Improvisation teachers Viola Spolin, Del Close, and Keith Johnstone knew that with structure and guidelines, the human mind could be trained to be effortlessly spontaneous and intuitive. Cognitive studies is finally catching up with what improvisers have known for over fifty years. Through archival research, workshops, and interviews, Theatrical Improvisation, Consciousness, and Cognition explores improvisation's effects on consciousness and cognition and compares these theories to current findings in cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy.

As the 64th volume in the prestigious Nebraska Series on Motivation, this book focuses on impulsivity, a multi-faceted concept that encompasses such phenomena as the inability to wait, a tendency to act without forethought, insensitivity to consequences, and/or an inability to inhibit inappropriate behaviors. Due to this multi-faceted nature, it plays a critical role in a number of key behavioral problems, including pathological gambling, overeating, addiction, adolescent risk-taking, spread of sexually transmitted diseases, criminal behavior, financial decision making, and environmental attitudes. This broad and interdisciplinary scope has historically resulted in separate subfields studying impulsivity in relative isolation from one another. Therefore, a central achievement of this volume is to convey an integrative exploration of impulsivity. To provide a comprehensive and cohesive understanding of impulsivity, this volume brings together eminent scholars and rising researchers from different domains (developmental psychology, neuroscience, animal cognition, anthropology, addiction science), who use different techniques (behavioral assays, imaging, endocrinology, genetics). Moreover, it includes perspectives and analyses from the two primary types of impulsivity: impulsive choice (or decision making) and impulsive action (or disinhibition). The authors present expert analyses of topics such as delayed gratification, discounting models, and adaptive foraging decisions. Leveraging breadth of coverage and renowned scholarship, Impulsivity: How Time and Risk Influence Decision Making advances our understanding of this complex topic and sheds light on novel research directions and potential future collaborations.

The intellectual development of human beings from birth to adulthood is a fascinating phenomenon. Understanding the constraints that limit children's intelligence, as well as discovering methods to improve it, has always been a challenging undertaking for developmental psychologists. This book presents a unique attempt to address these issues by establishing a dialogue between neo-Piagetian theorists and researchers specialized in typical and atypical working memory development. The book integrates recent advances in studies of working memory development with theories proposed by the most prominent neo-Piagetian researchers who have emphasized the role of cognitive resources and working memory capacity in the development of thinking and reasoning. In the opening section, the main proponents of this tradition develop their theories of cognitive development in terms of available mental attention, processing efficiency and speed, inhibition and relational complexity. The second part of the book addresses the mechanisms that underpin the increase in working memory capacity and the respective roles of processing efficiency, storage capacity, and the use of reactivation processes of memory traces such as rehearsal. Finally, the central role played by working memory in atypical development and learning difficulties is examined. This book provides psychologists, students and researchers who are interested in child development with an integrated and up-to-date series of chapters written by prominent specialists in the areas of working memory, attention, and cognitive development.

This book brings together some of the best known experts in their fields to offer a cross-disciplinary summary of current research on human memory. More than this however, the book pays tribute to the work of Lars-Goeran Nilsson and his many contributions to the psychology of human memory. The book is divided into three subsections: General Issues in Human Memory, Memory and Aging, and Memory and the Brain. These sections represent the three cornerstones in Lars-Goeran's scientific career and comprise contributions from senior collaborators, colleagues and former students. Areas of discussion include: long-term and working memory: how do they interact? an epidemiological approach to cognitive health in aging the cognitive neuroscience of signed language Covering a broad range of topics, Memory, Aging and the Brain will be of great interest to all those involved in the study and research of human memory.

This book focuses on the structure and development of conscience, a subject that has been dominant in developmental psychology since the 18th century. International experts in the field contribute to this broad overview of the relevant research on the development of moral emotions and on the Kohlbergian-originated cognitive aspects of moral development. The first section of the book focuses on the cultural conditions that create the context for the development of conscience, such as moral philosophy, religion, and media violence. Building on the theory and research on emotion, other chapters cover issues including the development of shame, self regulation and moral conduct, social cognition, and models of guilt. The book also covers moral reasoning, moral identity, moral atmosphere, moral behavior, and discusses subjects such as lying, how to measure moral development, the impact of parenting, the dysfunctions of conscience evident in narcissism, psychopathy, issues surrounding gender, and aggression. The Development and Structure of Conscience will be ideal reading for researchers and students of developmental and educational psychology.

This book challenges current thinking on memory by examining the complex ways in which the social inheritance of the Nazi Holocaust is gendered. It considers how the past is handed down in the US, Poland, and Britain through historiography, autobiographies, documentary and feature films, memorial sites, and museums. It explores the configuration of socially inherited memories about the Holocaust in young people of different cultural backgrounds. Scholarly and accessible, the book provides a groundbreaking approach to understanding the significance of gender in relation to cultural mediations of history.

The Clinical Neuroscience of Lateralization gives the first comprehensive transdiagnostic overview of the evidence for changes in hemispheric asymmetries in different psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. Taking a multidisciplinary perspective informed by both basic science and clinical studies, the authors integrate recent breakthroughs on hemispheric asymmetries in psychology, neuroscience, genetics and comparative research. They give a general introduction to hemispheric asymmetries and the techniques used to assess them, and review the evidence for changes in hemispheric asymmetries in different psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. The book also discusses neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis and highlights the importance of open science in clinical laterality research. Offering a fresh perspective on a longstanding issue in clinical neuroscience, this book will be of great interest for academics, researchers, and students in the fields of clinical and developmental neuroscience, biopsychology and neuropsychology.

In a review written in 1979, I noted that there was a paucity of research examining the effects of maternal employment on the infant and young child and also that longitudinal studies of the effects of maternal em ployment were needed (Hoffman, 1979). In the last 10 years, there has been a flurry of research activity focused on the mother's employment during the child's early years, and much of this work has been longi tudinal. All of the studies reported in this volume are at least short-term longitudinal studies, and most of them examine the effects of maternal employment during the early years. The increased focus on maternal employment during infancy is not a response to the mandate of that review but rather reflects the new employment patterns in the United States. In March 1985, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 49.4% of married women with children less than a year old were employed outside the home (Hayghe, 1986). This figure is up from 39% in 1980 and more than double the rate in 1970. By now, most mothers of children under 3 are in the labor force."

Proceedings of the 8th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society

The fulgurating power of creative imagination - Imaginatio Creatrix - setting in motion the Human Condition within the-unity-of-everything there-is-alive is the key to the rebirth of philosophy. From as early as 1971 (see the third volume of the Analecta Husserliana series, The Phenomenological Realism of the Possible Worlds, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, ed.), Imaginatio Creatrix has been the leitmotif for the research work of the World Phenomenology Institute (now published in eighty-three Analecta Husserliana volumes), one that is eliciting echoes from all around.
Husserl's diagnosis of a crisis in Western science and culture, the inspiration of much of postmodern phenomenology, has yielded place to a wave of scientific discovery, technological invention, and change in societal life, individual lifestyles, the arts, etc. These throw a glaring light on human creative genius and the crucial role of the imagination that gives it expression.
This present collection is an instance of that expression and the response it evokes. It manifests the role of imagination in forming and interpreting our world -in-transformation in a new way and opens our eyes to marvel at the new world on the way.
Papers by: Semiha Akinci, John Baldacchino, Angela Ales Bello, Elif Cirakman, Tracy Colony, Carmen Cozma, Charles de Brantes, Mamuka G. Dolidze, Edward Domagala, Shannon Driscoll, Nader E1-Bizri, Ignacy Fiut, William Franke, Elga Freiberga, Beata Furgalska, Nicoletta Ghigi, Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei, David GrA1/4nberg, Oliver W. Holmes, Milan Jaros, Rolf KA1/4hn, Maija Kule, Rimma Kurenkova, Matthew Landrus, Nancy Mardas, David Martinez, William D. Melaney, Mieczyslaw, Pawel Migon, MartinNkafu Nkemnkia, Leszek Pyra, W. Kim Rogers, Bruce Ross, Osvaldo Rossi, Julio E. Rubio, Diane G. Scillia, Mina Sehdev, Dennis E. Skocz, Mariola Sulkowska, Robert D. Sweeney, Jan Szmyd, Piero Trupia, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, Richard T. Webster.

The current financial crisis has revealed serious flaws in models, measures and, potentially, theories, that failed to provide forward-looking expectations for upcoming losses originated from market risks. The Proceedings of the Perm Winter School 2011 propose insights on many key issues and advances in financial markets modeling and risk measurement aiming to bridge the gap. The key addressed topics include: hierarchical and ultrametric models of financial crashes, dynamic hedging, arbitrage free modeling the term structure of interest rates, agent based modeling of order flow, asset pricing in a fractional market, hedge funds performance and many more.

One of the most distinguishing abilities that human beings display is the ability of turning almost everything into a clue to make a problem affordable in relation to what one knows and, most of all, to what one does not know. That is what characterizes humans as chance seekers. A poor pattern of reasoning and even our ignorance may help us make a decision, and eventually solve a problem. This is the rationale of biased rationality. However, not everything leads us always to a good decision. Some people are not satisfied with weak arguments or it-is-just-so strategies. They want something better. This second attitude points to a different form of rationality that takes advantage of the idea of distributed cognition. Basically, human beings improve their survival strategies by building cognitive niches capable of delivering potentially ever more symptomatic information. It is through various manipulations of the environment that we gain new and more reliable chances which can be used to de-bias our rationality. Through the laborious activity of cognitive niche construction, we come up with situations in which we are better afforded by our environment, and thus biases or fallacies cease to be appealing.

How is one to understand the nature of intelligence? One approach is through psychometric testing, but such an approach often puts the "cart before the horse"--the test before the theory. Another approach is to use evolutionary theory. This criterion has been suggested by a number of individuals in the past, from Charles Darwin in the more distant past to Howard Gardner, Stephen Gould, Steven Pinker, Carl Sagan, David Stenhouse, and many others. The chapters in this book address three major questions: 1. Does evolutionary theory help us understand the nature of human intelligence? 2. If so, what does it tell us about the nature of human intelligence? 3. And if so, how has intelligence evolved? The goal of this book is to present diverse points of view on the evolution of intelligence as offered by leading experts in the field. In particular, it may be possible to better understand the nature and societal implications of intelligence by understanding how and why it has evolved as it has. This book is unique in offering a diversity of points of view on the topic of the evolution of human intelligence.

This book examines the relationship between human language and biology in order to determine whether the biological foundations of language can offer deep insights into the nature and form of language and linguistic cognition. Challenging the assumption in biolinguistics and neurolinguistics that natural language and linguistic cognition can be reconciled with neurobiology, the author argues that reducing representation to cognitive systems and cognitive systems to neural populations is reductive, leading to inferences about the cognitive basis of linguistic performance based on assuming (false) dependencies. Instead, he finds that biological implementations of cognitive rather than the biological structures themselves, are the driver behind linguistic structures. In particular, this book argues that the biological roots of language are useful only for an understanding of the emergence of linguistic capacity as a whole, but ultimately irrelevant to understanding the character of language. Offering an antidote to the current thinking embracing 'biologism' in linguistic sciences, it will be of interest to readers in linguistics, the cognitive and brain sciences, and the points at which these disciplines converge with the computer sciences.

Scholars have devoted considerable energy to understanding the history of ethnic cleansing in Europe, reconstructing specific events, state policies, and the lived experiences of victims. Yet much less attention has been given to how these incidents persist in collective memory today. This volume brings together interdisciplinary case studies conducted in Central and Eastern European cities, exploring how present-day inhabitants "remember" past instances of ethnic cleansing, and how they understand the cultural heritage of groups that vanished in their wake. Together these contributions offer insights into more universal questions of collective memory and the formation of national identity.

The Skills of Document Use: From Text Comprehension to Web-Based Learning examines functional literacy from a psychological standpoint. It offers a comprehensive discussion of the cognitive skills involved in reading, comprehending, and making use of complex documents. Understanding such skills is important at times when printed and online information systems are being used more and more extensively for work, education, and personal development. It is also very important to understand how the Internet transforms the way we search, read, and comprehend documents. The core purpose of the book is to inform research scientists, students, and instructional designers about recent advances in the psychology of document comprehension. Whereas reading research has mostly focused on basic cognitive processes involved in simple comprehension tasks, this book extends the psychology of reading to more complex, real-life comprehension activities. The book draws a link between research areas usually separated: language psychology, on the one hand, and Web design, on the other hand. The work also attempts to bridge a gap between research in cognitive psychology and practical issues in the design and use of information systems. It invites the reader to a guided journey from theoretical models of text comprehension to concrete issues in the design and use of instructional technology. The book will be of interest to students specializing in psychology, language, communication, and publishing. It will also be useful to all those who are involved in the training of literacy skills, or in the design of information systems accessible to a wide audience.

Explores role of memory in establishing identity, a key psychoanalytic concept * Draws on literature and history as well as psychoanalysis to illustrate this thesis * Covers key theory and clinical application

Features first hand accounts of the development of Ecological Psychology. Reflects on how the field has changed since the original interviews. Provides an interdisciplinary overview of Ecological Psychology and will appeal to researchers of this field, as well as those studying the History of Psychology and Cognitive Science more broadly.

Families are undergoing dramatic changes in our society. Our tradi tional views are being challenged by new family arrangements. These new family arrangements are forcing redefinitions of what consti tutes a family and raising significant issues regarding the potential developmental consequences for children in these families, if such exist. Moreover, the ramifications of redefined families and their bear ing on children's development extend into the legal, political, and societal arenas. This book focuses on the relationships between di verse family arrangements and children's development, as well as on legal and social implications. Our interest in this area emanates from our experience in directing the Fullerton Longitudinal Study. In the course of this investigation, we observed families undergoing transformation, most commonly in maternal employment and marital status. Our initial research on the role of maternal employment in children's development provided the scientific foundation for our interest. Just as we feel that maternal employment and dual-earner families should be comprehensively re searched regarding their relationships to children's development, we also believe that other contemporary family arrangements should receive extensive attention in the developmental literature. Hence, the idea for this book emerged."

In this text, the authors review the last twenty-five years of progress in research and theory on language and communication in the psychopathological context. They also identify promising avenues for future research. This text will benefit students taking courses in psycholinguistics.

Experimental philosophy is one of the most recent and controversial developments in philosophy. Its basic idea is rather simple: to test philosophical thought experiments and philosophers' intuitions about them with scientific methods, mostly taken from psychology and the social sciences. The ensuing experimental results, such as the cultural relativity of certain philosophical intuitions, has engaged - and at times infuriated - many more traditionally minded "armchair" philosophers since then. In this volume, the metaphilosophical reflection on experimental philosophy is brought yet another step forward by engaging some of its most renowned proponents and critics in a lively and controversial debate. In addition to that, the volume also contains original experimental research on personal identity and philosophical temperament, as well as state-of-the-art essays on central metaphilosophical issues, like thought experiments, the nature of intuitions, or the status of philosophical expertise. This book was originally published as a special issue of Philosophical Psychology.

The study of metaphor is now firmly established as a central topic within cognitive science and the humanities. We marvel at the creative dexterity of gifted speakers and writers for their special talents in both thinking about certain ideas in new ways, and communicating these thoughts in vivid, poetic forms. Yet metaphors may not only be special communicative devices, but a fundamental part of everyday cognition in the form of 'conceptual metaphors'. An enormous body of empirical evidence from cognitive linguistics and related disciplines has emerged detailing how conceptual metaphors underlie significant aspects of language, thought, cultural and expressive action. Despite its influence and popularity, there have been major criticisms of conceptual metaphor. This book offers an evaluation of the arguments and empirical evidence for and against conceptual metaphors, much of which scholars on both sides of the wars fail to properly acknowledge.

This book proposes a novel CWW model to personalize individual semantics in linguistic decision making, based on two new concepts: numerical scale and consistency-driven methodology. The numerical scale model provides a unified framework to connect different linguistic symbolic computational models for CWW, and the consistency-driven methodology customizes individuals' semantics to support linguistic group decision making by setting personalized numerical scales. The book is a valuable resource for researchers and postgraduates who are interested in CWW in linguistic decision making.

The Interpretation of Dreams and of Jokes provides a unique and integrative introduction to dream science. It addresses a notable gap in cognitive psychology on the subject of dreams and explores significant overlaps between the phenomena of dreams and jokes. Bringing together extensive research from cognitive psychology, neuroscience and psychoanalysis, the book provides a balanced approach to dream science that is underpinned by experimental and theoretical research. It considers the significance of dreams and their relationships to jokes, examining how both require an understanding of latent content in which context and individual differences play a large part. The book outlines a history of dream research and dream science and includes several original dream extracts for discussion. The book's chapters explore how we can interpret meaning in dreams, how dreams might be indicators of inner psychological and somatic states, whether dreams can be used in problem-solving and the relationship between dreams and aphasia, memory and waking consciousness. This groundbreaking book will be essential reading for researchers and students from psychological and psychoanalytic backgrounds who are interested in the analysis and science of dreams.