Attributions and affective reactions of family members and course of schizophrenia.

The authors tested an attribution-affect model of schizophrenic relapse attending to the role of families' positive affect (warmth) and negative affect (criticism). Coders listened to interviews of 40 family members taken from C. E. Vaughn, K. S. Synder, S. Jones, W. B. Freeman, and I. R. Falloon (1984) and rated their attributions of controllability for the symptoms and behaviors of their relatives with schizophrenia. For family members not designated as emotionally overinvolved, perceptions that their ill relatives' symptoms and behaviors were under the patients' control were related to family members' warmth and criticism and to patients' clinical outcomes. Of the affective reactions, only criticism predicted outcome. In addition, patients' use of street drugs was related to attributions, criticism, and outcome. Together these findings suggest that families' attributions and criticism are important in understanding the relationship between family factors and course of illness.     

Manipulation with no or partial vision.

The present research investigated the role of vision in closed- and open-loop processing during manipulation. In Experiment 1, participants performed common manipulatory tasks with 100% accuracy in less than 1 s without vision. In Experiment 2, the effects of extensive practice of a peg-in-hole task were examined within 4 functionally significant stages of manipulation. Performance was consistently faster with than without vision in the prereach, grasp, and transport + insert stages; reverse effects were observed during the reach stage. In Experiment 3, the effects of practice with partial vision were examined: Participants initially learned the peg-in-hole task with full vision and then transferred to learning the same task with vision available only during 1 functional stage. Overall, performance was fastest when vision was limited to the prereach and reach stages.     

Reducing gist-based false recognition in older adults: encoding and retrieval manipulations.

Using a categorized pictures paradigm, Koutstaal and Schacter (1997) reported high levels of false recognition of lures that were categorically related to presented items. Although also shown by younger adults, false recognition was markedly higher for older adults. To probe the factors underlying this age difference, these experiments required participants to engage in more careful scrutiny of the items at retrieval or to notice specific differentiating perceptual features of the objects during encoding. False recognition was reduced with each of these manipulations, but neither manipulation, either separately or together, eliminated the age difference in false recognition. Older adults can considerably reduce false recognition if encouraged to use more stringent decision criteria. Persistent difficulty in opposing familiarity-based responding and comparatively more generic encoding may contribute to residual deficits.     

Robust representations for faces: evidence from visual search.

We report evidence from visual search that people can develop robust representations for highly overlearned faces. When observers searched for their own face versus the face of an unfamiliar observer, search slopes and intercepts revealed consistently faster processing of self than stranger. These processing advantages persisted even after hundreds of presentations of the unfamiliar face and even for atypical profile and upside-down views. Observers not only showed rapid asymptotic recognition of their own face as the target, but could reject their own face more quickly as the distractor. These findings suggest that robust representations for a highly overlearned face may (a) mediate rapid asymptotic visual processing, (b) require extensive experience to develop, (c) contain abstract or view-invariant information, (d) facilitate a variety of processes such as target recognition and distractor rejection, and (e) demand less attentional resources.     

Contingencies of Superstition: Self-Generated Rules and Responding During Second-Order Response-Independent Schedules

The Psychological Record - Experimental conditions explored the development of fallacious rules and assessed the rates and durations of superstitious responding by children under the influence of...     

A delivery system for olfactory stimuli

This paper describes the design of a new method for controlling and administering olfactory stimuli—namely, thehood system. The hood system involves a stream of vaporized odor (at known concentrations) mixed with odorless air and pumped (at a constant flow rate) into an oxygen therapy hood. It is designed to be used with odorants in solution, such as essential oils, as the olfactory stimulus. The use of oxygen therapy hoods allows for the precise control of a constant concentration of odorized air over time, while allowing subjects to breathe normally. The hood system provides a natural administration of olfactory stimuli and the exact determination of the stimulus concentration. The use of this system will allow experimental conditions to be completely defined and results and replication studies to be accurately interpreted. The hood system is portable, cost effective, and constructed from readily available components. It is proposed that the hood system could be adopted to suit a wide range of olfactory research, particularly that in which the effects of chronic exposure to olfactory stimuli on cognition are examined.     

Book reviews

Christianity. Brian Wilson, 1999. Religions of the World. London, Routledge. 128 pp., pb. £6.99, ISBN 0 415 21161; hb. £25.00, ISBN 0 415 21342 8

Islam. Jamal J. Elias, 1999. Religions of the World. London, Routledge. 128pp., pb. £6.99, ISBN 0 415 21165 4; hb. £25.00, ISBN 0 415 21344 4

Islam. Jan Slomp, 1999. Kampen, Uitgeverij Kok. 142 pp., pb.NLf 19,90, ISBN 90 242 9372 3

Windows on the House of Islam: Muslim sources on spirituality and religious life. John Renard (Ed.), 1998. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, University of California Press. xx + 431pp., pb. £15.95, ISBN 0 520 21086 7

Shattering the Myth: Islam beyond violence. Bruce B. Lawrence, 1998. Princeton, Princeton University Press. xix + 237 pp., hb. $17.95, ISBN 0 691 05769 9

Islam and Other Faiths. Ismail Raji al‐Faruqi, ed. Ataullah Siddiqui, 1998. Leicester, the Islamic Foundation and The International Institute of Islamic Thought. 370 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 0 86037 276 6

Christian‐Muslim Dialogue: theological and practical issues. Roland E. Miller & Hance A.O. Mwakabana (Eds), 1998. LWF Studies 3/1998. Geneva, Department for Theology & Studies—The Lutheran World Federation. 391pp., pb., n.p., ISBN 3 906706 63 X

Islam and the West: conflict, co‐existence or conversion?. Colin Chapman, 1998. Carlisle, Paternoster. 198 pp. pb. £12.99, ISBN 0 85364 781 X

The Rights of Women in Islam: an authentic approach. HaifaaJawad, 1998. London, Macmillan Press. 150pp., pb, £15.99, ISBN 0 333 73458 0; hb. £42.50, ISBN 0 333 65086 7

Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: the Graeco‐Arabic translation movement in Baghdad and early Abbasid society (2nd‐4th/8th‐10th centuries). D. Gutas, 1998. London, Routledge. 256pp., hb. £45.00, ISBN 0 415 06123 6; pb. £14.99, ISBN 0 415 061334

Ibn ‘Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition: the making of a polemical image in medieval Islam. Alexander D. Knysh, 1999. Albany, NY, State University of New York Press. xvi + 449 pp., pb. $27.95, ISBN 0 7914 3968 2; hb. $81.50, ISBN 0 7914 3967 4

Love, Religion and Politics in Fifteenth‐century Spain. Ian Macpherson & Angus MacKay, 1998. Medieval Iberian Peninsula Texts and Studies 13. Leiden, Boston & Cologne, Brill. 286 pp., hb. Nig. 165.00/US$ 97.25, ISBN 90 04 10810 6

Shi'i Scholars of Nineteenth‐century Iraq: the Ulama of Najaf and Kerbala. MeirLitvak, 1998. Cambridge Middle East Studies. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 264pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0521623561

Islam and Postcolonial Narrative. John Erickson, 1998. Cambridge, University Press. 243 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0 521 59423 5

Imperialism and Orientalism. Barbara Harlow & Mia Carter (Eds), 1998. Oxford, Blackwell. 416 pp., hb. £65.00, ISBN 1 55786 710 0; pb. £16.99, ISBN 1 55786 711 9

Islam et Occident face a face: regards de I'histoire des religions. Jacques Waardenburg, 1998. Geneva, Labor et Fides. 144 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 2 8309 0786 8

Against Islamic Extremism: the writings of Muhammad Sa'Id al‐'Ashmawy. Carolyn Fluehr‐Lobban (Ed.), 1998. Florida, University Press of Florida. 131 pp., hb. £39.95, ISBN 0 8130 1546 4

Spokesmen for the Despised: fundamentalist leaders of the Middle East. R. Scott Appleby (Ed.), 1997. Chicago, Chicago University Press. 438 pp., pb. £15.95, ISBN 0 226 02125 4; hb. n.p., ISBN 0 226 02124 6. Muslim European Youth: reproducing ethnicity, religion, culture. Steven Vertovec & Alisdair Rogers (Eds), 1998. Aldershot, Ashgate

215 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 1 84014 341 X

Islam in Germany and France. Muslime in Deutschland: Nebeneinander oder Miteinander. Ursula Spuler‐Stegemann, 1998 Freiburg, Herder. 352 pp; hb. DM 24,80, ISBN 3 451 04419 6

Musulmans de France: diversite, mutations et perspectives de l'islam francais,. Gilles Couvreur, 1998. Paris, Les editions de Fatelier. 112pp., pb. FF 65, ISBN 2 7082 3384 X

Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor 1919–1922. Michael Llewellyn Smith, 1998. London, Hurst. xxi + 401 pp., hb. £40.00, ISBN 185065 413 1; pb. £14.95, ISBN 1 85065 368 2

The History of Saudi Arabia. Alexei Vassiuev, 1998. London, Saqi Books. 576 pp., hb. £45.00, ISBN 0863569358

City of Stone: the hidden history of Jerusalem. Meron Benvenisti, 1998. Berkeley, University of California Press. viii + 274 pp., pb. $16.95/£10.95, ISBN 0 520 20768 8

The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia. Adeeb Khalid, 1998. Berkeley, University of California Press. xxiii + 335 pp., hb. $55.00, ISBN 0 520 21355 6; pb. $22.00, ISBN 0 520 21356 4

Ethnicity, Law and Human Rights: the English experience. Sebastian Poulter, 1998. Oxford, Clarendon Press. xxxvii +418pp., hb. £45.00, ISBN 0 19 825773 2

Muslim Family Law. David Pearl & Werner Menski, 1998. 3rd edn. London, Sweet & Maxwell. xii + 551pp., pb. £55.00, ISBN 0421 52980 6

Religion in Prison: equal rites in a multi‐faith society. James A. Beckford & Sophie Gilliat. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. xiv + 232 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0 521 62246 8

Educating Muslim Girls: shifting discourses. Kaye Haw, 1998. Buckingham/Philadelphia, Open University Press. xii +203pp., pb. £15.99, ISBN 0 335 19773 6; hb. £50.00, ISBN 0 335 19774 4     

Anxiety Symptomatology in Mexican-American Adolescents

Mexican-American adults and adolescents in general have been reported to have high levels of anxiety symptomatology. In our study of a tri-ethnic sample of 2528 junior and senior high school students, the Youth Self Report (YSR) version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and a sociodemographic questionnaire was used to assess the anxiety symptoms of Hispanic youth. We compared the ratings on anxiety symptoms, using Achenbach's anxiety subscale on the YSR, between two populations. The anxiety levels of youth in coastal southeast Texas (Galveston County) were compared to the anxiety levels of youth in the lower Rio Grande Valley. We found that Mexican-Americans of the Lower Rio Grande Valley scored higher on anxiety symptoms than the tri-ethnic population of Galveston County. Other factors associated with higher anxiety scores for Mexican-American youths included being born outside the US, linguistic fluency, father absent from the home, mother's education, and household size. Multiple regression analyses showed that socio-economic status (SES), family composition, and linguistic fluency had a greater relative impact on anxiety symptomatology than all other factors, both for the total sample as well as for the Mexican-American sample. These results parallel previous findings, with Mexican-American adults, which suggest either higher risk for anxiety symptomatology or a culturally related bias in the reporting of such symptoms.