Familiar Situations Research Articles

Personality and foraging decisions in fallow deer, Dama dama

Recent studies have examined the ecological and evolutionary bases for variation in animal personality. However, only a few such studies have examined how foraging parameters are influenced by different personality domains. In wild ungulates, the trade-off between the time spent on food intake and antipredator behaviour differs between individuals, but the underlying reason for this is not yet well understood. One possibility is that this trade-off reflects personality dimensions such as boldness. To relate foraging decisions to personality we measured personality and performed feeding experiments with familiar and novel food in familiar and novel situations. We measured personality traits in 15 tame fallow deer, using novel object tests (NO), behavioural observations (BO) and personality ratings (PR). Boldness dimensions were found using PR and NO, dominance dimensions were found using BO and PR, and a flexibility dimension was found using BO. Multitrait–multimethod analysis showed that similar dimensions were significantly correlated across different methods and that different dimensions were not significantly correlated, even if measured using the same method. We also found that novel food eaten in familiar situations and familiar food eaten in novel situations were strongly related to boldness but not dominance, flexibility or age. Thus the trade-off between the benefits of gaining more food and the costs of reduced vigilance or increased toxin ingestion reflect boldness. These findings highlight the nature of personality dimensions in ungulates and how boldness impacts foraging behaviour.

Commentary on Skår R (2010) The meaning of autonomy in nursing practice. Journal of Clinical Nursing 19, 2226–2234

Commentary on Skår R (2010) The meaning of autonomy in nursing practice. <i>Journal of Clinical Nursing</i> 19, 2226–2234

It Looks Like Autism: Caution in Diagnosis

CASE 1: At 3 years of age, Billy was seen by his pediatrician for a well child visit. Spontaneous speech was limited during the visit. He did not interact with the pediatrician and attempts to play with Billy resulted in oppositional behavior. About 3 months after the visit, Billy's parents requested a developmental evaluation; he was diagnosed with autism by means of an observational measure and a parent interview. Billy was born full term after an uncomplicated labor, delivery and postnatal period. Motor milestones were normal. His parents recalled that he used his finger to point to an object prior to using words. He spoke several single words by his first birthday and used phrases before age 2 years. Billy was described as often having difficulty with transitions, but he is happy and outgoing in familiar situations. At 3 years old, when he started preschool, Billy did not speak to either the teacher or other children. This pattern of refusal to speak persists. His parents report that he talks to them and one uncle using complete sentences with clear speech. Billy prefers to repeat activities and is reluctant to try activities. He frequently plays with the same toy cars placing them in a neat line and becomes upset if things are not done in the same way. An uncle has Asperger syndrome. CASE 2: Juan, a 3 year old Mexican-American boy, was referred by his preschool teacher because "he does not interact with other children or use language at an age-appropriate level." He prefers to play alone, resists participation in group activities at preschool, and does not share as well as other students according to his teacher. Expressive language with speech is rarely seen in preschool. In contrast, at home he plays interactively, shares toys with his older brother and speaks in short, clear sentences. In preschool, English is spoken exclusively. At home, Spanish is the primary language. Prenatal and birth histories were uneventful. Motor and social milestones were achieved art the expected times. He spoke his first word at 18 months and 2-word phrases at 2 years. Currently, he speaks in full sentences with pleurals and pronouns. He follows commands and recently had a normal audiogram. His parents, who speak English with ease, are concerned about the teacher's observations at school. The physical examination was normal; the developmental and behavioral assessments were conducted by an English speaking clinician. Juan played interactively with toys while demonstrating curiosity, showing and joint attention. There was no speech production during a 30 minute period although he did follow directions. When a Spanish speaking clinician assumed responsibility for the assessment, Juan's speech production increased significantly. He told a story about his drawing and talked about the family dog and his brother. He had good eye contact and appropriate pragmatic speech when the dialogue was in Spanish.

The Neuroscience of Storing and Molding Tool Action Concepts: How “Plastic” is Grounded Cognition?

Choosing how to use tools to accomplish a task is a natural and seemingly trivial aspect of our lives, yet engages complex neural mechanisms. Recently, work in healthy populations has led to the idea that tool knowledge is grounded to allow for appropriate recall based on some level of personal history. This grounding has presumed neural loci for tool use, centered on parieto-temporo-frontal areas to fuse perception and action representations into one dynamic system. A challenge for this idea is related to one of its great benefits. For such a system to exist, it must be very plastic, to allow for the introduction of novel tools or concepts of tool use and modification of existing ones. Thus, learning new tool usage (familiar tools in new situations and new tools in familiar situations) must involve mapping into this grounded network while maintaining existing rules for tool usage. This plasticity may present a challenging breadth of encoding that needs to be optimally stored and accessed. The aim of this work is to explore the challenges of plasticity related to changing or incorporating representations of tool action within the theory of grounded cognition and propose a modular model of tool–object goal related accomplishment. While considering the neuroscience evidence for this approach, we will focus on the requisite plasticity for this system. Further, we will highlight challenges for flexibility and organization of already grounded tool actions and provide thoughts on future research to better evaluate mechanisms of encoding in the theory of grounded cognition.

Adaptive Changes in Anticipatory Postural Adjustments With Novel and Familiar Postural Supports

Anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) serve to stabilize posture prior to initiation of voluntary movement. This study examined the effects of changes in postural support on APAs using novel and familiar support paradigms. We also investigated whether postural strategies were refined with practice and how the CNS responded when multiple supports were available. Twelve healthy subjects stood on dual force platforms and performed 20 randomized left and right rapid leg-lift tasks in response to a visual cue under four conditions: unsupported, bilateral handgrip, bite plate, and a combined handgrip and bite plate condition. Vertical ground reaction forces, electromyography of limb, trunk and jaw muscles, and forces exerted on the support apparatus were recorded. Shift in center-of-pressure amplitude and duration were reduced with increased support. Muscles were recruited in advance of the focal movement when able to contribute to stability, and activity was modulated based on the amount of support available. The CNS adapted anticipatory postural strategies immediately with changes in condition regardless of familiarity with the support; however, adaptation was only complete at the first repetition in conditions that involved familiar support strategies. Tasks that involved a novel bite strategy continued to adapt with practice. In the multiple support condition, both hand and bite strategies were immediately incorporated; however, the contribution of each was not identical to conditions where supports were provided individually. This study emphasizes the flexibility of the CNS to organize postural strategies to meet the demands of postural stability in both familiar and novel situations.

Camille Saint-Saëns on Music and Musicians (review)

Reviewed by: Camille Saint-Saëns on Music and Musicians David Gilbert Camille Saint-Saëns on Music and Musicians. Edited and translated by Roger Nichols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. [xii, 187 p. ISBN-13: 9780195320169. $29.95.] Index. For its jubilee year in 1893, the Cambridge Music Society, under the direction of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, proposed awarding honorary doctoral degrees to the most distinguished composers of the era and inviting them to Cambridge to conduct their works. Johannes Brahms declined to attend (thereby also declining the honorary degree) as he hated foreign travel, and Giuseppe Verdi excused himself due to his age. Tchaikovsky came, as did Arrigo Boïto from Italy, Max Bruch from Germany, and Camille Saint-Saëns from France. Historically the occasion provides us with an idea of who one august group thought were the greatest composers at the end of the nineteenth century. For the [End Page 89] record, Cambridge had also awarded Antonín Dvořák an honorary degree in 1891. Looking back from the twenty-first century, we are probably not surprised to see the Society putting forth Brahms, Verdi, Dvořák, and Tchaikovsky; and Boïto and Bruch were probably the consolation prizes for the absences of Verdi and Brahms. The presence of Camille Saint-Saëns representing France may raise the most eyebrows today since his operas are all but forgotten and he is best known, unfortunately and unjustly, for works such as The Carnival of the Animals and The Wedding Cake. The decline in esteem for some composers once considered among the greatest can be due to changes in taste or changes in lifestyle. Giacomo Meyerbeer, whose operas graced the stage of the Metropolitan Opera well into the 1930s, falls into the former category, while Saint-Saëns probably falls into the later. As with the music of his near contemporary, Gabriel Fauré, that of Saint-Saëns’ must be listened to in order to be fully appreciated. It is beautiful and seductive in ways that much of the music of Brahms and Beethoven is not, and therefore very easy to have in one’s ear while sitting in traffic or walking the dog. The depth is there, particularly in the chamber music, but only if one listens in a manner not many people are capable of doing in the twenty-first century short of being trapped in a center seat in a concert hall. For those who have heard Saint-Saëns’ music beyond the Carnival of the Animals or The Wedding Cake and written it off as shallow, this collection of his writings translated into English by Roger Nichols gives a clue to what one missed when not listening. The editor, Roger Nichols, provides context for these essays in a short introduction, and footnotes identify the less familiar names and situations Saint-Saëns mentions, but for the most part he allows the composer to speak for himself. “Music for me is like people—only really knowable over time” (p. 5) writes Saint-Saëns in an article about Wagner. Many of the articles in this collection are either about Wagner, refer to him, or reflect his lurking presence. He was the bull on the roof for French composers in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and he represented, after all, the music of the future. In retrospect, however, the historical importance and influence of French composers who caught the Wagnerian “disease,” as Saint-Saëns frequently refers to it, pales next to that of the non-Wagnerians. The best works of the complex and underappreciated composer Emmanuel Chabrier, for example, are his most French, and while at least some operas of the non-Wagnerians Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet still hold their place in the repertoire, Chabrier’s Gwendoline, Ernest Chausson’s Le roi Artus, and César Franck’s Hulda (such a title!) rarely make an appearance. Saint-Saëns appreciated Wagner’s music and recognized his greatness, but he himself was not a Wagnerian: First of all, Wagner suppressed, one after the other, all the means of giving pleasure that opera had at its disposal in order to give free rein...

Eye‐movement patterns are associated with communicative competence in autistic spectrum disorders

Investigations using eye-tracking have reported reduced fixations to salient social cues such as eyes when participants with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) view social scenes. However, these studies have not distinguished different cognitive phenotypes. The eye-movements of 28 teenagers with ASD and 18 typically developing peers were recorded as they watched videos of peers interacting in familiar situations. Within ASD, we contrasted the viewing patterns of those with and without language impairments. The proportion of time spent viewing eyes, mouths and other scene details was calculated, as was latency of first fixation to eyes. Finally, the association between viewing patterns and social-communicative competence was measured. Individuals with ASD and age-appropriate language abilities spent significantly less time viewing eyes and were slower to fixate the eyes than typically developing peers. In contrast, there were no differences in viewing patterns between those with language impairments and typically developing peers. Eye-movement patterns were not associated with social outcomes for either language phenotype. However, increased fixations to the mouth were associated with greater communicative competence across the autistic spectrum. Attention to both eyes and mouths is important for language development and communicative competence. Differences in fixation time to eyes may not be sufficient to disrupt social competence in daily interactions. A multiple cognitive deficit model of ASD, incorporating different language phenotypes, is advocated.

Adult-Generated Hippocampal Neurons Allow the Flexible Use of Spatially Precise Learning Strategies

Despite enormous progress in the past few years the specific contribution of newly born granule cells to the function of the adult hippocampus is still not clear. We hypothesized that in order to solve this question particular attention has to be paid to the specific design, the analysis, and the interpretation of the learning test to be used. We thus designed a behavioral experiment along hypotheses derived from a computational model predicting that new neurons might be particularly relevant for learning conditions, in which novel aspects arise in familiar situations, thus putting high demands on the qualitative aspects of (re-)learning.In the reference memory version of the water maze task suppression of adult neurogenesis with temozolomide (TMZ) caused a highly specific learning deficit. Mice were tested in the hidden platform version of the Morris water maze (6 trials per day for 5 days with a reversal of the platform location on day 4). Testing was done at 4 weeks after the end of four cycles of treatment to minimize the number of potentially recruitable new neurons at the time of testing. The reduction of neurogenesis did not alter longterm potentiation in CA3 and the dentate gyrus but abolished the part of dentate gyrus LTP that is attributed to the new neurons. TMZ did not have any overt side effects at the time of testing, and both treated mice and controls learned to find the hidden platform. Qualitative analysis of search strategies, however, revealed that treated mice did not advance to spatially precise search strategies, in particular when learning a changed goal position (reversal). New neurons in the dentate gyrus thus seem to be necessary for adding flexibility to some hippocampus-dependent qualitative parameters of learning.Our finding that a lack of adult-generated granule cells specifically results in the animal's inability to precisely locate a hidden goal is also in accordance with a specialized role of the dentate gyrus in generating a metric rather than just a configurational map of the environment. The discovery of highly specific behavioral deficits as consequence of a suppression of adult hippocampal neurogenesis thus allows to link cellular hippocampal plasticity to well-defined hypotheses from theoretical models.

Training and transfer of training in the search for camouflaged targets

How do observers become proficient at finding camouflaged targets? Does gaining proficiency in locating a target in one camouflage search situation improve performance in novel camouflage situations? We examined these questions by having participants first perform a difficult camouflage search task for three sessions and, in the last session, search for novel camouflaged targets. Near-perfect transfer of training was observed, with participants finding targets in novel camouflage situations almost as quickly as in highly familiar search situations. Previous research has suggested that an "object search" strategy rather than a "background search" strategy is one reason camouflage search can be slow and inaccurate. Eye movement analyses suggest that a more background-focused strategy was not necessary for improved performance and was not responsible for transfer. Another experiment explicitly instructed participants to search background regions, rather than regions containing salient objects, and provided participants feedback regarding the location of their own fixations. Surprisingly, even in this condition, participants did not devote more oculomotor attention to background regions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Supplemental figures for this article can be downloaded from app.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.

Risk assessment and cost-effectiveness/utility analysis

Decision-makers at all levels of public health and transfusion medicine have always assessed the risks and benefits of their decisions. Decisions are usually guided by immediately available information and a significant amount of experience and judgment. For decisions concerning familiar situations and common problems, judgment and experience may work quite well, but this type of decision process can lack clarity and accountability. Public health challenges are changing as emerging diseases and expensive technologies complicate the decision-makers' task, confronting the decision-maker with new problems that include multiple potential solutions. Decisions regarding polices and adoption of technologies are particularly complex in transfusion medicine due to the scope of the field, implications for public health, and legal, regulatory and public expectations regarding blood safety. To assist decision-makers, quantitative risk assessment and cost-effectiveness analysis are now being more widely applied. This set of articles will introduce risk assessment and cost-effectiveness methodologies and discuss recent applications of these methods in transfusion medicine.

Tristeza/depressão na mulher: uma abordagem no período gestacional e/ou puerperal

Na gestação e puerpério, a mulher e sua família passam por uma série de mudanças que podem predispor ou mesmo intensificar a tristeza ou a depressão pós-parto. Este estudo identificou e comparou as repercussões destes quadros depressivos em gestantes/puérperas de baixo risco com as de alto risco. A pesquisa é qualitativa, descritiva, exploratória, do tipo estudo de caso. Este estudo foi realizado durante os meses de maio a novembro de 2006, no Ambulatório de Alto Risco e em uma Unidade Básica de Saúde da cidade de São Carlos/SP e, no domicílio das participantes. Para a coleta de dados utilizou-se dois roteiros de entrevista e escala de Beck. Foram entrevistadas oito gestantes. Os resultados demonstraram que o apoio do companheiro e familiares nessa fase da vida é extremamente importante, e a tristeza e/ou depressão pós-parto se instala ou se agrava quando estes aspectos não estão fortalecidos. As gestantes de baixo risco são mais vulneráveis por apresentarem dificuldades de adaptação ao papel materno e situações sócio-econômicas e familiares mais instáveis, o que nos instiga a refletir no papel das Unidades de Atenção Básica, em especial dos profissionais de enfermagem na identificação precoce, acompanhamento e encaminhamento dos casos de depressão.

The maths behind money, monkeys and more

AG the questions often concern those niggling things that you wonder about in passing, but never quite get round to looking up. The problem is, of course, accuracy: both the internet and answers provided by other readers may reflect popular belief, but that does not mean that they are correct, or even feasible. Anyone tempted by such books should look out for 100 Essential Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know, by John Barrow, whose authority adds an extra layer of pleasure to curiosity. This is an entertaining and scholarly volume, made up of 100 short, snappy chapters, concerning the maths behind everyday life, such as the efficiency of windmills, marginal voting figures, and the optics of brilliant diamond cuts. There are also incisive treatments of chestnuts such as the drunkard’s walk, and a topical means of assessing how quickly interest rates will double your money – assuming that you have any to invest. Barrow’s clear, occasionally ruthless, logic picks out the unexpected side of what you might think are familiar situations. Take the infinite number of monkeys with typewriters who will, as we all know, eventually type out the complete works of Shakespeare. When, exactly, might that eventually be? And how large a number of monkeys with word processors might get close? Barrow cites a website with a random letter generator and the equivalent of a spell-checker seeking Shakespearean words and phrases, starting with 100 virtual monkeys, doubling every few days. It turns out that strings of characters matching Shakespearean phrases of around 18 letters come every day or so, and the record of 24 characters – “RUMOUR. Open your ears; ” from Henry IV, Part 2 – took around 2 × 10 monkey-years of typing, bringing the scale of infinity into sharper focus for most of us. While retaining Barrow’s clever and precise style, familiar from his longer books relating mathematics to history and the wider world, the short chapters bring in a lighter feel, with memorable anecdotes and facts that will intrigue your friends. The story of the Russian maths graduate whose skill at calculus saved his life, for example, could be valuable in encouraging a recalcitrant student, while the mathematical approach to packing helps in both selling sweets and getting away on holiday. Quotations combine wit with hints of the surprises to come, often highlighting the folly of what you thought you did know. All in all, I’d like this book in my Christmas stocking. Sue Bowler The maths behind money, monkeys and more

Attitudes of Veterinary Faculty to the Assessment of Clinical Reasoning Using Extended Matching Questions

For assessment purposes, clinical expertise is often divided into three broad components: scientific and clinical knowledge, clinical reasoning, and practical/technical skills. This structure can be used to define the tools used for assessment of clinical students. Knowledge can be assessed through a variety of written formats and skills through various practical assessments, including the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), but the assessment of clinical reasoning has proved to be far more challenging. A companion paper (Tomlin JL, Pead MJ, May SA. Veterinary students' attitudes toward the assessment of clinical reasoning using extended matching questions. J Vet Med Educ 35:612-621, 2008) reports on the identification and implementation of a valid and reliable method to assess clinical reasoning using clinical-scenario-based extended matching questions (EMQs) in the final examinations at the Royal Veterinary College and looks at students' response to the new examination format. Although EMQs were generally well accepted, many students were concerned about the implied encouragement of pattern recognition, a non-analytical form of clinical reasoning that results from recognition of familiar clinical situations. This paper addresses the attitudes of the teaching faculty to the EMQ format. The students' concerns about promotion of pattern recognition, was also explored in more depth. Overall, faculty perceived EMQs as an appropriate way to test clinical reasoning and as relevant to the experience that students would have gained during their clinical rotations. However, faculty felt that EMQs were difficult to write and that poorly written questions tended to promote pattern recognition. Almost half reiterated the students' concerns that pattern recognition may be an inappropriate reasoning strategy for undergraduates.

Two Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Semantic Integration during the Comprehension of Visual Real-world Events

How do comprehenders build up overall meaning representations of visual real-world events? This question was examined by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants viewed short, silent movie clips depicting everyday events. In two experiments, it was demonstrated that presentation of the contextually inappropriate information in the movie endings evoked an anterior negativity. This effect was similar to the N400 component whose amplitude has been previously reported to inversely correlate with the strength of semantic relationship between the context and the eliciting stimulus in word and static picture paradigms. However, a second, somewhat later, ERP component--a posterior late positivity--was evoked specifically when target objects presented in the movie endings violated goal-related requirements of the action constrained by the scenario context (e.g., an electric iron that does not have a sharp-enough edge was used in place of a knife in a cutting bread scenario context). These findings suggest that comprehension of the visual real world might be mediated by two neurophysiologically distinct semantic integration mechanisms. The first mechanism, reflected by the anterior N400-like negativity, maps the incoming information onto the connections of various strengths between concepts in semantic memory. The second mechanism, reflected by the posterior late positivity, evaluates the incoming information against the discrete requirements of real-world actions. We suggest that there may be a tradeoff between these mechanisms in their utility for integrating across people, objects, and actions during event comprehension, in which the first mechanism is better suited for familiar situations, and the second mechanism is better suited for novel situations.

The changing face of manual handling in the community

The changing manual handling needs of staff must be reflected in their training. In order to allow for professional development, it is essential that community nurses have dedicated time to attend educational sessions on manual handling, where problem solving is encouraged. A variety of familiar handling situations are discussed, and strategies to overcome them are suggested. The article focuses on several methods of assisting a patient from sitting to standing. Confusion may arise when selecting appropriate equipment or a method to assist. Guidance to aid selection of appropriate equipment is given in the form of an algorithm to aid community practitioners.

Problemas que Enfrentan los Cuidadores Familiares / Problems Faceb by Family Caregivers Face

This article analyzes the current situation related to the increase in the prevalence of chronic illnesses in the country. It also addresses the problems that face family caregivers of people with chronic illnesses who need to be cared for at home. Most of these family members do not expect to be caregivers and receive little support from health care professionals. They also face difficult familiar and social situations, especially considering most are women with additional responsibilities, such as looking after children or working outside home. Health care teams, and nurses in particular, have given little attention to informal care giving as an area of their concern. The care of caregivers is an ethical responsibility of the nursing profession. They can not only assure quality care for those who depend upon them but reduce the burden felt by the family caregiver through the enhancement of self care.

‘More than 100 years of silence’, elective mutism

Elective mutism is a rare disorder of communication, where the child speaks fluently in familiar situations, such as home, despite lack of speech in less familiar settings, for example school. A variety of temperamental and behaviour characteristics, co-morbid psychiatric conditions, neurodevelopmental delay and family factors have been associated with the disorder. EM children are described as excessively shy, withdrawn, 'slow to warm up', inhibited, often avoid eye contact, fear social embarrassment and experience significant separation anxiety, on separation from their attachment figures. Their behaviour is often perceived by others as controlling and oppositional. Onset of EM is typically in early childhood years. A number of constitutional and environmental factors have been considered in its onset, progression and response to intervention. Treatment is generally considered to be multimodal, and occurs in a variety of settings, including home and school. Longterm studies suggest that communication difficulties may extend into adulthood. In addition, outcome studies showing a high rate of phobic disorders suggest that EM may be a developmental precursor of adult social phobia. This article reviews the literature on EM, its presentation, aetiology, epidemiology and the various evidence based biopsychosocial treatments.

Textual Fidelity

Textual Fidelity Laurence Raw Jennifer M. Jeffers Britain Colonized: Hollywood’s Appropriation of British Literature. Palgrave, 2006. 282 pages; $69.00. Britain Colonized makes uncomfortable reading for anyone interested in contemporary British culture and its representation in recent Hollywood movies. Jeffers argues that, when faced with the task of bringing a British literary text (or British icon) to the screen, directors inevitably resort to accepted Hollywood formulae and American cultural standards. The reasons for this are mostly commercial: in the pursuit of maximum profit, no one cares about textual fidelity. Consequently, filmmakers reshape texts according to “American middle-class expectation” (112). Jeffers concludes that “capitalist Hollywood is now the only global model” for adaptation (206)—which has expedited the destruction of British culture by Americanization (221). Jeffers included several case studies of individual adaptations to prove her point. In Merchant-Ivory’s Remains of the Day (1993), the focus is on Christopher Reeve’s Lewis, who is seen alone in Dartington Hall in the concluding scenes of the film. The sequence demonstrates how “America has arrived and England is receding” (75). Neil Labute rewrites A.S.Byatt’s Possession (2002) as a western with three standard characters—the hero, the society, and the villain. As in Remains, the central character, Roland Mitchell (Aaron Eckhart), is an American who eventually forges a new order in English society, this time in academic and literary circles by marrying Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow) and thereby combining, in Jeffers’s view, “the line of the great [English] poets with Roland’s heroic American bloodline” (92). Sharon Maguire’s version of Bridget Jones Diary (2001) transforms the eponymous heroine (Renee Zellweger) into a Lucille Ball figure, whose “Emersonian self-reliance renders her a winner as a career woman and heterosexual” (171). Stephen Frears’ version of High Fidelity (2000) goes even further and eliminates the British content altogether, transforming Nick Hornby’s portrayal of a 90s “lad” into “an American male fantasy.” At one point Bruce Springsteen is brought in to give the central character, Rob ( John Cusack), advice about his love life; this cultural transplanting proves that “we are in an all-male, all-American fantasy world (202). Jeffers concludes her study with an analysis of John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love (1999), wherein the immortal Bard has been re-territorialized into “a hip, sexy, but, at heart, all-around average film guy” (226). Madden invests British history with an American spin by showing how an upwardly mobile Shakespeare learned to scheme his way into bettering his situation. These strategies are nothing new; since the earliest days of cinema, British literary texts have continually been reshaped to suit changing tastes. Shakespeare’s plays were transformed into one- and two-reelers in the early part of last century, while the western formula has been successfully introduced into adaptations as diverse as The Four Feathers (1936), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and How Green Was My [End Page 83] Valley (1942). What is perhaps more interesting is to ascertain whether the process of adapting texts has changed over time. Jeffers herself is in no doubt that recent adapters have responded to seismic shifts within the education system as teachers place less and less emphasis on textual study, preferring to show the film versions instead in the belief that this medium seems more suitable for tele-literate learners. In turn, this approach has created an even greater demand for Americanized adaptations incorporating familiar characters, plots, and situations. While Jeffers’s claim has its merits, it does not necessarily represent a cause for concern. Any response to a cinematic text is inevitably shaped by the socio-economic conditions in which the act of viewing takes place. Just as those conditions are limitless, so too are the possibilities for new constructions of “British” or “American” culture or for a combination of both. The original text will, in this sense, never be reproduced. Jeffers’s use of collective terms such as “the American audience” might suit her overall argument, but it underestimates this eternal variation—by each society, each studio, each individual—on the original text. The task of evaluating audience responses to a particular genre—the heritage film, for instance—is...

It Looks Like Autism: Caution in Diagnosis

CASE 1: At 3 years of age, Billy was seen by his pediatrician for a well child visit. Spontaneous speech was limited during the visit. He did not interact with the pediatrician and attempts to play with Billy resulted in oppositional behavior. About 3 months after the visit, Billy’s parents requested a developmental evaluation; he was diagnosed with autism by means of an observational measure and a parent interview. Billy was born full term after an uncomplicated labor, delivery and postnatal period. Motor milestones were normal. His parents recalled that he used his finger to point to an object prior to using words. He spoke several single words by his first birthday and used phrases before age 2 years. Billy was described as often having difficulty with transitions, but he is happy and outgoing in familiar situations. At 3 years old, when he started preschool, Billy did not speak to either the teacher or other children. This pattern of refusal to speak persists. His parents report that he talks to them and one uncle using complete sentences with clear speech. Billy prefers to repeat activities and is reluctant to try activities. He frequently plays with the same toy cars placing them in a neat line and becomes upset if things are not done in the same way. An uncle has Asperger syndrome. CASE 2: Juan, a 3 year old Mexican-American boy, was referred by his preschool teacher because “he does not interact with other children or use language at an age-appropriate level.” He prefers to play alone, resists participation in group activities at preschool, and does not share as well as other students according to his teacher. Expressive language with speech is rarely seen in preschool. In contrast, at home he plays interactively, shares toys with his older brother and speaks in short, clear sentences. In preschool, English is spoken exclusively. At home, Spanish is the primary language. Prenatal and birth histories were uneventful. Motor and social milestones were achieved at the expected times. He spoke his first word at 18 months and 2-word phrases at 2 years. Currently, he speaks in full sentences with plurals and pronouns. He follows commands and recently had a normal audiogram. His parents, who speak English with ease, are concerned about the teacher’s observations at school. The physical examination was normal; the developmental and behavioral assessments were conducted by an English speaking clinician. Juan played interactively with toys while demonstrating curiosity, showing and joint attention. There was no speech production during a 30 minute period although he did follow directions. When a Spanish speaking clinician assumed responsibility for the assessment, Juan’s speech production increased significantly. He told a story about his drawing and talked about the family dog and his brother. He had good eye contact and appropriate pragmatic speech when the dialogue was in Spanish.

Older but Wiser? Effects of Age on Political Cognition

In experimental studies of voter's information processing, Lau and Redlawsk (2006) found one control variable to have pervasive effects in their analyses: age. Age was associated with less information search, less memory, less accurate memory, and a lower probability of making a correct vote. Reexamining those experimental studies, we find that inexperience with computers and slower manual dexterity are both associated with less information access, but controlling on these factors, age continues to have a strong negative effect on information processing. In other more familiar situations, however, political knowledge can accumulate with greater experience, as it does with memories for actual presidential candidates and political parties, although this effect reverses at very advanced ages. Age has minimal effects on the probability of correct voting until the mid-60s, but we observe very sharp drop-offs thereafter. The normative implications of these findings for democratic representativeness are discussed.