While I was gone.

Greetings to you oh intreped one! Thank you for stopping by to see what's happening chez Cafe Lumiere. As promised I will be talking about some more personal things in some/all of the posts from now on.

I thought a nice way to kick this off would be to show you a board I have together for the school where I work that concerns Psychology.

Believe it or not, it is actually part of my teacher training to put together a board, so let's hope the course provider likes it!

There you are, is n't it a visual feast?

I am pleased with the Rubbin's Vase and the portrayal of the salivating dog. Some of the other articles, I fear, have come out less well in the photographs.


Though, I can assure they - they are stupendous when you have a look at the real thing!

The Personal Touch

Just to let you know, in a few days I will try posting more personal entries in this space.

Whilst I think the blog of ideas has been an excellent experiment I think would be good to keep some of the readers up to date with my movements.

For this reason I am going to start posting some more personal experiences and almost diary entries on the blog. Note, this does not mean that the blog of ideas is dead and finished with; only that it has been developed.

Medical trials receive scrutiny

Exciting developments were reported in the New Scientist this week concerning medical trials. It seems that the placebo effect is even stronger than anyone realised until a few months ago. The implications for medical trials and drugs are considerable.

The New Scientist from last week reported several medical investigations where participants experienced placebo effects in a pervasive manner than previously had considered possible. People engaged in a study into anti-depressant only received benefit from the drugs when they were told that the drugs were anti-depressants. By contrast people who were given the same drugs, but not told they were anti-depressants received only chance, or below, levels of recovery.

The findings have considerable implications for future trials into drugs. Since participants may well be able to discern when drugs are medically active or simply neutral, the famous sugar pill may have to be ditched in favour of more sophisticated deceptions. In the future, studies may have more layers of participation in which those taking part are possibly given medication, but are not in fact given medication. By contrast, a further condition where depressives are not given the drug, but told that they are and are given a convincing substitute would also be required to do the test properly. Such a procedure naturally raises the question “is this level of deception necessary and justified pursuing a possibly beneficial drug?”

The thought occurs that almost no research is conducted into ways of harnessing and directing the healing powers of the mind that produces the placebo effect – presumably because there is no money in healing yourself. In the mean time, watch out for odd tasting pills.

The Great British Van Industry (really): an electric revolution.

When it comes to vehicles with four wheels and an internal combustion engine, Britain has not had much luck since the heady days of the 1960s. During the 1970s and 1980s industrial action, strikes, state subsidised competitors and poor designs had the inevitable effect of destroying all but a very few British car and van businesses.
Recently, however, a remarkable company called Modec has bucked that trend. The Coventry based van company is unusual in many respects. It is British owned; it is a new company; it is growing. However, the most unusual feature about it must be what they produces – electric vans.
Unlike its larger competitors who are still ramming the internal combustion down peoples’ throats, Modec is producing electric vehicles right now!
There are obvious environmental and cost benefits to what they do. The electricity used to charge these vehicles is at most half as polluting as the equivalent power needed to shift the same load with an diesel or petrol engine. What is more, charging can be done with turbines or solar panels, making transportation carbon neutral.
Savings on fuel costs can also be considerable. Given the recent hike in petrol and diesel prices, would n’t it be nice to buy electricity which s about 10 times cheaper than petrol or diesel. Even when the cost of renting the batteries is taken into account, users save on the cost of diesel and know their costs are fixed – which is more than can be said for the OPEC dependents.
Let’s put it this way, which do you prefer: paying large sums of money to OPEC leaders, based on the assumption that a very small group of wealthy land owners deserve millions of pounds each year; or running your car on electricity for less money?
Modec is one of the first companies to produce a vehicle which is practical, cost effective, environmental stronger than the opposition, quieter. Some forward thinking groups are already using MODEC vehicles, including Bedfordshire county council, TESCO and UPS. I am currently in the process of writing to my MP and asking why the government is not more coherent in supporting these vehicles by ordering them for each local authority in the country. Maybe you would like to do the same.
I am confident that more people will start using them as they become known and as OPEC become ever more greedy and undependable. Modec is one of the few companies who present a genuine solution to the problems of burning petrol - as opposed to many others who simply try to reduce the amount they burn. I see the future and it is a MODEC van – coming to a road near you.

You can also find out more details of the company by clicking on this web link.

http://www.modeczev.com/uk/home

Personality of the month

For those of you who have read this blog for a while, you will remember the section entitled - Personality of the Week. Unfortunately for the category's title, my time is in even scarcer amounts than it was when I set up the section. Consequently, I think a little remarking is in order.

Hence forward, the section formally known as Personality of the week or Personality of the Fortnight will become Personality of the Month.

And who better to kick off the re-branding than Ruth Dudley Edwards....

This fine woman is both an academic and a crime writer. It is for her contribution to the Crime writing and comedy genres that I wish to nominate her the prize of... a free cup of coffee.

Amongst her works are "Murder at St. Margaret's" and "corridors of death". I especially enjoyed reading corridors of death because of its comic references to the Civil Service. In particular, I enjoyed the creation of character who was so universally disliked (and disagreeable) that every character had a good reason to kill the victim.

I admire Dudbley Edwards for two reasons. Firstly, she makes light work of the seemingly impossible task of combining comedy and crime writing. Secondly, she is an all-rounder. She has an academic career, she writes regularly in the British press, and still manages to write crime books for fun.

Three cheers for Ruth Dudley Edwards!!

How well does Social Interaction account for a Theory of Mind

Discuss the role of theory of mind in accounting for the social development of children…

Investigators have sought to explain the causes of a Theory of Mind (TOM) for at least thirty years, since the publication of Woodruff and Premack (1976) paper, in which it was argued that chimpanzees exhibit the ability to identify what other members of their group might be thinking. If a correct account of TOM could be found then it would be possible to treat children with developmental difficulties in this area (such as austics) more successfully than is currently possible. Debate has focussed on whether a social or a biological account is more convincing in explaining the acquisition of TOM. Developmental Psychologists, such as Perner and Wimmer (1983) have tended to emphasise social development, whereas neuroscientists have tended to emphasis the biological route.
Researchers have investigated the extent to which humans and higher primates can be considered to have a similar social capacity. Woodruff and Premack (1976) argued that it was possible to teach chimpanzees certain linguistic and social skills that had previously only been thought to be possible in humans. She cited several examples of chimps developing lexicons and attributing motives to other animals. Over thirty years on, other researchers have produced similar findings, but certain difficulties remain. Since it appears that language and Theory of Mind may be linked, the ability to measure Theory of Mind when there is only a limited range of expression available makes experimental investigation difficult (Butterworth and Harris, 2004). Nevertheless, it can be said with some confidence that chimpanzees and bonobos posses capacities to attribute motivation to other members of their group. Humans are therefore not unique in possessing this ability (Martin, 2000). These findings are equivocal, however, since both biology and special training could be the route cause of the development (Robinson, 1998).
Various experiments have been used to assess whether children can separate their knowledge from the knowledge that others would have. Perner and Wimmer (1983) designed the famous Sally Ann doll task which has been used with several variations. The basic format, however, follows this format: two dolls are seen playing. One enters a house and is observed by both the child and the second doll. The second doll then leaves the situation. The first doll then leaves the house, and the second doll reappears shortly afterwards, having not had the opportunity to see the first doll. The researcher then asks the child whether the second doll will think the first doll is in the house. Children from about the age of 4 answer this question correctly. In a related vein, Gopick and Astington (1988) used a packet of smarties with pens inside instead of sweets, to test whether children would know that most people when presented with the same tube of smarties would guess that sweets were inside. Again, children from around 4-5 answer this question correctly. However, this mean age, hides a considerable variation among groups whereby some groups gain this ability as young as 3 whereas others take up to the age of 7. These experiments leave open the question whether it is repeated social interactions which allowed the children to acquire this ability, or whether a biological change had taken place.
Most researchers would agree that the quality of social interactions plays an important part in theory of mind. Lewis et al (1998) for example, found that children in Crete and Cyprus who live close to their extended family members developed theory of mind skills earlier than did children in which there were few opportunities for social interaction. This group also found that older children as well as adults could play an important role in developing TOM skills. Charman (2000) found that gaze attention played an important part in developing social skills in children. It appears that children benefit most from a primary care giver attends to the direction of their gaze and provides appropriate responses to where the child is looking – rather than there the adult is looking. The model of apprenticeship is broadly supported by this and other evidence (Butterworth & Harris, 2004). Children learn from an ‘expert’ and also benefit from care givers who attend to the child’s gaze. Based on the evidence high quality social interaction seems able to account for the earlier or later development of TOM in children.
However, some researchers have argued that a TOM is better modelled on a neuronal level. Baron-Cohen (1995, 1996, 1997, 2000), has argued with an increasing weight of evidence, that TOM is best explained by a module in the brain, which is close the limbic system. Baron-Cohen has contrasted the FMRI scans from children with normal development compared to those with autism and deafness. He observed that the module was less active in the autistic and deaf children compared to the normally developing children and concluded that a module was the basis of TOM. However, it may be criticised that his model does not explain the other cognitive difficulties that autistic children typically display for example in language (Butterworth & Haris, 2004). Although the module appears to be implicated in some way with TOM, it does not appear to be the whole answer. Social interaction is a natural candidate to explain that gap.
Social interaction is therefore an important ingredient in the development of a Theory of Mind. Good quality social interactions are able to explain a quicker development in TOM (Slaughter and Peterson, 2003; Charman, 2000) and provide the most convincing account for its appearance in children. Though there is evidence to suggest that the part of the limbic system is involved in TOM (Baron-Cohen, 2000) it is probable that alternative routes exist by which TOM can be obtained. An account of TOM development that places social interaction at its forefront is not bound by such a problem.

Sara Barreilles: a little review

Though this blog contains discussion of many ideas and interpretations, I believe there is room for a little lightness from time to time.

Consequently I wish to sing the praises of Sara Bareilles and her new album (in the UK) Little Voice. In particular its tunefulness.

Born in California a clear jazz and live performance aspect pervades her music with heavy emphasis on the piano and tuneful vocals. Her music is also self composed which by itself commands the attention.

I am most struck by the ‘catchiness’ of about five tracks in particular: Love Song, Vegas, between the lines, morning side (no connection to Scotland) and love on the rocks. This is someone who generally has a good feeling for what will resonate with an audience.

There is a good balance between excellent melodies, some meaning from lyrics and god instrumentation. Though not the deepest lyrics I have ever heard, they are hold their own.

I also like the fact that the UK edition of the CD shows Sara wearing trainers without laces and as someone who has found shoe laces a real struggle, this is a plus!

There are one or two tracks which fall short of the otherwise high standard, one sweet love and Gravity would be improved with fewer strings.

Nevertheless, an extremely enjoyable album and highly worth the £7.20 I paid for it.

I give the album 8/10

Rumour also has it that she will be performing with Maroon 5 in the Autumn - an excellent prospect!

Aristotle declares war on model science.

Although for many people Aristotle represents a precursor to modern science because of his love of nature and experiments. In celebrating this early manifestation of their own beliefs, many scientists loose sight of an important part of Aristotle’s thinking – namely that one should listen to one’s own personal experience in making judgements about the world (see the Nicamedian Ethics for this point).

Aristotle argues with disarming simplicity that lovers of knowledge have no reason to ignore the sense they experience when they perceive something – such as the experience of an objecting being good or bad. The philosopher goes on to argue that it is simply irrational not to include this experience from our senses.

From a modern perspective, we are all familiar with the notion that science is (mostly) provable with the five senses. Few among us would say “but wait, I just don’t experience things that way” and expect to be taken seriously. Is that because of a rational position, or because it is often hard to make people agree with your own personal experience? I suggest it is the latter. As Aristotle might say, if he was alive today, to not record personal experiences is irrational; it would be far more logical to state them and suggest what they mean.

Therefore I feel phenomenology, the study of private experience, needs to be expanded considerably to better understand the human condition. I would even go so far as to teach phenomenology in schools and make it part of university science courses. I wonder such a thing will come to pass in the future…

Guest Blog - Hemp on HMS Victory

I am pleased to introduce a guest writer this week. 'Kenyon' has been writing about hemp prolifically for some time on his blog http://hempforvictory.blogspot.com/

I am pleased that he accepted my invitation to put one of his articles here on Cafe Lumiere. Below is the interesting case of HMS Victory and its connection with hemp.

Please take it away Kenyon...


HEMP ON THE HMS VICTORY
A story in the Voice of Freedom (Issue 92, p.7) reports that the University of Southampton is set to close their Textile Conservation Centre, which stores the sails from Nelson's Victory. As any reader of this blog would know, they are made of hemp. 200,000 lbs. of hemp was on every man-o'-war in the 19th century. The UK went to great lengths to obtain it, including fighting a war, and making a pre-emptive strike to maintain a supply.
A petition to keep the centre open can be found at: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/TCCClosure

Back in Business

Dear readers,

I am sorry the café has had so little activity in the last few months. This is because so much has been going on in my life, both personally and professionally, which has made it impossible to update the blog very often.

Briefly, in the last 5 months the following have occurred: my father died, we had a funeral, I bought my mum a new car, I bought myself a new car. I won a place on a PGCE course, I have continued with my MSC in Psychology. I have also got two new jobs at Sainsbury’s. I also continued to sell the hemp paper.

However, I think the busiest period is now passed and I hope to continue to update in the future. Watch this space….

Café Lumiere.