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Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Cognition & cognitive psychology
The environment is part of everyone's life but there are difficulties in communicating complex environmental problems, such as climate change, to a lay audience. In this book Kloeckner defines environmental communication, providing a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the issues involved in encouraging pro-environmental behaviour.
Foundations of Art Therapy: Theory and Applications is an essential and comprehensive introduction to the field of art therapy that blends relevant psychological and neuroscience research, theories, and concepts and infuses cultural diversity throughout each chapter. The text includes full color photos, informative charts, and case examples and is divided into four parts beginning with the basics of art therapy knowledge and concluding with professional practices in art therapy. The fundamentals of art therapy section includes coverage of art therapy founders, art materials, multicultural perspectives, intersections with neuroscience, and research methods. An overview and in-depth explorations of different theoretical approaches to the practice of art therapy are covered in the second part of the book. A bio-psycho-social approach integrates current research on art therapy with specific populations (children, mental health, older adults, and trauma). The book concludes with art therapy professional practices in group concepts, community-based art therapy, and developing a career in the field. Each chapter contains chapter objectives, practical applications, ethical considerations, reflection questions, experiential exercises, and a list of terms. The unique, practical, and interdisciplinary approach of this text provides a solid base for understanding the field of art therapy and is well suited for use in undergraduate art therapy courses. This book will appeal to those who want an introduction to the field's theories, research, and practice and those seeking a comprehensive understanding on the foundations of art therapy.
Reissuing works originally published between 1960 and 1995, this varied set offers an outstanding collection of scholarship. It includes topics that touch on psychology, feminist criticism, philosophy and literary history as well as examinations of autobiography as genre.
The great majority of books on artificial intelligence are written by AI experts who understandably focus on its achievements and potential transformative effects on society. In contrast, AI vs Humans is written by two psychologists (Michael and Christine Eysenck) whose perspective on AI (including robotics) is based on their knowledge and understanding of human cognition. This book evaluates the strengths and limitations of people and AI. The authors' expertise equips them well to consider this by seeing how well (or badly) AI compares to human intelligence. They accept that AI matches or exceeds human ability in many spheres such as mathematical calculations, complex games (e.g., chess, Go, and poker), diagnosis from medical images, and robotic surgery. However, the human tendency to anthropomorphise has led many people to claim mistakenly that AI systems can think, infer, reason, and understand while engaging in information processing. In fact, such systems lack all those cognitive skills and are also deficient in the quintessentially human abilities of flexibility of thinking and general intelligence. At a time when human commitment to AI appears unstoppable, this up-to-date book advocates a symbiotic and co-operative relationship between humans and AI. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in AI and human cognition.
YinYang bipolar relativity can trace its philosophical origins to ancient Chinese YinYang cosmology, which claims that everything has two sides or two opposite, but reciprocal, poles or energies. More specifically, this discipline is intended to be a logical unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics. YinYang Bipolar Relativity: A Unifying Theory of Nature, Agents and Causality with Applications in Quantum Computing, Cognitive Informatics and Life Sciences presents real-world applications of YinYang bipolar relativity that focus on quantum computing and agent interaction. This unique work makes complex theoretical topics, such as the ubiquitous effects of quantum entanglement, logically comprehendible to a vast audience.
Containing contributions from world leaders honoring Bruce Whittlesea's lifetime contribution to memory research, this volume reflects the current understanding amongst memory researchers that memory is more than passive acquisition and retrieval, but involves constructions, attributions, and inferences.
Classical conditioning of the nictitating membrane (NM) eyeblink response in rabbits is a useful model system for the study of the neurobiology of learning and memory. This paradigm that is so well described on a biological level has also been applied to studies of normal development over the life span and to instances of abnormal developmental phenomena. Eyeblink conditioning has been studied from molecular and neural network perspectives, and the paradigm is of demonstrated utility in elucidating mechanisms in physiology and pharmacology. This model system provides a behavioral paradigm in animals that has a close analog in human behavior. Perspectives of recent developments in human eyeblink classical conditioning research are presented in the companion volume to this book, Eyeblink Classical Conditioning: Applications in Humans.
Decision making is a complex phenomenon which normally is deeply integrated into social life. At the same time the decision making process often gives the decision maker an opportunity for conscious planning and for taking a reflective stance with respect to the action considered. This suggests that decision making allows creative solutions with a potential to change the course of events both on an individual and a collective level. Given these considerations, we argue that in order to more fully understand decision making the perspectives of different disciplines are needed. In this volume we have attempted to draw together contributions that would provide a broad view of decision making. Much work has been carried out in the writing and editing of this volume. First of all we would like to thank the contributors for their efforts in producing interesting and important texts and for their patience in the editorial process. Each chapter was edited by two or three reviewers. These reviewers are listed on a separate page in this book. Our heartfelt thanks go to them for their time and for their incisive and constructive reviews! We are also grateful to the publishing editors at Kluwer Academic Publishers, Christiane Roll and Dorien Francissen, who have been generous with their encouragement and patience throughout the editorial process.
This volume explores the strengths and opportunities of old age as these are manifested by the accomplishments of aging artists, late artistic works, and elderly arts audiences. It critically examines the psychology of creativity, cognitive development, and gerontology, and will be of interest to a wide range of professionals and students in these fields.
In recent years, a booming research interest has been observed in linking basic cognitive processes with a variety of social and clinical phenomena. Evidence comes from the increasing popularity of psychological paradigms such as social cognition, cognitive psychopathology or cognitive aging. What links those paradigms is their special focus on explaining cognitive phenomena by use of the concept of mental resources. Immediate reasons for such a focus are found in the growing emphasis on understanding everyday dynamics of thinking and acting within a complex world, as well as within personal constraints. Obviously, our current goals and choice of activities constrain and influence our reasoning as well as the processes of input to and retrieval from memory. Situational demands will act to the same effect, and the interplay between both, internal and external constraints, makes apparent a first and straightforward relevance of the resource notion in action-oriented cognitive research. For example, person perception is a dynamic process depending on what my goals in perception are, what the perceiving situation is that I find myself in, and how complex the target characteristics are. In fact, the amount of resources spent in this process may be reflected in its speed, the quality of the perceptual or mnemonic trace which is being created, or the kind of social or non-social behavior that can be supported.
Converging evidence from disciplines including sociobiology, evolutionary psychology and human biology forces us to adopt a new idea of what it means to be a human. As cherished concepts such as free will, naive realism, humans as creation's crowning glory fall and our moral roots in ape group dynamics become clearer, we have to take leave of many concepts that have been central to defining our humanness. What emerges is a new human, the homo novus, a human being without illusions. Leading authors from many different fields explore these issues by addressing a range of illusions and providing evidence for the need, despite considerable reluctance, to relinquish some of our most cherished ideas about ourselves.
This series includes monographs and collections of studies devoted to the investigation and exploration of knowledge, information, and data-processing systems of all kinds, no matter whether human, (other) animal, or machine. Its scope spans the full range of interests from classical problems in the philosophy of mind and philosophical psychology through issues in cognitive psychology and sociobiology (concerning the mental powers of other species) to ideas related to artificial intelligence and computer science. While primary emphasis is placed upon theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological aspects of these problems and domains, empirical, experimental, and methodological studies will also appear from time to time. This multi-authored volume provides investigations that fall into three broad areas of inquiry. In Part I, Antti Revonsuo reviews and evaluates contem porary discussions of the nature of consciousness. In Part II, Matti Kamppinen explores methodological issues, distinguishing between "intentional" and "structural" explanations. In Part III, Seppo Sajama and Simo Vihjanen consider whether humans ever have direct access to reality (in Section A), while Matti Kamppinen and Antti Revonsuo explore the conse quences of the claim that our knowledge of reality is conceptually mediated (in Section B). These studies combine to provide a stimulating exploration of cognitive science that should appeal to students and to scholars alike. J.H.F. vii PREFACE BY THE EDITOR The purpose of the book is to illustrate how empirical and conceptual problems interact in modem cognitive science. We argue that several topics discussed in contemporary research have long historical roots in philosophy."
Recent years have witnessed a revival of research in the interplay between cognition and emotion. The reasons for this renaissance are many and varied. In the first place, emotion theorists have come to recognise the pivotal role of cognitive factors in virtually all aspects of the emotion process, and to rely on basic cognitive factors insight in creating new models of affective space. Also, the successful application of cognitive therapies to affective disorders has promoted clinical psychologists to work towards a clearer understanding of the connections between cognitive processes and emotional problems. And whereas the cognitive revolutionaries of the 1960s regarded emotions with suspicion, viewing them as nagging sources of 'hot' noise in an otherwise cool, rational, and computer-like system of information processing, cognitive researchers of the 1990s regard emotions with respect, owing to their potent and predictable effects on tasks as diverse as object perception, episodic recall, and risk assessment. These intersecting lines of interest have made cognition and emotion one of the most active and rapidly developing areas within psychological science.
The Oxford Handbook of Language Production provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary review of the complex mechanisms involved in language production. It describes what we know of the computational, linguistic, cognitive, and brain basis of human language production - from how we conceive the messages we aim to convey, to how we retrieve the right (and sometimes wrong) words, how we form grammatical sentences, and how we assemble and articulate individual sounds. Contributions from leading psycholinguists, cognitive linguists, and neuroscientists offer readers a broad perspective on the latest research, highlighting key investigations into core aspects of human language processing. The Handbook is organized into three sections: speaking, written and sign languages, and how language production interfaces with the wider cognitive system, including control processes, memory, non-linguistic gestures, and the perceptual system. These chapters discuss a wide array of levels of representation, from sentences to individual words, speech sounds and articulatory gestures, extending to discourse and the broader social context of speaking. Detailed supporting chapters provide an overview of key issues in linguistic structure at each level of representation. Authoritative yet concisely written, the volume will be of interest to scholars and students working in cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, computer science, audiology, and education, and related fields.
Applying current theory and research, this book links the development of sex differences in cognition to biological foundations, multiple social processes, and contextual factors. Areas covered include evolutionary biology, neuroscience, social roles, and cultural contextualism and the issues of the onset, causes, developmental trajectories, and patterns in children's and adolescents' thinking, problem-solving, academic performance, and social conditions that are related to behaviors in each of these areas. An edited volume with chapters by leading scholars, this book is meant for use by graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of developmental cognitive and psychology, learning and socialization, biology, and education. Cognitive domains addressed include language and verbal abilities, mathematical and quantitative abilities, spatial abilities, and social cognition.
From its foundation in the 1950s by George Kelly, Personal Construct Psychology continued to grow, both as a movement among psychologists and then in industry, education, government and commerce. Originally published in 1985 this title offers a compendium of elaborations and new conversational uses for Kelly's repertory grid technique. The authors have dramatically transformed the grid from a static measuring instrument to a dynamic tool for a personal exploration of the learning process itself. This grid-based Reflective Learning Technology enables individuals, pairs, groups and organisations to develop their learning in environments of work, family, education and society. As the originators and best-known practitioners of interactive grids, the authors give the reader an A-Z of these techniques. Case studies include management training, quality control, staff appraisal, job selection, team building, manufacturing, marketing and production as well as learning at a distance, learning to learn in schools, youth training, reading to learn and other learning skills, staff development, social work, counselling and therapy. Their development of a theory of learning conversation and conversational grid software opens up an imaginative, exciting and more humane approach to the use of microcomputers in all forms of education, while at the same time demonstrating the essentially autonomous nature of human learning. Available again after many years out of print, this book is of even greater value today than when first published.
Daydreaming, our ability to give 'to airy nothing a local habitation and a name', remains one of the least understood aspects of human behaviour. As children we explore beyond the boundaries of our experience by projecting ourselves into the mysterious worlds outside our reach. As adolescents and adults we transcend frustration by dreams of achievement or escape, and use daydreaming as a way out of intolerable situations and to help survive boredom, drudgery or routine. In old age we turn back to happier memories as a relief from loneliness or frailty, or wistfully daydream about what we would do if we had our time over again. Why is it that we have the ability to alternate between fantasy and reality? Is it possible to have ambition or the ability to experiment, create or invent without the catalyst of fantasy? Are sexual fantasies an inherent part of human behaviour? Are they universal, healthy, destructive? Is daydreaming itself destructive? Or is it a force which facilitates change and which can even be harnessed to positive advantage? In this provocative book, originally published in 1975, the product of the previous twenty-five years of research, the author debates the nature and function of daydreaming in the light of his own experiments. As well as investigating what is a normal 'fantasy-life' and outlining patterns and types of daydreaming, he describes the role of daydreaming in schizophrenia and paranoia, examines the fantasies and hallucinations induced by drugs and also the nature of altered states of consciousness in Zen and Transcendental Meditation. Among the many topics covered, he explains how it is possible to help children enlarge their capacity for fantasy, how adults can make positive use of daydreaming and how people on the verge of disturbed behaviour are often unconscious of their own fantasies. Advances in scientific methods and new experimental techniques had made it possible at this time to monitor both conscious daydreaming and sub-conscious fantasies in a way not possible before. Professor Singer is one of the few scientists who have conducted substantial research in this area and it is his belief that the study of daydreaming and fantasy is of great importance if we are to understand the workings of the human mind.
Whatever your reasons, kind reader, for reading these words, -what ever your premises about forewords, whatever the epistemic motivation with which you approach them-Iet me urge you to turn immediately to Kruglanski's first chapter and skim it. If any enthusiasm for sodal psy chology flows in your veins, you will certainly proceed then to read further in this important book. It represents some dozen years of Arie's thought and of his and his colleagues' research. Its intellectual scope covers 50 years of sodal psychology-from attitudes and attitude change, to balance, disso nance, and the various other cognitive consistency theories, to causal attribution, and to current cognitive sodal psychology. Sodal psycholo gists have recently begun to leave the fireside coziness of scribbling textbook catalogues of our field and to venture out into the cold, outdoor adventure of detecting (or creating?) its underlying structure. Of these attempts at providing scope plus order, Kruglanski's must surely be the most ambitious. For his is no mere overarching theory, which, like a circus tent over a diverse set of sideshows, covers everything but does little to provide thematic structure. Rather, Kruglanski tries to produce a basic reorganization of our thinking about sodal psychology. To use his LEGO blocks metaphor for the modification of knowledge structures, he attempts to dismantle the current assembly of elements of our field and reassemble them into a simpler and more coherent configuration."
PHILOSOPHY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE: CATEGORIES, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND REASONING The individual man, since his separate existence is manifested only by ignorance and error, so far as he is anything apart from his fellows, and from what he and they are to be, is only a negation. Peirce, Some Consequences of Four Incapacities. 1868. For the second time the International Colloquium on Cognitive Science gathered at San Sebastian from May, 7-11, 1991 to discuss the following main topics: Knowledge of Categories Consciousness Reasoning and Interpretation Evolution, Biology, and Mind It is not an easy task to introduce in a few words the content of this volume. We have collected eleven invited papers presented at the Colloquium, which means the substantial part of it. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to include all the invited lectures of the meeting. Before sketching and showing the relevance of each paper, let us explain the reasons for having adopted the decision to organize each two years an international colloquium on Cognitive Science at Donostia (San Sebastian). First of all, Cognitive Science is a very active research area in the world, linking multidisciplinary efforts coming mostly from psychology, artificial intelligence, theoretical linguistics and neurobiology, and using more and more formal tools. We think that this new discipline lacks solid foundations, and in this sense philosophy, particularly knowledge theory, and logic must be called for.
As a socially disruptive technology, Ambient Intelligence is ultimately directed towards humans and targeted at the mundane life made of an infinite richness of circumstances that cannot fully be considered and easily be anticipated. Most books, however, focus their analysis on, or deal largely with, the advancement of the technology and its potential only. This book offers a fresh, up-to-date, and holistic approach to Ambient Intelligence. As such, it addresses the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary aspects of the rapidly evolving field of Ambient Intelligence by seamlessly integrating and fusing it with artificial intelligence, cognitive science and psychology, social sciences, and humanities. It is divided into two main parts: Part 1 is about different permutations of enabling technologies as well as core computational capabilities, namely context awareness, implicit and natural interaction, and intelligent behavior. It details the existing and upcoming prerequisite technologies, and elucidates the application and convergence of major current and future computing trends. Part 2 is an accessible review and synthesis of the latest research in the human-directed sciences and computing and how these are intricately interrelated in the realm of Ambient Intelligence. It deals with the state-of-the-art human-inspired applications which show human-like understanding and exhibit intelligent behavior in relation to a variety of aspects of human functioning - states and processes. It describes and elaborates on the rich potential of Ambient Intelligence from a variety of interrelated perspectives and the plethora of challenges and bottlenecks involved in making Ambient Intelligence a reality, and also discusses the established knowledge and recent discoveries in the human-directed sciences and their application and convergence in the ambit of Ambient Intelligence computing. This seminal reference work is the most comprehensive of its kind, and will prove invaluable to students, researchers, and professionals across both computing and the human-directed sciences.
Do newborns think? Do they know that "three" is greater than "two"? Do they prefer "right" to "wrong"? What about emotions-can newborns recognize happiness or anger? If the answer to these questions is yes, then how are our inborn thoughts and feelings encoded in our bodies? Could they persist after we die? Going all the way back to ancient Greece, human nature and the mind-body problem have been the topics of fierce scholarly debates. But laypeople also have strong opinions about such matters. Most people believe, for example, that newborn babies don't know the difference between right and wrong-such knowledge, they insist, can only be learned. For emotions, they presume the opposite-that our capacity to feel fear, for example, is both inborn and embodied. These beliefs are stories we tell ourselves about what we know and who we are. They reflect and influence our understanding of ourselves and others and they guide every aspect of our lives. In The Blind Storyteller, the cognitive psychologist Iris Berent exposes a chasm between our intuitive understanding of human nature and the conclusions emerging from science. Her conclusions show that many of our stories are misguided. Just like Homer, we, the storyteller, are blind. How could we get it so wrong? In a twist that could have come out of a Greek tragedy, Berent proposes that our errors are our fate. These mistakes emanate from the very principles that make our minds tick: Our blindness to human nature is rooted in human nature itself. An intellectual journey that draws on philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, cognitive science, and Berent's own cutting-edge research, The Blind Storyteller grapples with a host of provocative questions, from why we are so afraid of zombies, to whether dyslexia is "just in our heads," from what happens to us when we die, to why we are so infatuated with our brains. The end result is a startling new perspective on the age-old nature/nurture debate-and on what it means to be human.
Exploring the creative dimensions of memory and remembering, Emily Keightley and Michael Pickering tackle some of the key questions facing the emergent field of memory studies, including the nature of the relationship between memory and experience and between individual and collective memory. The most crucial relationship examined is one which has previously been largely ignored: the relationship between memory and imagination. The book argues for the importance of bringing imagination into the purview of memory studies and introduces the key concept of the mnemonic imagination as a tool for demonstrating the mutual interaction of memory and imagination in our everyday practices and processes of making sense of experience. Showing how the mnemonic imagination works in various aspects of personal life and popular culture, the authors address diverse topics such as the commercial exploitation of nostalgia and the remembering of traumatic and painful pasts. |
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