Book reviews

DIMSOND, S. The Double Brain. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. 1972.Pp. 229. £ 3.50.

ANDERSON, J. R. and BOWER, G. H. Human Associative Memory. Washington: V. H. Winston and Sons. 1973. Pp. 524. £ 8.55.

SOMMERHOFF, G. Logic of the Living Brain. London: John Wiley and Sons. 1974. Pp. 413. £ 5.75.

KLAUSMEIER, H. J., GHATALA, E. S. and FRAYER, D. A. Conceptual Learning and De-velopment. London: Academic Press. 1974. Pp 284. £ 7.00.

RATCLIFF, F. (ED.) Studies on Excitation and Inhibition in the Retina. A Collection of Papers from the Laboratories of H. Keffler Hartime. London: Chapman and Hall. 1974. Pp. 668. £ 8.50.

ROCK, I. orientation and Form. London: Academic Press. Inc. (London) Ltd. 1973-Pp. 165. £ 5.60.

BOWER, T. G. R. Devolopment in Infancy. Reading: W. H. Freeman and Co. 1974. Pp. 258. £ 2.90

CONNOLLY, K. J. and BRUNER,J. S. (Eds). The Growth of Competence. London: Aca-demic Press. 1974. Pp. 327. £ 6.80.

PIAGET, J. and INHELDER, B. (Translated by POmerans, A.) The Child's Construction of Quantities. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1974. Pp. 285. £ 5.75.

GARNER, W. R. The Processing of Information and Structure. Potomac: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1974. Pp. xi + 203. £ 6.00.

CARTERETTE, E. C. and FRIEDMAN, M. P. (Eds). Handbook of Perception. Vol. III. Bilogy of Perceptual System. London: Acadmic Press, Inc. (London) Ltd. 1973. Pp. 521. £ 00.00.     

Matching to successive samples: A multiple-unit memory task with rhesus monkeys

The delayed matching-to-sample task was extended to a multiple-unit memory procedure for nonhuman primates by increasing the number of samples shown in succession prior to the matching test. Rhesus monkeys were capable of reconstructing the order of presentation of three successively presented samples. The task is seen as an animal analogue of human memory tasks.     

Effects of alcohol and marijuana on dynamic visual acuity: I. Threshold measurements

Alcohol and marijuana produce significant dose-related reductions in dynamic visual acuity. Ten subjects participated in a double-blind experiment involving three dose levels of each drug (including placebo). The reduction of DVA produced by alcohol (1.0 ml 95% ethanol/kg body weight) was greater than for marijuana (15 mg Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), and we suggest that this difference was produced by differential oculomotor effects of the two drugs. We have speculated that reduction in DVA under alcohol may be a contributing factor in alcohol-related traffic accidents.     

Modification of behavior problems in the home with a parent as observer and experimenter

Four parents enrolled in a Responsive Teaching class carried out experiments using procedures they had devised for alleviating their children's problem behaviors. The techniques used involved different types of reinforcement, extinction, and punishment. One parent increased the frequency of the wearing of an orthodontic device during five daily time checks by making an immediate monetary payoff contingent on wearing the device. A second parent increased the number of points earned for doing daily household tasks by providing back-ups for which the points could be exchanged. The parents of a 4-yr-old boy decreased the frequency of whines, cries, and complaints by removing social attention when such behavior occurred. A mother decreased the duration of time it took for her 5-yr-old daughter to get dressed by making permission to watch television contingent on dressing within 30 min of the time she got up in the morning. Brief reversals of contingencies were used to show causal relationships between the procedures used and the changes in behavior. Checks on the reliability of measurement were made by persons present in the home.     

Generation of multiple ratio scales with a fixed stitnulus attribute

Psychophysical theories differ in the relative weight given to sensory and cogruuve variables. Two opposing theories are described and tested in an experiment designed to vary a cognitive factor while maintaining a constant sensory factor. The method of magnitude estimation was used with the constant stimulus attribute of line length. The cognitive factor was varied by providing Ss with different feedback concerning the numerical values assigned to the largest and smallest lines in the series. This procedure led to multiple ratio scales for the same stimulus attribute. It is argued that these results support a theory which stresses both cognitive and sensory variables in the explanation of psychophysical functions.     

Components of the High School Environment

A principal components analysis was conducted on the scale scores of Stern's High School Characteristics Index (HSCI). Nine factors accounted for slightly more than two-thirds of the variability of the instrument. The lack of similarity of the HSCI factors and those reported for the College Characteristics Index was noted. The most significant factor was labeled Intellectual Self-Expression and resembled a factor derived from earlier analyses of the scale.     

Children's interpretation of adult nonreaction: A trial-by-trial self-report assessment and evidence for contrast effects in an observational context

The study investigated children's interpretation of blank reaction (nonreaction) from one adult to another as a function of its pairing with positive or negative overt feedback. Each child watched through a one-way mirror as an evaluating adult provided feedback to a second adult who was performing on a two-choice discrimination task. After six initial blank reaction trials, children observed one of four types of feedback combinations over 60 experimental trials: (a) right feedback on some trials and blank reactions on others, (b) wrong feedback on some trials and blank reactions on others, (c) right, wrong, and nonreaction on different trials, or (d) nonreaction on all trials. There was little evidence that children consistently interpreted blank reaction as meaning right independent of feedback combination. In contrast, in the Right-Blank and Wrong-Blank feedback combinations, children interpreted blank as meaning the opposite of the overt feedback it was paired with on over two-thirds of the trials, with no sex differences or test anxiety effects.