Book reviews

The I?varapratvabhijñākārikā of Utpaladeva with the Author's Vrtti. Critical edition and annotated translation. Serie Orientale Roma LXXI. Raffaele Toreha, 1994, Roma, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, LIV+ 273 pp., pb L. 110.000

Jung and Eastern Thought: a Dialogue with the Orient. John James Clarke, 1994, London, Routledge, vii +217 pp., £12.99

Abu Ya^cqub al‐Sijistani: Intellectual Missionary. Paul E. Walker, 1996, London, I. B. Tauris, xv + 132 pp.

Religious Pluralism and Truth: Essays on Cross‐cultural Philosophy of Religion. Edited by Thomas Dean, 1995, Albany, SUNY Press, xi + 271 pp., 0 7914 2123 6 hb, 0 7914 2124 4 pb, $19.95

The Body, Self‐cultivation, and Ki‐energy. Yuasa Yasuo, trans, by Shigenori Nagatomo and Monte S. Hull, 1993, Albany, SUNY Press, xxxvi + 229 pp. 814.95     

Nondirectiveness and genetic counseling

Nondirectiveness is the generally required and professed standard for genetic counseling. However, studies are lacking in the field of human genetics and in other disciplines which address either the theory or practice of this type of therapeutic procedure in the context of genetic counseling. Moreover, there is no indication the further development this concept has undergone in client-centered therapy has been acknowledged in human genetics. This could be due tot he historical development of genetic counseling, its inherent conflicts and often undefined goals, and the latent need of human geneticists to defend themselves against being accused of eugenic tendencies. Nondirectiveness and directiveness, however, can neither adequately describe what takes place in genetic counseling, nor can they — according to their original meaning — be used to define an ethical standard of genetic counseling. Starting with the writings by Carl Rogers (1942), an experiential approach is described, in which counseling is seen as a process of influence, which is wished by all the persons involved, during which activities are oriented toward the experience of the client, and which allows the counselor to communicate openly and directly with the client. The present study illustrates the use of the experiential approach in genetic counseling and shows that it can uphold the principle of ethics, which nondirectiveness demands and, at the same time, prevent the inevitable and unresolvable contradictions. This means that in their training genetic counselors must learn to recognize and constantly reflect on the influence they can and want to exert. In order to be able to use this influence in a responsible manner, genetic counselors must also learn to have a certain degree of flexibility so that they are able to check at any time how their client responds to this influence.     

Book reviews

Lack and transcendence: The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism. David Loy, 1996 New Jersey, Humanities Press 186 pp.

Obscenity, Anarchy, Reality. Crispin Sartwell New York, State University of New York Press 192 pp.

Extracting the Essence of the Sruti.. The Srutisārasamuddharanam of Totakācārya Michael Comans (Trans.), 1996 Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers xxvi + 122 pp., hb Rs 195, ISBN 81 208 1410 x     

Attention demands during reading and the occurrence of brief (express) fixations

Eye movements were recorded while subjects read passages of text repeatedly (Experiment 1) and while normal text and strings ofhomogeneous letters were fixated (Experiment 2). Text repetition decreased fixation durations and increased saccade size, presumably because it decreased attention demands. Irrespective ofrepetition, however, no distinct distribution of brief (express) fixations emerged. In Experiment 2, fixation durations were shorter and saccades were larger when strings of homogeneous letters were “read,” indicating that this condition decreased attention demands. Again, however, no distinct distribution of express fixations emerged. These findings pose problems for the view that attentional processes determine the occurrence of brief (express) fixation durations in reading. Supplementary analyses of Experiments 1 and 2 suggested that visuospatial processing affected fixation durations, irrespective of linguistic processing demands.     

Book reviews

Confucianism and the Family. Walter H. Slote & George A. Devos, 1998, Albany, State University of New York Press, xiv + 390 pp.

Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia. Lawrence A. Babb & Susan S. Wadley (Eds), 1997, (1st edn, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, viii + 298 pp., hb Rs 295, ISBN 81 208 1448 7; pb Rs 195, ISBN 81 208 1453 3

Yoga. Discipline of freedom. The Yoga Sutra attributed to Patañjali (A translation of the text, with commentary, introduction and glossary of key words), Barbara Stoler Miller (Trans. & Ed.), 1996, Berkeley, University of California Press, xiv + 114 pp., ISBN 0 520 20190 6     

Visual-spatial working memory, attention, and scene representation: A neuro-cognitive theory

This paper addresses the issue of how visual-spatial working memory, attention, and scene representation are related. The first section introduces a modified two-stage conception of visual-spatial processing. “Stage one” refers to low-level visual-spatial processing and computes in parallel for the currently available retinal information “object candidates,” here called “visual-spatial units.” An attentional process called “unit selection” allows access to stage two for one of these units at a time. Stage two contains high-level visual-spatial information that can be used for goal-directions (e.g., verbal report, grasping). It consists of three parallel processing streams. First, the currently selected unit is recognized; second, a spatial-motor program for the selected unit is computed; and third, an “object file” is set up for the selected unit. An object file contains temporary episodic representations of detailed high-level visual-spatial attributes of an “object” plus an “index.” An index acts as a pointer and is bound via temporary connections to the attributes of the file. Section two of this paper specifies one part of stage two in more detail, namely visual-spatial working memory (VSWM). It can contain up to four object files. A first central claim is that during sensory-based processing for working memory (“access”), one object file is always “on-line,” and up to three other object files are “off-line”. A second central claim is that the process of setting up an object file depends on the number and the activation level of already stored files. Based on the concept of activation-based competition between object files, it is postulated that the more files that are stored and the higher their activation is, the longer it takes for a newly set up object file to reach a sufficient level of activation. Activation-based competition is also used to explain “short-term forgetting” by “interference.” A third central claim about VSWM is that a “refreshment' process exists that increases the activation level of an index of an object file in order to prevent forgetting or in order to bring the file back to the state of controlling the current action. Finally, section three gives a selective look at a number of experimental data such as the attentional blink, backward masking, dwell time effects, transsaccadic memory, and change blindness. New explanations are offered and new predictions made. Received: 16 January 1998 / Accepted: 25 July 1998     

Dynamics of oralrespiratory coordination in full-term and preterm infants: I. Comparisons at 38-40 weeks postconceptional age

This study compares the coordination of pacifier sucking and breathing between healthy full-term, low risk preterm, and high risk preterm infants at 38–40 weeks postconceptional age. High and low risk preterm infants did not differ in overall score on a neurobehavioral examination (NAPI), but infants in the high risk group differed from the others in breathing frequency and in the coordination of breathing and sucking rhythms. For infants in the high risk group, sucking had less influence on respiratory frequency and patterns of coordination between the frequencies of sucking and breathing were simpler. Oral–respiratory coordination may be a useful marker of infants at risk for later speech problems.     

Attributions About Acquaintance Rape: The Role of Alcohol and Individual Differences1

Reactions to an acquaintance rape scenario were examined for effects of respondent gender and portrayals of different levels of alcohol intoxication on attributions of responsibility and blame. Comparisons of conditions in which both victim and perpetrator were described as experiencing equivalent levels of intoxication revealed that participants rated the victim as more, but the perpetrator as less, responsible and blameworthy after consuming alcohol-particularly when drinking was accompanied by clear signs of behavioral impairment. In contrast, when the victim was more intoxicated and impaired than her assailant, intoxication of the perpetrator did not serve to excuse his behavior, but actually incriminated him more. Women generally assigned more blame to the victim. Individual differences in rape myth acceptance also influenced attributions.     

Perspectives in psychology

The Psychological Record - The traditional S-R position that in systematic psychology the IV’s are to be identified with environmental conditions is critically discussed. The advantages of...