Presentation mode and organizational strategies in young children

Davies and Brown (1978) have reported that significant facilitation to recall and mnemonic organization may be obtained in children as young as four years through the provision of blocked presentation and constrained recall. This result contrasts with a number of previous studies which have failed to find such effects in young children. Two experiments are reported which examine the hypothesis that the positive findings were due to the use of objects rather than the planometric stimuli traditionally employed in such tasks. Experiment 1 replicated the Davies and Brown study in all respects save that line drawings were substituted for objects. The effects of constraint at recall were maintained but the influence of blocked presentation was eliminated. Experiment 2 was also a replication, but this time using photographs of the objects as stimuli. The effects of constrained recall were maintained, though on this occasion blocking also influenced performance but only on the second trial. The results are discussed in terms of the influence of context on the range and effectiveness of retrieval processes exhibited by young children in memory tasks.     

An intrahemispheric integration deficit in dyslexia

In order to investigate the hypothesis that dyslexia may result from a failure of intrahemispheric integration between auditory-verbal and visual-verbal processing, a dichotic listening task and a parallel divided visual field task were administered to a group of dyslexic boys between the ages of 8 and 11 years, and a group of normal control subjects individually matched for age and WISC intelligence. The dyslexics were on average over two years retarded in reading and spelling. Dyslexics exhibited a normal right ear advantage on dichotic listening for digits although lesser right ear advantage was related to reading retardation. In the divided visual field task, the normal controls showed a left visual field advantage for digits which it is argued resulted from a failure in fixation linked to reading habits. Within the dyslexic group greater reading deficiency was associated with relative bilateralization for visual verbal processing. The results therefore support the hypothesis.     

Microcomputer-aided assessment using standard psychometric procedures

This paper describes the opportunities offered by the application of commercially available, inexpensive microcomputers to computer-assisted administration of standard psychometric procedures. The rationale underlying this application and the requirements of software design are discussed. A project based upon the APPLE microcomputer is described, together with an example of the software being developed. Preliminary work and planned development and evaluation are reported.     

A word-finding computer program with a dynamic lexical-semantic memory for patients with anomia using an intelligent speech prosthesis

A computer program for a portable microprocessor has been developed which aids anomic patients in finding words given clues about the target word. Over time the lexical-semantic memory is reorganized automatically depending on the frequency of word usage by an individual patient. Words can be added or deleted to fit the patient's idiosyncratic lexicon. A clinical example is given. The program is being tested with a variety of aphasic-anomic patients with major word-finding difficulties.     

An investigation of the use of nocturnal dream reports as diagnostic indices in the assessment of family problem solving

This study investigated the use of series of nocturnal dream reports to diagnose patterns of family functioning. Five families (twenty one subjects) collected a total of 126 dreams. A Treatment Group consisted of two families undergoing family therapy whilst a Non-Treatment Group, comprising three families, was drawn from a population ranging from severely disturbed to superior family functioning. The manifest content of the dreams was analysed, qualitatively and quantitatively. The presenting problem, case history, therapeutic processes and outcome were unknown to the dream researcher. The family therapist was blind to the dream content and dream analysis. Each family was independently rated by the therapist and the dream researcher. The agreement between the two assessments was highly significant. In addition, the problem areas, family transactions and treatment outcome were correctly identified by the dream researcher. It was concluded that analyses of dream series reflect the problem areas encountered by a family system. Implications for therapeutic strategies are discussed.     

Temporal Grouping Effects in Immediate Recall: A Working Memory Analysis

The presence of temporal pauses during list presentation can markedly improve immediate memory for a sequence of verbal items. A series of experiments analysed this effect using Baddeley's (1986) model of working memory. Experiment 1 showed that the effect of temporal grouping on memory for visual sequences was removed by either articulatory suppression or reciting random digits. Experiment 2 indicated that effects of temporal grouping were insensitive to the word length of the items. Experiment 3 showed that articulatory suppression did not remove the temporal grouping effect for auditory lists. Experiment 4 showed that the temporal grouping effect was insensitive to the phonemic similarity of the items. The effects of concurrent articulation suggest that grouping influences the phonological loop component of working memory. However, the working memory model is insufficiently well specified to account for the insensitivity of grouping effects to word length and phonemic similarity. The main findings could be simulated by a connectionist model of the phonological loop, which invokes a context timing signal (Burgess & Hitch, 1992, in press), This assumed that pauses during list presentation affect the timing signal in a similar way to the pause before list presentation and made some novel predictions.     

Book reviews

Religion and Globalisation. Peter Beyer, 1994 London: Sage Publications 250 pp., £12.95 pb, £37.50 hb ISBN 0–8039–8917–2

The Religious Culture of India: Power, Love and Wisdom. Friedhelm Hardy, 1994 Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions 4, Cambridge University Press xiii + 613 pp. £55.00, US$74.95 ISBN 0–521–44181–1

Judaism and Other Faiths. Dan Cohn‐Sherbok, 1994 Basingstoke: Macmillan Press ix + 186 pp., £40.00 hb ISBN 0–312–10384–0.

Women in Religion Jean Holm with John Bowker, eds., 1994 London and New York: Pinter Publishers 181 pp., £29.50 hb, £9.99 pb ISBN 1–85567–108–5 hb, ISBN 1–85567–109–3 pb

Attitudes to Nature. Jean Holm (ed.) with John Bowker, 1994 London and New York: Pinter Publishers 172 pp., £23.50 hb, £9.99 pb ISBN 1–85567–092–5 hb, ISBN 1–85567–093–3 pb

Sacred Writings. Jean Holm (ed.) with John Bowker, 1994 London and New York: Pinter Publications 201 pp., £29.50 hb, £9.99 pb ISBN 1–85567–106–9 hb; 1–85567–107–7 pb

The Gospel of Buddha. Paul Carus, 1994 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 306 pp., £6.95 ISBN 1–85168–026–8

The New Religious Order: The Passionists and the Option for the Poor. James Sweeney CP, 1994 London: Bellew Publishing 240 pp., £35.00 ISBN 1–85725–105–9

Religions in the UK: A Multi‐Faith Directory. Paul Weller (ed), researched by Rachelle Castle and Paul Weller, 1993 Mickleover, Derby: University of Derby, in association with The Inter Faith Network for the United Kingdom 651 pp., £25.00 (incl. p&p) ISBN 0–901437–06–9     

Book reviews

Redeeming Laughter: The Comic Dimension of Human Experience. Peter L. Berger, 1997 Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter 216 pp., £13.40 (hb) ISBN 3–11–015562–1

Reflections on Sociology and Theology. David Martin, 1997 Oxford: Clarendon Press viii +257 pp., £30.00 ISBN 0–19–827384–3

Wilderness Wanderings: Probing Twentieth‐Century Theology and Philosophy. Stanley Hauerwas, 1997 Oxford: Westview Press/Harper Collins 242 pp., £21.50 (hb) ISBN 0–8133–3349–0

The Longing for Home. Leroy Rouner, ed., 1997 Boston University Studies in Philosophy and Religion, Vol. 17 Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press 248 pp., US$34.00 (hb) ISBN 0–268–01310–1

The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach. Ralph W. Hood, Jr., Bernard Spilka, Bruce Hunsberger & Richard Gorsuch, 1996, 2nd edition New York, London: Guilford Press 546 pp., US$70.00, £45.00 (hb) ISBN 1–57230–116–3

America's Communal Utopias. Donald E. Pitzer, ed., 1997 Chapel Hill, London: University of North Carolina Press 537 pp., US$60.00 (hb), US$24.95 (pb) ISBN 0–8078–2299‐X (hb), ISBN 0–8078–4609–0 (pb)

Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium. Donald E. Miller, 1997 Los Angeles, CA: California University Press 254 pp, US$ 27.50 (hb) ISBN 0–520–20938–9

Resurgent Evangelicalism in the United States: Mapping Cultural Change since 1970. Mark A. Shibley, 1996 Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press 156 pp., US$24.95 ISBN 1–57003–106–1

Struggle for the Spirit: Religious Transformation and Popular Culture in Brazil and Latin America. David Lehmann, 1996 Cambridge and Oxford: Polity Press xiv +244 pp., £39.50 (hb) ISBN 0–7456–1784–0

The Soul of Development: Biblical Christianity and Economic Transformation in Guatemala. Amy L. Sherman, 1997 Oxford: Oxford University Press 224 pp., £37.99 ISBN 0–19–510671–7

Jamaica Genesis: Religion and the Politics of Moral Orders. Diane J. Austin‐Broos, 1997 With a Foreword by Raymond T. Smith Chicago; The University of Chicago Press 328 pp., US$19.95, £15.95 (pb), US$50.00, £39.95 (hb) ISBN 0–226–03286–8 (pb), ISBN 0–226–03284–1 (hb)

Black God: The Afro‐Asian Roots of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim Religions. Julian Baldick, 1997 London, New York: I.B.Tauris 198 pp., £39.50 (hb) ISBN 1–86064–123–7

Image of the Prophet Muhammad in the West: A Study of Muir, Margoliouth and Watt. Jabal Muhammad Buaben, 1996/1417 AH. Markfield: The Islamic Foundation 394p., £ 9.50 (pb); £19.50 (hb) ISBN 0–86037–261–8 (pb), ISBN 0–86037–260‐X (hb)

New Religious Movements in Western Europe: An Annotated Bibliography. Bibliographies and Indexes in Religious Studies, No. 41 Elisabeth Arweck & Peter B. Clarke, 1997 Westport, CT & London: Greenwood Press xliii + 381 pp., £71.50 (hb) ISBN 0–313–24324–7

The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity. Paul Heelas, 1996 Oxford: Blackwell 266 pp., £45.00, US$49.95 (hb); £13.99; US$21.95 (pb) ISBN 0–631–19331–6 (hb), ISBN 0–631–19332–4 (pb)

New Age Religion and Western Culture. Wouter J. Hanegraaff, 1996 Leiden & New York: E. J. Brill 580 pp., NLG 235.00, US$ 147.50 (hb), NLG 80.00, US$51.75 (pb) ISBN 90–04–10695–2 (hb), ISBN 90–04–10696–0 (pb)

Embers of Wan Letters from a Quaker Relief Worker in War‐Torn Germany. Grigór McClelland, 1997 London: British Academic Press 230 pp., £25.00 (hb) ISBN 8–6064–312–4

Visionaries: The Spanish Republic and the Reign of Christ. William A. Christian Jr., 1996 Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press xxii + 544 pp. £32.00 ISBN 0–520–20040–3

The Topography of Remembrance: The Dead, Tradition and Collective Memory in Mesopotamia. Gerdien Jonker, 1995 Leiden: E. J. Brill xiii + 284 pp., c. £66.00 ISBN 90–04–10162–4

Faith in History: Armenians Rebuilding Community. Susan Paul Pattie, 1997 Washington & London: Smithsonian Institution Press 282 pp., £38.25 ISBN 1–56098–629–8

The Good Parsi: The Fate of a Colonial Elite in a Postcolonial Society. Tanya M. Luhrmann, 1996 Cambridge, MA & London, England: Harvard University Press xi +317 pp., £33.50 (hb), £15.50 (pb) ISBN 0–674–35675–6 (hb), ISBN 0–674–35676–4 (pb)

The Feast of the Sorcerer Practices of Consciousness and Power. Bruce Kapferer, 1997 Chicago & London, University of Chicago Press 367 pp., US$65.00, £51.95 (hb), US$27.50, £21.95 (pb) ISBN 0–226–42411–1 (hb), ISBN 1–226–42413–8 (pb)

Religion in Japan: Arrows to Heaven and Earth. P.F. Kornicki & I.J. McMullen, eds., 1996 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press xxv +315 pp., £40.00, US$59.95 ISBN 0–521–55028–9

Teaching Right and Wrong: Moral Education in the Balance. Richard Smith & Paul Standish, eds., 1997 Stoke on Trent, England: Trentham Books 157 pp., £13.95 (pb) ISBN 1–85856–084–5