Surely you've experienced it before: you're listening to a piece of music and all of a sudden you find a lump in your throat, a tear in your eye, or a chill down your spine.

Whether it's Beethoven's Choral Symphony or The Verve's 'Bittersweet Symphony', a bit of blues or a bit of baroque, music has the power to move us. It's a language which we all speak. But why does it have this effect on us? What is going on, emotionally, physically and cognitively when listeners have strong emotional responses to music? What, if anything, do such responses mean? Can they tell us anything about ourselves?

Jeanette Bicknell uses research in philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology to address these questions, ultimately showing us that the reason why some music tends to arouse powerful experiences in listeners is inseparable from the reason why any music matters at all. Musical experience is a social one, and that is fundamental to its attractions and power over us.

Tasting and Smelling presents a comprehensive overview to research on these two important modes of perception. The book offers a review of research findings on the biophysics, neurophysiology, and psychophysicsof both senses, as well as discussing the emotional component associated with taste and smell, and clinical disorders affecting each of these two senses. Tasting and Smelling answers how odors and flavors are perceived, why we have favorites, and what happens when our senses go awry. This book is of interest to the researcher in perception, cognition, or neurophysiology.

Human and organizational factors have a substantial impact on the performance of planning and scheduling processes. Despite widespread and advanced decision support systems, human decision makers are still crucial to improve the operational performance in manufacturing industries. In this text, the state of the art in this area is discussed by experts from a wide variety of engineering and social science disciplines. Moreover, recent results from collaborative studies and a number of field cases are presented. The text is targeted at researchers and graduate students, but is also particularly useful for managers, consultants, and system developers to better understand how human performance can be advanced.

Political Communication and Cognition draws on a range of theories from communication psychology to explain how citizens receive communication about politics, how communication might make a citizen think and importantly what stimulates political participation, whether simply paying attention, chatting online or going to vote.

Human Performance in Complex Systems introduces readers to the theory of complex systems, examining the role of humans within larger systems and the factors that affect human performance. Sections review the history of one particularly fruitful approach to complexity, providing an overview of complexity science that also discusses our current understanding of complex systems in a variety of domains, including physical, biological, mechanical and organizational. The author also introduces the idea that there are similarities between the successful architecture and control of both biological and organizational systems. Case studies concerning failures and successes within complex systems are also included. The book concludes by using the preceding material to develop principles that can be applied for successful design and control of complex systems.

A large number of volumes have been produced summarizing the work on generation and control of rhythmic movements, in particular locomotion. Unfortunately most of them focus on locomotor studies done on animals. This edited volume redresses that imbalance by focusing completely on human locomotor behaviour. The very nature of the problem has both necessitated and attracted researchers from a wide variety of disciplines ranging from psychology, neurophysiology, kinesiology, engineering, medicine to computer science. The different and unique perspectives they bring to this problem provide a comprehensive picture of the current state of knowledge on the generation and regulation of human locomotor behaviour.

A common unifying theme of this volume is studying the adaptability of human gait to obtain insights into the control of locomotion. The intentional focus on "adaptability" is meant to draw attention to the importance of understanding the generation and regulation of "skilled locomotor behaviour" rather than just the generation of basic locomotor patterns which has been the major focus of animal studies. The synthesis chapter at the end of the volume examines how the questions posed, the technology, and the experimental and theoretical paradigms have evolved over the years, and what the future has in store for this important research domain.

This volume contains contributions illuminating much of the current research occurring in the area of visual perception. It encompasses all aspects of vision and its relationship to vehicle design, including both the internal and external design of the vehicle as well as the perceptual and cognitive limitations of the vehicle controller.

Issues specifically related to the vision of the driver are initially addressed and the problems of vehicle glazing and light transmission are considered. The major topics of visual perception and vehicle control are covered in three related chapters encompassing: collision avoidance, vehicle signalling systems and the acquisition of visual information. Moving on to the external environment and its relationship to vision, traffic signs are discussed. Approaches to the measurement and modelling of driver behaviour are dealt with and the area of telerobotic control of vehicles is considered. In-vehicle displays are covered in two related chapters addressing issues of visual workload and effects of display type.

It is hoped that the book, contributed to by experts from a diverse range of disciplines, including optometrists, psychologists, physiologists, human factors specialists and engineers, will stimulate the progression of research in this area, as effectively as the preceding volumes did.

Language, Cognition, and Human Nature collects together for the first time Steven Pinker's most influential scholarly work on language and cognition. Pinker is a highly eminent cognitive scientist, and his research emphasizes the importance of language and its connections to cognition, social relationships, child development, human evolution, and theories of human nature. The thirteen essays in this eclectic collection span Pinker's thirty-year career, ranging over topics such as language acquisitions, visual cognition, the meaning and syntax of verbs, regular and irregular phenomena in language and their implications for the mechanisms of cognition, and the social psychology of direct and indirect speech. Each outlines a major theory - such as evolution, or nature vs. nurture - or takes up an argument with other prominent scholars such as Stephen Jay Gould, Noam Chomsky, or Richard Dawkins. Featuring a new introduction by Pinker that discusses his books and scholarly work, this book represents a major contribution to the field of cognitive science, by one of the field's leading thinkers.

How does motivation work? The classic answer is that people are motivated to approach pleasure and avoid pain, that they are motivated by "carrots and sticks." But to understand human motivation, it is necessary to go beyond pleasure and pain. What people want is to be effective in their life pursuits, and there are three distinct ways that people want to be effective. They want to be effective in having desired results (value), which includes having pleasure but is not limited to pleasure. They want to be effective in managing what happens (control) and in establishing what's real (truth), even if the process of managing what happens or establishing what's real is painful. These three distinct ways of wanting to be effective go beyond just wanting pleasure, but there is even more to the story of how motivation works. These ways of wanting to be effective do not function in isolation. Rather, they work together. Indeed, the ways that value, truth, and control work together is the central story of motivation. By understanding how motivation works as an organization of value, truth, and control motives, we can re-think basic motivational issues, such as the nature of personality and culture, how the motives of others can be managed effectively, and what is "the good life."

"Engaging Audiences" provides an insightful introduction to spectatorship from the perspective of cognitive studies. Using performances of several plays and a wide array of scientific evidence, McConachie examines the dynamics of conscious attention, mental concepts, empathy, emotion, and culture in theatregoing. This ground-breaking study challenges many of the current theories used to understand spectators and is a valuable resource to artists and scholars interested in how and why audiences enjoy performance.

Going beyond the hype of recent fMRI "findings," this interdisciplinary collection examines such questions as: Do women and men have significantly different brains? Do women empathize, while men systematize? Is there a "feminine" ethics? What does brain research on intersex conditions tell us about sex and gender?

This book addresses the fundamentals of machine ethics. It discusses abilities required for ethical machine reasoning and the programming features that enable them. It connects ethics, psychological ethical processes, and machine implemented procedures. From a technical point of view, the book uses logic programming and evolutionary game theory to model and link the individual and collective moral realms. It also reports on the results of experiments performed using several model implementations. Opening specific and promising inroads into the terra incognita of machine ethics, the authors define here new tools and describe a variety of program-tested moral applications and implemented systems. In addition, they provide alternative readings paths, allowing readers to best focus on their specific interests and to explore the concepts at different levels of detail. Mainly written for researchers in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, robotics, philosophy of technology and engineering of ethics, the book will also be of general interest to other academics, undergraduates in search of research topics, science journalists as well as science and society forums, legislators and military organizations concerned with machine ethics.

This book explores the relationship between cultural psychology and aesthetics, by integrating the historical, theoretical and phenomenological perspectives. It offers a comprehensive discussion of the history of aesthetics and psychology from an international perspective, with contributions by leading researchers from Serbia, Austria, Portugal, Norway, Denmark, and Brazil. The first section of the book aims at summarizing the debate of where the song comes from. It discusses undeveloped topics, methodological hints, and epistemological questions in the different areas of contemporary psychological sciences. The second section of the book presents concrete examples of case-studies and methodological issues (the new melodies in psychological research) to stimulate further explorations. The book aims to bring art back into psychology, to provide an understanding for the art of psychology. An Old Melody in a New Song will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in the fields of educational and developmental psychology, cultural psychology, history of ideas, aesthetics, and art-based research.

Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book explores the emerging topics and rapid technological developments of robotics and artificial intelligence through the lens of the evolving role of sex robots, and how they should best be designed to serve human needs. An international panel of authors provides the most up-to-date, evidence-based empirical research on the potential sexual applications of artificial intelligence. Early chapters discuss the objections to sexual activity with robots while also providing a counterargument to each objection. Subsequent chapters present the implications of robot sex as well as the security and data privacy issues associated with sexual interactions with artificial intelligence. The book concludes with a chapter highlighting the importance of a scientific, multidisciplinary approach to the study of human - robot sexuality. Topics featured in this book include: The Sexual Interaction Illusion Model. The personal companion system, Harmony, designed by Realbotix (TM). An exposition of the challenges of personal data control and protection when dealing with artificial intelligence. The current and future technological possibilities of projecting three-dimensional holograms. Expert discussion notes from an international workshop on the topic. AI Love You will be of interest to academic researchers in psychology, robotics, ethics, medical science, sociology, gender studies as well as clinicians, policy makers, and the business sector.

An integrative introduction to the theories and themes in research on creativity, this book is both a reference work and text for courses in this burgeoning area of research. The book begins with a discussion of the theories of creativity (Person, Product, Process, Place), the general question of whether creativity is influenced by nature or nurture, what research has indicated of the personality and style of creative individuals from a personality analysis standpoint, how social context affects creativity, and then coverage of issues like gender differences, whether creativity can be enhanced, if creativity is related to poor mental or physical health, etc.
The book contains boxes covering special interest items including one page biographies of famous creative individuals and activities for a group or individual to test and/or encourage creativity, as well as references to internet sites relating to creativity.
*Breaks down the major theories about creativity but doesn't restrict to a singular perspective
*Includes extensive citations of existing literature
*Textbook features included (i.e., key terms defined)

What underlies the worlds most acclaimed acts of creative genius? Can we predict who has the capacity to become a noble creator? These are just a sample of questions addressed by the studies in this book, tackled by the author in unique fashion. He first compiles large databases on samples of eminent creators and their products. The databases, which may include both biographical and historical information, as well as characteristics on the creations, are then subjected to advanced statistical analyses. In this way, the investigator can tease out the factors that led to the achievements of an Archimedes, Descartes, Shakespeare, Michelangelo, or Beethoven. We can also discover the reasons for the phenomenal success of certain masterpieces. By using these historiometric methods, psychologists can enhance our scientific comprehension of the most important phenomena of human behavior - creativity and genius.

This book presents a collection of articles reflecting state-of-the-art research in visual perception, specifically concentrating on neural correlates of perception. Each section addresses one of the main topics in vision research today. Part 2: Fundamentals of Awareness, Multi-Sensory Integration and High-Order Perception covers topics from filling-in to visual awareness to crossmodal interactions. A variety of methodological approaches are represented, including single-neuron recordings, fMRI and optical imaging, psychophysics, eye movement characterization and computational modelling. The contributions will provide the reader with a valuable perspective on the current status of vision research, and more importantly, with critical insight into future research directions and the discoveries yet to come.
- Provides a detailed breakdown of the neural and psychophysical bases of Perception
- Presents never-before-published original discoveries
- Includes multiple full-color illustrations

This volume provides a sample of the research on individual differences in different content areas of study. The first section presents authors whose concern is with development at some stage. The second section presents chapters on exceptionality (a chapter on learning disability and another on gif

Essays by leading international researchers on the psychology of social judgments discuss the role of evolutionary, neuropsychological and developmental influences on social judgments, in addition to the role of high-level reasoning processes. The delicate interplay between conscious, rational and unconscious automatic mechanisms is emphasized in determining judgmental outcomes. The implications of recent advances in understanding everyday social judgments in people's personal and working lives are stressed.

In The Unity of Consciousness Tim Bayne draws on philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience in defence of the claim that consciousness is unified. In the first part of the book Bayne develops an account of what it means to say that consciousness is unified. Part II applies this account to a variety of cases - drawn from both normal and pathological forms of experience - in which the unity of consciousness is said to break down. Bayne argues that the unity of consciousness remains intact in each of these cases. Part III explores the implications of the unity of consciousness for theories of consciousness, for the sense of embodiment, and for accounts of the self. In one of the most comprehensive examinations of the topic available, The Unity of Consciousness draws on a wide range of findings within philosophy and the sciences of the mind to construct an account of the unity of consciousness that is both conceptually sophisticated and scientifically informed.

"Soar: A Cognitive Architecture in Perspective" represents a European perspective on Soar with the exception of the special contribution from Allen Newell arguing for Unified Theories of Cognition. The various papers derive from the work of the Soar Research Group that has been active at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, since 1987. The work reported here has been inspired in particular by two topics that precipitated the group's interest in Soar in the first place: - road user behaviour and the temporal organization of behaviour, more specifically planning. At the same time, the various contributions go beyond the simple use of Soar as a convenient medium for modelling human cognitive activity. In every paper one or more fundamental issues are raised that touch upon the very nature and consistency of Soar as an intelligent architecture. As a result the reader will learn about the operator implementation problem, chunking, multitasking, the need to constrain the depth of the goal stack, and induction etc. Soar is still at a relatively early stage of development. It does, nevertheless, constitute an important breakthrough in the area of computer architectures for general intelligence. Soar shows one important direction that future efforts to build intelligent systems should take if they aim for a comprehensive, and psychologically meaningful, theory of cognition. This is argued by Newell in his contribution to this volume. For this reason, the Soar system will probably play an important integrative role within cognitive science in bringing together important subdomains of psychology, computer science, linguistics, and the neurosciences. Although Soar is not the only "architecture for intelligence", it is one of the most advanced and theoretically best motivated architectures presently available. This work should be of special interest to researchers in the domains of cognitive science, computer science and artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, and the philosophy of mind.

The con artist: from Bernie Madoff to Clark Rockefeller to Lance Armstrong. How do they get away with it? And what keeps us falling for them, over and over again? In The Confidence Game, Maria Konnikova investigates the psychological principles that underlie each stage of the swindle, from the put-up all the way to the fix, and how we can train ourselves to spot a story that isn't all it seems.

The goal of inquiry is to acquire knowledge of truths about the world. In this book, Jason Stanley argues that knowing how to do something amounts to knowing a truth about the world. When you learned how to swim, what happened is that you learned some truths about swimming. Knowledge of these truths is what gave you knowledge of how to swim. Something similar occurred with every other activity that you now know how to do, such as riding a bicycle or cooking a meal. Of course, when you learned how to swim, you didn't learn just any truth about swimming. You learned a special kind of truth about swimming, one that answers the question, "How could you swim?" Know How develops an account of the kinds of answers to questions, knowledge of which explains skilled action. Drawing on work in epistemology, philosophy of mind, ethics, action theory, philosophy of language, linguistic semantics, and cognitive neuroscience, Stanley presents a powerful case that it is our success as inquirers that explains our capacity for skillful engagement with the world.

Money. The root of all evil? Arguably. Essential to our lives? Certainly. A main driver of human thought, emotion, and action? Absolutely--and psychology and its related fields are getting closer to understanding its complex role in human behavior and in society. The Psychological Science of Money brings together classic and current findings on the myriad ways money affects brain, mind, and behavior to satisfy not only our needs for material gain, but also for autonomy and self-worth. Leading experts trace the links between early concepts of value and modern symbolic meanings of wealth, in addition to identifying the areas of the human brain that together act as its financial center. This cross-disciplinary analysis helps clarify the neuroscience behind pathological gambling, the critical role of time in financial decisions, and the impact of money on diverse personal activities and interpersonal relationships. Included in the coverage: Materiality, symbol, and complexity in the anthropology of money. The (relative and absolute) subjective value of money. Conscious and unconscious influences of money: two sides of the same coin? A life-course approach to dealing with monetary gains and losses Motivation and cognitive control: beyond monetary incentives. An integrative perspective on the science of getting paid. The psychological science of spending. The unique role of money in society makes The Psychological Science of Money a singularly fascinating resource with a wide audience among social psychologists, industrial and organizational psychologists, economists, sociologists, anthropologists, and public policymakers.