Book reviews

Modern American Religion, Vol. 3. Under God, Indivisible, 1941–1960 Martin E. Marty, 1996 Chicago: University of Chicago Press 548 pp. + xii. £27.96, US$34.95 ISBN 0–22–50898–6

Perspectives on New Religious Movements John A. Sauba, 1995 London: Geoffrey Chapman 240 pp., £12.99 (pb), £35.00 (hb) ISBN 0–225–66787–8 (pb),’ ISBN 0–225–66786‐X (hb)

New Religions and the New Europe Robert Towler, ed., 1995 Aarhus: Aarhus University Press 246 pp., £19.95 ISBN 87 7288 433 9

A New Dictionary of Religions John R. Hinnells, ed., 1995 Oxford: Blackwell 760 pp., US$74.95 (hb) ISBN 0–631–18139–3

Den Fremden verstehen: Eine Praktische Hermeneutik Theo Sundermeier, 1996 Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht 260 pp. ISBN 3–525–01619–0

Religion and Mass Media: Audiences and Adaptations Daniel A. Stout & Judith M. Buddenbaum, eds, 1996 Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications 294 pp., £37.00 (hb), £18.50 (pb) ISBN 0–8039–7173–7 (hb), 0–8039–7174–5 (pb)

Contemporary Mainstream Religion: Studies from Humberside and Lincolnshire Peter G. Forster, ed., 1995 Aldershot: Avebury xxxvii +135 pp., £30.00 ISBN 1–8562–919–2

One Earth Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue and Global Responsibility Paul F. Kntiter, 1995 Maryknoll, New York: Orbis xiv + 218 pp., US$17.00 ISBN 1–57075–037–8

A Wider Vision: A History of the World Congress of Faiths 1936–1996 Marcus Braybrooke, 1996 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 192 pp., £10.99, US$16.95 ISBN 1–85168–119–1

The Phenomenon of Teilhard: Prophet for a New Age David H. Lane, 1996 Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press xvi +192 pp., US$21.95 ISBN 0–86554–498–0

The Wisdom of the Wyrd: Teachings for Today from our Ancient Past Brian Bates, 1996 London: Rider xiii +306 pp., £12.99 ISBN 0‐712E‐7277‐X

Desinformation als Methode. Die Bahā'ísmus‐Monographie des F. Ficicchia Udo Schaefer, Nicola Towfigh, Ulrich Gollmer, 1995 Hildesheim Georg Olms Verlag xiii + 685 pp., DM 65.00 (hb) ISBN 3–487–10041‐X

The New Latin American Mission History (Latin American Studies Series) Erick Langer & Robert H. Jackson, eds, 1995 Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press 212 pp., £15.95 (pb), £32.95 (hb) ISBN 0–8032–7953–1 (pb), ISBN 0–8032–2911–9 (hb)

Gender Rituals: Female Initiation in Melanesia Nancy C. Lutkehaus & Paul B. Roscoe, eds, 1995 New York Routledge 265 pp., £13.99 (pb), £37.50 (hb) ISBN 0–415–91107–9 (pb), ISBN 0–415–91106–0 (hb)

Daughters of Anowa: African Women and Patriarchy Mercy Amba Oduyoye, 1995 Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books 229 pp., US$18.00 (pb) ISBN 0–88344–999–4

Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non‐Western Religion Kwame Bediako, 1995 Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; Maryknoll: Orbis Books 276 pp., £16.95 ISBN 0–7486–0625–4

The Christian Heritage in the Holy Land Anthony O'Mahony with Goran Gunner & Kevork Hintuan, eds, 1995 Epping, Essex: Scorpion Cavendish xi + 320 pp., £15.95 ISBN 1–900269–06–6 (pb)

Patterns of the Sacred: English Protestant and Russian Orthodox Pilgrims of the Nineteenth Century Ruth & Thomas Hummel, 1995 Epping, Essex: Scorpion Cavendish ix + 76 pp., £10.00 ISBN 1–900269–08–2 (pb)

Pilgrimage Past and Present: Sacred Travel and Sacred Space in the World Religions Simon Coleman & John Elsner, 1995 London: British Museum Press 240 pp., Illus., £20.00 ISBN 0–7141–1738–2     

A human-centered approach for designing World-Wide Web browsers

Because the World-Wide Web has features that are not found in traditional information systems, it has some unique problems pertaining to human use, such as the difficulty of searching for specific information. This paper describes human cognitive limitations pertinent to the design of Web browsers and provides a conceptual model for human information processing on the Web. It also compares user strategies and use of browser functions for two tasks that differ in the specificity of the information that is to be retrieved. General principles and specific recommendations for the design of Web browsers are derived from these considerations.     

Operate your own World-Wide Web server

Although many researchers wishing to use the World-Wide Web for academic purposes rely on centralized Web services, they should be aware that it is neither expensive nor difficult to operate their own server. Doing so provides research-related benefits such as complete control over their host name and documents provided, the guaranteed ability to execute common gateway interface and server-side include programs, immediate access to their collected data, and the ability to better control who participates in their experiments. This paper surveys Web-server software features likely to be of interest to psychologists and conceptually summarizes their operation and use. The basic steps required to set up a Web server on popular microcomputers are reviewed, and security issues concerning Web-server operation are discussed. An accompanying resource Web page can assist users in setting up their own servers.     

A program for parsing mouse movements into component submovements

Most current movement control theories include the idea that movement toward a target can be broken into several submovements. The complexity of analyzing a movement into its constituent submovement structure and the additional complexity imposed by the problem of noise in the data and hand tremor seem to be daunting to researchers. This paper discusses a program that can ameliorate both of these problems and parse movements into their constituent submovements. It also contains a graphing feature that is useful as a visual tool for analyzing submovement structure. The programs are easily modifiable, so that researchers can specify their own parsing rules on the basis of different assumptions about movement control and use the parser for data from different experimental tasks.     

Spline smoothing with model-based penalties

Nonparametric regression techniques, which estimate functions directly from noisy data rather than relying on specific parametric models, now play a central role in statistical analysis. We can improve the efficiency and other aspects of a nonparametric curve estimate by using prior knowledge about general features of the curve in the smoothing process. Spline smoothing is extended in this paper to express this prior knowledge in the form of a linear differential operator that annihilates a specified parametric model for the data. Roughness in the fitted function is defined in terms of the integrated square of this operator applied to the fitted function. A fastO(n) algorithm is outlined for this smart smoothing process. Illustrations are provided of where this technique proves useful.     

Heading and path information from retinal flow in naturalistic environments

In four experiments, we explored the heading and path information available to observers as we simulated their locomotion through a cluttered environment while they fixated an object off to the side. Previously, we presented a theory about the information available and used in such situations. For such a theory to be valid, one must be sure of eye position, but we had been unable to monitor gaze systematically; in Experiment 1, we monitored eye position and found performance best when observers fixated the designated object at the center of the display. In Experiment 2, when we masked portions of the display, we found that performance generally matched the amount of display visible when scaled to retinal sensitivity. In Experiments 3 and 4, we then explored the metric of information about heading (nominal vs. absolute) available and found good nominal information but increasingly poor and biased absolute information as observers looked farther from the aimpoint. Part of the cause for this appears to be that some observers perceive that they have traversed a curved path even when taking a linear one. In all cases, we compared our results with those in the literature.     

Set- and Element-Level Stimulus-Response Compatibility Effects for Different Manual Response Sets

In a previous study of two-choice reactions, pairings of spatial stimuli with bimanual presses made on a keyboard and verbal stimuli with unimanual aimed movements made on a display screen showed higher set-level compatibility than the opposite pairings; element-level compatibility (i.e., mapping) effects were also larger for the conditions with high set-level compatibility than for those whose set-level compatibility was low. In the 4 experiments described here, the relevant factors were isolated, allowing the determinants of those compatibility differences to be evaluated in more detail. Forty-eight students participated in Experiment 1, and 24 each in Experiments 2, 3, and 4. The primary determinant of the set-level compatibility variation was whether the response alternatives involved 1 or 2 effectors, but the differences in element-level compatibility effects were determined primarily by the distinction between responding on the screen as opposed to on the keyboard. Implications for models of stimulus-response compatibility are examined.     

False Consensus,Stereotypic Cues,and the Perception of Integrative Potential in Negotiation1

We argue that negotiators' fixed-sum perceptions are caused by the same judgment process that creates false consensus. Bargainers' reliance on their own preferences as a cue to others' preferences leads them to anticipate a fixed-sum conflict. When presented with stereotypic cues, subjects in a negotiating experiment anticipated the variable-sum nature of the task and subsequently realized highly efficient settlements extremely quickly. Surprisingly, even when the party's preferences were unrepresentative of the stereotype, agreements were no less efficient than in the absence of the cue. The implications of these findings for bargaining research and practice are discussed.