S.I.M.P.L.E. control and measurement of auditory events

A SIMPLE interactive programming language is shown to be useful for psychological research involving auditory stimuli and responses. It is helpful in recording spoken stimulus tapes with program control of event sequencing and timing; it can control on-line interactive auditory and bisensory experiments; and it can calibrate the stimulus durations and pause times for auditory events.     

Once More. . .

Short notices of reissued books:
Ken Parry (ed.), The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity
Rowan Williams, Arius
Colin E. Gunton, Becoming and Being: The Doctrine of God in Charles Hartshorne and Karl Barth
Leszek Kolakowski, Religion. If There Is No God. . .: On God, the Devil, Sin and Other Worries of the So-Called Philosophy of Religion     

Once More . . .

The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings , Third Edition, Bart D. Ehrman, Oxford University Press 2004 (0-19-515462-2), pp. xxxvi + 506, Pb £21.99
A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages , Walter Ullmann with a new introduction by George Garnett. Routledge 2003 (0-415-30227-7), pp. xix + 339, Pb $19.99
Showing of Love , Julian of Norwich, translated by Julia Bolton Holloway, DLT 2003 (0-232-52503-X), pp. xxxiv + 133, Pb £9.95
The Encyclopedia of Christianity , Volume 3 (J-O), Erwin Fahlbusch et al. , Eerdmans 2003 (0-8028-2415-3) / Brill 2003 (90-04-12654-6), pp. xxix + 918, Hb £65/$100
Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and its Legacy , Revised Edition, Richard L. Rubenstein and John K. Roth (eds), Westminster John Knox Press 2003 (0-664-22353-2), pp. xi + 499, Pb $29.95     

ONCE MORE. . .

Books reviewed:
A.J. Heschel (ed. and trans.), G. Tucker. Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations. Reviewed by David R. Blumenthal
Robert Murray. Symbols of Church and Kingdom: A Study in Early Syriac Tradition. Reviewed by Augustine Casiday     

Th.o.m.a.s.: an exploratory assessment of Theory of Mind in schizophrenic subjects

A large body of literature agrees that persons with schizophrenia suffer from a Theory of Mind (ToM) deficit. However, most empirical studies have focused on third-person, egocentric ToM, underestimating other facets of this complex cognitive skill. Aim of this research is to examine the ToM of schizophrenic persons considering its various aspects (first- vs. second-order, first- vs. third-person, egocentric vs. allocentric, beliefs vs. desires vs. positive emotions vs. negative emotions and how each of these mental state types may be dealt with), to determine whether some components are more impaired than others. We developed a Theory of Mind Assessment Scale (Th.o.m.a.s.) and administered it to 22 persons with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia and a matching control group. Th.o.m.a.s. is a semi-structured interview which allows a multi-component measurement of ToM. Both groups were also administered a few existing ToM tasks and the schizophrenic subjects were administered the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale and the WAIS-R. The schizophrenic persons performed worse than control at all the ToM measurements; however, these deficits appeared to be differently distributed among different components of ToM. Our conclusion is that ToM deficits are not unitary in schizophrenia, which also testifies to the importance of a complete and articulated investigation of ToM.     

The Work of J. G. A. Pocock

J. G. A. Pocock, Barbarism and Religion. Vol. 1: The Enlightenments of Edward Gibbon, 1737–1764. Vol. 2: Narratives of Civil Government. Cambridge, England, Cambridge University Press, 1999, xi+339 pp. and xiv+422 pp., $90.00, 2 vols., ISBN 0 521 77921 9.