BEHAVIOR THERAPY (1972) 3, 334-340

Book Reviews Briefly Noted

LESTER, GENE, & LESTER, DAVID. Suicide: The Gamble with Death. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971, xiii + 169 Pp. $5.95.

According to the authors, l0 out of every 10O,000 people deliberately kill them- selves each year and there are probably about 10 attempts for every actual suicide. Written with a view toward etiology and prevention, this book systematically surveys a vast array of possibly pertinent parameters and some interesting conclusions emerge, e.g., men tend to achieve suicide while women tend more to attempt suicide; whites tend to commit suicide during middle and old age whereas blacks tend to do so while in their twenties; behavioral indicators are better indices of suicidal potential than psychological tests. While the information is presented in an objective and scholarly fashion, the writing itself is clear, nontechnical and appropriate for para- professional and lay readers.

HUTT, S. J., & HUTT, CORINNE. Direct Observation and Measurement of Behavior. Springfield, IL: Thomas, 1970, xiii + 224 Pp. $14.95.

As psychology grew more sophisticated, somehow less and less reliance began to be placed upon direct observation. This book, with its emphasis upon direct observation of the free organism, provides a much needed corrective for this ten- dency. The behavior of normal, brain-damaged, and autistic young children has been methodically recorded, measured, and then interpreted. The technology of direct observation is presented concisely and yet thoroughly, with many illustrations from both the human and infrahuman worlds, down to fine details such as which type of commercial event recorders are best for what purposes, and which statistical models to employ with sequential data. The chapter on video tape and motion picture recording is particularly useful. This is a splendid and important book which clearly sets forth the much overlooked contribution that ethology has to make to the scientific study of behavior. It is also an invaluable resource text for those interested in the direct observation and measurement of behavior for either clinical or research purposes.

GACN~, ROB~aT M. The Conditions of Learning (Second Edition). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970, viii + 407 Pp. $10.00.

Like the first edition, this book--geared toward students in psychology and education who have had at least one previous course in learning--sets out to answer the question: What is known about the process of learning that can be put to use

334 © 1972 by Academic Press, Inc.