Cognitive studies Books

Book SynopsisIn this Element, the authors address the human ability to effortlessly understand the actions of other people by first considering the kinds of information an observer may gain when viewing an action.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis broad overview introduces the full range of topics from robotics, AI, psychology, sociology, ethics, and design that are central to modern research in the area. The second edition includes a new chapter on how people perceive robots, recent developments in robotic hardware, software, and artificial intelligence, and exercises.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book offers practical advice for legal professionals to optimize cognitive fitness and protect their brain from the damaging effects of chronic stress. Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, it provides actionable information to help readers thrive amidst the demands and stressors of the legal profession.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHate speech comprises any form of hateful or contemptuous expression that attacks, degrades, or vilifies people based on their social identities. This Element focuses on hate speech targeting social identities that are devalued by a society''s dominant groups, and that is likely to evoke, promote, or legitimize harms such violence, discrimination, and oppression. After detailing the ways in which hate speech is expressed (e.g., through derogatory labels, metaphors, offensive imagery), the production of hate speech is explored at theindividual level (e.g., prejudiced attitudes), group level (e.g., realistic intergroup threat), and societal level (e.g., hierarchy maintenance; free speech protections). A discussion of the effects of blatant and anonymous hate speech on targets (e.g., anxiety and depression) and nontargets (e.g., stereotype activation; desensitization; fomenting violence) follows. Finally, the effectiveness of mitigation efforts isexplored, including use of computer-based technologies, speech codes, confrontation, and counterspeech.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis Element surveys contemporary philosophical and psychological work on various forms of irrationality: akrasia, strange beliefs, and implicit bias. It takes up several questions in an effort to better illuminate these more maligned aspects of human behaviour and cognition: what is rationality? Why is it irrational to act against one''s better judgement? Could it ever be rational to do so? What''s going wrong with beliefs in conspiracy theories, those arising from self-deception, or those which are classed as delusional? Might some of them in fact be appropriate responses to evidence? Are implicit biases irrational when they conflict with our avowed beliefs? Or might they be rational insofar as they track social realities?

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book studies how to improve problem-based and inquiry-based learning by incorporating cognitive maps.Problem-based learning and cognitive mapping are reviewed from the perspective of both learning sciences and cognitive sciences, including the underpinning theories of experiential learning, situated learning, collaborative learning, meaningful learning, externalized representations, and visual representations. The result is a comprehensive review and analysis of cognitive mapping-supported problem-based learning, with the topic discussed from cognitive, metacognitive, social, and motivational and emotional perspectives. Furthermore, the author presents a theory-driven design, implementation, and analysis of design-based research to improve problem-based learning using cognitive mapping.The book will provide implications for researchers and practitioners of learning sciences, psychology, instructional systems, and cognitive tools.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDid you know that science has revealed what actions and circumstances make your brain learn more effectively?In this book, a scientist explains in a simple and very entertaining way how your brain learns and what you can do to take advantage of its full potential.Among other things, you will find out that:- Both people who are good at learning and those who are not can improve their performance if they use the right learning strategies: those that align with the way the brain learns best!- Most students do not know these strategies and those who spontaneously develop them gain a huge advantage without even realizing it.- Your brain is much more powerful than you realize in terms of its ability to learn. Every time you learn something, your brain changes its structure!When you learn about how the brain learns, you learn to learn!

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe best-selling author of Subliminal and The Drunkard’s Walk teaches you how to tap into the hidden power of your brain.   “Elastic is a book that will help you survive the whirlwind.” —Daniel H. Pink, author of When and A Whole New MindNamed to the 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards Longlist  In this startling and provocative look at how the human mind deals with change, Leonard Mlodinow shows us to unleash the natural abilities we all possess so we can thrive in dynamic and troubled times. Truly original minds capitalize when everyone else struggles. And most of us assume that these abilities are innate, reserved for a select few. But Mlodinow reveals that we all possess them, that we all have encoded in our brains a skill he terms elastic thinking—and he guides us in how to harness it. Drawing on groundbreaking r

Read more less

Book SynopsisHuman behavioural ecology examines the adaptive design of traits, behaviours, and life histories in an ecological context. With numerous ethnographic insights and field-based studies, this book will be a valuable resource for undergraduate and graduate students as well as academics interested in the social and biological sciences.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA Companion to Cognitive Anthropology offers a comprehensive overview of the development of cognitive anthropology from its inception to the present day and explores recent findings in the areas of theory, methodology, and field research in twenty-nine key essays by leading scholars. The book explains how cultural (or collective) vs.Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors viii Acknowledgments xvi Introduction 1 Part I History of Cognitive Anthropology; Nature and Types of Cultural Knowledge Structures 9 1 A History of Cognitive Anthropology 11 B. G. Blount 2 The History of the Cultural Models School Reconsidered: A Paradigm Shift in Cognitive Anthropology 30 Naomi Quinn 3 The Cognitive Context of Cognitive Anthropology 47 Jürg Wassmann, Christian Kluge, and Dominik Albrecht 4 The Limits of the Habitual: Shifting Paradigms for Language and Thought 61 Janet Dixon Keller 5 Types of Collective Representations: Cognition, Mental Architecture, and Cultural Knowledge 82 Giovanni Bennardo and David B. Kronenfeld 6 Personal Knowledge and Collective Representations 102 John B. Gatewood Part II Methodologies 115 7 How to Collect Data that Warrant Analysis 117 W. Penn Handwerker 8 Data, Method, and Interpretation in Cognitive Anthropology 131 James Boster 9 Multi-Item Scales and Cognitive Ethnography 153 Kateryna Maltseva and Roy D’Andrade 10 Consensus Analysis 171 Stephen P. Borgatti and Daniel S. Halgin 11 Narrative, Mind, and Culture 191 Benjamin N. Colby 12 Simulation (and Modeling) 210 Michael Fischer and David B. Kronenfeld Part III Cognitive Structures of Cultural Domains 227 13 Mathematical Representation of Cultural Constructs 229 Dwight Read 14 Kinship Theory and Cognitive Theory in Anthropology 254 F. K. L. Chit Hlaing (F. K. Lehman) 15 Numerical Cognition and Ethnomathematics 270 Andrea Bender and Sieghard Beller 16 “Indigenous Knowledge” and the Understanding of Cultural Cognition: The Contribution of Studies of Environmental Knowledge Systems 290 Roy Ellen 17 Emotions, Motivation, and Behavior in Cognitive Anthropology 314 E. N. Anderson 18 Social Networks, Cognition, and Culture 331 Douglas R. White Part IV Cognitive Anthropology and Other Disciplines 355 19 Culture and Cognition: The Role of Cognitive Anthropology in Anthropology and the Cognitive Sciences 357 Norbert Ross and Douglas L. Medin 20 Cultural Models, Power, and Hegemony 376 Halvard Vike 21 Cognitive Anthropology through a Gendered Lens 393 Carol C. Mukhopadhyay 22 Sociality in Cognitive and Sociocultural Anthropologies: The Relationships Aren’t Just Additive 413 Lynn Thomas 23 Cognitive Anthropology and Education: Foundational Models of Self and Cultural Models of Teaching and Learning in Japan and the United States 430 Hidetada Shimizu 24 Archaeological Approaches to Cognitive Evolution 450 Miriam Noël Haidle Part V Some Examples of Contemporary Research 469 25 The Distributed Cognition Model of Mind 471 Brian Hazlehurst 26 A Foundational Cultural Model in Polynesia: Monarchy, Democracy, and the Architecture of the Mind 489 Giovanni Bennardo 27 Cognitive Approaches to the Study of Romantic Love: Semantic, Cross-Cultural, and as a Process 513 Victor C. de Munck 28 Trouble as Part of Everyday Life: Cognitive and Sociocultural Processes in Avoiding and Responding to Illness 531 Linda C. Garro 29 Using Consensus Analysis to Investigate Cultural Models of Alzheimer’s Disease 548 Robert W. Schrauf and Madelyn Iris Afterword: One Cognitive View of Culture 569 David B. Kronenfeld Index 584

Read more less

Book SynopsisA milestone in the study of value in human life and thought, written by one of the world's preeminent living philosophers The Moral Powers: A Study of Human Nature is a philosophical investigation of the moral potentialities and sensibilities of human beings, of the meaning of human life, and of the place of death in life. It is an essay in philosophical anthropology: the study of the conceptual framework in terms of which we think about, speak about, and investigate homo sapiens as a social and cultural animal. This volume examines the diversity of values in human life and the place of moral value within the varieties of values. Its subject is the nature of good and evil and our propensity to virtue and vice. Acting as theculmination offive decadesof reflection onthephilosophy of mind, epistemology,ethics,and humannature, this volume: Concludes Hacker's acclaimed Human Nature tetralogy: Human Nature: The Categorial Framework, The ITable of ContentsProlegomenon xi 1. Philosophical anthropology and the investigation of value xi 2. The sinopia for a fresco xvi Acknowledgements xxiv Part I Of Good and Evil 1 Chapter 1 The Roots of Value and the Nature of Morality 3 1. The place of values in a world of facts 3 2. Varieties of goodness 8 3. The framework of moral goodness 17 4. Morality 24 5. Individual critical morality 30 Chapter 2 The Roots of Morality and the Nature of Moral Goodness 33 1. Moral goodness 33 2. The roots of moral value 38 3. Respect 46 4. The relative permanence of the virtues 58 5. Constants in human nature 61 Chapter 3 The Roots of Evil 65 1. The horror! 65 2. The grammar of evil: preliminary clarification 76 3. Philosophical problems: does evil exist? 83 4. Philosophical problems: can evil be explained? 89 Chapter 4 Explanations of Evil 101 1. The variety of explanations 101 2. Reasons and motives for doing evil 103 3. Can evil be a motive? 115 4. Knowledge of good and evil 121 5. Experimental psychology: Milgram’s and Browning’s explanations of evil‐doing 125 Chapter 5 Evil and the Death of the Soul 129 1. Body, mind, and soul 129 2. The death of the soul 138 3. Forgiveness and self‐forgiveness 143 4. Evil and the unforgivable 148 5. From soul to soul: trisecting an angle with compass and rule 152 Part II Of Freedom and Responsibility 155 Chapter 6 Fatalism and Determinism 157 1. Of fate and fortune 157 2. Fatalism 162 3. Nomological determinism 169 4. Flaws in reductive determinism 173 5. The random and the determined 177 Chapter 7 Neuroscientific Determinism, Freedom, and Responsibility 179 1. Neuroscientific determinism 179 2. Explanations of human behaviour: a recapitulation 182 3. Neuroscientific explanation and its limits 188 4. How possible, not why necessary 192 5. Varieties of responsibility 196 6. Elaboration 201 7. Irresistible impulse and temptation 203 Part III Of Pleasure and Happiness 207 Chapter 8 Pleasure and Enjoyment 209 1. Varieties of hedonism 209 2. Pleasure, enjoyment, and being pleased 212 3. Pleasure, pain, and the pleasures of sensation 219 4. Enjoyment and the pleasures of activities 224 5. Pleasure, desire, and satisfaction 229 6. Comparability and quantification 231 7. First‐person judgements of pleasure 235 8. The hedonic life 237 Chapter 9 Happiness 243 1. The linguistic terrain 243 2. A distinct idea of happiness 246 3. A clear idea of happiness 250 4. Preconditions of happiness 263 5. The epistemology of happiness 266 6. Two philosophical traditions 269 7. Happiness and morality 276 Chapter 10 The Science of Happiness 281 1. From eighteenth‐century crudity and back again 281 2. How happiness is understood by happiness scientists 286 3. Psychological and epistemological presuppositions of the science of happiness 290 4. Measuring happiness 294 5. Some results of the science of happiness 298 Part IV Of Meaning and Death 305 Chapter 11 The Need for Meaning 307 1. Meaning 307 2. The primacy of loss of meaning and the sense of meaninglessness 313 3. The roots of meaninglessness 316 4. Does life have a meaning? 326 5. Finding meaning in human life 329 Chapter 12 The Place of Death in Human Life 334 1. What is death? 334 2. An afterlife 338 3. The valuelessness of life 341 4. The value of life 344 5. Living for ever 349 6. Thanatophobia – the fear of death 353 Appendices Appendix 1: On Animal Beliefs and Animal Morality 361 1. Animal morality 361 2. Animal thinking, animal thoughts, and animal memory 364 3. Counter‐arguments and their rebuttal 367 4. Animal knowledge of other animals’ minds 378 5. Animal emotions 384 Appendix 2: Diabology: Satan, Lucifer, and the Devil in Western Thought 390 Appendix 3: Hannah Arendt and the Banality of Evil 398 Appendix 4: The Pictorial Representation of Pleasure in Western Art 407 Index 412

Read more less

Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPreface xvii Acknowledgments xix Walkthrough of Pedagogical Features xxi Companion Website xxii Section I: The Neurobiology of Thinking 1 1 Introduction and History 4 Key Themes 4 A Brief (and Selective) History 6 Construct validity in models of cognition 6 Localization of function vs. mass action 7 The first scientifically rigorous demonstrations of localization of function 9 What is a Brain and What Does It Do? 12 Looking Ahead to the Development of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 End-of-Chapter Questions 14 References 14 Other Sources Used 14 Further Reading 15 2 The Brain 16 Key Themes 16 Pep Talk 18 Gross Anatomy 18 The cerebral cortex 21 The Neuron 23 Electrical and chemical properties of the neuron 23 Oscillatory Fluctuations in the Membrane Potential 28 Neurons are never truly “at rest” 28 Oscillatory synchrony 29 Complicated, and Complex 31 End-of-Chapter Questions 32 References 32 Other Sources Used 33 Further Reading 33 3 Methods for Cognitive Neuroscience 34 Key Themes 34 Behavior, Structure, Function, and Models 36 Behavior 36 Neuropsychology, neurophysiology, and the limits of inference 36 Different kinds of neuropsychology address different kinds of questions 37 How does behavior relate to mental functions? 38 Methods for lesioning targeted areas of the brain 39 Nonlocalized trauma 39 Transcranial Neurostimulation 40 The importance of specificity (again) 41 Transcranial magnetic stimulation 43 Anatomy and Cellular Physiology 47 Techniques that exploit the cell biology of the neuron 48 Electrophysiology 51 Invasive recording with microelectrodes: action potentials and local field potentials 51 Electrocorticography 53 Electroencephalography 53 Magnetoencephalography 55 Invasive Neurostimulation 55 Electrical microstimulation 55 Optogenetics 55 Analysis of Time-Varying Signals 56 Event-related analyses 56 Magnetic Resonance Imaging 61 Physics and engineering bases 61 MRI methods for in vivo anatomical imaging 64 Functional magnetic resonance imaging 65 Functional connectivity 70 Resting state functional correlations 70 Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy 73 Tomography 73 X-ray computed tomography 73 Positron emission tomography 73 Near-Infrared Spectroscopy 76 Some Considerations For Experimental Design 76 Computational Models and Analytic Approaches 78 Neural network modeling 78 Network science and graph theory 82 End-of-Chapter Questions 84 References 85 Other Sources Used 86 Further Reading 86 Section II: Sensation, Perception, Attention, and Action 87 4 Sensation and Perception of Visual Signals 90 Key Themes 90 The Dominant Sense in Primates 92 Organization of the Visual System 92 The visual field 92 The retina and the LGN of the thalamus 92 The retinotopic organization of primary visual cortex 93 The receptive field 95 Information Processing in Primary Visual Cortex – Bottom-Up Feature Detection 96 The V1 neuron as feature detector 96 Columns, hypercolumns, and pinwheels 99 Information Processing in Primary Visual Cortex – Interactivity 100 Feedforward and feedback projections of V1 100 The relation between visual processing and the brain’s physiological state 104 Where Does Sensation End? Where Does Perception Begin? 106 End-of-Chapter Questions 106 References 107 Other Sources Used 107 Further Reading 108 5 Audition and Somatosensation 109 Key Themes 109 Apologia 111 Audition 111 Auditory sensation 111 Auditory perception 115 Adieu to audition 119 Somatosensation 119 Transduction of mechanical and thermal energy, and of pain 119 Somatotopy 122 Somatosensory plasticity 126 Phantom limbs and phantom pain 129 Proprioception 131 Adieu to sensation 131 End-of-Chapter Questions 131 References 132 Other Sources Used 132 Further Reading 132 6 The Visual System 134 Key Themes 134 Familiar Principles and Processes, Applied to Higher-Level Representations 136 Two Parallel Pathways 136 A diversity of projections from V1 136 A functional dissociation of visual perception of what an object is vs. where it is located 137 Interconnectedness within and between the two pathways 142 The Organization and Functions of the Ventral Visual Processing Stream 144 Hand cells, face cells, and grandmother cells 144 Broader implications of visual properties of temporal cortex neurons 149 A hierarchy of stimulus representation 150 Object-based (viewpoint-independent) vs. image-based (viewpoint-dependent) representation in IT 153 A critical role for feedback in the ventral visual processing stream 153 Taking Stock 158 End-of-Chapter Questions 158 References 159 Other Sources Used 159 Further Reading 160 7 Spatial Cognition and Attention 161 Key Themes 161 Unilateral Neglect: A Fertile Source of Models of Spatial Cognition and Attention 163 Unilateral neglect: a clinicoanatomical primer 163 Hypotheses arising from clinical observations of neglect 164 The Functional Anatomy of the Dorsal Stream 166 Coordinate transformations to guide action with perception 169 From Parietal Space to Medial-Temporal Place 172 Place cells in the hippocampus 173 How does place come to be represented in the hippocampus? 175 The Neurophysiology of Sensory Attention 175 A day at the circus 176 Attending to locations vs. attending to objects 176 Mechanisms of spatial attention 180 Effects of attention on neuronal activity 181 Turning Our Attention to the Future 185 End-of-Chapter Questions 185 References 186 Other Sources Used 186 Further Reading 187 8 Skeletomotor Control 188 Key Themes 188 The Organization of the Motor System 190 The anatomy of the motor system 190 The corticospinal tract 190 The cortico-cerebellar circuit 190 The cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuits 192 Functional Principles of Motor Control 193 The biomechanics of motor control 193 Motor cortex 196 The neurophysiology of movement 196 Motor Control Outside of Motor Cortex 202 Parietal cortex: guiding how we move 202 A neurological dissociation between perceiving objects and acting on them 203 Cerebellum: motor learning, balance, . . . and mental representation? 204 Synaptic plasticity 205 Basal ganglia 206 Cognitive Functions of the Motor System 211 Mirror neurons 212 Holding a mirror up to nature? 213 It’s All About Action 214 End-of-Chapter Questions 214 References 215 Other Sources Used 215 Further Reading 216 9 Oculomotor Control and the Control of Attention 218 Key Themes 218 Attention and Action 220 Whys and Hows of Eye Movements 220 Three categories of eye movements 220 The Organization of the Oculomotor System 221 An overview of the circuitry 221 The superior colliculus 222 The posterior system 222 The frontal eye field 223 The supplementary eye field 223 The Control of Eye Movements, and of Attention, In Humans 224 Human oculomotor control 224 Human attentional control 226 The Control of Attention via the Oculomotor System 227 Covert attention 227 Where’s the attentional controller? 230 Are Oculomotor Control and Attentional Control Really the “Same Thing”? 233 The “method of visual inspection” 234 “Prioritized maps of space in human frontoparietal cortex” 235 Of Labels and Mechanisms 238 End-of-Chapter Questions 238 References 238 Other Sources Used 239 Further Reading 240 Section III: Mental Representation 241 10 Visual Object Recognition and Knowledge 243 Key Themes 243 Visual Agnosia 245 Apperceptive agnosia 245 Associative agnosia 245 Computational Models of Visual Object Recognition 247 Two neuropsychological traditions 247 The cognitive neuroscience revolution in visual cognition 249 Category Specificity in the Ventral Stream? 249 Are faces special? 249 Perceptual expertise 251 Evidence for a high degree of specificity for many categories in ventral occipitotemporal cortex 252 Evidence for highly distributed category representation in ventral occipitotemporal cortex 253 Demonstrating necessity 256 The code for facial identity in the primate brain (!?!) 258 Visual Perception as Predictive Coding 261 Playing 20 Questions With the Brain 262 End-of-Chapter Questions 264 References 264 Other Sources Used 265 Further Reading 265 11 Neural Bases of Memory 267 Key Themes 267 Plasticity, Learning, and Memory 269 The Case of H.M. 269 Bilateral medial temporal lobectomy 269 Hippocampus vs. MTL? 272 Association Through Synaptic Modification 273 Long-term potentiation 273 The necessity of NMDA channels for LTM formation 277 How Might the Hippocampus Work? 277 Fast-encoding hippocampus vs. slow-encoding cortex 278 Episodic memory for sequences 279 Episodic memory as an evolutionary elaboration of navigational processing 282 What Are the Cognitive Functions of the Hippocampus? 283 Standard anatomical model 283 Challenges to the standard anatomical model 283 Consolidation 285 Reconsolidation 286 To Consolidate 286 End-of-Chapter Questions 288 References 288 Other Sources Used 289 Further Reading 290 12 Declarative Long-Term Memory 291 Key Themes 291 The Cognitive Neuroscience of LTM 293 Encoding 293 Neuroimaging the hippocampus 293 Incidental encoding into LTM during a short-term memory task 296 The Hippocampus in Spatial Memory Experts 299 Retrieval 299 Retrieval without awareness 300 Documenting contextual reinstatement in the brain 301 Familiarity vs. recollection 303 Knowledge 306 End-of-Chapter Questions 306 References 307 Other Sources Used 308 Further Reading 308 13 Semantic Long-Term Memory 310 Key Themes 310 Knowledge in the Brain 312 Definitions and Basic Facts 312 Category-Specific Deficits Following Brain Damage 313 Animacy, or function? 313 A PDP model of modality specificity 314 The domain-specific knowledge hypothesis 314 How definitive is a single case study? A double dissociation? 315 The Neuroimaging of Knowledge 316 The meaning, and processing, of words 316 An aside about the role of language in semantics and the study of semantics 316 PET scanning of object knowledge 317 Knowledge retrieval or lexical access? 318 Repetition effects and fMRI adaptation 319 The Progressive Loss of Knowledge 321 Primary Progressive Aphasia or Semantic Dementia, Nonverbal deficits in fluent primary progressive aphasia? 322 The locus of damage in fluent primary progressive aphasia? 322 Distal effects of neurodegeneration 324 Entente cordiale 324 Nuance and Challenges 326 End-of-Chapter Questions 326 References 327 Other Sources Used 328 Further Reading 329 14 Working Memory 330 Key Themes 330 “Prolonged Perception” Or “Activated LTM?” 332 Definitions 332 Working Memory and the PFC? The Roots of a Long and Fraught Association 333 Early focus on role of PFC in the control of STM 334 Single-unit delay-period activity in PFC and thalamus 335 Working Memory Capacity and Contralateral Delay Activity 342 The electrophysiology of visual working memory capacity 343 Novel Insights From Multivariate Data Analysis 349 The tradition of univariate analyses 349 MVPA of fMRI 349 Retrospective MVPA of single-unit extracellular recordings 356 Activity? Who Needs Activity? 357 Four-Score and a Handful of Years (and Counting) 360 End-of-Chapter Questions 360 References 360 Other Sources Used 362 Further Reading 362 Section IV: High-Level Cognition 363 15 Cognitive Control 365 Key Themes 365 The Lateral Frontal-Lobe Syndrome 367 Environmental-dependency syndrome 367 Perseveration 368 Electrophysiology of the frontal-lobe syndrome 370 Integration? 371 Models of Cognitive Control 371 Developmental cognitive neuroscience 371 Generalizing beyond development 374 What makes the PFC special? 375 Influence of the DA reward signal on the functions of PFC 376 Neural Activity Relating to Cognitive Control 378 Error monitoring 378 Going Meta 386 Where is the controller? 388 End-of-Chapter Questions 389 References 389 Other Sources Used 390 Further Reading 391 16 Decision Making 392 Key Themes 392 Between Perception and Action 394 Perceptual Decision Making 394 Judging the direction of motion 394 LIP 396 Modeling perceptual decision making 396 Controversy and complications 399 Perceptual decision making in humans 401 Value-Based Decision Making 402 The influence of expected value on activity in LIP 403 Common currency in the omPFC 404 Has neuroeconomics taught us anything about the economics of decision making? 409 Foraging 410 Boys being boys 411 Peer pressure 411 Next Stop 412 End-of-Chapter Questions 412 References 412 Other Sources Used 413 Further Reading 414 17 Social Behavior 415 Key Themes 415 Trustworthiness: A Preamble 417 Delaying gratification: a social influence on a “frontal” class of behaviors 417 The Role of vmPFC in the Control of Social Cognition 418 Phineas Gage 418 Contemporary behavioral neurology 420 Theory of Mind 422 The ToM network 422 The temporoparietal junction (TPJ) 423 False beliefs (?) about Rebecca Saxe’s mind 425 A final assessment of the role of RTPJ in ToM mentalization 429 Observational Learning 430 Predicting the outcome of someone else’s actions 430 Trustworthiness, Revisited 435 End-of-Chapter Questions 435 References 436 Other Sources Used 437 Further Reading 437 18 Emotion 438 Key Themes 438 What is an Emotion? 440 Approach/withdrawal 440 From “feeling words” to neural systems 440 At the nexus of perception and social cognition 440 Trustworthiness Revisited – Again 440 A role for the amygdala in the processing of trustworthiness 441 Implicit information processing by the amygdala 443 The Amygdala 444 Klüver–Bucy syndrome 444 Pavlovian fear conditioning 444 Emotional content in declarative memories 446 The amygdala’s influence on other brain systems 449 The Control of Emotions 450 Extinction 450 How Does That Make You Feel? 455 End-of-Chapter Questions 457 References 458 Other Sources Used 458 Further Reading 459 19 Language 460 Key Themes 460 A System of Remarkable Complexity 462 Wernicke–Lichtheim: The Classical Core Language Network 462 The aphasias 462 The functional relevance of the connectivity of the network 463 Speech Perception 464 Segregation of the speech signal 464 Dual routes for speech processing 468 Grammar 469 Genetics 469 Rules in the brain? 471 Broca’s area 472 The electrophysiology of grammar 475 Speech Production 477 A psycholinguistic model of production 477 Forward models for the control of production 477 Prediction 479 Integration 480 End-of-Chapter Questions 481 References 481 Other Sources Used 483 Further Reading 483 20 Consciousness 485 Key Themes 485 The Most Complex Object in the Universe 487 Different Approaches to the Problem 487 The Physiology of Consciousness 488 Neurological syndromes 488 Sleep 492 Anesthesia 494 Summary across physiological studies 495 Brain Functions Supporting Conscious Perception 495 Are we conscious of activity in early sensory cortex? 497 Manipulating extrinsic factors to study conscious vs. unconscious vision 500 Are Attention and Awareness the Same Thing? 501 Theories of Consciousness 503 Global Workspace Theory 503 Recurrent Processing Theory 505 Integrated Information Theory 506 Updating the Consciousness Graph 508 End-of-Chapter Questions 509 References 509 Other Sources Used 511 Further Reading 511 Glossary G-1 Index I-1

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn the World Library of Psychologists series, international experts themselves present career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces - extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, and their major practical theoretical contributions. Glyn Humphreys is an internationally renowned cognitive neuropsychologist with research interests covering object recognition and its disorders, visual word recognition, object and spatial attention, the effects of action on cognition, and social cognition. Within the field of Psychology he has won a number of prestigious awards, including the Spearman Medal, the President's Award of the British Psychological Society, and the Donald Broadbent Prize from the European Society for Cognitive Psychology. This collection reflects the different directions in his work and approaches which have been adopted. It will enable the reader to trace key developments in cognitive neuropsychology iTable of Contents1. A case of integrative visual agnosia. (1987), Riddoch, M.J. & Humphreys, G.W. 2: Cascade processes in picture identification. (1988), Humphreys, G.W., Riddoch, M.J. & Quinlan, P.T. 3. Visual search and stimulus similarity. (1989), Duncan, J. & Humphreys, G.W. 4: Early orthographic processing in visual word recognition. (1990), Humphreys, G.W., Evett, L.J. & Quinlan, P.T. 5. Non-spatial extinction following lesions of the parietal lobe in humans. (1994), Humphreys, G.W., Romani, C., Olson, A., Riddoch, M.J. & Duncan, J. 6. Visual marking: Prioritising selection for new objects by top-down attentional inhibition. (1997), Watson, D.G. & Humphreys, G.W. 7. Seeing the action: Neuropsychological evidence for action-based effects on object selection. (2003), Riddoch, M.J., Humphreys, G.W., Edwards, S., Baker, T. & Willson, K. 8. The left temporo-parietal junction is necessary for representing someone else’s beliefs. (2004), Samson, D., Apperly, I., Chiavarino, C. & Humphreys, G.W. 9. Dissociating the neural mechanisms of memory-based guidance of visual selection. (2007), Soto, D., Humphreys, G.W. & Rotshtein, P. 10. Ignoring the elephant in the room: A neural circuit to down-regulate salience. (2010), Mevorach, C., Hodsoll, J., Allen, H.A., Shalev, L. & Humphreys, G.W. 11. The attraction of yellow corn: Reduced attentional constraints on coding learned conjunctive relations. (2013), Rappaport, S.J., Humphreys, G.W. & Riddoch, M.J. 12. Coupling social attention to the self forms a network for personal significance. (2013), Sui, J., Rotshtein, P. & Humphreys, G.W. 13. The BCoS cognitive profile screen: Utility and predictive value for stroke. (2015), Bickerton, W-L.,Demeyere, N., Francis, D., Kumar, V., Remoundou, M., Balani, A., Harris, L., Williamson, J., Lau, J.K., Samson, D., Riddoch, M.J. & Humphreys, G.W.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSocial neuroscience is a rapidly growing field which explains, using neural mechanisms, our ability to recognize, understand, and interact with others. Concepts such as trust, revenge, empathy, prejudice, and love are now being explored and unravelled by neuroscientists. This engaging and cutting-edge text provides an accessible introduction to the complex methods and concepts of social neuroscience, with examples from contemporary research and a blend of different pedagogical features helping students to engage with the material, including essay questions, summary and key points, and further reading suggestions.The second edition of this ground-breaking text has been thoroughly revised and expanded to reflect the growing volume of evidence and theories in the field. Notable additions include a greater emphasis on genetics and hormones, and the expansion of topics such as cultural neuroscience, emotion regulation, biological markers of autism, power and status, social categor

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn INVALUABLE RESOURCE to anyone who wants to think better. Gretchen RubinAward-winning YALE PROFESSOR Woo-kyoung Ahn delivers A MUST-READa smart and compellingly readable guide to cutting-edge research into how people think. (Paul Bloom)A FUN exploration. Dax ShepardPsychologist Woo-kyoung Ahn devised a course at Yale called Thinking to help students examine the biases that cause so many problems in their daily lives. It quickly became one of the university's most popular courses. Now, for the first time, Ahn presents key insights from her years of teaching and research in a book for everyone.She shows how thinking problems stand behind a wide range of challenges, from common, self-inflicted daily aggravations to our most pressing societal issues and inequities. Throughout, Ahn draws on decades of research from other cognitive psychologists, as well as from her own groundbreaking studies. And she presents it all in

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom the world''s leading expert on trust repair, a guide to understanding the most essential foundation of our relationships and communities.When our trust is broken, and when our own trustworthiness is called into question, many of us are left wondering what to do. We barely know how trust works. How could we possibly repair it?Dr. Peter H. Kim, the world's leading expert in the rapidly growing field of trust repair, has conducted over two decades of groundbreaking research to answer that question. In How Trust Works, he draws on this research and the work of other social scientists to reveal the surprising truths about how relationships are built, how they are broken, and how they are repaired. Dr. Kim's work shows how we are often more trusting than we think and how easily our trust in others can be distorted. He illustrates these insights with accounts of some of the most striking and well-known trust violations that have occurred in modern times a

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this open access book, Carlos Montemayor illuminates the development of artificial intelligence (AI) by examining our drive to live a dignified life. He uses the notions of agency and attention to consider our pursuit of what is important. His method shows how the best way to guarantee value alignment between humans and potentially intelligent machines is through attention routines that satisfy similar needs. Setting out a theoretical framework for AI Montemayor acknowledges its legal, moral, and political implications and takes into account how epistemic agency differs from moral agency. Through his insightful comparisons between human and animal intelligence, Montemayor makes it clear why adopting a need-based attention approach justifies a humanitarian framework. This is an urgent, timely argument for developing AI technologies based on international human rights agreements. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsbTrade ReviewThe book by Montemayor is based on the solid ground of attention mechanisms, and it offers an urgent and original reflection on AI, the alignment of values, and the relevance of human rights in the development of AI systems. * Antonio Chella, Professor in Robotics, University of Palermo, Italy *Table of ContentsList of Figures Preface Acknowledgments Glossary and Abbreviations Introduction: Normative Aspects of AI Development 1. Intelligence and Artificiality 2. General Intelligence and the Varieties of AI Risk—A Hierarchy of Needs 3. The Attentional Model of Epistemic Agency—The Main Source of Rational Trust in Humans (and Future AI) 4. The Handicaps of Unemotional Machines 5. The Vitality of Experience Against Mechanical Indifference 6. Are AIs Essentially Collective Agents? 7. The Legal, the Ethical, and the Political in AI Research 8. Human Rights and Human Needs Notes References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisUniting Thomas Lawson's essays on the cognitive science of religion, this volume explores theoretical issues in the study of cultural phenomena such as religion, the role of imagination, and the experiments that emerge from these theories. The book begins with Lawson's influential essay Towards a Cognitive Science of Religion, which was the first to employ the phrase, and has since become widely adopted in many different disciplines. It signals to scholars in the humanities that the cognitive revolution has finally reached them and serves to introduce them to the world of science. The rest of the book focuses on theoretical issues in the study of cultural phenomena and describes experiments by scholars working on the connections between cognition and culture. Described as the grandfather of the cognitive science of religion, Lawson offers a unique perspective on the development of the field and the principles that underlie it, which will be relevant to both newcomers and establisheTrade ReviewE. Thomas Lawson is the grand elder of the Cognitive Science of Religion, who brought together and mentored a younger generation of scholars as the field became established and who has continued to inspire at least two more generations after that. This long-awaited book reveals how he did it and it will be of great interest to everyone engaged in the scientific study of the religion. * Professor Harvey Whitehouse, Chair of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford, UK *What better way to learn about this field than to listen to the stories and insightful musings of the field’s godfather and one of the first evangelists? This pithy volume gives readers a unique vantage of the intellectual motivations and innovations that birthed the cognitive science of religion. * Justin L. Barrett, President, Blueprint 1543, USA *Tom Lawson is one of the creators of the field of cognitive approaches to religious thought and behavior, and one of the main contributors to what is now an established discipline, with journals, meetings, and textbooks. Lawson was also a pioneer in the formal study of ritual behavior. The essays reflect the breadth and depth of his insights about the relations between human mental capacities and cultural variation. * Pascal Boyer, Professor of Individual and Collective Memory, Washington University in St. Louis, USA *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Toward Cognitive Science of Religion PART I: Theoretical Issues in the Cognitive Science of Religion 2. Magic Bullets and Complex Theories 3. The Wedding of Psychology, Ethnography, and History: Methodological Bigamy or Tripartite Free Love? 4. Cognitive Categories, Cultural Forms, and Ritual Structures 5. Evoked and Transmitted Culture PART II: Cognition and the Imagination 6. Cognitive Constraints on Imagining Other Worlds 7. The Explanation of Myth and Myth as Explanation 8. Psychological Perspectives on Agency 9. How to Create a Religion PART III: Cognition, Culture, and History 10. History in Science 11. The Cognitive Science of Religion and the Growth of Knowledge 12. Counterintuitive Notions and the Problem of Transmission: The Relevance of Cognitive Science for the Study of History 13. Experimental Adventures Conclusion Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThomas Lawson is Professor Emeritus at Western Michigan University, USA. He is also Honorary Professor and Research Scientist at the Institute of Cognition and Culture, Queen's University Belfast, UK.Trade ReviewE. Thomas Lawson is the grand elder of the Cognitive Science of Religion, who brought together and mentored a younger generation of scholars as the field became established and who has continued to inspire at least two more generations after that. This long-awaited book reveals how he did it and it will be of great interest to everyone engaged in the scientific study of the religion. * Professor Harvey Whitehouse, Chair of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford, UK *What better way to learn about this field than to listen to the stories and insightful musings of the field’s godfather and one of the first evangelists? This pithy volume gives readers a unique vantage of the intellectual motivations and innovations that birthed the cognitive science of religion. * Justin L. Barrett, President, Blueprint 1543, USA *Tom Lawson is one of the creators of the field of cognitive approaches to religious thought and behavior, and one of the main contributors to what is now an established discipline, with journals, meetings, and textbooks. Lawson was also a pioneer in the formal study of ritual behavior. The essays reflect the breadth and depth of his insights about the relations between human mental capacities and cultural variation. * Pascal Boyer, Professor of Individual and Collective Memory, Washington University in St. Louis, USA *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Toward Cognitive Science of Religion PART I: Theoretical Issues in the Cognitive Science of Religion 2. Magic Bullets and Complex Theories 3. The Wedding of Psychology, Ethnography, and History: Methodological Bigamy or Tripartite Free Love? 4. Cognitive Categories, Cultural Forms, and Ritual Structures 5. Evoked and Transmitted Culture PART II: Cognition and the Imagination 6. Cognitive Constraints on Imagining Other Worlds 7. The Explanation of Myth and Myth as Explanation 8. Psychological Perspectives on Agency 9. How to Create a Religion PART III: Cognition, Culture, and History 10. History in Science 11. The Cognitive Science of Religion and the Growth of Knowledge 12. Counterintuitive Notions and the Problem of Transmission: The Relevance of Cognitive Science for the Study of History 13. Experimental Adventures Conclusion Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisresearchED is an educator-led organisation with the goal of bridging the gap between research and practice. This accessible and punchy series, overseen by founder Tom Bennett, tackles the most important topics in education, with a range of experienced contributors exploring the latest evidence and research and how it can apply in a variety of classroom settings. In this edition, Kate Jones considers various principles from cognitive science that can be used to enhance teaching and learning, including cognitive load theory, dual coding theory, interleaving, retrieval practice and spaced practice. Kate has sourced contributions from teachers and researchers including Jade Pearce, Sarah Cottingham, Adam Boxer, Jonathan Firth, Paul A. Kirschner, Pedro De Bruyckere and Lekha Sharma. Kate Jones is a teacher and an experienced leader. She is the author of seven books and is senior associate for teaching and learning at Evidence Based Education.

Read more less

Book SynopsisEXERCISE YOUR BRAIN with 40 simple tips and exercises you can do at home and on the goBEAT BURNOUT and learn to cope with the stresses and strains of everyday lifeBACKED UP BY EXPERT NEUROSCIENCE from Dr Sabina Brennan, best-selling author of Beating Brain FogINCLUDES A BOOKLET with more information about the inner workings of the brain and how to make it work for you!LAURENCE KING PUBLISHING has been capturing imaginations and inspiring creativity in new and unexpected ways for over 30 years, with playful and eye-catching games, gifts and booksDiscover 40 activity, attitude and lifestyle changes to reshape your brain. Whether you''re feeling foggy, stressed, or just looking for a boost, pick out a card, perform the simple exercise and learn the science behind why it works. Featuring 40 cards with practical tips to shape your brain as well as a booklet with information about brain behaviour and brain c

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe human brain is an impossibly complex and delicate instrument - capable of extraordinary calculations, abundant creativity and linguistic dexterity. But the brain is not just the most brilliant of evolutionary wonders. It's also one of the most bizarre.This book shows a whole other side of how brains work - from the patient who is afraid to take a shower because she fears her body will slip down the drain to a man who is convinced, against all evidence, that he is a cat, and a woman who compulsively snacks on cigarette ashes.Entertaining though they are, these cases are more than just oddities. In attempting to understand them, neuroscientists have uncovered important details about how the brain works. BIZARRE will examine these details while explaining what neuroscience's most unusual patients have taught us about normal brain function -ideal both for readers seeking a better appreciation of the inner workings of the brain and those

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe human brain is an impossibly complex and delicate instrument - capable of extraordinary calculations, abundant creativity and linguistic dexterity. But the brain is not just the most brilliant of evolutionary wonders. It''s also one of the most bizarre.This book shows a whole other side of how brains work - from the patient who is afraid to take a shower because she fears her body will slip down the drain to a man who is convinced, against all evidence, that he is a cat, and a woman who compulsively snacks on cigarette ashes.Entertaining though they are, these cases are more than just oddities. In attempting to understand them, neuroscientists have uncovered important details about how the brain works. BIZARRE will examine these details while explaining what neuroscience''s most unusual patients have taught us about normal brain function -ideal both for readers seeking a better appreciation of the inner workings of the brain and those who simply want some

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisWith a foreword by well-known neuroscientist Alain Berthoz, The Style of Gestures convincingly makes the case that embodied cognition is essential to the reception, understanding, and enjoyment of art and literature.Trade ReviewWhat is remarkable about The Style of Gestures... is that it combines a precisely grounded model from neuroscience with persuasive readings of texts across a wide historical range, from medieval works such as Gawain and the Green Knight via Shakespeare and Milton to Joyce and Proust. Guillemette Bolens is a medievalist and a comparatist, and she is always sensitive to the cultural constraints within which her readings must operate: no one could accuse her of reductive universalism or anachronism. Her work thus provides a powerful and persuasive example of what a cognitive literary criticism can achieve. -- Terence Cave Times Literary Supplement This book successfully translates its analytic tools and interpretative frameworks beyond the page into the reader's next reading experience and, perhaps, social encounter. As Bolens writes, 'literature is powerful because, more than any other type of discourse, it triggers the activation of unpredicted sensorimotor configurations and surprises the mind with its own imaginative and cognitive possibilities.' -- Rebecca Dobson MAKE: A Literary Magazine The Style of Gestures brings interdisciplinary research from the field of embodied cognition to medieval textual criticism, and the results are remarkable... Bolens's work demonstrates the clear advantages of embracing the shift towards embodied cognition. -- Melissa Raine ParergonTable of ContentsForeword by Alain BerthozAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Body in Literature2. Kinesic Tropes and Action Verbs3. Verecundia and Social Wounding in the Legend of Lucrece4. Face-work and Ambiguous Feats in Sir Gawain and the Green KnightConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis engaging book exemplifies the new interdisciplinary field of cognitive cultural studies, demonstrating that collaboration between cognitive science and cultural studies is both exciting and productive.Trade ReviewZunshine's book was difficult to stop reading; while she handles all these genres with skill, clearly her strength is in reading literature (as she returns to literary references even in the other chapters). Having an understanding of human evolution and how the brain works makes reading a book such as Zunshine's more satisfying. -- Gregory F. Tague ASEBL Journal Offers readers a good deal of food for thought and exemplifies how illuminating the principles from science can be when applied to other forms of culture. Highly recommended. Choice Drawing widely and judiciously on recent research in neuroscience, Getting Inside Your Head expands [theory of mind] to cover all of human culture, from novels to films, plays, musicals, paintings and reality shows. -- Michael Berube American ScientistTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsPreface: Fantasies of Access1. Culture of Greedy Mind Readers2. I Know What You're Thinking, Mr. Darcy!3. Sadistic Benefactors4. Theaters, Hippodromes, and Other Mousetraps5. Movies: The Power of Restraint6. Mockumentaries, Photography, and Stand-Up Comedy: Upping the Agony7. Reality TV: Humiliation in Real Time8. Musicals (Particularly around 11 pm)9. Painting Feelings10. Painting MysteriesCodaNotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisExamines the parallels between certain features of literary experience and functions of the brain. For the neuroscientific community, this book suggests that different areas of research - the neurobiology of vision and reading, the brain-body interactions underlying emotions - may be connected to a variety of aesthetic and literary phenomena.Trade ReviewArmstrong's book is a testament to the value of the arts and the humanities since their processes and productions generate ideas that are literally the physical (neurobiological) stuff of which we are made. -- Gregory F. Tague ASEBL Journal How Literature Plays with the Brain: The Neuroscience of Reading and Art is a highly informative and carefully argued book. We recommend a close reading of it. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations Armstrong's book is a beautiful example of how humanities scholars can accomplish a conversation across the gap between the 'two cultures' without giving up their disciplinary identity, bringing the larger picture to bear on the more particular research of the cognitive sciences. -- Karin Kukkonen Cambridge Quarterly Armstrong finds his inspiration in recent neuroscience... his overview of mirror neuron theory and the controversies that surround it, for example, outdoes in accuracy and judiciousness any other account I have seen among neuroaesthetics and cognitive literary studies. Modern Fiction Studies At present, when so many universities would gleefully discard the study of the arts in the service of a utilitarian turn in higher education, the evidence that Armstrong provides for their vital cognitive function and the coherence with which he presents that evidence is indeed both welcome and timely. Philosophy and Literature sTable of ContentsPreface1. The Brain and Aesthetic Experience2. How the Brain Learns to Read and the Play of Harmony and Dissonance3. The Neuroscience of the Hermeneutic Circle4. The Temporality of Reading and the Decentered Brain5. The Social Brain and the Paradox of the Alter EgoEpilogueNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisA short but engaging exploration of the brain. In Brains, scientist Leif Ostergaard explores our most complicated and mysterious organ. From the dissection of Einstein's brain to research on how to map networks of neurons, Ostergaard deconstructs the different parts of the brain and provides an engaging overview of its essential functions. He explains how we store information in the synapses of neural networks and how these networks carry commands to our muscles and internal organs and receive sensory input from our skin, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Delving into the subconscious, we learn what our brains are doing while we daydream and how neurotransmitters play a role in addiction. In this fascinating book, Ostergaard reveals how this enigmatic organ is even more complex than we thought it was. In Reflections, a series copublished with Denmark's Aarhus University Press, scholars deliver 60-page reflections on key concepts. These books present unique insights on a wide range of toTable of ContentsThe Mind of a GeniusThe Subconscious BrainMapping the CerebrumThe Learning BrainLet Your Mind Soar

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book will get you thinking about thinking.We understand more about the brain than ever before and we also have more tools than ever before to help us think. This book will show you how your brain works, how your mind works, why we all make certain mistakes in thinking and why that''s not always a bad thing. In order to understand how people behave, you need to understand how people think. And if you want to understand how people think, you need to have a basic understanding of cognitive psychology, cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience. This book explains cognition and the links between the brain, the mind and behaviour in a clear and straightforward way. Through interesting case studies and research examples, Minda shows how the brain is involved in mental activity, how memory works, how language affects thought, how good (and bad) decisions are made, and why we make predictable errors in our thinking. With practical applications for everyTrade ReviewThought-provoking . . . [Minda] knows the mind like the back of his hand . . . [How to Think] is a comprehensive account of thinking and behaviour that showcases the sheer brilliance of the human brain * Reaction *An approachable and engaging book about cognitive psychology for the curious lay reader ... I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in cognitive psychology or simply understanding human behaviour * The Psychologist *

Read more less

Book SynopsisExplores the latest in canine psychology, revealing fascinating insights into how our dogs think and how we can strengthen our unique bond with them. A rare blend of cutting edge neuroscience and practical training advice.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIf you''re like most people, you probably believe that your identity is stable. But in fact, your identity is constantly changing - often outside your conscious awareness and sometimes even against your wishes - to reflect the interests of the groups of which you''re a part. And that fluid identity has a powerful influence over your feelings, beliefs, and behaviours.In THE POWER OF US, psychologists Packer and Van Bavel integrate their own cutting-edge research in psychology, neuroscience and economics to explain what identity really is and show how to harness its dynamic nature to:Increase our productivity - Improve physical and psychological health - Overcome our individual prejudice - Unlock our altruism - Break the political gridlock - Galvanize others to solve controversial global problemsAlong the way, they explain such seemingly unrelated phenomenon as why men cry at football games but not funerals, why the history of slavery in U.S. counties iTrade ReviewBetter than I have ever seen, The Power of Us assesses the influence of tribalism on our actions and specifies ways to turn the force from destructive to constructive. A truly important booK. * Robert Cialdini, author of INFLUENCE AND PRE-SUASION *As American politics shifts from fights over ideology and policies to conflict over basic identities, we increasingly need help from social psychologists to understand what is going on. The Power of Us is an excellent resource in filling this urgent need. * Francis Fukuyama, author of IDENTITY *The Power of Us is a fascinating journey into the science of identity. If you've ever struggled to understand why people join cults or mindlessly conform - or wondered how to build great teams and influence better choices - this is the book you need. It is a practical, entertaining and, above all, vital guide to human behaviour. * Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of THE POWER OF HABIT and SMARTER FASTER BETTER *The Power of Us is an endlessly entertaining and critically important book, written by two masters of their field. Delivered with lucidity and pace, it reveals the enormous power social identity has over our individual behaviour, and how it shapes the world of politics, business, social justice - and pretty much everything else * Will Storr *In the 21st century, politics and social life have shifted to become ever more about identity. Those who read this book will understand the deep psychology of identity, and will therefore be less bewildered and more successful-not just in politics but in leadership of any kind, and even in the whirling identity pool of social media. * Jonathan Haidt, author of THE RIGHTEOUS MIND, co-author of THE CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND *Riveting and revelatory, splendidly written and filled with fascinating studies, The Power of Us shines a new, thought-provoking, and ultimately hopeful light on so much that is confusing and dismaying about our fraught world today * Amy Chua, author of BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER AND POLTICAL TRIBES: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations *Who am I? Is there anyone who hasn't asked themselves this question? But Jay Van Bavel and Dominic Packer have not only asked themselves this question, they've studied the psychology of identity for years and, as leaders in the field, have produced an authoritative guide that is remarkably accessible, actionable, and a pure joy to read! * Angela Lee Duckworth, author of GRIT *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''Promises a new route through the parenting wilds'' Sunday Times''Powerful, honest and reassuring'' Professor Gina Rippon''A vital new narrative . . . Meticulously researched, compelling and compassionate'' Elinor Cleghorn''A compelling book that upends popular notions about becoming a parent . . . reminds us why scientific research is a feminist issue'' New Stateman''I wish I''d had this book when I first became a mother'' Emma Jane UnsworthNew parents undergo major structural and functional brain changes, driven by hormones and the deluge of stimuli a baby provides. These neurobiological changes help all parents - birthing or otherwise - learn how to meet their child''s needs. Yet this emerging science is mostly absent from the public conversation about parenthood. Untangling insidious myths from complicated realities, Chelsea Conaboy reveals that the story that exists in the science today is far more meaningful than the idea that moth

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“This book’s abundant appeal and value come from following Berns through the challenges of constructing the experiment and especially of training his dog to participate. ‘Like a catcher and pitcher,’ he writes, he and his dog ‘became a team.’ The satisfaction of that relationship perhaps explains why our two species have lived together so long and happily.” —The Boston Globe “A neuroscientist wonders what goes on in the minds of our pet dogs: Do we delude ourselves when we believe that they love us? [How Dogs Love Us is] a solid introduction to an appealing new area of research.” —Kirkus “The book is as much a scientific exploration of how the canine brain might function as it is a deeply personal story about Berns’s relationship with dogs as pets and colleagues. Ultimately that connection is what makes the book compelling.” —Scientific American MIND “Thoroughly enjoyable and edifying…Five out of five stars…highly recommended.” —Your Dog “In the fascinating book How Dogs Love Us, [Berns] recounts the methods his team employed, and how their pet dogs made these groundbreaking studies possible. There’s much to learn in this engrossing read.” —Bark Magazine “Neuroscientist Gregory Berns studies dog brains to answer that eternal question: Do our dogs really love us?” —Men’s Journal “The journey Berns and his team embarked on, and are continuing, is as remarkable as the study’s conclusions to date. Berns proves what most pet lovers have always known. Our dogs are much like us.” —The Akron Beacon Journal “How Dogs Love Us is a fascinating account of a scientist’s tenacious pursuit of the unknown. Gregory Berns’s account of his lab’s Dog Project provides readers with new insights into the minds of our most loyal companions while also reminding us that scientific research should be approached with passion, love, and a bold disregard for the possibility of failure.” —Dan Ariely, author of The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty “An exciting journey to the center of a dog’s emotional mind. Berns offers hilarious descriptions of training his dog to lie still while being fed hot dogs in the MRI brain-scan machine.” —Temple Grandin, author of Animals Make Us Human “With infectious passion for dogs, science, life, and love, Gregory Berns takes us on a rollicking yet scientifically serious study of the mental life of dogs-what dogs understand and how they think. Berns’s tale is a dramatic but very funny look at how real, grubby science can accomplish great things. This is dognitive science at its insightful, passionate, and playful best.” —Patricia Churchland, author of Touching a Nerve “How Dogs Love Us is the beautifully written story of an iconoclastic neuroscientist challenging the status quo and seeking to truly understand the dogs with whom we share our lives.” —Jennifer Arnold, author of Through a Dog’s Eyes “Amazingly entertaining and super smart. In How Dogs Love Us, Gregory Berns gives us our first real look inside the brain of a dog, while simultaneously setting new standards in ethical science. A truly great read!” —Steven Kotler, author of A Small Furry Prayer “Gregory Berns’s book, packed with solid scientific research and warm personal stories, will set the agenda for future research on the minds and emotional lives of animals.” —Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals “Fast, fun, and funny, Gregory Berns demonstrates scientifically that dogs are people, too.” —Laurence Gonzales, author of Surviving Survival “Gregory Berns’s amusing story about his dogs, his daughters, and a giant magnet communicates as no other what fun science can be.” —Frans de Waal, author of The Bonobo and the Atheist “This book lets you see inside the mind of a dog as never before. How Dogs Love Us will revolutionize how we understand animals—especially our dogs. This is a must-read for animal lovers and neuroscientists alike.” —Brian Hare, author of The Genius of Dogs “Berns is an excellent writer. His explanations of the scientific thinking behind the Dog Project (as he calls his experiment) are crisp and clear and accessible to a nonscientist without being condescending…Some of the best parts of How Dogs Love Us, though, are about the questions, not the answers. In his account of the slow, meticulous, day-to-day process of creating a scientific study, Berns has produced one of the best accounts of how science is ‘done.’” —Chicago Reader “How Dogs Love Us makes a thought-provoking and often humorous case for something canine lovers have suspected for years: dogs are not simply ‘Pavlovian learning machines’ but, rather, sentient beings with a high level of empathy and an affinity for social learning. In answering his original question, he sparks many more about how we value and care for our canine companions.” —Kirsten Galles, Shelf Awareness “Berns’s book is a beautiful story about dogs, love and neurology that shows how nonhuman relationships are inspiring researches to look at animals in new ways, for their benefit and ours.” —Rebecca Skloot, New York Times Book Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis groundbreaking book challenges the disciplinary boundaries that have traditionally separated scientific inquiry from literary inquiry. It explores scientific knowledge in three subject areasthe natural history of aging, literary narrative, and psychoanalysis. In the authors'' view, the different perspectives on cognition afforded by Anglo-American cognitive science, Greimassian semiotics, and Lacanian psychoanalysis help us to redefine our very notion of culture.Part I historically situates the concepts of meaning and truth in twentieth-century semiotic theory and cognitive science. Part II contrasts the modes of Freudian case history to the general instance of Einstein''s relativity theory and then sets forth a rhetoric of narrative based on the discourse of the aged. Part III examines in the context of literary studies an interdisciplinary concept of cultural cognition.Culture and Cognition will be essential reading for literary theorists, historians and

Read more less

Book SynopsisA bold philosophical investigation into technology and the limits of the human A daring, original work of philosophical speculation, Neurotechnology and the End of Finitude mounts a sustained investigation into the possibility that human beings may technologically overcome the transcendental limits of possible experience and envisages what such a transition would look like. Focusing on emergent neurotechnologies, which establish a direct channel of communication between brain and machine, Michael Haworth argues that such technologies intervene at the border between interiority and exteriority, offering the promise of immediacy and the possibility of the mind directly affecting the outside world or even other minds. Through detailed, targeted readings of Kant, Freud, Heidegger, Croce, Jung, and Derrida, Haworth explores the effect of this transformation on human creativity and our relationships with others. He pursues these questions across four distinct but interrelated spheres: the act of artistic creation and the potential for a technologically enabled coincidence of idea and object; the possibility of humanity achieving the infinite creativity that Kant attributed only to God; the relationship between the psyche and the external world in Freudian psychoanalysis and Jungian analytical psychology; and the viability and impact of techno-telepathic communication. Addressing readers interested in contemporary continental philosophy and philosophy of technology, media and communications, and science and technology studies, Neurotechnology and the End of Finitude critically envisions a plausible posthuman future.Trade Review"Neurotechnology and the End of Finitude is a highly original and profound scholarly inquiry into the impact of technology on our understanding of art and of communication more generally. Michael Haworth is one of the most talented young researchers working in the humanities today."—Alexander García Düttmann, Universität der Künste, BerlinTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Idea Becomes a Machine that Makes the Art2. Intellectual Intuition and Finite Creativity3. Unus Mundus4. Techno-Telepathy and the Otherness of the OtherNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisA new speculative ontology of aesthetics In Aesthesis and Perceptronium, Alexander Wilson presents a theory of materialist and posthumanist aesthetics founded on an original speculative ontology that addresses the interconnections of experience, cognition, organism, and matter. Entering the active fields of contemporary thought known as the new materialisms and realisms, Wilson argues for a rigorous redefining of the criteria that allow us to discriminate between those materials and objects where aesthesis (perception, cognition) takes place and those where it doesn’t. Aesthesis and Perceptronium negotiates between indiscriminately pluralist views that attribute mentation to all things and eliminative views that deny the existence of mentation even in humans. By recasting aesthetic questions within the framework of “epistemaesthetics,” which considers cognition and aesthetics as belonging to a single category that can neither be fully disentangled nor fully reduced to either of its terms, Wilson forges a theory of nonhuman experience that avoids this untenable dilemma. Through a novel consideration of the evolutionary origins of cognition and its extension in technological developments, the investigation culminates in a rigorous reevaluation of the status of matter, information, computation, causality, and time in terms of their logical and causal engagement with the activities of human and nonhuman agents. Trade Review"Aesthesis and Perceptronium offers a nuanced engagement with science, technology, and art that is otherwise largely missing from contemporary debates, exploring the significance of aesthetics in the aftermath of neomaterialist and nonrepresentational theories of perception, cognition, and intelligence."—Luciana Parisi, Goldsmiths, University of London

Read more less

Book SynopsisA new speculative ontology of aesthetics In Aesthesis and Perceptronium, Alexander Wilson presents a theory of materialist and posthumanist aesthetics founded on an original speculative ontology that addresses the interconnections of experience, cognition, organism, and matter. Entering the active fields of contemporary thought known as the new materialisms and realisms, Wilson argues for a rigorous redefining of the criteria that allow us to discriminate between those materials and objects where aesthesis (perception, cognition) takes place and those where it doesn’t. Aesthesis and Perceptronium negotiates between indiscriminately pluralist views that attribute mentation to all things and eliminative views that deny the existence of mentation even in humans. By recasting aesthetic questions within the framework of “epistemaesthetics,” which considers cognition and aesthetics as belonging to a single category that can neither be fully disentangled nor fully reduced to either of its terms, Wilson forges a theory of nonhuman experience that avoids this untenable dilemma. Through a novel consideration of the evolutionary origins of cognition and its extension in technological developments, the investigation culminates in a rigorous reevaluation of the status of matter, information, computation, causality, and time in terms of their logical and causal engagement with the activities of human and nonhuman agents. Trade Review"Aesthesis and Perceptronium offers a nuanced engagement with science, technology, and art that is otherwise largely missing from contemporary debates, exploring the significance of aesthetics in the aftermath of neomaterialist and nonrepresentational theories of perception, cognition, and intelligence."—Luciana Parisi, Goldsmiths, University of London

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisI love this book!' Dr Jeff Rediger Intelligent and accessible' Helen Russell An illuminating, fun read' Camilla Nord Thoroughly recommended' David RobsonDiscover how 15 minutes a day can awaken your creative magic and spark joyHave you ever been so absorbed in writing, drawing, cooking, dancing, yoga, music or crafting that you lost track of time? In neuroscience, this is known as flow', a focused state where the mind and body are at their most serene.In this book, former dancer and neuroscientist Julia Christensen reveals why you experience overthinking and shares a 7-step method to create a reliable pathway to flow and effortlessly unlock the creative genius within you. Boost your mood, calm your mind, and enjoy the magic of flow every day.I enjoyed every minute of this fabulous book' Professor Joe Devlin, former head of Experimental Psychology at UCL

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisAccording to a leading cognitive scientist, we've been teaching reading wrong. The latest science reveals how we can do it right.In 2011, when an international survey reported that students in Shanghai dramatically outperformed American students in reading, math, and science, President Obama declared it a "Sputnik moment": a wake-up call about the dismal state of American education. Little has changed, however, since then: over half of our children still read at a basic level and few become highly proficient. Many American children and adults are not functionally literate, with serious consequences. Poor readers are more likely to drop out of the educational system and as adults are unable to fully participate in the workforce, adequately manage their own health care, or advance their children's education.In Language at the Speed of Sight, internationally renowned cognitive scientist Mark Seidenberg reveals the underexplored science of reading, which spans cognitive science, neurobiology, and linguistics. As Seidenberg shows, the disconnect between science and education is a major factor in America's chronic underachievement. How we teach reading places many children at risk of failure, discriminates against poorer kids, and discourages even those who could have become more successful readers. Children aren't taught basic print skills because educators cling to the disproved theory that good readers guess the words in texts, a strategy that encourages skimming instead of close reading. Interventions for children with reading disabilities are delayed because parents are mistakenly told their kids will catch up if they work harder. Learning to read is more difficult for children who speak a minority dialect in the home, but that is not reflected in classroom practices. By building on science's insights, we can improve how our children read, and take real steps toward solving the inequality that illiteracy breeds.Both an expert look at our relationship with the written word and a rousing call to action, Language at the Speed of Sight is essential for parents, educators, policy makers, and all others who want to understand why so many fail to read, and how to change that.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less