Motion coherence and conjunction search: implications for guided search theory.

Feature integration theory has recently been revised with two proposals that visual conjunction search can be parallel under some circumstances--either because items with nontarget features are inhibited, or because items with target features are excited. We examined whether excitatory or inhibitory guidance controlled conjunction search for an X oscillating in one direction among Os oscillating in that direction and Xs oscillating in another. Search was affected by whether items oscillated in phase with each other, and it was exceptionally difficult when items with target motion moved out of phase with each other and items with nontarget motion moved out of phase. The results suggest that conjunction search can be guided both by excitation of target features and by inhibition of nontarget features.     

Book reviews

Islam: a challenge for Christianity (Concilium 1994/3). Hans Kung & Jurgen Moltmann (Eds), 1994. London, Concilium; Maryknoll, SCM Press; London, Orbis Books. 163 pp., pb. £8.95, ISBN 0–334–030269.

Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims and Jews in the age of discovery. Bernard Lewis, 1995. New York, Oxford University Press. 101 pp., hb., $16.95, ISBN 0–19–509026–8.

Beyond Faith and Infidelity: the Sufi poetry and teachings of Mahmud Shabistari. L. Lewisohn, 1995. Richmond, Surrey, Curzon Press. 344 pp. pb. £14.99, 0–7007–0343–8.

The Prophet's Pulpit: Islamic preaching in contemporary Egypt. [Comparative Studies on Muslim Societies, 20]. Patrick Gaffney, 1994. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press. 367 pp., hb. £40.00, ISBN 0–520–08471–3, pb. £15.95, ISBN 0–520–08472–1.

Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge: Muhammad b. CA1i al‐Sanūsi and his Brotherhood. K. S. Vikor, 1995. London, Hurst & Co. 310 pp. hb. £37.50, ISBN 1 85065 218 X.

Children of Islam. Marie Parker‐Jenkins, 1995. Stoke‐on‐Trent, Trentham Books Ltd. 162 pp., £12.95, ISBN 1–85856 034 9.     

Representing narrative process in therapy: Qualitative analysis of a single case

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in an approach which views counselling and psychotherapy as being concerned with giving clients opportunities to articulate, examine and re-author aspects of their life-stories. However, most of the literature associated with this approach has been based on observations of clinical practice, and there is a need to develop more systematic research in this area. The present study uses qualitative methods to identify and categorize different types of narrative events occurring in therapy discourse. A representation is offered of the process by which experience is narrativized during therapy. The data for this analysis is drawn from an intensive study of one session of person-centred counselling. The issues involved in applying this method of qualitative analysis are discussed, and the implications of these findings for research and practice are outlined.     

Counsellor and client perceptions of the effectiveness of time-limited counselling in an occupational counselling scheme

Counsellors providing brief counselling (6 sessions) in a British Social Services Department completed post intervention questionnaires for 429 clients. These provided information on several measures about the degree to which they felt that their clients had benefitted from the counselling, how far they felt that the number of sessions was adequate, and the nature of the clients' problems. Two hundred and twenty-three of the clients also completed post-intervention questionnaires indicating their degree of satisfaction on a number of measures. There was fair agreement between counsellors and clients that outcomes were satisfactory, and that the number of sessions was adequate, although clients were more satisfied than counsellors. Counsellors identified a range of personal and occupational presenting problems, and around two thirds of problems belonged in the personal domain. Long-tern personal problems received lower satisfaction ratings and were more frequently referred on to other agencies.     

Developing insight through supervision: relating, then defining

By the use of tape recordings, I attempt to understand the main ways in which a supervisor helps the supervisees to gain insights into their work with their patients. Through this research I became aware that insights come into being by way of a process involving unconscious identity and differentiation. I have use supervisory examples to illustrate the ways in which the supervisor interacts with the supervisee.     

An analysis of rats' drinking-tube contacts under tandem and fixed-interval schedules of food presentation

Rats' lever presses and drinking-tube contacts were studied under fixed-interval schedules of food presentation and under a tandem schedule composed of three fixed intervals. One group of rats was exposed first to the tandem schedule, next to fixed-interval schedules of comparable interpellet intervals, and once again to the tandem schedule; a second group of rats was exposed first to a fixed-interval and then to the tandem schedule. Under the tandem schedule, lever presses occurred at a higher rate and were more uniformly distributed in time than under the fixed-interval schedule. Tube contacts emitted by rats exposed first to a fixed-interval schedule consisted mostly of tongue contacts, which occurred at a high rate shortly after food; tube contacts emitted by rats exposed first to the tandem schedule consisted mostly of paw contacts, which occurred at a lower rate at times other than shortly after food. Changing the schedule from fixed interval to tandem decreased the frequency of tongue contacts for all rats. Under schedules of food presentation with comparable interpellet intervals, the schedule of food presentation, rather than the rate of food delivery per se, determined the topography and temporal locus of drinking-tube contacts.