Review of Images, Perception and Knowledge.

Reviews the book, Images, Perception and Knowledge edited by J. M. Nicholas. There are parts of this book that are worth reading, but the total is fragmentary. The reviewers get some artificial intelligence and computer simulation (Baylor & Racine), some brain function (Hebb, Pribram), some experimental psychology (Bugelski, Rosenberg, Paivio), some conceptual (Natsoulas, Henle, Pylyshyn) and philosophical (Hamlyn, Alston, Sloman) analysis, and out comes a bound entity entitled 'Images, Perception, and Knowledge.' It is true that all three of these topics are discussed at length, but they do not seem to constitute a well defined theme. The only justification for calling this a book is that all the parts are concerned with cognition. The reviewers see this 'conference book' as neither a conference (half of the book is reprinted) nor a book (it is more like a journal). The reviewers recommendation therefore, is that you not buy it, but that you borrow it so that you can take advantage of the individual chapters which are, in general, quite good. The epitaph for this effort could well be that 'the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.' (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Molecular Basis of Memory.

Reviews the book, The Molecular Basis of Memory by E. Gurowitz (1969). Everyone would agree that there is a biochemistry of brain functioning. Not everyone would agree, however, that there is evidence to indicate that the physiological memory trace depends directly upon changes in either DNA, RNA or protein molecules. On the premise that the molecular approach is valid, the first part of this book is concerned with just what molecule is involved. Anyone looking for a summary of work in this area will find it in this book. Anyone looking for a penetrating discussion of the nature of memory and memory mechanisms will have to look elsewhere. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on "Right-wing authoritarianism."

Canadian scholarship has recently been honoured in that Bob Altemeyer's book, Enemies of Freedom: Understanding Right wing authoritarianism (see record 1988-98419-000) received the 1988 prize for behavioural science research, awarded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The book has also received a number of favourable reviews. Ray feels that some comments on the limitations of the book are needed to balance the account, and submits that, in fact, the book is a complete failure as far as achieving what it set out to achieve is concerned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The nature of truth: Classic and contemporary perspectives.

Reviews the book, The nature of truth: Classic and contemporary perspectives by Michael P. Lynch (2001). This massive compilation is molded around two central questions: Does truth have an underlying nature? And, if so, what sort of nature does it have? In an attempt to address these questions, Lynch has assembled the work of an impressive array of thinkers from a variety of philosophical positions. The anthology is divided into seven major sections with each section being preceded by a detailed introduction that not only discusses the essays in the section to follow but also relates them to other relevant essays in the book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Memory, consciousness, and the brain: The Tallinn conference; and The Oxford handbook of memory.

Reviews the books, Memory, consciousness, and the brain: The Tallinn conference edited by Endel Tulving (see record 2000-07362-000) and The Oxford handbook of memory edited by Endel Tulving and Fergus M. Craik (see record 2000-00111-000). Memory, consciousness, and the brain (MCB) is an outgrowth of a conference organized by the editor and his wife, and held in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The organization of the book, accurately described by the editor as "largely illusory" (p. xv), blocks the 25 topic chapters into sections labeled Memory (11 chapters), Consciousness (7 chapters), and The Brain (7 chapters). The editor's hope is that the book will be useful as an introduction to representative research currently being conducted at the boundaries of memory, consciousness, and the brain. To what extent has this objective been achieved? The book certainly serves up a broad menu of topics. The reader looking for something intriguing in the way of research on memory and consciousness in the brain is likely to find it in this volume. What are MCB's weaknesses? The main sin is something that comes with the territory of all conference volumes: uneveness in quality, readability, and organizations, and uncertainty about the audience to be reached by each of the chapters. Regarding The Oxford handbook of memory (OHM), this book describes the growth of memory research from its nadir in the 1950s to the present, and presents summaries of contemporary scientific knowledge about a variety of memory topics. The focus is human memory (although the discussion of brain-memory relations is sometimes based on research with nonhuman primates) as studied from the perspectives of experimental cognitive psychology, cognitive neuropsychology, neuroscience, developmental psychology, theory and modeling, and the ecology of memory. Within this compass, the editors have attempted to ensure coverage of the current major theories, findings, and methods of memory. In the editors' words, the volume is intended to be "a major reference source for people who want to get started in the field, or who wish to check things outside their own regional area" (p. vii). Not only does the book hit its target, we expect that even specialists will benefit from the coverage of subjects in which they have expertise. For now, the OHM is the gold standard and all memory professionals are in the debt of the editors and authors for its existence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of learning methods on collaboration: Prior repeated retrieval enhances retrieval organization, abolishes collaborative inhibition, and promotes post-collaborative memory.

Research on collaborative memory has unveiled the counterintuitive yet robust phenomenon that collaboration impairs group recall. A candidate explanation for this collaborative inhibition effect is the disruption of people's idiosyncratic retrieval strategies during collaboration, and it is hypothesized that employing methods that improve one's organization protects against retrieval disruption. Here it is investigated how one's learning method during the study phase—defined as either repeatedly studying or repeatedly retrieving information—influences retrieval organization and what effects this has on collaborative recall and post-collaborative individual recall. Results show that repeated retrieval consistently eliminated collaborative inhibition. This enabled participants to gain the most from re-exposure to materials recalled by their partners that they themselves did not recall and led to improvements in their individual memory following collaboration. This repeated retrieval advantage stemmed from the preferential manner in which this learning method strengthened retrieval organization. Findings are also discussed that reveal a relationship between retrieval organization and the interaction observed between learning method and short versus long delay seen in the testing effect literature. Finally, results show that the elusive benefits of cross-cuing during collaboration may be best detected with a longer study–test delay. Together, these findings illuminate when and how collaboration can enhance memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in remembering faces.

Assessed adult age differences in recognition memory for pictures of faces under different instructional conditions using data from 110 18–25 and 115 50–80 yr old Ss. The experiment was designed to test M. W. Eysenck's (see record 1975-05006-001) "processing-deficit" account of age differences in memory by varying S's encoding of the faces. Although older Ss recognized fewer faces, the elaborative orienting task facilitated recognition memory equally in the 2 different adult age groups. The processing-deficit hypothesis is not supported by this finding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Art and Visual Perception.

Reviews the book "Art and visual perception," by Rudolph Arnheim (see record 1955-03680-000). In reading this book, one realizes why more psychologists have not been concerned with art. Art is a technical specialty in its own right and one must be expert both in psychology and in either creative art or the history of art to write on art. Arnheim's book brings the scientific knowledge of a trained psychologist to bear on the fundamental problems of visual art as it has developed through the ages. The discussion is always with reference to concrete works of art. Many original drawings, diagrams, and figures illustrate basic principles and important points. The writing is superb. The book is full of penetrating insights into questions of art and also into many problems of concern to the psychologist. Fundamentally this book is an argument against the usual art historian's approach, so well described by Arnheim as the purely subjective point of view, that what a person sees in a work of art "depends entirely on who he is, what he is interested in, what he has experienced in the past, and how he chooses to direct his attention". A book which reflects so well the author's urbanity, catholicity, and keenness of mind, as well as his technical grasp of the scientific and the artistic, is no small achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Retraining memory: Techniques and applications.

Reviews the book, Retraining memory: Techniques and applications by Rick Parenté and Janet K. Anderson-Parenté (1991). This book, by rehabilitation neuropsychologist Rick Parenté and his wife, psychologist Janet Anderson-Parenté, was written as a practical manual of memory improvement strategies and approaches that anyone with difficulty remembering can use. The book was meant to serve a widely divergent audience: It was written to provide practical tips on improving memory and allied processes for cognitive rehabilitation therapists, psychologists, persons with head injury, or family members "anyone who feels that his or her memory is not what it used to be" (p. vii). While the book may not be the complete practical resource for "everyone" that was desired, it represents a valuable contribution to the cognitive rehabilitation literature by blending clinical and research aspects of memory retraining into a practical manual for psychologists and other professionals providing this form of training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Theater of Trauma: American Modernist Drama and the Psychological Struggle for the American Mind, 1900-1930.

Reviews the book, The Theater of Trauma: American Modernist Drama and the Psychological Struggle for the American Mind, 1900-1930 by Michael Cotsell (2005). For most of the 20th century, psychoanalytic theory and its myriad offshoots so pervasively influenced literary criticism in the United States that for many it is difficult to imagine examining American literature of that era through any other psychological lens. In his new book The Theater of Trauma: American Modernist Drama and the Psychological Struggle for the American Mind, 1900-1930, Michael Cotsell alerts us to the existence of an alternate psychological perspective that dominated the American landscape before Freudian analysis gained widespread acceptance on this side of the Atlantic--dissociationism. He makes a compelling case that from the waning years of the 19th through the early decades of the 20th century American modernist drama was primarily shaped not by psychoanalytic thought, but by dissociationist psychology. Cotsell argues that it is dissociationism that informed and sustained the modernist sensibility in American drama, and that once dissociationist psychology was eclipsed by psychoanalytic theory, the demise of modernist playwriting was inevitable. Despite the breadth of this book, it is no more realistic that a single work could provide the last word on the relevance of dissociationism to drama than that one volume could offer a comprehensive discussion of the pertinence of psychoanalytic theory to the theater. Cotsell reminds us of the existence of a conceptual framework that carries tremendous explanatory power in its capacity to cogently link the realm of the psychological and personal to that of the social and political. The continued ubiquity of trauma and dissociation in contemporary life render the dissociationist perspective as relevant today as it was in the modernist epoch. Consequently, the significance of The Theater of Trauma extends well beyond the specific territory it covers; it lies in its potential to open new vistas for psychology, for literary criticism, and a wide spectrum of other disciplines concerned with the interface between society and individual experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The times, they are a changing: A review of Raising children in a socially toxic environment.

Reviews the book, Raising children in a socially toxic environment by J. Gabarino (1995). In this book, Garbarino sets out to offer his views on what childhood ought to be, how children map their own worlds (thus define, themselves), what their basic needs are, the levels in which those needs are being met, as well as offer suggestions for ways in which readers can change the "toxic environment" to aid in the healthy development of children and youth. The book is challenging to read because it is true. Although the pages are not replete with "hard data," they are filled with factual accounts that paint a discouraging, in fact depressing picture of the life of children in our communities. The book is powerful because, if successful, we are forced to accept the fact that this is American society today. There is no question that the issues articulated by Garbarino in this book, such as teenage homicide, gang warfare, domestic violence, and child abuse, are real. The influences of Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977) and ecological systems theory provide the conceptual framework for this book. Accordingly, development is the result of complex interactions among child and family systems and the social environment in which they function. Related to the ecological orientation is the notion that "it takes a village" to effect change. In other words, there is an implicit message that successful, healthy childrearing is the shared responsibility of individuals, groups, communities, external forces, and broad-based sanctions and regulations. As such, readers who take this book seriously will be forced to look at it not only as a professional resource with "good information," but as a call to accept a role for working within their individual and community contexts to influence change. Although the book falls short in providing concrete directives for change, it sends a strong message that we are all responsible, and a more subtle message that change is possible. If each and every reader could make one or two changes in their own behaviors and priorities as an outcome of reading this book, it will have served an invaluable service. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Issues in the study of talent.

Reviews the book "Issues in the study of talent," by Douglas W. Bray (see record 1955-04716-000). It is pointed out that the unusually talented person has always attracted the attention of many groups of individuals but that similar study has not been given to the people who range through the whole spectrum of human abilities. In considering the part played by the hereditary potential in general intelligence the author concludes, in briefest terms, that individuals differ in intellectual potential at birth, but that differences in IQ among children from different socioeconomic cultural groups may be clue to differences in cultural opportunity. Much emphasis is given to an analysis of two basic motives, the desire of the individual to do well in school and his desire to reach a particular socioeconomic goal. The present small book will be of interest to those who are concerned with the fundamental question of the causal factors that underlie the individual differences which characterize those who make up our present day society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Divorced families: A multidisciplinary development view.

Reviews the book, Divorced families: A multidisciplinary development view by Constance R. Ahrons and Roy H. Rodgers (1987). This book has much to commend it, but is ultimately disappointing. Though it challenges myths about divorce, it reinforces others. The book is engagingly written, but superficial, stretching its analysis far beyond what the data can bear, and ignoring, in its analysis, major questions. Ahrons and Rodgers take the position that, rather than being pathological, divorce is a normal institution of society. The authors set themselves apart from those who sentimentalize the "traditional" family and who blame separation and divorce for such social ills as drugs, delinquency, and premarital pregnancy. Instead, they argue that in the face of industrialization and urbanization, the family has remained remarkably strong. This book will no doubt serve a worthwhile purpose in helping to promote a more positive image of divorce. But the book's preoccupation with "image" is part of its problem. Clearly, another book is needed which is not just concerned about images but about what is really happening--economically, legally, politically, and culturally--to divorcing families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Pain in children and adolescents.

Reviews the book, Pain in children and adolescents by P. J. McGrath and A. M. Unruh (1987). This book is an extremely comprehensive work, dealing not only with specific clinical problems but also with such broader and complex issues as ethics and service delivery in pediatric pain. McGrath and Unruh go a long way to unravel the 'mystery' of pain in children by discussing clearly and concisely the literature on the assessment and measurement of pain in children. Clinical problems such as post-operative pain, abdominal pain, headache, muskuloskeletal pain, colic, injuries, psychogenic pain, and chronic intractable pain are all dealt with in individual chapters divided into clearly labelled sections, making it very easy for busy clinicians to locate their particular area of interest. One of the strengths of this book is the methodological expertise of the authors, which is evident in their evaluations of the research cited in the text. Novice researchers reading this book will be reminded of the many pitfalls to be avoided in research design, and postgraduate students seeking topics for research will find numerous suggestions in the 'future directions' sections of the book. The publishers are to be congratulated on their attractive presentation of the book. The type is large and very easy to read, the text is well spaced, and considering the amount of material in the book, it is remarkably compact in size and very reasonably priced. Providing as it does a comprehensive summary and analysis of the literature to date on pain in children, it is essential reading for all clinicians, paramedics, and researchers concerned with this important and long neglected area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Language, cognition and deafness.

Reviews the book, Language, cognition and deafness by Michael Rodda and Carl Grove (see record 1987-97707-000). In this book, Rodda and Grove clearly subscribe to the view that along with speech and hearing, deaf persons should be allowed to use their "natural" language, Sign Language, American Sign Language (ASL), or in Canada, Canadian Sign Language (CSL). What makes this book unusual and important is that the authors have taken great pains to document their position through reference to hard experimental evidence, much of which has been done by psychologists. It is hard to imagine that anyone reading this book would not be definitively persuaded by their arguments, which are based on recent developments in psychology, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, as well as many other allied fields. Rodda and Grove clearly want to see Sign Language (ASL) accepted as part of the educational, psychological and cultural world of deaf adults, without demeaning the importance of speech and hearing in the communication process. This highly readable and informative book will undoubtedly help move the field in that direction, and I highly recommend it to the specialist and non-specialist alike. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)