Direct social contacts override auditory information in the song-learning process in starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)

Social influence on song acquisition was studied in 3 groups of young European starlings raised under different social conditions but with the same auditory experience of adult song. Attentional focusing on preferred partners appears the most likely explanation for differences found in song acquisition in relation to experience, sex, and song categories. Thus, pair-isolated birds learned from each other and not from broadcast live songs, females did not learn from the adult male tutors, and sharing occurred more between socially associated peers. On the contrary, single-isolated birds clearly copied the adult songs that may have been the only source of attention stimulation. Therefore, social preference appears as both a motor for song learning and a potential obstacle for acquisition from nonpreferred partners, including adults.     

Mate choice and friendship in twins: evidence for genetic similarity

This study examined the genetic and environmental contribution to people's preference for spouses and friends to be similar to themselves. In their responses to 130 personality, attitude, and demographic questions, 174 pairs of monozygotic (MZ) twins resembled each other (r= .53) more than did 148 pairs of dizygotic (DZ) twins (r= .32), 322 pairs of spouses (r= .32), and 563 pairs of best friends (r= .20). It was not previously recognized that spouses and friends are as similar as DZ twins. MZ twins also chose spouses and best friends more similar to their co-twins' friends and spouses than did DZ twins (mean rs = .22 vs. .14). The twins' preference for spouses and friends similar to themselves was about 34% due to the twins' genes, 12% due to the twins' common environment, and 54% due to the twins' unique (nonshared) environment. Similarity to partners was more pronounced on the more heritable items than the less heritable items. It is concluded that people are genetically inclined to choose as social partners those who resemble themselves at a genetic level.     

Temporal references in dreams and autobiographical memory

In an attempt to determine whether temporal references identified in dreams follow the same temporal distributions as those documented for autobiographical memories, 28 younger women (18-35 years of age) and 30 older women (60-77 years of age) kept a home dream diary for 1 week and then slept 1 night in the laboratory for rapid eye movement sleep dream collection. The following morning, they identified temporal references in their dreams and produced a sample of autobiographical memories using the semantic cuing method. For both groups, there was a linear decrease in temporal references identified in dreams and autobiographical memories with increased remoteness for the last 30 years. As predicted, for the older group, there were similar cubic trends reflecting a disproportionately higher number of both temporal references identified in dreams and autobiographical memories from adolescence/early adulthood compared with adulthood and childhood. The results support the notion of continuity between waking and dreaming memory processes.     

Influence of education on the pattern of cognitive deterioration in AD patients: the cognitive reserve hypothesis

The cognitive reserve hypothesis proposes that a high educational level could delay the clinical expression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) although neuropathologic changes develop in the brain. Therefore, some studies have reported that when the clinical signs of the disease emerge, high-educated patients may decline more rapidly than low-educated patients because the neuropathology is more advanced. However, these studies have only investigated the decline of global cognition or an isolated cognitive process. To study the differential deterioration pattern of several cognitive processes according to education, the performance of 20 AD patients with a high educational level and a low educational level were compared with the performance of 20 control subjects on a neuropsychological battery. The results showed that cognitive deterioration of AD patients is different according to education, although the global performance was similar in AD patients. The high-educated patients exhibited greater impairment of abstract thinking whereas the low-educated patients showed greater impairment of memory and attentional function. This confirms that some cognitive processes, such as abstract thinking, decline more rapidly in high-educated patients whereas others seem to evolve more slowly if compared to low-educated patients. In this latter case, high-educated patients may still benefit from cognitive reserve after the diagnosis of the dementia.     

Behavioral activity associated with onset in chronic tic and habit disorder

Seventy-six people (aged 18-62 years) diagnosed with either a chronic tic disorder or a habit disorder, entering a treatment study, kept a baseline daily diary for at least ten days, noting tic frequency and activity at time of onset. Together with an evaluator, participants completed a form ranking three high-risk activities where the tic or habit was likely to appear, and three low-risk activities where the tic was absent or barely present. Subjective appraisals distinguishing the two types of activities were also elicited and their relevance to the tic was measured on a seven-point scale using an adaptation of Kelly's repertory grid technique. Overall, the most frequent high-risk and low-risk activities were, respectively, passive attendance and physical activity. There were, however, significant differences in types of high-risk activities amongst the tic and habit disorders. Conversely, appraisals of the high-risk activities seemed to center on negative evaluations of tenseness, boredom, dissatisfaction, and disinterest.     

Relation between aging and rated teaching effectiveness of academic psychologists

Within a combined cross-sectional and longitudinal design, several analyses showed that student-rated teaching effectiveness in university professors declined with age. For 106 full-time psychology teachers, aged 26 to 55, who were studied for time periods ranging from 2 to 15 years, an overall negative correlation of r = -.33 (p less than .05) was found between age and general teaching effectiveness. A similar decrement with age occurred for items measuring specific teaching behaviors. Age accounted for 8% of the variance in general teaching effectiveness.     

Book reviews

Missing Persons: A Critique of Personhood in the Social Sciences Mary Douglas & Steven Ney, 1998 California: University of California Press 223 pp., US$24.95 ISBN 0–520–20752–1

Re‐forming the Body: Religion, Community and Modernity Philip A. Mellor & Chris Shilling, 1997 London: Sage Publications 234 pp., £40.00 (hb), £13.95 (pb) ISBN 0–8039–7722–0 (hb), ISBN 0–8039–7723–9 (pb)

Transnational Religion and Fading States Susanne Hoeber Rudolph & James Piscatori, eds., 1997 Boulder, Colorado, & Oxford: Westview Press viii + 280 pp., US$69.00/£50.00 (hb), US$24.00/£13.95 (pb) ISBN 0–8133–2767–9 (hb), ISBN 0–8133–2768–7 (pb)

Encyclopaedia of Religion and Society William H. Swatos, Jr., ed., 1998 London: AltaMira Press (SAGE) xiv + 590 pp., £76.00 (hb) ISBN: 0 7619–9956–0

Power and the Church: Ecclesiology in an Age of Transition Martyn Percy, 1998 London: Cassell vii + pp. 239, £35.00 (hb), £14.99 (pb) ISBN 0–304–70107–6 (hb); ISBN 0304 701 05‐X (pb)

Faith and Power, Christianity and Islam in ‘Secular’ Britain Lesslie Newbigin, Lamin Sanneh & Jenny Taylor, 1998 London: SPCK 177 pp., £12.99 ISBN 0–281–05153–4

New Trends and Developments in the World of Islam Peter B. Clarke, ed., 1998 London: Luzac Oriental x + 400 pp., £37.00 ISBN 1–898–942–17‐X

Nihil Obstat: Religion, Politics and Social Change in East‐Central Europe and Russia Sabrina P. Ramet, 1998 Durham & London: Duke University Press 424 pp, £66.50 (hb), £22.95 (pb) ISBN 0–8223–2056–8 (hb), ISBN 0–8223–2070–3 (pb)

New Religious Phenomena in Central and Eastern Europe Irena Borowik & Grzegorz Babinski, eds., 1997 Krakow: Nomos 392 pp., US$25 (+ p&p) ISBN 83–85527–56–7

Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition Rebecca Alpert, 1997 New York: Columbia University Press 214 pp., £19.95, US$28.00 (hb) ISBN 0–231–09660–7

Jesus is Dread: Black Theology and Black Culture in Britain Robert Beckford, 1998 London: Darton, Longman & Todd 194 pp., £10.95 ISBN: 0–232–52241–3

Nature Religion Today: Paganism in the Modern World Joanne Pearson, Richard H. Roberts & Geoffrey Samuel, eds., 1998 Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 222 pp., £12.95 (pb) ISBN 0–7486–1057‐X

Witchcraft and Paganism in Australia Lynne Hume, 1997 Carlton South, Australia: Melbourne University Press xiii + 272 pp., $29.95 ISBN 0–522–84782‐X

Ageing and Spirituality Albert Jewell, ed., 1998 London/Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers 191 pp. £14.95 ISBN 1–85302–631‐X

Dying, Death and Bereavement in a British Hindu Community New Religious Identities in the Western World Volume 1 Shirley Firth, 1997 Leuven, Belgium: Peeters 240 pp., BEF 1070 (pb) ISBN 90–6831–976–0

Interpreting Death: Christian Theology and Pastoral Practice Peter C. Jupp & Tony Roger, eds., 1997 London: Cassell 218 pp., £16.99 ISBN 0–304–33784–6

Historical Dictionary of the Bahá'í Faith Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies and Movements, No. 17 Hugh C. Adamson & Philip Hainsworth, 1998 Lanham, Md., & London: The Scarecrow Press ix + 505 pp., US$ 65.00 (hb) ISBN 0–8108–3353–0

Taking With The Left Hand: Enneagram Craze, People of the Bookmark, & The Mouravieff Thenomenon’ William Patrick Patterson, 1998 Fairfax, California: Arete Communications 149 pp., US$12.95 (pb) ISBN 1–879514–10–9     

Performance feedback and self-focused attention in the classroom: When past and present interact

An experiment tested the impact of performance feedback on self-focused attention in high and low achievers. On the basis of previous research, which suggested that inconsistent feedback (i.e., feedback which contradicts one's performance history) receives considerable attention, it was predicted that such feedback would increase self-focus regardless of its valence (i.e., positive or negative). As predicted, high achievers were more self-focused when receiving failure feedback than when receiving success feedback or no feedback. The low achievers were more self-focused when receiving success feedback than when receiving failure feedback or no feedback. These findings are discussed in relation to Kluger and DeNisi's (1996) Feedback intervention theory and the literature on self-focused attention.     

The evolutionary selection of human races: A response to Miller

Miller's (1993, Personality and Individual Differences, 15, 665–675) theory of the origin of “the African Personality” is not new. The focus on testosterone as a mediator of male-male agonistic interaction and strong sexuality has been a component of the r-K analysis of human race differences from the outset. Several aspects of Miller's paper are discussed.     

Race, brain size, and intelligence: a reply to Cernovsky

Cernovsky's 1990 critique of my work on the relation between brain size and IQ inadequately presents my position. I did not address the issue of sex differences in brain size nor did I conclude that "women are less intelligent than men" (p. 337). In the autopsy study cited by Cernovsky, it was concluded that, when body size is controlled, the male-female difference in brain size is removed but the black-white difference in brain size remains. Cernovsky also ignores much additional data, including that Mongoloid populations have larger and heavier brains than Caucasoids. Here, I review evidence on the relation between (a) brain size and race and (b) brain size and intelligence. Data are also tabulated for personality, speed of maturation, and sexuality, on all of which the Caucasoid average consistently falls between those of Mongoloids and Negroids. This ordering may be explained by a gene-based evolutionary theory of r/K reproductive strategies in which Mongoloids are more K-selected than Caucasoids and Caucasoids more than Negroids.