The mechanisms of influence of neighbourhoods on health are not clearly understood, but a transactional paradigm seems most fitting with the results found in this research. Interventions to prevent the narghile smoking should address multiple levels of influence; and must be tailored to the particular aspects of neighbourhoods which are influential in the uptake of this behaviour.
The asymmetric chimeric faces test is used frequently as an indicator of right hemisphere involvement in the perception of facial affect, as the test is considered free of linguistic elements. Much of the original research with the asymmetric chimeric faces test was conducted with subjects reading left-to-right Roman script, i.e., English. As readers of right-to-left scripts, such as Arabic, demonstrated a mixed or weak rightward bias in judgements of facial affect, the influence of habitual scanning direction was thought to intersect with laterality. We administered the asymmetric chimeric faces test to 1239 adults who represented a range of script experience, i.e., Roman script readers (English and French), Arabic readers, bidirectional readers of Roman and Arabic scripts, and illiterates. Our findings supported the hypothesis that the bias in facial affect judgement is rooted in laterality, but can be influenced by script direction. Specifically, right-handed readers of Roman script demonstrated the greatest mean leftward score, and mixed-handed Arabic script readers demonstrated the greatest mean rightward score. Biliterates showed a gradual shift in asymmetric perception, as their scores fell between those of Roman and Arabic script readers, basically distributed in the order expected by their handedness and most often used script. Illiterates, whose only directional influence was laterality, showed a slight leftward bias.
The systemic bias for aesthetic preferences demonstrated by prior research is thought to reflect neural organisation. Research on aesthetic preference and laterality has usually been conducted with participants who read a left-to-right Roman script, e.g., English. In order to determine if the aesthetic judgments were influenced by habitual scanning direction, we administered a geometric aesthetic preference test to 578 right-handed adults who represented a range of script experience, i.e., left-to-right Roman script readers (English); right-to-left Arabic script readers; bi-directional readers of Roman and Arabic scripts; and illiterates. We also administered an asymmetric chimeric faces test. Our findings showed that biases in aesthetic preference were influenced by script direction and pictorial dimensions. In a laterally balanced composition, participants preferred to begin their scan with the object representing Interest and terminate with the object representing Weight, the direction being determined by the script. In an unbalanced composition, participants tended to fixate on content, whether Interest or Weight, and move in a direction consistent with the script.
The results presented herein are encouraging and indicate support for the impact of a health awareness class on knowledge, attitude, and behaviour of undergraduate students. The two topical areas that did not show improvements between pre and post assessment were those (i). for which students already scored high at pre assessment, or (ii). which the course did not tackle specifically. Conclusions to be drawn are limited by several factors inherent in the design of this evaluation. Future evaluation should include a larger number of students and a comparison group.
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