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Through eight experiments this thesis investigated the divergence in children’s abilities in the domain of tool making. Despite being excellent tool manufacturers following full instruction, children displayed great difficulty in innovating novel tools to solve problems. Experiments 1 to 3 found four-to-seven- year-olds’ tool-innovation difficulty to be a robust phenomenon that extended to new tasks requiring different tools made by a variety of methods and materials. Experiments 3 and 4 aimed to discover whether some tool-innovation tasks are harder for children than others. Together these experiments suggested that the difficulty of tool innovation is due to the type of transformation required. Experiments 5 to 8 investigated why children find tool innovation so difficult. Experiments 5 and 6 ruled out singular executive functions as limiting factors on children’s performance. Experiments 7 and 8 found that young children have great difficulty in generating and coordinating the components of a problem even if aspects of the task are highlighted for them. Overall this thesis led to the conclusion that tool-innovation difficulty is due the ill-structured nature of the task. Additionally this thesis provides new definitions and frameworks with which to study tool-related behaviour that will benefit both the developmental and comparative literatures.

This study explores the tension between text and image in the fashion spreads published in three magazines since 1980: The Face, Arena and Vogue. It takes as its starting part Roland Barthes' axiom that the magazine is 'a machine for making Fashion' and pursues his thesis that it is through 'represented clothing', rather than real garments themselves, that the meaning of Fashion is connoted. But it also contests his idea that the Fashion system is a vacuous or trivial form of signification, and in exploring both the verbal and pictorial elements of fashion spreads aims to uncover how they intersect with wider cultural events. The material under discussion has been arranged into three separate parts. Each one has its own discursive framework and diverse methodological perspective, yet it is also dialectically related to the others in a wider argument concerning the construction of the body in word and image in contemporary fashion photography. Part One serves to provide an overview of the evolution of the three chief titles consulted, considering the social, economic and aesthetic factors that have been instrumental in forging an identity for fashion photography since 1980. At the same time, it examines the preoccupation with a postmodern treatment of time and history in various spreads and assesses whether iconocentrism ipso facto renders fashion photography devoid of any deeper meaning. Part Two builds on this argument by analysing the ideas propounded in Roland Barthes' Systeme de la Mode, chiefly the distinction he makes between written clothing (le vetement ecrit) and image-clothing (le vetement-image), in the context of debates on logocentrism. Here I assess whether Barthes' predilection for written clothing is both viable and relevant when it comes to making sense of the symbolic content of represented clothing with particular reference to a fashion spread called 'Amoureuse' from Elle (June 1958). I also evince the same spread along with more contemporary examples to assess the way that Barthes deals with sex and gender in Systeme de la Mode. Part Three consolidates this exploration of gender and fashion by concentrating on the intense interest in sex and the body that has subtended much fashion imagery between 1980 and 1996. At this point, I deal with the objectification of female and male sexualities by mobilising the central tropes of the 'girl' and the phallic body respectively. In the process, I raise a diverse and complex intersection of related issues concerning identity formation and otherness, power, and visual pleasure. Thus I examine the investment that different producers and spectators might have in the fashion image: male and female; straight and gay; and white and non-white. In particular, I draw heavily on the psychoanalytical theories of Freud and Lacan, as well as more recent writing by Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Judith Butler and Diana Fuss.

The clothes and domestic textiles of the sixteenth century were, next to food, one of the absolute necessities for humankind to survive. This study examines the different types and constructions of textiles closely, using an historical approach, reading original documentation and viewing the scarce fragments of remaining examples. Due to the class of society being considered and the fragility of the textiles, other rare samples, from beyond the sixteenth century needed to be considered to try and assemble a true picture of the textiles available. Agriculture, demography, geography and history have all been drawn upon. The lack of actual samples and the chasm in information regarding these forgotten items of daily living have been continually assessed and evaluated. Other themes addressed include: the relationship of the yeoman in society through sumptuary law; their respect for and association with nature for raw materials; and innovation in improving their skills. Practical attempts to reveal an authentic colour palette of the yeoman world, although not conclusive, have permitted a fresh approach for further enquiry. This research includes detailed worksheets and various hand woven samples which support the practical element of this study, giving a valuable foundation for further investigation. This original work will be of educational value in portraying this sector of society, so easily overlooked because of the grandeur of the sixteenth century nobility. The samples provide tactile experiences reinforcing, the need of textiles to be 'fit for purpose'. Many skills from this period have been lost to future generations, only recreations based on balanced and empiric judgements will help evaluate the of these forgotten fabrics

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The goal of this thesis is to investigate the manufacture of metalworking ceramics in late prehistoric Scotland (ca 1000BC – AD800) from the perspective of ceramic technology and with the aim to reconstruct social and material trajectories. This has been implemented through the use of an integrated analytical methodology, interpreted by developing current theories on technology. Previous studies of metalworking ceramics in Scotland have rarely paid full attention to ceramic technology; research has instead focused on metallurgical issues such as metal identification and material morphology. This is central for answering questions regarding metallurgical processes, but fails to answer important questions regarding the technology and manufacture of the ceramic material. The successful production of moulds and crucibles requires that a craft specialist has expert skills in the preparation and firing of clay as well as understanding of the process and design of metal casting. This makes metalworking ceramics an important resource for investigating variation in individual skill and experience, cultural traditions, and scale of production. The main focus is on moulds and crucibles, but parallels, both in terms of method and theory, are made to other types of metalworking ceramics and pottery. The technological relationship between pottery and metalworking ceramics is therefore a vital link in the assessment of production and technological traditions. In addition, clays from a number of sites have been sampled, with the goal to monitor the utilization of clays for the production of different ceramic materials. Materials from nine primary sites, from Traprain Law (East Lothian) in the south to Mine Howe (Orkney) in the north, are central to the discussion of ceramic technologies. The context of casting and crafts from further sites in Scotland and beyond has been essential in the reconstruction of casting production in the late prehistoric period. Developing from ideas of technology as an active process, this study has investigated the collection and preparation of clays to make different ceramic materials. This investigation has employed a range of analytical techniques frequently applied to the study of archaeological ceramics, including ceramic petrography, Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-Ray Spectrometry and X-Ray Diffraction. The focus has been on technology; studies of provenance are auxiliary to the broader questions. It is a central conclusion of this work that the production of metalworking ceramics saw a development towards a more specialised function and technology during the late prehistoric period, and that this development was closely related to material traditions, to some extent transcending wider social trajectories. This research, highlighting particular and general technologies, has showed that the study of ceramic technology of moulds and crucibles can be a valuable resource for the study metallurgical production and technology.