The data of the past is congruent with the current psychological trends that face the education system of today. Developmentalists have charted how children construct and revise intuitive theories. In turn, a variety of theories have developed because of the greater use of statistical information that supports probabilistic contingencies that help to better inform us of causal models and their distinctive cognitive functions. These studies investigate the physical, psychological, and social domains. In the case of intuitive psychology, or "theory of mind," developmentalism has traced a progression from an early understanding of emotion and action to an understanding of intentions and simple aspects of perception, to an understanding of knowledge vs. ignorance, and finally to a representational and then an interpretive theory of mind.

The mechanisms by which life evolved—from chemical beginnings to cognizing human beings—are central to understanding the psychological basis of learning. We are the product of an evolutionary process and it is the mechanisms inherent in this process that offer the most probable explanations to how we think and learn.

Bada, & Olusegun, S. (2015). Constructivism Learning Theory : A Paradigm for Teaching and Learning.

// in other words, - interpretive shift is unconscious and brought about through practice. It is a shift in ontology, habitus and many things happening at once and is also Polyani's tacit learning

• Key Observation
• The interpretive shift occurs when:
  • perception of the world (what they notice and experience is altered
  • how they interpret their perceptions is also altered

// - new cognitive patterns imposed upon the same sensory information - bring about attentional shift - resulting in the noticing of new patterns

//

• Key Definition
  • Interpretative Shift (Luhrmann)
  • can be initiated through ritual practice // We can build interventions based upon encouraging ritual practice that causes interpretative shifts

While capital punishment in Britain did not cease until the 20th century, the last woman hanged was Frances Kidder in 1868. The same year saw the last public hanging in Britain.

Published in 1880, this story likely takes place decades prior, given the indication of the narrative format, making it possible that Priscilla could have indeed been subject to hanging.

From The Law and the Lady to The Woman in White, Collins’s career-long engagements with British law in his fiction conveys a complex ethical code. Heroes commit crimes as often as the villains. For more discussion on British law in Collins and its social and biographical context, see Pykett.

This story hints as Collins’s contemporary liberal views of sexuality and marriage. Suggestive of an illicit liaison (at least in terms of an officer engaging with a investigative subject), Collins reifies Victorian morality by engaging the two to be married but then disrupts that again by the revelation that Priscilla murdered Zebedee. The narrator’s love for the criminal Priscilla, however, may suggest a movement beyond Victorian social conventions. Collins’s work, as always, is morally complex. For more information on Collins’s own affairs, see the Peters biography in the further reading tab.

Collins’s innovations in detective fiction, a mode of literature to which he contributed significantly, crucially includes his use of the amateur female sleuth. While Marian Halcombe of The Woman in White is credited as the prototypical female detective, characters like Priscilla and Anne Rodway (“The Diary of Anne Rodway”) illustrate Collins’s interest in these figures. Given more agency than their traditional female counterparts, Collins’s sleuths straddle the line between criminality and justice. See Kestner in the further reading tab for more discussion of Collins and female detectives in the nineteenth century.

Gothic and sensational literature presents gendered abuse variety of manners, but Collins’s work often frames unwanted sexual advances and sexual assault as villainous. There is a myriad of scholarship on Collins’s engagement with gender and sexuality, including works by Haefele-Thomas, Heller, O’Neill, and Pykett. See citations in the further reading tab.

Medicine and its abuse features in several of Collins’ works, as well as throughout sensational and Gothic literature. As in the case here, it often carries a gendered connotation. See Talairach for more discussion on medicine in Collins in the further reading tab.

A yellow complexion, while certainly a racialization, does not denote a specific race. Collins also uses yellow to describe the Italian Count Fosco in The Woman in White. More likely, it is a signifier of foreignness, perhaps from a warm climate.

Anxieties and interest in mesmerism (also known as animal magnetism) and hypnotism compounded in the nineteenth century, featuring in sensational novels and occult media. Here, as in many cultural instances, a woman is (or believes she is) subject to its influence. While Mrs. Zebedee has a history of sleepwalking, her book “The World of Sleep” suggests an ambiguous influence suspiciously similar to mesmerism. For further discussion of Collins and gender and mesmerism, see Pearl in the further reading tab.

Linguistic. Creole: 1. (n.) a descendant of white European settlers (esp. Spanish or French) who is born in a colonized country 2. (n.) Any person of mixed ancestry born in a country previously colonized by white Europeans.

Interpretive Deluc could be a white Creole or mixed race, according to 19th century racial conventions.

Madness (or the lack thereof) is a crucial component to many of Collins’s sensational works both as characterization and plot device, perhaps most prominently in The Woman in White. For further discussion on mental illness and gender in Collins, see Heller in the further reading tab.

Sleepwalking also features heavily in The Moonstone (1868) during the climatic revelation of the moonstone’s thief. For further discussion on somnambulism in Collins, see Ayoub in the further reading tab.

Though Priscilla is deemed sober, the influence of drugs and alcohol are prevalent throughout Collins’s oeuvre. Collins himself suffered from opium addiction. Addiction is showcased in Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868). See Peters for biographical information on Collins’s addiction.

Should be credited to Stanley Fish.

Should be credited to Stanley Fish

Should be credited to Stanley Fish.

And this is the point.