Book reviews

Clark, M. S. and Fiske, S. T. (Eds.). Affect and cognition: The Seventeenth Annual Cornegie Symposium on Cognition. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1982. Pp. 357. ISBN 0-89859-212-7. £24.00.

Norman, D. A. (Ed.). Perspectives on Cognitive Science. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex. 1981. Pp. 303. ISBN 0-89391-071-6. $19.95

Gollin, E. S. (Ed.). Developmental Plasticity: Behavioral and Biological Aspects of Variations in Development. New York: Academic Press. 1981. Pp. 282. ISBN 0-12-289620-3. £16.60.

Rapin, I. Children with Brain Dysfunction. New York: Raven Press. 1982. Pp. 300. ISBN 0-89004-844-4. $46.50.

Schank, R. C. Reading and Understanding: Teaching from the Perspective of Artificial Intelligence. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1982. Pp. xii + 196. ISBN 0-89859-169-4. £13.95.

Sheehan, P. W. and McConkey, K. M. Hypnosis and Experience: The Exploration of Phenomena and Process. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1982. Pp. 297. ISBN 0-89859-195-3. £17.50.

Burton, A. (Ed.). The Pathology and Psychology of Cognition. London: Methuen. 1983. Pp. 306. ISBN 0-416-30810-4. Hardback, £13.00; paperback, £5.95.

Otto, W. and White, S. (Eds.). Reading Expository Material. London: Academic Press. 1982. Pp. xiv + 303. ISBN 0-12-531050-1. £19.60.

Lerdahl, F. and Jackendoff, R. A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. 1983. Pp. 368. ISBN 0-262-12094-1. £31.30.

Lewis, B. (Ed.). Bioacoustics: A Comparative Approach. London: Academic Press. 1983. Pp. 493. ISBN 0-12-446550-1. £29.50.

Carpenter, T. P., Moser, J. M. and Romberg, T. A. Addition and Subtraction: A Cognitive Perspective. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1982. Pp. 245. ISBN 0-89859-171-6. £14.95.

Le Ny, J-F. and Kintsch, W. (Eds.). Language and comprehension. Amsterdam: North-Holland. 1982. Pp. 358. ISBN 0-444-86538-1.Dfl. 120.00.

Schwartz, B. and Lacey, H. Behaviorism, science and human nature. New York: W. W. Norton. 1982. Pp. 282. ISBN 0-393-01585-8. $19.95.

Cole, P. R. Language disorders in preschool children. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. 1982. Pp. 178. ISBN 0-13-522862-X. £19.75.

Wood, M. L. Language disorders in school-age children. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. 1982. Pp. 156. ISBN 0-13-522946-4. £19.75.

Baddeley, A. D. Your memory: A user's guide. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. 1982. Pp. 222. ISBN 0-283-98929-7. £9.95.

Lass, N. J. (Ed.). Speech and language: Advances in basic research and practice, Vol. 6. London: Academic Press. 1982. Pp. 477. ISBN 0-12-608606-0. £36.40.

Neisser, U. (Ed.). Memory observed: Remembering in natural contexts. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman. 1982. Pp. 433 + xiii. ISBN 07167-1 1371-3. £8.80 (paperback), £18.80 (hardback).

Gentner, D. and Stevens, A. L. Mental models. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1983. Pp. viii + 348. ISBN 0-89859-242-9. £24.95.

Miles, T. R. Dyslexia: The pattern of diculties. London: Granada. 1983. Pp. 225. ISBN 0-246-11345-6. £9.95.

Humphrey, N. Consciousness regained. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1983. Pp. 222. ISBN 0-19-217732-X. £12.95.

Levinson, S. C. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1983. Pp. xvi + 420. ISBN 0-521-22235-4 (Case). £25.00. ISBN 0-521-29414-2 (Paper). £8.50.     

Peer support critical elements and experiences in supporting the homeless: A qualitative study

Peer supporters are individuals with lived experience and are an integral part of health care systems, providing support to those affected by various phenomena such as homelessness and addictions. However, little is known about the critical elements that underpin peer support interventions. This qualitative study sought to understand the critical elements of intentional peer support with a homeless population, voiced by those who provide and/or receive this support. Twenty‐nine participants from 4 different homeless charities in England were interviewed about their experiences of providing/receiving peer support and what they felt were critical factors to its success. Participants defined peer support as an experience‐based relationship, built upon mutual understanding, empathy, and support. Thematic analysis was utilised to in developing 6 themes. Results identified peers' persistence in developing unique experience‐based relationships, providing social support, role modelling recovery, and peers' motivations were perceived as important factors involved in peer support. It was also found that peers described benefitting from helping, such as, undergoing transformative identity developments that helped them to escape homelessness. Through the retelling of their stories, they create meaning and restructure their autobiography, attributing experiences of homelessness as a catalyst for positive changes in their lives. Limitations and future research are discussed.     

Chinese clients' belief systems about psychological problems in Singapore

This study explores Singaporean Chinese clients' beliefs about psychological problems by comparing their beliefs with those of non-clients and professional counsellors. These three samples were asked to indicate the extent to which they would agree with three belief models, the Chinese indigenous model, the Western psychological model, and the other model. It was found that clients and non-clients were more likely than therapists to endorse the indigenous belief model. Amongst the indigenous sub-models, Chinese medicine was the most endorsed across the three samples; and clients and non-clients endorsed Chinese medicine more than therapists did. The indigenous belief model, especially Chinese medicine was endorsed more by Buddhist and Taoist clients than Christian or non-religionist clients; and by clients holding lower educational qualifications.     

Attitude and knowledge changes in collegiate dancers following a short-term, team-centered prevention program on eating disorders

Eating knowledge, nutritional knowledge, and psychological changes among female collegiate dancers were examined before and after a 4-wk. team-centered program on sport nutrition, exercise, and disordered eating consequences. Collegiate female dancers from two NCAA Division I institutions participated in a control (n = 19; M age = 19.1 yr., SD = 1.0) or intervention (n = 21; M age = 19.2 yr., SD = 1.2) group. Measures were administered to both groups before and after intervention to assess eating disorders, depression, and nutritional and disordered eating knowledge. There was a statistically significant increase in scores on nutritional and overall eating disorder knowledge in the intervention group compared to the control group. Mean scores on depression, drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and maturity fears decreased in the intervention group.     

The normatively relativised logical argument from evil

It is widely agreed that the ??Logical?? Argument from Evil (LAFE) is bankrupt. We aim to rehabilitate the LAFE, in the form of what we call the Normatively Relativised Logical Argument from Evil (NRLAFE). There are many different versions of a NRLAFE. We aim to show that one version, what we call the ??right relationship?? NRLAFE, poses a significant threat to personal-omniGod-theism??understood as requiring the belief that there is an omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly good person who has created our world??because it appeals to value commitments theists themselves are likely to endorse. The ultimate success of this NRLAFE will rest on developing a theological ethics of right relationship that rejects as morally flawed the exercise of omnipotence first to sustain horrors and then to redeem them. Yet a vindicated NRLAFE of this sort need not require atheism, but only rejection of the standard conception of God as a personal omniGod.     

Is auditory discrimination mature by middle childhood? A study using time‐frequency analysis of mismatch responses from 7 years to adulthood

Behavioural and electrophysiological studies give differing impressions of when auditory discrimination is mature. Ability to discriminate frequency and speech contrasts reaches adult levels only around 12 years of age, yet an electrophysiological index of auditory discrimination, the mismatch negativity (MMN), is reported to be as large in children as in adults. Auditory ERPs were measured in 30 children (7 to 12 years), 23 teenagers (13 to 16 years) and 32 adults (35 to 56 years) in an oddball paradigm with tone or syllable stimuli. For each stimulus type, a standard stimulus (1000 Hz tone or syllable [ba]) occurred on 70% of trials, and one of two deviants (1030 or 1200 Hz tone, or syllables [da] or [bi]) equiprobably on the remaining trials. For the traditional MMN interval of 100–250 ms post-onset, size of mismatch responses increased with age, whereas the opposite trend was seen for an interval from 300 to 550 ms post-onset, corresponding to the late discriminative negativity (LDN). Time-frequency analysis of single trials revealed that the MMN resulted from phase-synchronization of oscillations in the theta (4–7 Hz) range, with greater synchronization in adults than children. Furthermore, the amount of synchronization was significantly correlated with frequency discrimination threshold. These results show that neurophysiological processes underlying auditory discrimination continue to develop through childhood and adolescence. Previous reports of adult-like MMN amplitudes in children may be artefactual results of using peak measurements when comparing groups that differ in variance.     

Jung's Red Book and its relation to aspects of German idealism

The late nineteenth century saw a renaissance of interest in the thought of the German Romantic philosopher, F.W.J. Schelling. This paper takes Jung's engagement with Schelling and his awareness of Schellingian ideas and interests (notably, the mysterious Kabeiroi worshipped at Samothrace) as its starting-point. It goes on to argue that a key set of problematics in German Idealism - the relation between freedom and necessity, between science and art, and ultimately between realism and idealism - offers a useful conceptual framework within which to approach Jung's Red Book. For the problem of the ideal is central to this work, which can be read as a journey from eternal ideals to the ideal of eternity. (Although the term 'idealism' has at least four distinct meanings, their distinct senses can be related in different ways to Jung's thinking.) The eloquent embrace of idealism by F.T. Vischer in a novel, Auch Einer, for which Jung had the highest praise, reminds us of the persistence of this tradition, which is still contested and debated in the present day.     

Fitts’ Law as a Function of System Dynamics and Target Uncertainty

Fitts’ law was found to hold for discrete movements executed by subjects controlling the velocity of a cursor with a control stick. The slope of movement time versus index of difficulty was approximately twice as large as for a comparable position control system. Target uncertainty also increased the slope of total time versus index of difficulty, and this effect is interpreted in terms of adaptive tuning of the human movement system.