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Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Cognition & cognitive psychology
The idea that our memories, in some sense, make us who we are, is a common one-and not at all implausible. After all, what could make us who we are if not the things we have experienced, thought, felt and desired on these idiosyncratic pathways through space and time that we call lives? And how can we retain these experiences, thoughts, feelings and desires if not through memory? On the other hand, most of what we have experienced has been forgotten. And there is now a considerable body of evidence that suggests that, even when we think we remember, our memories are likely to be distorted, sometimes beyond recognition. Imagine writing your autobiography, only to find that that most of it has been redacted, and much of the rest substantially rewritten. What would hold this book together? What would make it the unified and coherent account of a life? The answer, Mark Rowlands argues, lies, partially hidden, in a largely unrecognized form of memory-Rilkean memory. A Rilkean memory is produced when the content of a memory is lost but the act of remembering endures, in a new, mutated, form: a mood, a feeling, or a behavioral disposition. Rilkean memories play a significant role in holding the self together in the face of the poverty and inaccuracy of the contents of memory. But Rilkean memories are important not just because of what they are, but also because of what they were before they became such memories. Acts of remembering sculpt the contents of memories out of the slabs of remembered episodes. Our acts of remembering ensure that we are in the content of each of our memories-present in the way a sculptor is present in his creation-even when this content is lamentably sparse and endemically inaccurate.
The conscious mind defines human existence. Many consider the brain as a computer, and they attempt to explain consciousness as emerging at a critical, but unspecified, threshold level of complex computation among neurons. The brain-as-computer model, however, fails to account for phenomenal experience and portrays consciousness as an impotent, after-the-fact epiphenomenon lacking causal power. And the brain-as-computer concept precludes even the remotest possibility of spirituality. As described throughout the history of humankind, seemingly spiritual mental phenomena including transcendent states, near-death and out-of-body experiences, and past-life memories have in recent years been well documented and treated scientifically. In addition, the brain-as-computer approach has been challenged by advocates of quantum brain biology, who are possibly able to explain, scientifically, nonlocal, seemingly spiritual mental states. Exploring Frontiers of the Mind-Brain Relationship argues against the purely physical analysis of consciousness and for a balanced psychobiological approach. This thought-provoking volume bridges philosophy of mind with science of mind to look empirically at transcendent phenomena, such as mystic states, near-death experiences and past-life memories, that have confounded scientists for decades. Representing disciplines ranging from philosophy and history to neuroimaging and physics, and boasting a panel of expert scientists and physicians, including Andrew Newberg, Peter Fenwick, Stuart Hameroff, Mario Beauregard, Deepak Chopra, and Chris Clarke the book rigorously follows several lines of inquiry into mind-brain controversies, challenging readers to form their own conclusions-or reconsider previous ones. Key coverage includes: Objections to reductionistic materialism from the philosophical and the scientific tradition. Phenomena and the mind-brain problem. The neurobiological correlates of meditation and mindfulness. The quantum soul, a view from physics. Clinical implications of end-of-life experiences. Mediumistic experience and the mind-brain relationship. Exploring Frontiers of the Mind-Brain Relationship is essential reading for researchers and clinicians across many disciplines, including cognitive psychology, personality and social psychology, the neurosciences, neuropsychiatry, palliative care, philosophy, and quantum physics. "This book ... brings together some precious observations about the fundamental mystery of the nature of consciousness ... It raises many questions that serve to invite each of us to be more aware of the uncertainty of our preconceptions about consciousness ... This book on the frontiers of mind-body relationships is a scholarly embodiment of creative and open-minded science." C. Robert Cloninger, MD Wallace Renard Professor of Psychiatry, Genetics, and Psychology, Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis MO
Since Darwin, Biology has been framed on the idea of evolution by natural selection, which has profoundly influenced the scientific and philosophical comprehension of biological phenomena and of our place in Nature. This book argues that contemporary biology should progress towards and revolve around an even more fundamental idea, that of autonomy. Biological autonomy describes living organisms as organised systems, which are able to self-produce and self-maintain as integrated entities, to establish their own goals and norms, and to promote the conditions of their existence through their interactions with the environment. Topics covered in this book include organisation and biological emergence, organisms, agency, levels of autonomy, cognition, and a look at the historical dimension of autonomy. The current development of scientific investigations on autonomous organisation calls for a theoretical and philosophical analysis. This can contribute to the elaboration of an original understanding of life - including human life - on Earth, opening new perspectives and enabling fecund interactions with other existing theories and approaches. This book takes up the challenge.
This book contributes to the developing dialogue between cognitive science and social sciences. It focuses on a central issue in both fields, i.e. the nature and the limitations of the rationality of beliefs and action. The development of cognitive science is one of the most important and fascinating intellectual advances of recent decades, and social scientists are paying increasing attention to the findings of this new branch of science that forces us to consider many classical issues related to epistemology and philosophy of action in a new light. Analysis of the concept of rationality is a leitmotiv in the history of the social sciences and has involved endless disputes. Since it is difficult to give a precise definition of this concept, and there is a lack of agreement about its meaning, it is possible to say that there is a 'mystery of rationality'. What is it to be rational? Is rationality merely instrumental or does it also involve the endorsement of values, i.e. the choice of goals? Should we consider rationality to be a normative principle or a descriptive one? Can rationality be only Cartesian or can it also be argumentative? Is rationality a conscious skill or a partly tacit one? This book, which has been written by an outstanding collection of authors, including both philosophers and social scientists, tries to make a useful contribution to the debates on these problems and shed some light on the mystery of rationality. The target audience primarily comprises researchers and experts in the field.
Deafness is a "low incidence" disability and, therefore not studied or understood in the same way as other disabilities. Historically, research in deafness has been conducted by a small group of individuals who communicated mainly with each other. That is not to say that we did not sometimes publish in the mainstream or attempt to communicate outside our small circle. Nonetheless, most research appeared in deafness-related publications where it was not likely to be seen or valued by psychologists. Those researchers did not understand what they could leam from the study of deaf people or how their knowledge of individual differ ences and abilites applied to that population. In Deafness, Deprivation, ami /Q, Jeffrey Braden pulls together two often unrelated fields: studies of intelligence and deafness. The book includes the largest single compilation of data describing deaf people's intelligence that exists. Here is a careful, well-documented, and very thorough analysis of virtually ali the research available. Those who have studied human intelligence have long noted that deafness provides a "natural experiment." This book makes evident two contrary results: on the one hand, some research points to the impact deafness has on intelligence; on the other hand, the research supports the fact that deafness has very little, if any, impact on nonverbal measures of intelligence."
What distinguishes good explanations in neuroscience from bad? Carl F. Craver constructs and defends standards for evaluating neuroscientific explanations that are grounded in a systematic view of what neuroscientific explanations are: descriptions of multilevel mechanisms. In developing this approach, he draws on a wide range of examples in the history of neuroscience (e.g. Hodgkin and Huxleys model of the action potential and LTP as a putative explanation for different kinds of memory), as well as recent philosophical work on the nature of scientific explanation. Readers in neuroscience, psychology, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of science will find much to provoke and stimulate them in this book.
This book studies the early developmental and family history of children who come to perform at the gifted IQ level during middle childhood. The authors detail their original research-the first systematic, longitudinal study of such children-and offer a theory to explain how children become intellectually gifted. Chapters examine the theory's implications for early identification and assessment as well as for parenting.
The three volumes comprising Nature, Cognition and System present a representative collection of reports on current research in the major topics of system theory and cybernetics as applied to the two main classes of systems, viz. the natural and cognitive systems. The contributions emphatically present alternative reflections and creative syntheses of such time-honoured and controversial issues of the nature-cognition-system connection' which in principle and in fact form the very subject-matter of the current sciences of complexity'. In the present volume Niels Bohr's seminal idea of complementarity' has been chosen as the hinge around which these discussions, critical appraisals, alternative views, and applications, both orthodox and non-orthodox have taken place. This pivotal notion seems to exert an appeal not only upon the strictly technical or disciplinary aspects of quantum physics, but also upon the wider epistemological understanding, which is based on the role and nature of language for measurement processes, that Bohr himself seemed to apply to subjects other than physics, and which later might turn out to be of primary importance for an explanation in genuine system-scientific context. Volume II is organized into three parts. The first part contains contributions which have been written quite in the true spirit of the Copenhagen Interpretation. The second one contains those with a quite pronounced critical mood towards the orthodox theory, including the discussions among others of the problematic issues of physics and cognitive science. The third part is dedicated to the discussions of this complex nature-cognition-system connection' from the non-orthodox point of view. Thescope and depth of the contributions reveal an underlying coherence, despite the divergence in the approaches to the study of the subject, thus making this volume a useful source for researchers, practitioners, teachers and students of the variety of disciplines making up modern system theory, cybernetics and cognitive science.
What function is played by concepts related to meaning and mereology in the cognitive sciences? How can one outline adequate simulation models for the continuous emergence of new categorization forms characterizing cognitive processes? To what extent is it possible to define new measures of meaningful complexity? How is it possible to describe synergetically the symbolic dynamics inherent in cognitive processes? What types of formal models should we use to describe the evolutionary aspects of cognition? These, the most difficult questions in cognitive science, are discussed here in 15 original essays written by distinguished scholars drawn from a variety of disciplines. The first part presents an up-to-date account of some current trends in the functional modeling of cognitive activities, the synergetic models in particular are widely discussed. The second part focuses on recent advances in complexity theory, self-organizing networks, the theory of self- reference, and the theory of self organization. The third part focuses on some methods of formal analysis that can be used to delineate consistent simulation models of cognitive activities at the perceptual, linguistic and computational levels. The volume also highlights traditional philosophical concerns about realism, the cognitivism-connectionism debate, and the role of holistic assumptions. Readership: psychologists, cognitive scientists, theorists working in complexity theory, self-organization theory, synergetics, semantics of natural language and mereology, philosophers, epistemologists.
Many metaphors go beyond pionting to the existing similarities between two objects -- they create the similarities. Such metaphors, which have been relegated to the back seat in most of the cognitive science research, are the focus of attention in this study, which addresses the creation of similarity within an elaborately laid out interactive framework of cognition. Starting from the constructivist views of Nelson Goodman and Jean Piaget, this framework resolves an apparent paradox in interactionism: how can reality not have a mind-independent ontology and structure, but still manage to constrain the possible worlds a cognitive agent can create in it? A comprehensive theory of metaphor is proposed in this framework that explains how metaphors can create similarities, and why such metaphors are an invaluable asset to cognition. The framework is then applied to related issues of analogical reasoning, induction, and computational modeling of creative metaphors.
Considerable evidence indicates that religion is a motivational force in the lives of most of the world's population, and recent social and political events have placed religion center stage. Motivation is considered an essential component of any adequate answer to the question, 'Why religion?'. That question concerned early psychologists, such as Freud and James, but was relatively neglected with the ascendancy of behaviorism. It has since regained momentum as an important area of research and scholarship. In spite of the fact that motivational principles are implicit in many analytical treatments of religion, and that some articles and book chapters discuss motivation and religion, this literature is widely dispersed and confined primarily to Judeo-Christian world views. This volume of the "Advances" series presents a systematic approach to the topic, as viewed through the lens of such contemporary theories of motivation as expectancy-value, self-determination, and achievement goal theory. An international group of scholars offers a comprehensive view of how such theories help to understand religiosity and its impact on human experiences and behavior. In addition, authors consider the implications of religious experiences and behavior for motivation theory. Separately, these contributions provide unique perspectives. Collectively, they represent the prominent theoretical approaches to motivation, include the world's dominant religions, and address a wide variety of significant issues related to this very significant subject.
This book, by leading scholars, represents some of the main work in progress in biolinguistics. It offers fresh perspectives on language evolution and variation, new developments in theoretical linguistics, and insights on the relations between variation in language and variation in biology. The authors address the Darwinian questions on the origin and evolution of language from a minimalist perspective, and provide elegant solutions to the evolutionary gap between human language and communication in all other organisms. They consider language variation in the context of current biological approaches to species diversity - the 'evo-devo revolution' - which bring to light deep homologies between organisms. In dispensing with the classical notion of syntactic parameters, the authors argue that language variation, like biodiversity, is the result of experience and thus not a part of the language faculty in the narrow sense. They also examine the nature of this core language faculty, the primary categories with which it is concerned, the operations it performs, the syntactic constraints it poses on semantic interpretation and the role of phases in bridging the gap between brain and syntax. Written in language accessible to a wide audience, The Biolinguistic Enterprise will appeal to scholars and students of linguistics, cognitive science, biology, and natural language processing.
This is the first book-length work to integrate the insights of cognitive science fully into economics. It reviews a wide range of related work in both fields and proposes new approaches to choice theory, rationality, and interaction (equilibrium) that are consistent with the limited cognitive capacity of real human beings. While joining with neoclassical economics in supporting the validity of supply-and-demand theory where it is literally applicable, McCain challenges most neoclassical theory, especially monopoly, oligopoly, and general equilibrium theory and welfare economics. His work aims to further and unite recent notions of behavioral and social economics. This important work will be of interest to behavioral, social, and Keynesian economists, as well as other social scientists and philosophers interested in economic phenomena.
This professional guide and reference examines the challenges of assessing security vulnerabilities in computing infrastructure. Various aspects of vulnerability assessment are covered in detail, including recent advancements in reducing the requirement for expert knowledge through novel applications of artificial intelligence. The work also offers a series of case studies on how to develop and perform vulnerability assessment techniques using start-of-the-art intelligent mechanisms. Topics and features: provides tutorial activities and thought-provoking questions in each chapter, together with numerous case studies; introduces the fundamentals of vulnerability assessment, and reviews the state of the art of research in this area; discusses vulnerability assessment frameworks, including frameworks for industrial control and cloud systems; examines a range of applications that make use of artificial intelligence to enhance the vulnerability assessment processes; presents visualisation techniques that can be used to assist the vulnerability assessment process. In addition to serving the needs of security practitioners and researchers, this accessible volume is also ideal for students and instructors seeking a primer on artificial intelligence for vulnerability assessment, or a supplementary text for courses on computer security, networking, and artificial intelligence.
This collection of essays was written by former students, associates, admirers, critics and friends of Donald R. Griffin -- the creator of cognitive ethology. Stimulated by his work, this volume presents ideas and experiments in the field of cognitive ethology -- the exploration of the mental experiences of animals as they behave in their natural environment during the course of their normal lives. Cognitive Ethology discusses the possibility that animals may have abilities to experience, communicate, reason, and plan beyond those usually ascribed to them in a "black box" or "stimulus-response" interpretation of their behavior. Contributions from scientists who have been associated with or influenced by Griffin offer a lively array of views, some disparate from one another and some especially selected to present approaches contrary to his.
The global prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders is accelerating. Numbers of children affected by an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States have reached 1 in 88 -- 1 in 56 among boys -- and even more children have developed attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders (ADHD). The burden of these disorders to individuals and society overall is enormous; ASD alone costs the United States a staggering $130 billion, with ADHD costs reaching similar heights. Genetic causes of these neurodevelopmental disorders cannot account for such radically increased rates of incidence. The causes must also implicate environmental chemicals, many of which have been shown to disrupt normal thyroid function. In this book, Barbara Demeneix makes the case that thyroid hormone signaling bridges the environment and gene programs needed for brain development--and that environmental chemicals that disrupt normal thyroid function pose significant risks to the inherited intelligence and mental health of future generations. The first chapter provides an historical overview of documented cases in which environmental pollution has caused IQ loss across populations. The following chapters explain the physiology of thyroid hormone action, the importance of iodine and selenium for thyroid hormone signaling and brain development, and why thyroid hormone is such a sensitive target for environmental pollution. The final chapters discuss the role of gene-environment interactions in neurodevelopmental disorders and address what can and must be done by individuals, associations, and decision-makers to staunch these epidemics.
The terms interactive and dynamic would never have been associated with psychological and psychoeducational assessment a generation ago. They have currency now because of widespread dissatisfaction with the normative, standardized testing model, criticism of theoretical concepts of intelligence, recognition of abuses of standardized intelligence testing, and frustration with prediction and classification as primary goals of assessment. It is almost certainly true that public policy concerns propel scientific activity far more often than science propels public policy In the case of psychological assessment, public policy concerns have arisen in the last 20 years primarily around issues of possible "discrimination" against members of ethnic minorities. At the same time, there has been a re surgence of dedication to "excellence in education" goals. These concerns have led to such extreme measures as prohibition of the use of standard ized intelligence tests to determine school placement decisions, especially for minority children. They have led also to a search for alternatives to standardized, normative testing. The chapters in this volume represent a variety of answers to this need."
In Part I, the impact of an integro-differential operator on parity logic engines (PLEs) as a tool for scientific modeling from scratch is presented. Part II outlines the fuzzy structural modeling approach for building new linear and nonlinear dynamical causal forecasting systems in terms of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs). Part III introduces the new type of autogenetic algorithms (AGAs) to the field of evolutionary computing. Altogether, these PLEs, FCMs, and AGAs may serve as conceptual and computational power tools.
At the time of his death Hans Hormann, then Professor of Psy- chology at the Ruhr University, Bochum, West Germany, was pre- paring an English language version of his Eirifilhrung in die Psycholinguistik. The goal of this book, in both the German and English editions, was to present in compact and readily accessi- ble form the essentials of his approach to the psychology of lan- guage. Basing his work upon the materials treated at length and in depth in two previous comprehensive and more technical works, Psycholinguistics: An Introduction to Research and Theo- ry and To Mean-To Understand, Hormann had made a selection of themes and problems suitable for beginners and for those who wanted a convenient introduction to the specific framework with- in which Hormann thought psycholinguistics was to be pursued. The result is a remarkably clear, succinct, and provocative account of central issues and options of the psychology of lan- guage, that broad and not strictly delimited part of psychology that takes as its domain the multiform conditions, processes, and structures involved in the acqUisition, development, production, and grasp of linguistic meaning. Hormann's approach is admit- tedly contentious and goes directly against a great deal of Anglo- American psycholinguistics. In particular, it radically devalues the relevance of certain types of theoretical linguistics, prin- Cipally, though not exclusively, Chomskyan, for the psychology of vii viii PREFACE language.
Extending the visionary early work of the late Marshall McLuhan,
The Global Village, one of his last collaborative efforts, applies
that vision to today's worldwide, integrated electronic
network.
Thisbook explores the meaning and import of neurophenomenology and the philosophy of enactive or embodied cognition for psychology. It introduces the psychologist to an experiential, non-reductive, holistic, theoretical, and practical framework that integrates the approaches of natural and human science to consciousness. In integrating phenomenology with cognitive science, neurophenomenology provides a bridge between the natural and human sciences that opens an interdisciplinary dialogue on the nature of awareness, the ontological primacy of experience, the perception of the observer, and the mind-brain relationship, which will shape the future of psychological theory, research, and practice.
Cognitive Science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the mind and its processes. Psychology Library Editions: Cognitive Science (27 Volume set) brings together a mix of titles from many fields within psychology, including attention, perception, thinking, memory. The series of previously out-of-print titles, originally published between 1974 and 1995, includes contributions from authors around the world.
Can psychoanalysis offer a new computer model? Can computer designers help psychoanalysts to understand their theory better?In contemporary publications human psyche is often related to neural networks. Why? The wiring in computers can also be related to application software. But does this really make sense? Artificial Intelligence has tried to implement functions of human psyche. The reached achievements are remarkable; however, the goal to get a functional model of the mental apparatus was not reached. Was the selected direction incorrect?The editors are convinced: yes, and they try to give answers here. If one accepts that the brain is an information processing system, then one also has to accept that computer theories can be applied to the brain s functions, the human mental apparatus. The contributors of this book - Solms, Panksepp, Sloman and many others who are all experts in computer design, psychoanalysis and neurology are united in one goal: finding synergy in their interdisciplinary fields."
At the beginning of the new millennium, and after a turbulent development process of almost fifty years, Cognitive Psychotherapy still does not seem to have reached a full epistemological and applicative maturity. However at a clinical level, Cognitive Psychotherapy may be considered as one of the most valid and efficient instruments; it is supported by an enormous mass of research and experimental data covering a numerous series of disorders such as mood disturbances, with particular reference to depression, as well as anxiety, personality and eating disorders. Also recently in the field of schizophrenia several studies have been carried out, capable of suggesting an original cognitive approach to the therapy and rehabilitation of psychotic patients. Along with the classic approach by the Philadelphia School started by A. T. Beck, a pool of further evolutions of the original cognitive paradigm have been taking place and are still under development. Among these, of particular importance are the relational and constructivist approaches. This book is a useful instrument for an extensive review of the varied landscape of contemporary Cognitive Psychotherapy. Starting from the introduction chapter, "Cognitive Psychotherapy toward a new millennium," by the Editors, the theoretical chapters of the first part of the book, focus on the great issues of Contemporary Cognitive Psychotherapy. The second part includes a series of chapters dealing with clinical applications. The third part covers almost all psychiatric disorders. This volume will be a greatly useful contribution to the critical reflection about the development of Cognitive Psychotherapy at the beginning of the new millennium. |
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