0
Your cart

Your cart is empty

Browse All Departments
Price
  • R50 - R100 (1)
  • R100 - R250 (13)
  • R250 - R500 (117)
  • R500+ (596)
  • -
Status
Format
Author / Contributor
Publisher

Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Experimental psychology

The Handbook of Behavior Change (Paperback): Martin S. Hagger, Linda D. Cameron, Kyra Hamilton, Nelli Hankonen, Taru Lintunen The Handbook of Behavior Change (Paperback)
Martin S. Hagger, Linda D. Cameron, Kyra Hamilton, Nelli Hankonen, Taru Lintunen
R1,898 Discovery Miles 18 980 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Social problems in many domains, including health, education, social relationships, and the workplace, have their origins in human behavior. The documented links between behavior and social problems have compelled governments and organizations to prioritize and mobilize efforts to develop effective, evidence-based means to promote adaptive behavior change. In recognition of this impetus, The Handbook of Behavior Change provides comprehensive coverage of contemporary theory, research, and practice on behavior change. It summarizes current evidence-based approaches to behavior change in chapters authored by leading theorists, researchers, and practitioners from multiple disciplines, including psychology, sociology, behavioral science, economics, philosophy, and implementation science. It is the go-to resource for researchers, students, practitioners, and policy makers looking for current knowledge on behavior change and guidance on how to develop effective interventions to change behavior.

Haptic Interaction - Science, Engineering and Design (Paperback, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2018): Shoichi... Haptic Interaction - Science, Engineering and Design (Paperback, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2018)
Shoichi Hasegawa, Masashi Konyo, Ki-Uk Kyung, Takuya Nojima, Hiroyuki Kajimoto
R6,381 Discovery Miles 63 810 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This book comprises the proceedings of the second International Conference, AsiaHaptics 2016, held in Kashiwanoha, Japan. The book treats the state of the art of the diverse haptics (touch)-related research, including scientific research of haptics perception and illusion, development of haptics devices, and applications to a wide variety of fields such as education, medicine, telecommunication, navigation, and entertainment. This work helps not only active haptic researchers, but also general readers to understand what is going on in this interdisciplinary area of science and technology.

The Handbook of Personality Dynamics and Processes (Paperback): John F Rauthmann The Handbook of Personality Dynamics and Processes (Paperback)
John F Rauthmann
R2,914 Discovery Miles 29 140 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

The Handbook of Personality Dynamics and Processes is a primer to the basic and most important concepts, theories, methods, empirical findings, and applications of personality dynamics and processes. This book details how personality psychology has evolved from descriptive research to a more explanatory and dynamic science of personality, thus bridging structure- and process-based approaches, and it also reflects personality psychology's interest in the dynamic organization and interplay of thoughts, feelings, desires, and actions within persons who are always embedded into social, cultural and historic contexts. The Handbook of Personality Dynamics and Processes tackles each topic with a range of methods geared towards assessing and analyzing their dynamic nature, such as ecological momentary sampling of personality manifestations in real-life; dynamic modeling of time-series or longitudinal personality data; network modeling and simulation; and systems-theoretical models of dynamic processes.

Critical Thinking in Psychology (Paperback, 2nd Revised edition): Robert J. Sternberg, Diane F. Halpern Critical Thinking in Psychology (Paperback, 2nd Revised edition)
Robert J. Sternberg, Diane F. Halpern
R1,059 Discovery Miles 10 590 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Good scientific research depends on critical thinking at least as much as factual knowledge; psychology is no exception to this rule. And yet, despite the importance of critical thinking, psychology students are rarely taught how to think critically about the theories, methods, and concepts they must use. This book shows students and researchers how to think critically about key topics such as experimental research, statistical inference, case studies, logical fallacies, and ethical judgments. Using updated research findings and new insights, this volume provides a comprehensive overview of what critical thinking is and how to teach it in psychology. Written by leading experts in critical thinking in psychology, each chapter contains useful pedagogical features, such as critical-thinking questions, brief summaries, and definitions of key terms. It also supplies descriptions of each chapter author's critical-thinking experience, which evidences how critical thinking has made a difference to facilitating career development.

The Origin of Life Patterns - In the Natural Inclusion of Space in Flux (Paperback, 1st ed. 2017): Alan Rayner The Origin of Life Patterns - In the Natural Inclusion of Space in Flux (Paperback, 1st ed. 2017)
Alan Rayner
R1,960 Discovery Miles 19 600 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Understanding the relationship between human cultural psychology and the evolutionary ecology of living systems is currently limited by abstract perceptions of space and boundaries as sources of definitive discontinuity. This Brief explores the new understandings possible when space and boundaries are perceived instead as sources of receptive continuity and dynamic distinction between local identities and phenomena. It aims to identify the recurrent patterns in which life is expressed over diverse scales in natural ecosystems and to explore how a new awareness of their evolutionary origin in the natural inclusion of space in flux can be related to human cultural psychology. It explains why these patterns cannot adequately be represented or understood in terms of conventional logic and language that definitively isolates the material content from the spatial context of natural systems. Correspondingly, the Brief discusses how the perception of natural space as an infinite, intangible, receptive presence, and of natural informational boundaries as continuous energetic flux, revolutionizes our understanding of evolutionary processes. The mutual natural inclusion of receptive space and informative flux in all distinguishable local phenomena enables evolutionary diversification to be understood as a fluid dynamic exploration of renewing possibility, not an eliminative 'survival of the fittest'. Self-identity is recognized to be a dynamic inclusion of natural neighborhood, not a definitive exception from neighborhood. The Origins of Life Patterns will be of interest to psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists, evolutionary biologists, ecologists, mathematicians, and physicists.

Sacred Knowledge - Psychedelics and Religious Experiences (Paperback): William Richards Sacred Knowledge - Psychedelics and Religious Experiences (Paperback)
William Richards
R609 R569 Discovery Miles 5 690 Save R40 (7%) Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Sacred Knowledge is the first well-documented, sophisticated account of the effect of psychedelics on biological processes, human consciousness, and revelatory religious experiences. Based on nearly three decades of legal research with volunteers, William A. Richards argues that, if used responsibly and legally, psychedelics have the potential to assuage suffering and constructively affect the quality of human life. Richards's analysis contributes to social and political debates over the responsible integration of psychedelic substances into modern society. His book serves as an invaluable resource for readers who, whether spontaneously or with the facilitation of psychedelics, have encountered meaningful, inspiring, or even disturbing states of consciousness and seek clarity about their experiences. Testing the limits of language and conceptual frameworks, Richards makes the most of experiential phenomena that stretch our understanding of reality, advancing new frontiers in the study of belief, spiritual awakening, psychiatric treatment, and social well-being. His findings enrich humanities and scientific scholarship, expanding work in philosophy, anthropology, theology, and religious studies and bringing depth to research in mental health, psychotherapy, and psychopharmacology.

Advances in Physical Ergonomics and Human Factors - Proceedings of the AHFE 2016 International Conference on Physical... Advances in Physical Ergonomics and Human Factors - Proceedings of the AHFE 2016 International Conference on Physical Ergonomics and Human Factors, July 27-31, 2016, Walt Disney World (R), Florida, USA (Paperback, 1st ed. 2016)
Ravindra Goonetilleke, Waldemar Karwowski
R5,899 Discovery Miles 58 990 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This book reports on the state of the art in physical ergonomics and is concerned with the design of products, process, services, and work systems to assure their productive, safe, and satisfying use by people. With focus on the human body's responses to physical and physiological work demands, repetitive strain injuries from repetition, vibration, force, and posture are the most common types of issues examined, along with their design implications. The book explores a wide range of topics in physical ergonomics, which includes the consequences of repetitive motion, materials handling, workplace safety, and usability in the use of portable devices, design, working postures, and the work environment. Mastering physical ergonomics and safety engineering concepts is fundamental to the creation of products and systems that people are able to use, as well as the avoidance of stresses and minimization of the risk of accidents. Based on the AHFE 2016 International Conference on Physical Ergonomics & Human Factors, held on July 27-31, 2016 in Walt Disney World (R), Florida, USA, the book provides readers with a comprehensive view of the current challenges in Physical Ergonomics, which are a critical aspect in the design of any human-centered technological system, and factors influencing human performance.

The Oxford Handbook of Expertise (Paperback): Paul Ward, Jan Maarten Schraagen, Julie Gore, Emilie M. Roth The Oxford Handbook of Expertise (Paperback)
Paul Ward, Jan Maarten Schraagen, Julie Gore, Emilie M. Roth
R4,202 Discovery Miles 42 020 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

The study of expertise weaves its way through various communities of practice, across disciplines, and over millennia. To date, the study of expertise has been primarily concerned with how human beings perform at a superior level in complex environments and sociotechnical systems, and at the highest levels of proficiency. However, more recent research has continued the search for better descriptions, and causal mechanisms that explain the complexities of expertise in context, with a view to translating this understanding into useful predictions and interventions capable of improving the performance of human systems as efficiently as possible. The Oxford Handbook of Expertise provides a comprehensive picture of the field of Expertise Studies. It offers both traditional and contemporary perspectives, and importantly, a multidiscipline-multimethod view of the science and engineering research on expertise. The book presents different perspectives, theories, and methods of conducting expertise research, all of which have had an impact in helping us better understand expertise across a broad range of domains. The Handbook also describes how researchers and practitioners have addressed practical problems and societal challenges. Throughout, the authors have sought to demonstrate the heterogeneity of approaches and conceptions of expertise, to place current views of expertise in context, to show how these views can be used to address current issues, and to examine ways to advance the study of expertise. The Oxford Handbook of Expertise is an essential resource both to those wanting to gain an up-to-date knowledge of the science of expertise and those wishing to study experts.

The Oxford Handbook of Perceptual Organization (Hardcover): Johan Wagemans The Oxford Handbook of Perceptual Organization (Hardcover)
Johan Wagemans
R5,199 Discovery Miles 51 990 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Perceptual organization comprises a wide range of processes such as perceptual grouping, figure-ground organization, filling-in, completion, perceptual switching, etc. Such processes are most notable in the context of shape perception but they also play a role in texture perception, lightness perception, color perception, motion perception, depth perception, etc. Perceptual organization deals with a variety of perceptual phenomena of central interest, studied from many different perspectives, including psychophysics, experimental psychology, neuropsychology, neuroimaging, neurophysiology, and computational modeling. Given its central importance in phenomenal experience, perceptual organization has also figured prominently in classic Gestalt writings on the topic, touching upon deep philosophical issues regarding mind-brain relationships and consciousness. In addition, it attracts a great deal of interest from people working in applied areas like visual art, design, architecture, music, and so forth. The Oxford Handbook of Perceptual Organization provides a broad and extensive review of the current literature, written in an accessible form for scholars and students. With chapter written by leading researchers in the field, this is the state-of-the-art reference work on this topic, and will be so for many years to come.

The Investigation of Mind in Animals (Paperback): E.M. Smith The Investigation of Mind in Animals (Paperback)
E.M. Smith
R948 Discovery Miles 9 480 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

First published in 1923 as the second edition of a 1922 original, this book provides a brief account of the methods used in animal psychology and the aims of the discipline. Smith questions the point of evolutionary organization at which complex mental phenomena can be identified in animals and examines a variety of psychological abilities in animals, including form identification and the homing instinct. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in animal psychology and the history of the science.

The Psychology of Sound (Paperback): Henry J. Watt The Psychology of Sound (Paperback)
Henry J. Watt
R1,056 Discovery Miles 10 560 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Originally published in 1917, this book was written to provide a purely psychological analysis and theory of the process of hearing. The text begins with a discussion of auditory sensations and their attributes, before moving through areas relating to melody, the formation of scales and psychological theories of hearing. A bibliography and explanatory notes are also provided. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in experimental psychology and the history of psychology.

A Text-Book of Experimental Psychology: Volume 2, Laboratory Exercises - With Laboratory Exercises (Paperback): Charles S.... A Text-Book of Experimental Psychology: Volume 2, Laboratory Exercises - With Laboratory Exercises (Paperback)
Charles S. Myers, F. C. Bartlett
R915 Discovery Miles 9 150 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

First published in 1925 as the third edition of a 1911 original, this second volume of Dr Charles Myers' two-part textbook suggests practical experiments to test psychological phenomena, such as reaction times and optical illusions. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of experimental psychology, or the work of Myers, one of the most ground-breaking English psychologists of the twentieth century.

A Text-Book of Experimental Psychology: Volume 1, Text-Book - With Laboratory Exercises (Paperback): Charles S. Myers A Text-Book of Experimental Psychology: Volume 1, Text-Book - With Laboratory Exercises (Paperback)
Charles S. Myers
R1,243 Discovery Miles 12 430 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

First published in 1925 as the third edition of a 1911 original, this first volume of Dr Charles Myers' two-part textbook looks at areas of interest to the experimental psychologist, including colour vision and memory. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of experimental psychology, or the work of Myers, one of the most ground-breaking English psychologists of the twentieth century.

An Introduction to Experimental Psychology (Paperback, 3rd Revised edition): Charles S. Myers An Introduction to Experimental Psychology (Paperback, 3rd Revised edition)
Charles S. Myers
R644 Discovery Miles 6 440 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Originally published during the early part of the twentieth century, the Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature were designed to provide concise introductions to a broad range of topics. They were written by experts for the general reader and combined a comprehensive approach to knowledge with an emphasis on accessibility. An Introduction to Experimental Psychology by Charles S. Myers was first published in 1911 and reissued as this third edition in 1914. The volume discusses the typical research themes and methods of observation in experimental psychology at the time of publication.

Constructions of Remembering and Metacognition - Essays in Honour of Bruce Whittlesea (Paperback, 1st ed. 2011): P. Higham, J.... Constructions of Remembering and Metacognition - Essays in Honour of Bruce Whittlesea (Paperback, 1st ed. 2011)
P. Higham, J. Leboe
R1,507 Discovery Miles 15 070 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Containing contributions from world leaders honouring 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.

Looking and Acting - Vision and eye movements in natural behaviour (Paperback): Michael Land, Benjamin Tatler Looking and Acting - Vision and eye movements in natural behaviour (Paperback)
Michael Land, Benjamin Tatler
R2,585 Discovery Miles 25 850 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

The cooperative action of different regions of our brains gives us an amazing capacity to perform activities as diverse as playing the piano and hitting a tennis ball. Somehow, without conscious effort, our eyes find the information we need to operate successfully in the world around us. The development of head-mounted eye trackers over recent years has made it possible to record where we look during different active tasks, and so work out what information our eyes supply to the brain systems that control our limbs. We are now in a position to explore the strategies that the eye movement system uses in the initiation and guidance of action.
Looking and Acting examines a wide range of visually guided behaviour, from sedentary tasks like reading and drawing, to dynamic activities such as driving and playing cricket. A central theme is that the eye movement system has its own knowledge about where to find the most appropriate information for guiding action - information not usually available to conscious scrutiny. Thus each type of action has its own specific repertoire of linked eye movements, acquired in parallel with the motor skills themselves. Starting with a brief background to eye movement studies, the book then reviews a range of observations and analyses of different activities. It ends with discussions of the nature of visual representation, the neurophysiology of the systems involved, and the roles of attention and learning.
Opening a field in eye movement research, this fascinating book will be of great interest to all vision scientists (psychologists, physiologists, ophthalmologists) whether at professional, graduate, or advanced undergraduate levels. It will also be of value to musicians, artists, sports scientists, and transport engineers, and indeed anyone intrigued by the way we sample the visual world.

Inside Psychology - A science over 50 years (Paperback): Pat Rabbitt Inside Psychology - A science over 50 years (Paperback)
Pat Rabbitt
R2,520 Discovery Miles 25 200 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Psychology is a comparatively young science. From its origins in the psychophysics laboratories of late 19th century Germany, it made great strides throughout the 20th century, and can now be considered one of the most rapidly growing of the sciences, as evidenced by the enormous growth at both undergraduate level and research level.
This book takes a step back to consider just how we got to where we are in psychology. It brings together some of the leading and most influential figures from the past 50 years, covering neuropsychology, social psychology, experimental psychology, perception, physiology and many others. Each contributor considers the path their own field has taken - both the advances, and the set-backs. They look at how their area has changed - how it might have been 'in vogue' one day, and out of fashion the next. The accounts are personal, witty, and provide a much needed stock-take of just where psychology stands at the start of the 21st century, and where it might be heading in the coming years.
Highly accessible, the book will make fascinating reading for anyone at all interested in psychology and its history- from students upwards, as well as those more broadly interested in the study of the mind.

The Probabilistic Mind - Prospects for Bayesian cognitive science (Paperback, New): Nick Chater, Mike Oaksford The Probabilistic Mind - Prospects for Bayesian cognitive science (Paperback, New)
Nick Chater, Mike Oaksford
R2,819 Discovery Miles 28 190 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

The rational analysis method, first proposed by John R. Anderson, has been enormously influential in helping us understand high-level cognitive processes.
The Probabilistic Mind is a follow-up to the influential and highly cited 'Rational Models of Cognition' (OUP, 1998). It brings together developments in understanding how, and how far, high-level cognitive processes can be understood in rational terms, and particularly using probabilistic Bayesian methods. It synthesizes and evaluates the progress in the past decade, taking into account developments in Bayesian statistics, statistical analysis of the cognitive 'environment' and a variety of theoretical and experimental lines of research. The scope of the book is broad, covering important recent work in reasoning, decision making, categorization, and memory. Including chapters from many of the leading figures in this field,
The Probabilistic Mind will be valuable for psychologists and philosophers interested in cognition.

Self-Expression (Hardcover): Mitchell S Green Self-Expression (Hardcover)
Mitchell S Green
R1,505 Discovery Miles 15 050 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Mitchell S. Green presents a systematic philosophical study of self-expression - a pervasive phenomenon of the everyday life of humans and other species, which has received scant attention in its own right. He explores the ways in which self-expression reveals our states of thought, feeling, and experience, and he defends striking new theses concerning a wide range of fascinating topics: our ability to perceive emotion in others, artistic expression, empathy, expressive language, meaning, facial expression, and speech acts. He draws on insights from evolutionary game theory, ethology, the philosophy of language, social psychology, pragmatics, aesthetics, and neuroscience to present a stimulating and accessible interdisciplinary work.

Necessary Knowledge (Hardcover, New): Henry Plotkin Necessary Knowledge (Hardcover, New)
Henry Plotkin
R2,362 R1,835 Discovery Miles 18 350 Save R527 (22%) Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Necessary Knowledge takes on one of the big questions at the heart of the cognitive sciences - what knowledge do we possess at birth, and what do we learn along the way?
It is now widely accepted that evolution, individual development, and individual learning can no longer be studied in isolation from each-other - they are inextricably linked. Therefore any successful theory must integrate these elements, and somehow relate them to human culture. Clearly we learn from the world around us, but that learning is skewed towards specific things about the world. We do not just attend to and learn about every stimuli that confronts us - if we did, learning would be impossibly time-consuming and ineffective. Learning is constrained - we are primed to learn about certain aspects of the world and ignore others. So what are these constraints, and where do they come from? The theory expounded in this book is that we enter the world with small amounts of innate representational knowledge. It neither sides with those who believe in 'blank slate' theories, nor with those who believe all learning is innate. In fact, what is written on our 'slates' at birth is a certain type of knowledge about specific things in the world, the general configuration of the human face for instance, a knowledge that other people possess minds and motives.
Necessary Knowledge presents an important new theory, in a book that makes an accessible and thought provoking contribution to one of the enduring issues about human nature.

Bayesian Rationality - The probabilistic approach to human reasoning (Paperback): Mike Oaksford, Nick Chater Bayesian Rationality - The probabilistic approach to human reasoning (Paperback)
Mike Oaksford, Nick Chater
R3,004 Discovery Miles 30 040 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Are people rational? This question was central to Greek thought; and has been at the heart of psychology, philosophy, rational choice in social sciences, and probabilistic approaches to artificial intelligence. This book provides a radical re-appraisal of conventional wisdom in the psychology of reasoning.
For almost two and a half thousand years, the Western conception of what it is to be a human being has been dominated by the idea that the mind is the seat of reason - humans are, almost by definition, the rational animal. From Aristotle to the present day, rationality has been explained by comparison to systems of logic, which distinguish valid (i.e., rationally justified) from invalid arguments. Within psychology and cognitive science, such a logicist conception of the mind was adopted wholeheartedly from Piaget onwards. Simultaneous with the construction of the logicist program in cognition, other researchers found that people appeared surprisingly and systematically illogical in some experiments. Proposals within the logicist paradigm suggested that these were mere performance errors, although in some reasoning tasks only as few as 5% of people's reasoning was logically correct.
In this book a more radical suggestion for explaining these puzzling aspects of human reasoning is put forward: the Western conception of the mind as a logical system is flawed at the very outset. The human mind is primarily concerned with practical action in the face of a profoundly complex and uncertain world. Oaksford and Chater argue that cognition should be understood in terms of probability theory, the calculus of uncertain reasoning, rather than in terms of logic, the calculus of certainreasoning. Thus, the logical mind should be replaced by the probabilistic mind - people may possess not logical rationality, but Bayesian rationality.

Hypnosis and Conscious States - The cognitive neuroscience perspective (Paperback): Graham Jamieson Hypnosis and Conscious States - The cognitive neuroscience perspective (Paperback)
Graham Jamieson
R2,078 Discovery Miles 20 780 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

The phenomenon of hypnosis provides a rich paradigm for those seeking to understand the processes that underlie consciousness. Understanding hypnosis tells us about a basic human capacity for altered experiences that is often overlooked in contemporary western societies. Throughout the 200 year history of psychology, hypnosis has been a major topic of investigation by some of the leading experimenters and theorists of each generation. Today hypnosis is emerging again as a lively area of research within cognitive (systems level) neuroscience informing basic questions about the structure and biological basis of conscious states. This book describes the latest advances in understanding hypnosis and similar trance states by researchers within the neuroscience of consciousness. It contains many new and exciting contributions from up and coming researchers and provides a lively debate on methodological and theoretical issues central to the development of emerging research paradigms in the neuroscience of conscious states. The book introduces and describes many of the recent new tools that have become available to researchers in this field. Academics, researchers, and clinicians wanting to develop their knowledge of the latest findings, theories and methods in the scientific study of hypnosis and related states of consciousness will find this an up to date guide to this rapidly advancing field.

Language and the Learning Curve - A new theory of syntactic development (Paperback): Anat Ninio Language and the Learning Curve - A new theory of syntactic development (Paperback)
Anat Ninio
R1,562 Discovery Miles 15 620 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Language development remains one of the most hotly debated topics in the cognitive sciences. In recent years we have seen contributions to the debate from researchers in psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and philosophy, though there have been surprisingly few interdisciplinary attempts at unifying the various theories. In Language and the Learning Curve, a leading researcher in the field offers a radical new view of language development. Drawing on formal linguistic theory (the Minimalist Program, Dependency Grammars), cognitive psychology (Skill Learning) computational linguistics (Zipf curves), and Complexity Theory (networks), it takes the view that syntactic development is a simple process and that syntax can be learned just like any other cognitive or motor skill.
In a thought provoking and accessible style, it develops a learning theory of the acquisition of syntax that builds on the contribution of the different source theories in a detailed and explicit manner. Each chapter starts by laying the relevant theoretical background, before examining empirical data on child language acquisition. The result is a bold new theory of the acquisition of syntax, unusual in its combination of Chomskian linguistics and learning theory. Language and the Learning Curve is an important new work that challenges many of our usual assumptions about syntactic development.

Rational Animals? (Paperback): Susan Hurley, Matthew Nudds Rational Animals? (Paperback)
Susan Hurley, Matthew Nudds
R2,465 Discovery Miles 24 650 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

To what extent can animal behaviour be described as rational? What does it even mean to describe behaviour as rational? This book focuses on one of the major debates in science today - how closely does mental processing in animals resemble mental processing in humans. It addresses the question of whether and to what extent non-human animals are rational, that is, whether any animal behaviour can be regarded as the result of a rational thought processes. It does this with attention to three key questions, which recur throughout the book and which have both empirical and philosophical aspects: What kinds of behavioural tasks can animals successfully perform? What if any mental processes must be postulated to explain their performance at these tasks? What properties must processes have to count as rational? The book is distinctive in pursuing these questions not only in relation to our closest relatives, the primates, whose intelligence usually gets the most attention, but also in relation to birds and dolphins, where striking results are also being obtained. Some chapters focus on a particular species. They describe some of the extraordinary and complex behaviour of these species - using tools in novel ways to solve foraging problems, for example, or behaving in novel ways to solve complex social problems - and ask whether such behaviour should be explained in rational or merely mechanistic terms. Other chapters address more theoretical issues and ask, for example, what it means for behaviour to be rational, and whether rationality can be understood in the absence of language. The book includes many of the world's leading figures doing empirical work on rationality in primates, dolphins, and birds, as well as distinguished philosophers of mind and science. The book includes an editors' introduction which summarises the philosophical and empirical work presented, and draws together the issues discussed by the contributors.

How Homo Became Sapiens - On the evolution of thinking (Paperback): Peter Gardenfors How Homo Became Sapiens - On the evolution of thinking (Paperback)
Peter Gardenfors
R1,943 Discovery Miles 19 430 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Our ability to 'think' is really one of our most puzzling characteristics. What it would be like to be unable to think? What would it be like to lack self-awareness? The complexity of this activity is striking. 'Thinking' involves the interaction of a range of mental processes--attention, emotion, memory, planning, self-consciousness, free will, and language. So where did these processes arise? What evolutionary advantages were bestowed upon those with an ability to deceive, to plan, to empathize, or to understand the intention of others? In this compelling new work, Peter Gardenfors embarks on an evolutionary detective story to try and solve one of the big mysteries surrounding human existence--how has the modern human being's way of thinking come into existence. He starts by taking in turn the more basic cognitive processes, such as attention and memory, then builds upon these to explore more complex behaviors, such as self-consciousness, mindreading, and imitation. Having done this, he examines the consequences of "putting thought into the world" -i.e., using external media like cave paintings, drawings, and writing. Immensely readable and humorous, the book will be valuable for students in psychology and biology, and accessible to readers of popular science.

Free Delivery
Pinterest Twitter Facebook Google+
You may like...
Teaching for Understanding Across the…
Lynn D Newton Paperback R660 Discovery Miles 6 600
Mind the Tech Gap - Addressing the…
Nikki. Robinson Paperback R1,132 Discovery Miles 11 320
Plays: The Silver Box Joy Strife…
John Galsworthy Paperback R506 Discovery Miles 5 060
Artificial Intelligence Applications and…
Ilias Maglogiannis, Lazaros Iliadis, … Hardcover R2,962 Discovery Miles 29 620
Hedda Gabler
Henrik Ibsen Hardcover R1,312 Discovery Miles 13 120
Seeing God As A Perfect Father - And…
Louie Giglio Paperback R454 R412 Discovery Miles 4 120
The Weather Girls
Aki Delphine Mach Paperback  (1)
R103 Discovery Miles 1 030
The German Demonstratives - A Study in…
Lin Lin Hardcover R2,881 Discovery Miles 28 810
I Have Brown Skin and Curly Hair
Karen Theunissen Paperback R303 Discovery Miles 3 030
Insights into the Baltic and Finnic…
Helle Metslang, Miina Norvik, … Hardcover R1,744 Discovery Miles 17 440

 

Partners