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Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Cognition & cognitive psychology
This book describes argumentative tools and strategies that can be
used to guide policy decisions under conditions of great
uncertainty. Contributing authors explore methods from
philosophical analysis and in particular argumentation analysis,
showing how it can be used to systematize discussions about policy
issues involving great uncertainty. The first part of the work
explores how to deal in a systematic way with decision-making when
there may be plural perspectives on the decision problem, along
with unknown consequences of what we do. Readers will see how
argumentation tools can be used for prioritizing among uncertain
dangers, for determining how decisions should be framed, for
choosing a suitable time frame for a decision, and for
systematically choosing among different decision options. Case
studies are presented in the second part of the book, showing
argumentation in practice in the areas of climate geoengineering,
water governance, synthetic biology, nuclear waste, and financial
markets. In one example, argumentation analysis is applied to
proposals to solve the climate problem with various technological
manipulations of the natural climate system, such as massive
dispersion of reflective aerosols into the stratosphere. Even after
a thorough investigation of such a proposal, doubt remains as to
whether all the potential risks have been identified. In such
discussions, conventional risk analysis does not have much to
contribute since it presupposes that the risks have been
identified, whereas the argumentative approach to uncertainty
management can be used to systematize discussions.
The main function of language is to convey meaning. Therefore,
argues Bernd Heine in these pages, the question of why language is
structured the way it is must first of all be answered with
reference to this function. Linguistic explanations offered in
terms of other exponents of language structure (for example,
syntax) are likely to highlight peripheral or epi-phenomenal-rather
than central-characteristics of language structure. Heine provides
a solid introductory treatment of the ways in which language
structure (that is, grammar) and language usage can be explained
with reference to the processes underlying human conceptualization
and communication. Exploring and area of linguistics that has
developed only recently and is rapidly expanding, Cognitive
Foundations of Grammar will appeal to students of linguistics,
psychology, and anthropology, especially those interested in
grammaticalization processess.
A collection of state-of-the-art presentations on visualization problems in mathematics, fundamental mathematical research in computer graphics, and software frameworks for the application of visualization to real-world problems. Contributions have been written by leading experts and peer-refereed by an international editorial team. The book grew out of the third international workshop ‘Visualization and Mathematics’, May 22-25, 2002 in Berlin. The variety of topics covered makes the book ideal for researcher, lecturers, and practitioners.
This scholarly and important volume has an impressive
interdisciplinary and international scope. We hear from
psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, legal scholars, and
economists. These refreshing chapters broaden our understanding of
human innovation, contributing to a developing sociocultural
approach to the study of creativity. These chapters directly
challenge the myth of solitary genius, by documenting the social
and cultural systems within which new ideas emerge.' - Keith
Sawyer, Washington University in St Louis, US'This penetrating
volume both summarizes compellingly what we know about creativity
and examines critically loose concepts of creativity, cases where
creativity does harm, and deceptive hype about creativity. This
volume neither romanticizes creativity nor reduces it to the
servant of economic and cultural development, offering instead a
differentiated and penetrating examination of the nature of
creativity and its diverse positive and sometimes negative roles.'
- David Perkins, Harvard Graduate School of Education, US This
comprehensive yet concise Handbook provides an overview of
innovative approaches to, and new perspectives on, the study of
creativity. In this timely work, creativity is not defined by an
ideal, rather it encompasses a range of theories, functions,
characteristics, processes, products and practices that are
associated with the generation of novel and useful outcomes suited
to particular social, cultural and political contexts. Chapters
present original research by international scholars from a wide
range of disciplines including history, sociology, psychology,
philosophy, cultural studies, education, economics and
interdisciplinary studies. Their research investigates creativity
in diverse fields including art, creative industries, aesthetics,
design, new media, music, arts education, science, engineering and
technology. Containing cutting-edge research the Handbook of
Research on Creativity will strongly appeal to academics and
advanced students in cultural studies, creative industries, art
history and theory, experimental music and performance studies,
digital and new media studies, engineering, economics, sociology,
psychology and social psychology, management studies, and education
particularly visual arts education and music education. Policy
makers, managers and entrepreneurs will also find much to interest
them in this fascinating work. Contributors: S. Banaji, T. Barker,
D. Berry, C. Bilton, N.C.M. Brown, P. Burnard, J. Chan, S. Cranmer,
A.J. Cropley, D.H. Cropley, C. De Cock, L. Denti, D.R. Eikhof, K.
Essl, C. Gibson, V. Giorgini, R. Gonsalves, S. Harnow Klausen, S.
Hemlin, j. jagodzinski, V. Johnson, J.C. Kaufman, N. Kawashima, R.
Korde, J. McGuigan, P. McIntyre, J. Mecca, P.-M. Menger, R.
Miettinen, D.P. Miller, M.D. Mumford, T. Oiyama, L. Olsson, P.B.
Paulus, C. Perrotta, A. Power, A. Quemin, A. Rehn, E. Scheer, E.
Schubert, D.K. Simonton, T. Smith, J. Steers, S. Taylor, K. Thomas,
E. Zimmerman
The book contains contributions by leading figures in philosophy of
mind and action, emotion theory, and phenomenology. As the focus of
the volume is truly innovative we expect the book to sell well to
both philosophers and scholars from neighboring fields such as
social and cognitive science. The predominant view in analytic
philosophy is that an ability for self-evaluation is constitutive
for agency and intentionality. Until now, the debate is limited in
two (possibly mutually related) ways: Firstly, self-evaluation is
usually discussed in individual terms, and, as such, not
sufficiently related to its social dimensions; secondly,
self-evaluation is viewed as a matter of belief and desire,
neglecting its affective and emotional aspects. The aim of the book
is to fill these research lacunas and to investigate the question
of how these two shortcomings of the received views are related.
This book is a collection of writings by active researchers in the
field of Artificial General Intelligence, on topics of central
importance in the field. Each chapter focuses on one theoretical
problem, proposes a novel solution, and is written in sufficiently
non-technical language to be understandable by advanced
undergraduates or scientists in allied fields. This book is the
very first collection in the field of Artificial General
Intelligence (AGI) focusing on theoretical, conceptual, and
philosophical issues in the creation of thinking machines. All the
authors are researchers actively developing AGI projects, thus
distinguishing the book from much of the theoretical cognitive
science and AI literature, which is generally quite divorced from
practical AGI system building issues. And the discussions are
presented in a way that makes the problems and proposed solutions
understandable to a wide readership of non-specialists, providing a
distinction from the journal and conference-proceedings literature.
The book will benefit AGI researchers and students by giving them a
solid orientation in the conceptual foundations of the field (which
is not currently available anywhere); and it would benefit
researchers in allied fields by giving them a high-level view of
the current state of thinking in the AGI field. Furthermore, by
addressing key topics in the field in a coherent way, the
collection as a whole may play an important role in guiding future
research in both theoretical and practical AGI, and in linking AGI
research with work in allied disciplines
This book consolidates and extends the authors' work on the
connection between iconicity and abductive inference. It emphasizes
a pragmatic, experimental and fallibilist view of knowledge without
sacrificing formal rigor. Within this context, the book focuses
particularly on scientific knowledge and its prevalent use of
mathematics. To find an answer to the question "What kind of
experimental activity is the scientific employment of mathematics?"
the book addresses the problems involved in formalizing abductive
cognition. For this, it implements the concept and method of
iconicity, modeling this theoretical framework mathematically
through category theory and topoi. Peirce's concept of iconic signs
is treated in depth, and it is shown how Peirce's diagrammatic
logical notation of Existential Graphs makes use of iconicity and
how important features of this iconicity are representable within
category theory. Alain Badiou's set-theoretical model of truth
procedures and his relational sheaf-based theory of phenomenology
are then integrated within the Peircean logical context. Finally,
the book opens the path towards a more naturalist interpretation of
the abductive models developed in Peirce and Badiou through an
analysis of several recent attempts to reformulate quantum
mechanics with categorical methods. Overall, the book offers a
comprehensive and rigorous overview of past approaches to iconic
semiotics and abduction, and it encompasses new extensions of these
methods towards an innovative naturalist interpretation of
abductive reasoning.
Recent developments in the field of timing and time perception have
not simply multiplied the number of relevant questions regarding
psychological time, but they have also helped to provide more
answers and open many fascinating avenues of thought. "Psychology
of Time" brings together cutting-edge presentations of many of the
main ideas, findings, hypotheses and theories that experimental
psychology provides to the field of timing and psychological time.
The contributors, selected for their ability to address various
specific questions, were asked to discuss what is known in their
field and what avenues remain to be explored. As a result, this
book should point readers in the right direction and guide them to
reflect on the various and most fundamental issues on psychological
time. It offers a balanced integration of old and sometimes
neglected findings and more recent empirical advances, all
presented within the scope of the critical sub-fields of
psychological time in experimental psychology.
Philosophy and Neuroscience: A Ruthlessly Reductive Account is the
first book-length treatment of philosophical issues and
implications in current cellular and molecular neuroscience. John
Bickle articulates a philosophical justification for investigating
"lower level" neuroscientific research and describes a set of
experimental details that have recently yielded the reduction of
memory consolidation to the molecular mechanisms of long-term
potentiation (LTP). These empirical details suggest answers to
recent philosophical disputes over the nature and possibility of
psycho-neural scientific reduction, including the multiple
realization challenge, mental causation, and relations across
explanatory levels. Bickle concludes by examining recent work in
cellular neuroscience pertaining to features of conscious
experience, including the cellular basis of working memory, the
effects of explicit selective attention on single-cell activity in
visual cortex, and sensory experiences induced by cortical
microstimulation. This final chapter poses a challenge both to
"mysterians," who insist that empirical science cannot address
particular features of consciousness, and to cognitivists, who
insist that addressing consciousness scientifically will require
experimental and theoretical resources that go beyond those used in
neuroscience's cellular and molecular core.
Bickle develops all scientific and philosophical concepts in
detail, making this book accessible to specialists, graduate
students, and advanced undergraduates in either philosophy or the
empirical brain and cognitive sciences. Philosophers of science,
mind, neuroscience, and psychology, neuroscientists working at a
variety of levels, and cognitive scientists-or anyone interested in
interactions between contemporary philosophy and science and the
nature of reduction-in-practice that informs current mainstream
neuroscience-will find discussions pertinent to their concerns.
What effect does creativity have on individuals, groups and
societies, and on the fundamental values on which they base their
actions and institutions? What constitutes good and evil, right and
wrong, and how does creativity disrupt these beliefs? 'The Ethics
of Creativity' brings together an impressive collaboration of
thinkers from several countries and disciplines to illuminate the
thorny issues that arise when novel ideas and products brought
forth by creativity collide with the rules and norms of what we
believe to be right or good.
The main topic of the book is a reconstruction of the evolution of
nervous systems and brains as well as of mental-cognitive
abilities, in short "intelligence" from simplest organisms to
humans. It investigates to which extent the two are correlated. One
central topic is the alleged uniqueness of the human brain and
human intelligence and mind. It is discussed which neural features
make certain animals and humans intelligent and creative: Is it
absolute or relative brain size or the size of "intelligence
centers" inside the brains, the number of nerve cells inside the
brain in total or in such "intelligence centers" decisive for the
degree of intelligence, of mind and eventually consciousness? And
which are the driving forces behind these processes? Finally, it is
asked what all this means for the classical problem of mind-brain
relationship and for a naturalistic theory of mind.
Young's thesis concludes that the higher activities of humans
can be illuminated through an examination of the actual brain
functions that produce them, and that these processes can be
closely compared to those of a calculating machine.
More than 40 years ago, E. Paul Torrance undertook to study
creativity in students and study whether it would predict their
creative achievements as adults. He and his colleagues wanted to
determine what other factors influence, predict, encourage or
sustain their creativity over time. There has never been a
longitudinal study of creativity of this magnitude. Its findings
will be useful to, and have implications for, several audiences:
parents, teachers, counselors--especially vocational
counselors--university and college instructors, and educational
administrators. The Manifesto for Children was developed on the
basis of the responses of 215 young adults who had attended two
elementary schools in Minnesota from 1958 to 1964. They had been
administered some creativity tests each year, and they were
followed up in 1980. On the basis of their questionnaire responses,
the Manifesto was developed to describe their ongoing struggle to
maintain their creativity and use their strengths to create their
careers and to provide guidance to children. In 1998, they were
followed up to assess their creative achievements and to validate
the Manifesto. Some of the participants had attained eminence,
while others had attained only mediocre careers.
That time is both a dimension of behaviour and a ubiquitous
controlling variable in the lives of all living things has been
well recognized for many years.
The last decade has seen a burgeoning of interest in the
quantitative analysis of timing behaviour, and progress during the
last five or six years has been particularly impressive, with the
publication of several major new theoretical contributions.
There has also been considerable progress in behavioural
methodology during the past decade. In the area of reinforcement
schedules, for example, the venerable interresponse time schedule,
fixed interval peak procedure and interval bisection task have been
complemented by a 'second generation' of incisive instruments for
analyzing timing behaviour.
Another area of recent development is the analysis of the
neurobiological substrate of timing behaviour. Several research
groups are currently studying the involvement of various central
neurotransmitter systems in the timing behaviour, and the ability
of centrally acting drugs and discrete brain lesions to alter
timing processes.
Yet another recent development in timing research is the growing
dialogue between two fields that have grown up separately,
although, superficially at least, they seem to have much in common:
the experimental analysis of 'interval timing', traditionally the
province of experimental psychology, and behavioural chronobiology.
The last few years have seen a growing interest in the comparative
properties of the internal 'clocks' that regulate biobehavioural
rhythms with time bases in the circadian range or longer, and those
that are entailed in timing of intervals in the range of seconds or
minutes.
All these areas of research, and others, are represented in the
chapters that make up this volume. This book will help to promote
further interactions among researchers who hail from disparate
disciplines, but who share a common interest in the temporal
properties of behaviour."
This diverse set of essays traces Epstein's experimental and
theoretical work over a 15 year period. Four of the essays were
coauthored by the eminent psychologist B.F. Skinner. The book
demonstrates how the scientific study of behavior can increase our
understanding and effectiveness in many domains: creativity and
innovation, parenting, artificial intelligence, self-improvement,
and even world peace. Reviewers have praised the volume as an
impressive effort by one of America's most notable
psychologists.
Epstein's goals in writing this book were (a) to present some
relatively interesting papers that can stand alone and (b) to
organize and edit them so that sections have some integrity and so
that the overall volume paints a fairly consistent picture of his
evolving views on cognition, creativity, and behavior. Parts I and
II focus on generativity research and theory and on some Columban
(pigeon) simulations of human behavior, and Part III includes some
related laboratory studies. Part IV is concerned with efforts to
create a comprehensive science of behavior, and Part V includes
essays about Skinner, one of the principle architects of
behaviorism. Part VI includes forays into artifical intelligence,
child rearing, categorization research, and other topics, and Part
VII takes the volume to some uncertain reflections on growing
older, and to a modest proposal for a day of world peace.
This book aims to highlight the vigour, diversity and insight of
the various cognitive science perspectives on personality and
emotion. It aims also to emphasise the rigorous scientific basis
for research to be found in the integration of experimental
psychology with neuroscience, connectionism and the new
evolutionary psychology. The contributors to this book provide a
wide-ranging survey of leading-edge research topics. It is divided
into three parts, on general frameworks for cognitive science, on
perspectives from emotion research, and on perspectives from
studies of personality traits.
This wide-ranging survey of the state of the art in clinical
pragmatics includes an examination of pragmatic disorders in
previously neglected populations such as juvenile offenders,
children and adults with emotional and behavioural disorders, and
adults with non-Alzheimer dementias. This book makes a significant
contribution to the discussion of pragmatic disorders by exploring
topics which have a fast-rising profile in the field. These topics
include disorders in which there are both pragmatic and cognitive
components, and studies of the complex impacts of pragmatic
disorders such as mental health problems, educational disadvantage
and social exclusion. This book also presents a critical evaluation
of our current state of knowledge of pragmatic disorders. The
author focuses on the lack of integration between theoretical and
clinical branches of pragmatics and argues that the work of
clinicians is all too often inadequately informed by theoretical
frameworks. She attempts to bridge these gaps by pursuing a closer
alliance of clinical and theoretical branches of pragmatics. It is
claimed that this alliance represents the most promising route for
the future development of the field. At once a yardstick measuring
progress thus far in clinical pragmatics, and also a roadmap for
future research development, this single-author volume defines
where we have reached in the field, as well as where we have to go
next.
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