility of perceptive categorization is presented.Show less
The Early Anglo-Saxons did not split Middle-Earth in continents like we divide the earth now. This thesis will attempt to answer the question of how the influx of Christian and Greco-Latin...Show moreThe Early Anglo-Saxons did not split Middle-Earth in continents like we divide the earth now. This thesis will attempt to answer the question of how the influx of Christian and Greco-Latin literature influences the representation of Africa and Asia in Anglo-Saxon England.Show less
Little is known about perception of child maltreatment in Greece. Although maltreatment in European countries is well documented, knowledge concerning this phenomenon remains sparse in Greece. This...Show moreLittle is known about perception of child maltreatment in Greece. Although maltreatment in European countries is well documented, knowledge concerning this phenomenon remains sparse in Greece. This study examined mothers’ and teacher’s evaluation of severity of four types of maltreatment: physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse and emotional neglect. It was also examined whether mothers and teachers differ in their evaluation of maltreatment and if their perceptions are influenced by demographics and previous maltreatment experience. 41 Greek mothers of children 2 to 6 years old, 20 Greek teachers and 2 professionals working in Youth Care centers in Greece distributed Maltreatment Q-sort (MQS) and filled in Children Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and Background information Questionnaire. Within subjects contrast showed that mothers evaluated significantly more harmful physical abuse than the other types of maltreatment and physical neglect than emotional neglect and emotional abuse. Teachers also showed significant differences on subscales of MQS apart from physical neglect and emotional abuse. Mothers and teachers did not strongly differ in how they evaluated maltreatment and mothers showed higher convergence with the professionals’ view of maltreatment. Identity, number of children and maltreatment experiences are related to participants’ perception of maltreatment. Understanding perception of maltreatment is vital, as its perception has implications for reporting maltreatment and identifying intervention needs of vulnerable children. Furthermore, understanding maltreatment’s perception may help social service agencies to practice successful intervention programs. The current study is the first that directly studies the perception of four types of maltreatment and can be the basis for further research. Keywords: perception, maltreatment, Greece, mothers, teachers, MQSShow less
Research into the perception of monumentality in the Roman Empire has so far only concentrated on the monuments itself. The aim of this thesis is to show the necessity to shift the focus from the...Show moreResearch into the perception of monumentality in the Roman Empire has so far only concentrated on the monuments itself. The aim of this thesis is to show the necessity to shift the focus from the actual monument to its surroundings. Phenomenological research methods have been introduced in archaeology over the last couple of decades to analyse experience, but due to their imbeddedness in the post-processual theoretical framework they concentrate on the personal experience rather than on the common perception. However, other spatial analyses like those introduced by Space Syntax provide the necessary methods to analyse the general perception of space, but these analyses require detailed knowledge of the ancient urban environment which are often not preserved in the archaeological record. Therefore, other techniques have to be used to complement these analyses, like the concept of ‘armature’. In this way it seems possible to analyse the general perception of a monument based on an analysis of its relation with the surroundings.Show less
