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Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Philosophy & theory of psychology > Cognitive theory
Sexual harassment in the workplace, date rape, and domestic
violence dominate the headlines and have recently sparked scholarly
debates about the nature of the sexes. Concurrently, the scientific
community is conducting research in topics of sex and gender
issues. Indeed, more research is being done on the topics of sexual
conflict and coercion than at any other time in the history of the
social sciences. Despite this attention, it is clear that these
issues are being addressed from two essentially different
perspectives: one is labeled "feminist," while the other, viewed as
antithetical to the feminist movement, is called "evolutionary
psychology," which emphasizes the history of reproductive
strategies in understanding conflict between the sexes. This book
brings together leading experts from both sides of the debate in
order to discover how each could offer insights lacking in the
other. The editors' overall goal is to show how the feminist and
evolutionary approaches are complementary despite their evident
differences, then provide an integration and synthesis. In fact,
several of the contributors to this unique volume consider
themselves advocates of both approaches. As a stimulating
presentation of the dynamics of sex, power, and conflict--and a
pioneering rapprochement of the diverse tendencies within the
scientific community-- this book will attract a wide audience in
both psychology and women's studies fields.
Nurturing Our Humanity offers a new perspective on our personal and
social options in today's world, showing how we can build societies
that support our great human capacities for consciousness, caring,
and creativity. It brings together findings-largely overlooked-from
the natural and social sciences debunking the popular idea that we
are hard-wired for selfishness, war, rape, and greed. Its
groundbreaking new approach reveals connections between disturbing
trends like climate change denial and regressions to strongman
rule. Moving past right vs. left, religious vs. secular, Eastern
vs. Western, and other familiar categories that do not include our
formative parent-child and gender relations, it looks at where
societies fall on the partnership-domination scale. On one end is
the domination system that ranks man over man, man over woman, race
over race, and man over nature. On the other end is the more
peaceful, egalitarian, gender-balanced, and sustainable partnership
system. Nurturing Our Humanity explores how behaviors, values, and
socio-economic institutions develop differently in these two
environments, documents how this impacts nothing less than how our
brains develop, examines cultures from this new perspective
(including societies that for millennia oriented toward
partnership), and proposes actions supporting the contemporary
movement in this more life-sustaining and enhancing direction. It
shows how through today's ever more fearful, frenzied, and
greed-driven technologies of destruction and exploitation, the
domination system may lead us to an evolutionary dead end. A more
equitable and sustainable way of life is biologically possible and
culturally attainable: we can change our course.
Do you want to go beyond small talk with colleagues, friends,
family, or strangers? This is your game to truly connect with
people. Imagine a red car, I'll do the same. Now describe it to me.
No red car would ever be the same. No thought, or story ever is. We
listen. We might smile. We nod. But, do we really understand each
other? The human mind predicts and assumes to make sense of the
world, and to understand people. There's often more to discover
than we assume to know. The Empathy Game connects the dots. It
engages people to share, listen, and engage with stories beyond
their own frame of reference. There's more to discover and learn.
Let's play. EXAMPLE QUESTIONS Memory How different was your life
one year ago? What is special about the place you grew up in? Who
is I? What do you admire/value in others? What is the best day on
the calendar? Imagine If you could invent anything, what would it
be? If someone could give you the answer to any unresolved
question, what would you ask?
Draw In Order to See is the first book to survey the history of
architectural design using the latest research in neuroscience and
embodied cognition. At present, among the dozens of books on
architectural drawing, design theory, methodologies, model making,
CAAD, and planning, there is no book that specifically looks at the
history of representation as a reflection of cognitive habits among
individuals and groups of architects. As a historian and a
practicing architect, Mark Hewitt has a unique point of view, that
has enabled him to study the design practices of many architects
during various eras, beginning in the Renaissance and stretching
into the late 20th century. His earlier published books have
touched on subjects related to design practice, as many have dealt
with the lives of architects and designers. In addition, he has
written dozens of biographies of architects, published essays on
architectural representation, and wrote a master's thesis on visual
perception and architecture. Hewitt has dedicated more than 30
years to writing about the process of conception (or visualisation)
of buildings in the brain. Researchers on that subject now
consistently cite one of his earliest studies on drawings and modes
of conception. This book pursues that line of inquiry with the new
discoveries about visual perception, cognition and embodiment that
have revolutionised brain science. Hewitt believes that looking
historically at how architects have designed, a brain-based
practice developed during and after the Renaissance, once drawings
became sophisticated enough to provide feedback for perception and
memory in the cortex. His contention is that disegno, as invented
in Italy during the time of Leonardo and Michelangelo, initiated
that system, and that it was translated into a curriculum during
the rise of Beaux Arts institutions prior to the 1920s, after which
the Bauhaus system replaced it completely with what we have today.
Before Chelsea Conaboy gave birth to her first child, she
anticipated the joy of holding her newborn son, the endless dirty
nappies and the sleepless nights. What she didn't expect was how
different she would feel. It wasn't simply the extraordinary
demands of this new role, but a shift in self - as deep as it was
disorienting. In truth, something was changing: her brain. New
parents undergo major brain changes, driven by hormones and the
deluge of stimuli a baby provides. These neurobiological changes
help all parents - birthing or otherwise - adapt in those intense
first days and prepare for a long period of learning how to meet
their child's needs. Yet this science is mostly absent from the
public conversation about parenthood. Conaboy delves into the
neuroscience to reveal unexpected upsides, generations of
scientific neglect and a powerful new narrative of parenthood.
Bridging the gap between cognition and culture, this handbook
explores both social scientific and humanities approaches to
understanding the physical processes of religious life, tradition,
practice, and belief. It reflects the cultural turn within the
study of religion and puts theory to the fore, moving beyond
traditional theological, philosophical, and ethnographic
understandings of the aesthetics of religion. Editors Anne Koch and
Katharina Wilkens bring together research in cultural studies,
cognitive studies, material religion, religion and the arts, and
epistemology. Questions of identity, gender, ethnicity, and
postcolonialism are discussed throughout. Key topics include
materiality, embodiment, performance, popular/vernacular art and
space to move beyond a sensory understanding of aesthetics.
Emerging areas of research are covered, including secular
aesthetics and the aesthetic of spirits. This is an important
contribution to theory and method in the study of religion, and is
grounded in research that has been taking place in Europe over the
past 20 years. Case studies are drawn from around the world with
contributions from scholars based in Europe, the USA, and
Australia. The book is illustrated with over 40 color images and
features a foreword from Birgit Meyer.
In this ground-breaking synthesis of art and science, Diana
Deutsch, one of the world's leading experts on the psychology of
music, shows how illusions of music and speech-many of which she
herself discovered-have fundamentally altered thinking about the
brain. These astonishing illusions show that people can differ
strikingly in how they hear musical patterns-differences that
reflect variations in brain organization as well as influences of
language on music perception. Drawing on a wide variety of fields,
including psychology, music theory, linguistics, and neuroscience,
Deutsch examines questions such as: When an orchestra performs a
symphony, what is the "real" music? Is it in the mind of the
composer, or the conductor, or different members of the audience?
Deutsch also explores extremes of musical ability, and other
surprising responses to music and speech. Why is perfect pitch so
rare? Why do some people hallucinate music or speech? Why do we
hear phantom words and phrases? Why are we subject to stuck tunes,
or "earworms"? Why do we hear a spoken phrase as sung just because
it is presented repeatedly? In evaluating these questions, she also
shows how music and speech are intertwined, and argues that they
stem from an early form of communication that had elements of both.
Many of the illusions described in the book are so striking and
paradoxical that you need to hear them to believe them. The book
enables you to listen to the sounds that are described while
reading about them.
'An endlessly fascinating tour of the many different factors
influencing our decision-making and reasoning' David Robson, author
of The Intelligence Trap 'An eye-opening and engaging richness of
information that gives us a detailed insight into the strengths and
weaknesses of human behaviour' Melissa Hogenboom, author of The
Motherhood Complex Do emotions really cloud your thinking? Are
habits holding you back? Is AI manipulating your mind? Does IQ help
you think better? Every one of our thoughts, actions, moods and
decisions is shaped by a whole array of factors, most of which we
don't pay any attention to. From culture, time and language to
genetics, technology and the microorganisms living inside us - even
our own unconscious routines and habits - it's clear that we aren't
always in the driving seat. The good news is that by better
understanding the external and internal forces at work, we can
minimise their impact on our lives. Drawing on rigorous
interdisciplinary research, leading science journalists Miriam
Frankel and Matt Warren bring us extraordinary stories and studies
that open our eyes to the inner workings of the mind, challenge our
thought processes and improve our decision-making. Most of all, Are
You Thinking Clearly? is a rallying cry to know yourself, think
broadly, think boldly - and to listen. 'Essential reading for
anyone who wants to understand why their beliefs, mistakes,
emotions and intuitions are the way they are' Richard Gray, BBC
Future
A radical reinterpretation of how your mind works - and why it
could change your life 'An astonishing achievement. Nick Chater has
blown my mind' Tim Harford 'A total assault on all lingering
psychiatric and psychoanalytic notions of mental depths ... Light
the touchpaper and stand well back' New Scientist We all like to
think we have a hidden inner life. Most of us assume that our
beliefs and desires arise from the murky depths of our minds, and,
if only we could work out how to access this mysterious world, we
could truly understand ourselves. For more than a century,
psychologists and psychiatrists have struggled to discover what
lies below our mental surface. In The Mind Is Flat, pre-eminent
behavioural scientist Nick Chater reveals that this entire
enterprise is utterly misguided. Drawing on startling new research
in neuroscience, behavioural psychology and perception, he shows
that we have no hidden depths to plumb, and unconscious thought is
a myth. Instead, we generate our ideas, motives and thoughts in the
moment. This revelation explains many of the quirks of human
behaviour - for example why our supposedly firm political beliefs,
personal preferences and even our romantic attractions are
routinely proven to be inconsistent and changeable. As the reader
discovers, through mind-bending visual examples and
counterintuitive experiments, we are all characters of our own
creation, constantly improvising our behaviour based on our past
experiences. And, as Chater shows us, recognising this can be
liberating.
'An original, provocative and fascinating new theory by one of the
world's leading neuroscientists about why the mind wanders - and
when and why it's good for you' Daniel Gilbert 'A gentle and humane
book that should be read by everyone interested in the human mind
and the human brain' Andy Clark Our brains are noisy. Certain
regions are always grinding away at involuntary activities like
daydreaming, worrying about the future and self-chatter, taking up
to forty-seven percent of our waking time. This is mindwandering -
and while it can tug your attention away from the present and
contribute to anxiety, cognitive neuroscientist Moshe Bar reveals
that there is a method behind this apparent madness. Mindwandering
is the first popular book to explore the multi-faceted phenomenon
of our wandering minds and the cutting-edge new research behind it.
Bar combines his decades of research to explain the benefits and
the possible cost of mindwandering within the broader context of
psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry and philosophy, providing us
with practical knowledge that can help you: - Develop your sense of
self, better relate to others, and make associations that help you
understand the world around you - Increase your ability to focus by
understanding when to wander - and when not to - Magnify and enrich
your experiences by learning about full immersion - Stimulate your
creativity by combing through the past and making predictions about
the future - Boost your mood by unleashing your mind.
Michio Kaku, the international bestselling author of Physics of the
Impossible, gives us a stunning and provocative vision of the
future of the mind Recording memories, mind reading, videotaping
our dreams, mind control, avatars, and telekinesis - no longer are
these feats of the mind solely the province of overheated science
fiction. As Michio Kaku reveals, with the latest advances in brain
science and recent astonishing breakthroughs in technology, they
already exist. In The Future of the Mind, the New York
Times-bestselling author takes us on a stunning, provocative and
exhilarating tour of the top laboratories around the world to meet
the scientists who are already revolutionising the way we think
about the brain - and ourselves. 'Summons up the sheer wonder of
science' - Daily Telegraph 'Compelling ... Kaku thinks with great
breadth, and the vistas he presents us are worth the trip' - New
York Times Book Review Michio Kaku is a professor of physics at the
City University of New York, cofounder of string field theory, and
the author of several widely acclaimed science books, including
Hyperspace, Beyond Einstein, Physics of the Impossible, and Physics
of the Future.
Research on natural and artificial brains is proceeding at a rapid
pace. However, the understanding of the essence of consciousness
has changed slightly over the millennia, and only the last decade
has brought some progress to the area. Scientific ideas emerged
that the soul could be a product of the material body and that
calculating machines could imitate brain processes. However, the
authors of this book reject the previously common dualism-the view
that the material and spiritual-psychic processes are separate and
require a completely different substance as their foundation.
Reductive Model of the Conscious Mind is a forward-thinking book
wherein the authors identify processes that are the essence of
conscious thinking and place them in the imagined, simplified
structure of cells able to memorize and transmit information in the
form of impulses, which they call neurons. The purpose of the study
is to explain the essence of consciousness to the degree of
development of natural sciences, because only the latter can find a
way to embed the concept of the conscious mind in material brains.
The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 works to convince
readers that the emergence of consciousness does not require
detailed knowledge of the structure and morphology of the brain,
with the exception of some specific properties of the neural
network structure that the authors attempt to point out. Part 2
proves that the biological structure of many natural brains
fulfills the necessary conditions for consciousness and intelligent
thinking. Similarly, Part 3 shows the ways in which artificial
creatures imitating natural brains can meet these conditions, which
gives great hopes for building artificially intelligent beings
endowed with consciousness. Covering topics that include cognitive
architecture, the embodied mind, and machine learning, this book is
ideal for cognitive scientists, philosophers of mind,
neuroscientists, psychologists, researchers, academicians, and
advanced-level students. The book can also help to focus the
research of linguists, neurologists, and biophysicists on the
biophysical basis of postulated information processing into
knowledge structures.
'GeniusX: Business Intelligence' presents established guidelines to
help you understand your inner self as well as those around you
across a variety of situations. Positive thinking, critical
decision-making, personnel selection, ways of life and customised
methods for business operations are presented via the concept of
people categorisations of which Cognitive Neuroscience lists six
types; Game Changes, Entrepreneurs, Networkers, Informationists,
Uniques and Sharers. We are able to learn about people if we can
unlock the diverse decision-making processes that take place in
their brains. Once we understand the inner workings, we can rectify
problems and deal with all types of people and situations. Knowing
the unique working styles of individuals allows you to build
success at work, and enjoyment in your personal life at your own
pace.
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