The central thesis of Schizotypy: Implications for Illness and Health is both challenging and controversial: that the features of psychotic disorders actually lie on a continuum with, and form part of, normal behaviour and experience. The dispositional or 'schizotypal' traits associated with psychotic disorders certainly predispose an individual to mental illness, but they may also lead to positive outcomes such as enhanced creativity or spiritual experience. Discussion of each aspect of this theme is supported by extensive experimental and clinical evidence, questioning the received medical wisdom which treats psychotic illness in the narrow context of neurological disease. The result is an authoritative and provocative overview of an important topic in psychological research and clinical practice.

Donald Kausler is one of the founding fathers of research on aging. Internationally recognized, his efforts have formed the cornerstone of research on how age affects memory and learning. Now, in one comprehensive volume, Kausler condenses research findings in this realm into one engaging and forthright book. What are the effects of aging on classical and operant conditioning? How does age affect memory capacity/transfer of learning skill acquisition? Kausler addresses all of these issues and more in a clearly presented, easily understood review of major research findings.
Key Features
* Single authored for clarity and consistency of presentation
* Comprehensive coverage of the effects of age on all aspects of learning and memory
* Focus on aspects of normal aging rather than pathological states

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.

The exercise of judgement is an aspect of human endeavour from our most mundane acts to our most momentous decisions. In this book Wayne Martin develops a historical survey of theoretical approaches to judgement, focusing on treatments of judgement in psychology, logic, phenomenology and painting. He traces attempts to develop theories of judgement in British Empiricism, the logical tradition stemming from Kant, nineteenth-century psychologism, experimental neuropsychology and the phenomenological tradition associated with Brentano, Husserl and Heidegger. His reconstruction of vibrant but largely forgotten nineteenth-century debates links Kantian approaches to judgement with twentieth-century phenomenological accounts. He also shows that the psychological, logical and phenomenological dimensions of judgement are not only equally important but fundamentally interlinked in any complete understanding of judgement. His book will interest a wide range of readers in history of philosophy, philosophy of the mind and psychology.

The purpose of the edited volume is to provide an international lens to examine evidence-based investigations in Ethno-STEM research: Ethno-science, Ethno-technology, Ethno-engineering, and Ethno-mathematics. These themes grew out of multi-national, multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary efforts to preserve as well as epitomize the role that Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) play in cognitive development and its vital contributions to successful and meaningful learning in conventional and non-conventional contexts. Principled by the Embodied, Situated, and Distributed Cognition (ESDC), this innovative book will provide evidence supporting the embeddedness of a thinking-in-acting model as a fundamental framework that explains and supports students' acquisition of scientific knowledge. So often 'western' science curricula are experienced as irrelevant, since it does not take cognizance of the daily experiences and world in which the learner finds himself. This book takes a socio-cultural look at IKS and applies research in neuroscience to make a case its incorporation in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) classroom. We use the Embodied Situated Distributed Cognition (ESDC) Model as conceptual framework in this book. Although the value of IKS is often acknowledged in curriculum policy documents, teachers are most often not trained in incorporating IK in the classroom. Teachers' lack of the necessary pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in effectively incorporating IK in their classrooms is a tremendous problem internationally. Another problem is that IK is often perceived as "pseudo-science", and scholars advocating for the incorporation of IK in the school curriculum often do not contextualize their arguments within a convincing theoretical and conceptual framework.

This book focuses on the evolutionary and developmental origins of the social mind. Written by leading scientists in the field, the book brings together the currently segregated views on social cognition in the two fields.

Contemporary Capacity-Building in Educational Contexts extends current understandings of what capacities and capacity-building are and of the dimensions that maximise their prospects of success in current educational policy-making and provision. It does this by exploring how capacity-building is implemented among nine groups of research participants, including Australian, Dutch and English circus families, migrants and refugees in an Australian regional town, and a university education research team. These data sets are analysed to address eight 'hot topics' and 'wicked problems' in contemporary education: consciousness; creativity; dis/empowerment and agency; diversity and identity; forms of capital and currencies; knowledge sharing; regionality and rurality; and resilience.

This book discusses the main milestones of early brain development and the emergence of consciousness, within and outside the mother's environment, with a particular focus on the preterm infant. These insights offer new perspectives on issues concerning fetal pain, awareness in newborns, and the effects of current digital media on the developing infant brain. Among the topics covered: * Brain patterning, neural proliferation, and migration. * The stress of being born and first breaths. * The stream of consciousness. * Parenting and stimulating the brain of the child. * The moral status of the fetus and the infant. Infant Brain Development is an excellent resource for researchers, clinicians and related professionals, and graduate students across a variety of disciplines including developmental psychology, pediatrics, neurobiology, neuroscience, obstetrics, nursing and medical ethics. It is written with historic and philosophical remarks of interest for a broad readership. --- "This book is a joy to read for anyone interested in understanding where biology is heading in the 21st century, and it is essential for those who work in child development." Eric Kandel, University Professor, Columbia University, Co-Director, Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Nobel Laureate in Medicine 2000 "With the precision of a scientist, the depth of a philosopher, and the heart and sensitivity of a pediatrician, Hugo Lagercrantz weaves a story as readable and engrossing as any mystery novel, linking brain, genes, the environment, and behavior to explain the development of the mind of a newborn. A tour de force!" Patricia K. Kuhl, The Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning, Co-Director, Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington "This book is a noble and valiant effort by Dr. Lagercrantz to explain the immensely complex issue of normal and pathological development of the human brain in simple terms that are accessible to the general public." Pasko Rakic, Duberg Professor of Neuroscience and Neurology, Yale University School of Medicine

Principles of Learning and Memory presents state-of-the-art reviews that cover the experimental analysis of behavior, as well as the biological basis of learning and memory, and that overcome traditional borders separating disciplines. The resulting chapters present and evaluate core findings of human learning and memory that are obtained in different fields of research and on different levels of analysis. The reader will acquire a broad and integrated perspective of human learning and memory based on current approaches in this domain.

The construct of intellectual disability has developed over centuries and has had different functions at different times; from a concept that was used to describe people from whom society needed protecting from in the late to 19th and early 20th centuries, to one used to describe people who are unable to cope in the current environment. It is now defined in terms of having a measured IQ below a fixed cut off point, usually 70, and a low level of adaptive behaviour also often specified in terms of being below a cut off point. Intellectual Disability demonstrates that neither IQ nor adaptive behaviour can be measured with sufficient accuracy for fixed cut off points to be used and suggests a number of new much more loosely defined constructs of intellectual disability based on clinical judgment.

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 provides a multifaceted analysis of how the human face drives many of our most important social behaviors. People perceive the identities, genders, and attractiveness of others from the many different faces they see every day. There has been great deal of research on the psychology, neuropsychology and neuroscience of how these perceptions are formed. However the facial displays of leadership, with their almost ubiquitous role in our social lives, remain largely unexplored. Carl Senior argues that perhaps now more than ever, it is crucial to understand how facial displays communicate leadership abilities. This book brings together perspectives from a range of international experts across a variety of fields including social psychology, organisational sciences and the study of primates, with the aim to further our understanding of this fundamental social force. Scholars and professionals, as well as anyone interested in learning more about how the face is used to drive our perception of leadership, will find this book of great interest.

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.

Understanding Intellectual Disability: A Guide for Professionals and Parents supports professionals and parents in understanding critical concepts, correct assessment procedures, delicate and science-infused communication practices and treatment methods concerning children with intellectual disabilities. From a professional perspective, this book relies on developmental neuropsychology and psychiatry to describe relevant measures and qualitative observations when making a diagnosis and explores the importance of involving parents in the reconstruction of a child's developmental history. From a parent's perspective, the book shows how enriched environments can empower children's learning processes, and how working with patients, families, and organizations providing care and treatment services can be effectively integrated with attachment theory. Throughout seven chapters, the book offers an exploration of diagnostic procedures, new insights on the concept of intelligence and the role of communication and secure attachment in the mind's construction. With expertise from noteworthy scholars in the field, the reader is given an overview of in-depth assessment and intervention practices illustrated by several case studies and examples, as well as a lifespan perspective from a Human Rights Model of disability. Understanding Intellectual Disability is an accessible guide offering an up-to-date vision of intellectual disability and is essential for psychologists, health care professionals, special educators, students in clinical psychology, and parents. Things are connected through invisible bonds: you cannot pluck a flower without unsettling a star. Galileo Galilei

This book presents the essential background for understanding semantic theories of mood. Mood as a category is widely used in the description of languages and the formal analysis of their grammatical properties. It typically refers to the features of a sentence-individual morphemes or grammatical patterns-that reflect how the sentence contributes to the modal meaning of a larger phrase, or that indicate the type of fundamental pragmatic function that it has in conversation. In this volume, Paul Portner discusses the most significant semantic theories relating to the two main subtypes of mood: verbal mood, including the categories of indicative and subjunctive subordinate clauses, and sentence mood, encompassing declaratives, interrogatives, and imperatives. He evaluates those theories, compares them, and draws connections between seemingly disparate approaches, and he formalizes some of the literature's most important ideas in new ways in order to draw out their most significant insights. Ultimately, this work shows that there are crucial connections between verbal mood and sentence mood which point the way towards a more general understanding of how mood works and its relation to other topics in linguistics; it also outlines the type of semantic and pragmatic theory which will make it possible to explain these relations. The book will be a valuable resource for researchers and students from advanced undergraduate level upwards in the fields of semantics and pragmatics, philosophy, computer science, and psychology.

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.

Arguably the most influential thinker on education in the twentieth century, Dewey's contribution lies along several fronts. His attention to experience and reflection, democracy and community, and to environments for learning have been seminal...

Rapid advances in cognitive neuroscience and converging technologies have led to a vigorous debate over cognitive enhancement. This book outlines the ethical and social issues, but goes on to focus on the policy dimensions, which until now have received much less attention. As the economic, social and personal stakes involved with cognitive enhancement are so high, and the advances in knowledge so swift, we are likely to see increasing demands for government involvement in cognitive enhancement techniques. The book therefore places these techniques in a political context and brings the subsequent considerations and divisions to the forefront of the debate, situating their resolution within the milieu of interest group politics. The book will provide a starting point from which readers can develop a balanced policy framework for addressing such concerns.

Books on intellectual development typically separate development into distinct developmental periods: the formation of intelligence and basic cognitive skills that occurs until adolescence, and the maintenance, decline, or improvement of these intellectual skills across the adult life span. Robert Sternberg and Cynthia Berg have integrated research on these two development periods, by bringing together authors that provide a comprehensive overview to the major approaches to intellectual development. Six approaches to intellectual development are examined by authors who use the perspective during childhood or during adulthood: psychometric, Piagetian, new-Piagetian, information-processing, learning, and contextual perspectives. Common themes arise within, and across, particular perspectives, which suggests that a more unified view of intellectual development may emerge as boundary lines betwen perspectives and developmental periods diminish.