DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

More Than 20 Questions

Face Recognition: Cognitive and Computational Processes
By Sam S. Rakover and Baruch Cahlon. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2001. 304 pp. Paper, $54.95.

In 1973, Allan Newell offered what was then a timely critique of human experimental psychology, a discipline he saw as being driven by phenomena, with little if any cumulative or cohesive character. By some accounts, Newell's timely critiques have taken on a timeless character, being applicable with equal if not greater force 30 years later. In such a context, it is a pleasure to come across a research program that attempts integration, synthesis, and the broad theoretical view that Newell was advancing as an antidote to the potentially stagnating effects of a focus on phenomena. Sam Rakover and Baruch Cahlon present a summary of a research program with these laudable theoretical goals, which also happens to be a creative application of scientific psychology to the problem of eyewitness identification. Although there are some unfortunate weaknesses (some of which we discuss in this review), the overall package evidences concern for integrative theory and application.