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Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Experimental psychology
Traditional theories of associative learning have found no place for the possibility that an individual's perception of events might change as a result of experience. Evidence for the reality of perceptual learning has come from procedures unlike those studied by learning theorists. The work reviewed in this book shows that learned changes in perceptual organization can in fact be demonstrated, even in experiments using procedures (such as conditioning and simple discrimination learning) which form the basis of associative theories. These results come from procedures that have been the focus of detailed theoretical and empirical analysis; and from this analysis emerges an outline of the mechanisms responsible. Some of these are associative, others require the addition of nonassociative mechanisms to the traditional theory. The result is an extended version of associative theory which, it is argued, will be relevant not only to the experimental procedures discussed in this book but to the entire range of instances of perceptual learning. For psychologists interested in the basic mechanisms of conditioning, perception, and learning, this volume provides an up-to-date, critical review of the field.
Written by a distinguished experimental psychologist, this authoritative volume provides a clear, well-balanced, and comprehensive treatment of the mathematical theory of human response time and the role it plays in our understanding of the mind's structure. Focusing on the conceptual issues entailed in the modelling of response time, Professor Luce rigorously reviews the relevant experimental data and discusses the importance of analyzing data in terms of the hazard function.
Interoception is the body-to-brain axis of sensations that originates from the internal body and visceral organs. It plays a unique role in ensuring homeostasis, allowing human beings to experience and perceive the state of their bodies at any one time. However, interoception is rapidly gaining interest amongst those studying the human mind. It is believed that beyond homeostasis interoception is fundamental in understanding human emotion and motivation and their impact upon behavior. That link between interoception and self-awareness is supported by a growing body of experimental findings. The Interoceptive Mind: From Homeostasis to Awareness offers a state-of-the-art overview of, and insights into, the role of interoception for mental life, awareness, subjectivity, affect, and cognition. Structured across three parts, this multidisciplinary volume highlights the role that interoceptive signals, and our awareness of them, play in our mental life. It considers deficits in interoceptive processing and awareness in various mental health conditions. But it also considers the equally important role of interoception for well-being, approaching interoception from both a theoretical and a philosophical perspective. Written by leading experts in their fields, all chapters within this volume share a common concern for what it means to experience oneself, for the crucial role of emotions, and for issues of health and wellbeing. Each of those concerns is discussed on the joint basis of our bodily existence and interoception. The research presented here will undoubtedly accelerate the much-anticipated coming of age of interoceptive research in psychology, cognitive neurosciences and philosophy, making this vital reading for anyone working in those fields.
We tend to think about memory in terms of the human experience, neglecting the fact that we can trace a direct line of descent from the earliest vertebrates to modern humans. But the evolutionary history that we share with other vertebrates has left a mark on modern memory, complemented by unique forms of memory that emerged in humans. This book tells an intriguing story about how evolution shaped human memory. It explains how a series of now-extinct ancestral species adapted to life in their world, in their time and place. As they did, new brain areas appeared, each of which supported an innovative form of memory that helped them gain an advantage in life. Through inheritance and modification across millions of years, these evolutionary developments created several kinds of memory that influence the human mind today. Then, during human evolution, yet another new kind of memory emerged: about ourselves and others. This evolutionary innovation ignited human imagination; empowered us to remember and talk about a personal past; and enabled the sharing of knowledge about our world, our culture, and ourselves. Through these developments, our long journey along the evolutionary road to human memory made it possible for every individual, day upon day, to add new pages to the story of a life: the remarkably rich record of experiences and knowledge that make up a human mind. Written in an engaging and accessible style, The Evolutionary Road to Human Memory will be enjoyable reading for anyone interested in the human mind.
Ranging from behavioral to molecular levels of analysis, this informative study presents the results of recent research into the biochemistry and neural mechanisms of imprinting. Horn discusses some of the difficulties that researchers have encountered in analyzing the neural basis of memory and describes ways in which these difficulties have been overcome through the analysis of memories underlying habituation and imprinting. He also considers the biochemical consequences of imprinting and its cerebral localization, and examines the relationships between human and animal memory.
Elements of Episodic Memory was a seminal text in the memory literature, highly cited and influential. It has been unavailable for some years, but is now back in print as in its original form, with this reissue. The book examines the critical role that retrieval processes play in remembering. It proposes that the nature of recollective experience is determined by the interaction between the 'episodic' trace information and the 'semantic' retrieval information. This basic theme is elaborated by tracing the development of the ideas considering relevant empirical evidence, relating a proposed theoretical framework to the ideas held by other theorists, and dealing with criticisms advanced by others. These issues are discussed from two perspectives. Firstly, from the point of view of 'detached science': the emphasis here is on ideas, hypotheses, evidence, logic and theory. The second is a personal commentary on the development of ideas at the first viewpoint, and provides observations about the psychology and sociology of a developing science.
Technological advances have led to an abundance of widely-available data on every aspect of life today. Psychologists today have more information than ever before on human cognition, emotion, attitudes, and behavior. Big Data in Psychological Research addresses the opportunities and challenges and that this data presents to psychological researchers. This edited collection provides an overview of theoretical approaches to the utility and purpose of Big Data, approaches to research design and analysis, collection methods, applications, limitations, best practice recommendations, and key issues related to privacy, security, and ethical concerns that are essential to understand for anyone working with big data. The book also discusses potential future research directions aimed at improving the quality and interpretation of big data projects, as well as the training and evaluation of psychological science teams that conduct research using big data.
Coming to work sick may do more harm than staying home - for the employee, the team, and the firm. Whilst the cost of absenteeism in organizations has been widely acknowledged and extensively examined, the counter-issue of 'presenteeism' has only recently attracted scholarly attention as a phenomenon that harms employee wellbeing, disrupts team dynamism, and damages productivity. This volume brings together leading international scholars from diverse scientific backgrounds, including occupational psychology, health, and medicine, to provide a pioneering review of the subject. International in scope, the collection incorporates both Western and East Asian perspectives, making it an informative resource for multinational companies seeking to formulate human resource strategies and better manage their culturally diverse workforce. It will also appeal to scholars and graduate students researching human resource management, organization studies, organizational health, and organizational psychology.
PsychoPy is an open-source software package for creating rich, dynamic experiments in psychology, neuroscience and linguistics. Written by its creator, this book walks you through the steps of building experiments in PsychoPy, from using images to discovering lesser-known features, and from analysing data to debugging your experiment. Divided into three parts and with unique extension exercises to guide you at whatever level you are at, this textbook is the perfect tool for teaching practical undergraduate classes on research methods, as well as acting as a comprehensive reference text for the professional scientist. Essential reading for anyone using PsychoPy software, the second edition has been fully updated and includes multiple new chapters about features included in recent versions of PsychoPy, including running studies online and collecting survey data. Part I teaches you all the basic skills you need (and some more advanced tips along the way) to design experiments in behavioral sciences. Each chapter introduces anew concept but will offer a series of working experiments that you can build on. Part II presents more details important for professional scientists intending to use PsychoPy for published research. This part is recommended reading for science professionals in any discipline. Part III covers a range of specialist topics, such as those doing fMRI research, or those studying visual perception. "This book fills an incredibly important gap in the field. Many users of PsychoPy will be excited to learn that there is now a highly accessible and well-designed written guide to refine their skills." - Susanne Quadflieg, University of Bristol
Executive functions are a set of cognitive processes we use to act on information, manage resources, and plan and monitor our own behaviour, all with the aim of achieving an end goal. These are skills that develop from infancy. While 'reading' has been extensively studied in psychology literature, 'writing' has been somewhat neglected, despite a lack of capability in this area being linked to poverty and social exclusion. This book is the first comprehensive and state-of-the-art review of the relationship between executive function skills and writing. It explores its role across the lifespan, addressing all groups of writers, from children and those with learning and language difficulties, to adults and elders. It considers theoretical viewpoints, assessment and methodological issues, and developmental disorders, and closes with insightful commentary chapters that draw future directions for investigating executive functions. Written by internationally recognized scholars in the field, this is a new and innovative contribution which will provide essential reading among researchers, educators, and graduate students interested in understanding the cognitive underpinnings of writing throughout the lifespan
Memory is typically thought of as a set of neural representations - 'memory traces' - that must be found and reactivated in order to be experienced. It is often suggested that 'memory traces' are represented by a hierarchically organized system of analyzers, modified, sharpened and differentiated by encounters with successive events. Remembering: An activity of mind and brain is the magnum opus of one of the leading figures in the psychology of memory. It sets out Fergus Craik's current view of human memory as a dynamic activity of mind and brain. The author argues that remembering should be understood as a system of active cognitive processes, similar to (perhaps identical to) the processes underlying attending, perceiving and thinking. Thus, encoding processes are essentially viewed as the mental activities involved in perceiving and understanding, and retrieval is described as the partial reactivation of these same processes. This account proposes that episodic and semantic memory should be thought of as levels in a continuum of specificity rather than as separate systems of memory. In addition, the book presents Craik's views on working memory and on age-related memory impairments. In the latter case the losses are attributed largely to a difficulty with the self-initiation of appropriate encoding and retrieval operations compensated, when needed, by support from the external environment. The development of these ideas is discussed throughout the book and illustrated substantially by experiments from the author's lab, but also by empirical and theoretical contributions from other researchers. A broad account of current ideas and findings in contemporary memory research, but viewed from the author's personal theoretical standpoint, Remembering: An activity of mind and brain will be essential for researchers, graduate and postdoctoral students working in the field of human memory.
A successor to the acclaimed 'Neurobiology of the Prefrontal Cortex', 'Understanding the Prefrontal Cortex' presents a careful study of the anatomical connections in this brain region, showing how each area and subarea of the brain has a unique pattern of connections, and exploring the transformation that this area performs - from its inputs to it outputs. The book starts with two chapters of foundational material, before considering five subdivisions of the prefrontal cortex, and looking at the transformation that each one performs. Next it considers how the prefrontal cortex interacts with the rest of the brain, including not only cortical areas but also subcortical areas such as the basal ganglia and cerebellum. The book ends with a final section in which these principles are applied to the human brain. It starts by discussing the expansion of the prefrontal cortex during human evolution. It then considers how the human brain has co-opted mechanisms that existed in our primate ancestors, and by providing new inputs had extended them so as to support reasoning, remembering events from the distant past and imagining events in the distant future, the sense of self, language, the ability to understand the mental states of others, and the ability to cooperate and learn social and moral rules. Written by a leading brain scientist, the book will be an important and influential contribution to the neuroscience literature.
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.
What difference is there between the visual experience of watching the moon in the sky and the visual experience of seeing a snake slither by your foot? It is easy to believe our interpretation of the world is split into a binary mode, between the bodily self and everything outside it. There is, however, a buffer zone in the immediate surrounding of the body, known as peripersonal space, in which boundaries are blurred. The notion of peripersonal space calls into question not only our entrenched theories of perception, but also has major implications on the way we perceive personal and social awareness. Research has yielded a vast array of exciting discoveries on peripersonal space, across a variety of disciplines: ethology, social psychology, anthropology, neurology, psychiatry, and cognitive neuroscience. The World at Our Fingertips: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of Peripersonal Space brings these perspectives together for the first time, as well as introducing a philosophical dialogue to the questions. Edited by a team of leading psychologists and philosophers in the fields of peripersonal space and bodily awareness, this comprehensive volume presents the reader with a fresh, accessible dialogue between authorities from vastly different areas of thought.
Dieses kleine Lehrbuch erklart Ihnen die wichtigste Forschungsmethode der Psychologie - das Experiment - schnell, einfach und alltagsnah. Damit ist es der perfekte Begleiter, um das Experimentalpsychologische Praktikum, welches Ihnen in nahezu jedem Psychologiestudiengang begegnet, erfolgreich zu gestalten. So verstehen, planen und erstellen Sie ein Experiment, und diese Dinge sollten Sie bei der Durchfuhrung berucksichtigen. Ein grosser Teil des Buchs erklart Ihnen ausserdem ausfuhrlich, wie Sie schlaue experimentelle Designs mit Open-Source-Software programmieren, ohne dass Sie ein Hacker-Genie sein oder werden mussen. So sind Sie fur Ihr Experimentalpsychologisches Praktikum bestens ausgestattet und koennen jedes Experiment, das Sie im Laufe Ihrer akademischen Laufbahn erstellen mussen, problemlos meistern!
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 conception 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.
A Guide to Clinical Supervision: The Supervision Pyramid provides a combined view of theory and research-based, step-by-step guidelines for conducting supervision. This book focuses on one main tool, The Supervision Pyramid, a clear and dynamic model covering multifacets of the supervisory process. It provides readers with a system of competencies within the current framework of competency based learning and evaluations within training standards. Case examples, sample forms, questions for reflection and group activities are included throughout the book. Each chapter connects the Supervision Pyramid with practical activities, while also providing a detailed summary at the end of each chapter.
Working memory refers to how we keep track of what we are doing moment to moment throughout our waking lives. It allows us to remember what we have just done, focus on what we are doing now, to solve problems, be creative, think about what we will be doing in the next few seconds, and continually to update in our mind changes around us throughout the day. This book brings together in one volume, state-of-the-science chapters written by the most productive and well known working memory researchers worldwide. Chapters cover different approaches to understanding how working memory works, using behavioural experimental techniques, neuroimaging, computational modelling, how it changes from childhood through to healthy old age, how it is affected by dementia and brain damage, and how it is used in everyday life. A unique feature of the book is that each chapter starts with answers to a set of common questions for all authors. This allows readers very rapidly to compare key differences in theoretical assumptions and approaches to working memory across chapters, and to understand the theoretical context before going on to read each chapter in detail. Uniquely, all authors consider evidence that is not consistent with their theoretical assumptions, whereas it is common for authors to ignore contradictory evidence. This approach leads to new interpretations and new hypotheses to test in future research and greatly enhances our understanding of this crucial human ability. Written and edited by the leading researchers in the field, the book will be an important and influential addition to the memory literature.
According to the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 14.4 million adults aged 18 and older had alcohol use disorder (AUD). Mixing alcohol with other drugs such as opioids or cocaine has become an emerging trend, exacerbating public health concerns and may synergistically augment the seriousness of the adverse effects such as withdrawal symptoms, cardiovascular disorders, liver damage, reproductive abnormalities, and behavioral abnormalities. Despite the seriousness of the situation, possible mechanisms underlying the addiction and the withdrawal symptoms is not yet understood. This has been one of the key hindrances in developing effective treatment. Neurobiology of Alcohol and the Brain addresses the addiction-related problems reviewing both the mechanisms and withdrawal system with alcohol addiction. First, the book discusses the mechanisms of the rewarding and aversive effects, including addiction and the withdrawal symptoms of alcohol drinking. Next, alcohol's interaction with other drugs and ensuing adverse consequences is discussed including current and novel treatments against alcoholism. This is followed by a closer look at mental health and alcohol use disorder comorbidity. Lastly, the reader is provided with examples of an experimental study that describes possible protective effects of gold nanoparticles against alcohol addiction in rats subjected to alcohol self-administration. Neurobiology of Alcohol and the Brain will unlock the mechanistic diversities of alcoholism helping to facilitate future developments of new, personalized treatment options for patients suffering from alcohol addiction.
Du suchst eine kompakte Zusammenfassung der zentralen Grundlagenfacher der Psychologie - weil Du den Stoff wiederholen moechtest oder weil die Zeit vor der Prufung nicht mehr fur ein dickeres Buch reicht? Dieses Lernskript fasst die prufungsrelevanten Facts der Allgemeinen-, Sozial-, Entwicklungs-, Persoenlichkeits- und Bio-Psychologie in ubersichtlichen Stichworten und Abbildungen zusammen. Es gibt einen vollstandigen UEberblick uber jedes Fach, ist reduziert auf das, was wirklich wichtig ist und liest sich leicht und verstandlich! Moeglich wurde dies durch eine einzigartige Kooperation zwischen einer (Ex-)Studentin und ihren Professoren: Franziska Schmithusen fasste die Vorlesungsinhalte und Publikationen ihrer Professoren fur die eigenen Prufungen zusammen - die Dozenten pruften und bearbeiteten die entstandenen Kapitel. Damit lernst Du schnell und sicher: Schnell wie mit einem "Skript" - und sicher, weil alles von den Experten auf Herz und Nieren gepruft wurde. - An echten Prufungen getestet! Fur Psychologiestudierende im Bachelorstudium und Nebenfachstudierende.
The topic of autobiographical memory has held a prominent role in memory research for the past 30 years, as it has proven indispensable to the understanding of human memory and cognition. An important focus of autobiographical memory research is uncovering the basic structure, nature, and organization of the autobiographical memory system. This book explores the organization and structure of autobiographical memory. Based on over thirty years of research, and the latest empirical findings, it presents the major theories and problems in the science of autobiographical memory organization. At its core are two influential global views on the organization, structure, and function of autobiographical memory (chapters 2 and 3). In addition, the volume examines the organization of autobiographical memory from a developmental perspective (chapter 4). It includes a chapter examining the neuroscience of autobiographical memory organization (chapter 7), and a chapter examining organization from a functional perspective (chapter 6). Also covered is the role of culture in forming autobiographical memory (chapter 5), the role of the self in organizing autobiographical memory (chapter 8), insights from the reminiscence bump on organization (chapter 9), and a chapter on the organization of episodic autobiographical memories (chapter 10). For students and researcher with an interest in memory, the volume is a timely and important addition to their literature.
Interest in machine learning is exploding worldwide, both in research and for industrial applications. Machine learning is fast becoming a fundamental part of everyday life. This book is a brief introduction to this area - exploring its importance in a range of many disciplines, from science to engineering, and even its broader impact on our society. The book is written in a style that strikes a balance between brevity of explanation, rigorous mathematical argument, and outlines principle ideas. At the same time, it provides a comprehensive overview of a variety of methods and their application within this field. This includes an introduction to Bayesian approaches to modeling, as well as deep learning. Writing small programs to apply machine learning techniques is made easy by high level programming systems, and this book shows examples in Python with the machine learning libraries 'sklearn' and 'Keras'. The first four chapters concentrate on the practical side of applying machine learning techniques. The following four chapters discuss more fundamental concepts that includes their formulation in a probabilistic context. This is followed by two more chapters on advanced models, that of recurrent neural networks and that of reinforcement learning. The book closes with a brief discussion on the impact of machine learning and AI on our society. Fundamentals of Machine Learning provides a brief and accessible introduction to this rapidly growing field, one that will appeal to students and researchers across computer science and computational neuroscience, as well as the broader cognitive sciences.
While the field of vision science has grown significantly in the past three decades, there have been few comprehensive books that showed readers how to adopt a computional approach to understanding visual perception, along with the underlying mechanisms in the brain. Understanding Vision explains the computational principles and models of biological visual processing, and in particular, of primate vision. The book is written in such a way that vision scientists, unfamiliar with mathematical details, should be able to conceptually follow the theoretical principles and their relationship with physiological, anatomical, and psychological observations, without going through the more mathematical pages. For those with a physical science background, especially those from machine vision, this book serves as an analytical introduction to biological vision. It can be used as a textbook or a reference book in a vision course, or a computational neuroscience course for graduate students or advanced undergraduate students. It is also suitable for self-learning by motivated readers. in addition, for those with a focused interest in just one of the topics in the book, it is feasible to read just the chapter on this topic without having read or fully comprehended the other chapters. In particular, Chapter 2 presents a brief overview of experimental observations on biological vision; Chapter 3 is on encoding of visual inputs, Chapter 5 is on visual attentional selection driven by sensory inputs, and Chapter 6 is on visual perception or decoding. Including many examples that clearly illustrate the application of computational principles to experimental observations, Understanding Vision is valuable for students and researchers in computational neuroscience, vision science, machine and computer vision, as well as physicists interested in visual processes.
From childhood to millennials and beyond, it is essential we take a life-course approach to occupation and work when in pain. Written by experts in the field, Work and pain: A lifespan development approach provides an authoritative summary and analysis of the relationship between all forms of occupation and pain. Divided into three sections, 'Foundations', provides a critical account of the nature of work and of pain. The next section, 'Investigations', analyses the bi-directional relationships between children living with chronic pain and parents; between being a child in pain and schooling; what it is to be a millennial in pain; the implications of pain which is determined to be occupational in origin; and enabling a life lived well with pain as one ages. The final section, 'Interventions', critically reviews what individuals can change, what workplaces can do, and how governments can innovate to try to maximise workability for people living with pain in the context of current working practices. Work and pain: A lifespan development approach investigates and guides the reader on understanding how and why people seek to be occupied, and how we can maximise their social and personal involvement when living with ongoing pain, suggesting ways forward in research, practice, and policy. |
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