Normal aging is typically associated with declines in navigation and spatial memory abilities. However, increased interindividual variability in performance across various navigation/spatial memory tasks is also evident with advancing age. In this review paper, we shed the spotlight on those older individuals who exhibit exceptional, sometimes even youth-like navigational/spatial memory abilities. Importantly, we (1) showcase observations from existing studies that demonstrate superior navigation/spatial memory performance in late adulthood, (2) explore possible cognitive correlates and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these preserved spatial abilities, (...) and (3) discuss the potential link between the superior navigators in late adulthood and SuperAgers (older adults with superior episodic memory). In the closing section, given the lack of studies that directly focus on this subpopulation, we highlight several important directions that future studies could look into to better understand the cognitive characteristics of older superior navigators and the factors enabling such successful cognitive aging. (shrink)

While old age is typically associated with a decline in spatial memory and navigational abilities,a subset of older adults demonstrates superior, sometimes even youth‐like performance. Here, we review cognitive and neural factors contributing to such superior spatial abilities, and we discuss potential links with preserved episodic memory in SuperAgers.

This essay seeks to shed light on the connections between elevated isnād and al-sābiq wa’l-lāhiq (distance between the first and last narrator of traditionist). Since the 2nd/8th century, when the search for elevated isnāds began, intense interest has been seen by the traditionists. The article looks at how these initiatives to elevated isnād helped pave the way for the emergence of al-sābiq wa’l-lāhiq. Similarly, it is investigated if al-sābiq wa’l-lāhiq promotes the look for elevated isnād. First, the data documentation approach (...) was applied to data taken from the history of hadith, various hadith techniques, and biographical dictionaries to ascertain the relationship between two notions. The relationship between two themes is then made clear using information from Khatīb Baghdādī’s (d. 463/1071) al-Sābiq wa’l-lāhiq, the first work authored in this field. Significance of the study of Khatīb Baghdādī’s work is further increased by the fact that he was the first to present the idea. The relationship between the subjects has been looked at in the article from three different theoretical angles. First, historical information has been used to assess how the orientation of hadiths concerning elevated isnād created the stage for the conception of al-sābiq wa’l-lāhiq. Then, the connection between subjects was examined through explanations of hadith methodology and biographical dictionaries authors. When the historical records of hadiths are reviewed, it becomes clear that the traditionist supported the hearing of elevated isnād and its transmission starting in the 2nd/8th century, particularly in the 3rd/9th and 4th/10th centuries. al-Sābiq wa’l-lāhiq was founded as a consequence of factors including the existence of grandfathers and grandchildren who reported from a single hadith due to orientation in elevated isnād and the fact that certain traditionists took pride in passing down the narrations of the elders to the younger generations. In addition, as the century moved away from the Prophet, the elevated isnāds that enable to reach him with a short isnād gained more importance. This situation explains why al-sābiq wa’l-lāhiq was formed in the 5th/11th century. It was also discovered that Khatīb Baghdādī’s introduction of this idea to the discussion was not a coincidence, and it was stated that this was due to his interest in elevated isnād. The connection established by the authors of hadith methodology between two concepts is that al-sābiq wa’l-lāhiq encourages the audition of elevated isnād. al-Lāhiq in other words hadith aspirants who want to be the last person who transmits hadith from a traditionist, that is, turning to mu‘ammerūn (long-lived) teachers at a young age supports the audition of elevated isnād. The efforts of biographical dictionaries authors to record elevated isnads that reached al-lāhiq were evaluated as a different manifestation of this situation. The connection between two subjects has also been examined in the work of Khatīb Baghdādī, which has the same name as the concept and various findings were obtained about al-sābiq wa’l-lāhiq and traditionists who were attributed to him as al-sābiq wa’l-lāhiq. According to this, it has been understood that traditionists who were compared to al-sābiq wa’l-lāhiq were chosen from among the long-lived people. A study was conducted on 6 traditionists, in whom Khatīb determined the ratio of al-sābiq wa’l-lāhiq to 10 or more. According to this, it has been determined that the narrators, who are mentioned as al-sābiq, are generally attributed to teachers or peers of traditionists. However, it has been revealed that there is no obligation to be a teacher or peer, and sometimes there are al-sābiqs among the students. The fact that most of the al-sābiqs are teachers and peers shows that the concept is considered a rarity. Because in the history of hadith, isnād generally goes from student to teacher. In addition, the narration of peers from each other or the teacher from students showed that narrators, who are called al-sābiq, have descending isnāds from that teacher. However, it has been determined that not all the narrations of al-sābiq were descending, only of whose narrations from that traditionist would be regarded as descending. As al-lāhiq, on the other hand, is the last person to transmit hadith from traditionist, he already has elevated isnād and all of them are long-lived people. However, the missing part of Khatīb’s book is that he does not pay attention to whether al-lāhiq is reliable or abandoned. In addition, it was stated that al-lāhiq should be chosen only from reliable, and in this case, it would not affect the distance between al-sābiq and al-lāhiq. (shrink)

We consider situations of multiple referendum: finitely many yes-or-no issues have to be socially assessed from a set of approval ballots, where voters approve as many issues as they want. Each approval ballot is extended to a complete preorder over the set of outcomes by means of a preference extension. We characterize, under a mild richness condition, the largest domain of top-consistent and separable preference extensions for which issue-wise majority voting is Pareto efficient, i.e., always yields out a Pareto-optimal outcome. (...) Top-consistency means that voters’ ballots are their unique most preferred outcome. It appears that the size of this domain becomes negligible relative to the size of the full domain as the number of issues increases. (shrink)

Perceived uncertainty and anger lead people to investigate with respect to the establishment, and politicians who are seen as reckless within society. In this sense, populist discourse paved a way to respond by glorifying one group of people and scapegoating others that emerge as group differentiation. Critical moments especially illustrate mutual constructive identification through the discourse of political actors. This article explores a contextual change in the populist discourse of the Justice and Development Party leaders by observing the successive elections (...) that occurred in 2015. It argues that the leaders mainly expressed an “us–them distinction,” “in-group superiority,” and “the people” populist themes; as well as these themes, the electoral speeches made for the second election presented scapegoating and exclusionary statements even more. (shrink)

The Philosophical Ethics in Early Childhood project aims to advance knowledge of preschool children’s ethical understanding and explores the effectiveness of philosophical discussion of children’s literature and extension activities for fostering ethical development in early childhood. In this article we discuss results of our ethics education study with preschool children, including pre-post measurement of experimental and control groups and a 12-week educational intervention focusing on the themes of fairness, empathy, personal welfare and inclusion versus exclusion of peers. As compared to (...) our control group, study results demonstrated significant developments in our experimental group’s ability to respond to ethical questions, increased use of emotion markers, and increased use of justification terms in support of responses. (shrink)

In this article, in an attempt to analyze the crisis caused by the images of imported plastic waste, we consider the relationship between waste and its meaning in the case of geographical dislocation and de- and re-contextualization processes. Our analysis is guided by two recent concepts: The Wasteocene and semiocide. While the Wasteocene clarifies the signifying mechanisms of this period, semiocide allows us to understand which signs, under what conditions, are rendered invisible or disregardable. In coining the concept of semiocide, (...) Ivar Puura emphasized two key features of the phenomenon. Following this distinction, which is based on (un)intentionality, semiocide refers either to a fully conscious, perhaps even hostile, attempt to destroy a semiotic configuration, or to a completely nonconscious, unaware process in which the unawareness itself is the source of the destruction. Although a more cultural approach dominates in Puura’s assertion of the concept, the concept is applicable to human classification, interpretation and transformation of nature (Maran, 2013; Tønnessen et al., 2015). Focusing on the case of Adana as a recent example of a global waste crisis, our aim is to provide a (bio)semiotic framework for assessing how and under what conditions plastic materials become arbiters of environmental and political crises. With heaps of plastic garbage with foreign names on them, the discourse of recycling, restricted media coverage, public indignation, the struggles of environmentalist organizations, and the encounter of different spatio-temporalities, our study aims to convey an impoverished narrative of a city in the south of Türkiye. (shrink)

This analysis concentrates on the linguistic laws of1921 and 1932 concerning the linguistic statuts of the civil servants, and on their contribution to the quest for political identity of Flanders. It exhibits the real political signification of the parliamentary debates on unilinguism and bilinguism. This debate is in the same time paradoxical and instructive for the future of the country. The paradox is that the Flemish circles were in favour of the bilinguism of the civil servants, and the Frenchspeakings for (...) the other solution. The unilinguist solution which was decided will certainly f acilitate the federalization of the civil services beginning in the sixties. In fact, every solution was in favour of Flanders: either the bilinguism would increase the number of Flemish civil servants, either the unilinguism would create the bases for Flemish own civil services. (shrink)

In french and english speaking countries, the articulation between epistemological beliefs, conceptions of teaching and learning and pedagogical practices of secondary school teachers in the natural sciences and humanities has been little studied (Araújo-Oliveira, 2012 ; Bartos et Lederman, 2014 ; Wanlin et al., 2019). Yet, while teachers display predominantly constructivist beliefs about teaching and learning, their teaching practices remain rather passive (OECD, 2019). Like in Therriault et al. (2018-2023), this article explores the characteristics of epistemological beliefs, conceptions of teaching (...) and learning, and teaching practices among a population of 112 secondary school teachers (beginners, intermediate and experienced) in the humanities and natural sciences in French-speaking Belgium. In a second step, we explore the articulations between these three theoretical constructs either from statistical analyses or from a more interpretative perspective. Quantitative analysis of the data (PCA, factorial ANOVA, correlations and Chi-square) show that teachers’ epistemological beliefs are rather refined, that there is an effect of professional seniority on these beliefs and that there is a link between refined epistemological beliefs and traditional conceptions of teaching and learning. Finally, teachers’ self-reported practices appear to be insensitive to the discipline being taught. (shrink)

The main point developed in this paper is the demonstration of the attitudes characterizing the major Belgian political parties. This is achieved through a factorial analysis applied to a set of data resulting from the answers given by the major parties leaders to various specific questions regarding bath the prevailing economie as well as institutional issues at the eve of the election of December 17th, 1978. From that point it has been possible to compare those results with the one obtained (...) from the data concerning the 1974 programmes.The results of the statistical analysis show that white in 1974 the strongest positive associations between parties corresponded to tht traditional ethical and socioeconomic cleavages, four years later the linguistic dimension was predominant with a stronger homogeneity characterizing the Dutchspeaking group than what could be observed for the Frenchspeaking one.The factorial analysis allows for a graphical representation of the respective positioning of the parties along the statistically significant factorial axes. Applied to two sets of data, the first one on purely institutional matters, the second one on both institutional and economic policies, the analysis reveals clearly through the various graphs presented the linguistic cleavage as well as the divergences about the extent of regional competences and minorities protection, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the degrees of regional economic autonomy and of public intervention in the business life. (shrink)

It is questioned whether Belgian planism of the 1930's has been a movement that broke with socialist internationalism and displayed a tendency to preempt fascism by emulating some of its positions, asS.P. Kramer argued in the previous issue of Res Publica. Unlike French neo-socialism, planism was a call to action within the party against the crisis. Whether it was merely a personalities' matter is doubtful. Byindividualizing its failure one leaves unsolved essential problems like the attraction of fascism for the masses (...) and the real spread of the planist idea. Socialisme nationaI was a bow to the circumstances, not to the fascist spirit. The breach in socialist internationalism did not result from a deliberate political wilt but was rather forced upon it by the breakdown of collective security. As for internal policy de Man suggested an unequivocal partnership favouring structural reforms. His failure cannot be dissociated from the failure of democracy and socialism. He eventually blunderel against his own ethics by admitting the destructive revolutionary potentiality of the 1940 defeat. Nevertheless Belgian planism can only be understood along with its historical connections. (shrink)

The article presents some of the results of public opinion polls that were carried out as a part of a panel poll, organized by the «Institut Universitaire de Sondage d'Opinion Publique» and covering 1.500 belgian voters.The article specifically deals with the following items - the meaning of the votes shift between 1971 and 1974 ;- the moment at which voting decisions crystallized in the 10-3-74 elections;- the way in which the political climate was perceived, and the predominant cares voters had (...) before the elections;- the impact of certain attitudes on votes shifting: an analysis of these processes. (shrink)

Catherine Jacques est connue jusqu’ici pour ses admirables articles sur plusieurs aspects de l’histoire du féminisme belge et surtout (hors de son pays) pour ses articles concernant l’histoire des associations internationales de femmes au xxe siècle, notamment le Conseil International des Femmes (CIF). Elle a participé à l’équipe éditoriale multinationale qui a publié Le Siècle des Féminismes (Éditions de l’Atelier, 2004) ainsi qu’à l’équipe qui a coordonné le Dictionnaire des Femmes Belges,...

By the law of the 8 August 1980 concerning the institutional reform of the state, the Belgian political system is becoming a federalistic country. Nevertheless, after three years of implementation, most of political scientists state that these constitutional reform is incomplete and inadequate to solve functionally the economical, political and cultural complexities of the relationships between Flanders, W allonia and Brussels. A confederation based on three components equally autonomous by preserving economic integration and monetary unity could be a better framework (...) to establish equitable relationships between the three regional components of the belgian political structure. These proposal of creating a Belgian confederation presents specific adaptations in allocation tasks, functions and competences that are the results of historical factorsand cultural caracteristics of the Belgian community. (shrink)

During the seventies, the Belgian-Zairese relations are characterized by a series of crises and reconciliations.Many facts had an important effect on those relations : the « Zairianisation » of foreign, especially Belgian, companies; President Mobutu's request for economic aid; the Shaba-invasion of 1977; the presence of Zaïrese opponents in Belgium and the hostility against Kinshasa and especially against President Mobutu from the part of particular Belgian circles.All these facts make it very difficult to Belgium to draw a coherent policy in (...) this case. (shrink)

T he article studies the answers collected for seven questions : four of these deal with the present functioning of the socio-political system ; the three last questions concern the future of the system. One has studied respectively : the attitudes towards the basic values of the consumers' society ; the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with life in Belgium ; the developments in satisfaction or dissatisfaction during the last four years ; how the various main social categories judge their (...) living conditions ; the attitudes towards an eventual redistribution of national income; the opinions about the probable development of the political system ; those opinions which reveal how one wants the political system to develop. The study of these two last items has allowed to tackle some problems of theoretical interpretation : revolutionary vs. authoritarian risk, dissatisfaction «within the regime» vs. «against the regime», ambivalence of political attitudes, social function of the political power, revolutionary attitudes and rational calculus. (shrink)

In the countries with a strong muslim immigration, the practice and the organization of Islam represent a national and international politica! stake. The Belgian state, which recognizes and supports the most important cults financially, recognized Islam in 1974. But this cult doesn't still obtain this state support and the questions concerning its organization are more complex than ever. Thelegislation is insufficient and its application almost non-existent. The debates on 'integrism' and hijab have confronted us with the problem of the integrating (...) role of Islam. The Belgian political world seems today to fear the influence of foreign countries on immigrants. All these factors throw light on the history and the present state of the Belgian legislation on the organization of the islamic cult, which this article analyses. (shrink)

This article is related with the linguistic conflict in Belgium and the role of the parties and parties factions in the Parliament during the period 1873-1914. As a contribution to the history of the belgian Parliament, it illustrates the way the flemish claims for more autonomy were transformed in complex agreements in which non-linguistic matters, related to the system of cleavages of the belgian society, somestimes played a crucial role.

In French-speaking Belgium, the educational system is made particular and complex because of the presence of several educational networks. This structural complexity leads, in particular, to provide multiple programs studies which are used by teachers for the preparation of teaching-learning sequences. Using data from several studies on the analysis of a part of the prescribed and implanted curriculum, the authors point out the complexity of teachers’ task who have to take into account of this plurality of programs studies. Here, it’s (...) shown that this situation is far from generating well-being and self-determination in the professional development of teachers. (shrink)