Book reviews

Socializing Epistemology: The Social Dimensions of Knowledge, Frederick F. Schmitt, Ed., 1994. Lanham, MD, Rowman and Littlefield, ix + 315 pp., US$22.95, ISBN: 0847679594

A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action, Esther Thelen & Linda B. Smith. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, xxii + 376 pp., $50, ISBN 0–262–20095–3 cloth

From Kant to Hilbert: A Source Book in the Foundations of Mathematics, William B. Ewald, Ed., 1996. Oxford, Oxford University Press. xviii+ 1340 pp., £195.00, two volumes, ISBN 0–19–853271–7 (the set)     

Gender role stereotyping in Australian radio commercials

Most previous research into gender role stereotypes in the mass media has concentrated on television or print. Only one content analysis (Furnham & Schofield, 1986) has examined radio content, finding patterns of bias in British radio commercials consistent with, though less marked than, those in television commercials. The present study sought to determine whether similar patterns obtain in another Western country’s radio commercials collected approximately a decade later. Over 100 Australian radio ads were content analyzed, and results very similar to those of the earlier study were obtained. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for studies of gender role development and audience reactions to media content. We are grateful to Elyse Frankel and Jason Low for assistance in data coding and checking, and to two anonymous reviewers for constructive commentaries on an earlier version.     

Hippocampal synaptic plasticity during instrumental learning

present research examined the role of hippocampal NMDA-dependent synaptic potentiation on appetitive instrumental conditioning under a continuous reinforcement schedule. In the first experiment, low (.025 mg.kg) or moderate (.05 mg/kg) dosages of the NMDA receptor antagonist, MK801, failed to increase the number of training days required to reach acquisition criterion; number of training days required to reach criterion for extinction were also unaffected. In the second experiment, a higher dosage (.10 mg/kg) of MK801 or induction of long-term potentiation failed to alter the number of responses occurring during acquisition. These data suggest that hippocampal synaptic potentiation does not play a prominent role in instrumental learning with simple contingency conditions. It is suggested that hippocampal LTP reflects a perceptual process that contributes differentially to spatial cognition, classical and instrumental conditioning.     

Chaos and God's Abundance: An Ontology of Variety in the Divine Life

The primordial chaos of Genesis 1 may be understood as the Pandemonium Tremendum (or PT), the infinite field of variety or abundance within God. The concept of variety is taken from Claude Shannon's theory of communication. Especially significant is Shannon's notion that communication is the limitation of variety through decision processes. In one model of the divine life suggested by the theory, the PT is the boundless source of potential reaped by an agential God in the act of creation as a communication process. Other models for creation include the PT in a biased mode and creatures themselves as decision agents.     

THE CREDIBLE SHRINKING ROOM:

Abstract— Becoming a proficient symbol user is a universal developmental last in the first years of life, but delecting and mentally representing symbolic relations can be quite challenging for young children To test the extent to which symbolic reasoning per se is problematic, we compared the performance of 2-year-olds in symbolic and nonsymbolic versions of a search task. The children had to use their knowledge of the location of a toy hidden in a room to draw an inference about where to find a miniature toy in a scale model of the room (and vice versa) Children in the nonsymbolic condition believed a shrinking machine had caused the room to become the model They were much more successful than children in the symbolic condition, for whom the model served as a symbol of the room The symbol understanding and use.     

CLUSTERS PRECEDE SHAPES IN PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION

Abstract —Does perceptual grouping require attention? Recent controversy on this question may be caused by a conflation of two aspects of grouping: element clustering (determining which elements belong together) and shape formation (determining cluster boundaries). In Experiment 1, observers enumerated diamonds that were drawn with either lines or dots. These two types of stimuli were subitized (enumerated rapidly and accurately in the range from one to three items) equally well, suggesting that clustering dots into countable entities did not detnand attention. In contrast, when target diamonds were enumerated among distractor squares in Experiment 2. only line-drawn items could be subitized. We propose that clustering and shape formation not only involve different perceptual processes, but play different functional roles in vision.     

Referenzsemantik in der Partnermodellierung

How can we explain that an assertion on something perceived can be understood in the same manner by somebody who cannot perceive that scene? This problem bases the interest in computational linguistics in how listener modeling could possibly be harmonized with reference semantics. Mental images substituting real perception appear as a way out. The architecture of the listener model has to be adapted to the creation and use of such pictorial data structures. Furthermore, the relation between the latter and a verbal (i. e., propositional) representation must be understood. The resulting architecture of a listener model with reference semantics can be employed to solve communicational problems from three general classes in a better way, as is demonstrated by an example implementation.