Auditory Attention Essay Example for Free

Auditory Attention Essay The ability to localize sound sources is of considerable importance to both humans and animals; it will determine the direction of objects to seek or to avoid as well as indicating the appropriate direction to direct visual attention. The precision of sound localization is remarkable, particularly for brief sounds or for those occurring in noisy or reverberant surroundings. While the most reliable cues used in the localization of sounds depend upon a comparison of the signals reaching the two ears, there are also phenomena of auditory space perception which result from monoaural processing of the signals. Localization refers to judgments of the direction and distance of a sound source. Like when headphones are worn, the sound image is located inside the head. Headphones allow precise control of interaural differences and eliminate effects related to room echoes. Using two ears we are able to selectively attend to sounds coming from a particular direction while effectively excluding other sounds. This ability is particularly important in noisy surroundings or when there are several sound sources competing for our attention. Our acuity in locating sounds is greatest in the horizontal dimension, fairly good in the vertical direction and least good in the depth dimension. Aside from this ability we are also able to judge the direction of a sound source and to some extent estimates its distance. Many everyday experiences indicate that auditory localization can be influenced by conflicting visual cues. At a cinema for example, the loudspeakers are usually placed behind the screen or in its center yet the sound still appears to come from the actor’s mouth as he moves about the screen. Similarly, the loudspeaker in a television set is located to one side of the screen but the sound does not appear to be detached from the visual image. Thus, it might be possible that exposure to conflicting auditory and visual cues for a period of time may lead to an after-effect in which the localization of sounds is systematically displaced. This may occur during experiments wherein sound may be generates from one area but a cue may say otherwise and given the effects of practice and priming, experiment results into auditory localization may not be valid. Early findings on the study of orienting pure auditory attention have yielded no significant change in performance. Posner (1980) did not find any advantage in the use of auditory pre- cueing of auditory targets. Others have failed to find a benefit for the detection of sounds coming from expected vs. unexpected locations (Scharf, Quigley, Aoki, Peachey and Reeves, 1987). Buchtel and Butter (1988) found that informative auditory cues provided a benefit in the detection of visual targets; however they failed to find a benefit from cues on auditory targets. Klein, Brennan and Gilani (1987) also found no benefit in the detection of auditory targets with the use of uninformative cues using both visual and auditory cues. However, the use of auditory and visual cues together on tasks has been promising. Previous researches on multisensory instruments have found that it can optimize performance rather than using one sensory modality. Recently Duncan, Martens and Ward (1997) found evidence of restricted attentional capacity within but not between sensory modalities. They presented streams of visual and or auditory inputs containing occasional targets to be identified and recalled, for two visual or two auditory streams they found that the identification of one target produced a sustained reduction in the ability to identify a second target. In contrast, when the streams were from both modalities, there was no such reduction in the identification of the second target. The results suggest a modality-specific restriction to concurrent attention and awareness. The results of this study have important implications for the design of complex human machine interface systems. Systems should be designed to take advantage of the spatial presentation of information to the human operator to enhance the detection rate of critical information (i. e. ; warnings). This findings support Rhodes (1987) earlier work on auditory attention where he reported that auditory attention has spatial constraints. He found that time linearly increased to localize a sound as a function of distance from the point of attention; he further proposed that even for sounds, localization is shifted through logical and topographical representations. Information presented in locations where spatial attention has been allocated has both faster and more accurate response in both visual and auditory modalities (Posner, 1980, Ward, 2000, Spence driver, 1996, 1997a, 1997b). Moreover, even if there is a limited human attentional capacity the nature of spatial attention across modalities suggests that if one modality is overloaded the attentional capacity of other modalities are not adversely affected (Duncan, Martens Ward, 1997). Thus, the best way to maximize this modality-specific restriction is to present information using both the visual and auditory modalities. Flanagan, McAnally, Martin, Meehan Oldfield (1998) found evidence of the usefulness of using both modalities. In their study, they reported that visual search times were reduced when spatially informative auditory information was supplied. They used a spatial localization task in which the search for a visual target was aided by either a visual arrow or an auditory cue. They found both the visual and the auditory cues aided in significantly reducing the search times when compared to unaided search. It is however important that the visual and auditory information presented are detectable and localizable. Hence a signal should be localizable when information presented is critical (i. e. ; location of threats such as enemy fighters, missiles etc. ) and that information presented is expected in that location will improve response time and accuracy (Posner, 1980, Spence and Driver, 1996).

Terrorism in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan :: essays research papers fc

Terrorism in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan One boy tried to escape, but he was caught. They made him eat a mouthful of red pepper, and five people were beating him. His hands were tied, and then they made us, the other new captives, kill him with a stick. I felt sick. I knew this boy from before. We were from the same village. I refused to kill him and they told me they would shoot me. They pointed a gun at me, so I had to do it. The boy was asking me, "Why are you doing this?" I said I had no choice. After we killed him, they made us smear his blood on our arms. I felt dizzy. There was another dead body nearby, and I could smell the body. I felt so sick. They said we had to do this so we would not fear death and so we would not try to escape. I feel so bad about the things that I did . . . . It disturbs me so much--that I inflicted death on other people . . . . When I go home I must do some traditional rites because I have killed. I must perform these rites and cleanse myself. I still dream about the boy from my village who I killed. I see him in my dreams, and he is talking to me and saying I killed him for nothing, and I am crying. - Susan, sixteen Susan is not speaking of a well known atrocity. She is not talking about the holocaust, apartheid, or slavery. She is speaking about a situation going on right now in this day and age. She is telling the story of her time with the Lord’s Resistance Army, a terrorist group operating in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. Timothy tells of his time as well: I was good at shooting. I went for several battles in Sudan. The soldiers on the other side would be squatting, but we would stand in a straight line. The commanders were behind us. They would tell us to run straight into gunfire. The commanders would stay behind and would beat those of us who would not run forward. You would just run forward shooting your gun. I don't know if I actually killed any people, because you really can't tell if you're shooting people or not. I might have killed people in the course of the fighting .

Local Care Home Essay

At this care home, equality, diversity and rights is very important as residents come from a wide cross-section of society. This chapter is set for the new staff members to deliver good quality and compassionate care for our services users. This handbook contains the policies, rules and procedures referred in your contract of employment and the ones you are expected to abide by as a member of the Local Care Home team Wishing all of you a pleasant and worthwhile time with your career at this organisation – your line manager Know your key terms Here is an explanation, with examples of what equality, diversity and rights mean: Equality is being equal and having a fair society, especially in rights, status or opportunities. Some people may experience discrimination because of gender, race, sexuality, age, disability and few others. For example; A blind person is at a disadvantage because they can’t look at a presentation or won’t be able to know what it is about. A diverse action towards this situation is if you read what the power point said they would be getting all equal chances to their education. Diversity means accepting differences; everyone’s differences are equal and accepted/respected. An example of this is; professionals in a health and social care setting should have an understanding that each and every one of their patients is unique and be able to recognise and accept these differences. Rights is a legal entitlement to carry out or have something. When we talk about this, it means mostly to give all the equal opportunities whether small or big. In a health and social care setting such as a nursing home,  every one of the service users should have the right to live, freedom and education. No one should be treated in any different way because of the way they are. Vulnerability (the state of being exposed to emotional or physical danger/harm from others) – in health and social care settings, many people are vulnerable due to the nature of their support needs Non-discriminatory practice is a term used to describe appropriate professional practise. This refers to a number of things: Not treating individuals or groups less favourably than others, whether the treatment is on purpose or not Being treated equally and getting the right non-discriminated care and procedure in a health and social care setting is very important and this will also be expected and assumed from the patients that they are being treated the same as others Valuing diversity All staff and patients must appreciate diversity and respect each other diversely as everyone is unique in their own ways. Meeting individuals’ diverse needs For example if your patient has speech and learning difficulties or their sight is impaired, it is your duty to enable communication any way possible. This could be through body language and tone of voice Discriminatory practice is when someone is discriminated against with a number of forms of discrimination. There are four types of discrimination. Discriminating is treating someone less favourably because of their certain features as mentioned above. This is known as direct discrimination. Discrimination can occurs where there is a policy, practice that disadvantages people. This is a form of indirect discrimination. Harassment, unwanted conduct violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive act. And lastly, victimisation, example of this is; unfair treatment of an employee who made or supported a complaint Discrimination can have many negative impacts on someone’s life and cause  problems and result in low self-esteem and stress. The equality act 2010 mentioned below protects the rights of certain individuals and makes sure that all are being treated equally in all aspects and provides opportunities. You should also bear in mind that patients with certain disabilities may be affected by your or other people’s reactions to their condition. This will also have an impact on their ability to communicate. The Equality Act 2010 This is a legislation which replaced many anti-discrimination laws with a single act. It simplified the laws on things such as sex and religious discrimination. This made it much easier for people to understand and comply with the law. This act promotes the protection for certain people and tackles discrimination and inequality. Here is an example; You suffer from depression, so it’s very hard for you to make decisions or even to get up in the morning. You’re forgetful and you can’t plan ahead. Together, these factors make it difficult for you to carry out day-to-day activities. You’ve had several linked periods of depression over the last two years and the effects of the depression are long-term. So, for the purposes of the Equality Act, you’re defined as a ‘disabled person’. Before the Equality Act, you might not have been able to get disability discrimination protection. Different discriminatory practises Covert abuse of power – this is a hidden use of power to discriminate. This can is when someone is being treated in a different way compared to others and not getting the same level of treatment. This can lead to jeopardising one’s health and well being Overt abuse of power – openly using power to discriminate. This will have similar results as with covert abuse of power but if the discriminated person realises their situation, they will be greatly affected and this will have a negative impact on their recovery and may even trigger mental health issues. Prejudice – this is an opinion or idea based on no real knowledge or experience of the truth. Will lead to suspecting and even hatred of another group of people. As a result of discriminatory actions of others individuals may develop physical or mental health problems. Stereotyping – a common, fixed and oversimplified view of a person/group of people. A generalisation and to describe or classify someone. For example, a racial or religious stereotype. (All Muslims are terrorist, as a minority of the followers did something silly, now all Muslims are judged bad due to what the minority has done). Bullying – is using power to intimidate another person. This comes in many forms such as cyber, physical, verbal etc. which all lead to distress and maybe even mental health. Depending on the age of the person that gets bullied it can really affect them. For example; several teenagers have committed suicide because of being bullied. Whereas, some adults may have had to leave their job as they were being bullied or abused. Infringement of rights is when we are not respecting an individual’s rights and not letting them practice their religion or culture. This may then lead an individual feeling devalued and unhappy, which can then affect their health. Scenarios 1. A health care visitor could be discriminative to someone due to them being a different religion and they may think that they will raise their children in a strange or a different way. This could lead them being discriminated and end up being reported, neglected and abused which in turn can cause depression and end in having low self esteem 2. A care profession is making the judgment that Mark is on drugs and doesn’t care about his health and his family so the doctor does not give him a fair  treatment. Now Mark might become reluctant to seek support and his condition worsen and affect his physical health even more as he did not receive the promised support from the health care center. In the worst case, Mark might end up dying. 3. Julia is a Gypsie traveler and she wants to register to a GP surgery service. As everyone is required to provide proof of address for first time registering, Julia is at a disadvantage because she’ll find it difficult to register (no constant address). This is an indirect discrimination against her group of race. Because of their characteristics of race, she and her group will be affected. This can lead to Julia not receiving the help and surgery care that she needed and now Julia can end up distressed as not knowing what to do and her condition may deteriorate. http://www.windowonwoking.org.uk/sites/wavs/wavs_services/hradvisoryservice/HRToolkit/ConInd/ConInd07 class worksheets (A.1 understand the importance of non-discriminatory practice in health and social care – discriminatory and non-discriminatory practice in health and social care) http://www.chaucer.ac.uk/ctsshared/HealthandSocial/Text%20Book%20Chapters/Unit%202/u2%20p34.pdf http://www.faculty.londondeanery.ac.uk/e-learning/diversity-equal-opportunities-and-human-rights/Diversity,%20equal%20opportunities%20and%20human%20rights.pdf http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adviceguide.org.uk%2Findex%2Fequlity_act_2010_overview.pdf&ei=GaZ0VLDINcuqPNKwgYgH&usg=AFQjCNEpr1b2Fqj1-fOJf1Qql26xswNOlA www.nhs.uk

Homosexuality rights - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 929 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2019/10/30 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Homosexuality Essay Did you like this example? Homosexuality has been a controversial topic for many different reasons since the birth of established religion. Although, common in the ancient world, homosexuality and its acceptance radically dropped following the rise of Christianity. Therefore, by the time Eisenhower was President his views, as where most of the country, were negative to such sexual deviancies. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Homosexuality rights" essay for you Create order It was believed that homosexuality was a condition that had to be treated by psychologies and furthermore that it was a national security threat to the nation because of how susceptible they were to be blackmailed. The backdrop of these events was the 1950s. A time of the ideal perfect family with 2.5 kids. Where the man was the breadwinner and the woman were to state home and take care of the children. In this extremely conservative family centric society is where this homosexuality trials and hunt took place inside the Federal Government. Believing that homosexuality was a threat to national security, Eisenhower through executive order 10450 sought to banish all gay man and woman from serving in the Federal government, through the use of interrogations, polygraphs and other dubious means. The threat of communism suddenly enveloped the whole of the United States soon after the war. There was a mass hysteria that there were people that were working to undermine U.S. interest and way of life. It was believed that communism wanted to destroy the core of American values, which at the time meant the family core. 1950s was a time were everything was done by tradition. This traditional way of living didnt have space for homosexual behavior. The fears of communism spreading offer the perfect cover for Eisenhowers clean the house policies. He believed that homosexuals were persons of low moral character. That homosexuality was an unforgivable lack of moral character, and therefore it opens the individuals to being blackmailed by agents of communism. It was believed at the time that their homosexual nature will make them reveal secrets under duress for fear of not being outed. Therefore, all Federal jobs had to be homosexual free for the security of the nation. This purge, nonet heless was based solely on sexual orientation and had little to nothing to do with the spread of communism. The belief in this was best summarized the following way: These perverts will frequently attempt to entice individuals to engage in perverted practices One homosexual can pollute a Government office. Homosexuality of course was illegal at the time, making it easier for Eisenhower to pass his national security reforms. The rationality at the time was that a person could be loyal to the country yet still posed a security risk. The reason to fire said individuals can be best summarized by General, Herbert Brownell Jr, when he stated: Employees could be a security risk and still not be disloyal or have any traitorous thoughts, but it may be their personal habits are such that they might be subject to blackmail by people who seek to destroy the safety of our country. In order to put in practice Eisenhowers desire for cleaning house there were special forces that were set up to deal with complaints, or suspicious of someone being a homosexual. Gestapo like practices were implemented as well, as thousands of mails where being opened to make sure there was no signs of homosexual behavior. The mission was to: eliminate all types of sex perverts from the rolls of the department. A unit was created called: The Miscellaneous M Unit This unit was involved both on interrogation where there was a good cop bad cop style of asking the questions and polygraph testing. If a person was convicted or thought of being sexually perverted, they could take a polygraph test to determine their innocence. After a member was accused of homosexuality there were only two outcomes, either he or she was cleared of all charges, or they were asked to resign. Sadly, most investigations ended in confessions and therefore firings. Homosexuality was perceived as a such a big threa t that even after people were fired from the Federal Government they were blacklisted from international organizations as well. The main reason why they were perceived as such a huge threat to a family life was because it was believed to be sinful, perverted, the boring 50s were a time where America went back to Elizabethan family values. Tradition stated that a man was to marry a woman and then procreate and have children. The man will become the breadwinner and the woman will be the one in charge of the house. Tradition was so entrenched at the time that two kids was consider the perfect American family. In a world with so many uncertainties due to the Cold War, Americans found refuge in embracing old family values. Homosexuality was an aberration to this family values. In their minds, homosexuality seeks to corrupt and destroy the traditions they held so dearly, and therefore was in turn a national security problem. Homosexuality rights have come a long way since the days of the Eisenhowers administration. Not only is homosexuality not illegal anymore, but they even have the right to marry now a day. It is important to remember events like this so that this kind of systematic discrimination doesnt happened again. In an ever-changing world with new threats and alarming events its important to make sure that basic human rights are always upheld. The Cold War in a lot of ways brought the worst of some people back in the 50s. Its important to make sure as a nation that this never happens again.