GAYATHRI RAO, Christ University
Email: 5gayathrirao@gmail.com
ANKUR MADAN, Christ University, Bangalore - Department of Psychology

While attachment has been a topic of extensive research in developmental psychology, its impact in the context of the technological changes in the 21st century and the changing dynamics of familial structures and relationships have not been so extensively explored. The present research examined the attachment styles of 95 adolescents varying from 14 to 17 years of age, from reputed English medium schools all over Bangalore. They were given the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment and then categorized into those who use Facebook for more than 7-8 hours a day and those who don’t. Five securely attached adolescents and five insecurely attached adolescents with heavy Facebook use were selected randomly and were interviewed to investigate the reasons for Facebook use. Results indicated that there existed substantial differences in the reasons for Facebook use by those securely and insecurely attached adolescents. The insecurely attached adolescents showed patterns of low confidence and negative view of others and situations. They enjoyed the privacy and independence that came hand in hand with Facebook use and believed Facebook was not meant for the older generation. They also believed that their need for affection and their need to belong, was met by the use of Facebook, which otherwise would not have been possible. Popularity rated high as a consequence of using Facebook and the effects of peer pressure were not undermined. Securely attached adolescents on the other hand, did not view privacy and independence as big issues revolving solely around Facebook use. They also enjoyed the presence of their family members on Facebook along with them. Popularity still scored high as a result of Facebook use, as so did the need to fit in and belong. On the whole there came to light differences that existed between the securely and insecurely attached adolescents on the reasons for Facebook use.

IAN P. WRIGHT, The Open University - Department of Economics
Email: wrighti@acm.org

How is semantic content possible? How can parts of the world refer to other parts? On what grounds (if any) can we claim that simple mechanisms, such as thermometers, thermostats, clocks and rulers etc., refer to features of the world in virtue of their causal powers rather than our intentional practices with respect to them?

I introduce Sloman's Tarskian-inspired 'loop-closing theory' in order to answer these questions. Loop-closing theory reduces a subset of semantic properties to the causal properties of control systems. I develop Sloman's acccount by specifying a metalanguage to describe the causal structure of loop-closing models, and I identify and define a control system's manipulable feature, which is a subset of the world necessarily present for control success. Loop-closing theory identifies the referential content of a control system's information-bearing substates with the manipulable feature. I conclude by applying loop-closing semantics to some illustrative test cases, such as the semantic properties of memory addressing in CPUs, the referential content of bacterial magnetosomes, the problem of misrepresentation, and connections to Ramsay-Whyte success semantics.