Book reviews

Encyclopaedia of Linguistics, Information and Control. Edited by A. R. Meetham with the assistance of R. A. Hudson. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1969. Pp. xiv + 718. 300s.

The Biological Basis of Personality. By H. J. Eysenck. Springfield: Thomas. 1968. Pp. xv + 399. $18.50.

Scientific Basis of Dvug Dependence. Biological Council Symposium. Edited by H. Steinberg. London: Churchill. 1969. Pp. 429. 100s.

Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology, Vol. 2. Edited by John P. Hill. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1969. Pp. viii + 172.

Memory and Attention: an introduction to human information processes. By Donald A. Norman. Chichester, Sussex: John Wiley. 1969. Pp. ix + 201. 84s. (cloth); 44s. (paper). Verbal Learning and Memory: selected readings. By Leo Postman and Geoffrey Keppel. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 1969. Pp. 501. 12s.

Handbuch der Kinderheilkunde. Edited by H. Opitz and F. Schmidt. Rand VIII/I: Neurologie-Psychologic-Psychiatrie. Redigiert von F. Schmidt und H. Asperger. Berlin: Springer Verlag. Pp. 1060. Price DM385, S96.25.

Digital Computing. By R. S. Lehman and D. E. Bailey. London: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1969. Pp. xxiv + 303. 79s.

Real-Time Computers. By W. R. Uttal. New York: Harper & Row. 1968. Pp. xiv + 338. 93s.     

PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN HONG KONG

With the rapid development of cross-cultural psychology, there is a need to provide international centres for research, which can become main focal points for cross-cultural research in specific geographic regions. The development of the Department of Psychology at the University of Hong Kong is being carried out with this broader context in view. In addition to offering excellent university facilities for psychological research, Hong Kong is also centrally located in relation to other Asian countries such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Philippines Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Cambodia, none of which is more than 1500 miles from Hong Kong. The purpose of this paper is therefore to describe the departmental facilities for cross-cultural research in Hong Kong, departmental teaching, psychological research in Hong Kong, and finally the potential of Hong Kong as a natural laboratory for research in a multi-cultural, multilingual, traditional-modern context.     

Pupil Personnel Services in the Elementary School

Student personnel services for the elementary school utilizing counselor, social worker, and psychologist are discussed with respect to their overlapping and unique skills. As a solution to the manpower shortage, a program for multidisciplinary training of paraprofessionals is suggested.     

College Major Choice and Personal Adjustment

This investigation focused on the differences in reported personal adjustment problems between freshmen students who made a congruent college major choice and students who made an incongruent choice. Personal adjustment was defined operationally with the Mooney Problem Checklist. Congruent and incongruent college major choice groups were defined operationally using the Vocational Preference Inventory. In the analysis of variance of the adjustment scores, the interaction term involving congruence of major choice and sex and the test for the main effect of sex were not significant. The test for the main effect of congruence was found to be significant. Subjects who had made a congruent college major choice reported fewer personal adjustment problems when compared to subjects in the incongruent group.     

Reaction time as a function of the intensity and probability of occurrence of vibrotactile signals

Three Ss made judgments of the presence or absence of a burst of 60-cps vibration onthe index fingertip.The probability of S’s reporting the presence of a signal was found to be influenced by signal probability and signal intensity. Mean reaction time for reporting the presence of a signal decreased as a function of signal intensity and signal probability whereas mean reaction time for reporting the absence of a signal increased as a function of signal intensity and signal probability. On trials where no signal was presented mean R T for reporting a signal decreased with increases in the signal probability whereas mean RT for reporting the absence of a signal increased with increases in signal probability. The results were interpreted as support for the hypothesis that S’s decision time was longer the closer on the sensory continuum a particular observation was to his criterion.     

Prismatic displacement and the remembered location of targets

Following adaptation, only the trained limb misreaches to the remembered location of targets. This suggests a change in the feit position of the trained limb, but conflicts with recent reports, and with the hypothesis that when a limb changes, the remembered location of targets encountered only by that limb undergo some change too. It suggests that information is stored independently of the mode of acquisition.     

The use of correlated stimulus information in card sorting

Subjects were required to sort three packs of cards into six piles. On the cards of one pack were a number (one to six) of xs. In the second pack the cards had a single digit (1 to 6). On the third pack the two kinds of information were perfectly correlated, i.e., there were three 3s, four 4s, etc. This pack was sorted more quickly than either of the other two. It is provisionally concluded that the Ss were processing information in parallel rather than serially, and that evidence from two sensory analyzers was being combined rather than the outcome from two decision mechanisms. This conclusion is tempered by the observation that only a detailed study of the reaction times to individual stimuli can provide us with an unqualifled verdict.     

A note on chaining and temporal discrimination

Four pigeons were exposed to a two-key DRL procedure. At the start of a trial, key A was illuminated. A response to the lighted key turned it off and simultaneously illuminated key B. Reinforcement was available for responses on key B which followed the initial key A response by more than 2 sec. In the course of exposure to these conditions, all birds acquired superstitious response chains on key A. The distribution of the number of responses on key A preceding a key B response and the distribution of intervals elapsing from the initial key A response to the key B response were of the same form. The suggestion is made that the superstitious responding on key A served to mediate the required delay interval. However, when intervals between successive key A responses were recorded for one subject, they were found to be regularly spaced in time. Thus, the problem remains of how this behavior is itself timed.     

Control of schedule-induced polydipsi: type, size, and spacing of meals

Rats were given daily 1-min variable-interval sessions for several types of food delivered in various amounts per reinforcement and the concurrent, schedule-induced polydipsia was measured. Dry, solid food was neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for the development of polydipsia. Small portions of liquid Standard Monkey Diet produced polydipsia, but 45-mg dextrose or sucrose pellets did not. Within the range studied, smaller portions of both solid and liquid foods produced more drinking than larger portions per reinforcement. Two-min variable-interval sessions produced a greater polydipsic response than 1-min variable-interval, even though the number of 45-mg Noyes pellets allowed per session was held constant. Polydipsia was greatly attenuated on these schedules when the number of pellets remained constant, but were delivered two at a time. Within the ranges studied, the concurrent polydipsic response was increased by decreasing the rate of food acquisition, either by using smaller portions of food per reinforcement or by increasing the interreinforcement time.