Making decisions with the future in mind: Developmental and comparative identification of mental time travel

Mechanisms that produce behavior which increase future survival chances provide an adaptive advantage. The flexibility of human behavior is at least partly the result of one such mechanism, our ability to travel mentally in time and entertain potential future scenarios. We can study mental time travel in children using language. Current results suggest that key developments occur between the ages of three to five. However, linguistic performance can be misleading as language itself is developing. We therefore advocate the use of methodologies that focus on future-oriented action. Mental time travel required profound changes in humans' motivational system, so that current behavior could be directed to secure not just present, but individually anticipated future needs. Such behavior should be distinguishable from behavior based on current drives, or on other mechanisms. We propose an experimental paradigm that provides subjects with an opportunity to act now to satisfy a need not currently experienced. This approach may be used to assess mental time travel in nonhuman animals. We conclude by describing a preliminary study employing an adaptation of this paradigm for children. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Victim-perpetrator differences in reports of hurtful events

This research project addressed limitations identified in previous studies of role differences (victim vs. perpetrator) in evaluations of hurtful events. The study employed multiple methods (open-ended and structured retrospective reports and experience-sampling diary records), and involved a community sample of both dating and married couples. Retrospective reports indicated that the extent and direction of role-related differences varied markedly across dependent measures. Further, role differences were moderated by forgiveness, but not relationship status, relationship satisfaction, or event severity. Diary records pointed to the ambiguity inherent in many communication acts as contributing to differing perceptions of hurtful events. Results are discussed in terms of theories of interdependence and self-presentation and in terms of the complex and often ambiguous nature of couples' communication processes.

A Doutrina da Criação na teologia de Calvino e Barth: A semelhança do método como fundamento da releitura teológica barthiana.

João Calvino é o primeiro nome que nos vem à mente ao falarmos da Reforma Protestante do século XVI. A sua influência em Genebra e especialmente a sua mais famosa e importante obra teológica intitulada Institutas, que também serviu e ainda serve de manual doutrinário para os calvinistas, atestam de fato o significado de Calvino para o rotestantismo. Nas Institutas Calvino reinterpretou todos os dogmas teológicos da igreja cristã. O dogma da criação assume lugar de destaque em sua obra pois é a partir dele que Calvino abordará outros dois, também fundamentais, que são revelação e salvação em Cristo. A característica principal que encontramos no dogma da criação de Calvino é a majestade soberana de Deus. Aliás, essa característica soberania de Deus marcou fortemente o protestantismo e ainda se faz presente na tradição reformada. Se João Calvino é o primeiro nome da Reforma Protestante, talvez, sem exagero, Karl Barth seja o primeiro nome de toda a tradição reformada. Semelhante a Calvino, Barth também reinterpretou todos os dogmas da igreja cristã. Das suas muitíssimas obras destaca-se a Die Kirchliche Dogmatik contendo mais de 9.000 páginas, que também serviu e ainda serve significativamente de referência dogmática para o protestantismo. A característica principal que encontramos no dogma da criação em Barth é o pacto da graça de Deus. A minha pesquisa focalizou o dogma da criação reinterpretado por Calvino e Barth. Ao meu ver, Barth se aproxima teologicamente de Calvino, primeiro, por ser calvinista declarado e segundo, porque sua última fase teológica é exclusivamente marcada pelo dogmatismo. Nessa pesquisa procurei desenvolver os pontos de contato entre Barth e Calvino, por exemplo, a semelhança do método teológico, que também será o fundamento da minha proposta de que Barth faz de seu dogma da criação uma releitura do dogma da criação de Calvino.(AU)

Contribuição à história dos batistas Sul-Mato-grossenses a partir da memória coletiva Um Recorte Biográfico da missionária Ann Mae Louise Wollerman

Esta pesquisa parte do interesse de análise da contribuição da missionária Ana Wollerman para o crescimento da denominação batista no sul de Mato Grosso e Mato Grosso do Sul, no período compreendido entre os anos de 1948 a 1978. A memória religiosa e autobiográfica da missionária apresenta experiências com o sagrado que marcam divisores de fases e temporalidades no seu recorte biográfico e que influenciam decisivamente na postura ministerial adotada. As entrevistas com algumas pessoas que participaram das comunidades afetivas existentes e os registros nas atas lidas constatam em grande parte os dados coletados pela memória. Ana Wollerman, filha de descendentes de alemães nos E.U.A., graduou-se em Artes e pósgraduou- se em Educação Religiosa. Veio para o Brasil inicialmente como missionária sem depender do sustento financeiro de uma Junta Missionária, fundou diversas escolas de ensino primário, trabalhou na implantação de diversas igrejas e dedicou grande parte de seus esforços no ensino ministerial. Foi responsável pela ajuda financeira no sustento de mais de uma dezena de jovens nos Seminários de Curitiba-PR, no IBER-RJ e no Seminário do Sul-RJ. Contribuiu também para que fossem destinadas grandes ofertas para a construção do Seminário Teológico Batista em Dourados. O trabalho procura seguir uma metodologia ainda em construção no que se refere à memória religiosa e utiliza o referencial teórico de Maurice Halbwachs para apresentar as memórias individuais e construção da memória coletiva, bem como tem apoio no próprio Halbwachs ao trabalhar a leitura da formação das comunidades afetivas. Aliado a estas questões se presta como um primeiro tratado sobre a historiografia da denominação batista em Mato Grosso e Mato Grosso do Sul, reunindo aspectos da sua gênese e do seu desenvolvimento. O resgate e a valorização da memória do sujeito-objeto em questão, ainda em vida constitui também no reconhecimento que a academia pode prestar às pessoas e às comunidades que se dedicam à construção de um mundo melhor.(AU)

EM NOME DA ORDEM : O papel dos agentes da religião católica institucionalizada durante o movimento e guerra do Contestado entre 1912-1916

Esta tese analisa o papel dos líderes da Igreja católica institucionalizada antes e durante o movimento e guerra do Contestado de 1912 a 1916. Movimento classificado como messiânico-milenarista ocorrido no sul do Brasil numa área litigiosa pleiteada pelos Estados do Paraná e Santa Catarina. Aponta o contexto sócio-econômico-político e religioso que criou condições para que o movimento pudesse emergir. Analisa a formação do catolicismo rústico popular brasileiro e suas expressões na região do Contestado, destacando-se o papel dos monges. Aprofunda a compreensão do catolicismo oficial em processo de romanização e do papel dos frades franciscanos, de suas concepções e práticas na tentativa de enquadrar a religião cabocla dentro dos princípios da reforma. Analisa a reação cabocla diante das mudanças implantadas na região e a explosão da irmandade, denominada Terra Santa , que buscava efetivar uma nova ordem . Aprofunda especialmente o papel dos frades representantes da Igreja católica, tendo em vista dispersar e pacificar o caboclo rebelde e a aliança, que estabeleceram com as forças repressoras, para implantar a ordem e a paz na região contestada, com a conseqüente eliminação radical da irmandade cabocla e de seus redutos .(AU)

HISTÓRIAS DE VIDA E MEMÓRIAS LITERÁRIAS: UMA NARRATIVA SOBRE A PRÁTICA

Este estudo tem por finalidade promover a reflexão sobre a prática pedagógica, analisando-a por meio do registro de um projeto de leitura e escrita, desenvolvido junto a uma turma de 4ª série (atual 5º ano) do Ensino Fundamental, realizado em uma Escola da Rede Pública Estadual de SP, Iracema de Barros Bertolaso, no município de Mauá. Tem também, a intenção de sensibilizar educadores sobre a importância do trabalho compartilhado com os alunos, do respeito às ideias infantis e da convicção do quanto se faz necessário atrelar o ensino e a aprendizagem ao prazer. O projeto em questão deu origem ao livro Histórias hilárias de uma 4ª série (e outros resgates), editado pela SCORTECCI e lançado no ano de 2008. Para reconstruir essa história, foram recuperados os registros de percurso do trabalho docente realizado por mim no ano de 2006 e realizado o levantamento de documentos como fotos, relatos, produções de alunos e matérias publicadas em jornais das quais os mesmos participaram. A pesquisa me levou a uma reaproximação com alguns ex alunos para compor, também por meio de entrevistas, este quadro onde o intento é dimensionar o alcance do trabalho realizado. Retratar a própria prática e coloca-la em situação de pesquisa configurou-se em ferramenta valiosa para a reconstrução do sentido de nossas ações à medida que nos ofereceu dados significativos a reflexão. Vincular esta análise ao estudo da trajetória formativa pessoal, feita por meio da abordagem biográfica, permitiu-nos ampliar nossa compreensão do quanto, e em que medida, trazemos para o exercício docente as influência do vivido. Acreditamos que a análise da trajetória formativa pessoal e da experiência vivida junto a um grupo de alunos, nesta pesquisa, justifica-se à medida que contribui para os estudos que se ocupam desta questão.

Juventude, juventudes: construção da política municipal para jovens de São Lourenço - MG

Essa dissertação se propôs a analisar o entendimento do conceito de juventude, ou melhor, juventudes, nos dias de hoje. Junto a essa busca, nos deparamos com o surgimento das políticas públicas voltadas para essa parte da sociedade, finalmente entendida como uma população complexa, plural, capaz e desejosa de ser protagonista da própria história. Num olhar mais cuidadoso, questionamos como se caracteriza a pluralidade da juventude da cidade de São Lourenço (MG). Uma política municipal para jovens pode atender tal pluralidade? A construção de uma política municipal para jovens é apropriada à pluralidade da juventude? Para esta pesquisa, entendemos que a metodologia de estudo de caso, com caráter exploratório, assim como a pesquisa autobiográfica seriam as mais adequadas para uma compreensão complexa e profunda dessa realidade. A base teórico-conceitual foi escolhida a partir dos estudos mais recentes relativos à juventude. Teóricos como Castro e Aquino estão bem presentes neste trabalho, assim como Sposito, Abramo, Pais e Marías, no primeiro capítulo. No segundo capítulo, além da consistente contribuição de Ninis e Giolito, recorreu-se a autores, documentos locais e publicações eletrônicas, bem como a própria vivência da autora na cidade. No terceiro capítulo, a trajetória pessoal da autora, seu trabalho como funcionária da Prefeitura Municipal e a dissertação de mestrado se encontram. Como mostrou Gilberto Velho, memória, projeto e identidade são significativos na vida pessoal e na possibilidade da transformação social.(AU)

TRAJETÓRIA DE ALUNOS DO PROUNI NO CONTEXTO DA EXPANSÃO E DEMOCRATIZAÇÃO DO ENSINO SUPERIOR NO BRASIL

Este trabalho buscou estudar o contexto da expansão e democratização do acesso ao ensino superior no Brasil, no período que coincide com a posse do primeiro Presidente eleito pelo voto direto, depois da Ditadura Militar, até 2007. Para isso analisamos, aos olhos de importantes autores brasileiros, a LBD, Lei de Diretrizes e Bases, o Plano Nacional de Educação, o Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio, o Financiamento Estudantil e o Programa Universidade para Todos. Especificamente, o estudo objetivou buscar respostas a duas questões: a distribuição de bolsas de estudo integral ou parcial tem garantido o acesso e permanência dos que adentram ao ensino superior por meio delas? Que estratégias os bolsistas desenvolvem para concluírem o curso? Para tanto, analisamos três narrativas autobiográficas de estudantes de um curso de pedagogia de uma universidade privada da Grande São Paulo. Os resultados indicaram que a distribuição de bolsas tem garantido o acesso e a permanência de estudantes, porém não dá conta de equacionar os problemas relacionados, especialmente, aos conteúdos curriculares não trabalhados anteriormente com as bolsistas, ao preconceito, à relação professor aluno e, sobretudo, ao desenvolvimento pleno dos princípios de cidadania legalmente adquiridos.

The Beginning of the End of the Road? Britain and the European Council Meeting, 8-9 December 2011

What will the outcome of last week’s EU summit mean for the future of the UK’s position within the Union? According to Dr. Simon Green, Professor of Politics at Aston University, UK, it could spell disaster for Britain in the single market of the EU. In his essay entitled The Beginning of the End of the Road? Britain and the European Council meeting, 8/9 December 2011, originally published in Aston University’s Aston Centre for Europe blog, Dr. Green explains that Prime Minster David Cameron’s decision to exclude the UK from the EU’s new intergovernmental pact will alienate the UK from the Union more than ever before.

Primary care pharmacists: a profile

A survey was carried out in 1998 in 43 English health authorities of primary care pharmacists (employed to provide prescribing advice to GPs at medical practice level). 119 responses were received (66%). Most combined working as a PCP with another occupation, usually community pharmacy (57%), hospital pharmacy (13%) or as an academic (7%). 53% of respondents worked 8 hours or less per week as a PCP. Only 18 respondents were employed full-time as a PCP. The most common activities were drug information (91%), PACT analysis (90%), drug cost containment (90%) and review of individual patient medication (88%). (7 refs.)

Intentional forgetting in depressed states

The aim of this thesis was to extend previous research on intentional forgetting in depressed states. The first experiment used the think/no-think paradigm, and found that although dysphoric individuals were significantly worse at suppressing emotional (positive and negative) words than non-dysphoric individuals, both groups were unsuccessful at direct thought suppression. However, there was no effect of rumination on dysphoric individuals' ability to intentionally forget material. Furthermore, there was also no group differences in attentional measures of Stroop and IDEO. The second experiment involved modifying the TNT task, by including the use of substitute words in the suppression phase, in order to determine whether recalling substitute words during suppression would increase the level of forgetting. The findings from the study revealed that both dysphoric and non-dysphoric individuals were successful at intentionally forgetting neutral words using a thought substitution strategy. However, both groups were impaired at suppressing words in the direct thought substitution condition. The third experiment investigated the influence of thought substitution on intentional forgetting of emotional words in dysphoria. The study replicated experiment two, but used emotional (i.e. positive and depression-relevant) words instead of neutral words. The study found that dysphoric individuals were still impaired in their ability to suppress emotional material. Furthermore, dysphoric individuals were recalling significantly more depression­ relevant respond and previously-suppressed words. The fourth experiment examined the role of executive control in intentional forgetting. In the study, dysphoric and non­ dysphoric participants were categorised as having good or poor executive control based on their scores on the operation span with words task (OSPAN). The study found that non-dysphoric individuals with good control demonstrated successful suppression. However, dysphoric individuals with good control were unsuccessful at suppression. The fifth experiment investigated whether experimentally induced changes in mood state would alter an individual's ability to intentionally forget emotional material. Non-dysphoric healthy participants were given a positive or negative autobiographical memory and music mood induction. They completed two modified think/no-think tasks, one prior to the mood induction and one after the mood induction. The study found that transient negative mood state impaired intentional forgetting of depression-relevant material. Summary: Taken together, the findings suggest that individuals in a depressed mood are impaired in their ability to intentionally forget emotional material, even with the use of a thought substitution strategy. Furthermore, the findings implicate poor executive control and negative mood state in impaired intentional forgetting. An important theme emerging from the findings was the role of an inhibitory mechanism in intentional forgetting. The findings reported in this thesis suggest that thought substitution involves engaging an inhibitory control mechanism that contributes to successful intentional forgetting. The findings have clear implications on depressed individuals everyday functioning, and suggest that even with the presence of effective distraction, dysphoric indivduals are imapired in their ability to suppress emotional material. Furthermore, it is suggested that impaired intentional forgetting of emotional material may contribute to the maintenance of depressed mood, and could potentially worsen ongoing depression.

Une étude générique du metteur en scène au théâtre:son émergence et son rôle moderne et contemporain

The theatre director (metteur en scene in French) is a relatively new figure in theatre practice. It was not until the I820s that the term 'mise en scene' gained currency. The term 'director' was not in general use until the I880s. The emergence and the role of the director has been considered from a variety of perspectives, either through the history of theatre (Allevy, Jomaron, Sarrazac, Viala, Biet and Triau); the history of directing (Chinoy and Cole, Boll, Veinstein, Roubine); semiotic approaches to directing (Whitmore, Miller, Pavis); the semiotics of performance (De Marinis); generic approaches to the mise en scene (Thomasseau, Banu); post-dramatic approaches to theatre (Lehmann); approaches to performance process and the specifics of rehearsal methodology (Bradby and Williams, Giannachi and Luckhurst, Picon-Vallin, Styan). What the scholarly literature has not done so far is to map the parameters necessarily involved in the directing process, and to incorporate an analysis of the emergence of the theatre director during the modem period and consider its impact on contemporary performance practice. Directing relates primarily to the making of the performance guided by a director, a single figure charged with the authority to make binding artistic decisions. Each director may have her/his own personal approaches to the process of preparation prior to a show. This is exemplified, for example, by the variety of terms now used to describe the role and function of directing, from producer, to facilitator or outside eye. However, it is essential at the outset to make two observations, each of which contributes to a justification for a generic analysis (as opposed to a genetic approach). Firstly, a director does not work alone, and cooperation with others is involved at all stages of the process. Secondly, beyond individual variation, the role of the director remains twofold. The first is to guide the actors (meneur de jeu, directeur d'acteurs, coach); the second is to make a visual representation in the performance space (set designer, stage designer, costume designer, lighting designer, scenographe). The increasing place of scenography has brought contemporary theatre directors such as Wilson, Castellucci, Fabre to produce performances where the performance space becomes a semiotic dimension that displaces the primacy of the text. The play is not, therefore, the sole artistic vehicle for directing. This definition of directing obviously calls for a definition of what the making of the performance might be. The thesis defines the making of the performance as the activity of bringing a social event, by at least one performer, providing visual and/or textual meaning in a performance space. This definition enables us to evaluate four consistent parameters throughout theatre history: first, the social aspect associated to the performance event; second, the devising process which may be based on visual and/or textual elements; third, the presence of at least one performer in the show; fourth, the performance space (which is not simply related to the theatre stage). Although the thesis focuses primarily on theatre practice, such definition blurs the boundaries between theatre and other collaborative artistic disciplines (cinema, opera, music and dance). These parameters illustrate the possibility to undertake a generic analysis of directing, and resonate with the historical, political and artistic dimensions considered. Such a generic perspective on the role of the director addresses three significant questions: an historical question: how/why has the director emerged?; a sociopolitical question: how/why was the director a catalyst for the politicisation of theatre, and subsequently contributed to the rise of State-funded theatre policy?; and an artistic one: how/why the director has changed theatre practice and theory in the twentieth-century? Directing for the theatre as an artistic activity is a historically situated phenomenon. It would seem only natural from a contemporary perspective to associate the activity of directing to the function of the director. This is relativised, however, by the question of how the performance was produced before the modern period. The thesis demonstrates that the rise of the director is a progressive and historical phenomenon (Dort) rather than a mere invention (Viala, Sarrazac). A chronological analysis of the making of the performance throughout theatre history is the most useful way to open the study. In order to understand the emergence of the director, the research methodology assesses the interconnection of the four parameters above throughout four main periods of theatre history: the beginning of the Renaissance (meneur de jeu), the classical age (actor-manager and stage designer-manager), the modern period (director) and the contemporary period (director-facilitator, performer). This allows us properly to appraise the progressive emergence of the director, as well as to make an analysis of her/his modern and contemporary role. The first chapter argues that the physical separation between the performance space and its audience, which appeared in the early fifteenth-century, has been a crucial feature in the scenographic, aesthetic, political and social organisation of the performance. At the end of the Middle Ages, French farces which raised socio-political issues (see Bakhtin) made a clear division on a single outdoor stage (treteau) between the actors and the spectators, while religious plays (drame fiturgique, mystere) were mostly performed on various outdoor and opened multispaces. As long as the performance was liturgical or religious, and therefore confined within an acceptable framework, it was allowed. At the time, the French ecclesiastical and civil authorities tried, on several occasions, to prohibit staged performances. As a result, practitioners developed non-official indoor spaces, the Theatre de fa Trinite (1398) being the first French indoor theatre recognized by scholars. This self-exclusion from the open public space involved breaking the accepted rules by practitioners (e.g. Les Confreres de fa Passion), in terms of themes but also through individual input into a secular performance rather than the repetition of commonly known religious canvases. These developments heralded the authorised theatres that began to emerge from the mid-sixteenth century, which in some cases were subsidised in their construction. The construction of authorised indoor theatres associated with the development of printing led to a considerable increase in the production of dramatic texts for the stage. Profoundly affecting the reception of the dramatic text by the audience, the distance between the stage and the auditorium accompanied the changing relationship between practitioners and spectators. This distance gave rise to a major development of the role of the actor and of the stage designer. The second chapter looks at the significance of both the actor and set designer in the devising process of the performance from the sixteenth-century to the end of the nineteenth-century. The actor underwent an important shift in function in this period from the delivery of an unwritten text that is learned in the medieval oral tradition to a structured improvisation produced by the commedia dell 'arte. In this new form of theatre, a chef de troupe or an experienced actor shaped the story, but the text existed only through the improvisation of the actors. The preparation of those performances was, moreover, centred on acting technique and the individual skills of the actor. From this point, there is clear evidence that acting began to be the subject of a number of studies in the mid-sixteenth-century, and more significantly in the seventeenth-century, in Italy and France. This is revealed through the implementation of a system of notes written by the playwright to the actors (stage directions) in a range of plays (Gerard de Vivier, Comedie de la Fidelite Nuptiale, 1577). The thesis also focuses on Leoni de' Sommi (Quatro dialoghi, 1556 or 1565) who wrote about actors' techniques and introduced the meneur de jeu in Italy. The actor-manager (meneur de jeu), a professional actor, who scholars have compared to the director (see Strihan), trained the actors. Nothing, however, indicates that the actor-manager was directing the visual representation of the text in the performance space. From the end of the sixteenth-century, the dramatic text began to dominate the process of the performance and led to an expansion of acting techniques, such as the declamation. Stage designers carne from outside the theatre tradition and played a decisive role in the staging of religious celebrations (e.g. Actes des Apotres, 1536). In the sixteenth-century, both the proscenium arch and the borders, incorporated in the architecture of the new indoor theatres (theatre a l'italienne), contributed to create all kinds of illusions on the stage, principally the revival of perspective. This chapter shows ongoing audience demands for more elaborate visual effects on the stage. This led, throughout the classical age, and even more so during the eighteenth-century, to grant the stage design practitioner a major role in the making of the performance (see Ciceri). The second chapter demonstrates that the guidance of the actors and the scenographic conception, which are the artistic components of the role of the director, appear to have developed independently from one another until the nineteenth-century. The third chapter investigates the emergence of the director per se. The causes for this have been considered by a number of scholars, who have mainly identified two: the influence of Naturalism (illustrated by the Meiningen Company, Antoine, and Stanislavski) and the invention of electric lighting. The influence of the Naturalist movement on the emergence of the modem director in the late nineteenth-century is often considered as a radical factor in the history of theatre practice. Naturalism undoubtedly contributed to changes in staging, costume and lighting design, and to a more rigorous commitment to the harmonisation and visualisation of the overall production of the play. Although the art of theatre was dependent on the dramatic text, scholars (Osborne) demonstrate that the Naturalist directors did not strictly follow the playwright's indications written in the play in the late nineteenth-century. On the other hand, the main characteristic of directing in Naturalism at that time depended on a comprehensive understanding of the scenography, which had to respond to the requirements of verisimilitude. Electric lighting contributed to this by allowing for the construction of a visual narrative on stage. However, it was a master technician, rather than an emergent director, who was responsible for key operational decisions over how to use this emerging technology in venues such as the new Bayreuth theatre in 1876. Electric lighting reflects a normal technological evolution and cannot be considered as one of the main causes of the emergence of the director. Two further causes of the emergence of the director, not considered in previous studies, are the invention of cinema and the Symbolist movement (Lugne-Poe, Meyerhold). Cinema had an important technological influence on the practitioners of the Naturalist movement. In order to achieve a photographic truth on the stage (tableau, image), Naturalist directors strove to decorate the stage with the detailed elements that would be expected to be found if the situation were happening in reality. Film production had an influence on the work of actors (Walter). The filmmaker took over a primary role in the making of the film, as the source of the script, the filming process and the editing of the film. This role influenced the conception that theatre directors had of their own work. It is this concept of the director which influenced the development of the theatre director. As for the Symbolist movement, the director's approach was to dematerialise the text of the playwright, trying to expose the spirit, movement, colour and rhythm of the text. Therefore, the Symbolists disengaged themselves from the material aspect of the production, and contributed to give greater artistic autonomy to the role of the director. Although the emergence of the director finds its roots amongst the Naturalist practitioners (through a rigorous attempt to provide a strict visual interpretation of the text on stage), the Symbolist director heralded the modem perspective of the making of performance. The emergence of the director significantly changed theatre practice and theory. For instance, the rehearsal period became a clear work in progress, a platform for both developing practitioners' techniques and staging the show. This chapter explores and contrasts several practitioners' methods based on the two aspects proposed for the definition of the director (guidance of the actors and materialisation of a visual space). The fourth chapter argues that the role of the director became stronger, more prominent, and more hierarchical, through a more political and didactic approach to theatre as exemplified by the cases of France and Germany at the end of the nineteenth-century and through the First World War. This didactic perspective to theatre defines the notion of political theatre. Political theatre is often approached by the literature (Esslin, Willett) through a Marxist interpretation of the great German directors' productions (Reinhardt, Piscator, Brecht). These directors certainly had a great influence on many directors after the Second World War, such as Jean Vilar, Judith Molina, Jean-Louis Barrault, Roger Planchon, Augusto Boal, and others. This chapter demonstrates, moreover, that the director was confirmed through both ontological and educational approaches to the process of making the performance, and consequently became a central and paternal figure in the organisational and structural processes practiced within her/his theatre company. In this way, the stance taken by the director influenced the State authorities in establishing theatrical policy. This is an entirely novel scholarly contribution to the study of the director. The German and French States were not indifferent to the development of political theatre. A network of public theatres was thus developed in the inter-war period, and more significantly after the Second World War. The fifth chapter shows how State theatre policies establish its sources in the development of political theatre, and more specifically in the German theatre trade union movement (Volksbiihne) and the great directors at the end of the nineteenth-century. French political theatre was more influenced by playwrights and actors (Romain Rolland, Louise Michel, Louis Lumet, Emile Berny). French theatre policy was based primarily on theatre directors who decentralised their activities in France during both the inter-war period and the German occupation. After the Second World War, the government established, through directors, a strong network of public theatres. Directors became both the artistic director and the executive director of those institutionalised theatres. The institution was, however, seriously shaken by the social and political upheaval of 1968. It is the link between the State and the institution in which established directors were entangled that was challenged by the young emerging directors who rejected institutionalised responsibility in favour of the autonomy of the artist in the 1960s. This process is elucidated in chapter five. The final chapter defines the contemporary role of the director in contrasting thework of a number of significant young theatre practitioners in the 1960s such as Peter Brook, Ariane Mnouchkine, The Living Theater, Jerzy Grotowski, Augusto Boal, Eugenio Barba, all of whom decided early on to detach their companies from any form of public funding. This chapter also demonstrates how they promoted new forms of performance such as the performance of the self. First, these practitioners explored new performance spaces outside the traditional theatre building. Producing performances in a non-dedicated theatre place (warehouse, street, etc.) was a more frequent practice in the 1960s than before. However, the recent development of cybertheatre questions both the separation of the audience and the practitioners and the place of the director's role since the 1990s. Secondly, the role of the director has been multifaceted since the 1960s. On the one hand, those directors, despite all their different working methods, explored western and non-western acting techniques based on both personal input and collective creation. They challenged theatrical conventions of both the character and the process of making the performance. On the other hand, recent observations and studies distinguish the two main functions of the director, the acting coach and the scenographe, both having found new developments in cinema, television, and in various others events. Thirdly, the contemporary director challenges the performance of the text. In this sense, Antonin Artaud was a visionary. His theatre illustrates the need for the consideration of the totality of the text, as well as that of theatrical production. By contrasting the theories of Artaud, based on a non-dramatic form of theatre, with one of his plays (Le Jet de Sang), this chapter demonstrates how Artaud examined the process of making the performance as a performance. Live art and autobiographical performance, both taken as directing the se(f, reinforce this suggestion. Finally, since the 1990s, autobiographical performance or the performance of the self is a growing practical and theoretical perspective in both performance studies and psychology-related studies. This relates to the premise that each individual is making a representation (through memory, interpretation, etc.) of her/his own life (performativity). This last section explores the links between the place of the director in contemporary theatre and performers in autobiographical practices. The role of the traditional actor is challenged through non-identification of the character in the play, while performers (such as Chris Burden, Ron Athey, Orlan, Franko B, Sterlac) have, likewise, explored their own story/life as a performance. The thesis demonstrates the validity of the four parameters (performer, performance space, devising process, social event) defining a generic approach to the director. A generic perspective on the role of the director would encompass: a historical dimension relative to the reasons for and stages of the 'emergence' of the director; a socio-political analysis concerning the relationship between the director, her/his institutionalisation, and the political realm; and the relationship between performance theory, practice and the contemporary role of the director. Such a generic approach is a new departure in theatre research and might resonate in the study of other collaborative artistic practices.

On the persuadability of memory:is changing people's memories no more than changing their minds?

The observation of parallels between the memory distortion and persuasion literatures leads, quite logically, to the appealing notion that people can be 'persuaded' to change their memories. Indeed, numerous studies show that memory can be influenced and distorted by a variety of persuasive tactics, and the theoretical accounts commonly used by researchers to explain episodic and autobiographical memory distortion phenomena can generally predict and explain these persuasion effects. Yet, despite these empirical and theoretical overlaps, explicit reference to persuasion and attitude-change research in the memory distortion literature is surprisingly rare. In this paper, we argue that stronger theoretical foundations are needed to draw the memory distortion and persuasion literatures together in a productive direction. We reason that theoretical approaches to remembering that distinguish (false) beliefs in the occurrence of events from (false) memories of those events - compatible with a source monitoring approach - would be beneficial to this end. Such approaches, we argue, would provide a stronger platform to use persuasion findings to enhance the psychological understanding of memory distortion.

Disowned recollections:denying true experiences undermines belief in occurrence but not judgments of remembering

Recent research findings have illustrated that false memories induced in the laboratory can be dissociated from the beliefs that the events had in fact occurred. In this study we assessed whether this dissociability is a quality peculiar to false memory, or whether it represents a general characteristic of autobiographical memory. To this end we examined whether people can be induced to stop believing in memories for true experiences. Participants observed and performed simple actions, and were later falsely informed that they had not performed some of them-that false memories for these actions had been implanted through the use of fabricated evidence. Before and after receiving this misinformation, participants rated their belief in and memory of performing those actions, other actions that they had also performed, and actions that they had not performed. Whereas the misinformation substantially undermined participants' beliefs in the specific performed actions about which they had been misinformed, it had little effect on their endorsement of remembering those actions. The misinformation thus boosted the proportion of occasions in which participants rated their memories as stronger than their beliefs, and it weakened the correlation between belief and memory ratings. Thus, this study provides the first experimental demonstration of non-believed memories of true experiences. We discuss our findings with reference to the small literature concerning the use of socially-communicated misinformation to undermine event memories, and with reference to the structure of autobiographical memory. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.