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New developments in behavioral research. Theory, method and application
203 connections among the cortical visual areas and those between them and other non-cortical vision-related structures. The final chapter (Holloway) initially outlines the methodology of brain endocast measurements and then discusses data from extant and extinct primates. The primary objective of these studies is to describe, if it can be established, species-specific morphometric patterns and then to relate these indices of different taxonomic groups to phylogenetic and neurobiological relationships. It would perhaps have been appropriate to have had a final chapter, from an anthropological viewpoint, on the role of the different sensory systems in primate phylogeny. The quality of the figures and printing is quite adequate. This book, in spite of most of the information contained therein being available elsewhere often in greater detail, remains a useful compendium on a subject that is receiving increasing attention. A. WEERASURIYA
(Kassel, Federal Republic of Germany)
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
IN BEHAVIORAL
RESEARCH
New Developments in Behavioral Research. Theory, Method and Application. Barbara C. Etzel, Judith M. Le Blanc and Donald M. Baer (Editors). Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., Hillsdale, NJ, 1977. (Distributed by John Wiley, U.K.) vxiii + 632 pp., US $27.5O/g19.55, ISBN 0-470-991134-B. This 600-page volume is a collection of essays in honor of one of the leading child psychologists in the last 30 years. Sidney W. Bijou is mainly known for his pioneering work on the use of operant methodology and theory with children, both normal and defective. He is among the firsts who extended Skinner’s views to the study of human behavior and applied the principles of the experimental analysis of behavior to practical problems. As can be expected, the book contains a detailed bibliography of the man honored as well as much information on his career. But these make up only a small part of the book. The remaining pages are devoted to more than 30 original papers. The book opens with a short introductory paper by Skinner himself, intriguingly entitled The Force of Coincidence. Coincidence, as Skinner argues, is the heart of operant conditioning, and he goes on to show how fortuitous events play an important part in shaping and controlling behavior. The substance of the 30 papers cannot be adequately reflected in the space of the present review. The contributions have been organized into three categories: Theory, Methodology and Practice, and New Analyses of Behavior. They cover a large variety of topics from maternal response to infant crying or from nutrition and development to classroom behavior analysis and sharing behavior in children. Current trends in the field of operant research are sig-
204
nificantly expressed through the presence and/or recurrence of favoured topics: imitation and language (not just verbal behavior), creativity, self-control (“self-help skills”, “ self-recording”). The first paper of the Theory section is entitled Operant research in violation of the operant paradigm and is another example of the currently fashionable questioning of behavioristic orthodoxy from inside. This healthy self-critical approach, together with broadened interests as testified by the array of topics mentioned above, certainly reveals a move toward integration of previously separate issues. Also highly significant of the development of the field is the fact that so many pages can be written on operant behavior in children with little reference, if any, to animal studies - a state of affairs that one would not have thought of 25 years ago. Readers of this journal, admittedly interested in comparative psychology, will, however, benefit from several of the papers, as illustrative of the kind of research strategy, both experimental and observational, that is being used by this particular brand of child psychologists. The fine analysis of the interaction between mother and child, or, in another setting between teacher and child, within the frame of operant paradigm has much to recommend it and should not be overlooked by the tenants of human ethology. After all, man is mainly programmed to learn, and learning processes in the developing child are far from clearly understood. The methodology and theory exemplified in this volume are undoubtedly one step in that direction. M. RICHELLE (Likge,
INSECT NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL
TECHNIQUES
Techniques. T.A. Miller. Springer-Verlag, 1979. xiii + 308 pp., 148 figs, cloth-bound, DM. 54.OO/US$29.70, 3-540-90407-7.
Insect Neurophysiological
Belgium)
Berlin, ISBN
The book is divided into 4 parts. The first one, devoted to the material used, describes successively the different types of electrodes (their making, eventual fitting and wiring), the operation and experiment rooms with the necessary accessories such as table, micro-manipulators, perfusion chambers, microscopes, dissection tools and operating techniques, and then goes on to give details about recording and stimulation equipment, the lesion generator and the apparatus for electroiontophoresis. The second part, including neurophysiology in its broadest sense, points out the actographic techniques. All sorts of apparatus are presented, from the mechanic type of Szymanski to more sophisticated designs provided with photoelectric cells. Some specific methods for insects are finally proposed,
(Kassel, Federal Republic of Germany)
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
IN BEHAVIORAL
RESEARCH
New Developments in Behavioral Research. Theory, Method and Application. Barbara C. Etzel, Judith M. Le Blanc and Donald M. Baer (Editors). Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., Hillsdale, NJ, 1977. (Distributed by John Wiley, U.K.) vxiii + 632 pp., US $27.5O/g19.55, ISBN 0-470-991134-B. This 600-page volume is a collection of essays in honor of one of the leading child psychologists in the last 30 years. Sidney W. Bijou is mainly known for his pioneering work on the use of operant methodology and theory with children, both normal and defective. He is among the firsts who extended Skinner’s views to the study of human behavior and applied the principles of the experimental analysis of behavior to practical problems. As can be expected, the book contains a detailed bibliography of the man honored as well as much information on his career. But these make up only a small part of the book. The remaining pages are devoted to more than 30 original papers. The book opens with a short introductory paper by Skinner himself, intriguingly entitled The Force of Coincidence. Coincidence, as Skinner argues, is the heart of operant conditioning, and he goes on to show how fortuitous events play an important part in shaping and controlling behavior. The substance of the 30 papers cannot be adequately reflected in the space of the present review. The contributions have been organized into three categories: Theory, Methodology and Practice, and New Analyses of Behavior. They cover a large variety of topics from maternal response to infant crying or from nutrition and development to classroom behavior analysis and sharing behavior in children. Current trends in the field of operant research are sig-
204
nificantly expressed through the presence and/or recurrence of favoured topics: imitation and language (not just verbal behavior), creativity, self-control (“self-help skills”, “ self-recording”). The first paper of the Theory section is entitled Operant research in violation of the operant paradigm and is another example of the currently fashionable questioning of behavioristic orthodoxy from inside. This healthy self-critical approach, together with broadened interests as testified by the array of topics mentioned above, certainly reveals a move toward integration of previously separate issues. Also highly significant of the development of the field is the fact that so many pages can be written on operant behavior in children with little reference, if any, to animal studies - a state of affairs that one would not have thought of 25 years ago. Readers of this journal, admittedly interested in comparative psychology, will, however, benefit from several of the papers, as illustrative of the kind of research strategy, both experimental and observational, that is being used by this particular brand of child psychologists. The fine analysis of the interaction between mother and child, or, in another setting between teacher and child, within the frame of operant paradigm has much to recommend it and should not be overlooked by the tenants of human ethology. After all, man is mainly programmed to learn, and learning processes in the developing child are far from clearly understood. The methodology and theory exemplified in this volume are undoubtedly one step in that direction. M. RICHELLE (Likge,
INSECT NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL
TECHNIQUES
Techniques. T.A. Miller. Springer-Verlag, 1979. xiii + 308 pp., 148 figs, cloth-bound, DM. 54.OO/US$29.70, 3-540-90407-7.
Insect Neurophysiological
Belgium)
Berlin, ISBN
The book is divided into 4 parts. The first one, devoted to the material used, describes successively the different types of electrodes (their making, eventual fitting and wiring), the operation and experiment rooms with the necessary accessories such as table, micro-manipulators, perfusion chambers, microscopes, dissection tools and operating techniques, and then goes on to give details about recording and stimulation equipment, the lesion generator and the apparatus for electroiontophoresis. The second part, including neurophysiology in its broadest sense, points out the actographic techniques. All sorts of apparatus are presented, from the mechanic type of Szymanski to more sophisticated designs provided with photoelectric cells. Some specific methods for insects are finally proposed,