3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/45
Browse
6 results
Search Results
Item A comparison of working memory profiles in HIV-infected and HIV-exposed uninfected children(2016) Milligan, RobynConventional psychometric measures, such as the IQ score, have significant limitations in addressing the assessment needs of linguistically and culturally diverse communities. In response, working memory assessment has been identified as a promising alternative to these constraints. It is a better predictor of scholastic success than IQ, and is essential in the acquisition of fundamental literacy and numeracy concepts in school beginners. While there is a lot of theoretical and empirical support for working memory performance in typically developing populations, less is known about its functioning in the context of atypical development; particularly in children who are infected with, or exposed to HIV in utero. This study compared the working memory (AWMA) and general neuropsychological functioning (NEPSY-II) of 273 South African school beginners (6-8 years). The sample consisted of both HIV-infected (n = 95), and HIV-exposed (n = 86) children, as well as an uninfected, unexposed typically developing control group (n = 92). Significant differences were found between the three groups on measures of working memory and general neurocognitive functioning, where the processing component of working memory appeared to be particularly impaired in the two HIV-affected atypical groups. A within-group analysis of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each of the three groups showed that both storage and processing skills in the verbal domain appeared to be general weaknesses, while visuospatial working memory was a relative strength. The former is believed to be influenced by issues of linguistic test bias in the multilingual sample, while the latter is posited to be a consequence of this very multilingualism, which affords these children an executive functioning advantage. The two HIV-affected samples also showed significant deviations in the structure of their working memory when compared to the typically developing control group. However, within-group structural comparisons of a number of working memory models showed that the four factor model comprising separate components of the verbal and visuospatial simple and processing components of working memory was still favoured, even in conditions of atypical development. The study contributes to the growing body of working memory research by presenting the working memory profiles of HIV-infected and HIV-exposed, uninfected children. It also assists in identifying HIV-exposed, uninfected children as a vulnerable and under-researched clinical group which could benefit from further intervention, as well as foregrounding working memory as a less biased alternative in the assessment of paediatric cognitive functioning.Item Memory, slavery, nation: an analysis of representations of slavery in post-apartheid cultural and memory production(2016-02-29) Cloete, Nicola MartheThe continuing role of South Africa’s past in the reconstruction of present-day identities is an area of study and investigation that crosses political, social, cultural and racial boundaries. It is also a field which, despite the post-apartheid political period and South Africa’s change to a democratic dispensation, has not necessarily provided neat categories, instances or guidelines into which identity-formation can fit. As a result, studies abound which attempt to track, respond to, reflect on and reposition how this history of slavery, colonialism and apartheid may be viewed in relation to present-day society and socio-political circumstances. This dissertation considers how and why representations of slavery emerge in discussions of what constitutes a national discourse of race and reconciliation in postapartheid South Africa. I argue that these resurgences of interest in slavery are tied to the symbolic work that the multiple memories of slavery are able to do in the postapartheid period. The study is broadly situated in a globally emerging interest in historic formations of slavery packaged in popular culture, and the current increase in human rights politics dealing with re-emerging and new forms of slavery. As a result, this study adopts an interdisciplinary approach to both the content and methodological focus of how representations of slavery re-emerge in post-apartheid South Africa; providing a consideration of the phenomena of power in relation to discursive and cultural constructions of slavery, memory, identity and nation-building. Each of the areas considered (wine farms, museum and memorial practices and walking tours), suggest that the memory of slavery is able to function in relation to the immediate needs of those proposing and implementing the remembering and remembrance.Item The role of the hippocampus in REM sleep and short-term memory in rats(2015-01-13) Chalmers, Bernard MalcomItem The movement of transition: trends in the post-apartheid South African novels of English expression(2009-03-04T10:28:05Z) Ezeliora, Nathan OsitaAbstract The period of South Africa’s political transition in the late 1980s and 1990s also saw a number of interesting developments in the field of cultural production, especially within the province of literature. A number of literary scholars, critics of all realms, writers, some enthusiasts and adventurers all showed interest in the direction of literature after the repressive years of apartheid. The dominant academic question at the time centred on the possible transition in the thematic and formalistic dimension of the literature of the new South Africa. Scholars and cultural commentators that include Es’kia Mphahlele, Njabulo Ndebele, Albie Sachs, Guy Butler, Elleke Boehmer, Michael Chapman, Mbulelo Mzamane, Andries Walter Oliphant, amongst others, all contributed immensely in the debates that attempted to define the possible direction of the literature after apartheid. This research is concerned with the developments in the Post-Apartheid South African Novels of English expression. Its focus is on how temporal mobility has impacted on cultural production especially as witnessed in the many transformations in the field of literature, particularly the novel as a genre. Using the tropes of memory, violence, and otherness, it examines the novels of writers as varying as André Brink, J.M. Coetzee, Zakes Mda, Zoë Wicomb, and Jo-Anne Richards. At the level of form, the fantastical and the confessional modes of narration are discussed as significant manifestations of the post-apartheid narratives using the novels of André Brink and Jo-Anne Richards respectively. It suggests that, among other things, the post-apartheid novels of English expression are marked by some interesting thematic blocs that include the fascination with land, the artistic display of remorse through the confessional mode, the rekindling of memory and its representation in narrative, the peculiar interest in violence and alterity, the continuing reportage of the urban space and the implications of urbanity on the ordinary citizenry, the recourse to gangsterism, miscegenation and the dilemma of a humankind confined to the psychological spaces of the interstices. Efforts were made in this research to avoid the ‘intellectual apartheid’ often associated with the hermeneutic engagements of the literati previously devoted to South Africa’s literary scholarship. It is for this reason that a more elaborate introductory chapter highlights aspects of the contributions of novelists and scholars that include Nadine Gordimer, Mongane Wally Serote, Lewis Nkosi, Njabulo Ndebele, and the ‘emergent’ ones such as Phaswane Mpe, K. Sello Duiker, Pamela Jooste, among others. An important dimension to this study is that it situates the Post-Apartheid narratives not only within relevant historical contexts, but also develops its argument by drawing immensely from the intellectual culture dominant in South Africa before, during, and after the notorious era of racial separatism. It concludes on the suggestive note that South African writers and literary scholars should attempt to demonstrate a more rigorous interest in locating the creative points of convergence between the aesthetic and social ideals.Item Land as a Site of Remembrance: An Ethnographic study in Barkly East(2007-03-01T12:43:07Z) Nortje, KarenThis thesis is an examination of the ways in which people in Barkly East, a small town in the Eastern Cape, attribute feelings of belonging to the land they own and work. In a country such as South Africa, where the contestation of land is prominent and so integral to the political and social discourse, questions related to the idea of belonging are necessary and important. Significant questions addressed by this thesis are: Who belongs and why do they feel they belong? More importantly, the question of who does not belong, is addressed. In Barkly East a tug of war exists between groups and individuals who want matters to remain constant and those who need the status quo to change. What stands out, moreover, in this community, is its duality on many levels of society, which is played out both consciously and unconsciously. This duality is also manifested through social, racial and economic relations, and is supported by an unequal access to land. This thesis identifies three main elements which contribute to the creation of narratives of belonging in Barkly East. Firstly, history and the perception of history create strong links between personal and communal identity, which in turn reinforces and legitimises claims of belonging. Secondly, hierarchy in terms of gender and race plays an important part in this narration, as some residents are more empowered in this process due to either their gender or race. And three, the connection to the land that people appear to have, plays a definitive role in narratives of belonging. Those who feel they have a heritage in this place also feel a connection to the land. For this reason, land for these people embody, not only the physical space of ‘somewhere to belong to’, but becomes an integral ingredient to the act of belonging and even identity formation.Item Adopting a commercial programme for memory rehabilitiation in traumatic brain injured patients(2007-02-14T12:29:45Z) Strauss, Hermias CorneliusMemory is a collection of systems in the brain that work in conjunction with other systems and modalities to effect encoding, storage, retrieval, and learning of information. It also plays a part in the executive and other higher order functions (Banich, 1997). Patients who suffered a traumatic brain injury frequently have impaired memory functioning and a host of consequential problems as well. Rehabilitation of TBI patients is focused primarily on helping TBI patients to cope with and compensate for their disabilities (Hart, Whyte, Polansky, Millis, Hammond, Sherer, Bushnik, Hanks & Kreutzer, 2003) and one of the most important aspects of rehabilitation is memory (Quemada, Cespedes, Ezkerra, Ballesteros, Ibarra & Urruticoechea, 2003). In this study a commercially available memory enhancement program (Mega Memory® System) was used in an intervention with ten male TBI sufferers to evaluate its effectiveness in rehabilitation of memory. Subjects were assessed before and after the intervention on the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Tests and the Benton Visual Retention Test. Group results on Rivermead did not show any significant improvement of memory functioning, but the Number Correct scores on the Benton did. All subjects showed improvement on different aspects of memory functioning, especially in the domains of memory for everyday events, verbal, figurative, and spatial memory immediately following administration of the program. Overall the changes in memory functioning was not significant.