The problem of how the brain produces consciousness, subjectivity and 'something it is like to be' remains one of the greatest challenges to a complete science of the natural world. While various scientists and philosophers approach the problem from their own unique perspectives and in the terms of their own respective fields, Biophysics of Consciousness: A Foundational Approach attempts a consilience across disparate disciplines to explain how it is possible that an objective brain produces subjective experience.This volume unites the creme de la creme of physicists, neuroscientists, and psychiatrists in the attempt to understand consciousness through a foundational approach encompassing ontological, evolutionary, neurobiological, and Freudian interpretations with the focus on conscious phenomena occurring in the brain. By integrating the perspectives of these diverse disciplines with the latest research and theories on the biophysics of the brain, the book tries to explain how consciousness can be an adaptive and causal element in the natural world.

What is thought and how does one come to study and understand it? How does the mind work? Does cognitive science explain all the mysteries of the brain? This collection of fourteen original essays from some of the top sociologists in the country, including Eviatar Zerubavel, Diane Vaughan, Paul Dimaggio and Gary Alan Fine, among others, opens a dialogue between cognitive science and cultural sociology, encouraging a new network of scientific collaboration and stimulating new lines of social scientific research.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203904702

Infant Development is written by British and North American infancy researchers. The Chapters are organised along conventional lines in sections which cover perceptual, cognitive and social development, relating new findings on infant perception to both old and new accounts of cognitive development. Links are also drawn between these topics and the development of social interaction and language. Attention is given to both traditional approaches such as Piagetian theory, and more recent approaches such as direct perception and dynamic systems theory. There is also a chapter devoted to interpreting infant development from a psychoanalytic perspective

eBook available with sample pages: 0203800893

Cognitive therapy (CT), developed by Aaron Beck in the US in the 1960s, is a structured, time-limited, problem-focused and research-based system of psychotherapy which seeks to identify, examine and modify clients? maladaptive thinking found in psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety. The vast literature on CT can appear overwhelming to those interested in practising this therapy. To address this issue, this book serves as an introduction to CT and demonstrates this approach in action. In this book, the reader will find: Key Features of CT theory and practice examinedPresentation of a case example from assessment to treatment and termination of therapyWays to elicit and tackle negative automatic thoughts and underlying beliefsImportant points to consider in the design, negotiation and review of homework assignmentsTypical client and therapist difficulties in therapy addressed

What is thought and how does one come to study and understand it? How does the mind work? Does cognitive science explain all the mysteries of the brain? This collection of fourteen original essays from some of the top sociologists in the country, including Eviatar Zerubavel, Diane Vaughan, Paul Dimaggio and Gary Alan Fine, among others, opens a dialogue between cognitive science and cultural sociology, encouraging a new network of scientific collaboration and stimulating new lines of social scientific research. Rather than considering thought as just an individual act, Culture in Mind considers it in a social and cultural context. Provocatively, this suggests that our thoughts do not function in a vacuum: our minds are not alone. Covering such diverse topics as the nature of evil, the process of storytelling, defining mental illness, and the conceptualizing of the premature baby, these essays offer fresh insights into the functioning of the mind. Leaving the MRI behind, Culture in Mind will uncover the mysteries of how we think.

Previous experimental research has suggested that chimpanzees may understand some of the epitemological aspects of visual perception, such as how the perceptual act of seeing can have internal mental consequences for an individual's state of knowledge. Other research suggests that chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates may understand visual perception at a simpler level; that is, they may at least understand seeing as a mental event that subjectively anchors organisms to the external world. However, these results are ambiguous and are open to several interpretations. In this Monograph, we report the results of 15 studies that were conducted with chimpanzees and preschool children to explore their knowledge about visual perception.

In this Monograph, knowledge acquisition is examined as a process involving the coordination of existing theories with new evidence. Central to the present work is the claim that strategies of knowledge acquisition may vary significantly across (as well as within) individuals and can be conceptualized within a developmental framework.

Approaching the topic from a social psychological viewpoint, this book provides a forum for some currently active theorists to provide concise descriptions of their models in a way that addresses four of the most central issues in the field: How does affect influence memory, judgment, information processing, and creativity? Each presentation includes a concise description of the theory's underlying assumptions, an application of these assumptions to the four central issues, and some answers to questions posed by the other theorists.
Thus, in one volume, the reader is presented with a single authoritative source for current theories of affect and information processing and is given a chance to "listen in" on a conversation among the theorists in the form of questions and answers related to each theory. Students and researchers alike will benefit from the clarity and brevity of this volume.

Approaching the topic from a social psychological viewpoint, this book provides a forum for some currently active theorists to provide concise descriptions of their models in a way that addresses four of the most central issues in the field: How does affect influence memory, judgment, information processing, and creativity? Each presentation includes a concise description of the theory's underlying assumptions, an application of these assumptions to the four central issues, and some answers to questions posed by the other theorists.
Thus, in one volume, the reader is presented with a single authoritative source for current theories of affect and information processing and is given a chance to "listen in" on a conversation among the theorists in the form of questions and answers related to each theory. Students and researchers alike will benefit from the clarity and brevity of this volume.

Contents:
R.H. Logie, M. Denis, Preface: Imagery, Language and Visuo-spatial Thinking: E Pluribus Unum. D. Pearson, R. De Beni, C. Cornoldi, The Generation, Maintenance, and Transformation of Visuo-spatial Mental Images. T. Vecchi, L.H. Phillips, C. Cornoldi, Individual Differences in Visuo-spatial Working Memory. J. Engelkamp, H.D. Zimmer, M. de Vega, Pictures in Memory: The Role of Visual-imaginal Information. O.H. Turnbull, M. Denis, E. Mellet, O. Ghaëm, D.P. Carey, The Processing of Visuo- spatial Information: Neuropsychological and Neuroimaging Investigations. M. de Vega, M. Cocude, M. Denis, M.J. Rodrigo, H.D. Zimmer, The Interface between Language and Visuo-spatial Representations. M. Denis, M.-P. Daniel, S. Fontaine, F. Pazzaglia, Language, Spatial Cognition, and Navigation. R.H. Logie, J. Engelkamp, D. Dehn, S. Rudkin, Actions, Mental Actions, and Working Memory.

Why people are not as gullible as we think Not Born Yesterday explains how we decide who we can trust and what we should believe-and argues that we're pretty good at making these decisions. In this lively and provocative book, Hugo Mercier demonstrates how virtually all attempts at mass persuasion-whether by religious leaders, politicians, or advertisers-fail miserably. Drawing on recent findings from political science and other fields ranging from history to anthropology, Mercier shows that the narrative of widespread gullibility, in which a credulous public is easily misled by demagogues and charlatans, is simply wrong. Why is mass persuasion so difficult? Mercier uses the latest findings from experimental psychology to show how each of us is endowed with sophisticated cognitive mechanisms of open vigilance. Computing a variety of cues, these mechanisms enable us to be on guard against harmful beliefs, while being open enough to change our minds when presented with the right evidence. Even failures-when we accept false confessions, spread wild rumors, or fall for quack medicine-are better explained as bugs in otherwise well-functioning cognitive mechanisms than as symptoms of general gullibility. Not Born Yesterday shows how we filter the flow of information that surrounds us, argues that we do it well, and explains how we can do it better still.

This text covers topical areas in the mind-body problem. It shows how the problem has changed from the earlier theories of reduction to the dominant empirical cases for materialism. The author puts forward the argument that most positions are overdrawn, and that most hard-line views about materialism and dualism are unfounded. The various debates surrounding the mind-body problem, including visual experience, consciousness, content and reason, reliabilism and the problem of zombies and ghosts are also analyzed. The book should appeal to those interested in epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and cognitive science

Matters of Mind examines the mind-body problem. It offers a chapter by chapter analysis of debates surrounding the problem, including visual experience, consciousness and the problem of Zombies and Ghosts. It will prove invaluable for those interested in epistemology, philosophy of mind and cognitive science.

"Organizational Cognition" is a collection of chapters written by scholars from around the world. The editors outline the history of two approaches to the study of cognition in organizations, the computational approach and the interpretive approach. The chapters represent some of the most cutting-edge research on organizational cognition, covering research that spans many levels of analysis. Much of the work in the book demonstrates how computational and interpretive approaches can be combined in a way that provides greater insight into cognitive processes in and among organizations. The editors conclude by elaborating the likely boundary conditions of each approach and how they can be combined for a more complete understanding of cognition in organizations.

Since the publication of the first edition of "Computers as Cognitive Tools" in 1993, rapid changes have taken place in the uses of technology for educational purposes and in the theories underlying such uses. Changes in perspectives on thinking and learning are guiding the instructional design of computer-based learning environments.
"Computers as Cognitive Tools, Volume II: No More Walls" provides examples of state-of-the-art technology-based research in the field of education and training. These examples are theory-driven and reflect the learning paradigms that are currently in use in cognitive science. The learning theories, which consider the nature of individual learning, as well as how knowledge is constructed in social situations, include information processing, constructivism, and situativity. Contributors to this volume demonstrate some variability in their choice of guiding learning paradigms. This allows readers the opportunity to examine how such paradigms are operationalized and validated.
An array of instructional and assessment approaches are described, along with new techniques for automating the design and assessment process. New considerations are offered as possibilities for examining learning in distributed situations. A multitude of subject matter areas are covered, including scientific reasoning and inquiry in biology, physics, medicine, electricity, teacher education, programming, and hypermedia composition in the social sciences and ecology.
This volume reconsiders the initial camp analogy posited in 1993 edition of "Computers as Cognitive Tools," and presents a mechanism for breaking camp to find new summits.

Contents:
1. Cognitive mapping Rob Kitchin and Scott Freundschuh
2. Collecting and analysing cognitive mapping data Rob Kitchin
3. Levels and structure of spatial knowledge Barbara Tversky
4. Cognitive mapping and spatial decision making Tommy Gärling and Reginald G Golledge
5. Route learning and way finding Edward H. Cornell and C. Donald Heth
6. Understanding and learning maps Robert Lloyd
7. Understanding and learning virtual spaces Patrick Peruch, Florence Gaunet, Catherine Thinus-Blanc and Jack Loomis
8. Micro and macro spaces Scott Freundschuh
9. Cognitive mapping in childhood David Uttal and Lisa Tan
10. Ageing and spatial behaviour in the elderly adult K.C. Kirasic
11. A view of space through language Holly Taylor
12. Sex, gender and cognitive mapping Carole Self and Reg Golledge
13. Cognitive mapping without visual experience Simon Ungar
14. The future of cognitive mapping research Rob Kitchin and Scott Freundschuh

By enhancing your ability to identify connections, you can enhance your creativity. This exercise book strengthens your ability to recognise connections. The exercises are based on the theory of the book The Secret of the Highly Creative Thinker, as well as observations in neuroscience, and seventy years of creativity studies. This exercise book is based on a dynamic balance of theory, technique, and exercises, it's a practical hands-on workbook. It's the perfect outlet to get your hands dirty and dive into exercises that strengthen one's ability to see and make connections. This book is for those seeking to enhance their creativity. It can be used to: - Develop one's creative capacity - Train underlying mechanisms in creative thinking - Enrich educational purposes - Increase idea production Creative Thinker's Exercise Book is for everyone that's eager to indulge in exercises to enhance their innate creativity by identifying connections.

Series Information:
Problems of Modern European Thought

First developed in 1955, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is the original form of Cognitive Behavior Therapy and one of the most successful psychotherapeutic techniques in the world. Its founder, world-renowned psychologist Albert Ellis, now offers an up-to-date description of the main principles and practices of this innovative and influential therapy.REBT emphasizes the importance of cognition in psychological disturbances. Its aim is to help patients recognize their irrational and destructive beliefs, feelings, and behaviors, and to restructure harmful philosophic and behavioral styles to achieve maximal levels of happiness and productivity. In this book Dr. Ellis points out the most recent revisions of the original therapy and examines the use of REBT in treating specific clinical problems. Among the topics considered are depression, stress management, addiction, marital problems, the use of hypnosis, disposable myths, and many other obstacles to mental health.This fascinating look at REBT by its internationally recognized creator will be of inestimable value to professionals and laypersons alike.

In the World Library of Psychologists series, international experts themselves present career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces - extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, and their major practical theoretical contributions. Glyn Humphreys is an internationally renowned cognitive neuropsychologist with research interests covering object recognition and its disorders, visual word recognition, object and spatial attention, the effects of action on cognition, and social cognition. Within the field of Psychology he has won a number of prestigious awards, including the Spearman Medal, the President's Award of the British Psychological Society, and the Donald Broadbent Prize from the European Society for Cognitive Psychology. This collection reflects the different directions in his work and approaches which have been adopted. It will enable the reader to trace key developments in cognitive neuropsychology in a period of rapid change over the last thirty years. A newly written introduction contextualises the selection in relation to changes in the field during this time. Attention, Perception and Action will be invaluable reading for students and researchers in visual cognition, cognitive neuropsychology and vision neuroscience.

Around the world and throughout history, in cultures as diverse as ancient Mesopotamia and modern America, human beings have been compelled by belief in gods and developed complex religions around them. But why? What makes belief in supernatural beings so widespread? And why are the gods of so many different people so similar in nature? This provocative book explains the origins and persistence of religious ideas by looking through the lens of science at the common structures and functions of human thought.
The first general introduction to the "cognitive science of religion," Minds and Gods presents the major themes, theories, and thinkers involved in this revolutionary new approach to human religiosity. Arguing that we cannot understand what we think until we first understand how we think, the book sets out to study the evolutionary forces that modeled the modern human mind and continue to shape our ideas and actions today. Todd Tremlin details many of the adapted features of the brain -- illustrating their operation with examples of everyday human behavior -- and shows how mental endowments inherited from our ancestral past lead many people to naturally entertain religious ideas. In short, belief in gods and the social formation of religion have their genesis in biology, in powerful cognitive processes that all humans share.
In the course of illuminating the nature of religion, this book also sheds light on human nature: why we think we do the things we do and how the reasons for these things are so often hidden from view. This discussion ranges broadly across recent scientific findings in areas such as paleoanthropology, primate studies, evolutionary psychology, early braindevelopment, and cultural transmission. While these subjects are complex, the story is told here in a conversational style that is engaging, jargon free, and accessible to all readers. With Minds and Gods, Tremlin offers a roadmap to a fascinating and growing field of study, one that is sure to generate interest and debate and provide readers with a better understanding of themselves and their beliefs.

The treatment of physical health problems is increasingly supplemented by psychological therapy, particularly in connection with long term treatment and the management of chronic or intractable problems. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is now recognised as the most effective approach for a wide range of mental and physical disorders, e.g. the treatment of anxiety/depressive disorders, management of pain and treatment of the psychological problems associated with cancer.
Although there are other books available on CBT for mental health problems and some which focus more generally on psychological management aspects of medical problems, this is the first to provide a general introduction to the methods and clincial application of CBT for the problems experienced by patients with chronic pain, cardiac disorders, surgical problems, diabetes, cancer and skin problems.
This book outlines how cognitive behavioural assessment, formulation and intervention strategies can be tailored to chronic medical problems. Formulation diagrams and extracts from treatment sessions are included. Professional and service development issues are covered in separate chapters. Some helpful self report measures are included as Appendices.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Chronic Medical Problems is a concise and accessible clinical text. It assumes some basic knowledge and practical experience of CBT and enables the reader to understand and tailor their practice to the needs of physically ill patients.

"Dr White has written an exceptional book. With a solid theoretical basis, this clearly written and useful book does an impressive job of instructing the reader in formulating cases at a macro and micro level and in using this formulation to plan therapy and select interventions for patients with various chronic medical problems. Even clinicians that primarily do not treat medical patients will benefit from studying this book."
Dr Judith S. Beck, Director, The Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, Philadelphia, USA, and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, USA.

The beginning of psychological aesthetics is normally traced back to the publication of Gustav Theodor Fechner's seminal book "Vorschule der Aesthetik" in 1876. Following in the footsteps of this rich tradition, editors Martin Skov and Oshin Vartanian view neuroaesthetics - the emerging field of inquiry concerned with uncovering the ways in which aesthetic behavior is caused by brain processes - as a natural extension of Fechner's 'empirical spirit' to understand the link between the objective and subjective worlds inherent in aesthetic experience. The editors had two specific aims for this book. The first was to highlight the diversity of approaches that are underway under the banner of neuroaesthetics.Currently, this topic is being investigated from experimental, evolutionary, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging perspectives to tackle problems in the visual arts, literature, music, and film. Its quintessentially interdisciplinary nature has functioned as a breeding ground for generating and testing hypotheses in multiple domains. The second goal was more integrative and involved distilling some of the key features common to these diverse strands of work. The book presents a possible framework for neuroaesthetics by highlighting what the contributors consider to be its defining features and offering a working definition of neuroaesthetics that captures these features. "Neuroaesthetics" will provide an empirical and theoretical framework to motivate further work in this area. Ultimately, the hope is that puzzles in aesthetics can be solved through insights from biology, but that the contribution can be truly bidirectional.

A groundbreaking workbook to help you develop healthy coping strategies, build a solid support network, and stay on the path to recovery. If you've been in therapy for an eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia, your past treatment may have focused on helping you control your emotions and contain your behaviors. However, research now shows that many people with eating disorders actually suffer from emotional overcontrol. Based on more than twenty years of research, this breakthrough workbook offers skills based in radically open dialectical behavior therapy (RO DBT), a proven-effective, transdiagnostic approach for treating disorders of overcontrol (OC). With this compassionate workbook, you'll learn how to move beyond the unhealthy coping strategies that keep you feeling isolated and lonely, find tips for building a solid support network and enriching social connections, and develop your own personalized plan for staying on the path to recovery. You'll also find assessments to help you determine the root cause of your OC disorder, exercises for increasing social engagement, and skills for improving social flexibility, trust, and intimacy. Having an eating disorder can make you feel like you're alone in the world. Even if you're in recovery, you may have days when feelings of isolation are too much, and you may feel tempted to fall back into unhealthy patterns of eating or restrictive eating. This workbook will help you build your own "treatment tribe," a group of people that help lift you up and support you as you find your way to a full recovery and a rich, meaningful life.

While laboratory research is the backbone of collecting experimental data in cognitive science, a rapidly increasing amount of research is now capitalizing on large-scale and real-world digital data. Each piece of data is a trace of human behavior and offers us a potential clue to understanding basic cognitive principles. However, we have to be able to put the pieces together in a reasonable way, which necessitates both advances in our theoretical models and development of new methodological techniques. The primary goal of this volume is to present cutting-edge examples of mining large-scale and naturalistic data to discover important principles of cognition and evaluate theories that would not be possible without such a scale. This book also has a mission to stimulate cognitive scientists to consider new ways to harness big data in order to enhance our understanding of fundamental cognitive processes. Finally, this book aims to warn of the potential pitfalls of using, or being over-reliant on, big data and to show how big data can work alongside traditional, rigorously gathered experimental data rather than simply supersede it. In sum, this groundbreaking volume presents cognitive scientists and those in related fields with an exciting, detailed, stimulating, and realistic introduction to big data - and to show how it may greatly advance our understanding of the principles of human memory, perception, categorization, decision-making, language, problem-solving, and representation.