Recorded Music Industry Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Recorded Music Industry - Assignment Example In so doing, it will make use of two strategic widely accepted strategic management techniques, namely PESTLE analyses and Porter's Five Forces Model. This report will end with the presentation of the identified industry's identified opportunities and threats. PESTLE Analysis stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental which represents the important aspects affecting the operation and strategic direction of a business organisation and the whole industry. This strategic management tool gains wide acceptance among managers and industry analyst because it offers an extensive identification of the environmental factors that affects an industry. The past years have witnessed the rapid integration of economies into a global village due to the various political agreements. It should be noted that both geographical and political boundaries are disappearing with the creation of trade agreements, free trade zones, regional blocs, and economic zones. This rapid globalisation facilitates the influx of goods and services within geographic borders at lower tariffs, duties, and other trade boundaries. This is coupled with the free flow of capital especially in developing countries where foreign direct investments are warmly welcomed with financial and non-financial incentives. These policies which are instituted to promote globalisation have crucial implications for the global music industry. These enabled large music labels to penetrate profitable markets in other countries and allow the free flow of music formats such as CDs and MP3s from one location to another (Dolfsman 2000). 2.2. Economic One of the most significant developments in the global music industry is the rise of the former developing economies like China, India, and other Latin American countries. It should be noted that the rapid growth in these nations are strongly indicated by the rise in gross domestic product and per capita income. Currently, China is the fastest growing economy in the world, posting a GDP growth rate of 10.7% during 2006 (GDP Growth 2007). With this rapid growth, the Chinese economy is eyed by various business organisations as a profitable business venue. Economic growth also signals higher disposable income for customers which can further trigger and enhance spending in the consumer sector. 2.3. Social The internet technology has been warmly embraced by customers around the world. According to the latest data from InternetWorldStats.com, worldwide internet penetration is at 16% as of January 11, 2007. Asia accounts for the largest portion of this population with the large share increase from China. Usage growth has been escalating, posting a growth rate of 202.9% during the eight year period 2000-2007 (Internet Usage Statistics 2007). Similarly, the number of global mobile phone users is also in an uptrend. It is reported that the number of mobile phone subscribers have increased by 25% during 2004, 2005, and 2005. However, experts forecast that this trend in increments will slowly decelerate in 2007. According to iSuppli, mobile phone users will be growing at slower rates of 12.8% and 9.6% in 2007 and 2008,

Explain Biblical Ideas About the Goodness of God Essay Example for Free

Explain Biblical Ideas About the Goodness of God Essay Throughout the bible the goodness of God is shown in many ways, the bible presents God as being morally perfect, and everything that he is or will ever be is also presented as morally perfect; The Bible presents God as benevolent, an all loving figure. It displays this in a number of ways throughout the Bible, the first and possible the most important way is in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Genesis states that everything that God creates is â€Å"Very good†; When God created the world in the Genesis creation story he commanded various things. â€Å"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light, and God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness â€Å". (Genesis 1:3-4). The authors of the bible when praising God do so because he provides reason for it. The creation of animals, plants and waters are all necessary for the sustainment of life, and religion, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth and God said, See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. (Genesis 1:28-29). Some Christians believe that there is still goodness like God’s around us today in the form of stewardship. We look after our world to improve it so we can pass it on to the next generation. Another way in which the bible shows Gods goodness is; Christians believe that God’s goodness is shown in his son Jesus, and his sacrifice in the name of God. Jesus came to earth as God in human form, he done this to experience the lives of his people. God thought it was all well and good requesting people to follow rules but because he cares he wanted to experience the lives of his believers and the difficulties they incur so he sent Jesus. Jesus was the ideal of moral goodness for humanity; he displayed the right way in which people should treat each other and how to worship God, and this was recorded and passed onto future generations by it being retold in the bible, even today people can still read it and gain knowledge of Gods sacrifice. The form of good described in the bible is very different from Platos form of good; Platos form of good was perfect and it didnt exist on Earth it existed in the realm, making it a concept and not personal to anyone, Platos form of good doesnt take an interest in situations or in life, it just simply exists, where as the idea of Gods good in the bible focuses almost entirely on moral behaviour. It is concerned that humanity should be making the right choices to life by and always aims to be good. Plato’s form of the good is perfect, but because it doesn’t physically exist what ever goodness is on earth is only of copy of the ideal thus making it imperfect when it is practiced. So whatever you think you are doing is good, it is not. However God believes that everyone can be morally good thus living their lives accordingly. As soon as God creates humans he gives them rules of follow, they are to take responsibility for the earth he has created and not take from the tree of knowledge. This shows that he cares not for worship being their main duty, but he takes an interest in their lives. Gods goodness is also shown through his love in the bible, God gives humans free will, to make their own moral decisions but he clearly sets out what is right and what is wrong. However he doesn’t force them into obeying those rules, he is loving and lets them choose for themselves, this is an act of love. He knows that because he has made man in his image (Genesis 1:27) they are like God and they know what is expected of them. Even thought they haven’t been socialised they still know what is morally right. Plato would agree with this statement because he believes we all have knowledge of ideal forms from birth. God commands things to be good because he is omniscient and knows all. So everything that he commands will be perfect, good and loving.

Exploring Amanda of The Glass Menagerie Essay -- Glass Menagerie essay

Exploring Amanda of The Glass Menagerie      Ã‚  Ã‚   Tennessee Williams has a gift for character. Not many playwrights do, and even fewer possess the unique ability to craft a character as paradoxical and complex as Amanda Wingfield. In The Glass Menagerie, Amanda is a very difficult character to understand because of her psychological disposition. Williams realizes this and provides the reader with a character description in hopes of making the character more accessible to meticulous analysis.    AMANDA WINGFIELD the mother. A little woman of great but confused vitality clinging frantically to another time and place. Her characterization must be carefully created, not copied from type. She is not paranoiac, but her life is paranoia. There is much to admire in Amanda, and as much to love and pity as there is to laugh at. Certainly she has endurance and a kind of heroism, and though her foolishness makes her unwittingly cruel at times, there is tenderness in her slight person. (Williams 781)    â€Å"Before the first lines are spoken Amanda's complexity is established†(Falk 126) by the nuances a... ...4. Falk, Signi. "The Southern Gentlewoman." Modern Critical Interpretations Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie. ed. Harold Bloom. NY: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. Jackson, Esther Merle. The Broken World of Tennessee Williams. Madison: & of Wisconsin P, 1965. Parker, R.B., ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Glass Menagerie. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1983. Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. Masterpieces of the Drama. Ed. Alexander W. Allison, Arthus J. Carr, Arthur M. Eastman. 5th ed. NY: Macmillan, 1986. 779- 814.

Cinema and its impact on our lives Essay

Respectable members of the examination board, let me introduce my topic in which I would like to speak on the cinema art. Keypoints of my topic are the following: cinema art as a phenomenon, its history, development and its influence on the society. The motion pictures have a great impact on our life. Indeed, the movies are truly an art of our time – they were born and achieved a great development in the 20th century, and now they demand the serious consideration as well as the other arts. Everybody knows that cinema is the greatest invention in the world, but not many people know the history of cinematography, which is long and interesting. So, I want to say a few words about it. The history of moving images goes back to more than one thousand years. December 28, 1895, it’s the date, which is considered to be the birthday of world cinema. The Lumiere brothers created their films for the first time. The 1st film they showed was â€Å"The Arrival of a Train at a Station†. Moving pictures seemed so real that the audience was frightened to death by the train rushing at them from the screen. It was the first time the term ‘cinà ©matographe’ was used, formed of the Greek words ‘kinà ©ma’ (movement) and ‘graphein’ (to write, to draw, to inscribe). Nowadays there is no real doubt that the movies has become a powerful force in contemporary life. We can’t imagine our life without cinema. Besides pleasure and opportunity to relax and forget our everyday troubles it gives us a lot of useful information. Cinema plays a very important role in the development of the human society. Good films teach people to love and respect each other, give them new ideas and make them think about the things they have not thought about before. Cinema is a new art, but also it is a very popular entertainment nowadays.

Psychological Disorders Essay

Psychological Disorder Analysis This psychological analysis is about Maria a 42 year old Hispanic female who comes into the mental health clinic complaining of feeling jumpy all of the time, she has trouble sleeping and is enable to concentrate on her work as an accountant. These symptoms are causing problems for her at work. There can be many causes for her symptoms but to get to the root of her issue a clinical assessment, diagnoses, and proper treatment for her disorder will be submitted. Maria comes into the clinic complaining of having trouble sleeping, feeling jumpy all the time, she has trouble concentrating on her work which seems to be causing an issue. A clinical interview is done first on Maria to attain some background information. Clinical interviews questions are 1. What brings her to the clinic? 2. When did these feelings start and did an event trigger them? 3. Do these feelings last long? 4. What is her relationship with her parents? 5. What is her relationship with her siblings? 6. What type of work does she do? 7. What are her romantic relationships like? 8. What was her childhood experiences like? 9. What makes her happy? 10. Does she have any medical problems or medication she is taking? A possible disorder is causing her symptoms. Because information was not given concerning her background, family or social life Maria’s symptoms coincide with Dysthymic Disorder with major depression (University Of Phoenix, 2007). Dysthymic Disorder is known as double depression (Comer, 2011). It has symptoms of chronic and low level depression which reduces one’s ability to function. Some individuals with Dysthymia experience insomnia, or hypersomnia, poor appetite and overeating. They also experience poor concentration or have difficulty making decisions. Some fail to attend to daily hygiene, some experience low energy and low self esteem which cause them to overlook their daily duties or job responsibilities (University Of Phoenix, 2007). Most say they have been unhappy or sad all of their lives which cause them not maintain healthy relationships (University Of Phoenix, 2007). Dysthymia also causes changes in feeling, thinking, and physical well-being (University Of Phoenix, 2007). Dysthymic disorder share symptoms with major depression. Both disorders share symptoms such as sleep difficulties, shyness, and social withdrawal; poor work performance,  irritability, and conflict with family and friends (University Of Phoenix, 2007). The main difference between the two disorders is the intensity and duration of the disorder. With major depression symptoms are more severe such as the individual may be so depressed they cannot get out of bed and have thoughts of suicide whereas with Dysthymia the depression is more muted where the person is able to function on some level, he or she may be getting out of bed, but they may not groom themselves (University Of Phoenix, 2007). The other difference is major depression needs episodes that last for at least two weeks whereas dysthymic disorder symptoms persist for at least two years (University Of Phoenix, 2007). Major depression is also common with minorities. Minority groups that live below poverty or come from family wh ose environment was impoverished tend to suffer from depression in higher numbers (Comer, 2011). Gender also plays a role in major depression women are twice as likely as men to receive a diagnosis of depression (Comer, 2011). To assess her case the DSM-IV is used. According to what Maria says her symptoms meet the criteria on the DSM-IV. Maria must display two of her symptoms for a period of 2 weeks or longer (University Of Phoenix, 2007). Maria did not indicate in this case study how long she had been experiencing symptoms. The case study did not indicate Maria’s dress condition or hygiene neither did it indicate that she was shy or socially withdrawn. Maria may have developed dysthymic disorder through a behavioral process called learned helplessness. (University Of Phoenix, 2007). During an experiment dogs were placed in a cage with barricades and were exposed to a stimulus light which was followed by a shock (University Of Phoenix, 2007). They learned quickly through classical conditioning to fear the light (University Of Phoenix, 2007). In phase two of the experiment the shock was turned off and when the first group of dogs was exposed to the light they jumped over the barricade jumping to safety (Comer, 2011). When the second group of dogs encountered a large barrier they could not jump from the fear producing light to safety. When the light came on they ran around the cage barking and when they discovered escape was impossible they lay down and whimpered (University Of Phoenix, 2007). In ph ase 3 of this experiment all the barriers were removed, and the dogs could escape easily however, when the light came on the dogs that had been trapped made no effort to leave the cage, instead they lay down and whimpered (University Of Phoenix, 2007). What the experiment revealed is the dogs learned that even though they can escape nothing they can do will improve their conditions so in effect the dogs learned to be helpless (University Of Phoenix, 2007). Because Maria is Hispanic the multicultural perspective plays a role. Because of social norms, family structure, and background this should be all taken into account with minorities. Maria probably grew in an impoverish environment. Research shows that Hispanics are more likely to live a poorer environment that White American (Comer, 2011). Maria may feel that her life was precondition to remain this way even though she has made a life for herself as an accountant. Just like the dogs in her thinking she feels nothing she can do will change her conditions, even though she has opportunities to improve her life she has learned to be helpless which makes her sad and depressed which are symptoms of the disorder (University Of Phoenix, 2007). Multicultural research also shows that prejudice and discrimination against multicultural groups leads to higher anxiety and depression in minorities (Comer, 2011). Other probably causes for Maria’s disorder is a biological imbalance or hormonal imbalance like those seen in major depression. Biological theorist believes abnormal behavior as an illness is brought on by a malfunctioning organism in the brain or brain chemistry (Comer, 2011). The brain is made up of billions of nerve cells called neurons (Comer, 2011). When an electrical impulse reaches a neuron it is stimulated to release a certain chemical called a neurotransmitter which travels to receptors (Comer, 2011). These receptors travel to other neurons telling them to fire or not fire (Comer, 2011). Neurotransmitters play a key role in carrying information through the brain. In Maria’s case her neurotransmitters may be defective causing her symptoms (Comer, 2011). A hormonal imbalance can also trigger depressio n (Comer, 2011). A woman’s biological life changes as she ages triggering different hormone levels (Comer, 2011). Although hormonal changes cannot alone cause depression alone important social and life events that occur with puberty, pregnancy, or menopause can (Comer, 2011). To treat dysthymic disorder biological treatments such as psychotherapy and medications like Prozac and Tofranil have proven to be helpful in reducing symptoms (University Of Phoenix, 2007). A variety of psychotherapeutic approaches can work as well. Cognitive behavioral therapy can challenge Marias unrealistic ideas,  pessimistic expectations and self-critical evaluations (University Of Phoenix, 2007). Therapy can help her to have a more positive outlook on her life, and can help her to prioritize both opportunities and challenges concerning her life (University Of Phoenix, 2007). Multicultural treatments such as culture-sensitive therapy can be used in which the therapist addresses issues faced by minority groups (Comer, 2011). In addition behavioral oriented therapy can help her adapt better coping skills and help her communicate more effectively with friends and coworkers (University Of Phoenix, 2007). In this case study Maria went to the mental health clinic complaining of having trouble sleeping, feeling jumpy all the time, an inability to concentrate on her work as an accountant. Interview questions were asked which lead to a diagnosis of dysthymic disorder with major depression. Probable causes for her disorder are rooted in a neuro chemical imbalance or a learned helplessness from her environment (University Of Phoenix, 2007). Treatment for dysthymic disorder is psychotherapy and medication to reduce the symptoms (University Of Phoenix, 2007).

puritanism and Romantism essays

puritanism and Romantism essays Puritan moral teachings in American Romanticism Abstract: Under the influence of American Puritanism, American Romanticism favors Christian moral teachings. Puritan notions as self-restraint, sin and salvation weigh greatly and serve as Romantic authors ¡Ã‚ ¯ moral measurement. Taken as a specific example, American leading Romantic Nathaniel Hawthorn can illustrate this impact explicitly. Special emphasis will be put on his novel the Scarlet Letter. A brief biographical introduction about the author can help to know where his Puritan thinking pattern comes from. In his masterpiece the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorn shows his belief in original sin and redeem through professions and painful life, which is obviously from Puritan sources. Other works are also to be mentioned in a combined effort with former text to strengthen the central ideal. Keywords: Puritanism, Romanticism, moral teachings, self, sin, salvation, Nathaniel Hawthorn, the Scarlet Letter 1.1. Source and characteristics of American Romanticism. Early in the nineteenth century, the attitudes of America ¡Ã‚ ¯s writers were shaped by their New World environment and an array of ideas inherited from the romantic traditions of Europe. A new American Romantic was pluralistic; yet it frequently shared certain general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and man ¡Ã‚ ¯s societies a source of corruption. (ÃŽÃŽÂ °ÃƒË†ÃƒÅ 199054) 1.2. American Puritanism moral teachings that have influenced American Romanticism. Puritan doctrine taught that all men are totally depraved and require constant self-examination to see that they are sinners and unworthy of God's Grace. Because man had broken the Covenant of Works when Adam had eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, God offered a new covenant to Abraham's people who held that election to Heave...

What does it mean for items to be thematically linked Essays

What does it mean for items to be thematically linked Essays What does it mean for items to be thematically linked Paper What does it mean for items to be thematically linked Paper It has been suggested that people tend to use a variety of specific strategies when performing a range of cognitive tasks. Cognitive tasks may require the thinker to use a number of different types of strategies whilst performing the following types of mental activities such as thinking, reasoning, categorisation, induction, conceptual combination, metaphor and analogies. In addition to this point the thinker may depend on or select one of many different strategies in order to achieve the cognitive task at hand. Two examples of the different types of strategies used by adults when performing cognitive tasks such as categorisation might include comparison or integration. It has been suggested by some that people tend to compare for similarity amongst taxonomically related items, where as they integrate knowledge about the items when they are thematically linked (Wisniewski Bassok, 1999). Since the brain is responsible for processing both thematic and taxonomic categories then it might depend on the problem (variations in stimuli and task instructions) being faced by the thinker as to what strategy the brain selects to solve the problem. Many cognitive theorists are interested in the mental processes involved in how people organise their knowledge of concepts in order to make efficient use of them in the future. This may be why concepts have been considered by some to be the building blocks of knowledge. Furthermore concepts might become the categories into which our mind classifies perceptions (Lakoff, 1987 [], Lamberts Shanks, 1997 [1]). However concepts in order to belong to a category need to be processed according to related features of the new item (concept) as well as existing concepts within a category. Therefore an item might be assessed according to associations with other category items. Theorists who are interested is these associations have proposed that items can be assigned to categories by way of thematic links or taxonomic links. In order to understand this view it would seem necessary to clarify the distinctions between thematic and taxonomic relations in an attempt to understand why people might tend to draw upon these different strategies whilst judging whether two or more items are related. But what are the conditions that induce such thematic links to take place? The former question is one that has remained the focus of a great deal of research within the areas of conceptual and categorical research. Until recently it was thought that children predominantly relied upon thematic relations when faced with a sorting task and that adults instead used taxonomic relations when faced with the same task. In particular two influential theorists, Inhelder and Piaget (1964 [3]) used methods like object sorting tasks to investigate conceptual development. Object sorting tasks involve the presentation of an array of objects with differing shape, size, colour and type, of which the participant must sort into coherent groups. Studies varied in the type of objects used and the instructions given to participants for example participants might be instructed to put things that go together or to put things that are alike together. Most frequently it was found that children up until the age of eight years old tended to sort items according to thematic relations. Where as beyond the age of eight similarity and taxonomic category relations tended to be the strategy used for sorting (Markman 1981, 1983 [1]). Since many past studies seemed to highlight that children heavily utilised thematic relations whilst developing categories and organising their knowledge which has also been considered as a judgement error, an important question now remains as to whether adults continue to make judgment errors through their use of thematic relations when making conceptual judgments (Lin, 1996 Markman 1989) and if so then what is the reason why this occurs? Ultimately is it an error at all? This essay intends to clarify some of the prior notions by providing evidence from a number of different studies, which have highlighted that adults do tend to make use of thematic links whilst performing cognitive tasks. To begin with contained within this essay will follow an explanation of what it means for items to be thematically linked. In particular this essay will pay attention to the cognitive task of categorisation, which involves judging whether concepts belong within the same category. Ultimately the work of Lin and Murphy in their series of ten studies will be discussed along side the work of Wisneiwski and Bassok in their series of three studies. Both studies have been chosen in order to highlight two interesting opinions regarding the nature of thematic relations used by adult thinkers. A person whilst performing a cognitive task such as categorisation could use a variety of strategies such as to distinguish an items similarity as a basis for determining whether two or more items belong within the same category. Alternatively a person (adult thinker) could utilize a strategy known as integration (Wisniewski Bassok 1999). Within the idea of integration the categoriser may concentrate on some features as well as ignoring others. For example when categorizing two objects one might pay attention to features like having different yet complementary roles within the same event or scene which is considered necessary for thematic linking whilst ignoring that they do not share a common property which is considered to be useful for linking items taxonomically. Hence a common feature that distinguishes a taxonomic category from a thematic category is that a taxonomy has a hierarchical structure, where as a thematic category does not. This structure contains groups of items of the same kind; therefore the members share a common feature or purpose. In addition to this a taxonomy may have a general subject matter such as natural kinds, artefacts or artificially constructed stimuli and this subject matter might consist of a stable structure of members ranging from specialist (super-ordinate), followed by basic to not so well known (sub-ordinate) examples. However a category might also or instead be thematically related; this knowledge usually becomes evident if a concept is taxonomically unrelated. For instance, when a person considers two or more items such as objects, people and other entities that co-occur or interact together in space and time, they could pay attention to the way in which the two items complement each other within a particular scene or event whilst ignoring whether the items share any common properties through class inclusion in other words taxonomic relations. To illustrate the former point: two items such as, chalk and board could be said to share a thematic relation, as they both tend to be used with a classroom. Where as they do not seem to share a taxonomic relation for instance they are not of the same kind nor do they share any common properties. Wisniewski and Bassok highlighted a similar idea within their paper entitled what makes a man similar to a tie. In line with the prior example it could be argued that a man is not similar to a tie (the items man and tie do not share a taxonomic relation) as a man is a human and a tie is not, a tie is made out of material and a man is not and so on. Thus if one were to consider that a man might wear a tie or that a tie signifies masculinity then based upon that thought one might consider a man similar to a tie through a thematic relation. As mentioned earlier the general assumption within the research on adults use of concepts is that they tend to use taxonomic relations as a way of distinguishing two or more items. It has since been argued that one of the reasons for this might lie within the design of the studies used to test categorisation strategies. Further to this it has also been proposed by Lin and Murphy that older children and adults might not commonly use similarity but might instead utilise thematic relations as a basis for categorisation. Therefore it might be that both adults and children do make use of thematic relations when making conceptual judgements. Could it be that the characteristics of the stimuli being considered by the thinker seem to act as a prerequisite for the process to be used regardless of age? In line with this suggestion is another view provided by Wisniewski and Bassok: Often in daily life people are not given task instructions but rather, processing is determined by properties of the stimuli around them. Therefore Wisniewski and Bassok might argue that when an adult is considering the properties of two or more stimuli they might ask themselves a number of questions like what makes an item similar to another and what sets it apart from another item? For instance a person (adult) when performing th e task of moving house might methodically sort out the things that they are going to take with them in order to make the process of unpacking easier later down the line. The logic applied to this scenario of sorting might differ from person to person depending on the strategy selected at the time by the categoriser. In this example the thinker might assess the items in terms of features like whether they look similar therefore grouping only those items that could be considered as looking the same whilst excluding items with similar uses. Where as another person might assess the items in terms of whether they are used within the same environment. For example knives despite having several uses might go in a box with many other kitchen items, as they tend to be stored within the kitchen environment. Forks might also be packed alongside knives as they too are found within the kitchen and also tend to be used with a knife during the event of eating dinner. Furthermore knives and forks are thematically linked within the event of an eating situation which usually takes place within a kitchen therefore they are not only found but also used within then kitche n. One of the few experiments conducted specifically to look at the issue of whether adults tend to prefer to choose thematically related concepts to form a category even when a taxonomic alternative exists was carried out by Lin and Murphy. In Lin and Murphys series of experiments they used a forced choice category construction tasks to investigate the prior notion. The tasks involved presenting participants with a triad of item names that referred to people, objects and events. At the top of the triangle was the target item, below that were the two other items; one of which was a thematic match and the other the taxonomic match. The participant had to choose which items goes best with the target to form a category. In one example the target item was cat with a taxonomic match of lion and a thematic alternative of litter box. Therefore the participant had to choose whether lion or litter box was the best match to form a category with cat. Lin and Murphy found contra to previous findings that almost twice as many adults within their study preferred to construct thematic categories even with the presence of taxonomic alternatives. In another series of three studies carried out by Wisniewski and Bassok (1999 [3]), the centre of attention was upon the effects of stimulus compatibility in relation to processing. These studies were designed to follow on from the Bassok and Medin (1997 [3]) study. Wisniewski and Bassok (1999 Experiments 1-3 [3]) focused on how well an item matched with another item in relation to the type of process that was selected by the thinker. In the first experiment, which looked at comparison versus integration, Wisniewski and Bassok varied items in four ways for example 1) taxonomically related and thematically related, 2) neither taxonomically nor thematically related, 3) taxonomically related but not thematically related, 4) thematically but not taxonomically related. Participants were instructed either to provide or not to provide a reason as to why they rated the pairs as being similar. They found that stimulus compatibility had an influence on the particular process selected by the thinker whilst performing a similarity judgment exercise. In addition, Wisniewski and Bassok paid particular attention to the processes of integration and comparison by suggesting that easily alignable items (taxonomic) should invoke the process of comparison where as poorly alignable items (thematic) should increase the chance of items being integrated. Furthermore they found contra to prior opinion that task instructions might not be the over-riding factor responsible for inducing the correct process for the thinker to select. The task required the participant either to provide an explanation or not to provide one whilst considering the similarity within pairs of objects. Participants were often found to integrate thematically related items even though they were instructed to compare for similarity. Where as in an additional (Wisniewski Bassok 1999, Experiment 3 [3]) study participants compared taxonomically related items whilst looking for thematic relatedness. Given that adults use of taxonomic categories has received a lot more research compared to thematic usage amongst adults it has thus been assumed that use of taxonomic categories indicates a more powerful and advanced way of thinking (Markman Callanan, 1983 [2]). A gap seems to exist since the same amount of research has not been committed to the study of adults usage of thematic relations. It may be that thematic relations amongst members within a thematic category might provide a basis for the thinker to extend knowledge to other category members. Lin and Murphy subsequently tested this notion in a series of experiments In essence the evidence discussed within this essay seems to highlight firstly that adults do indeed make use of thematic relations not only within an experimental situation but also in everyday life and secondly the need for more research to be carried out into other areas of adults use of thematic relations in particular social situations. As Markman (1981) suggested people tend to spend less time on cataloguing objects whilst trying to generate taxonomies to which objects belong and more time on organising their experiences. Therefore it might seem reasonable to assume that adults who spend time organising their experiences have an increased expertise within the field of relating experiences (scenarios and events) thematically.