The time course of perception and retrieval in matching and recognition

A four-part experiment was carried out to study the relationship between the time course of object-feature perception and the time course of retrieval of object information from memory. The experiment consisted of 2 perceptual matching tasks, and 2 perceptual recognition tasks. In all 4 tasks, participants provided speeded judgments of the identity of 2 objects. A stochastic feature-sampling model was used to estimate the time needed for feature perception and the time needed for retrieval of feature information. No evidence was found for a systematic relationship between perception times and retrieval times for individual features. Indeed, the model applications indicated that retrieval times were constant for different features, whereas perception rates varied across the features.     

Immediate Movement History Influences Reach-to-Grasp Action Selection in Children and Adults

The authors review studies of mentally simulated movements. In automatic or cyclical movements, actual and motor imagery (MI) durations are similar. When athletes simulate only dynamic phases of movement or perform MI just before competing, however, environmental and time constraints lead to an underestimation of actual duration. Conversely, complex attention-demanding movements take longer to image. Finally, participants can modify the speed of MI voluntarily when they receive specific instructions. To complete the available data, the authors compared imagined and actual durations in tennis and gymnastics. Results showed systematic and disproportionate overestimation of actual duration. The authors found a relationship between complex motor skills and MI duration. They discuss the factors leading to over- and underestimation and the hypotheses that could be tested.     

Radical rhetoric and mystical religion in America's late Vietnam war era

Using primary documents from various religious groups, interviews with former activists, and an array of alternative press literature, this paper analyzes the appropriation of radical rhetoric within the anti‐activist ideologies of mystical religions that flourished during the late Vietnam War period in the United States. Examples from several Eastern‐based religions (Divine Light Mission, Hare Krishna, and 3HO) and Western‐based groups (including the Christian World Liberation Front and the Children of God) demonstrate the manner in which former activists converted to groups that utilized radical imagery to advocate patriarchalism along with individual rather than structural transformation. These ideological positions further subdivided an already fragmented New Left movement.     

Short review and book note

G. J. Cuming and D. Baker, ed. Studies in church history, vol. 8: Popular belief and practice. Cambridge University Press, pp. xii and 331. £6.40.

James E. Wood, Jnr. (Ed.), Jewish-Christian relations in today's world (The Markham Press Fund of Baylor University Press, Waco, Texas, 1971) pp. 164.

Stern, S. M. and Walzer, Sofie, Three unknown Buddhist stories in an Arabic version, introduction, text and translation. Oxford, Cassirer, 1971, 38 pp. £2.00

Brown, Peter, Religion and society in the age of Saint Augustine, Faber and Faber, 1972, pp. 352. £3.25; MACINTYRE, ALASDAIR, Against the Self‐Images of the Age, Duckworth, 1871, pp. vi‐284. E3.45; WINCH, PETER, Ethics and Action, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972, pp. 231. £2.75.

Woodcock, George. Gandhi. Fontana, Collins (London), 1972. 108 pp., paperback 35p.

Masunaga, R. A primer of Soto Zen: A translation of Dogen's shobogenzo zuimonki. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972. 126 pp., £1.25.

Swanton, Michael (Ed.). The dream of the road. Manchester University Press, 1970. ix + 146 pp. £1.20 (paperback 60p).     

Executive Heads and the Role of Intergovernmental Organizations: Expansionist Leadership in the United Nations and the European Union

Despite considerable advances in methods to examine leaders' personal characteristics using at–a–distance assessment, few studies have applied such techniques outside of the national level. This study reveals that such approaches can provide analytical leverage for examining executive heads of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). The personal characteristics of six United Nations Secretaries–General and four European Union Commission Presidents were measured via content analysis of their responses to questions. Separately, their behavior in office was measured via historical accounts and analyses. In general, executive heads with higher expansionist leadership style scores displayed a greater willingness to try to enhance the status of their organizations.