530 Book Reviews

analysis, it is how people are affected by media news. The chapter on news devotes most space to an essentially sociological analysis of news selection and case analysis of certain major US news events. The extensive literature on news memory and comprehension, which ought really to have formed the core of any cognitive analysis, is discussed in half a page.

The best chapter is on advertising, perhaps because the author specializes in this area; even here, though, a proper cognitive analysis is not addressed. Why has the author failed to examine the growing literature on the cognitive processing, techniques of testing awareness, recall and comprehension of ad-content’? A few passing remarks about schemes in understand- ing advertising and miscomprehension of advertising do not seem to meet the case.

When I agreed to review this book it was because of its title. I anticipated a book which would offer a cognitive perspective on mass communications, something which, although recognized as increasingly important in the communications literature, has yet to be attempted across the full range of major media topics. I was therefore disappointed to find that the book offers no more than the usual kind of review of the subject, and even then proves to be generally a bit thin. Though it provides an introduction to some of the salient topics of discussion in mass communications over the past 10 years, for anyone who, like me, might look forward to something different, something even remotely cognitive, this is not the book to buy.

BARRIE GUNTER Independent Television Commission, London

Guided Tour of a Muddied Pond HEMISPHERIC SPECIALIZATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION. John L. Bradshaw. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 1989. No. of pages xi +218. ISBN 0-471-923-184 (hardback) and 0471-934-87 (paperback). Price E33 and E16.95 respectively.

This book is based upon a series of lectures presented by the author to the Instituto di Fisiologia Umana dell’Universita di Parma. Inevitably, one feels tempted to compare it with the earlier Human Cerebral Asymmetrj, (Prentice-Hall), 1983), co-written with Norman C. Nettleton, even though Bradshaw explicitly states that he was aiming here for a different kind of book; ‘something which was more integrative and pitched at a slightly lower level, and which was well-illustrated’ (p. vii). The book is certainly well-illustrated, but I am not sure that the other aims have been achieved.

As one would expect, this book and Bradshaw and Nettleton (1983) cover a number of the same topics. Both have chapters covering asymmetries in species other than humans, clinical studies of human cerebral asymmetry, studies with commissurotomies, studies with normals, models of hemispheric interaction, language and the right hemisphere, handedness, sex differences and developmental aspects. In addition, the present volume deals with evolution- ary aspects of language and tool use, and hemisphericity and cognitive style, but does not, like the earlier one, contain specific chapters on morphological asymmetries of the human brain, the analytic-holistic processing distinction and left hemisphere segmental processing, and developmental dyslexia, schizophrenia, and left hemisphere dysfunction.

As stated, I am not sure that the current volume is either more integrative or pitched at a slightly lower level than Bradshaw and Nettleton (1983). To be frank, I do not think it is quite such a good book, although it is a very good one. I suspect that it is simply harder to write a book on laterality research these days which could even begin to bring any kind of coherence to the field. Wisely, Bradshaw does not attempt to present a unified theory of lateral asymmetry. In the light of the thousands of papers published in the area in the past decade, this is not surprising. Back in the 1960s, laterality research must have looked so promising, offering apparently clear and simple methods of studying one important aspect of brain function. The more research that was carried out, however, the more complex the picture became, until now one really does not know what to believe above many aspects of hemisphere function. For years, many commentators have predicted the ultimate demise of this area of research, but papers continue to be published, and the area continues to exert its fascination.

Book Reviews 53 1

John Bradshaw’s latest book is really a guided tour around many of the most important issues in the field. One could not wish for a better-informed guide. At times the volume reads more like a set of lecture notes than a work originally intended as a book. All I can say is that I wish my lecture notes read as well as this. This book belongs upon the shelf of every psychology department library and of anyone involved in laterality research.

CHRIS FRENCH Goldsmiths’ College, University of London

Computers in the Clinic MICROCOMPUTERS, PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE. Robert West, Margaret Christie and John Weinman (Eds). John Wiley and Sons, Chichester. 1990. No. of pages xii + 318. ISBN W 7 1-924-040 (hardback). Price E45.

This book is an interesting collection of chapters dealing with a variety of applications for microcomputers in clinical contexts. As the editors point out, the book is not aimed at computer ‘buffs’, but at those considering the use of microcomputers in their clinical work as well as those who are looking for additional applications for systems already in use. It covers a wide range of applications, some in greater detail than others.

Following a general introduction by the editors the book is divided into seven parts. The first deals with data processing and programming. Chapter 1, Robert West, presents an over- view of statistical packages and considers the relative pros and cons of SPSSPC+, BMDPC, SAS, GLIM, MINITAB, STATGRAPHICS, SYSTAT, and EGRET. It contains useful tips for beginners on ‘Getting the most out of a statistical package’ (things most of us learned the hard way) and suggests a number of possible improvements for future statistical packages (software developers please note). The next chapter, by David J. Hand, is a brief overview of artificial intelligence applications in psychiatry dealing with psychiatric and statistical expert systems and knowledge enhancement systems. In such a brief chapter he can present only the barest outline of the area, but the references at the end of the chapter would allow the interested reader to learn more. Besides, perhaps the intended readership of this book would be well-advised to use their new micros on less ambitious projects, at least for the first month or two. Chapter 3, by Richard Kemp and Penelope Earp, should be of more immediate use to the intended readership, presenting at it does a good clear guide to the practical issues in setting up microcomputer-based systems generally, with respect of both hardware and software considerations. My one criticism of this chapter is that it does not provide references for interested readers to obtain more detailed guidance on the issues discussed.

Part I1 of the volume is entitled ‘Human performance testing: the effects of external agents’. This contains two chapters illustrating the use of micros in specific applications. The chapter by Chris Alford and Ian Hindmarch considers the side-effects of antidepressants on a variety of computer-based tasks, whilst the chapter by Brian Stollery deals with effects of environmen- tal pollutants in the workplace on performance of such tasks. These chapters emphasize the value of micros in allowing the administration of batteries of tests and the production of performance profiles.

Part 111 consists of four chapters dealing with ‘Human performance testing: client assess- ment’. The first, by Sarah Wilson, describes the valuable work carried out at the Royal Hospital and Home, Putney, using automated procedures in the psychological assessment of the severely physically disabled. It is worth nothing at this point that the book is slightly marred by rather a lot of typographical errors. For instance, Sarah Wilson’s chapter, according to its title, deals with ‘Psychologial [sic] assessment’ (p. 121).

The next chapter, by Christine Temple, deals with the various uses of micros in neuropsycho- logical investigations. I could not decide whether Temple’s assertion that, ‘Normal readers show a left visual field (LVF) advantage for reading both words and nonwords’ (p. 140) was another typographical error or was what she really meant to say. This certainly contradicts my own understanding of the literature and no less an authority than John Bradshaw (1989), who, discussing laterality effects with verbal stimuli, writes, ‘Three major kinds of tasks have