No abstract

In this Methods Showcase, we outline a workflow for running behavioral experiments online, with a focus on linguistic experiments. The workflow that we describe here relies on three tools: OpenSesame/ OSWeb (open source) provides a user-friendly graphical interface for developing experiments; JATOS (open source) is server software for hosting experiments; and Prolific (commercial) is a platform for recruiting participants. These three tools integrate well with each other, and together they provide a workflow that requires little technical expertise. We discuss several challenges that are associated with running online experiments, including temporal precision, the ability to implement counterbalancing, and data quality. We conclude that these problems are real but surmountable, and that in many cases online experiments are a viable alternative to laboratory-based experiments.

In this Methods Showcase, we outline a workflow for running behavioral experiments online, with a focus on experiments that rely on presentation of complex stimuli and measurement of reaction times, which includes many psycholinguistic experiments. The workflow that we describe here relies on three tools: OpenSesame/ OSWeb (open source) provides a user-friendly graphical interface for developing experiments; JATOS (open source) is server software for hosting experiments; and Prolific (commercial) is a platform for recruiting participants. These three tools integrate well with each other, and together provide a workflow that requires little technical expertise. We discuss, and illustrate through an example study, several challenges that are associated with running online experiments, including temporal precision, the ability to implement counterbalancing, data quality, and issues related to privacy and ethics. We conclude that these challenges are real but surmountable, and that in many cases online experiments are a viable alternative to laboratory-based experiments.

Much modem interpretation of Greek Tragedy uses an a-temporal, synchronic approach which judges the text autonomously, seeing it simply as a work of art which can be interpreted in many different ways and from many different viewpoints. Interpretations can be made from the differing points of view of psychoanalysis, structuralism, post-structuralism, semiotic theory, as well as from more traditionally minded standpoints.? Each writer will stress different aspects of the play under discussion. Some will reach widely divergent or even contradictory conclusions. Some will reach no definite conclusions at all, preferring the looseness of openended and indeterminate interpretation.' Since, however, any great work of the imagination has by its nature the power to go on generating readings, all of these must have a claim on our attention. So we read them all, each of us making our own decision as to which readings have more validity than other$ sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing with what is written; even perhaps in some cases wondering if we and the writer have been reading the same play.$ I This article was written as part of my research work during the first year of a British Academy post-doctoral fellowship held at University College London: I should like to offer my thanks to both institutions. I should like to thank also a number of people who read a draft of this article and made helpful comments: Pat Easterling. Herwig Maehler, John Barron. Patrick Hunt. Bette Wilson. (They are not. of course. responsible for any of the views expressed.) See Charles Segal's /nter/we/in,q Greek Tru,qo&: Myth. Pocrry. Terr (Ithaca and London, 1986) for a useful collection of essays demonstrating how readings of Greek tragedies can be made from a variety of viewpoints. As Segal says in ch. 12 ('Literature and Interpretation: Conventions, History and Universals', 3 9 -7 5 ) : 'As critics and teachers of literature. we swim in baffling currects and cross-currents of approaches, with their conflicting sources in ethics, epistemology. psychology, linguistics. political theory, anthropology. and so on. There i s not one hut several New Criticisms. to say nothing of the old New Criticism.' The book includes a chapter o n the BuXrliai (and the Hippotyto.~) discussed in the light of both psychoanalysis and structuralism: 'Pentheus and Hippolytus on the Couch and on the Grid', 268-93.

Supernumerary, derivative, and ring X chromosomes are relatively common in Turner syndrome females but have been reported rarely in males. To date, less than 10 cases have been published, of which only 2 have been partially characterized in defining the breakpoints and genetic content of the derivative X chromosome. We describe a male with mosaicism for a supernumerary X chromosome (46,XY/47,XY, r(X)) who has multiple congenital anomalies, including features of craniofrontonasal dysplasia (Mendelian Inheritance in Man 304110) and the presence of ectopic female reproductive organs. Using comparative genomic hybridization array mapping, we determined that the derivative X is composed of a 24-Mb fragment that contains the regions Xp11.3 through Xq13.1 and lacks the XIST gene. This is the first report to describe a detailed molecular characterization of a ring X chromosome in a male by comparative genomic hybridization array analysis. We compare the clinical and molecular findings in this patient to other 46,XY, r(X) patients reported in the literature and discuss the potential role of disomy for known genes contained on the ring X chromosome.