Romeo Vitelli's Blog, page 7

According to an influential account of aging effects on reading, older adults (65+ years) employ a more “risky” reading strategy compared to young adults (18–30 years), in which they attempt to compensate for slower processing by using lexical and contextual knowledge to guess upcoming (i.e., parafoveal) words more often. Consequently, while older adults may read more slowly, they might also skip words more often (by moving their gaze past words without fixating them), especially when these are of higher lexical frequency or more predictable from context. However, this characterization of aging effects on reading has been challenged recently following several failures to replicate key aspects of the risky reading hypothesis, as well as evidence that key effects predicted by the hypothesis are not observed in Chinese reading. To resolve this controversy, a recent study presents in the journal Psychology and Aging presented the results of  a meta-analysis of 102 eye movement experiments comparing the reading performance of young and older adults. Researchers focused on the reading of sentences displayed normally (i.e., without unusual formatting or structures, or use of gaze-contingent display-change techniques), conducted using an alphabetic script or Chinese, and including experiments manipulating the frequency or predictability of a specific target word. Meta-analysis confirmed that slower reading by older compared to younger adults is accompanied by increased word-skipping, although only for alphabetic scripts. Meta-analysis additionally showed that word-skipping probabilities are unaffected by age differences in word frequency or predictability effects, casting doubt on a central component of the risky reading hypothesis. We consider implications for future research on aging effects on reading. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Camille Claudel was, without a doubt, one of the most brilliant artists of her generation.  And she paid the price for it.

Born in 1864 in Fere en Tardenois in the French province of Picardy, Camille was the second child of a middle-class family.   Although the family moved frequently during her childhood, Camille developed a passion for art at an early age and became an accomplished sculptor by the age of thirteen.   By 1881, she was training at the Academie Colarossi in Paris under the supervision of eminent sculptor, Alfred Boucher.  Whatever plans Camille had for her own future as an artist changed dramatically when she first met Auguste Rodin in 1883.

It's hard to say for sure when the two of them became lovers but Camille was quickly established in Rodin's studio and began a professional and personal collaboration with him that would last for fourteen years.   Although they never lived together, Camille's relationship with Rodin alarmed her family (especially her mother who had never approved of Camille's artistic ambitions) and she was eventually forced to leave the family home as a result.   While Camille contributed greatly to Rodin's career as a sculptor (many of the pieces that Rodin supposedly produced during their years together were likely her work), the opposite was certainly not the case.   There are few surviving signed works produced by Camille during her years with Rodin despite it being the most fertile period of his artistic career.  

Auguste Rodin was unsupportive in other ways as well.   Details of their personal life together are limited but there is evidence to indicate that she became pregnant as many as five times.  Whether the pregnancies were terminated by abortion or the infants given up for adoption, the end result was the same.   Since Rodin was already living with Rose Beuret and showed no intention of ever leaving her,  marriage was out of the question and he certainly had no intention of being monogamous with Rose or Camille.    Throughout the years when he and Camille were lovers, there was a steady stream of models and other women fascinated by his growing fame as an artist.   At least one noted biographer described Auguste Rodin as a "serious collector of interesting women".  

By 1898, Camille had terminated her relationship with Rodin, both personally and professionally (although there is some indication that the had stopped being lovers some time previously).    Working independently for the first time in her life was a major hardship her.  Although the prosperous Rodin could afford to maintain three studios with a stable of artisans working under him, Camille had to struggle to pay her own bills.    The attitudes of the time towards independent women, especially women who actually worked for a living, needed to be faced as well.   Her unconventional lifestyle alienated her from her mother and sister (her father remained supportive, though).   Despite praise from most of the prominent critics of the time, Camille's artistic output remained slim.   The long years during which she had only produced art under Rodin's name worked against her and few patrons took an interest in her work.   While Rodin became increasingly rich and famous, Camille sank further into poverty.   Aside from a possible romance with composer Claude Debussy, there were no other men in Camille's life.

As she grew older, Camille became increasingly unstable.  In 1905, she deliberately destroyed many of her statues and began disappearing for long periods of time.    She also developed acute paranoia and accused Rodin of conspiring against her and stealing her ideas.   While she was reasonably lucid when working on her art, Camille became a recluse and often neglected her personal hygiene.  She also became an animal hoarder and kept numerous cats in her tiny, unkempt studio.   With shutters firmly drawn to keep out sunlight, Camille's entire existence focused on her art and her cats.  This eccentric lifestyle (complete with erratic outbursts and suicide attempts) certainly alarmed her family although her father continued to support his wayward daughter. 

Three days after her father died in 1913, Camille's brother Paul and her mother made arrangements to place her in the psychiatric hospital of Ville Evrard in Paris.   Two orderlies had to break into Camille's studio and drag her to the hospital by force.  The reasons for committing Camille remain controversial although the spectacle she made of herself when she was hospitalized likely didn't help her cause.  While she was certainly mentally unstable (and possibly suffering from schizophrenia), independent women who refused to accept societal restrictions on sexuality were often committed to hospitals during that era on the grounds of insanity.    In Camille's case, she settled down quickly and even her doctors came to insist that she was well enough to be released.  Despite attempts at a family reconciliation, her mother remained adamant that she be kept in the hospital. 

With the outbreak of World War I, female patients in Ville Evrard were moved to safer quarters in an asylum near Avignon.  The certificate admitting Camille to Montdevergues Asylum described her as suffering from a "systematic persecution delirium mostly based upon false interpretations and imagination".   Despite repeated attempts by Camille's doctors, the artistic community, and the press to have Camille released from hospital, her family refused to consider the possibility.   Her mother and sister also refused to visit her in hospital and actively discouraged others from visiting her as well.  After Camille's mother died in 1929,  her brother continued to act as her guardian and steadfastly refused to allow her release.  Over the years, visitors typically described Camille as being lucid and insisted on her release but Paul Claudel opposed them.  Although he visited her every few years, he always referred to her in the past tense whenever discussing her life or art with friends.  Camille Claudel died on October 19, 1943 after spending three decades in the asylum.  Her family refused to claim the body and she was eventually buried in a communal grave in the Montfavet cemetery.  Only hospital staff attended the funeral service.  

Despite her long hospitalization, Camille's reputation as a brilliant artist remains secure.   While only ninety statues, paintings, and sketches survived her attempts at destroying them,  they show ample evidence of her artistic genius.  Paul Claudel, long notorious for his role in confining his sister, organized the first major exhibition of her work in 1951 and fascination with her complex life  has spurred the publication of various biographies over the years.     In 1988, a full-length biography of Camille Claudel's life was released starring Isabelle Adjani as Camille and Gerard Depardieu as Rodin.   Based on a biography by Paul Claudel's great-granddaughter,  the film transfers much of the blame for Camille's later breakdown on Rodin himself.  While feminists have criticized the film for downplaying the role that Camille's family played in the later tragedy of her life, it received numerous awards (including two Academy award nominations). 

Many of Camille's statues continue to be displayed at the Musee Rodin in Paris and traveling exhibitions have been held at numerous art galleries and museums around the world.   Rodin's various sculptures of Camille are on display as well.  Her artwork continues to fetch record prices at art auctions and she is regarded as being one of the greatest women artists of all time.  Camille Claudel will not be forgotten.

A new study in the Psychiatric Rehabilation Journal compared physical functional measures of people with severe mental illness (SMI) to standardized geriatric values. Method: Retrospective analysis of physical functioning sample data of middle-aged people with SMI was compared to standardized older adult data. Compared: Sit to Stand Test (STS; n = 68), 6 min Walk Test (6MWT; n = 71), and Single Legged Stance Test (SLS; n = 55). One sample t tests were computed, using standardized values for older adult healthy populations, to identify differences for the group. Results: STS (M = 11.3 SD = 5.36), for the sample were comparable to 80–89 year old. The 6MWT values were significantly worse than 80–89-year-old range for women, t(28) = −2.88, p < .01, and men, t(40) = −5.32, p =. 00. SLS values for women and men were comparable to the 70–79-year-old range in the general population. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: People with SMI have functional fitness levels that are older than chronological age, and should be assessed regularly for physical functioning to support independent living. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

While Andy Warhol may have popularized the "everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes " meme,  it was hardly original.  Long before the modern era,  newspaper stories often did an excellent job of spreading the kind of stories that could propel obscure individuals to instant fame for a variety of reasons.   Though this often involved bizarre mishaps or significant personal achievements,  anyone with a strange new talent could frequently capitalize on it to achieve, if not fame and fortune, at least a certain name recognition.  For a while, anyway.

And so it was with Angelique Cottin, a.k.a. the "Electric Girl".  

Though her exact birth date is not recorded,  Angelique's early years seemed unremarkable enough.  Growing up as part of a  poor farm family in the northwestern French village of La Perrier, she likely had little education aside from the basic schooling that all rural children received at the time.   But that all changed on January 15, 1846, at 8 pm in the evening while 14-year-old Angelique was doing her customary weaving with other girls in her village.   As reports later describe, the oaken frame on which Angelique was working suddenly began jerking so violently that none of the girls could hold it in place.   Alarmed by what was happening, the girls ran off to tell their parents.   When the skeptical adults ordered them to resume their spinning, nothing unusual occurred until Angelique sat down as well.  Which was when the jerking movement began again.   

When the same thing happened on the following morning,  villagers accused Angelique of being possessed and insisted that she be taken to the local priest to see if an exorcism was needed.  Fortunately, the priest was sensible enough to dismiss the fears of the villagers and decided to observe what was happening directly.   Among the strange happenings, he observed was Angelique's chair suddenly jerking away from her whenever she tried to sit down.  Also, the very touch of her hand seemed enough to repel the table at which she was sitting.  Impressed by what he saw, the priest then referred her to the local physician who, along with the girl's parents, brought Angelique to Paris to be tested scientifically.  Among the scientists who agreed to participate was prominent astronomer Francois Arago who arranged for the testing to be carried out at his observatory.   There, along with several other savants,  Arago conducted different tests which were later included in a report presented to the Paris Academy of Sciences. 

The report, which later received international newspaper coverage, made the following conclusions:    "1st.   It is the left side of the body which appears to acquire this sometimes attractive, but more frequently repulsive property.   A sheet of paper, a pen, or any other light body, being placed upon a table, if the young girl approaches her left hand, even before she touches it, the object is driven to a distance as if by a gust of wind.  The table itself is overthrown the moment it touches her hand, or even by a thread which she may hold in it.   2nd.  This causes instantaneously a strong commotion in her side which draws her towards the table.  3rd.  As had been observed, the first day, if she attempted to sit, the seat was thrown far from her with such force that any person occupying it was carried away with it.  4th.  One day, a chest upon which three men were seated, was moved in the same manner.  Another day, although the chair was held by two very strong men, it was broken in their hands."    There were additional points (thirteen in all), but I think you get the idea.

While Arago ruled out magnetism or electricity in trying to explain what was happening during Angelique's demonstration, he eventually concluded that she was somehow generating a new force "unknown to science".  Another savant added that "under peculiar conditions, the human organism gives forth a physical power which, without visible instruments, lifts heavy bodies, attracts or repels them, according to a law of polarity, and overturns them."   Also, bear in mind that spirit mediums were already gaining considerable popularity across North America and Europe with table-tipping and spirit-rapping being commonly reported during countless seances.   Newspapers reporting on Angelique Cottin and the apparent verification of her remarkable powers had no trouble making a connection between her case and assorted spiritualist claims already being made.



Against the advice of the scientists themselves, Angelique's parents, who likely saw their daughter's strange talents as a way of making money, started making arrangements to have her repeat her performance before a paying audience.  Before this could happen though, Arago called on the Academy to conduct more stringent testing to determine what was actually happening    Responding to Arago's  requet, the Academy appointed a formal committee of esteemed scientists to make the investigation.  And it was quite a committee.  Along with Arago, the other committee members were: Henri Becquerel (a pioneer in radioactivity and a future Nobel laureate), zoologist, and author Isidore Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, physicist Jacques Babinet, physician Pierre Francois Olive Rayer, and psychiatrist Etienne Pariset.   

Conducted at the Jardin des Plantes at Paris' Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (National Museum of Natural History) just days after Angelique's previous test, the tests devised by the appointed committee were specifically intended to rule out any possibility of fraud.   This time, however, the Committee was less than impressed by what Angelique could apparently accomplish.   About the only real effect, she could demonstrate was having the chair she was trying to sit on being forcibly thrown back as previous witnesses had attested.  Unfortunately, the Committee wasn't so easily fooled.   As they noted in their final report, "Upon serious suspicions arising as to the manner in which these movements occurred, the committee has decided that they shall be submitted to an attentive examination. It frankly announces that the investigations tended to discover the fact that certain habitual manœuvres hidden in the feet and hands could have produced the observed fact."  

Apparently unnerved by Angelique's failure to repeat her previous performance, not to mention the accusation of fraud, her guardians suddenly announced that her powers had failed.  Certain that Angelique's powers would return in time, they offered to notify the Academy so they could resume the testing.   But, as the Committee noted in their report, "Many days have passed since, yet the committee has received no intelligence. We have learned, however, that Mdlle. Cottin is daily received in drawing-rooms where she repeats her experiments."   The report ended with the recommendation that "the communications transmitted to the Academy on the subject of Mdlle. Angélique Cottin should be considered as never having been sent in."   Being scientists, they couldn't accuse Angelique of being a fraud but their conclusion came as close to this as they could get.

And, that was pretty much it for the Electric Girl.   Months later, Angelique's parents announced that her powers were gone for good and she faded back into complete obscurity.   Still, despite the science behind magnetism and electricity becoming better understood,  the public fascination with Electric Girls remained as strong as ever.   Hence the popular appeal of Lulu Hurst, aka the Georgia Wonder,  whose brief career during the 1880s had her amazing audiences with her apparent feats of impressive strength (using powers gained during an electrical storm, according to her publicity agents).  Though Hurst would later admit that all of her stunts were due to basic physics, she claimed that her powers were genuine at the time.   Despite Hurst's popularity inspiring various copycats, none would ever match her popularity, or Angelique Cottin's, for that matter...

While children claiming mysterious powers don't attract the attention they once did given our more skeptical age, instant celebrities seem more common than ever thanks to the power of social media.  Perhaps these instant celebrities should pay closer attention to Angelique Cottin's story and how rapidly that fame can slip away.   People are always searching for the Next Big Thing, whether it involves Electric Girls or American Idol winners, and today's marvel becomes yesterday's news much sooner than anyone realizes.

Given the numerous cases of drowning that occurred in 18th century London and the lack of any proper system of saving drowning victims at that time,  the need for a new organization to teach resuscitation techniques seemed desperately needed.    Inspired by a rescue organization in the Netherlands that had been founded years earlier, Dr. William Hawes and another physician, Thomas Cogan, founded the Royal Humane Society in 1774 to promote training in first aid and artificial respiration for drowning victims.   Hawes and Cogan hit on a rather novel scheme to advertise the potential benefits of artificial respiration.  They offered a cash reward to anyone who would bring them a drowning victim that had been taken from the water anywhere within thirty miles of London (Hawes paid the reward out of his own pocket).  The Royal Humane Society would later serve as a model for similar organizations around the world.

As part of their effort to improve existing medical techniques, Hawes and Cogan approached the famous surgeon, John Hunter,  for guidance.  A highly distinguished medical researcher and surgeon, Hunter was an obvious choice.    Being blunt and argumentative by nature, Hunter had no problem challenging existing views on when death occurred and was forthright in presenting the fledgling Humane Society (and later the Royal Society) with his own views on resuscitation.  

Doctor John Hunter was certainly the right man for the job.   A brilliant anatomist and researcher, his medical expertise was in constant demand.  Among Hunter's patients were Benjamin Franklin (who had consulted him for bladder problems) and Adam Smith (hemorrhoids).  Hunter's unorthodox methods made him the envy of all his fellow surgeons and his own outspoken manner earned him any number of enemies as well.   Among other things, he also became an authority on venereal disease and even went so far as to inoculate himself with tissue taken from a patient to test his theories.  Hunter contracted syphilis and gonorrhea as a result and, unfortunately, used his infection to argue that syphilis and gonorrhea were essentially the same disease (they aren't and this misconception would linger for decades). 

Though the medical science surrounding resuscitation was still in its infancy,  Hunter's insights were certainly inspired.  He stressed that drowning victims should not automatically be assumed dead and that "only the suspension of the actions of life has taken place".    In treating the drowning victim, Hunter recommended aggressive measures including using a double bellows to force air into the drowning victim's lungs, applying stimulating vapours to the nose, keeping the body warm, and a vigorous massage in essential oils.  When all else failed, Hunter advised the use of electrical stimulation to the heart.  He also argued that resuscitation should be viewed scientifically with a notebook on hand so that the physician could carefully record what worked and what didn't in reviving the patient. 

To test his own resuscitation methods, John Hunter turned to a different source.  Through his years of dissecting executed criminals, Hunter knew that hangmen were often fairly sloppy with their workmanship on the gallows.   This was long before the invention of the "Marwood drop" which ensured that convicts died quickly and cleanly of a broken neck.   During Hunter's day,  convicts being executed were usually only given enough rope to slowly strangle to death as their oxygen was cut off.   Even then, death was not assured and there were cases of executed convicts waking up after being believed dead.     The notion that an executed criminal could be successfully revived appealed to Hunter and a famous case then working its way through the English courts provided him with the perfect opportunity.

The Reverend William Dodd was never your typical clergyman.  Ordained an Anglican priest in 1753, his flamboyant lifestyle and manner made him a popular figure in British society  and earned him the nickname of the "Macaroni Parson" (macaroni was a popular slang term for fashionable).  While being forced to leave England after disgracing himself by attempting to use bribery to gain a lucrative position for himself, Dodd returned to England after a short time abroad.  Unfortunately, Dodd's extravagant lifestyle and financial problems continued and he was later caught out in a scheme in which he attempted to defraud a wealthy former pupil of thousands of pounds to clear his own debts. 

Since forgery and fraud were capital offenses in those days, Dodd was quickly arrested and went on trial for his life.    He confessed to the crime and was sentenced to death despite pleas for leniency from prominent figures such as Samuel Johnson.   There was a last-ditch appeal for a Royal Pardon (including a petition with 23,000 signatures) but Dodd went to the gallows on June 27, 1777.   

Given that William Dodd had been an early supporter of the Humane Society, John Hunter was well aware of the details of the case.   As Dodd was being led up the gallows at Tyburn, Hunter and his Humane Society colleagues were waiting at an undertaker's establishment with all the tools needed for the revival.    While Hunter himself never wrote about his attempt at reviving Dodd, a fellow Royal Society member, Charles Hutton, later provided an account of what happened next.

Despite Hunter's attempts to get Dodd's body as soon after the execution as possible, the huge number of people in attendance made that impossible.  Due to the pressing crowds,  Dodd was left hanging for at least an hour before being taken down while the hearse took an additional forty minutes to deliver the body to the waiting Hunter.   Although Hunter and his colleagues were dismayed by the delays, they proceeded to work on Dodd's body with "all means possible for the reanimation".  Unfortunately, the attempt was a total failure and Hunter eventually admitted defeat.    Dodd's body was released for burial and that was the end of it.

Except...

For years after Dodd's execution, there was a lingering rumour that Hunter hadn't failed and that Dodd had been successfully revived.   The press recorded various "Dodd sightings" throughout the United Kingdom and stories of the "Macaroni Parson" cheating the gallows persisted.  As recently as 1794,  a Scottish newspaper reported that Dodd was living in Glasgow "happily beyond the reach of his enemies".

As for John Hunter, he moved on to other things.   Along with his legendary fame as a surgeon, he also amassed one of the most amazing collections of medical and natural history specimens in Europe (including the skeleton of the Irish giant, Charles Byrne) which he put on display in a custom-built teaching museum at his home in Leicester Square.   Following Hunter's death in 1793 (due to an angina attack likely linked to his syphilis-weakened heart), his collection of papers and specimens were purchased by the government and presented to the Company of Surgeons (now the Royal College of Surgeons).   Visitors to the Royal College of Surgeons at London's Lincoln's Inn Fields can still see Hunter's vast collection (as part of the College's even more extensive museums). 

It is quite an experience for those with a taste for the macabre.

Late-life depression (LLD) increases risk for dementia and brain pathology, but possibly this is only true for one or more symptom profiles of LLD. In 4354 participants (76 ± 5 years; 58% female) from the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility (AGES)-Reykjavik Study, recently published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, researchers identified five LLD symptom profiles, based on the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (no LLD (57%); apathy (31%); apathy with emptiness (2%), mild LLD (8%) and severe LLD (2%)). Cox regression analyses showed that severe LLD, mild LLD and apathy increased risk of dementia up to 12 years, compared to no LLD. Additionally, hippocampal volume loss and white matter lesion increase, were assessed on 1.5 T MR images, at baseline and after 5 years follow-up. Only severe LLD showed increased WML volume over time, but not on hippocampal volume loss. WML increase over time mediated partially the relation between mild LLD and dementia but not for the other symptom profiles. It appears that hippocampal atrophy and LLD are independent predictors for dementia incidence, whereas for mild LLD the risk for dementia is partially mediated by WML changes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract