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Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Cognition & cognitive psychology > General
Thirty-three of the top scholars in this fast moving domain present
a picture of work at the cusp in social psychology -- work that
deals with cognition and affect in close relationships. The present
volume contains a wealth of research findings and influential
theoretical accounts that spring as much from indigenous work in
the close relationship field as from purebred social cognition. The
chapters introduce theories and research programs concerned with
the role of individual and couple differences in close relationship
knowledge structures. They deal with the role of emotion and affect
in close relationships. And they discuss the function of cognition
and knowledge structures in relation to the developmental course of
close relationships. Each section is accompanied by a critical
review written by an expert in the field.
What is the basis of our ability to assign meanings to words or to
objects? Such questions have, until recently, been regarded as
lying within the province of philosophy and linguistics rather than
psychology. However, recent advances in psychology and
neuropsychology have led to the development of a scientific
approach to analysing the cognitive bases of semantic knowledge and
semantic representations. Indeed, theory and data on the
organisation and structure of semantic knowledge have now become
central and hotly debated topics in contemporary psychology.
Recently, research on the ways in which goals, affect, and
self-regulation influence one another has enjoyed an upsurge. New
findings are being published and new theories are being developed
to integrate these findings. This volume reports on the latest of
this work, including a substantial amount of data and theory that
has not yet been published. Emanating from a conference exploring
affect as both a cause and effect in various social contexts, this
book examines some of the complex and reciprocal relationships
among goals, self structures, feelings, thoughts, and behavior. The
chapters address:
The recent evolution of western societies has been characterized by
an increasing emphasis on information and communication. As the
amount of available information increases, however, the user --
worker, student, citizen -- faces a new problem: selecting and
accessing relevant information. More than ever it is crucial to
find efficient ways for users to interact with information systems
in a way that prevents them from being overwhelmed or simply
missing their targets. As a result, hypertext systems have been
developed as a means of facilitating the interactions between
readers and text. In hypertext, information is organized as a
network in which nodes are text chunks (e.g., lists of items,
paragraphs, pages) and links are relationships between the nodes
(e.g., semantic associations, expansions, definitions, examples --
virtually any kind of relation that can be imagined between two
text passages). Unfortunately, the many ways in which these
hypertext interfaces can be designed has caused a complexity that
extends far beyond the processing abilities of regular users.
Therefore, it has become widely recognized that a more rational
approach based on a thorough analysis of information users' needs,
capacities, capabilities, and skills is needed. This volume seeks
to meet that need.
The usual method for studying mental processes entails taking words
in linguistics -- or concepts in logic -- and establishing the
connections and relationships between them. Thus, the traditional
approach to semantic problems -- those of meaning and understanding
-- is through language. Most researchers agree that thought and
language are generated by deep-seated semantic structures
determined by the structure of the brain. Until now, however, all
attempts at constructing semantic models have been made on the
basis of linguistic material alone, without taking brain structure
into account. Analysis of these models shows them to be as
inadequate as those based on the method of the black box.
How are we to understand the complex forces that shape human behav ior? A variety of diverse perspectives, drawing on studies of human behavioral ontogeny, as well as humanity's evolutionary heritage, seem to provide the best likelihood of success. It is in an attempt to synthesize such potentially disparate approaches to human development into an integrated whole that we undertake this series on the genesis of beh- ior. In many respects, the incredible burgeoning of research in child development over the last two decades or so seems like a thousand lines of inquiry spreading outward in an incoherent starburst of effort. The need exists to provide, on an ongoing basis, an arena of discourse within which the threads of continuity among those diverse lines of research on human development can be woven into a fabric of meaning and under standing. Scientists, scholars, and those who attempt to translate their efforts into the practical realities of the care and guidance of infants and children are the audience that we seek to reach. Each requires the oppor tunity to see-to the degree that our knowledge in given areas per mits-various aspects of development in a coherent, integrated fashion. It is hoped that this series-which brings together research on infant biology, developing infant capacities, animal models, and impact of so cial, cultural, and familial forces on development, and the distorted products of such forces under certain circumstances-serves these important social and scientific needs."
The power of odors to unlock human memory is celebrated in
literature and anecdote, but poorly documented by science. Odors --
perhaps more than other stimuli -- are widely believed to evoke
vivid and complex past experiences easily. Yet in contrast to the
frequency with which odors are thought to evoke memories of the
past, scientific evidence is thus far scant.
This book tries to answer the question posed by Minsky at the
beginning of "The Society of Mind: " "to explain the mind, we have
to show how minds are built from mindless stuff, from parts that
are much smaller and simpler than anything we'd considered smart."
The author believes that cognition should not be rooted in innate
rules and primitives, but rather grounded in human memory. More
specifically, he suggests viewing linguistic comprehension as a
time-constrained process -- a race for building an interpretation
in short term memory.
Memory has long been ignored by rhetoricians because the written
word has made memorization virtually obsolete. Recently however, as
part of a revival of interest in classical rhetoric, scholars have
begun to realize that memory offers vast possibilities for today's
writers. Synthesizing research from rhetoric, psychology,
philosophy, and literary and composition studies, this volume
brings together many historical and contemporary theories of
memory. Yet its focus is clear: memory is a generator of knowledge
and a creative force which deserves attention at the beginning of
and throughout the writing process.
Introduced one hundred years ago, film has since become part of our
lives. For the past century, however, the experience offered by
fiction films has remained a mystery. Questions such as why adult
viewers cry and shiver, and why they care at all about fictional
characters -- while aware that they contemplate an entirely staged
scene -- are still unresolved. In addition, it is unknown why
spectators find some film experiences entertaining that have a
clearly aversive nature outside the cinema. These and other
questions make the psychological status of "emotions" allegedly
induced by the fiction film highly problematic.
Understanding how young children begin to make sense out of the social world has become a major concern within developmental psychology. Over the last 25 years research in this area has raised a number of questions which mirror the confluence of interests from cognitive-developmental and social-developmental psychology. The aims of this book are to consider critically the major themes and findings within this growing social-cognitive developmental research, and to present a new theoretical framework for investigating children's social cognitive skills. Beyond being the first major review of the literature in this area, this synopsis articulates why contemporary theoretical ideas (e.g. information processing, Piagetian and social interactionist) are unlikely ever to provide the conceptual basis for understanding children's participative skills. Building upon ideas both within and beyond mainstream developmental psychology, the "eco-structural" approach advocated seeks to draw together the advantages of the ecological approach in perceptual psychology with the considerable insights of the conversational analysts, child language researchers and Goffman's analysis of social interaction. This convergence is centred around the dynamic and participatory realities of engaging in conversational contexts, the locus for acquiring social cognitive skills. The framework provides the building blocks for models of developmental social cognition which can accommodate dynamic aspects of children's conversational skills. This book then is a review of an important area of developmental psychology, a new perspective on how we can study children's participatory social-cognitive skills and a summary of supporting research for the framework advocated.
Positive psychology-the study and promotion of character strengths, positive emotion, optimism, and resilience-has gained considerable momentum and support over the last 20 years. More recently, neuropsychology has begun to embrace related perspectives. In the first edition of Positive Neuropsychology, an extensive collection of perspectives from national leaders in neuropsychology clarified the importance of promoting cognitive health through various means. The present edition expands on the first edition, with four new chapters and updates of all previous chapters. Topics include the importance of physical, social, and intellectual engagement across the lifespan; nutrition and brain health; novel technologies used to maintain brain health and functional independence; compensating for and preventing cognitive limitations; and strategies to promote brain health in clinical and other settings. Chapters reveal not only the benefits of understanding cognitive health and optimal outcomes across the lifespan, but also emerging avenues for practitioners to expand their work into non-traditional settings. Bringing new dimensions to the neuroscience, wellness, and positive psychology literatures, Positive Neuropsychology will interest a wide range of academics and clinicians, including neuropsychologists, clinical and health psychologists, geriatricians, primary care physicians, cognitive neuroscientists, and other healthcare professionals.
This new, and heavily revised, edition of Psychopharmacology, provides a comprehensive scientific study of the effects of drugs on the mind and behaviour. With the growing prevalence of psychiatric and behavioral disorders and the rapid advances in the development of new drug therapies, this textbook offers an essential understanding of the necessary details of drug action. The book presents its coverage in the context of the behavioral disorders they are designed to treat, rather than by traditional drug classifications, to strengthen understanding of the underlying physiology and neurochemistry, as well as the approaches to treatment. Each disorder from the major diagnostic categories is discussed from a historical context along with diagnostic criteria and descriptions of typical cases. In addition, what we presently know about the underlying pathology of each disorder is carefully described. Providing a solid foundation in psychology, neuroanatomy and physiology, the book also offers a critical examination of drug claims, as well as coverage of evidence-based alternatives to traditional drug therapies. Throughout, this text discusses how drug effectiveness is measured in both human and animal studies. Topics new to this edition include: a stronger emphasis on the environmental impacts on drug effectiveness; more on the mechanisms of adverse reactions to drugs and information on managing drug side effects; the risks and benefits of using "mood stabilizing drugs" to address behavior in youth with ADHD or ASD; and discussion of the research-to-practice gap in pharmacological care for children and adolescents. Accompanied by a robust companion website of instructor materials, this textbook is ideal for undergraduate and pre-professional students on courses in Psychopharmacology, Clinical Psychopharmacology, Drugs and Behavior. It is a valuable contribution to highlight the symbiotic relationship between psychopharmacology and the neural and behavioral sciences.
This book provides the latest information about the development of
intersensory perception -- a topic which has recently begun to
receive a great deal of attention from researchers studying the
general problem of perceptual development. This interest was
inspired after the realization that unimodal perception of sensory
information is only the first stage of perceptual processing. Under
normal conditions, an organism is faced with multiple, multisensory
sources of information and its task is to either select a single
relevant source of information or select several sources of
information and integrate them. In general, perception and action
on the basis of multiple sources of information is more efficient
and effective. Before greater efficiency and effectiveness can be
achieved, however, the organism must be able to integrate the
multiple sources of information. By doing so, the organism can then
achieve a coherent and unified percept of the world.
How do young children bridge the gap between "writing" a story with
pictures and writing with words? How children learn to use written
words to tell a story is a topic important to both cognitive
development and early literacy instruction. Using the theoretical
framework developed by Vygotsky, the behavior of a group of
prekindergarten children as they author two consecutive pieces of
writing is analyzed. The children tell their stories at first with
spoken words and pictures. As they discuss their work-in-progress
in public conferences, they discover how to build on and combine
existing skills to produce a new skill -- telling stories with
written words.
Dementia diseases are the most common cause of severe mental deterioration in the world today, and expected changes in the population structure will inevitably result in a gradually increasing occurrence of dementia. One of the primary symptoms of dementia diseases is severe memory dysfunction. Knowledge about the ways in which dementia diseases affect memory increases our knowledge about the relationship between brain structures and memory functions, is imperative for early clinical diagnosis, and forms a basis for sound behavioral and pharmacological intervention. While the memory impairment in dementia has been known for more than 2000 years, the nature of this impairment is not yet completely understood. Research in this area has not, until quite recently, utilized theoretical and methodological advances from basic cognitive psychology. This volume gives a comprehensive treatment of this new and increasingly developing field of inquiry.
Intelligence allows people to understand events and to shape their surrounding environment. This book delves deeper into the theories and applications of intelligence, showing it is a multifaceted concept -defined and explained differently by prestigious experts of various disciplines in their own research. The book provides interdisciplinary connections of intelligence as it relates to a variety of clearly outlined subject areas, and should lead to a deep understanding of the phenomenon as it pertains to practical applications in different domains. Contributors in this volume present results from evolutionary biology, mathematics, artificial intelligence, medicine, psychology, cultural studies, economy, political sciences and philosophy. Individual scientific models are integrated in an interdisciplinary concept of wisdom. This volume will help enhance the common understanding of intelligence for fellow researchers and scientists alike.
This is an open access book which explores phenomenology as both an exceptionally diverse movement in philosophy as well as an active research method that crosses disciplinary boundaries. The volume brings together lively overviews of major areas and schools of phenomenology, as well as the most recent applications across a range of fields. The first part reviews the state-of-the-art in various areas of contemporary phenomenology, including several distinct schools of Husserl and Heidegger scholarship, as well as approaches derived from Merleau-Ponty, de Beauvoir, Fanon, and others. An innovative quantitative analysis of citation networks provides rich visualizations of the field as a whole. The second part showcases phenomenology as a living discipline that can advance research in other areas. While some areas of interaction between phenomenology and other disciplines are by now well established (e.g. cognitive science), this volume sheds light on newer areas of application. The goal is to move beyond discussions of philosophical method and highlight scholars who are actually doing phenomenology in a variety of areas, including:  Embodiment and questions of gender, race, and identity, The arts (visual art, literature, architecture), and Archaeology and anthropology.  This volume offers a concise introduction to cutting edge phenomenological research and is suitable for both students and specialists.Â
How do human beings comprehend, evaluate, and utilize the physical environments they inhabit? In this edited volume, a distinguished group of international contributers examines in detail the interconnections between what we know about, feel, and hope to accomplish in real world environments. Psychologists, planners, architects, and geographers discuss the state of knowledge in environmental cognition, building and landscape assessment, aesthetics, and decision-making. Gaps in our thinking about environmental issues are also discussed. The authors present an analysis of how our knowledge can be utilized in the design and planning of settings better suited to human needs. Of interest to psychologists, geographers, and environmental designers, Environment, Cognition, and Action examines the dynamic interplay of assessment, knowledge, and action of people in all settings relevant to daily life - home, school, office and industry.
This volume is a direct result of an international conference that
brought together a number of scholars from Europe and the United
States to discuss their ideas and research about cognitive and
instructional processes in history and the social sciences. As
such, it fills a major gap in the study of how people learn and
reason in the context of particular subject matter domains and how
instruction can be improved in order to facilitate better learning
and reasoning. Previous cognitive work on subject matter learning
has been focused primarily upon mathematics and physics; the
present effort provides the first such venture examining the
history and social science domains from a cognitive perspective.
Q: Why do organisms need cognition?
As Others See Us, first published in 1994 by Gordon &
Breach, is a book designed to introduce the reader to a new way of
thinking about the movements, both conscious and unconscious, that
we make every day and every second of our lives. Goldman describes
the human experience as a continuous stream of body movements,
though we are only aware of a small fraction of the more obvious
and intrusive physical acts. The aim of this book is first to
increase awareness of the subtleties and complexities of our body
language, and then to encourage the reader to perceive these
intricacies in their own movements and in those of others. Finally,
with a more complete understanding and appreciation for the power
of body language and non-verbal communication, one can achieve a
deeper connection between physical and intellectual spheres, to
allow for a fuller and more engaging experience of communication
and expression. This new knowledge of the human body's movements
not only permits one to more accurately perceive the emotions and
thoughts of others, but can allow a glimpse into one's own mind, to
see how we present ourselves to the world, and whether our thoughts
are in sync with our actions.
This volume investigates our ability to capture, and then apply,
expertise. In recent years, expertise has come to be regarded as an
increasingly valuable and surprisingly elusive resource. Experts,
who were the sole active dispensers of certain kinds of knowledge
in the days before AI, have themselves become the objects of
empirical inquiry, in which their knowledge is elicited and studied
-- by knowledge engineers, experimental psychologists, applied
psychologists, or other experts -- involved in the development of
expert systems. This book achieves a marriage between
experimentalists, applied scientists, and theoreticians who deal
with expertise. It envisions the benefits to society of an advanced
technology for capturing and disseminating the knowledge and skills
of the best corporate managers, the most seasoned pilots, and the
most renowned medical diagnosticians. This book should be of
interest to psychologists as well as to knowledge engineers who are
"out in the trenches" developing expert systems, and anyone
pondering the nature of expertise and the question of how it can be
elicited and studied scientifically. The book's scope and the
pivotal concepts that it elucidates and appraises, as well as the
extensive categorized bibliographies it includes, make this volume
a landmark in the field of expert systems and AI as well as the
field of applied experimental psychology.
The Oxford Handbook of Functional Brain Imaging in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neurosciences describes in a readily accessible manner the several functional neuroimaging methods and critically appraises their applications that today account for a large part of the contemporary cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology literature. The complexity and the novelty of these methods often cloud appreciation of the methods' contributions and future promise. The Handbook begins with an overview of the basic concepts of functional brain imaging common to all methods, and proceeds with a description of each of them, namely magnetoencephalography (MEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Its second part covers the various research applications of functional neuroimaging on issues like the function of the default mode network; the possibility and the utility of imaging of consciousness; the search for mnemonic traces of concepts; human will and decision-making; motor cognition; language; the mechanisms of affective states and pain; the presurgical mapping of the brain; and others. As such, the volume reviews the methods and their contributions to current research and comments on the degree to which they have enhanced our understanding of the relation between neurophysiological activity and sensory, motor, and cognitive functions. Moreover, it carefully considers realistic contributions of functional neuroimaging to future endeavors in cognitive neuroscience, medicine, and neuropsychology. |
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