Book reviews

Arnold, M. Memory and the brain. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1984. Pp. 532. ISBN 0-89859-290-9. £47.90.

Green, T. R. G., Payne, S. P. and van der Veer, G. C. (Eds.). The psychology of computer use.. London: Academic Press. 1983. Pp. 225. ISBN 0-12-2974204. $9.50.

Stunkard, A. J. and Stellar, E. (Eds.). Eating and its disorders. New York: Raven Press. 1984. Pp. 302. ISBN 0-89004-891-6. $58.50.

Spillmann, L. and Wooten, B. R. (Eds.) Sensory experience, adaptation, and perception: Festschrift for Zero Kohler. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1984. Pp. xxvii + 748. ISBN 0 8985-3-218-6. £70.85.

Geschwind, N. and Galaburda, A. M. (Eds.)Cerebral dominance: The biological foundations. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1984. Pp. 232. ISBN 0-674-10658-X. £24.35.

Annett, M. Left, right, hand and brain: The right shift theory. 1985. London and Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Pp. xiii + 474. ISBN 0-86377418-5 £29.95.

Ericsson, K. A. and Simon, H. A. Protocol analysis: Verbal reports as data. Cambridge, Mass.: The M.I.T. Press. 1984. Pp. 426. ISBN 0-262-05029-3. £28.95.     

Age differences in memory performance and memory ratings as measured in a sample survey

Age differences in memory performance were studied in a probability sample of a cross-section of 1,491 adults living in the Detroit metropolitan area, with an oversample of those age 60 and older. Both a recall and a recognition measure were adapted to the survey context by querying respondents about the nature of the questions asked in an immediately preceding interview. Subjective memory assessment was also measured, using global memory ratings performed by the respondent, his or her spouse, and the interviewer. A clear, age-related decline in memory performance was found in this population sample. Subjective memory assessment also declined across age groups, but the relation was weaker. On the basis of multiple regression analyses of the recognition measure and the respondent's self-rated memory, which were judged to have the best measurement qualities, a substantial part of these age differences can be accounted for by differences in sociodemographic composition between age groups, by cognitive functioning and physical health.     

Differences in occupational stress in three European countries

In this study, the reliabilities of the Dutch translation of the Occupational Stress Inventory, which is based on the theory of Cooper (Cooper & Marshall, 1976), was investigated. The sample comprised 436 nurses. A comparison is made of the individual and job satisfaction stress levels of Dutch and British nurses (N = 546), and of British managers (N =123) and German managers (N =133). The differences in the reliabilities of the Dutch version, compared to the British and German, are small. The differences between the stress and satisfaction scores are found to be greater between occupational groups than between nations.     

The communication disorder in dialysis dementia: A case report

The communication disorder in dialysis dementia is an integral feature of the syndrome. This report describes the communication disorder in a 67-year-old man over a period of 4 months from his admission to the hospital to his death. In the early stage of the syndrome, the most prominent feature was a speech problem, the characteristics of which may vary among cases. In the middle stage, it was difficult to distinguish among aphemia, aphasia, or a combination of dysarthria and confusional state. The severity of the problems in these stages was temporally related to the dialysis treatments. The final stage was characterized by constant mutism and was unrelated to the dialysis treatments. Death occurred 10 months after the communication problems emerged. Communication studies of dialysis dementia patients may offer a systematic method to monitor the course of the syndrome, its response to therapeutic trials, and a clinical model for the study of communication disorders in general.     

Instructed versus pharmacological effects of alcohol in alcoholics and social drinkers

Twelve alcoholics and 12 social drinkers were studied in an experiment where instructions about alcohol or placebo were orthogonally crossed with administration of alcohol or placebo in a Balanced Placebo Design. Three subjects were simultaneously observed while watching soccer games on the TV together and having free access to a mixed drink, which in the alcohol conditions contained 150ml of 80% proof vodka. The assessment procedure included several aspects of drinking behavior, behavioral observations during the session, psychiatric ratings and nurse observations before and after each session, ratings for craving, self-reported state anxiety and physiological changes (heart rate and blood pressure). In general, the results showed the alcoholic's behavior to be controlled by instruction-induced expectancies rather than by the actual beverage given, whereas the social drinkers showed tendencies in the opposite direction. The implications of these results for the traditional disease conception of alcoholism and for learning theory approaches are discussed.     

Children's detection and awareness of textual anomaly

Children of 8 and 11 years were assessed in two experiments for their sensitivity to textual anomaly. In Experiment 1, subjects read stories containing two target lines, one appropriate and the other anomalous in relation to previously given information. Both age groups read the anomalous line more slowly than the appropriate line, but in a subsequent test of comprehension monitoring, the older group was more likely than the younger group to pick out the anomalous line as not fitting in with the rest of the story. Experiment 2 produced similar results: both 8- and 11-year-old children read an anomalous line more slowly, but 11-year-olds were more likely than 8-year-olds to cite the anomalous line or part of it when questioned about the possible presence of a line that did not fit in with the rest of the story. The results indicate that an age change in comprehension monitoring as indexed by citation or selection of a textual anomaly need not be contingent upon a parallel age change in constructive processing as indexed by modulation of reading rate.     

Acquisition of probabilities in anticipatory appraisals of stress

Processes involved in predicting stressor events were examined from the perspective of ‘associative memory models’. Subjects were exposed to alphabetic letters which supposedly represented electrical resistors used in audio equipment, in the guise of marketing research. Each letter presentation was followed either by a burst of aversive white noise, signifying ‘resistor failure’ during a brief surge of current, or by a green light, signifying ‘resistor effectiveness’. After a programmed series of presentations, subjects were asked to make several judgments about each resistor; analyses of these judgments focused on the comparative influence exerted by the alternate stimulus events. Regardless of the type of judgment (e.g. probability of future noise, frequency of earlier silent outcomes, and so on), the determining stimulus property was the cumulative frequency of earlier aversive outcomes. Moreover, the dominance of this property was not altered by manipulations designed to elevate the salience of equally relevant benign outcomes. Results were discussed with reference to models of categorical memory and predictive confidence. Circumstances under which stress predictions may be especially inaccurate were considered, as were implications of the present findings for studies of differences in categorical-frequency memory processes associated with ‘depresed mood’.     

Paid work,child care,and housework: A national survey of high school seniors' preferences for sharing responsibilities between husband and wife

A large national sample of high school seniors rated their preferences for the allocation of work and family duties within their own prospective marriages. The results indicate that many seniors favor half-time or full-time work for wives without children. On the other hand, the majority prefer that the mother of preschool children stay home, although half-time work is acceptable to many. Respondents who are male or White or did not have a working mother themselves are somewhat more conservative on these issues. Virtually all seniors view less than full-time employment by the husband as unacceptable. With regard to child care and housework, most seniors prefer equal sharing between the spouses. A comparison of four senior classes reveals a slight trend from 1976 to 1979 toward increased sharing of duties.