Book reviews

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World. John L. Esposito (Ed.), 1995. New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 4 vols, £295.00, ISBN 0 19 506613 8.

Deciphering the Signs of God: a phenomenological approach to Islam. Annemarie Schimmel, 1994. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. 302 pp., hb. £39.50, ISBN 0 7486 0460 X.

The Rainbow of Faiths. John Hick, 1995. London, SCM Press. 160 pp., pb. £9.95, ISBN 0 334 02608 3.

Scholarly Approaches to Religion, Interreligious Perceptions, and Islam. Jacques Waahdenburg, (Ed.), 1995. Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt a. M., New York, Paris, Vienna, Peter Lang. 464 pp., hb. Sf76. (= £38), ISBN 3 906752 93 3.

Tariqat al‐Tahin al‐Balaghi wa al‐Tafsir. Roland Meynet, Louis Pouzet, Naila Farouki & Ahyaf Sinno, 1993. Beirut, Lebanon, Dar al‐Mashriq. 306 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 2 7214 5003 4.

Religious Polemic and the Intellectual History of the Mozarabs, c. 1050–1200. T. Burman, 1994. Leiden, E. J. Brill. 407 pp., hb. np., ISBN 90 04 09910 7.

Justice, Courtesy and Love: theologians and missionaries encountering world religions, 1846–1914. Kenneth Cracknell, 1995. London, Epworth Press. 459 pp, pb. £20, ISBN 0 7162 0501 7.

Mission and Dialogue. Michael Nazir‐Ali, 1995. London, SPCK Press. 152 pp, pb., £8.99, ISBN 0 281 04810 X.

Early Mamluk Diplomacy (1260–1290): treaties of Baybars and Qalawun with Christian rulers. P. M. Holt, 1995. Leiden, E. J. Brill. 161 pp., hb. NLG 100, ISBN 90 04 10246 9.

The Search for Fundamentals: the process of modernization and the quest for meaning. Lieteke Van Vucht Tljssen, Jan Berting & Frank Lechner (Eds), 1995. Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Kluwer Academic Publishers. 293 pp., £80.00, 0 7923 3542 2.

Religion und prosoziales Verhalten Ein Symposion. Walter Kerber, (Ed.), 1995. Munchen, Kindt Verlag. 224 pp., hb. DM.36.00, ISBN 3 925412 18 2.

Nationalism, Ethnicity and Cultural Identity in Europe. (Comparative Studies in Migration and Ethnic Relations 1). Keebat von Benda‐Beckman & Maykel Verkuyten (Eds), 1995. Utrecht, European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations (ERCOMER). 199 pp., £11.95, ISBN 90 75719 01 9.

‘Das Projekt Weltethos’ in der Erziehung: Referate und Ergebnisse des Nurnberger Forums 1994. Johannes Lahnemann (Ed.), 1995. Hamburg, E.B. Verlag. 410 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 3 923002 86 6.

Fundamentalism and Intellectuals in Egypt, 1973–1993. David Sagiv, 1995. London, Frank Cass. 188 pp., hb. £35, ISBN 0 7146 4581 8.

Being Human in Africa: toward an African Christian anthropology. Augustine C. Musopole, 1994. New York, Peter Lang. 261 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 0 8204 2304 1.

Russians in the Former Soviet Republics. Paul Kolstoe with a contribution by Andrei Edemsky, 1995. London, Hurst & Company. 340 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 1 8065 206     

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING?

Abstract— One perspective on social conflict asserts that attitudes and behavior are relatively independent, thus suggesting that opposing partisans may differ minimally in concrete actions, but may assume great differences in attitude and ideology Alternatively, we proposed that partisans' concrete preferences are linked to ideology, and that partisans would exaggerate the ideological extremity of their opposition These hypotheses were tested within the "Western Canon debate" by asking revisionist and traditionalist partisans (English faculty) to select from a list of 50 books a syllabus of 15 books they would teach in an introductory course and 15 books that they believed their ideological counterparts would choose Consistent with the hypotheses, traditionalists selected books of more traditionalist ideology than did revisionists (who chose more books by female and minority authors) and exaggerated the extremity of revisionists' preferences Revisionists made less ideological book selections and judged traditionalists more accurately This asymmetry may reflect the standing of the two groups relative to the status quo     

The effects of total darkness on schedule control

The study investigated the effect of total darkness on the key pecking of pigeons under fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, fixed-interval, and variable-interval schedules of food reinforcement. Eight pigeons were divided into groups of two, with each group conditioned to peck under one of the four schedules of reinforcement. Under an ABAB procedure, all pigeons experienced alternating light and dark conditions. The house- and keylights were (a) maintained at full intensity for the first 30 one-hour sessions, (b) faded out and disconnected over Sessions 31 through 50, (c) totally illuminated for Sessions 51 to 60, and (d) disconnected again for the final 10 sessions. Responding under the ratio schedules increased from 20% to 108% in the dark and responding under the interval schedules in the dark decreased by 37% to 93%.     

Effects of signal duration and masker duration on detectability under diotic and dichotic listening conditions

The detectability of a 500-Hz tone of either 32- or 256-msec duration in a broad-band 50-dB spectrum level noise was measured as a function of the duration of the noise. The noise was continuous or was gated 0, 125, or 250 msec before the onset of the signal. For the gated noise conditions the noise was terminated approximately 5 msec after termination of the signal. With a homophasic condition (NO SO), the three noise conditions led to approximately the same detectability as did the continuous masker. In an antiphasic condition (NO Sπ), detectability was poorest when signal and masker began together and improved as the delay between noise onset and signal onset increased. The difference between the simultaneous onset and the continuous noise condition was about 9 dB for the 32-msec signal and about 2 dB for the 256-msec signal. These results are compared to those reported by McFadden (1966).     

A Newton-Raphson algorithm for maximum likelihood factor analysis

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of using a Newton-Raphson algorithm to solve the likelihood equations which arise in maximum likelihood factor analysis. The algorithm leads to clean easily identifiable convergence and provides a means of verifying that the solution obtained is at least a local maximum of the likelihood function. It is shown that a popular iteration algorithm is numerically unstable under conditions which are encountered in practice and that, as a result, inaccurate solutions have been presented in the literature. The key result is a computationally feasible formula for the second differential of a partially maximized form of the likelihood function. In addition to implementing the Newton-Raphson algorithm, this formula provides a means for estimating the asymptotic variances and covariances of the maximum likelihood estimators. This research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Grant No. AF-AFOSR-4.59-66 and by National Institutes of Health, Grant No. FR-3.     

Effects of cognitive training on academic and on-task behavior of hyperactive children

A cognitive training program that taught both self-instructional and self-management skills was used with three 7-to 8-year-old hyperactive children. A multiple baseline across individuals design was used to evaluate the effects of training on on- task behavior and math accuracy. There were significant changes in math accuracy for all subjects, and two subjects showed significant improvements in on- task behavior. Evidence suggesting generalization to untrained behaviors was shown by an increase in self-correction of oral reading for all subjects. The results suggest that cognitive training specifically designed to promote generalization to classroom tasks can improve the classroom behavior and academic achievement of hyperactive children.The study was supported by a scholarship to the first author from the Specific Learning Difficulties Association (SPELD, Auckland). The authors would like to thank Mr. T. F. Walbran, deputy district senior inspector of primary schools, and Mrs. S. Gribben and the staff of Dominion Road Primary School; Mrs. F. Donovan helped with the collection of reading data and Dr. G. Arvidson gave assistance with data analysis. Special thanks also go to the graduate students who served as trainers or observers.     

An animal sound simulator

A portable and inexpensive animal sound simulator is described, and the use of the simulator in the production of song mimics of maleDrosophila species is illustrated.