Difficulties in motor behavior are commonly associated with a variety of disabilities. Early research efforts focused on descriptions of specific groups of people or on evaluations of intervention programs. Only recently have investigators begun to explore questions from a variety of theoretical positions in an attempt to build a more fundamental understanding of the disabled person. The present volume represents views of major methodological issues, current research fronts and selected applied concerns from the perspective of the disabled performer. Authors write from a number of theoretical viewpoints and sketch future research directions in these chapters.

Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, architecture and geography, and international contributors, this volume offers both students and scholars with an interest in the interdisciplinary study of childhood a range of ways of thinking spatially about children's lives.

Chance, in addition to the unavoidable ambiguity caused by time, is one of the main guilty parties in the transmission of ancient texts - or lack thereof. However, the same cannot be said for what concerns the mechanisms of selection and loss of historical and literary memory, where the voluntary awareness of obscuring is often part of a precise aim, thus leading the cultural memory of a literate society to become fragmented. The present volume explores the devices and criteria of selection and loss in Ancient and Medieval texts and the subsequent fragmentation of such literature, but it also addresses the questions of the damnatio memoriae, of literary strategies such as reticence and omission, as well as of known texts deemed lost but re-found thanks to state-of-the-art methods in digitization. The many and diverse nuances of the concepts of omission, selection, and loss throughout Ancient and Medieval literature and history are illustrated through a number of case studies in the four sections of this volume, each examining a different facet of the topic: 'Mechanisms and criteria of textual loss and selection', 'Lost texts re-discovered', 'Voluntary omissions and desire for oblivion', and 'Re-working the known'.

This volume combines psycholinguistic experiments with typological investigations in order to provide a comprehensive exploration of the linguistic structure of verb-number agreement in bilingual speakers, with a particular focus on the Turkish language. It takes as its starting point the question of which linguistic structures pose difficulties for bilingual speakers, and then proceeds to evaluate the question by using the interface phenomenon of optional verb number agreement. In doing so, this volume investigates how the bilingual mind handles grammatical structures that demand high processing sources, working towards a processing-based linguistic framework for the bilingual mind. Beginning with a thorough survey of the current research of the interface phenomenon in the bilingual mind, the volume then proceeds to present two separate studies on each linguistic interface type, namely semantics-syntax interface and syntax-pragmatics interface, thus filling a number of gaps in the bilingualism research with regards to the interface phenomenon The results and conclusions of these studies are then integrated with current knowledge and research from the field within a theoretical and processing-based framework in order to explore new psycholinguistic insights for the bilingual mind, specifically the conclusion that the grammar of bilingual speakers is shaped according to cross linguistic tendencies. Ultimately, it provides a unified account and a comprehensive conclu sion regarding the non-native-like patterns in grammar of bilingual speakers. Serving as a fascinating and timely resource, Competing Structures in the Bilingual Mind: An Investigation of Optional Verb Number Agreement will appeal to bilingualism researchers, clinical linguists, cognitive scientists, experimental linguists, and any linguist specializing in Turkic or Altaic languages.

Development of Mathematical Cognition: Neural Substrates and Genetic Influences reviews advances in extant imaging modalities and the application of brain stimulation techniques for improving mathematical learning. It goes on to explore the role genetics and environmental influences have in the development of math abilities and disabilities. Focusing on the neural substrates and genetic factors associated with both the typical and atypical development of mathematical thinking and learning, this second volume in the Mathematical Cognition and Learning series integrates the latest in innovative measures and methodological advances from the top researchers in the field.

Scientific research shows how experience shapes the organization of the human brain through mechanisms of neural plasticity, which capture the information of the world within the connections among neurons. To understand this plasticity, it is important to look to the developmental mechanisms through which the brain grows from a single cell in embryogenesis to achieve the complex architecture of the human brain. The process of neural morphogenesis involves exuberant formation of neuronal connections, and then subtractive elimination of unused connections. This process is continued after birth, providing the neural plasticity of learning that allows cognitive development in infancy and childhood. Recognizing this continuity suggests an interesting insight; cognition is a reflection of neural development throughout the life span. With this insight, the authors of Cognition and Neural Development examine the embryonic development of the brain to appreciate the dimensions of developmental momentum that shape the neural and psychological development of our lives. Human brain embryogenesis involves gradients of trophic factors that guide the migration of neurons from ventricular proliferative zones to organize the architecture of the cerebral hemispheres. The architecture of human cognition involves a functional differentiation of dorsal (pyramidal) and ventral (granular) corticolimbic divisions. This differentiation is a defining feature of not just human but mammalian neuroanatomy, The separation of pyramidal and granular cortical architectures appeared with the evolution of the six-layered mammalian neocortex from the three-layered primitive general cortex of reptiles and amphibians. The functional differentiation of the dorsal and ventral divisions of the cerebral hemispheres has been shown to be integral to multiple levels of psychological function, from elementary motivation to the most complex forms of executive self-regulation. Through an evolutionary-developmental analysis of cortical differentiation, the authors approach the basic questions of psychological function in novel ways.

This Oxford Handbook offers a comprehensive and authoritative review of important developments in computational and mathematical psychology. With chapters written by leading scientists across a variety of subdisciplines, it examines the field's influence on related research areas such as cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, and neuroscience. The Handbook emphasizes examples and applications of the latest research, and will appeal to readers possessing various levels of modeling experience. The Oxford Handbook of Computational and mathematical Psychology covers the key developments in elementary cognitive mechanisms (signal detection, information processing, reinforcement learning), basic cognitive skills (perceptual judgment, categorization, episodic memory), higher-level cognition (Bayesian cognition, decision making, semantic memory, shape perception), modeling tools (Bayesian estimation and other new model comparison methods), and emerging new directions in computation and mathematical psychology (neurocognitive modeling, applications to clinical psychology, quantum cognition). The Handbook would make an ideal graduate-level textbook for courses in computational and mathematical psychology. Readers ranging from advanced undergraduates to experienced faculty members and researchers in virtually any area of psychology-including cognitive science and related social and behavioral sciences such as consumer behavior and communication-will find the text useful.

This volume is unique in integrating different domains of psychology, at both theoretical and empirical levels of analysis, in order to understand the development of the human mind. Perspectives include comparative, cultural, and developmental psychology, in addition to neuropsychology. Contributors in this edited collection emphasize both the collective nature of human cognition and the impossibility of separating individuals from their sociocultural environments. They also explain how participation in culture leads to radical changes in an individual's psychological makeup. This volume may also be of interest to anthropologists, philosophy scholars, and semioticians.

Major topics include:

Human Development from the Perspective of Comparative Psychology

Culture in the Developing or Regressing Brain

Cultural Perspective on the Human Development

The Role of Culture in Child Development

This is the proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition (DCC'18) held at the Polytecnico di Milano in Italy. This volume presents both advances in theory and applications and demonstrates the depth and breadth of design computing and design cognition. Design thinking, the label given to the acts of designing, has become a paradigmatic view that has transcended the discipline of design and is now widely used in business and elsewhere. As a consequence there is an increasing interest in design research. This volume contains papers that represent the state-of-the-art research and developments in design computing and design cognition. This book is of particular interest to researchers, developers and users of advanced computation in design and those who need to gain a better understanding of designing that can be obtained through empirical studies.

The ways in which human action and rationality are guided by norms are well documented in philosophy and neighboring disciplines. But how do norms shape the way we experience the world perceptually? The present volume explores this question and investigates the specific normativity inherent to perception.

A comprehensive analysis of current theory and research in the psychological, computational, and neural sciences elucidates the stuctures and processes of language and thought. Chapters discuss language comprehension and artificial intelligence, ARCS system for analogical retrieval, ACME model of analogical mapping, PAULINE, an artificial intelligence system for pragmatic language generation, a theory of understanding of spoken and written text, recent developments and effect of different modes of language representation on the efficiency of information processing. This book will be of interest to professionals and scholars in psychology, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science.

Video games have become an increasingly ubiquitous part of society due to the proliferation and use of mobile devices. Video Games and Creativity explores research on the relationship between video games and creativity with regard to play, learning, and game design. It answers such questions as: Can video games be used to develop or enhance creativity? Is there a place for video games in the classroom? What types of creativity are needed to develop video games? While video games can be sources of entertainment, the role of video games in the classroom has emerged as an important component of improving the education system. The research and development of game-based learning has revealed the power of using games to teach and promote learning. In parallel, the role and importance of creativity in everyday life has been identified as a requisite skill for success.

The author describes the structure and function of the human brain as it pertains to memory.

David Henderson and Terence Horgan set out a broad new approach to epistemology, which they see as a mixed discipline, having both a priori and empirical elements. They defend the roles of a priori reflection and conceptual analysis in philosophy, but their revisionary account of these philosophical methods allows them a subtle but essential empirical dimension. They espouse a dual-perspective position which they call iceberg epistemology, respecting the important differences between epistemic processes that are consciously accessible and those that are not. Reflecting on epistemic justification, they introduce the notion of transglobal reliability as the mark of the cognitive processes that are suitable for humans. Which cognitive processes these are depends on contingent facts about human cognitive capacities, and these cannot be known a priori.

Creativity and design creativity in particular are being recognized as playing an increasing role in the social and economic wellbeing of a society. As a consequence creativity is becoming a focus of research. However, much of this burgeoning research is distributed across multiple disciplines that normally do not intersect with each other and researchers in one discipline are often unaware of related research in another discipline. This volume brings together contributions from design science, computer science, cognitive science and neuroscience on studying visual and spatial reasoning applicable to design creativity. The book is the result of a unique NSF-funded workshop held in Aix-en-Provence, France. The aim of the workshop and the resulting volume was to allow researchers in disparate disciplines to be exposed to the other's research, research methods and research results within the context of design creativity. Fifteen of the papers presented and discussed at the workshop are contained in this volume. The contributors come from Germany, Israel, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, UK and USA, indicating the international spread of the research presented in this volume.

Biologists have known for decades that many traits involved in competition for mates or other resources and that influence mate choice are exaggerated, and their expression is influenced by the individuals' ability to tolerate a variety of environmental and social stressors. Evolution of Vulnerability applies this concept of heightened sensitivity to humans for a host of physical, social, psychological, cognitive, and brain traits. By reframing the issue entirely, renowned evolutionary psychologist David C. Geary demonstrates this principle can be used to identify children, adolescents, or populations at risk for poor long-term outcomes and identify specific traits in each sex and at different points in development that are most easily disrupted by exposure to stressors. Evolution of Vulnerability begins by reviewing the expansive literature on traits predicted to show sex-specific sensitivity to environmental and social stressors, and details the implications for better assessing and understanding the consequences of exposure to these stressors. Next, the book reviews sexual selection-mate competition and choice-and the mechanisms involved in the evolution of condition dependent traits and the stressors that can undermine their development and expression, such as poor early nutrition and health, parasites, social stress, and exposure to man-made toxins. Then it reviews condition dependent traits (physical, behavioral, cognitive, and brain) in birds, fish, insects, and mammals to demonstrate the ubiquity of these traits in nature. The focus then turns to humans and covers sex-specific vulnerabilities in children and adults for physical traits, social behavior, psychological wellbeing, and brain and cognitive traits. The sensitivity of these traits is related to exposure to parasites, poor nutrition, social maltreatment, environmental toxins, chemotherapy, and Alzheimer's disease, among others. The book concludes with an implications chapter that outlines how to better assess vulnerabilities in children and adults and how to more fully understand how, why, and when in development some types of environmental and social stressors are particularly harmful to humans.

This book contains a number of chapters on the control and execution of skilled movements, as well as more general chapters on theoretical issues in skilled performance. The contributors have summarised their most recent research, and general themes and issues are presented in discussion chapters at the end of each section, thus providing a good general summary of the kind of research and theoretical frameworks developing in this area. The first section is concerned with the theoretical issues of programming and co-ordination. Issues raised in the second section are basic to much of the research reviewed in the volume. This section summarises the various theoretical positions in the recent debates on the role of cognitive processes in motor control and the usefulness of the ``psychomotor'' approach, and contains chapters based on individual papers which present relevant empirical findings. The third section deals with the learning and performance of skilled movements, containing papers with practical implications for everyday skills. The final section contains chapters on cognitive processes in skilled performance.

The scientific study of the human mind and brain has come of age with the advent of technologically advanced methods for imaging brain structure and activity in health and disease, plus computational theories of cognition. These advances are leading to sophisticated new accounts for how mental processes are implemented in the human brain, but they also raise new challenges.
Mental Processes in the Human Brain provides an integrative overview of the rapid advances and future challenges in understanding the neurobiological basis of mental processes that are characteristically (and in some cases, perhaps uniquely) human, including: language; thought; understanding of others; attention; planning and decision-making; emotion; memory; prediction; and awareness itself. It also presents the latest insights into how these various processes can break down after brain injury. With chapters from some of leading figures in the brain sciences, this book will be essential for all those in the cognitive and brain sciences.