Illusions of consensus : New South Wales stakeholders' constructions of the identity of history

This article analyses the relationships between the perspectives of stakeholders involved in the development of the 1998 New South Wales Stages 4–5 history syllabus. It examined four key issues that emerged in the debates about history education during the review and found that stakeholders' views diverged significantly on three of these issues. While loose coalitions formed around particular issues, stakeholders provided different rationales for their positions, and coalitions re-formed on other debates. The analysis highlights the divergence between stakeholders and between the Commonwealth and state governments and stakeholders on the desirable content and goals of history education. The findings indicate that consultation might not produce consensus, and that even the appearance of consensus can be grounded in substantively and philosophically different premises. In practical terms, the findings suggest that if the purpose of consultation as a method of curriculum development is to produce a syllabus that reflects the diverse perspectives held by stakeholders, then the syllabus structure needs to make provision for content options as well as common core areas of study.

Response to comment on "Illusions promote mating success in great bowerbirds"

Borgia et al. raise some questions about our recent study showing that great bowerbirds create visual illusions that are used in mate choice. We address them by providing further details about our methods and results. We also provide detailed descriptions of our geometric calculations to address their measurement and analysis questions.

Illusions promote mating success in great bowerbirds

Sexual selection studies normally compare signal strengths, but signal components and sensory processing may interact to create misleading or attention-capturing illusions. Visual illusions can be produced by altering object and scene geometry in ways that trick the viewer when seen from a particular direction. Male great bowerbirds actively maintain size-distance gradients of objects on their bower courts that create forced-perspective illusions for females viewing their displays from within the bower avenue. We show a significant relationship between mating success and the female's view of the gradient; this view explains substantially more variance in mating success than the strength of the gradients. Illusions may be widespread in other animals because males of most species display to females with characteristic orientation and distance, providing excellent conditions for illusions.

Male great bowerbirds create forced perspective illusions with consistently different individual quality

Males often produce elaborate displays that increase their attractiveness to females, and some species extend their displays to include structures or objects that are not part of their body. Such "extended phenotypes" may communicate information that cannot be transmitted by bodily signals or may provide a more reliable signal than bodily signals. However, it is unclear whether these signals are individually distinct and whether they are consistent over long periods of time. Male bowerbirds construct and decorate bowers that function in mate choice. Bower display courts constructed by male great bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus nuchalis) induce a visual illusion known as forced perspective for the female viewing the male's display over the court, and the quality of illusion is associated with mating success. We improved the quality of the forced perspective to determine whether males maintained it at the new higher level, decreased the perspective quality back to its original value, or allowed it to decay at random over time. We found that the original perspective quality was actively recovered to individual original values within 3 d.We measured forced perspective over the course of one breeding season and compared the forced perspective of individual males between two successive breeding seasons. We found that differences in the quality of visual illusion among males were consistent within and between two breeding seasons. This suggests that forced perspective is actively and strongly maintained at a different level by each individual male.

Introduction: secularization and its discontents

Sigmund Freud’s 1927 work The Future of Illusion expresses the great psychoanalyst’s most whiggish assessment of the situation of Western, post-enlightenment societies. In it, Freud reanimates the ancient tradition of the materialist-Epicurean criticism of religion, with its skepticism concerning all invisible powers. For Freud, famously, the religious belief in higher, supernatural deities—particularly, the monotheistic God—represents a wish-fulfillment and illusion (Freud 1927: 30, 43). This illusion takes its particular shapes from our earliest childhood experiences of helplessness, and the longing for an all-protecting, omnibenevolent father. With the progress of science, and its benefits in technology, Freud opined that the period of the cultural pre-eminence of religion in the West was over. Civilization and its Discontents, written 3 years later, expresses a similarly sceptical assessment of religion. Whether founded in an oceanic, mystical sentiment of oneness, or the refined language of the theologians, religion remains for Freud ‘patently infantile’ (Freud 1930: 86). Between 1927 and 1930, however, Freud’s assessment of the wider prospects of modern Kultur shifted, if it did not entirely reverse. With the fortunes of fascism rising, and the first clouds of renewed European war forming on the horizon, Freud now argues that the psychological price demanded by the modern world’s manifold civilizational advances is perhaps too high. The sexual and aggressive impulses modern society demands subjects renounce must return in the forms of organized violence, collective and individual neuroses—and in the same form of unconscious guilt Freud had argued elsewhere animated the totems and taboos of the great religions (Freud 1913, 1938). Although Freud did not draw the conclusion, the logic of his wider Kulturpessimismus points to the claim that the psychologically deep-set ‘illusions’ of religion could expect a long and viable future.

Visual effects in great bowerbird sexual displays and their implications for signal design

It is often assumed that the primary purpose of a male's sexual display is to provide information about quality, or to strongly stimulate prospective mates, but other functions of courtship displays have been relatively neglected. Male great bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus nuchalis) construct bowers that exploit the female's predictable field of view (FOV) during courtship displays by creating forced perspective illusions, and the quality of illusion is a good predictor of mating success. Here, we present and discuss two additional components of male courtship displays that use the female's predetermined viewpoint: (i) the rapid and diverse flashing of coloured objects within her FOV and (ii) chromatic adaptation of the female's eyes that alters her perception of the colour of the displayed objects. Neither is directly related to mating success, but both are likely to increase signal efficacy, and may also be associated with attracting and holding the female's attention. Signal efficacy is constrained by trade-offs between the signal components; there are both positive and negative interactions within multicomponent signals. Important signal components may have a threshold effect on fitness rather than the often assumed linear relationship.

First aid recommendations for psychosis: using the Delphi method to gain consensus between mental health consumers, carers, and clinicians.

BACKGROUND: Members of the general public often lack the knowledge and skills to intervene effectively to help someone who may be developing a psychotic illness before appropriate professional help is received. METHODS: We used the Delphi method to determine recommendations on first aid for psychosis. An international panel of 157 mental health consumers, carers, and clinicians completed a 146-item questionnaire about how a member of the public could help someone who may be experiencing psychosis. The panel members rated each questionnaire item according to whether they believed the statement should be included in the first aid recommendations. The results were analyzed by comparing consensus rates across the 3 groups. Three rounds of ratings were required to consolidate consensus levels. RESULTS: Eighty-nine items were endorsed by >or=80% of panel members from all 3 groups as essential or important for psychosis first aid. These items were grouped under the following 9 headings: how to know if someone is experiencing psychosis; how to approach someone who may be experiencing psychosis; how to be supportive; how to deal with delusions and hallucinations; how to deal with communication difficulties; whether to encourage the person to seek professional help; what to do if the person does not want help; what to do in a crisis situation when the person has become acutely unwell; what to do if the person becomes aggressive. CONCLUSIONS: These recommendations will improve the provision of first aid to individuals who are developing a psychotic disorder by informing the content of training courses.

Illusions vary because of the types of decorations at bowers, not male skill at arranging them, in great bowerbirds

Many animals use extended phenotypes to attract mates, but the availability of suitable resources in the environment can affect the size and form of these signals, with unknown consequences for honest signalling. In some populations of the great bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus nuchalis, males arrange decorations by size, with smaller decorations placed closer to the bower entrance than larger decorations. This may create a more even background pattern from the female's viewpoint within the bower than if decorations were arranged randomly. Males show consistent, individual variation in the size-distance gradient, which could reflect variation among males in the cognitive skills needed to arrange decorations. We examined whether individual consistency in gradient characteristics is related to a male's skill at decoration arrangement or the types of decorations at bowers. We paired 18 males and switched bower decorations between pairs. We measured gradient characteristics before switching and 4 and 8 days after switching. Gradient characteristics after switching were related to those of the bower from which decorations were received, not to those of the male's own bower before switching. Gradient characteristics were also related to the types of decorations received, including bones and snail shells. These results suggest that variation among males in the size-distance gradient is explained by differences in the availability of decorations at bowers, not the cognitive skills required to arrange decorations. Although variation in gradient characteristics could indicate the male's ability to locate and transport particular decorations, it could also reflect local availability of objects, with no relationship to male quality.

Toward an Explanation of the Genesis of Ketamine-Induced Perceptual Distortions and Hallucinatory States

The NMDA receptor (NMDAR) channel has been proposed to function as a coincidence-detection mechanism for afferent and reentrant signals, supporting conscious perception, learning, and memory formation. In this paper we discuss the genesis of distorted perceptual states induced by subanesthetic doses of ketamine, a well-known NMDA antagonist. NMDAR blockage has been suggested to perturb perceptual processing in sensory cortex, and also to decrease GABAergic inhibition in limbic areas (leading to an increase in dopamine excitability). We propose that perceptual distortions and hallucinations induced by ketamine blocking of NMDARs are generated by alternative signaling pathways, which include increase of excitability in frontal areas, and glutamate binding to AMPA in sensory cortex prompting Ca++ entry through voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCCs). This mechanism supports the thesis that glutamate binding to AMPA and NMDARs at sensory cortex mediates most normal perception, while binding to AMPA and activating VDCCs mediates some types of altered perceptual states. We suggest that Ca++ metabolic activity in neurons at associative and sensory cortices is an important factor in the generation of both kinds of perceptual consciousness.

The Brazilian version of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Clinician rating scale (NPI-C): Reliability and validity in dementia

ABSTRACT Background: Patients with dementia may be unable to describe their symptoms, and caregivers frequently suffer emotional burden that can interfere with judgment of the patient's behavior. The Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Clinician rating scale (NPI-C) was therefore developed as a comprehensive and versatile instrument to assess and accurately measure neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in dementia, thereby using information from caregiver and patient interviews, and any other relevant available data. The present study is a follow-up to the original, cross-national NPI-C validation, evaluating the reliability and concurrent validity of the NPI-C in quantifying psychopathological symptoms in dementia in a large Brazilian cohort. Methods: Two blinded raters evaluated 312 participants (156 patient-knowledgeable informant dyads) using the NPI-C for a total of 624 observations in five Brazilian centers. Inter-rater reliability was determined through intraclass correlation coefficients for the NPI-C domains and the traditional NPI. Convergent validity included correlations of specific domains of the NPI-C with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Index (CMAI), the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD), and the Apathy Inventory (AI). Results: Inter-rater reliability was strong for all NPI-C domains. There were high correlations between NPI-C/delusions and BPRS, NPI-C/apathy-indifference with the AI, NPI-C/depression-dysphoria with the CSDD, NPI-C/agitation with the CMAI, and NPI-C/aggression with the CMAI. There was moderate correlation between the NPI-C/aberrant vocalizations and CMAI and the NPI-C/hallucinations with the BPRS. Conclusion: The NPI-C is a comprehensive tool that provides accurate measurement of NPS in dementia with high concurrent validity and inter-rater reliability in the Brazilian setting. In addition to universal assessment, the NPI-C can be completed by individual domains. © International Psychogeriatric Association 2013.

Conceptual and Experimental Directions for Analyzing Superstition in the Behavioral Analysis of Culture

This paper examines the notions of illusions and beliefs, discussing some advantages offered by the study of these phenomena based on the concepts of superstitious behavior, superstition and superstitious rules. Among these advantages, the study highlights the possibility of researching these relationships in different levels of analysis, not only at the individual level, focusing on cultural level, this paper presents Cultural Materialism as an anthropological proposal for the consideration of these phenomena on the cultural level and based on adaptive principles, besides it discusses the experimental analysis of cultural practices and points Out how they can help to understand how people in groups behave such as they are being effective in the control of the surrounding environment (when, sometimes, in fact, they are not). The paper offers an integrative proposal which makes easier behavior analysts' dialogue with social psychologists and offers some routes from cultural analysis of illusions and beliefs.

Visual hallucinations in dementia with Lewy bodies: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study

BACKGROUND: The aetiology of visual hallucinations is poorly understood in dementia with Lewy bodies. Pathological alterations in visual cortical excitability may be one contributory mechanism. AIMS: To determine visual cortical excitability in people with dementia with Lewy bodies compared with aged-matched controls and also the relationship between visual cortical excitability and visual hallucinations in dementia with Lewy bodies. METHOD: Visual cortical excitability was determined by using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to the occiput to elicit phosphenes (transient subjective visual responses) in 21 patients with dementia with Lewy bodies and 19 age-matched controls. RESULTS: Phosphene parameters were similar between both groups. However, in the patients with dementia with Lewy bodies, TMS measures of visual cortical excitability correlated strongly with the severity of visual hallucinations (P = 0.005). Six patients with dementia with Lewy bodies experienced visual hallucination-like phosphenes (for example, seeing people or figures on stimulation) compared with none of the controls (P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Increased visual cortical excitability in dementia with Lewy bodies does not appear to explain visual hallucinations but it may be a marker for their severity.