Get the picture? The effects of iconicity on toddlers' reenactment from picture books

What do toddlers learn from everyday picture-book reading interactions? To date, there has been scant research exploring this question. In this study, the authors adapted a standard imitation procedure to examine 18- to 30-month-olds' ability to learn how to reenact a novel action sequence from a picture book. The results provide evidence that toddlers can imitate specific target actions on novel real-world objects on the basis of a picture-book interaction. Children's imitative performance after the reading interaction varied both as a function of age and the level of iconicity of the pictures in the book. These findings are discussed in terms of children's emerging symbolic capacity and the flexibility of the cognitive representation.

MBCNS2 Example Book

MBCNS2 is a small collection of programs for the simulation of transient two-dimensional (or axisymmetric) flows. It is part of the larger collection of compressible flow simulation codes found at http://www.mech.uq.edu.au/cfcfd/. This manual is a collection of example simulations: scripts, results and commentary. It may be convenient for new users of the code to identify an example close to the situation that they wish to model and then adapt the scripts for that example.

View northeast over single story apartment, Cotton Tree Housing Estate, Maroochydore

This pilot project at Cotton Tree, Maroochydore, on two adjacent, linear parcels of land has one of the properties privately owned while the other is owned by the public housing authority. Both owners commissioned Lindsay and Kerry Clare to design housing for their separate needs which enabled the two projects to be governed by a single planning and design strategy. This entailed the realignment of the dividing boundary to form two approximately square blocks which made possible the retention of an important stand of mature paperbark trees and gave each block a more useful street frontage. The scheme provides seven two-bedroom units and one single-bedroom unit as the private component, with six single-bedroom units, three two-bedroom units and two three-bedroom units forming the public housing. The dwellings are deployed as an interlaced mat of freestanding blocks, car courts, courtyard gardens, patios and decks. The key distinction between the public and private parts of the scheme is the pooling of the car parking spaces in the public housing to create a shared courtyard. The housing climbs to three storeys on its southern edge and falls to a single storey on the north-western corner. This enables all units and the principal private outdoor spaces to have a northern orientation. The interiors of both the public and private units are skilfully arranged to take full advantage of views, light and breeze.

(FAB01_091) Book reviews

Leon Battista Alberti, 'On the Art of Building in Ten Books' Translated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach and Robert Tavemor L. A. Zhadova (ed.), 'Tatlin' (Budapest 1984). English translation Helen Ross, 'Just For Living, Aboriginal Perceptions of Housing in North West Australia' Tony Fry, 'Design History Australia: A Source Text in Methods and Resources' Phillip Cox and David Moore, 'The Australian Functional Tradition' Lenore Coltheart and Don Fraser (eds.), 'Lamdmarks in Public Works, Engineers and Their Works in New South Wales 1884-1914' Peter Bridges and Don MacDonald, 'James Barnet, Colonial Architect' Don Watson and Judith McKay, 'A Directory of Queensland Architects to 1940' Russell Walden, 'Voices of Silence: New Zealand's Chapel of Futuna' Jeremy Salmond, 'Old New Zealand Houses 1800-1940' Victoria Middleton, 'The Legend of Green Valley' Dyranda Prevost and Ann Rado, 'Living Places' Mark Jackson and Mark Stiles (directors), 'Universal Provider' Lars Lerup, 'Planned Assaults'

Book review of Mark McGillivray and Gary Smith's (eds.) "Australia and Asia", Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997. vii + 248 pp

The political capital invested in Australia's engagement with Asia over the past decade has sparked a lively discussion in the Australian academic community. The back cover of the book under review suggests that there are 'few bigger contemporary issues facing Australia than its relationship with Asia'. If the volume of scholarly material being produced on this issue is any indication, they are right. Like a number of similar works covering the shift in Australian foreign, defence, and trade policies towards Asia over the last decade, this book acknowledges a particular debt of gratitude to the Keating government for establishing regional engagement at the forefront of our national consciousness. Unlike some others however, this book seeks to place Australia's more recent 'discovery' of Asia into a broader historical framework.