Cognition and cognitive psychology Books

Book SynopsisTrade Review"The Mind-Gut Connection presents the incredibly humbling reality that our very perception and interpretation of the world around us is virtually dictated by the microbes living within us. This book redefines what it means to be healthy and eloquently provides the means to manifest that goal." -- David Perlmutter, MD, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Grain Brain and Brain Maker "Drawing on his vast experience as a practicing gastroenterologist, Dr. Mayer writes about the connections that our brains have with our guts, especially with the microbes that make the gut their home. Describing a rapidly advancing realm of knowledge, this thoughtful guide provides practical advice to improve health." -- Martin J. Blaser, MD, author of Missing Microbes "Dr. Emeran Mayer elucidates the intricate biochemical dialogue that occurs between the brain, digestive tract, and trillions of bacteria residing in the gut. He dubs this form of communication 'microbe-speak' and speculates on its implications for social behavior, decision making, emotional wellbeing, and maybe mental health." -- Booklist "After a long period of neglect the enteric nervous system has been recognized as the 'second brain'. Dr. Emeran Mayer, a true expert of this topic, has now written the best lay-public guide yet to this spectacular part of ourselves. Recommended reading." -- Antonio Demasio, author of Descartes' Error, The Feeling of What Happens, and The Self Comes to Mind "I have known Emeran Mayer for years and have learned to pay attention to what he says and writes. The Mind-Gut Connection is a delight. Both scholarly and fun to read, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about how the mind and gut communicate." -- Michael D. Gershon, MD, author of The Second Brain "Microbiome research is revolutionizing our understanding of the human body and the brain. In The Mind-Gut Connection, Dr. Emeran Mayer provides authoritative insight into this rapidly expanding field. Synthesizing recent research with patient stories and personal anecdotes, he offers practical, evidence-based recommendations to keep the dialogue between the brain, the gut, and its microbes flowing smoothly." -- Rob Knight, PhD, author of Follow Your Gut and director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation, UC San Diego "The Mind-Gut Connection is a revolutionary new holistic view of what keeps us healthy, ranging from the food choices we make to the ways we can train our mind, with the ultimate goal of attaining optimal health. " -- Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MD, Clincal Professor of Medicine and Professor of Public Health, University of California School of Medicine (UCSF) "Microbiome research is revolutionizing our understanding of the human body and the brain. In The Mind-Gut Connection, Dr. Emeran Mayer provides authoritative insight into this rapidly expanding field. Synthesizing recent research with patient stories and personal anecdotes, he offers practical, evidence-based recommendations to keep the dialogue between the brain, the gut, and its microbes flowing smoothly." -- SELF online

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Book SynopsisOur experience of objects (and consequently our theorizing about them) is very rich. We perceive objects as possessing individuation conditions. They appear to have boundaries in space and time, for example, and they appear to move independently of a background of other objects or a landscape. In Ontology Without Boundaries Jody Azzouni undertakes an analysis of our concept of object, and shows what about that notion is truly due to the world and what about it is a projection onto the world of our senses and thinking. Location and individuation conditions are our product: there is no echo of them in the world. Features, the ways that objects seem to be, aren''t projections. Azzouni shows how the resulting austere metaphysics tames a host of ancient philosophical problems about constitution (Ship of Theseus, Sorities), as well as contemporary puzzles about reductionism. In addition, it''s shown that the same sorts of individuation conditions for properties, which philosophers use to dis

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Book SynopsisHow did human thought evolve into the highly complex process it is today? In the field of evolutionary cognitive archaeology, cognitive science and archaeology intersect to provide a more complete and grounded picture of the mind. With the combination of cognitive theories and archaeological evidence, this burgeoning field is only beginning to tap into the potential for a better understanding of the development of specific cognitive abilities.Cognitive Models in Palaeolithic Archaeology explores hominin cognitive development by applying formal cognitive models to analyze prehistoric remains from the entire range of the Palaeolithic, from the earliest stone tools 3.3 million years ago to artistic developments that emerged 50,000 years ago. Several different cognitive models are presented, including expert cognition, information processing, material engagement theory, embodied/extended cognition, neuroaesthetics, visual resonance theory, theory of mind, and neuronal recycling. By examiniTrade Review<"This is an area of great importance in understanding humanity, one of rapid development and one where new views of theory and practice are essential to continued progress. Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge have put together a fascinating new collection that has real substance and is both topical and thought-provoking. It will be a 'must read' for a professional audience, and can provide a useful spine for teaching cognitive evolution modules. This book will certainly be seen as on the cutting edge of current thinking.> * John Gowlett, PhD, Professor of Archaeology, University of Liverpool *<"If mind is a process, we need to investigate the relationships among its parts. This book frames cognitive models into an evolutionary perspective, a necessary step to disclose those relationships. Knowledge is about questions, and this publication shows that cognitive archaeology is now looking for its own ones.> * Emiliano Bruner, PhD, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (España) *<"This offering from the standard bearers of cognitive archaeology will be a stimulating read, with both new ways of looking at the record and new ideas of when and where specific cognitive abilities are first manifested. I am particularly excited by the number of developments in cognition, including in expertise and Theory of Mind, that are suggested to occur within the Acheulean period.> * Ceri Shipton, PhD, Fellow in East African Archaeology, British Institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi; McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge *Table of ContentsPreface 1. Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology 2. The Expert Cognition Model in Human Evolutionary Studies 3. Towards a richer theoretical scaffolding for interpreting archaeological evidence concerning cognitive evolution 4. Material Engagement and the Embodied Mind 5. Materiality and Numerical Cognition: A Material Engagement Theory Perspective 6. Art without Symbolic Mind: Embodied Cognition and the Origins of Visual Artistic Behavior 7. Deciphering Patterns in the Archaeology of South Africa: The Neurovisual Resonance Theory 8. Accessing hominin cognition: language and social signaling in the Lower to Middle Palaeolithic 9. Bootstrapping Ordinal Thinking 10. Models, Puddings and the Puzzle Index

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Book SynopsisNeurobiology of Cognition and Behavior is a cognitive neuroscience that maps cognitive/behavioral units with anatomical regions in the human brain. The brain-behavioral associations are based on functional neuroimaging combined with lesion studies. The findings will be used to explain differences in clinical syndromes with videos of patients included.Trade Review...challenging issues in the current neurobiology of cognition and behavior literature are addressed in detail in this extremely informative and accessible textbook. I highly recommend this volume for graduate-level libraries in cognitive psychology and the cognitive and clinical neurosciences. * Paul Tibbetts, Quarterly Review of Biology *This wonderfully instructive book covers cognitive neuroscience in behavioral numerology and neuropsychiatry. Anyone interested in behavioral/cognitive neurology, cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry, or neuropsychiatry ought to read it. * Michael Joel Schrift, DO, MA (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine), Doody's Notes *Behavioral neurology meets cognitive neuroscience and functional brain imaging! Hart synthesizes the latest and historical findings from clinical and cognitive neuroscience in a single volume that is highly readable, insightful, thought-provoking, and timely. This will be an invaluable resource to researchers studying cognitive disorders and to clinicians interested in the latest findings relating functional brain imaging paradigms to clinico-anatomic correlates and clinical manifestations of cognitive disorders. A unique contribution to the field that is a must for students of brain function at all levels across disciplines. * C. Munro Cullum, PhD, ABPP, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology & Neurotherapeutics, Pamela Blumenthal Distinguished Professor of Clinical Psychology, Chief of Neuropsychology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX *The Neurobiology of Cognition and Behavior is a masterfully organized and beautifully illustrated book that pays homage to classic behavioral neurology, while focusing sharply on contemporary cognitive neuroscience. John Hart brings clinical neurosciences to bear on our understanding of brain-behavior relationships and integrates these extraordinary syndromes with what we are learning from functional neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and non-invasive brain stimulation. This is an essential book for any student of the biological underpinnings of the mind. * - Anjan Chatterjee, MD, FAAN, Elliott Professor and Chief of Neurology, Pennsylvania Hospital, Penn Medicine, Philadelphia PA *As a behavioral neurologist and cognitive neuroscientist, Dr. Hart is in a perfect position to provide a unique view of where these two disciplines converge. The result is an outstanding monograph that I would highly recommend to anyone who seeks to learn about of the biological basis of the mind. * - Mark D'Esposito, MD, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology, Director, Henry H. Wheeler, Jr. Brain Imaging Center, University of California, Berkeley, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, Berkeley, CA *John Hart has written an accessible, modern introduction to the neural basis of human cognition and behavior. The approach is grounded in brain anatomy, building on classic lesion studies and on modern advances in functional brain imaging and the cognitive neurosciences. The result is a lucid description of structures, pathways, processes, and networks that underpin major domains of cognitive function. This short, generously illustrated textbook on the functional neuroanatomy of cognition and behavior will be welcomed by students and trainees in the neurosciences, psychology, linguistics, neurology, and psychiatry. * Victor W. Henderson, MD, MS, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA *John Hart's The Neurobiology of Cognition and Behavior is a superb text from one of the greatest minds in the field. He starts by offering a conceptual framework and lexicon in simple but elegant language that provide the student with a unique tool for plumbing the depths of cognitive neuroscience in a critical fashion. Throughout the book, a respect for the history of the field is woven into a tapestry with recent lesion and neuroimaging work with an unmatched clarity. Although written in a language that will hold the interest of the neophyte, even the most seasoned cognitive neuroscientists teaching from this text will find novel and valuable insights. It is written in the engaging style we have come to expect from John Hart. I could not recommend any text more highly. Bravo! * Bruce A. Crosson, PhD, Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA *Table of ContentsTable of Contents ; Preface ; 1. Cognition, Behavior, Brain, and Networks ; 2. Basic Neuroanatomy Review ; 3. Classic Aphasia Syndromes ; 4. Integrated Cognitive Neuroscience Approach to the Neural Basis of Language ; 5. Praxis ; 6. Episodic Memory and Amnesia ; 7. Higher-Order Visual Processing ; 8. Higher-Order Sensory Processing ; 9. Executive Functions/Cognitive Control Functions ; 10. Working Memory ; 11. Emotional Organization ; 12. White Matter and Cognition ; 13. Network Lesion Models ; 14. Conclusions ; Index

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Book SynopsisOne goal of researchers in neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence is to build theoretical models that can explain the flexibility and adaptiveness of biological systems. How to Build a Brain provides a guided exploration of a new cognitive architecture that takes biological detail seriously while addressing cognitive phenomena. The Semantic Pointer Architecture (SPA) introduced in this book provides a set of tools for constructing a wide range of biologically constrained perceptual, cognitive, and motor models. Examples of such models are provided to explain a wide range of data including single-cell recordings, neural population activity, reaction times, error rates, choice behavior, and fMRI signals. Each of the models addressed in the book introduces a major feature of biological cognition, including semantics, syntax, control, learning, and memory. These models are presented as integrated considerations of brain function, giving rise to what is currently the world''sTrade ReviewHow to Build a Brain takes on a daunting task, focusing on those parts that we think are important for memory, attention, and planning. Previous attempts at building a cognitive architecture have used symbols or connectionist networks, but Eliasmith uses spiking neurons and models specific brain regions. Categories and semantics emerge from the architecture. The way that all these moving parts work together provides insights into both the nature of cognition and brain function." * Terrence Sejnowski, Professor and Laboratory Head, Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Francis Crick Chair, Salk Institute *Eliasmith offers a unified theory of cognition that rests on the mechanism of a semantic pointer, namely, a compressed neural representation that can stand as a symbol for a more detailed semantic state or be decompressed to reproduce it, in compositional cognitive processes. Ambitious state-of-the-art modeling grounds the semantic pointer architecture in populations of spiking neurons, providing concrete neural accounts of high-level processes, including attention, learning, memory, syntax, semantics, and reasoning. Along with offering a powerful new approach for integrating cognition and neuroscience, Eliasmith provides detailed technical accounts of his system, with accompanying software that will serve both students and fellow modelers well." * Lawrence W. Barsalou, Professor, Department of Psychology, Emory University *Table of Contents1 The science of cognition ; 1.1 The last 50 years ; 1.2 How we got here ; 1.3 Where we are ; 1.4 Questions and answers ; 1.5 Nengo: An introduction ; Part I. How to build a brain ; 2 An introduction to brain building ; 2.1 Brain parts ; 2.2 A framework for building a brain ; 2.2.1 Representation ; 2.2.2 Transformation ; 2.2.3 Dynamics ; 2.2.4 The three principles ; 2.3 Levels ; 2.4 Nengo: Neural representation ; 3 Biological cognition - Semantics ; 3.1 The semantic pointer hypothesis ; 3.2 What is a semantic pointer? ; 3.3 Semantics: An overview ; 3.4 Shallow semantics ; 3.5 Deep semantics for perception ; 3.6 Deep semantics for action ; 3.7 The semantics of perception and action ; 3.8 Nengo: Neural computations ; 4 Biological cognition - Syntax ; 4.1 Structured representations ; 4.2 Binding without neurons ; 4.3 Binding with neurons ; 4.4 Manipulating structured representations ; 4.5 Learning structural manipulations ; 4.6 Clean-up memory and scaling ; 4.7 Example: Fluid intelligence ; 4.8 Deep semantics for cognition ; 4.9 Nengo: Structured representations in neurons ; 5 Biological cognition - Control ; 5.1 The flow of information ; 5.2 The basal ganglia ; 5.3 Basal ganglia, cortex, and thalamus ; 5.4 Example: Fixed sequences of actions ; 5.5 Attention and the routing of information ; 5.6 Example: Flexible sequences of actions ; 5.7 Timing and control ; 5.8 Example: The Tower of Hanoi ; 5.9 Nengo: Question answering ; 6 Biological cognition - Memory and learning ; 6.1 Extending cognition through time ; 6.2 Working memory ; 6.3 Example: Serial list memory ; 6.4 Biological learning ; 6.5 Example: Learning new actions ; 6.6 Example: Learning new syntactic manipulations ; 6.7 Nengo: Learning ; 7 The Semantic Pointer Architecture (SPA) ; 7.1 A summary of the SPA ; 7.2 A SPA unified network ; 7.3 Tasks ; 7.3.1 Recognition ; 7.3.2 Copy drawing ; 7.3.3 Reinforcement learning ; 7.3.4 Serial working memory ; 7.3.5 Counting ; 7.3.6 Question answering ; 7.3.7 Rapid variable creation ; 7.3.8 Fluid reasoning ; 7.3.9 Discussion ; 7.4 A unified view: Symbols and probabilities ; 7.5 Nengo: Advanced modeling methods ; Part II. Is that how you build a brain? ; 8 Evaluating cognitive theories ; 8.1 Introduction ; 8.2 Core Cognitive Criteria (CCC) ; 8.2.1 Representational structure ; 8.2.1.1 Systematicity ; 8.2.1.2 Compositionality ; 8.2.1.3 Productivity ; 8.2.1.4 The massive binding problem ; 8.2.2 Performance concerns ; 8.2.2.1 Syntactic generalization ; 8.2.2.2 Robustness ; 8.2.2.3 Adaptability ; 8.2.2.4 Memory ; 8.2.2.5 Scalability ; 8.2.3 Scientific merit ; 8.2.3.1 Triangulation ; 8.2.3.2 Compactness ; 8.3 Conclusion ; 8.4 Nengo Bonus: How to build a brain - A practical guide ; 9 Theories of cognition ; 9.1 The state of the art ; 9.1.1 ACT-R ; 9.1.2 Synchrony-based approaches ; 9.1.3 Neural Blackboard Architecture (NBA) ; 9.1.4 The Integrated Connectionist/Symbolic Architecture (ICS) ; 9.1.5 Leabra ; 9.1.6 Dynamic Field Theory (DFT) ; 9.2 An evaluation ; 9.2.1 Representational structure ; 9.2.2 Performance concerns ; 9.2.3 Scientific merit ; 9.2.4 Summary ; 9.3 The same... ; 9.4 ...but different ; 9.5 The SPA versus the SOA ; 10 Consequences and challenges ; 10.1 Representation ; 10.2 Concepts ; 10.3 Inference ; 10.4 Dynamics ; 10.5 Challenges ; 10.6 Conclusion ; A Mathematical notation and overview ; A.1 Vectors ; A.2 Vector spaces ; A.3 The dot product ; A.4 Basis of a vector space ; A.5 Linear transformations on vectors ; A.6 Time derivatives for dynamics ; B Mathematical derivations for the NEF ; B.1 Representation ; B.1.1 Encoding ; B.1.2 Decoding ; B.2 Transformation ; B.3 Dynamics ; C Further details on deep semantic models ; C.1 The perceptual model ; C.2 The motor model ; D Mathematical derivations for the SPA ; D.1 Binding and unbinding HRRs ; D.2 Learning high-level transformations ; D.3 Ordinal serial encoding model ; D.4 Spike-timing dependent plasticity ; D.5 Number of neurons for representing structure ; E SPA model details ; E.1 Tower of Hanoi ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisWhat is consciousness and how can a brain, a mere collection of neurons, create it? In Consciousness and the Social Brain, Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano lays out an audacious new theory to account for the deepest mystery of them all. The human brain has evolved a complex circuitry that allows it to be socially intelligent. This social machinery has only just begun to be studied in detail. One function of this circuitry is to attribute awareness to others: to compute that person Y is aware of thing X. In Graziano''s theory, the machinery that attributes awareness to others also attributes it to oneself. Damage that machinery and you disrupt your own awareness. Graziano discusses the science, the evidence, the philosophy, and the surprising implications of this new theory. Now in an affordable paperback edition!Trade ReviewGraziano's work is in important step in bridging a persistent gap between mind and brain in interdisciplinary research, notably because he attempts to answer the questions that require asking, and he does so with a remarkable level of humility. * Jean-Paul Orgeron, PhD, Department of Philosophy, State University of New York at Oneonta; Metapsychology, Online Reviews *The author offers an engaging and accessible explanation of his theory. Rather than merely touting its merits, he aims to show how it is compatible with other popular theories. Avoiding technical details, he uses anecdotes, drawings, and metaphors to convey an understanding of the important concepts. [This book] turns the field's contemporary wisdom on its head, and from its new vantage point one has the sense that an answer to the problem of consciousness might be in sight. Graziano's attention schema theory marks a milestone by offering a plausible, mechanistic answer to the hard problem." * Aaron Schurger, Science Magazine *Graziano proposes a new and intriguing theory of consciousness... [He] guides readers step-by-step through his captivating and convincing theory of consciousness, explaining how the theory accounts for many oddities in human perception. This book is an essential read for anyone interested in consciousness from either a scientific or philosophical perspective." * Library Journal *In most scientific theories, awareness emerges from the physical functioning of the brain, almost like heat rising from circuits. Laid out in his recent book...Graziano's theory takes a completely different approach to explaining consciousness. 'In this theory, the brain is an information-processing device. It doesn't produce non-physical essences * it computes information,' Graziano said. Graziano has given consciousness a more solid footing in the real, tangible world even if it remains a creation of the brain, Schurger said. 'If anything, his theory stands to demystify consciousness, in the same way that our understanding of genetics and self-organizing systems has begun to demystify 'life,' which was once thought to depend on an unseen force.'"Morgan Kelly, Princeton University News *Table of ContentsPart I: The Theory ; Chapter 1: The magic trick ; Chapter 2: Introducing the theory ; Chapter 3: Awareness as information ; Chapter 4: Being aware versus knowing that you are aware ; Chapter 5: The attention schema ; Chapter 6: Illusions and myths ; Chapter 7: Social attention ; Chapter 8: How do I distinguish my awareness from yours? ; Chapter 9: Some useful complexities ; Part II: Comparison to previous theories and results ; Chapter 10: Social theories of consciousness ; Chapter 11: Consciousness as integrated information ; Chapter 12: Neural correlates of consciousness ; Chapter 13: Awareness and the machinery for social perception ; Chapter 14: The neglect syndrome ; Chapter 15: Multiple interlocking functions of the brain area TPJ ; Chapter 16: Simulating other minds ; Chapter 17: Some spiritual matters ; Chapter 18: Explaining the magic trick

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Book SynopsisAs the world grows increasingly complex--in issues of sustainability, culture, and technology--businesses and governments are searching for a form of problem solving that can effectively respond to unprecedented levels of ambiguity and disorder. Traditional linear thinking has been disparaged by the popular media as being inadequate for dealing with the global economic crisis. Traditional forms of marketing and product development have been rejected by businesses that need to find new ways of staying competitive in a global economy. Yet little has been offered as an alternative. It is not enough to demand that someone be more innovative without offering the tools to succeed.This book offers a way of thinking about complicated, multifaceted problems with a repeatable degree of success. Design synthesis methods can be applied in business to produce new and compelling products and services, or these methods can be applied in government with the goal of changing culture and bettering society. In both contexts, there is a need for timely and aggressive action. This text is intended to act as a practitioner''s guide to using the magic of design to solve complex problems.Trade ReviewStructured in three logical parts-theory, business value, and practical guidelines-Kolko's book is a must-read for those looking for a clear explanation of how to move from design research to design solutions." * Mark Vanderbeeken, Senior Partner, Experientia *Exposing the Magic of Design fits perfectly into a long-empty slot on the bookshelves of practitioners and students. His theory of synthesis will engage your brain six ways from Sunday, while the practical, actionable methods will change your process immediately. We have needed this book!" * Steve Portigal, Principal, Portigal Consulting *...design students, practitioners of design in all disciplines dealing with product development, and business owners have much to gain from reading this volume." * PsycCRITIQUES *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Section One: What is Synthesis? ; Chapter 1: A Theory of Synthesis ; Chapter 2: Sensemaking, Frames, Models and Patterns ; Chapter 3: Abductive Reasoning ; Section Two: Design Synthesis in a Business Context ; Chapter 4: The Value of Synthesis in Driving Innovation ; Chapter 5: The Culture of Synthesis ; Section Three: Methods and Applicability ; Chapter 6: Methods for Making Meaning out of Data ; Chapter 7: Methods for Building an Experience Framework ; Chapter 8: Methods for Creating Empathy and Insight ; Conclusion ; Glossary ; Works Cited ; Index

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Book SynopsisThis is Marshall McLuhan''s last book, written in collaboration with his longtime friend, Bruce Powers. It updates McLuhan''s landmark study, Understanding Media, which was published 25 years ago.^l^l The premise is the distinction between what McLuhan and Powers call Visual Space - or the left-brain, linear, quantitative reasoning tradition of the West beginning with Plato and Aristotle - as against what they call Acoustic Space - right-brain, qualitative, pattern-producing reasoning, the holistic approach of the East. They argue that with the advent of the global village - as a result of electronic communications - these two mind sets are slamming into each other at the speed of light. In their words, In the last half of the 20th century the East will rush westward and the West will embrace orientalism, all in a desperate attempt to cope with each other, to avoid violence. But the key to peace is to understand both these systems simultaneously.Trade Review'The Global Village is studded with the controversial genius, insight and originality for which McLuhan was famous.' Telecommunications Policy`Thank you, Professor Powers, for bringing McLuhanian thinking back into the light and for bringing it up to date.' Futures

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the interplay between physiological and psychological states in light of increasing evidence that they exert subtle, long-term influences not only on mood, but also perception, judgement, and cognitive processes in general; these, in turn, affect behaviour. Drawing on his own data from subjective assessments of mood and research by others, the author addresses questions such as what determines a person''s mood and its changes; what is the relationship between mood and sugar snacking, smoking, coffee drinking, late-night worry, depression, and insomnia; what effect do exercise, time of day, nutrition, and sleep have on mood. This book will be of interest to researchers in personality, clinical, and physiological psychology and to laypersons interested in the topic.Trade Review"This is a courageous and most welcome effort to establish the concept of mood as an important part of psychology. It reviews the literature exhaustively, and organizes it in terms of the writer's own long continued work in this area. He is not afraid to look at the biological as well as the introspective aspects of moods, and gives us an integrative model of moods and mood changes which will dominate research in the coming years." --H.J. Eysenck, University of London "Thayer brings together in his book all of the important perspectives on mood, as represented both in current research and in historically older concepts, such as arousal. In his review of the literature Thayer ranges wide, including--although the book is primarily about normal mood--references, to the mood/cognition experiments in abnormal psychology which themselves have done much to advance interest in the topic." --The Psychologist "Ideally, the publication of this book will not only alert more people to the existence of Thayer's intriguing theory, but it will also inspire both researchers who favor his model and those who oppose it to conduct more empirical work to support their ideas." --Contemporary Psychology "This is a courageous and most welcome effort to establish the concept of mood as an important part of psychology. It reviews the literature exhaustively, and organizes it in terms of the writer's own long continued work in this area. He is not afraid to look at the biological as well as the introspective aspects of moods, and gives us an integrative model of moods and mood changes which will dominate research in the coming years." --H.J. Eysenck, University of London "Thayer brings together in his book all of the important perspectives on mood, as represented both in current research and in historically older concepts, such as arousal. In his review of the literature Thayer ranges wide, including--although the book is primarily about normal mood--references, to the mood/cognition experiments in abnormal psychology which themselves have done much to advance interest in the topic." --The Psychologist "Ideally, the publication of this book will not only alert more people to the existence of Thayer's intriguing theory, but it will also inspire both researchers who favor his model and those who oppose it to conduct more empirical work to support their ideas." --Contemporary PsychologyTable of ContentsIntroduction; Modern perspectives on mood; Arousal: A basic element of mood and behaviour; Daily rhythms of subjective energy and other biopsychological cycles; Determinants of energetic and tense arousal, including cognitive-mood interactions; The natural interaction of energetic and tense moods: A multidimensional arousal model; Issues relating to formal and informal research on mood; Toward an understanding of nonpathological mood states: Evidence, speculations, and applications; Appendices; References.

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Book SynopsisSignal detection theory, as developed in electrical engineering and based on statistical decision theory, was first applied to human sensory discrimination about 40 years ago. The theory''s intent was to explain how humans discriminate and how we might use reliable measures to quantify this ability. An interesting finding of this work is that decisions are involved even in the simplest of discrimination tasks--say, determining whether or not a sound has been heard (a yes-no decision). Detection theory has been applied to a host of varied problems (for example, measuring the accuracy of diagnostic systems, survey research, reliability of lie detection tests) and extends far beyond the detection of signals. This book is a primer on signal detection theory, useful for both undergraduates and graduate students.Trade Review"This book contains the theoretical explications of the ways observers detect weak, uncertain, or ambiguous signals. It explains the math underlying the theory, and outlines its uses in measuring an observer's sensitivity. The book is intended to serve as an introductory text for undergraduate or graduate courses in sensation and perception, psychophysics, cognition, and quantitative methods; it may also be used as a reference for researchers. Wickens teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles."--SciTech Book News "This book contains the theoretical explications of the ways observers detect weak, uncertain, or ambiguous signals. It explains the math underlying the theory, and outlines its uses in measuring an observer's sensitivity. The book is intended to serve as an introductory text for undergraduate or graduate courses in sensation and perception, psychophysics, cognition, and quantitative methods; it may also be used as a reference for researchers. Wickens teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles."--SciTech Book NewsTable of Contents1. The signal-detection model ; 2. The equal-variance Gaussian model ; 3. Operating characteristics and the Gaussian model ; 4. Measures of detection performance ; 5. Confidence ratings ; 6. Forced-choice procedures ; 7. Discrimination and identification ; 8. Finite-state models ; 9. Likelihoods and likelihood ratios ; 10. Multidimensional stimuli ; 11. Statistical treatment ; A. A summary of probability theory ; References

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Book SynopsisWeaving together diaries, contemporary newspaper accounts, and his own enlightening commentary, Candland brings to life a series of extraordinary stories of nonspeaking humans and animals who were thought to be able to speak.Trade Review... an eye-opening history of psychology... * Nature *... provides an enlightening analysis of language, intelligence, and learning... Scholarly and sensitive, this is absorbing reading. * Booklist *Original and entertaining. * Kirkus Reviews *Table of ContentsWhat Feral Children Tell Us: Nature and Nurture: Children without Human Parenting; Kaspar Hauser and the Wolf-Children; Four Psychologies; Thinking about the Mind; The Psychology of Psychoanalysis; Freud and Little Hans; The Psychology of Experimentalism and Behaviourism: Clever Hans and Lady Wonder; Experimentation and Experimenter: Clever Hans's Companions; The Psychology of Perceiving: Phenomenology and Ethology; The Mental Ladder: Peter and Moses, Chimpanzees Who Write; Exploiting the Missing Link; People and Apes Communicating: Raising Human Babies with Chimps: Donald, Gua, and Viki; Human and Ape Communication: Washoe, Koko, and Nim; Language and Meaning: Sarah and Lana, Sherman and Austin, Kanzi and Ai; Principles and Myths: Feral Children and Clever Animals; Postlude; Notes; References; Illustration Credits; Text Credits; Index.

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Book SynopsisA study which argues against reductionist accounts of human cognition and proposes a sociocultural perspective, moving beyond the isolated individual. The author claims that, in many human endeavours, the outcomes we are interested in are not determined by the information processing ability of the individual, but by forces in the environment.Trade Review'...With his usual clear prose and effective balance of theory and experimental evidence, Wertsch argues that neither social nor biological reductionism is the proper methodological stance...Wetsch nicely shows how many school failures result from mismatches in speech genre between the child and the school.' * William J Frawley, Dept. of Linguistics, Univ. of Delaware. *'This is a fascinating book and highly stimulating to read...a challenging book...this intriguing book should be read by anyone with a serious interest in the relationship between mind and sociocultural setting.' * Professor Martyn Barrett, Dept of Psychology, University of Surrey, for The Psychologist *Table of Contents1. The task of sociocultural analysis ; Translation at the crossroads ; Multiple perspectives on human action ; Methodological individualism in the copyright age ; 2. Properties of mediated action ; Mediated action is characterized by an irreducible tension between agent and mediational means ; Mediational means are material ; Mediated action typically has multiple simultaneous goals ; Mediated action is situated in one orf more developmental paths ; Mediational means constrain as well as enable action ; New mediational means transform mediated action ; The relationship of agents toward mediational means can be characterized in terms of mastery: Internalization as mastery ; The relationship of agents toard mediational means can be characterized in terms of appropriation: Internalization as appropriation ; Mediational means are often produced for reasons other than to facilitate mediated action ; Mediational means are associated with power and authority ; Narrative as a cultural tool for representing the past ; Representing the past: Cultural tools and their uses ; Historical texts as cultural tools ; Mastering texts about the origins of the U.S.: Knowing too little ; Mastering texts about the origins of the U.S.: Knowing too much ; Events ; Theme ; The construction of main characters ; Frequency of mention ; Patterns of agency ; Patterns of presupposed presence ; The irreducible tension between cultural tool and agent in generating historical texts ; The mastery and appropriation of narratives as mediational means for representing the past ; 4. Mediated action in social space ; Intersubjectivity and alterity in social interaction ; Intersubjectivity and laterity in studies of intermental; functioning ; Harnessing intersubjectivity and alterity in instructional discourse ; Reciprocal teaching as an alternative form of instructional discourse ; 5. Appropriation and resistance ; Appropriation and resistance: The official Soviet history of Estonia ; Tactics of consumption and forms of resistance ; Strategies of consumption and forms of resistance: ; Official and unofficial history ; Summary ; Appropriation and resistance: Cultural stereotypes ; The "Microdynamics" of appropriation and resistance ; Stereotype threat and appropriation ; 6. Mind as mediated action: An Epilogue

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Book SynopsisOral tradition is important in many fields of study such as psychology, anthropology, linguistics, folklore studies, history and the classics. This book combines the methods and theories of cognitive psychology with the study of oral traditions to test and expand the ideas of both. It is the first book on oral tradition from an author with professional knowledge of human memory and cognition. Easy to read, and in a jargon-free style, this book will appeal to a wide range of academics and graduate students from various disciplines.Trade Review"Rubin writes clearly and has organized a mass of material, presenting it both minutely and conceptually. Cognitive psychologists and those who work in relevant specialized areas will find the book of interest..." -- A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental Health "This is a challenging, interdisciplinary book that promises to have a ripple effect far beyond its home discipline of cognitive psychology....It has enormous implications for the more than one hundred oral traditions that have received specialist treatment over the past few decades, as well as for literary studies, folklore, and anthropology more generally. Dr. Rubin has brought cognitive psychology into a wholly unprecedented dialogue with studies in oral tradition. The result is a truly new perspective on memory and the processes of oral tradition that reinterprets the work of Milman Perry, Albert Lord, and others in an extremely productive way. Not only does Rubin make the psychological view understandable for the layperson, but he manages to reprise the Parry-Lord research in just as clear and up-to-date a manner." --John Miles Foley, William H. Byler Distinguished Professor of English and Classical Studies, University of Missouri "This is a great book. Not just 'important' or 'fascinating' but great; a very Parthenon of a book."--Roger Brown, John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James, Harvard University "Filled with fascinating and important insights about how memory really works in the field....This work dramatically enhanced my understanding of 'knowledge in the world'." --Donald A. Norman, Apple Computer, Inc., and University of California, San Diego (Emeritus) "The beauty of interdisciplinary scholarship is the possibility of novel contributions that enrich both fields. Rubin's merger of cognitive psychology and oral history clarifies and advances knowledge in both areas. . .stands on its own while inviting continued examination of other oral transmissions such as humor and urban legends." --Choice "This book is a landmark contribution for both scientists and scholars. Rubin has effectively integrated methods and insights from cognitive psychology, discourse processing, neuroscience, folklore, the classics, linguistics, and rhetoric. For those in the field of discourse processing, no other book has a more comprehensive coverage of the research on the representation and memory of oral discourse. For those in the humanities, it serves as an illuminating guide on how to apply informative quantitative analyses to discourse excerpts, including those that evolve over hundreds of years. For those in the rigorous scientific circles of memory research, it is a creative, colorful departure from some of the tedious memory paradigms that have flooded our journals and laboratories during the last four decades. This book will capture the imaginations of the new students of memory."--Arthur C. Graesser in Contemporary Psychology "David Rubin's book. . .provides an outstanding example of how more than a decade of memory studies, both inside and outside the laboratory, can be used to enrich our understanding of "ordinary" feats of memory. . . . Rubin is able to present a unique and useful perspective on basic processes that contribute to the power of human memory. In sum, this book is a capstone work that constitutes a successful attempt to link two previously unconnected areas of research: cognitive psychology and oral traditions." --American Journal of Psychology "Memory in Oral Traditions is an original tour de force....Rubin is able to present us with fascinating, new perspectives on classical subjects as well as the inner workings of human memory." --The General Psychologist "Rubin writes clearly and has organized a mass of material, presenting it both minutely and conceptually. Cognitive psychologists and those who work in relevant specialized areas will find the book of interest..."--Readings "This is a challenging, interdisciplinary book that promises to have a ripple effect far beyond its home discipline of cognitive psychology....It has enormous implications for the more than one hundred oral traditions that have received specialist treatment over the past few decades, as well as for literary studies, folklore, and anthropology more generally. Dr. Rubin has brought cognitive psychology into a wholly unprecedented dialogue with studies in oral tradition. The result is a truly new perspective on memory and the processes of oral tradition that reinterprets the work of Milman Perry, Albert Lord, and others in an extremely productive way. Not only does Rubin make the psychological view understandable for the layperson, but he manages to reprise the Parry-Lord research in just as clear and up-to-date a manner." --John Miles Foley, William H. Byler Distinguished Professor of English and Classical Studies, University of Missouri "This is a great book. Not just 'important' or 'fascinating' but great; a very Parthenon of a book."--Roger Brown, John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James, Harvard University "Filled with fascinating and important insights about how memory really works in the field....This work dramatically enhanced my understanding of 'knowledge in the world'." --Donald A. Norman, Apple Computer, Inc., and University of California, San Diego (Emeritus) "The beauty of interdisciplinary scholarship is the possibility of novel contributions that enrich both fields. Rubin's merger of cognitive psychology and oral history clarifies and advances knowledge in both areas. . .stands on its own while inviting continued examination of other oral transmissions such as humor and urban legends." --Choice "This is an impressive and unique book. It is an intensive study of oral memory traditions by a cognitive psychologist. There is nothing like it in print and it is unlikely that it will be superseded in the foreseeable future. . . . First, for psychologists, it is a review of the literature from the humanities on the history and structure of oral traditions. Second, for humanists, it is a review of the literature from cognitive psychology on memory and text representation. Third, it is a research monograph reporting a series of studies on memory for oral texts. . . . Psychologists teaching an undergraduate course on memory will find that the literature on oral traditions in this book can provide much interesting lecture material. . . . One hopes that the success of this interdisciplinary and ecological study will mean that the next generation of experimental psychologists will feel freer to adopt this approach to the study of human memory."--William F. Brewer in Contemporary Psychology "Rubin writes clearly and has organized a mass of material, presenting it both minutely and conceptually. Cognitive psychologists and those who work in relevant specialized areas will find the book of interest..." -- A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental Health "Rubin's Memory in Oral Traditions is a landmark book, summing up and refining a whole tradition of empirical work on memory in cognitive psychology, and presenting to literary scholars one of the most compelling cases to date for the relevance of cognitive neuroscience to the study of poetic and narrative forms. . . . There is much in this book to stimulate and challenge literary scholars: its cognitive and evolutionary models of narrative and poetic forms and conventions, its engagement with neuroanatomy and physiology, its potentially revolutionary understanding of oral poetry in terms of an embodied brain-mind in a physical as well as social environment. As a carefully researched, deftly argued, and nonreductive example of how cognitive psychology can contribute to literary understanding, Memory in Oral Traditions demonstrates how much can be gained by bringing literary studies in touch with developments in the cognitive neurosciences."--Southern Humanities ReviewTable of Contents1: Introduction 2: The Representation of Themes in Memory 3: Imagery 4: Sound 5: Combining Constraints 6: The Transmission of Oral Traditions 7: Basic Observations on Remembering 8: A Theory of Remembering for Oral Traditions 9: Epic and Formulaic Theory 10: Counting-out Rhymes 11: North Carolina Ballads 12: Discussion

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Book SynopsisHow do children acquire the vast array of concepts, strategies, and skills that distinguish the thinking of infants and toddlers from that of preschoolers, older children, and adolescents? In this new book, Robert Siegler addresses these and other fundamental questions about children''s thinking. Previous theories have tended to depict cognitive development much like a staircase. At an early age, children think in one way; as they get older, they step up to increasingly higher ways of thinking. Siegler proposes that viewing the development within an evolutionary framework is more useful than a staircase model. The evolution of species depends on mechanisms for generating variability, for choosing adaptively among the variants, and for preserving the lessons of past experience so that successful variants become increasingly prevalent. The development of children''s thinking appears to depend on mechanisms to fulfill these same functions. Siegler''s theory is consistent with a great dealTrade ReviewThis is one of those rare books that promises to change the way that psychologists view the central problem of developmental psychology. . .Siegler provides a cogent and convincing argument that variability is a constant in thought at all levels and provides the key to cutting through to the problem of cognitive change. In addition to providing a wide range of examples showing the centrality of adaptive variability in children's thinking at all levels, Siegler describes a methodology for describing developmental change as it progresses. Few will be able to read it without considering how to apply this model and methods to their own domain of interest. This book will serve as a handbook for anyone who wants to take up the challenge of taking development seriously. * Kevin Miller, Dept. of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign *Table of Contents1. Whose Children are we Talking About? ; 2. Evolution and Cognitive Development ; 3. Cognitive Variability: The Ubiquity of Multiplicity ; 4. Strategic Development: Trudging up the Staircase or Swimming with the Tide ; 5. The Adaptivity of Multiplicity ; 6. Formal Models of Strategy Choice or Plasterers and Professors ; 7. How Children Generate New Ways of Thinking ; 8. A New Agenda for Cognitive Development

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Book SynopsisMark Turner makes the revolutionary claim that the basic issue for cognitive science is the nature of literary thinking. Using tools of modern linguistics, the recent work of neuroscientists, and literary masterpieces from Shakespeare, Homer, and Dante, Turner explains how story and projection are fundamental to everyday thought.Trade ReviewAn incredibly rich overview of Turner's newest ideas, offering scholars in both the humanities and cognitive sciences an excellent tutorial on the literary mind. * Raymond Gibbs, Jr., Professor of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz *Outstanding. This book will be a marvellous way for people to get into cognitive science. * Suzanne E. Kemmer, Professor of Linguistics, Rice University *Turner's forceful book starts by showing how we use storying and metaphor to understand everything from pouring a cup of coffee to Proust. It ends with the splendidly bold claim that this storying, literary mind comes first, before all other kinds of thought, even language itself. Adventurous and convincing, Turner's work launches a new understanding, not only of literature, but of what it is to have a human brain. To read it is to think about thinking in a way you never have. * Norman N. Holland, Marston-Milbauer Professor of English, University of Florida *A garden of many delights to be enjoyed by literary and scientific minds? An elegant bridge between two worlds? Other mixed (blended) metaphors apply to this book provided they tell the reader that this is an intelligent text, equally valuable to literary scholars and cognitive scientists. * Antonio R. Damasio, Professor of Neurology, University of Iowa, and author of "Descartes' Error" *Table of Contents1: Bedtime with Shahrazad 2: Human Meaning 3: Body Action 4: Figured Tales 5: Creative Blends 6: Many Spaces 7: Single Lives 8: Language Notes Further Reading on Image Schemas Index

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Book SynopsisDetails a computational approach to studying the intricate workings of the human brain. Focusing on the brain's enigmatic ability to access quickly a massive store of accumulated information during reasoning processes, the author asks how such feats are possible.Trade ReviewThe book is written in a clear style, with a sufficient number of figures illustrating the algorithms. . .This new insight into complex problems of the brain, as well as the proposed methodology, makes the book highly readable and interesting. * Computing Reviews *The author shows that the proposed neuroidal model supports the cognitive activities he identifies. It provides a good structure to explore the functions of the mind still further. * IIEEE Spectrum *Although there are many books today dealing with a simple neuronal model based on the weighted sum principle, this one rises above these others in providing an explanation of cognitive functions. * Choice *Delivers what its title promises, and more: an engaging, broad, thorough, and often deep, development of undergraduate complex analysis and related areas (non-Euclidean geometry, harmonic functions, etc.) from a geometric point of view. The style is lucid, informal, reader-friendly, and rich with helpful images (e.g., the complex derivative as an "amplitwist"). A truly unusual and notably creative look at a classical subject. * American Mathematical Monthly *Table of Contents1. The Approach ; 2. Biological Constraints ; 3. Computational Laws ; 4. Cognitive Functions ; 5. The Neuroidal Model ; 6. Knowledge Representation ; 7. Unsupervised Memorization ; 8. Supervised Memorization ; 9. Supervised Inductive Learning ; 10. Correlational Learning ; 11. Objects and Relational Expressions ; 12. Systems Questions ; 13. Reasoning ; 14. More Detailed Neural Models ; 15. Afterword

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Book SynopsisHow can we account for the sudden appearance of such dazzling artists and scientists as Mozart, Shakespeare, Darwin, or Einstein? How can we define such genius? What conditions or personality traits seem to produce exceptionally creative people? Is the association between genius and madness really just a myth? These and many other questions are brilliantly illuminated in The Origins of Genius. Dean Simonton convincingly argues that creativity can best be understood as a Darwinian process of variation and selection. The artist or scientist generates a wealth of ideas, and then subjects these ideas to aesthetic or scientific judgment, selecting only those that have the best chance to survive and reproduce. Indeed, the true test of genius is the ability to bequeath an impressive and influential body of work to future generations. Simonton draws on the latest research into creativity and explores such topics as the personality type of the genius, whether genius is genetic or produced by environment and education, the links between genius and mental illness (Darwin himself was emotionally and mentally unwell), the high incidence of childhood trauma, especially loss of a parent, amongst Nobel Prize winners, the importance of unconscious incubation in creative problem-solving, and much more. Simonton substantiates his theory by examining and quoting from the work of such eminent figures as Henri Poincare, W. H. Auden, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Niels Bohr, and many others. For anyone intrigued by the spectacular feats of the human mind, The Origins of Genius offers a revolutionary new way of understanding the very nature of creativity.Trade Review"No scholar writing about genius and creativity has the breadth of knowledge of Dean Keith Simonton. His Darwinian perspective is provocative, intriguing, generative and important."--Howard Gardner, author of Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences"One of the most eminent reserachers of eminence has written a very readable, intellectually exciting book about creativity seen from a Darwinian perspective. Anyone interested in what makes some persons stand out and shine will find it fascinating." --Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience"Dean Keith Simonton is an undiputed pioneer in the scientific study of history. His latest book, ^iOrigins of Genius, supplies yet another original and enduring contribution to the understanding of the creative process. Inspired by Darwinian theory, Simonton has brought together a large body of research on creative genius, and given this research a sweeping new interpretation. Every book that Simonton has previously produced has been a gem, and his Origins of Genius is no exception." --Frank J. Sulloway, author of Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics and Creative Lives"In this book, Dean Keith Simonton brings Darwinian principles to the question of creativity and genius. He does so with resounding success.... Hans Eysenck called Dean Keith Simonton the successor to Sir Francis Galton. With the appearance of this book, we see that he is also one of the successors of Charles Darwin." --Colin Martindale, author of The Clockwork Muse: The Predictability of Artistic Change"A provocative story of how the limited human mind might produce work of astonishing brilliance and enduring value." --Teresa M. Amabile, Harvard Business School"This work is required reading for anyone wanting to understand the creative power of the human intellect, the power that Darwin himself tapped to change forever our understanding of the evolution of species and our own place in nature. Origins of Genius may well be instrumental in changing forever our understanding of the evolution of creative human thought." --Gary Cziko, Professor and AT&T Technology Fellow, University of Illinois"A fascinating treatise leavened with candid descriptions by Einstein, Nietzsche, Mozart, Darwin, Poe, Linus Pauling and many others of their own creative processes.... Likely to generate controversy but also has the potential to influence how we think about the human mind."--Publishers WeeklyTable of ContentsPreface ; 1. Genius and Darwin ; 2. Cognition: What is the Creative Process? ; 3. Variation: How do Creators Differ from the Rest of Us? ; 4. Development: Is the Genius Born or Made? ; 5. Products: By What Works Shall We Know Them? ; 6. Groups: Creative Times, Places and Peoples? ; 7. Darwinian Genius ; Notes ; References ; Index

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Book SynopsisThis reference text provides an insightful and unified synthesis of cognitive neuroscience and behavioral neurology. The strong clinical emphasis and outstanding illustrations will provide neurologists, psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, and psychologists with a solid foundation to the major neurobehavioral syndromes. With backgrounds in behavioural neurology, functional imaging and cognitive neuroscience, the two authors are in an ideal position to cover the anatomy, genetics, physiology, and cognitive neuroscience underlying these disorders. Their emphasis on therapy makes the book a must read for anyone who cares for patients with cognitive and behavioural disorders.Trade Review. . . part of the highly regarded Contemporary Neurology Series, and it carries on the tradition of excellence neurologists have come to expect of these volumes . . . The writing style is concise, clear, readable. Clinical vignettes and example cases, drawn both from the authors' experience and the published literature, reinforce important concepts . . . Devinsky and D'Esposito have broken new ground with a fresh approach to the neurology of cognition and behavior . . . * Neurology *The latest in the "Contemporary Neurology Series", Neurology of Cognitive and Behavioural Disorders, is a comprehensive, authoritative, and practical tome for clinicians, as a stand-alone reference and as an entertaining way of using the time allocated for those outpatient no-shows . . . This book should appeal to a wide range of neuroscience subspecialists, and comes with a strong recommendation to clinical neurologists from this reviewer. * The Lancet Neurology *Table of Contents1. Neuroanatomy and Assessment of Cognitive-Behavioural Function ; 2. Functional Neuroimaging of Cognition ; 3. The Right Hemisphere, Interhemispheric Communication, and Consciousness ; 4. Attention and Attentional Disorders ; 5. Perception and Perceptual Disorders ; 6. Language, Aphasia, and Other Speech Disorders ; 7. Motor System and Behaviour ; 8. Memory and Memory Disorders ; 9. Executive Function and the Frontal Lobes ; 10. Emotion and the Limbic System ; 11. Therapy for Cognitive and Neurobehavioral Disorders

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Book SynopsisThis title argues that our conception of consciousness is based upon fundamental errors. It discusses three important philosophical puzzles, each of which presents the same problem. In highlighting this, the errors in our conception of consciousness and cognition are also revealed.

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Book SynopsisSimple Heuristics That Make Us Smart invites readers to embark on a new journey into a land of rationality that differs from the familiar territory of cognitive science and economics. Traditional views of rationality tend to see decision makers as possessing superhuman powers of reason, limitless knowledge, and all of eternity in which to ponder choices. To understand decisions in the real world, we need a different, more psychologically plausible notion of rationality, and this book provides it. It is about fast and frugal heuristics--simple rules for making decisions when time is pressing and deep thought an unaffordable luxury. These heuristics can enable both living organisms and artificial systems to make smart choices, classifications, and predictions by employing bounded rationality. But when and how can such fast and frugal heuristics work? Can judgments based simply on one good reason be as accurate as those based on many reasons? Could less knowledge even lead to systematicaTrade Review"How do people cope in the real, complex world of confusing and overwhelming information and rapidly approaching deadlines? This important book starts a new quest for answers. Here, Gigerenzer, Todd, and their lively research group show that simple heuristics are powerful tools that do surprisingly well. The field of decision making will never be the same again."--Donald A. Norman, author of Things That Make Us Smart and The Invisible Computer"Gigerenzer & Todd's volume represents a major advance in our understanding of human reasoning, with many genuinely new ideas on how people think and an impressive body of data to back them up. Simple Heuristics is indispensable for cognitive psychologists, economists, and anyone else interested in reason and rationality."--Steven Pinker, author of How the Mind Works and Words and Rules"In the past few years, the theory of rational (sensible) human behavior has broken loose from the illusory and empirically unsupported notion that deciding rationally means maximizing expected utility. Research has learned to take seriously and study empirically how real human beings ... actually address the vast complexities of the world they inhabit. Simple Heuristics ... offers a fascinating introduction to this revolution in cognitive science, striking a great blow for sanity in the approach to human rationality."--Herbert A. Simon, Carnegie Mellon University, and Nobel Laureate in Economics"This book is a major contribution to the theory of bounded rationality. It illustrates that the surprising efficiency of fast and simple procedures is due to their fit with the structure of the environment in which they are used. The emphasis on this ecological rationality is an advance in a promising and already fruitful new direction of research."--Reinhard Selten, Professor of Economics at the University of Bonn, and Nobel Laureate in Economics"In recent years, and particularly in the culture wars, many people have written about rationality. These authors now provide a summary of this recent history, organized on the basis of different types of decision making. In each case, the authors summarize the literature so as to provide an implicit history. But the book is more fundamentally aimed at making rationality workable by showing 'the way that real people make the majority of their inferences and decisions.'"--Journal of the History of the Behavioral SciencesTable of ContentsI. THE RESEARCH AGENDA; II. IGNORANCE-BASED DECISION MAKING; III. ONE-REASON DECISION MAKING; IV. BEYOND CHOICE: MEMORY, ESTIMATION, AND CATEGORIZATION; V. SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE; VI. A LOOK AROUND, A LOOK BACK, A LOOK AHEAD

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Book SynopsisTheory of mind is the phrase researchers use to refer to children''s understanding of people as mental beings, who have beliefs, desires, emotions, and intentions, and whose actions and interactions can be interpreted and explained by taking account of these mental states. The gradual development of children''s theory of mind, particularly during the early years, is by now well described in the research literature. What is lacking, however, is a decisive explanation of how children acquire this understanding. Recent research has shown strong relations between children''s linguistic abilities and their theory of mind. Yet exactly what role these abilities play is controversial and uncertain. The purpose of this book is to provide a forum for the leading scholars in the field to explore thoroughly the role of language in the development of the theory of mind. This volume will appeal to students and researchers in developmental and cognitive psychology.Trade ReviewWhy language matters for theory of mind offers all the inspiration and a good deal of the background necessary for child language researchers to start contributing to ToM-language debate. * Child Language, Vol 33 *Table of Contents1. Introduction: Why Language Matters ; 2. Language pathways into the community of minds ; 3. Communication, relationships, and individual differences in children's understanding of mind ; 4. Conversation, pretence and theory of mind ; 5. Talking about "new" information: the given/new distinction and children's developing theory of mind ; 6. The developmental origins of meaning for mental terms ; 7. Language promotes structural alignment in the acquisition of mentalistic concepts ; 8. Language and the development of cognitive flexibility: Implications for theory of mind ; 9. Representational development and false-belief understanding ; 10. Can language acquisition give children a point of view? ; 11. What does "that" have to do with point of view? Conflicting desires and "want" in German ; 12. Linguistic communication and social understanding ; 13. The role of language in theory-of-mind development: What deaf children tell us ; 14. How language facilitates the acquisition of false-belief understanding in children with autism ; 15. Genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in language and theory of mind: Common or distinct?

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Book SynopsisThe essential nature of learning is primarily thought of as a verbal process or function, but this notion conveys that pre-linguistic infants do not learn. Far from being blank slates that passively absorb environmental stimuli, infants are active learners who perceptually engage their environments and extract information from them before language is available. The ecological approach to perceiving-defined as a theory about perceiving by active creatures who look and listen and move around was spearheaded by Eleanor and James Gibson in the 1950s and culminated in James Gibson''s last book in 1979. Until now, no comprehensive theoretical statement of ecological development has been published since Eleanor Gibson''s Principles of Perceptual Learning and Development (1969).In An Ecological Approach to Perceptual Learning and Development, distinguished experimental psychologists Eleanor J. Gibson and Anne D. Pick provide a unique theoretical framework for the ecological approach to understTrade ReviewThis is a beautifully written book, and a most welcome addition to the field of perceptual development, indeed to the whole discipline of child development. For years I have taught a graduate course in perceptual development and never had a text that I felt I could assign in its entirety. Now I do, because this book brings a lucid introduction that is crystal clear in its explication of the complex ideas encompassed by this field. The scholarship is deep, accurate, and thorough. * Rachel K. Clifton, University of Massachusetts, Amherst *Table of Contents1. Historical Perspectives and Present-Day Confrontations ; 2. An Ecological Approach to Perceptual Development ; 3. Studying Perceptual Development in Preverbal Infants: Tasks, Methods, and Motivation ; 4. Development and Learning in Infancy ; 5. What Infants Learn About: Communication ; 6. What Infants Learn About: Interaction with Objects ; 7. What Infants Learn About: Locomotion and the Spatial Layout ; 8. The Learning Process in Infancy: Facts and Theory ; 9. Hallmarks of Human Behaviour ; 10. The Role of Perception in Development beyond Infancy ; References ; Index

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Book SynopsisCoping with Aging is the final project of the late Richard S. Lazarus, the man whose landmark book Emotion and Adaptation put the study of emotion in play in the field of psychology. In this volume, Lazarus examines the experience of aging from the standpoint of the individual, rather than as merely a collection of statistics and charts. This technique is in line with his long-standing belief that experiences should be looked at in their specific contexts, rather than squeezed into an overly general statistical viewpoint that loses the subjects'' motivations. Drawing on his five decades of pioneering research, Lazarus looks aging, emotion, and coping, and stability and change in both environment and personality. Because Lazarus mixes academic rigor with everyday examples, this volume will be both useful to scholars and accessible to the lay audience that has so much gain from a systematic understanding of aging and emotion.Trade Review"...may mark a breakthrough of sorts in this area...this book enlightens, engages, and outlines very clearly and concisely what aging is like, what problems we will have as we all age, and what we can possibly do to confront the massive challenges of aging head-on and cope as best as we can. I dare say that this book should be recommended reading for those of us who think about the daily process of aging."--PsycCRITIQUES "...may mark a breakthrough of sorts in this area...this book enlightens, engages, and outlines very clearly and concisely what aging is like, what problems we will have as we all age, and what we can possibly do to confront the massive challenges of aging head-on and cope as best as we can. I dare say that this book should be recommended reading for those of us who think about the daily process of aging."--PsycCRITIQUESTable of ContentsPREFACE ; PART I: INSPIRATION AND OVERVIEW ; INTRODUCTION: AGING, ONCE OVER LIGHTLY ; PART II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ; PART III: STABILITY AND CHANGE ; PART IV: CENTRAL EXPERIENCES OF AGING: CASE HISTORIES ; PART V: PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS ; REFERENCES

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Book SynopsisScientists'' understanding of two central problems in neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy has been greatly influenced by the work of David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel: What is it to see? This relates to the machinery that underlies visual perception, How do we acquire the brain''s mechanisms for vision? This is the nature-nurture question as to whether the nerve connections responsible for vision are innate or whether they develop through experience in the early life of an animal or human.This is a book about the collaboration between Hubel and Wiesel, which began in 1958, lasted until about 1982, and led to a Nobel Prize in 1981. It opens with short autobiographies of both men, describes the state of the field when they started, and tells about the beginnings of their collaboration. It emphasizes the importance of various mentors in their lives, especially Stephen W. Kuffler, who opened up the field by studying the cat retina in 1950, and founded the department of neurobiology at HaTrade Review...charming and interesting autobiographical essays. * Alva Noe, TLS *Extremely important * Alva Noe, TLS *All in all this is an excellent book and helps to set the work of Hubel and Wiesel in the context of real people doing real science. It also helps to connect the papers together in an appropriate set of sequences for those starting in the area - how it would have helped to have it around when I first started trying to teach visual physiology to medical students * Physiology News, No 61 *The entire book is an inspiration to read. The original papers and the additional chapters are beautifully written - which means that they are stylistically elegant, free from jargon and cliche and, above all, devoid of the current, vulgar, craze for acronyms and abbreviations and of other devices that serve to make science even more inaccessible . . . Neuroscience should rejoice that, during a mere 25 years, its world was enriched not only by a wealth of knowledge but also by new standards of evidence and elegance of methodology which have left a permanent imprint. * Brain, 128 *The book's glory is that the commentaries sandwiching each paper illuminate the workings of one of the most productive collaborations in the history of biology. Hubel and Wiesel describe the joy of mom-and-pop science where the collaborators do the work and weigh what to do next . . . the book brings their work all together - complete with the authors' retrospective evaluations of their work . . . a gem in the history of the field and a core resource. * Robert Wurtz in Science *. . . The entire book is an inspiration to read. The original papers and the additional chapters are beautifully written . . . Read today, some 50 years after the initial work was published, the papers still retain their freshness and their capacity to arouse wonder, not only at the way in which nature has elaborated such an impressive organ, but also at the tenacity and the powerful conceptual thinking that was behind their collected work . . . Neuroscience should rejoice that, during a mere 25 years, its world was enriched not only by a wealth of knowledge but also by new standards of evidence and elegance of methodology which have left a permanent imprint. * Semir Zeki in Brain *Advance praise for Brain and Visual Perception:For those who came of age admiring the scientific adventures of Hubel and Wiesel, this book is an opportunity to look back in wonder. For those who came after, it will be an inspiration. This is a marvel of a book, written in David Hubel's disarmingly engaging voice, a must have, a must read. * Antonio Damasio, Neuroscientist and author of Descartes' Error and Looking for Spinoza *David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel's book describes the wonderful period in neurophysiology when they worked on the early mammalian visual system. I found it fascinating reading. * Francis Crick, Nobel Laureate and author of The Astonishing Hypothesis and What Mad Pursuit *A rare opportunity to peek into the minds of two giants of twentieth century science. Each of their classic papers reads like a Sherlock Holmes novel, but the accompanying commentaries and autobiographies, packed with witty, whimsical asides and Hubelisms, bring out the human side of science - reminding us that great science is a judicious blend of intuition, imagination and sheer tenacity rather than a cold rational process of the kind one usually associates with Holmes. It's especially refreshing to see their low-tech approach in an era of high-tech 'big science' dominated by brain imaging and gee whiz neophrenology. * V S Ramachandran, BBC Reith Lecturer for 2003 and author of A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness *Hubel and Wiesel, as much as any other scientists, are responsible for our current view of the brain, its function, and how it is moulded by the environment. This book will provide students and established scientists alike insight into the roots of modern neuroscience, a view into one of the most productive collaborations in the field, and some of the best examples of scientific writing in the literature. * David Ferster, Professor of Neurobiology and Physiology, Northwestern University, USA *Beginning around 1960, David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel took the study of the brain and its development from the realm of philosophy to biology. These papers and the commentaries that accompany them put the reader inside the heads of the scientists who gave us our modern understanding of the cerebral cortex, often by asking the next logical question, but always with appreciation for the beauty of the system. * Michael P. Stryker, W.F. Ganong Professor of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, USA *Table of ContentsPART I: INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHIES; PART II: BACKGROUND TO OUR RESEARCH; PART III: NORMAL PHYSIOLOGY AND ANATOMY; PART IV: DEPRIVATION AND DEVELOPMENT; PART V: THREE REVIEWS

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Book SynopsisA Life Worth Living brings together the latest thought on positive psychology from an international cast of scholars. It includes historical, philosophical, and empirical reviews of what psychologists have found to matter for personal happiness and well-being. The contributions to this volume agree on principles of optimal development that start from purely material and selfish concerns, but then lead to ever broader circles of responsibility embracing the goals of others and the well-being of the environment; on the importance of spirituality; on the development of strengths specific to the individual.Rather than material success, popularity, or power, the investigations reported in this volume suggest that personally constructed goals, intrinsic motivation, and a sense of autonomy are much more important. The chapters indicate that hardship and suffering do not necessarily make us unhappy, and they suggest therapeutical implications for improving the quality of life. Specific topics Trade Review"This is a unique book, as the field itself is rather new. It would be a great textbook for a graduate course and is highly interesting reading that is recommended for those in the provision of mental health services."--Doody's "One of the next major scientific human accomplishments is our understanding and commitment to engage all aspects of 'well-being' in our lives. Anyone interested in being on the leading edge of this quickly advancing science must read this collection of papers from the First International Positive Psychology Summit." --Jim Clifton, Chairman & CEO, The Gallup Organization "The eminent authors of this volume present exciting new developments in the field of positive psychology, outlining the latest scientific thinking on how to increase quality of life by fostering people's strengths, virtues, and well-being." --Ed Diener, PhD, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Editor, Perspectives on Psychological Science, and Journal of Happiness Studies "Transformational! A Life Worth Living brings a new level of insight and clarity to the emerging positive psychology pathway. Its poetic title hints at the rich depth of meaningful discussion that ensues--offering a profound new view of the human condition. Csikszentmihalyi brings art to the new science." --Michael W. Morrison, Ph.D., Dean, University of Toyota "A Life Worth Living distills the research and the wisdom of many of the leaders of positive psychology. The Gallup Organization has done the field a great service in bringing the work of these key investigators together in one volume." --George E. Vaillant, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital Cover art by Eric P. Olesen "This book offers psychology a number of seductive challenges: to become a science that takes values seriously, prioritize health alongside pathology, and to develop interventions that aim to promote autonomy, resilience and enduring well-being. It upholds models and strategies that may help people to remain functional and optimistic in the presence of distress. Ultimately, it successfully frames positive psychology as rather more than just positive thinking."--The Psychologist "This is a unique book, as the field itself is rather new. It would be a great textbook for a graduate course and is highly interesting reading that is recommended for those in the provision of mental health services."--Doody's "One of the next major scientific human accomplishments is our understanding and commitment to engage all aspects of 'well-being' in our lives. Anyone interested in being on the leading edge of this quickly advancing science must read this collection of papers from the First International Positive Psychology Summit." --Jim Clifton, Chairman & CEO, The Gallup Organization "The eminent authors of this volume present exciting new developments in the field of positive psychology, outlining the latest scientific thinking on how to increase quality of life by fostering people's strengths, virtues, and well-being." --Ed Diener, PhD, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Editor, Perspectives on Psychological Science, and Journal of Happiness Studies "Transformational! A Life Worth Living brings a new level of insight and clarity to the emerging positive psychology pathway. Its poetic title hints at the rich depth of meaningful discussion that ensues--offering a profound new view of the human condition. Csikszentmihalyi brings art to the new science." --Michael W. Morrison, Ph.D., Dean, University of Toyota "A Life Worth Living distills the research and the wisdom of many of the leaders of positive psychology. The Gallup Organization has done the field a great service in bringing the work of these key investigators together in one volume." --George E. Vaillant, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital Cover art by Eric P. Olesen "This book offers psychology a number of seductive challenges: to become a science that takes values seriously, prioritize health alongside pathology, and to develop interventions that aim to promote autonomy, resilience and enduring well-being. It upholds models and strategies that may help people to remain functional and optimistic in the presence of distress. Ultimately, it successfully frames positive psychology as rather more than just positive thinking."--The PsychologistTable of ContentsPART I - HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ; PART II - POSITIVE EXPERIENCES ; PART III - LIFE-LONG POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT

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Book SynopsisHow can we best describe the processes by which we visually perceive our environment? Contemporary perceptual theory still lacks a coherent theoretical position that encompasses both the limitations on the information that can be retained from a single eye fixation and the abundant phenomenal and behavioural evidence for the perception of an extended and coherent world. As a result, many leading theorists and researchers in visual perception are turning with new or renewed interest to the work of Julian Hochberg.For over 50 years, in his own experimental research, in his detailed consideration of examples drawn from a wide range of visual experiences and activities, and most of all in his brilliant and sophisticated theoretical analyses, Hochberg has persistently engaged with the myriad problems inherent in working out the kind of coherent theoretical position the field currently lacks. The complexity of his thought and the wide range of areas into which Hochberg has pursued the solution to this central problem have, however, limited both the accessibility of his work and the appreciation of his accomplishment.In this volume we seek to bring the full range of Hochberg''s work to the attention of a wider audience by offering a selection of his key works, many taken from out-of-print or relatively inaccessible sources. To facilitate the understanding of his accomplishment, and of what his work has to offer to contemporary researchers and theorists in visual perception, we include commentaries on salient aspects of his work by 20 noted researchers.In the Mind''s Eye will be of interest to researchers working on topics such as perceptual organisation, visual attention, space perception, motion perception, visual cognition, the relationship between perception and action, picture perception, and film, who are striving to obtain a deeper understanding of their own fields, and who want to integrate this understanding into a broader, unified view of visual perceptual processing.Trade Review"To anyone interested in perception in general, and how we view pictures and movies in particular, I highly recommend this book."--Perception "To anyone interested in perception in general, and how we view pictures and movies in particular, I highly recommend this book."--Perception "This volume is most welcome and its editors should be applauded. The book makes Hochberg's many important papers readily available and makes apparent his major contributions and influence."--American Journal of PsychologyTable of ContentsSECTION I: SELECTED PAPERS OF JULIAN HOCHBERG

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Book SynopsisWritten by the world''s leading memory scientists in a highly accessible language, this volume brings together facts and theories of cognitive psychology; memory development in childhood and old age; memory impairment in brain injury and disease; the emergence of memory functions from the brain; as well as reviews of current behavioral, neuroimaging, and computer simulation theories of memory. The last decades in particular have seen the emergence of a genuine science of memory, based first on behavioral studies and more recently on the new technologies of brain scanning. These recent studies have resulted in theories that are rich, complex, and far-reaching in their implications. The Oxford Handbook of Memory lays out these theories, and the evidence on which the theories are based. The important new discoveries of the last few years are described, along with their consequences for professionals in the areas of law, engineering, and clinical medicine.Endel Tulving and Fergus Craik, tTrade Review"Tulving and Craik's splendid handbook will be the standard source book in the field for years to come. This is for three reasons. The first is the thoroughness of the coverage of memory--experimental, theoretical, developmental, clinical, and brain-based approaches are all well covered. The second is that virtually all the eminent researchers in the field have been persuaded to contribute. The third consists in the thoroughness and depth of their contributions and of the way that they have been edited."--Tim Shallice, University College London"Everything in life is memory, save for the thin edge of the present. This incredible volume tackles what is both known and unknown about this crucial and sustaining mental function. It is the most important book on the subject ever published."--Michael S. Gazzaniga, Dartmouth University"A unique resource on human memory providing an exhaustive coverage of the current state of scientific study in this area, this handbook discusses theories and data primarily from experimental, cognitive, neuropsychological, and developmental perspectives. The editors organize the material in four parts: basic presuppositions, concepts, and methods in a historical context; critical discussion of what has been discovered; memory applied in the real world; and the neuroscience of memory, an area of research the editors refer to as holding the most promise for yielding new information through advancing technology. The applied section extends the experimental findings in the laboratory to the role of memory in everyday life and to areas such as the development of memory in children and the decline of memory in aging and pathological conditions. . . . Highly recommended for academic libraries at all levels."--Choice"Summarizes the research findings over the past decades that comprise the new science of memory, based first on behavioral studies and more recently on brain scanning. Contributors set out the various theories and the evidence they are based on, and explore the consequences for professionals in law, engineering, and clinical medicine. Among the topics are the development of memory, its contents, its use in the laboratory and in daily life, its decline, and its organization. Students and researchers in psychology or the neurosciences would probably find most interest."--SciTech Book News"This is an epic tome summarizing the general state of knowledge in the science of human memory. Sixty eminent contributors, all of whom have done extensive research in this vast field, contributed a total of 39 chapters which outline experimental results and theory in their areas of expertise. A brief epilogue provides thoughtful commentary on how the field has grown and changed over the past 60 years, form the views of Bartlett and Lashley to current views on neural nets, brain imaging, and the fast pace of current research which provides constant surprises and requires frequent updating. It is safe to say the editors and contributors have succeeded in producing a highly interesting book, remarkable in its breadth and thoroughness. As readers and fellow researchers, we can feel ourselves fortunate that such a diverse and interesting field has been treated so well." -- Psychological Reports, Vol 87, 2000"The OHM 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 60 authors constitute a "Who's Who" in the field of memory, virtually guaranteeing that the reports on memory are state of the art. Even specialists will benefit from the coverage of subjects in which they have expertise. All chapters are informative and of high caliber. There is no comprehensive advanced textbook of memory currently on the market nor has there been one since the middle 1970s. The reason is simple: no one could possibly write one, certainly not one with the scope and level of information present in the OHM. This volume, then fills a gap that has needed filling for years. For now, the OHM is the gold standard and all memory professionals are in debt of the editors and authors for its existence." -- Canadian Psychology, 42:2"...provides the reader with a sound and thorough grounding in current theoretical memory frameworks and the methodologies and empirical findings on which they are based...useful for advanced undergraduates, beginning graduate students, healthcare professionals such as physicians and other professionals who may have relevant work-related interests, such as lawyers and social workers. Informed laypeople may well also find sections of this text to be quite accessible and-without doubt-informative."--Brain A journal of neurologyFebruary 2002"This volume is a collection of 40 articles about memory mainly from the perspective of experimental psychology. This set of introductory articles should be quite valuable for beginning graduate students."--Journal of Mathematical Psychology"This is a monumental, 700-pages handbook on studies of memory, compiled by and directed to psychologists. Each "chapter" is actually an essay written by a luminary of the field. The early chapters introduce the terminology and the issues at stake. Then specialists survey work on short-term memory, memory encoding, learning, metamemory, memory at various life stages, memory disorders, etc. The book is obviously not for the casual reader. On the other hand, it is filled with valuable experimental data and references to technical literature that will help any psychologist and scholar conduct studies on memory." -- Piero Scaruffi, Thymos.com"...[T]his would appear to be the first dedicated handbook devoted to the cognitive science of memory....Certainly, the coverage in this book is extensive. Everything you wanted to know about the various leading-edge fields of human cognitive memory research is here, and written by eminent researches." Journal of the International Neuropsychological SocietyTable of ContentsPART I: STUDY OF MEMORY; PART II: MEMORY IN THE LABORATORY; MEMORY JUDGMENTS; PART III: MEMORY IN LIFE; PART IV: ORGANIZATION OF MEMORY

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Book SynopsisThis is a POD only reprint of a 2002 philosophy monograph, which discusses themes related to motivation and human action.Trade Review"This is a thoughtful, detailed, empirically informed, and trenchant discussion of some main ideas and issues at the center of our understanding of the phenomenon of motivation --including especially motivation of intentional action and intention, but also including motivation of belief. Mele's book makes contributions to our understanding of intentional action, of the relation between motivation and normativity, of practical reasoning, of self control, of forms of agency sometimes seen as distinctively human, and of motivated belief...The book makes many detailed and significant contributions to various contemporary discussions and will be of significant interest to a wide range of scholars of human action."--Michael Bratman, Stanford University"Why do we do what we do? Alfred Mele attempts to answer this question and related ones by drawing from the fields of action theory, philosophy of mind, moral philosophy, and even empirical psychology. The result is a book that is clearly written, shows a command of the contemporary literature in a number of fields, and attempts to offer rigorous solutions that nonetheless take into account commonsense opinions about the topics."--Review of Metaphysics

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Book SynopsisStudies of mind, thought and reason have tended to marginalize the role of bodily form, real-world action, and environmental backdrop. In recent years, both in philosophy and cognitive science, this tendency has been identified and, increasingly, resisted. The result is a plethora of work on what has become known as embodied, situated, distributed, and even ''extended'' cognition. Work in this new, loosely knit field depicts thought and reason as in some way inextricably tied to the details of our gross bodily form, our habits of action and intervention, and the enabling web of social, cultural, and technological scaffolding in which we live, move, learn, and think. But exactly what kind of link is at issue? And what difference might such a link or links make to our best philosophical, psychological, and computational models of thought and reason? These are among the large unsolved problems in this increasingly popular field. Drawing upon recent work in psychology, linguistics, neurosTrade Reviewan important book for all cognitive-science theorists of all stripes... Supersizing the Mind will set the terms for many of the coming debates * Evan Thompson, Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsForward: By David Chalmers / Acknowledgements / Introduction: BRAINBOUND versus EXTENDED / I: From Embodiment to Cognitive Extension - 1. The Active Body: 1.1 A Walk on the Wild Side; 1.2 Inhabited Interaction; 1.3 Active Sensing; 1.4 Distributed Functional Decomposition; 1.5 Sensing for Coupling; 1.6 Information Self-Structuring; 1.7 Perception, Qualia, and Sensorimotor Expectations; 1.8 Time and Mind; 1.9 Dynamics and (Soft) Computation.; 1.10 Out from the Bedrock; 2. The Negotiable Body: 2.1 Where the Rubber Meets the Road; 2.2 What's in an Interface?; 2.3 New Systemic Wholes; 2.4 Substitutes; 2.5 Incorporation Vs Use; 2.6 Towards Cognitive Extension; 2.7 Three Grades of Embodiment; 3. Material Symbols: 3.1 Language as Scaffolding; 3.2 Augmenting Reality; 3.3 Sculpting Attention; 3.4 Hybrid Thoughts?;3.5 From Translation to Coordination; 3.6 Second-order Cognitive Dynamics; 3.7 Self-made Minds.;4. World, Incorporated: 4.1 Cognitive Niche Construction: A Primer; 4.2 Cognition in the Globe: A Cameo; 4.3 Thinking Space; 4.4 Epistemic Engineers; 4.5 Exploitative Representation and Wide Computation; 4.6 Tetris: The Update; 4.7 The Swirl of Organization; 4.8 Extending the Mind; 4.9 BRAINBOUND versus EXTENDED: The Case So Far.; II. Boundary Disputes - 5. Mind Re-bound?: 5.1 EXTENDED Anxiety; 5.2 Pencil Me In; 5.3 The Odd Coupling; 5.4 Cognitive Candidacy; 5.5 The Mark of the Cognitive?; 5.6 Kinds and Minds; 5.7 Perception and Development; 5.8 Deception and Contested Space; 5.9 Folk Intuition and Cognitive Extension; 5.10 Asymmetry and Lopsideness; 5.11 Similarity vs Complementarity; 5.12 Hippo-World; 6. The Cure for Cognitive Hiccups (HEMC, HEC, HEMC): 6.1 Rupert's Challenge; 6.2 HEC versus HEMC; 6.3 Parity and Cognitive Kinds (Again); 6.4 The Persisting Core; 6.5 Cognitive Impartiality; 6.6 A Brain Teaser; 6.7 Thoughtful Gestures; 6.8 Material Carriers; 6.9 Loops as Mechanisms; 6.10 Anarchic Self-Stimulation; 6.11Autonomous Coupling; 6.12 Why the HEC?; 6.13 The Cure; 7. Rediscovering the Brain: 7.1 Matter into Mind; 7.2.Honey, I Shrunk the Representations; 7.3 Change Spotting: The Sequel; 7.4 Thinking about Thinking: The Brain's Eye View.: 7.5 Born-Again Cartesians?; 7.6 Surrogate Situations; 7.7 Plug Points; 7.8 Brain Control; 7.9 Asymmetry Arguments; 7.10 Extended in a Vat; 7.11 The (Situated) Cognizer's Innards; III: The Limits of Embodiment - 8. Painting, Planning, and Perceiving: 8.1 Enacting Perceptual Experience; 8.2 The Painter and the Perceiver; 8.3 Three Virtues of the Strong Sensorimotor Model; 8.4 A Vice: Sensorimotor (Hyper) Sensitivity; 8.5 What Reaching Teaches; 8.6 (Tweaked)Tele-Assistance; 8.7 Sensorimotor Summarizing; 8.8 Virtual Content, Again; 8.9 Beyond the Sensorimotor Frontier; 9. Disentangling Embodiment: 9.1 Three Threads; 9.2 The Separability Thesis; 9.3 Beyond Flesh-eating Functionalism. ; 9.4 Ada, Adder, and Odder; 9.5 A Tension Revealed; 9.6 What Bodies Are; 9.7 Participant Machinery and Morphological Computation; 9.8 Quantifying Embodiment; 9.9 The Heideggerian Theatre / 10. Conclusions: Mindsized Bites / Appendix: The Extended Mind (Andy Clark and David Chalmers)

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Book SynopsisThere are few terms or concepts that have, in the last twenty or so years, rivaled collective memory for attention in the humanities and social sciences. Indeed, use of the term has extended far beyond scholarship to the realm of politics and journalism, where it has appeared in speeches at the centers of power and on the front pages of the world''s leading newspapers. The current efflorescence of interest in memory, however, is no mere passing fad: it is a hallmark characteristic of our age and a crucial site for understanding our present social, political, and cultural conditions. Scholars and others in numerous fields have thus employed the concept of collective memory, sociological in origin, to guide their inquiries into diverse, though allegedly connected, phenomena. Nevertheless, there remains a great deal of confusion about the meaning, origin, and implication of the term and the field of inquiry it underwrites.The Collective Memory Reader presents, organizes, and evaluates pasTrade ReviewThis collection is impressive on so many levels that it is difficult to avoid the pat assessment that this is a 'must-have book' for all scholars and students, novice or veteran, interested in the encompassing subject matter. * Cynthia Comacchio, Wilfrid Laurier University *Table of ContentsPREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; INTRODUCTION: JEFFREY K. OLICK, VERED VINITZKY-SEROUSSI, AND DANIEL LEVY; INTRODUCTION TO PART ONE; EDMUND BURKE, FROM REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE; ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, FROM DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA; FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, FROM ON THE USES AND DISADVANTAGES OF HISTORY FOR LIFE; ERNST RENAN, FROM WHAT IS A NATION?; SIGMUND FREUD, FROM TOTEM AND TABOO: RESEMBLANCES BETWEEN THE PSYCHIC LIVES OF SAVAGES AND NEUROTICS AND MOSES AND MONOTHEISM; KARL MARX, FROM THE EIGHTEENTH BRUMAIRE OF LOUIS BONAPARTE; KARL MANNHEIM, FROM THE SOCIOLOGICAL PROBLEM OF GENERATIONS; WALTER BENJAMIN, FROM THE STORYTELLER AND THESES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY; ERNST GOMBRICH, FROM ABY WARBURG: AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY; THEODOR ADORNO, FROM VALERY PROUST MUSEUM AND IN MEMORY OF EICHENDORFF; LEV VYGOTSKY, FROM MIND IN SOCIETY; FREDERIC BARTLETT, FROM REMEMBERING: A STUDY IN EXPERIMENTAL AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY; CARL BECKER, FROM EVERYMAN HIS OWN HISTORIAN; GEORGE HERBERT MEAD, FROM THE NATURE OF THE PAST; CHARLES HORTON COOLEY, FROM SOCIAL PROCESS; EMILE DURKHEIM, FROM THE ELEMENTARY FORMS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE; MAURICE HALBWACHS, FROM THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY; MARC BLOCH, FROM MEMOIRE COLLECTIVE, TRADITION ET COUTUME: A PROPOS D'UN LIVRE RECENT [COLLECTIVE MEMORY, CUSTOM, AND TRADITION: ABOUT A RECENT BOOK]; CHARLES BLONDEL, FROM REVUE CRITIQUE: M. HALBWACHS LES CADRES SOCIAUX DE LA MEMOIRE [CRITICAL REVIEW OF M. HALBWACHS LES CADRES SOCIAUX DE LA MEMOIRE]; ROGER BASTIDE, FROM THE AFRICAN RELIGIONS OF BRAZIL: TOWARD A SOCIOLOGY OF THE INTERPENETRATION OF CIVILIZATIONS; LLOYD WARNER, FROM THE LIVING AND THE DEAD: A STUDY OF THE SYMBOLIC LIFE OF AMERICANS; E.E. EVANS-PRITCHARD, FROM THE NUER: A DESCRIPTION OF THE MODES OF LIVELIHOOD AND POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF A NILOTIC PEOPLE; CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS, FROM THE SAVAGE MIND; INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO; HANS-GEORG GADAMER, FROM TRUTH AND METHOD; EDWARD CASEY, FROM REMEMBERING: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY; PETER BURKE, FROM HISTORY AS SOCIAL MEMORY; ALLAN MEGILL, FROM HISTORY, MEMORY, IDENTITY; ALON CONFINO, FROM COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND CULTURAL HISTORY: PROBLEMS OF METHOD; YOSEF YERUSHALMI, FROM ZAKHOR: JEWISH HISTORY AND JEWISH MEMORY; JAN ASSMANN, FROM MOSES THE EGYPTIAN: THE MEMORY OF EGYPT IN WESTERN MONOTHEISM AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY; PETER BERGER, FROM INVITATION TO SOCIOLOGY: A HUMANISTIC APPROACH; EVIATAR ZERUBAVEL, FROM SOCIAL MEMORIES: STEPS TOWARDS A SOCIOLOGY OF THE PAST; JEFFREY K. OLICK, FROM COLLECTIVE MEMORY: THE TWO CULTURES; ROBERT BELLAH, RICHARD MADSEN, WILLIAM M. SULLIVAN, ANN SWIDLER, STEVEN M. TIPTON, FROM HABITS OF THE HEART: INDIVIDUALISM AND COMMITMENT IN AMERICAN LIFE; ANTHONY SMITH, FROM THE ETHNIC ORIGINS OF NATIONS; YAEL ZERUBAVEL, FROM RECOVERED ROOTS: COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND THE MAKING OF ISRAELI NATIONAL TRADITION; BARRY SCHWARTZ, FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE FORGE OF AMERICAN MEMORY; INTRODUCTION TO PART THREE; MICHEL FOUCAULT, FROM FILM IN POPULAR MEMORY: AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHEL FOUCAULT; POPULAR MEMORY GROUP, FROM POPULAR MEMORY: THEORY, POLITICS, METHOD; RAPHAEL SAMUEL, FROM THEATRES OF MEMORY; JOHN BODNAR, FROM REMAKING AMERICA: PUBLIC MEMORY, COMMEMORATION AND PATRIOTISM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY; ROY ROSENZWEIG AND DAVID THELEN, FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST: POPULAR USES OF HISTORY IN AMERICAN LIFE; ERIC HOBSBAWM, FROM INTRODUCTION: INVENTING TRADITIONS; TERENCE RANGER, FROM THE INVENTION OF TRADITION REVISITED: THE CASE OF COLONIAL AFRICA; ORLANDO PATTERSON, FROM SLAVERY AND SOCIAL DEATH: A COMPARATIVE STUDY; RICHARD SENNETT, FROM DISTURBING MEMORIES; MICHAEL SCHUDSON, FROM THE PAST IN THE PRESENT VERSUS THE PRESENT IN THE PAST; GLADYS LANG AND KURT LANG, FROM RECOGNITION AND RENOWN: THE SURVIVAL OF ARTISTIC REPUTATION; LORI DUCHARME AND GARY ALAN FINE, FROM THE CONSTRUCTION OF NONPERSONHOOD AND DEMONIZATION: COMMEMORATING THE 'TRAITOROUS' REPUTATION OF BENEDICT ARNOLD; WULF KANSTEINER, FROM FINDING MEANING IN MEMORY: A METHODOLOGICAL CRITIQUE OF COLLECTIVE MEMORY STUDIES; RON EYERMAN, FROM THE PAST IN THE PRESENT: CULTURE AND THE TRANSMISSION OF MEMORY; JEFFREY ALEXANDER, FROM TOWARD A CULTURAL THEORY OF TRAUMA; INTRODUCTION TO PART FOUR; ANDRE LEROI-GOURHAN, FROM GESTURE AND SPEECH; JACK GOODY, FROM MEMORY IN ORAL AND LITERATE TRADITIONS; MERLIN DONALD, FROM ORIGINS OF THE MODERN MIND: THREE STAGES IN THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE AND COGNITION; ALEIDA ASSMANN, FROM CANON AND ARCHIVE; PAUL CONNERTON, FROM HOW SOCIETIES REMEMBER; HARALD WELZER, SABINE MOLLER, KAROLINE TSCHUGGNALL, OLAF JENSEN, TORSTEN KOCH, FROM OPA WAR KEIN NAZI: NATIONALSOZIALISMUS UND HOLOCAUST IM FAMILIENGEDACHTNIS [GRANDPA WASN'T A NAZI: NATIONAL SOCIALISM IN FAMILY MEMORY]; MARIANNE HIRSCH, FROM THE GENERATION OF POSTMEMORY; JOHN THOMPSON, FROM TRADITION AND SELF IN A MEDIATED WORLD; GEORGE LIPSITZ, FROM TIME PASSAGES: COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE; BARBIE ZELIZER, FROM WHY MEMORY'S WORK ON JOURNALISM DOES NOT REFLECT JOURNALISM'S WORK ON MEMORY; DANIEL DAYAN AND ELIHU KATZ, FROM MEDIA EVENTS: THE LIVE BROADCASTING OF HISTORY; REINHARDT KOSELLECK, FROM WAR MEMORIALS: IDENTITY FORMATIONS OF THE SURVIVORS; JAMES YOUNG, FROM AT MEMORY'S EDGE: AFTER-IMAGES OF THE HOLOCAUST IN CONTEMPORARY ART; VERED VINITZKY-SEROUSSI, FROM COMMEMORATING A DIFFICULT PAST: YITZHAK RABIN'S MEMORIALS; M. CHRISTINE BOYER, FROM THE CITY OF COLLECTIVE MEMORY: ITS HISTORICAL IMAGERY AND ARCHITECTURAL ENTERTAINMENTS; DANIELE HERVIEU-LEGER, FROM RELIGION AS A CHAIN OF MEMORY; HARALD WEINRICH, FROM LETHE: THE ART AND CRITIQUE OF FORGETTING; ROBIN WAGNER-PACIFICI, FROM MEMORIES IN THE MAKING: THE SHAPES OF THINGS THAT WENT; INTRODUCTION TO PART FIVE; EDWARD SHILS, FROM TRADITION; IAN HACKING, FROM MEMORY SCIENCES, MEMORY POLITICS; PATRICK HUTTON, FROM HISTORY AS ART OF MEMORY; ANTHONY GIDDENS, FROM LIVING IN A POST-TRADITIONAL SOCIETY; DAVID GROSS, FROM LOST TIME: ON REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING IN LATE MODERN CULTURE; JAY WINTER, FROM REMEMBERING WAR: THE GREAT WAR BETWEEN MEMORY AND HISTORY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY; ANDREAS HUYSSEN, FROM PRESENT PASTS: MEDIA, POLITICS, AMNESIA; PIERRE NORA, FROM REASONS FOR THE CURRENT UPSURGE IN MEMORY; CHARLES MAIER, FROM A SURFEIT OF MEMORY? REFLECTIONS ON HISTORY, MELANCHOLY AND DENIAL; FRED DAVIS, FROM YEARNING FOR YESTERDAY: A SOCIOLOGY OF NOSTALGIA; SVETLANA BOYM, FROM NOSTALGIA AND ITS DISCONTENTS; MICHEL-ROLPH TROUILLOT, FROM ABORTIVE RITUALS: HISTORICAL APOLOGIES IN THE GLOBAL ERA; DANIEL LEVY AND NATAN SZNAIDER, FROM MEMORY UNBOUND: THE HOLOCAUST AND THE FORMATION OF COSMOPOLITAN MEMORY; MARK OSIEL, FROM MASS ATROCITY, COLLECTIVE MEMORY, AND THE LAW; AVISHAI MARGALIT, FROM THE ETHICS OF MEMORY; MARC AUGE, FROM OBLIVION; PAUL RICOEUR, FROM MEMORY-FORGETTING-HISTORY; CREDITS; INDEX

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Book SynopsisIt is well-established that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a rich and effective tool for treating a range of anxiety and mood disorders and behavioral disturbances. Most clinicians, however, have not been formally trained in how to administer CBT, and integrating one of the many available manuals detailing week-by-week protocols into their individual clinical practices is a daunting task. Whether brief interventions are desired for use in medication visits or whether key elements of CBT are needed for use in an eclectic treatment practice, clear instruction is needed on how to improve patient outcomes by adapting key components of cognitive-behavioral interventions. 10-Minute CBT provides such guidance with a clear and straightforward account of the principles of CBT that fit into the realities of current practice for clinicians from any interventional perspective. Instead of offering a full regimented program of treatment, this book provides the philosophy and elements of CBT sTable of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction ; Chapter 2 Providing CBT ; Chapter 3 Cognitive Interventions ; Chapter 4 Activity and Exposure Assignments ; Chapter 5 Additional Strategies - Problem Solving and Relaxation Training ; Chapter 6 CBT for Panic Disorder ; Chapter 7 CBT for Depression ; Chapter 8 CBT for Generalized Anxiety Disorder ; Chapter 9 CBT for Social Anxiety Disorder ; Chapter 10 CBT for Insomnia ; Chapter 11 Case Consultations: CBT and Pharmacotherapy ; Appendix of Forms and Handouts ; References

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Book SynopsisAlthough computational models of cognition have become very popular, these models are relatively limited in their coverage of cognition-- they usually only emphasize problem solving and reasoning, or treat perception and motivation as isolated modules. The first architecture to cover cognition more broadly is Psi theory, developed by Dietrich Dorner. By integrating motivation and emotion with perception and reasoning, and including grounded neuro-symbolic representations, Psi contributes significantly to an integrated understanding of the mind. It provides a conceptual framework that highlights the relationships between perception and memory, language and mental representation, reasoning and motivation, emotion and cognition, autonomy and social behavior. It is, however, unfortunate that Psi''s origin in psychology, its methodology, and its lack of documentation have limited its impact. The proposed book adapts Psi theory to cognitive science and artificial intelligence, by elucidatingTrade Review"...outstanding...Overall, Bach inspires the reader to embrace the possibilities of AI, and his account of PSI theory and hte MicroPSI architecture and framework provide us with an exciting and fruitful new perspective on cognitive science and the philosophy of the mind."--PsycCRITIQUESTable of Contents1. Machines to explain the mind ; 2. Dorner's "blueprint for a mind" ; 3. Representation of and for mental processes ; 4. Behavior control and action selection ; 5. Language and future avenues ; 6. Dorner's PSI agent implementation ; 7. From PSI to MicroPSI: Reprsentations in the PSI Model ; 8. The MicroPSI architecture ; 9. The MicroPSI framework ; 10. Summary: The PSI theory as a model of cognition ; References ; Index

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Book SynopsisThe cognitive and neural sciences have been on the brink of a paradigm shift for over a decade now. The traditional information-processing framework in psychology, with its computer metaphor of the mind, is still considered to be the mainstream approach. However, the dynamical-systems perspective on mental activity is now receiving a more rigorous treatment, allowing it to move beyond the trendy buzzwords that have become associated with it. The Continuity of Mind will help to galvanize the forces of dynamical systems theory, cognitive and computational neuroscience, connectionism, and ecological psychology that are needed to complete this paradigm shift. In this book, Michael Spivey lays bare the fact that comprehending a spoken sentence, understanding a visual scene, or just thinking about the day''s events involves the coalescing of different neuronal activation patterns over time, i.e., a continuous state-space trajectory that flirts with a series of point attractors. As a result,Trade Review"In this fascinating book, Spivey challenges the long-standing practice of focusing on behavior as a sequence of perception, cognition, and action based on discrete stimulus-response events...[using] wonderful, lucid prose. The book is scholarly...but well worth the effort. An invaluable resource for those interested in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, and related fields, this volume will serve both the present andthe next generation of cognitive scientists."--Choice "In this fascinating book, Spivey challenges the long-standing practice of focusing on behavior as a sequence of perception, cognition, and action based on discrete stimulus-response events...[using] wonderful, lucid prose. The book is scholarly...but well worth the effort. An invaluable resource for those interested in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, and related fields, this volume will serve both the present and the next generation of cognitive scientists."--ChoiceTable of Contents1. Toward a Continuity Psychology ; 2. Some Conceptual Tools for Tracking Continuous Mental Trajectories ; 3. Some Experimental Tools for Tracking Continuous Mental Trajectories ; 4. Some Simulation Tools for Tracking Continuous Mental Trajectories ; 5. Constructive Feedback for Modularity ; 6. On the Temporal Dynamics of Categorization ; 7. Temporal Dynamics of Language Comprehension ; 8. Temporal Dynamics of Visual Perception ; 9. Temporal Dynamics in Action ; 10. Temporal Dynamics in Reasoning? ; 11. Uniting and Freeing the Mind ; 12. Dynamical (Self-)Consciousness?

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Book SynopsisThe Interactional Instinct presents a theory of language based on linguistic, evolutionary, and biological evidence indicating that language is a culturally inherited artifact that requires no a priori hard wiring of linguistic knowledge. Its structure evolved phylo- genetically from interaction among speakers and is acquired through emotionally entrained interaction with conspecifics.Table of ContentsGrammar as a Complex Adaptive System ; Evidence for Language Emergence ; The Implications of Interaction for the Nature of Language ; Interactional Readiness: Infant-Caregiver Interaction and the Ubiquity of Language Acquisition ; A neurobiology for the Interactional Instinct ; The Interactional Instinct in First and Second Language Acquisition ; Broader Implications of the Interactional Instinct

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Book SynopsisAlthough the idea of hindsight is frequently associated with the biases, distortions, and outright lies of memory--as in the infamous 20-20 scenario or the conviction that one knew it all along--Mark Freeman maintains that this process of looking backward over the terrain of the past can also serve as a profound source of insight, understanding, and self-knowledge. Consider Tolstoy''s harrowing tale of Ivan Ilych, revisiting his past on the eve of his death, only to realize that the life he had been living was a lie. Consider as well the many times in our own lives when, upon reviewing the past, we are able to see what we could not, or would not, see earlier on. Hindsight is also intimately connected to what Freeman calls narrative reflection: Through the distance conferred by time, we can look back on past experiences and see them anew, as episodes in an evolving story. As important as being in the now and living in the moment are, it is no less important to pause at times and, by looTrade ReviewRecipient of the 2010 Theodore Sarbin Award! The Theodore Sarbin Award is intended to honor a specific body of work by an individual psychologist that demonstrates notable achievement in one or more of the fields to which Theodore Sarbin contributed. These include narrative psychology, contextualist theory, social psychological theories of hypnosis, and other innovative theoretical work that is "critical" in the broadest sense of the term. This award is presented annually by the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (Division 24). Past winners are Ruthellen Josselson, Donald Polkinghorne, Kenneth Gergen, Dan McAdams, and Jefferson Singer.Mark Freeman is one of the foremost thinkers in the ever-growing field of narrative research. Freeman shows, in a style which is both personal and very scholarly, the richness that perspective brings, as well as its psychological and moral complexity. Freeman has a wonderful ability to pose complex philosophical problems in a style that draws the reader in, intellectually and emotionally. * Molly Andrews, Reader in Sociology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of East London, Co-director, Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London Author of Shaping History and Lifetimes of Commitment *Freeman shows an extraordinary command of the literature on memory and time. His development of the narrative unconscious, narrative foreclosure, and moral lateness are extraordinary contributions to narrative psychology; they widen the conceptual frameworks through which we see and understand how narrative works in our lives, that is, how we actually use narrative and what calls us to narrative over the course of our lives. * Arthur P. Bochner, Distinguished University Professor of Communication, University of South Florida, Author of Composing Ethnography and Ethnographically Speaking *One of the indisputable strengths of this book is its language, its style. Its author displays a rare mastery in transforming complex psychological and moral issues into accessible narratives, into clear and simple storylines. * Jens Brockmeier, Visiting Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Senior Scientist, Department of Psychology, Free University Berlin, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London, Co-editor of Health, Illness, and Culture; Literacy, Narrative, and Culture; Narrative and Identity *The scope of this relatively short book is of huge importance, dealing as it does with the perennial issue of how to lead a good life. * Peter G. Coleman, Professor of Psychogerontology, University of Southampton, Co-author of Ageing and Development and Ageing and Reminiscence Processes *This book is a well-written, subtly-reasoned, example-rich, soulful piece of work that helps redeem the familiar phenomenon of hindsight from its typically negative portrayal in mainstream psychology, as an unfortunate distortion of memory, and reclaim it as indeed pivotal to our growth as conscious, moral beings. A good many readers, myself included, will be thrilled to have another book by Freeman in their collection. * William L. Randall, Associate Professor in Gerontology, St. Thomas University, Director, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Narrative, St. Thomas University, Co-author of Reading Our Lives and Ordinary Wisdom *A compelling and fascinating book. Its strengths are that it is written in such a way that one accompanies a gifted thinker and writer through his comments on and dialogue with other gifted thinkers and writers as they ponder the vicissitudes of hindsight. The experience of reading it is like a lengthy conversation with a brilliant friend and one comes away enriched and thoughtful. * Ruthellen Josselson, School of Psychology, Fielding Graduate University, Author of Revising Herself; The Space Between Us; Irvin D. Yalom; and Playing Pygmalion, Co-editor of The Narrative Study of Lives multi-volume series *Mark Freeman is the rare psychologist with the gift of discerning the philosophical undercurrents and the deep moral significance of everyday behavior and consciousness. In this provocative and personal meditation, Freeman explores the nature of memory, narrative, and time in human lives. His intriguing examples and insights will pull you along as you read; and in hindsight, you will look back on your time with Freeman's book as a profound intellectual experience. * Dan P. McAdams, Professor of Human Development and Social Policy, Northwestern University, Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University, Director, Foley Center for the Study of Lives, Northwestern University, Author of The Redemptive Self; The Person; and Power, Intimacy, and the Life Story Co-editor of The Narrative Study of Lives multi-volume series *Freeman's central point in this engaging and stimulating book is that in looking backwards in time we are doing far more than simply recollecting what has happened...To do that he tells stories, including some of his own, he cites literature and philosophy, he proposes thought experiments, and he refers to case material. Above all, he writes in an accessible and engaging style--so much so that at times I forgot he is an academic psychologist. * Kenneth Eisold, American Journal of Psychology *This deeply stimulating book speaks to scholars in psychology, philosophy, the health disciplines, and literature... Hindsight provides an important complement to psychological studies of memory, biases, and self by building on the richness of human experiences in the (re)fashioning of meaning in our lives. We have known at least since Augustine's Confessions how malleable and selective our minds and selves are in the composition of our life narratives. Indeed, Augustine was working hard, per hindsight, to demonstrate God's determinist designs and absolute truths to an implicit audience. Freeman's efforts, however, invite us to embrace the complex vagaries of the human condition as we construct and reconstruct meaning, within the contexts of our local, cultural, and historical lives. * Ulrich Teucher, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, British Journal of Psychology *Table of ContentsIntroduction. The Power of Hindsight Chapter One. Hindsight, Narrative, and Moral Life Chapter Two. The Narrative Information Chapter Three. Moral Lateness Chapter Four. The Narrative Unconscious Chapter Five. Narrative Foreclosure Chapter Six. The Truth of Story Chapter Seven. The Good Life Coda. Hindsight and Beyond Bibliographic Note References Index

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Book SynopsisIn the past decade, the field of comparative cognition has grown and thrived. No less rigorous than purely behavioristic investigations, examinations of animal intelligence are useful for scientists and psychologists alike in their quest to understand the nature and mechanisms of intelligence. Extensive field research of various species has yielded exciting new areas of research, integrating findings from psychology, behavioral ecology, and ethology in a unique and wide-ranging synthesis of theory and research on animal cognition. This updated edition of The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition contains sections on perception and illusion, attention and search, memory processes, spatial cognition, conceptualization and categorization, problem solving and behavioral flexibility, and social cognition processes. The authors have incorporated new findings and new theoretical approaches that reflect the current state of the field, including findings in primate tool usage, pattern learniTrade ReviewThose who study comparative cognition find themselves in a particularly prosperous time . . . A diversity of available species to study, opportunities for increased national and international collaboration, and technological advances offer us a greater opportunity for data collection and dissemination than at any time in history. The present book attests to how these opportunities can produce compelling research programs that serve as excellent models for the future of comparative cognition. * Michael J. Beran in PsycCRITIQUES (for the previous edition) *This book is an outstanding collection of chapters by an exceptional group of researchers. A unique aspect of this collection is the strong reliance on experimental science in each of the research programs. One chapter after another provides a critical analysis of the state of knowledge about a fascinating cognitive ability. How do animals perceive, order, and categorize the world? Do animals remember their own past? Do species differ in their sense of time and space? How flexible are animals in the use of tools and in their problem solving? Are there unique social cognitive processes? Each of these well-written chapters contains enough detail to provide the reader with the information necessary to reach their own conclusions about the validity of an argument. Everyone interested in the cognitive and intellectual capacities of animals should read this book. * Peter Balsam, Samuel R Milbank Professor of Psychology, Barnard College and Columbia University (for the previous edition) *This book is a gem. It brings together a large, readable, and rich set of chapters by an international group of experts on many of the most important topics in the study of cognitive processes in animals. It will be a 'must read' for students and scientists who are curious about the state of the art of the modern science of comparative cognition. * Mark E. Bouton, Professor of Psychology, University of Vermont (for the previous editon) *This impressive compendium shows the remarkable breadth and depth of current experimental research in comparative cognition. It is sure to become a major landmark in long history of this continually evolving field. * Michael Domjan, Professor of Psychology, University of Texas (for the previous edition) *Comparative Cognition will be an invaluable resource for all working or being interested in the wide field of comparative psychology and neuroscience. * European Journal of Neurology (for the previous edition) *Excellent book...Highly recommended. * Choice (for the previous edition) *Table of ContentsContents ; 1. Introduction to the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition ; Edward A. Wasserman and Thomas R. Zentall ; I. Perception and Illusion ; 2. Grouping and Segmentation in human and nonhuman primates ; Joel Fagot, Isabelle Barbet, and Carole Parron ; 3. Seeing What Is Not There: Illusion, Completion, and Spatiotemporal Boundary Formation in Comparative Perspective ; Kazuo Fujita ; 4. The Cognitive Chicken: Visual and Spatial Cognition in a Nonmammalian Brain ; Giorgio Vallortigara ; 5. New Perspectives on Absolute Pitch in Birds and Mammals ; Ronald G. Weisman, Douglas J. K. Mewhort, Marisa Hoeschele, and Christopher B. Sturdy ; II. Attention and Search ; 6. Reaction-time Explorations of Visual Perception, Attention, and Decision in Pigeons ; Donald S. Blough ; 7. The Competition for Attention in Humans and Other Animals ; David A. Washburn and Lauren A. Taglialatela ; 8. Establishing frames of reference for finding hidden goals: The use of multiple spatial cues by nonhuman animals and people ; Brett Gibson ; III. Learning and Causation ; 9. Contemporary thought on the environmental cues that affect causal attribution ; Michael E. Young ; 10. Associative Accounts of Causality Judgments ; Martha Escobar and Ralph R. Miller ; 11. Rational Rats: Causal Inference and Representation ; Aaron P. Blaisdell and Michael R. Waldmann ; 12. Contrast: A More Parsimonious Account of Cognitive Dissonance Effects ; Thomas R. Zentall, Rebecca A. Singer, Tricia S. Clement, Andrea M. Friedrich, and Jerome Alessandri ; IV. Memory Processes ; 13. Methodological Issues in Comparative Memory Research ; Thomas R. Zentall ; 14. Memory Processing ; Anthony A. Wright ; 15. The Questions of Temporal and Spatial Displacement in Animal Cognition ; William A. Roberts ; 16. Animal Metacognition ; J. David Smith, Michael J. Beran, and Justin J. Couchman ; 17. A comparative analysis of episodic memory: Cognitive mechanisms and neural substrates ; H. Eichenbaum, Magdalena Sauvage, Norbert Fortin, Jonathan Robitsek, and Robert Komorowski ; 18. Spatial, Temporal, and Associative Behavioral Functions Associated with Different Subregions of the Hippocampus ; Raymond P. Kesner, Andrea M. Morris, and Christy S.S. Weeden ; V. Spatial Cognition ; 19. Arthropod Navigation: Ants, Bees, Crabs, Spiders Finding Their Way ; Ken Cheng ; 20. Comparative Spatial Cognition: Encoding of Geometric Information from Surfaces and Landmark Arrays. ; Debbie M. Kelly and Marcia L. Spetch ; 21. Corvid Caching: The Role of Cognition ; S. R. De Kort, N. J. Emery, and N. S. Clayton ; VI. Timing and Counting ; 22. Behavioristic, Cognitive, Biological, and Quantitative Explanations of Timing ; Russell M. Church ; 23. Sensitivity to Time: Implications for the Representation of Time ; Jonathon D. Crystal ; 24. Comparative cognition of number representation ; Dustin J. Merritt, Nicholas K. DeWind, and Elizabeth M. Brannon ; 25. Similarities Between Temporal and Numerosity Discriminations ; J. Gregor Fetterman ; VII. Categorization and Concept Learning ; 26. A modified feature theory as an account of pigeon visual categorization ; Ludwig Huber and Ulrike Aust ; 27. Artificial Categories and Prototype Effects in Animals ; Masako Jitsumori ; 28. Relational Discrimination Learning in Pigeons ; Robert G. Cook and Edward A. Wasserman ; 29. Similarity and Difference in the Conceptual Systems of Primates: The Unobservability Hypothesis ; Jennifer Vonk and Daniel J. Povinelli ; VIII. Pattern Learning ; 30. Spatial Patterns: Behavioral Control and Cognitive Representation ; Michael F. Brown ; 31. The Organization of Sequential Behavior: Conditioning, Memory, and Abstraction ; Stephen B. Fountain, James D. Rowan, Melissa D. Muller, Shannon M. A. Kundey, Laura R. G. Pickens, and Karen E. Doyle ; 32. The Comparative Psychology of Ordinal Knowledge ; Herbert Terrace ; 33. Truly Random Operant Responding: Results and Reasons ; Greg Jensen, Claire Miller, and Allen Neuringer ; 34. From Momentary Maximizing to Serial Response Times and Artificial Grammar Learning ; Charles P. Shimp, Walter Herbranson, and Thane Fremouw ; IX. Problem Solving, Behavioral Flexibility, and Tool Use ; 35. Intelligences and Brains: An Evolutionary Bird's Eye View ; Juan D. Delius and Julia A. M. Delius ; 36. Transitive inference in nonhuman animals ; Olga F. Lazareva ; 37. Dolphin Problem Solving ; Stan A. Kuczaj II and Rachel T. Walker ; 38. <"What>" and <"Where>" Analysis and Flexibility in Avian Visual Cognition ; Shigeru Watanabe ; X. Social Cognition Processes ; 39. Social Learning in Rats: Historical Context and Experimental Findings ; Bennett G. Galef ; 40. What Is Challenging About Tool Use? The Capuchin's Perspective ; Elisabetta Visalberghi and Dorothy Fragaszy ; 41. Inter-species social learning in dogs: The inextricable roles of phylogeny and ontogeny ; Monique A. R. Udell, Nicole R. Dorey, Clive D. L. Wynne ; 42. Social learning: strategies, mechanisms and models ; Kevin N. Laland, Lewis Dean, Will Hoppitt, Luke Rendell & Mike M. Webster ; 43. Chimpanzee Social Cognition in Early Life: Comparative-Developmental Perspective ; Masaki Tomonaga, Masako Myowa-Yamakoshi, Yuu Mizuno, Sanae Okamoto, Masami K. Yamaguchi, Daisuke Kosugi, Kim A. Bard, Masayuki Tanaka, Tetsuro Matsuzawa ; 44. Social Learning and Culture in Primates: Evidence from Free-Ranging and Captive Populations ; Elizabeth E. Price and Andrew Whiten ; Epilogue: ; 45. Postscript: An Essay on the Study of Cognition in Animals ; Stewart H. Hulse ; Index

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Book SynopsisHuman beings are active agents who can think. To understand how thought serves action requires understanding how people conceive of the relation between cause and effect, between action and outcome. In cognitive terms, how do people construct and reason with the causal models we use to represent our world? A revolution is occurring in how statisticians, philosophers, and computer scientists answer this question. Those fields have ushered in new insights about causal models by thinking about how to represent causal structure mathematically, in a framework that uses graphs and probability theory to develop what are called causal Bayesian networks. The framework starts with the idea that the purpose of causal structure is to understand and predict the effects of intervention. How does intervening on one thing affect other things? This is not a question merely about probability (or logic), but about action. The framework offers a new understanding of mind: Thought is about the effects of iTable of Contents1. Agency and the Role of Causation in Mental Life ; Part I. The Theory ; 2. The Information Is in the Invariants ; 3. What Is a Cause? ; 4. Causal Models ; 5. Observation Versus Action ; Part II. Evidence and Application ; 6. Reasoning About Causation ; 7. Decision Making via Causal Consequences ; 8. The Psychology of Judgment: Causality Is Pervasive ; 9. Causality and Conceptual Structure ; 10. Categorical Induction ; 11. Locating Causal Structure in Language ; 12. Causal Learning ; 13. Conclusion: Causation in the Mind ; Notes ; References ; Index

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Book SynopsisAnxiety looms large in historical works of philosophy and psychology. It is an affect, philosopher Bettina Bergo argues, subtler and more persistent than our emotions, and points toward the intersection of embodiment and cognition. While scholars who focus on the work of luminaries as Freud, Levinas, or Kant often study this theme in individual works, they seldom draw out the deep and significant connections between various approaches to anxiety. This volume provides a sweeping study of the uncanny career of anxiety in nineteenth and twentieth century European thought. Anxiety threads itself through European intellectual life, beginning in receptions of Kant''s transcendental philosophy and running into Levinas'' phenomenology; it is a core theme in Schelling, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. As a symptom of an interrogation that strove to take form in European intellectual culture, Angst passes through Schelling''s romanticism into Schopenhauer''s metaphysical vitalism, beforTrade Review...what stands out is [Bergo's] capacity to inflect familiar material with uncanny resonances, without much editorial prodding. The Nietzsche we encounter here, for example, is one concerned with 'two pairs of anxiety': embodied pathos and reactive resentment, as well as mourning the death of God and rendering it the 'ultimate transvaluation' through eternal recurrence. The result is a demystified, non-reductive picture of Nietzsche that is theologically unavoidable and plausibly resonant with current conceptions of emergent consciousness. Later in the book, it is refreshing to see Husserl's work on time consciousness and passive synthesis described so clearly and with such a suggestive eye toward the theme of affect. In Bergo's account, we get a convincing sense both of his setting a 'new formal groundwork for psychology,' and of his role as a target for subsequent deformalizing dismantlings. * Continental Philosophy Review *Bergo (Univ. of Montreal) offers a wide-ranging but by no means superficial examination of the present-day notion of anxiety and its philosophical context. The philosophical story can be said to have begun with Kant's transcendental project as a response to the inadequacies of both empiricism and rationalism, but it travels through many major European philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Bergo shows the sometimes surprising connections between and among Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Levinas, and other thinkers. There are also several side trips to scientists such as Darwin, Ekman, and Freud—as anxiety itself turns out to lie somewhere between human cognition and human emotion, between mind and body. Anxiety might at first appear to play a minor role in philosophy, but Bergo shows that it can be an important key....Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. * CHOICE *This is a remarkably detailed study, and unlike many of the large and avowed exhaustive histories of philosophy, this one makes no claim to such. Bettina Bergo does something wonderfully creative. Instead of advancing a genealogy of anxiety, she makes a double move of examining the, in fact, fear of power, the desire for liberty without responsibility, and in doing so examines the conundrums of evasion. The work is valuable as a performance of its own philosophical concerns, and for scholars interested in fresh readings of canonical figures of Euromodern continental philosophy. This is a beautifully written, extraordinarily well-researched work that should generate a stir not only among scholars researching on the history of Euromodern philosophy, but also those interested in a rich understanding of subjectivity beyond pronouncements of eradication of its mark--in a word, 'the' subject.' * Lewis Gordon, Professor and Department Head of Philosophy, University of Connecticut *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Ambiguities of Anxiety: Select History of a Theme in 19th century and 20th Century Philosophy and Psychology Chapter 1. The New Philosophy: Kant's Transcendental Revolution and the Fate of Emotions in German Philosophy Excursus I. From Kant to Hegel via Philippe Pinel Chapter 2. Anxiety, Freedom, and Evil: Schelling and Groundless Life Chapter 3. The Dialectics of Affect: Anxiety and Despair in Kierkegaard Excursus II. The Universality of Emotions? Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) Chapter 4. Schopenhauer, Life, and the Affects of the Noumenal Chapter 5. Nietzsche and the Intensification of the Dialectic of Anxiety: Mourning and Transvaluation Chapter 6. Freud and the Three Anxieties Excursus III: Husserl: The Problem of Affective Forces, Einfühlung, and a Phenomenological Un-conscious Chapter 7. Heidegger I: Angst in Heidegger's Fundamental Ontology: The Debts to Husserl and Kierkegaard Chapter 8. Heidegger II Angst, the Temporalization of Dasein, and the Temporality of "Life" Chapter 9. Emmanuel Levinas and the Anxiety of Intersubjective Origins General Conclusion

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Book SynopsisOur ability to acknowledge and recognise our own identity - our ''self'' - is a characteristic doubtless unique to humans. Where does this feeling come from? How does the combination of neurophysiological processes coupled with our interaction with the outside world construct this coherent identity? We know that our social interactions contribute via the eyes, ears etc. However, our self is not only influenced by our senses. It is also influenced by the actions we perform and those we see others perform. Our brain anticipates the effects of our own actions and simulates the actions of others. In this way, we become able to understand ourselves and to understand the actions and emotions of others. This book is the first to describe the new field of ''Motor Cognition'' - one to which the author''s contribution has been seminal. Though motor actions have long been studied by neuroscientists and physiologists, it is only recently that scientists have considered the role of actions in building the self. How consciousness of action is part of self-consciousness, how one''s own actions determine the sense of being an agent, how actions performed by others impact on ourselves for understanding others, differentiating ourselves from them and learning from them: these questions are raised and discussed throughout the book, drawing on experimental, clinical, and theoretical bases.The advent of new neuroscience techniques, like neuroimaging and direct electrical brain stimulation, together with a renewal of behavioral methods in cognitive psychology, provide new insights into this area. Mental imagery of action, self-recognition, consciousness of actions, imitation can be objectively studied using these new tools. The results of these investigations shed light on clinical disorders in neurology, psychiatry and in neuro-development.This is a major new work that will lay down the foundations for the field of motor cognition.Trade ReviewThis book is a tour de force covering encompassing neuropsychology, neurophysiology, philosophy, neuoimaging, comparative neurobiology and clinical studies to support a thought provoking perspective on motor functioning. I would recommend this book to those interested in the study of neural production of movements... * BMA Medical Book Competition 2007 *...this accumulation of findings and ideas by a foremost researcher in the field would undoubtedly be of benefit to postgraduates and academics of the subject. * The Psychologist *Table of Contents1. Representations for actions ; 1.1 Definitions ; 1.2 Neural models of action representations ; 1.3 Functional models of action representation ; 2. Imagined actions as a prototypical form of action representation ; 2.1 The kinematic content of motor images ; 2.2 Dynamic changes in physiological parameters during motor imagery ; 2.3 The functional anatomy of motor images ; 2.4 The consequences of the embodiment of action representations ; 3. Consciousness of self-produced actions and intentions ; 3.1 Consciousness of actions ; 3.2 Consciousness of intentions ; 4. The sense of agency and the self/other distinction ; 4.1 Sense of ownership and sense of agency in self-identification ; 4.2 The nature of the mechanism for self-identification ; 4.3 The problem of the self/other distinction ; 4.4 Failure of self-recognition/attribution mechanisms in pathological states ; 5. How do we perceive and understand the actions of others ; 5.1 The perception of faces and bodies ; 5.2 The perception of biological motion ; 5.3 The understanding of others' actions ; 5.4 Functional implications of the mirror system in motor cognition ; 5.5 The role of the mirror system in action imitation ; 6. The simulation hypothesis of motor cognition ; 6.1 Motor simulation: a hypothesis for explaining action representations ; 6.2 Motor cognition and social cognition ; 6.3 Motor simulation and language understanding ; Conclusion

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