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Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Cognition & cognitive psychology
The four authors of this book recognize that no one on the common human journey to the 21st century can pick the best route without consulting a map--that is to say, an interconnected set of understandings about what in a given situation is important, what demands action and attention, and what does not. The problem, they contend, is that the picture of the world we each carry in our mind may not be a true mapping of the reality that surrounds us. This picture, the cognitive map, could always be sharper. The authors prompt us to become more conscious of our own cognitive map, and explain how it can be adapted to the exigencies of our changing world so that it can be better-used to guide our steps toward the 21st century. We all carry a picture of the world in our mind, but is that map an assuredly true layout of the reality that surrounds us? If not, how can we use it to guide our steps toward the 21st century and beyond without creating shocks and surprises that impair our well-being and threaten our survival? We shall not survive, either as individuals or as a species, if our maps fail to reflect accurately the nature of the world that surrounds us. The authors attempt, through reviewing the origins, development, and current changes in individual and social cognitive maps, to prompt readers to become more conscious of their own map, and hence be better able to adapt it to the exigencies of our changing world. The book ends with a vision of the global bio- and socio-sphere: the unified cognitive map which is emerging in laboratories and workshops of the new physics, the new biology, the new ecology, and the avant-garde branches of the social and historical sciences. But "Changing Visions" recognizes that these sciences alone cannot promote the formation of faithful maps of lived reality, and that religion, common sense, and even art can fill in and sharpen one's world-picture.
When one is immersed in the fascinating world of neuroscience
findings, the brain might start to seem like a collection of
"modules," each specializes in a specific mental feat. But just
like in other domains of Nature, it is possible that much of the
brain and mind's operation can be explained with a small set of
universal principles. Given exciting recent developments in theory,
empirical findings and computational studies, it seems that the
generation of predictions might be one strong candidate for such a
universal principle. This is the focus of Predictions in the brain.
From the predictions required when a rat navigates a maze to
food-caching in scrub-jays; from predictions essential in
decision-making to social interactions; from predictions in the
retina to the prefrontal cortex; and from predictions in early
development to foresight in non-humans.
This book highlights the state of the field in the new, provocative line of research into the cognition and behavior of the domestic dog. Eleven chapters from leading researchers describe innovative methods from comparative psychology, ethology and behavioral biology, which are combined to create a more comprehensive picture of the behavior of Canis familiaris than ever before. Each of the book's three parts highlights one of the perspectives relevant to providing a full understanding of the dog. Part I covers the perceptual abilities of dogs and the effect of interbreeding. Part II includes observational and experimental results from studies of social cognition - such as learning and social referencing - and physical cognition in canids, while Part III summarizes the work in the field to date, reviewing various conceptual and methodological approaches and testing anthropomorphisms with regard to dogs. The final chapter discusses the practical application of behavioral and cognitive results to promote animal welfare. This volume reflects a modern shift in science toward considering and studying domestic dogs for their own sake, not only insofar as they reflect back on human beings.
This book examines the contribution of mass-produced original painting to the psychology of art, psychological aesthetics, and art criticism. Mass-produced paintings are an inexpensive, accessible, ubiquitous, and hand-painted popular art by anonymous artists or teams. Sold in an array of outlets, ranging from flea markets to shopping centers to cruise ships, they decorate hotels, offices, and homes. Addressed is their neglect in current scholarship in favor of a nearly exclusive investigation of the high arts and their audiences, as represented by museum paintings. Lindauer contextualizes his analysis by tracing the historical origins of this type of painting, popular art in general, and their evolutionary trajectory, exploring issues including: the impact of art and artists' creativity on viewers; the overemphasis on originality and name recognition; what is art and who can be called an artist; and the extension of aesthetics to include an everyday kind. The book concludes with directions for future research in the popular and traditional arts, the psychology of art, and, more broadly, the ties that transcend barriers between science, the arts, and the humanities. It will appeal to students and scholars from across the fields of psychology, sociology, philosophy, art history, and cultural, media and communication studies.
The Two Selves takes the position that the self is not a "thing" easily reduced to an object of scientific analysis. Rather, the self consists in a multiplicity of aspects, some of which have a neuro-cognitive basis (and thus are amenable to scientific inquiry) while other aspects are best construed as first-person subjectivity, lacking material instantiation. As a consequence of its potential immateriality, the subjective aspect of self cannot be taken as an object and therefore is not easily amenable to treatment by current scientific methods. Klein argues that to fully appreciate the self, its two aspects must be acknowledged, since it is only in virtue of their interaction that the self of everyday experience becomes a phenomenological reality. However, given their different metaphysical commitments (i.e., material and immaterial aspects of reality), a number of issues must be addressed. These include, but are not limited to, the possibility of interaction between metaphysically distinct aspects of reality, questions of causal closure under the physical, the principle of energy conservation, and more. After addressing these concerns, Klein presents evidence based on self-reports from case studies of individuals who suffer from a chronic or temporary loss of their sense of personal ownership of their mental states. Drawing on this evidence, he argues that personal ownership may be the factor that closes the metaphysical gap between the material and immaterial selves, linking these two disparate aspects of reality, thereby enabling us to experience a unified sense of self despite its underlying multiplicity.
The representation of abstract data and ideas can be a difficult and tedious task to handle when learning new concepts; however, the advances of emerging technology have allowed for new methods of representing such conceptual data. The Handbook of Research on Maximizing Cognitive Learning through Knowledge Visualization focuses on the use of visualization technologies to assist in the process of better comprehending scientific concepts, data, and applications. Highlighting the utilization of visual power and the roles of sensory perceptions, computer graphics, animation, and digital storytelling, this book is an essential reference source for instructors, engineers, programmers, and software developers interested in the exchange of information through the visual depiction of data. The many academic areas covered in this publication include, but are not limited to: Electronic Media Mathematical Thinking Multisensory Applications Sensory Extension
There is growing evidence from the science of human behavior that our everyday, folk understanding of ourselves as conscious, rational, responsible agents may be radically mistaken. The science, some argue, recommends a view of conscious agency as merely epiphenomenal: an impotent accompaniment to the whirring unconscious machinery (the inner zombie) that prepares, decides and causes our behavior. The new essays in this volume display and explore this radical claim, revisiting the folk concept of the responsible agent after abandoning the image of a central executive, and "decomposing" the notion of the conscious will into multiple interlocking aspects and functions. Part 1 of this volume provides an overview of the scientific research that has been taken to support "the zombie challenge." In part 2, contributors explore the phenomenology of agency and what it is like to be the author of one's own actions. Part 3 then explores different strategies for using the science and phenomenology of human agency to respond to the zombie challenge. Questions explored include: what distinguishes automatic behavior and voluntary action? What, if anything, does consciousness contribute to the voluntary control of behavior? What does the science of human behavior really tell us about the nature of self-control?
This volume examines two main questions: What is linguistics about? And how do the results of linguistic theorizing bear on inquiry in related fields, particularly in psychology? The book develops views that depart from received wisdom in both philosophy and linguistics. With regard to questions concerning the subject matter, methodological goals, and ontological commitments of formal syntactic theorizing, it argues that the cognitive conception adopted by most linguists and philosophers is not the only acceptable view, and that the arguments in its favor collapse under scrutiny. Nevertheless, as the book shows, a detailed examination of the relevant psycholinguistic results and computational models does support the claim that the theoretical constructs of formal linguistics are operative in real-time language comprehension. These constructs fall into two categories: mental phrase markers and mental syntactic principles. Both are indeed psychologically real, but in importantly different ways. The book concludes by drawing attention to the importance of the often-elided distinction between personal and subpersonal psychological states and processes, as well as the logical character of dispositional and occurrent states. By clarifying these concepts, particularly by reference to up-and-running psychological and computational models, the book yields a richer and more satisfying perspective on the psychological reality of language.
This book traces the evolutionary trajectory of language and teaching from the earliest periods of human evolution to the present day. The author argues that teaching is unique to humans and our ancestors, and that the evolution of teaching, language, and culture are the inextricably linked results of gene-culture coevolutionary processes. Drawing on related fields including archaeology, palaeontology, cultural anthropology, evolutionary psychology and linguistics, he makes the case that the need for joint attention and shared goals in complex adaptive strategies is the underlying driver for the evolution of language-like communication. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of these disciplines, as well as lay readers with an interest in human origins.
In this book the editors have gathered a number of contributions by persons who have been working on problems of Cognitive Technology (CT). The present collection initiates explorations of the human mind via the technologies the mind produces. These explorations take as their point of departure the question What happens when humans produce new technologies? Two interdependent perspectives from which such a production can be approached are adopted: - How and why constructs that have their origins in human mental life are embodied in physical environments when people fabricate their habitat, even to the point of those constructs becoming that very habitat - How and why these fabricated habitats affect, and feed back into, human mental life. The aim of the CT research programme is to determine, in general, which technologies, and in particular, which interactive computer-based technologies, are humane with respect to the cognitive development and evolutionary adaptation of their end users. But what does it really mean to be humane in a technological world? To shed light on this central issue other pertinent questions are raised, e.g. - Why are human minds externalised, i.e., what purpose does the process of externalisation serve? - What can we learn about the human mind by studying how it externalises itself? - How does the use of externalised mental constructs (the objects we call 'tools') change people fundamentally? - To what extent does human interaction with technology serve as an amplification of human cognition, and to what extent does it lead to a atrophy of the human mind? The book calls for a reflection on what a tool is. Strong parallels between CT andenvironmentalism are drawn: both are seen as trends having originated in our need to understand how we manipulate, by means of the tools we have created, our natural habitat consisting of, on the one hand, the cognitive environment which generates thought and determines action, and on the other hand, the physical environment in which thought and action are realised. Both trends endeavour to protect the human habitat from the unwanted or uncontrolled impact of technology, and are ultimately concerned with the ethics and aesthetics of tool design and tool use. Among the topics selected by the contributors to the book, the following themes emerge (the list is not exhaustive): using technology to empower the cognitively impaired; the ethics versus aesthetics of technology; the externalisation of emotive and affective life and its special dialectic ('mirror') effects; creativity enhancement: cognitive space, problem tractability; externalisation of sensory life and mental imagery; the engineering and modelling aspects of externalised life; externalised communication channels and inner dialogue; externalised learning protocols; relevance analysis as a theoretical framework for cognitive technology.
At the heart of this book is one of the most ancient and profound question philosophers, spiritual seekers, and curious individuals have pondered since the beginning of history: "Who am I?". Advances in modern science, and access to Zen tradition, have provided us with broader and richer understanding of this topic. Over the chapters the author, a psychologist and Zen master, investigates how the brain fosters a sense of an independent self, situating his research in the contexts of neuroscience, ecology, evolution, psychology, and of the principles Eastern wisdom traditions. The book explores a broad range of insights from brain science, evolutionary biology, astronomy, clinical psychology, thoughts and emotions, mental health disorders, and Zen Buddhism. This book will appeal to psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counsellors, and researchers of Eastern traditions. General readers interested in the functioning of the brain will discover practical ways to integrate fascinating new findings on an age-old question into their everyday life.
This collection shifts the focus from collective memory to individual memory, by incorporating new performative approaches to identity, place and becoming. Drawing upon cultural geography, the book provides an accessible framework to approach key aspects of memory, remembering, archives, commemoration and forgetting in modern societies.
This book presents the proceedings of the 8th International Ergonomics Conference (ERGONOMICS), held in Zagreb, Croatia on December 2-5, 2020. By highlighting the latest theories and models, as well as cutting-edge technologies and applications, and by combining findings from a range of disciplines including engineering, design, robotics, healthcare, management, computer science, human biology and behavioral science, it provides researchers and practitioners alike with a comprehensive, timely guide on human factors and ergonomics. It also offers an excellent source of innovative ideas to stimulate future discussions and developments aimed at applying knowledge and techniques to optimize system performance, while at the same time promoting the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals. The proceedings include papers from researchers and practitioners, scientists and physicians, institutional leaders, managers and policy makers that contribute to constructing the Human Factors and Ergonomics approach across a variety of methodologies, domains and productive sectors.
This book reflects on the significant and highly original scientific contributions of Hans Primas. A professor of chemistry at ETH Zurich from 1962 to 1995, Primas continued his research activities until his death in 2014. Over these 50 years and more, he worked on the foundations of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, contributed to a number of significant issues in theoretical chemistry, helped to clarify central topics in quantum theory and the philosophy of physics, suggested innovative ways of addressing interlevel relations in the philosophy of science, and introduced cutting-edge approaches in the flourishing young field of scientific studies of consciousness. His work in these areas of research and its continuing impact is described by noted experts, colleagues, and collaborators of Primas. All authors contextualize their contributions to facilitate the mutual dialog between these fields.
This book explores heutagogy (self-determined learning) - a new approach to teaching and learning in higher education - and proposes a paradigm shift in teaching, learning, and the educational enterprise and ecosystem. The first part of the book presents the philosophical, psychological and sociological foundations of heutagogy, and describes lessons learned from prior experiences of its implementation. The second part presents a collaborative self-study of five heutagogy courses in higher education. The third discusses how the academic community can enhance the paradigm change, and compares heutagogy to similar academic approaches. The concluding chapter of the book explores the question of "what next"? and suggests some possible elaborations of heutagogy. "At the beginning, it was very difficult for me to appreciate the course's mode of learning. All my life I had learned in a traditional manner. Occasionally I felt that I was being thrown into deep water without a lifeguard. ... But as the course progressed, I succeeded in letting go of my deeply rooted habits and discovered a new learning approach, through which I found in myself a new learner..." (Student's reflection) "...this book suggests a novel approach to learning and education and will become a widely read one." Dr. Lisa Marie Blaschke, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
This book proposes a groundbreaking approach to the study of personal creativity, linking this to the analysis of the chakras, or centers of energy, of the subtle system suggested by the Eastern philosophy called Sahaja Yoga. It argues that creativity is to be re-learnt through a process of self-review, a self-examination which is underpinned by the author's concept of the outsider to the self, a pervasive condition characterized by a tendency to be connected to the outer world at the expense of the inner world. The author analyses creativity from three different but interrelated aspects -the individual, society and education - and maps out a route that may take the individuals into an understanding of blockages in their creative process. It also examines aspects that have contributed to sustain the condition of the outsider to the self, hindering people's creativity. It argues that the traditional education system is both constricting and releasing factor of creativity. Finally, through the use of auto-ethnography, the author reveals a process of blocked and unblocked creativity. This book is a key read for all those interested in psychology, sociology, education and cultural studies.
A new text for positive psychology, this book places the self as the decision maker at the center of the motivational process. "Personal Motivation" represents a new approach for student and scholar to consider motivation theory, self theory, and decision theory. It supports current thinking, which sees the self as possessing power for growth and change. Challenging traditional motivation and personality theories, it puts personality within the context of a new motivation model. It also challenges current thinking by distinguishing between choosing and deciding, and by describing the various characteristics of decision making as uniquely human. The self is reciprocally influenced by three motivational systems and is formed by the motivational process itself. A triarchic theory of motivation is proposed consisting of interdependent systems: formative, operational, and thematic. This book places the study of psychology back in the arena of life by developing a model of motivation and decision making immediately relevant to personal experience.
This present book explores recent advances in modeling discourse processes, in particular, new approaches aimed at understanding pathological language behavior specific to schizophrenia. The contributors examine the modeling paradigm of formal semantics, which falls within the scope of both linguistics and logic while providing overlapping links with other fields such as philosophy of language and cognitive psychology. This book is based on results presented during the series of workshops on (In)Coherence and Discourse organized by SLAM (Schizophrenia and Language: Analysis and Modeling), a project developed to systemize the study of pathological language processing by taking an overarching interdisciplinary approach combining psychology, linguistics, computer science and philosophy. The principle focus is on conversations produced by people with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. The contributions come from young and experienced researchers, and invited speakers. The book appeals to likeminded students and researchers.
"Biological Research on Addiction" examines the neurobiological mechanisms of drug use and drug addiction, describing how the brain responds to addictive substances as well as how it is affected by drugs of abuse. The book's four main sections examine behavioral and molecular biology; neuroscience; genetics; and neuroimaging and neuropharmacology as they relate to the addictive process. This volume is especially effective in presenting current knowledge on the key neurobiological and genetic elements in an individual s susceptibility to drug dependence, as well as the processes by which some individuals proceed from casual drug use to drug dependence. "Biological Research on Addiction" is one of three volumes
comprising the 2,500-page series, "Comprehensive Addictive
Behaviors and Disorders." This series provides the most complete
collection of current knowledge on addictive behaviors and
disorders to date. In short, it is the definitive reference work on
addictions.
"Principles of Addiction "provides a solid understanding of the definitional and diagnostic differences between use, abuse, and disorder. It describes in great detail the characteristics of these syndromes and various etiological models. The book's three main sections examine the nature of addiction, including epidemiology, symptoms, and course; alcohol and drug use among adolescents and college students; and detailed descriptions of a wide variety of addictive behaviors and disorders, encompassing not only drugs and alcohol, but caffeine, food, gambling, exercise, sex, work, social networking, and many other areas. This volume is especially important in providing a basic introduction to the field as well as an in-depth review of our current understanding of the nature and process of addictive behaviors. "Principles of Addiction" is one of three volumes comprising the
2,500-page series, "Comprehensive Addictive Behaviors and
Disorders." This series provides the most complete collection of
current knowledge on addictive behaviors and disorders to date. In
short, it is the definitive reference work on addictions.
This book examines how early modern and recently emerging theories of consciousness and cognitive science help us to re-imagine our engagements with Shakespeare in text and performance. Papers investigate the connections between states of mind, emotion, and sensation that constitute consciousness and the conditions of reception in our past and present encounters with Shakespeare's works. Acknowledging previous work on inwardness, self, self-consciousness, embodied self, emotions, character, and the mind-body problem, contributors consider consciousness from multiple new perspectives-as a phenomenological process, a materially determined product, a neurologically mediated reaction, or an internally synthesized identity-approaching Shakespeare's plays and associated cultural practices in surprising and innovative ways. |
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