Lack of awareness of neuropsychological deficit in cerebral small vessel disease: The relationship with executive and episodic memory functions

A common cause of neuropsychological impairment in older adults is cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), but little is known as to whether lack of awareness of neuropsychological impairment is a feature of this clinical condition. In this study, we investigated awareness deficits in a well‐phenotyped population of patients with SVD (n= 45; 21 with defined concomitant neuropsychological impairment) and made comparisons with 24 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and a further 80 control participants. Awareness of performance on a range of neuropsychological measures was examined based on the Brief Memory and Executive Test Battery (BMET) (Brookes, Hannesdottir, Lawrence, Morris, & Markus, 2012 ), exploring the relationship between awareness and memory and executive function. The results revealed significant awareness deficits in both the SVD and AD groups. When splitting the SVD group into those with or without concomitant neuropsychological impairment, only those with neuropsychological impairment showed reduced awareness. For the SVD group, executive function was significantly correlated with awareness but memory was not. By comparison, memory was significantly correlated with awareness in the AD group, with executive function showing a trend but remaining non‐significant. The results show that lack of awareness of deficit is a clinical feature of SVD and indicate that there are distinct neuropsychological associations with awareness deficit for SVD and AD.     

Modern Pakistani and Indian Muslim perceptions of Christianity

In a forthcoming book,¹ I have examined the development of Muslim perceptions of Christianity over the centuries, with particular reference to contemporary Egyptian views. In the early modern period, the nineteenth century in particular, together with Egypt it was the Indian sub‐continent which was the point of genesis of much of the new Muslim thinking which emerged on the subject of Christianity.² This article will investigate the more recent development of this tradition, in both Pakistan and India, since they achieved their independence in 1947.     

Book reviews

Déclarations Communes Islamo‐Chrétiennes 1954–1995: textes originaux et traductions françaises. Choix de textes présentés par: Juliette Nasri Haddad, sous la direction de: Augustin Dupré la Tour et Dr Hisham Nashabé, 1997. Beyrouth, Dar el‐Machreq, Distribution Librairie Orientale, B.P. 1986, Beyrouth, Liban. 376 pp. + 14 large charts, hb. np., ISBN 2 7214 5008 5

Ultimate Visions: reflections on the religions we choose. Martin Forward (Ed.), 1995. Oxford, One World Publications. 208 pp., pb. $14.95, ISBN 1 85168 100 0

Cross and Crescent: responding to the challenge of Islam. Colin Chapman, 1995. Leicester, Inter‐Varsity Press. 364 pp., pb. £9.99, ISBN 0 85110 992 6

Louis Massignon: the crucible of compassion. Mary Louise Gude, 1996. Notre Dame and London, University of Notre Dame Press. 283 pp., hb. np., ISBN 0 268 031308 X

The New Islamic Dynasties: a chronological and genealogical manual. C. E. Bosworth, 1996. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. 389 pp., hb. £49.50, ISBN 0 7486 0684 X

A Short Introduction to Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism. Majid Fakhry, 1997. Oxford, Oneworld. 151 pp., pb. £8.99, $13.95, ISBN 1 85168 134 5

Religion and Politics under the Early ‘Abbasids: the emergence of the proto‐Sunni elite. Muhammad Qasim Zaman, 1997. Leiden, Brill. 232 pp., hb, Nlg 137.00, US$85.75, ISBN 90 04 10678 2

NichtMuslimische Untertanen im Islam: Grundlage, Ideologie und Praxis der Politik frühislamischer Herrscher gegenüber ihren nichtMuslimischen Untertanen mit besonderem Blick auf die Dynastie der Abbasiden (749–1248). (Studies in Oriental Religions, 34). Wolfgang Kallfelz, 1995. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag. 180 pp., pb. np., ISBN 3 447 03720 2

Hierarchy and Egalitarianism in Islamic Thought. Louise Marlow, 1997. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 194 pp., hb. np., ISBN 0 521 56430 1

The Dual Nature of Islamic Fundamentalism. Johannes J. G. Jansen, 1997. Ithaca, Cornell University Press/London, Hurst & Co.. 197 pp., hb. £25.00, ISBN 1 85065 274 0

Islam and Democracy. John Esposito & John Voll, 1996. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 232 pp., pb. £16.99, ISBN 0 19 510816 7

New World Order: Western fundamentalism in action. S. M. KORESHI, 199?. Islamabad, Institute of Policy Studies and Islamabad Publications. 306 pp., hb. Rs.250.00, ISBN 969 448 039 6

Das Eigene als Fremdes: Chancen und Bedingungen des christlich‐islamischen Dialogs. Ralf Geisler, 1997. Hannover, Lutherisches Verlagshaus. 104 pp., hb. DM24.80, ISBN 3 7859 0741 9

Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe. Barbara D. Metcalf (Ed.), 1996. Berkeley and London, University of California Press. xix + 264 pp., hb. $50, £40, ISBN 0 520 20403 4; pb. $20, £15, ISBN 0 520 20404 2

Allah in the West: Islamic movements in America and Europe. GILLES KEPEL, 1997. Oxford, Polity Press. 273 pp., pb. £13.95, ISBN 0 7156 1558 9

An Occasion For War: civil conflict in Lebanon and Damascus in 1860. Leila Tarazi Fawaz, 1994. Berkeley, University of California Press. 302 pp., pb. $17.00, ISBN 0 520 20086 1

Master and Disciple: the cultural foundations of Moroccan authoritarianism. Abdellah Hammoudi, 1997. Chicago & London, Chicago University Press. 195 pp., hb. £30.50, ISBN 0 226 31527 4; pb. £11.92, ISBN 0 226 31528 2

Islam in South‐East Asia: a study for Christians. Robert A. Hunt, 1997. New York, General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church; Petaling Jaya [Malaysia], Methodist Church of Malaysia. vii+ 172 pp., pb. np., ISBN 1 890569 04 6     

Recognition memory for realistic synthetic faces

A series of experiments examined short-term recognition memory for trios of briefly presented, synthetic human faces derived from three real human faces. The stimuli were a graded series of faces, which differed by varying known amounts from the face of the average female. Faces based on each of the three real faces were transformed so as to lie along orthogonal axes in a 3-D face space. Experiment 1 showed that the synthetic faces' perceptual similarity structure strongly influenced recognition memory. Results were fit by a noisy exemplar model (NEMO) of perceptual recognition memory. The fits revealed thatrecognition memory was influenced both by the similarity of the probe to the series items and by the similarities among the series items themselves. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (MDS) showed that the faces' perceptual representations largely preserved the 3-D space in which the face stimuli were arrayed. NEMO gave a better account of the results when similarity was defined as perceptual MDS similarity, rather than as the physical proximity of one face to another. Experiment 2 confirmed the importance of within-list homogeneity directly, without mediation of a model. We discuss the affinities and differences between visual memory for synthetic faces and memory for simpler stimuli.     

Why are some people’s names easier to learn than others? The effects of face similarity on memory for face-name associations

Using synthetic faces that varied along four perceptual dimensions (Wilson, Loffler, & Wilkinson, 2002), we examined the effects of face similarity on memory for face-name associations. The nature of these stimuli allowed us to go beyond the categorical similarity manipulations used in previous verbal associative memory studies to trace out the parametric relation between similarity and various performance measures. In Experiment 1, we found that recall performance diminished as a function of how many studied faces were in the vicinity of the cue face in similarity space. Also, incorrect recalls were more likely to come from nearby positions in face space. Experiments 2 and 3, respectively, demonstrated analogous effects with a set of more distinguishable, photorealistic faces, and in an associative recognition task. These results highlight the similarity between associative recall and associative recognition, and between face-name association and other domains of associative memory.     

Patients taking the lead. A naturalistic investigation of a patient led approach to treatment in primary care

In an earlier paper (Carey, T. A. (2005). Can patients specify treatment parameters? A preliminary investigation. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 12, 326–335) an approach to treatment delivery was examined in which the duration and frequency of the appointments was scheduled by patients. Results of this approach were encouraging but the generalizability of the results was constrained because only one clinician trialed the approach and no standardized assessment measures were used. In the present study there are two clinicians involved and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) was used. The approach was introduced at one GP practice and monitored over a six-month period. Results suggest that this approach might be an effective way of promoting patient access to, and involvement in, service delivery as well as reducing waiting times.     

A Contextual Model of Control Beliefs,Behavior, and Health: Latino and European Americans with Type 2 Diabetes

Sense of control is frequently found to be related to health. A model of control beliefs, disease-management behaviors, and health indicators was tested in a sample of 74 Latino Americans and 115 European Americans with Type 2 diabetes. Two measures of control beliefs, one diabetes-specific (diabetes self-efficacy) and one global (mastery), were examined for their effects on management behaviors (diet and exercise) and on health (Hb_A1C and general health). Results indicated that the relationship between control and management behaviors varied by measure of control and by group. For Latino participants, global mastery was related to management behaviors; whereas, self-efficacy was related to such behaviors among European Americans. The relationship between control and health did not appear to be mediated by management behaviors. This study provides support for a diversified approach to control, behavior, and health.     

Predicting Divine Action

This article sets out a formal procedure for determining the probability that God would do a specified action, using our moral knowledge and understanding God as a perfect being. To motivate developing the procedure I show how natural theology – design arguments, the problems of evil and divine hiddenness, and the treatment of miracles and religious experiences as evidence for claims about God – routinely appeals to judgments involving these probabilities. To set out the procedure, I describe a decision-theoretic model for practical reasoning which is deontological so as to appeal to theists, but is designed not to presuppose any substantive moral commitments, and to accommodate normative and non-normative uncertainty. Then I explain how judgments about what we probably ought to do can be transformed into judgments about what God would probably do. Then I show the usefulness of the procedure by describing how it can help structure discussions in natural theology and a-theology, and how it offers an attractive alternative to ‘skeptical theism’.