In the study of the computational structure of biological/robotic sensorimotor systems, distributed models have gained center stage in recent years, with a range of issues including self-organization, non-linear dynamics, field computing etc. This multidisciplinary research area is addressed here by a multidisciplinary team of contributors, who provide a balanced set of articulated presentations which include reviews, computational models, simulation studies, psychophysical, and neurophysiological experiments.

The book is divided into three parts, each characterized by a slightly different focus: in part I, the major theme concerns computational maps which typically model cortical areas, according to a view of the sensorimotor cortex as "geometric engine" and the site of "internal models" of external spaces. Part II also addresses problems of self-organization and field computing, but in a simpler computational architecture which, although lacking a specialized cortical machinery, can still behave in a very adaptive and surprising way by exploiting the interaction with the real world. Finally part III is focused on the motor control issues related to the physical properties of muscular actuators and the dynamic interactions with the world.

The reader will find different approaches on controversial issues, such as the role and nature of force fields, the need for internal representations, the nature of invariant commands, the vexing question about coordinate transformations, the distinction between hierachiacal and bi-directional modelling, and the influence of muscle stiffness.

A Cross-National Study of Adolescent Self-Image Adolescence is not, as has been previously assumed, a developmental stage that was defined after the industrial revolution. There is substan tial historical evidence to suggest that adolescence and youth, as a stage, was recognized by the ancient Romans, Greeks, and even Egyp tians. The concept survived through the Dark Ages. In Le Grand Pro prietaire, written in 1556, it is stated: "The third age, which is called adolescence, . . . ends in the twenty-first year . . . and it can go on till thirty or thirty-five. The age is called adolescence because the person is big enough to beget children. In this age the limbs are soft and able to grow and receive strength and vigor from natural heat" (Aries, 1962, p. 21). The span of years devoted to adolescent development varies in different cultures and with different definitions. The term adolescence is no longer equivalent to pubescence. "Adolescence" is a psycho social-biological stage of development that corresponds to changes in many areas which accompany the transition from childhood to adult hood. The working definition of adolescence we use is the stage of life that starts with puberty and ends at the time when the person has attained a reasonable degree of independence from his parents. Once in high school or its equivalent, the vast majority of teenagers have al ready undergone the biological changes of puberty."

This volume presents an important glimpse into the directions in which the research and measurement of intelligence are likely to go in future decades. Part one examines perspectives on the theory of intelligence, identifying the research likely to be productive in future investigations. Part Two considers perspectives on the measurement of intelligence, emphasizing the links between current theory and future testing.

Shakespeare and Cognition challenges orthodox approaches to Shakespeare by using recent psychological findings about human decision-making to analyse the unique characters that populate his plays. It aims to find a way to reconnect readers and watchers of Shakespeare's plays to the fundamental questions that first animated them. Why does Othello succumb so easily to Iago's manipulations? Why does Anne allow herself to be wooed by Richard III, the man who killed her husband and father? Why does Macbeth go from being a seemingly reasonable man to a cold-blooded killer? Why does Hamlet take so long to kill Claudius? This book aims to answer these questions from a fresh perspective.

The potential for cognitive neuroscience to shed light on social behaviour is increasingly being acknowledged and is set to become an important new approach in the field of psychology. Standing at the vanguard of this development, The Cognitive Neuroscience of Social Behaviour provides a state-of-the-art contribution to a subject still in its infancy. Divided into three parts, the book presents an overview of research into neural substrates of social interactions, the cognitive neuroscience of social cognition and human disorders of social behaviour and cognition.

This book looks at causative reasons behind creative acts and stylistic expressions. It explores how creativity is initiated by design cognition and explains relationships between style and creativity. The book establishes a new cognitive theory of style and creativity in design and provides designers with insights into their own cognitive processes and styles of thinking, supporting a better understanding of the qualities present in their own design. An explanation of the nature of design cognition begins this work, with a look at how design knowledge is formulated, developed, structured and utilized, and how this utilization triggers style and creativity. The author goes on to review historical studies of style, considering a series of psychological experiments relating to the operational definition, degree, measurement, and creation of style. The work conceptually summarizes the recognition of individual style in products, as well as the creation of such styles as a process before reviewing studies on creativity from various disciplines, presenting case studies and reviewing works by master architects. Readers will discover how creativity is initiated by design cognition. A summary of the correlations between creativity and style, expressed as a conceptual formula describing the cognitive phenomenon of style and creativity concludes the work. The ideas presented here are applicable to all design fields, allowing designers to comprehend and improve their design processes to produce creative, stylistically unique products.

Cognitive psychology is an enormous field with a rich history. One problem confronting instructors in cognitive psychology courses is covering such diverse topics as pattern recognition, attention, memory, language, decision-making, and problem solving. It is virtually impossible to both cover these topics and provide details regarding the beauty of the experimental studies that have tackled important topics in a single textbook. Cognitive Psychology: Key Readings helps fill this void and provides students with the opportunity to learn about the details of the actual articles and chapters that have had major influences in the development of this discipline. The classic papers were selected because they have been central in defining distinct areas of research or changing the way researchers think about a given topic. The reader can learn about the available literature that motivated a study, the theoretical rationale, and the details of the methods and results that were used to develop a better understanding of the topic. In this way, the reader can learn about the actual science of uncovering the theoretical issues, instead of simple overviews of the results. In addition, because cognitive psychology is constantly evolving, introductory sections to each topic are provided to help the reader better understand why a particular study is so important to the field. Along with an overview chapter that provides introductions to theoretical and methodological approaches that cognitive researchers have employed, Cognitive Psychology: Key Readings will begin to appreciate how scientists are unravelling how the mind works.

Related link: Free Email Alerting

The book provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art overview of current research on cognitive and applied aspects of eye movements. The contents include peer-reviewed chapters based on a selection of papers presented at the 11th European Conference on Eye Movements (Turku, Finland 2001), supplemented by invited contributions. The ECEM conference series brings together researchers from various disciplines with an interest to use eye-tracking to study perceptual and higher order cognitive functions.
The contents of the book faithfully reflect the scope and diversity of interest in eye-tracking as a fruitful tool both in basic and applied research. It consists of five sections: visual information processing and saccadic eye movements; empirical studies of reading and language production; computational models of eye movements in reading; eye-tracking as a tool to study human-computer interaction; and eye movement applications in media and communication research.
Each section is concluded by a commentary chapter by one of the leading authorities in the field. These commentaries discuss and integrate the contributions in the section and provide an expert view on the most significant present and future developments in the respective areas.
The book is a reference volume including a large body of new empirical work but also principal theoretical viewpoints of leading research groups in the field.

This book concerns measuring reading skills. It is not meant to be a compre hensive survey of reading research or a review of all possible approaches to reading measurement (although considerable attention is given to both subjects). Instead, the purpose of this book is to present a coherent, theoretically based approach to measuring reading competence. The ability to measure a phenomenon is an important prerequisite for scientific analysis. As Lord Kelvin said, "One's knowledge of science begins when he can measure what he is speaking about and express it in numbers." Unfortunately, not just any numbers will do. Presently available reading tests provide their users with a plethora of numbers-age levels, percentiles, grade equivalents-but their scientific value is questionable. The problem is that there is more to scientific measurement than merely assigning numbers to arbitrarily chosen behaviors. Scientific measurement occurs only within the confines of a theory, and most reading tests are atheoretical. Recent years have witnessed an explosive growth in reading research."

This book reflects on the various ways in which intelligence can manifest itself in the wide range of diverse contexts in which people live. Intelligence is often viewed as being tantamount to a score or set of scores on a decontextualized standardized intelligence test. But intelligence always acts within a sociocultural context. Indeed, early theorists defined intelligence in terms of adaptation to the environment in which one lives. The tradition of decontextualization is old, dating back to the very beginning of the 20th century with the development of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scales. This tradition is not only old, however, but obsolete. Because people live in different sociocultural as well as physical environments, intelligence can take somewhat different forms in different places and even at different times. The chapters in this edited volume show that intelligence viewed in the abstract is a somewhat vacuous concept - it needs to be contextualized in terms of people's physical and sociocultural surroundings.

Author Lee suggests that people are the way they are due to the interaction of their intellectual characteristics (IQ), their emotional characteristics (EQ), and a number of random events that can be summarized as the fickle fingers of fate (F3).

This volume is a collection of selected papers that were presented at the international conference Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology. Abduction, Logic, and Computational Discovery (MBR09 BRAZIL), held at the University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil in December 2009. A previous volume, Model-Based Reasoning in Scienti?c Discovery, edited by L. Magnani, N.J. Nersessian, and P. Thagard (Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, 1999; Chinese edition, China Science and Techn- ogy Press, Beijing, 2000), was based on the papers presented at the ?rst "model-based reasoning"international conference, held at the University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy in December 1998. Other two volumes were based on the papers presented at the second "model-based reasoning" international c- ference, held at the same place in May 2001: Model-Based Reasoning. Sci- ti?c Discovery, Technological Innovation, Values, edited by L. Magnani and N.J. Nersessian(Kluwer Academic/PlenumPublishers, New York, 2002)and Logical and Computational Aspects of Model-Based Reasoning, editedbyL. Magnani, N.J. Nersessian, and C. Pizzi(KluwerAcademic, Dordrecht,2002). Another volume Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Engineering, edited byL.Magnani(CollegePublications, London,2006), wasbasedonthepapers presentedat the third"model-basedreasoning"internationalconference, held at the same place in December 2004. Finally, volume Model-Based Reasoning inScienceandMedicine, editedbyL.MagnaniandL.Ping(Springer, Heid- berg/Berlin 2006), was based on the papers presented at the fourth"mod- based"reasoning conference, held at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, P. R. China.

There have been many Christian interpretations of art from a variety of theological perspectives. The direction of these critiques has invariably been from theology to art. Theological (even dogmatic) presuppositions have determined the way in which art in general or movements in art of particular works of art have been interpreted. There is now need for an understanding of art which affirms the crucial importance of art for theology. The direction of the critique must be from art to theology, rather than the other direction. Christian theologians must at the very least appreciate and affirm the value of art for the religion of the Incarnation. This book sets out some steps towards such an appreciation through the exploration of three interconnecting themes. In his exploration of the first theme. Embodiment and Incarnation, the author argues that Richard Wollheim's statement that 'Art rests on the fact that deep feelings pattern themselves in a coberent way all over our life and behaviour' (Art and its Object, 1980) applies equally to religion. With the second theme. Similarities and Differences, the author notes the way each can act as a critique of the other. Christianity has, particularly though not exclusively in its reformed and evangelical traditions, tended to overvalue the word of Scripture and of dogma, with the result that the non-verbal arts have been at best ignored and often feared. Generally, on their side, the arts (particularly in the modern period) have asserted their autonomy and have generally rejected notions of responsibility to social, ethical or religious principles or ideals. Finally, in treating the theme Faith and Imagination, the author argues that art canserve as an agent of salvation by helping theology to create frames of reference for the interpretation fuller experience of personal life. Canon

A revolutionary, science-based approach to meditation from a neuroscientist turned meditation master, The Mind Illuminated is an accessible, step-by-step toolkit for anyone looking to start—or improve—their daily meditation practice.

The book that bestselling meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg raves “brings the path of meditation to life,” The Mind Illuminated is the first how-to meditation guide from a neuroscientist who is also an acclaimed meditation master. This innovative book offers a 10-stage program that is both deeply grounded in ancient spiritual teachings about mindfulness and holistic health, and also draws from the latest brain science to provide a roadmap for anyone interested in achieving the benefits of mindfulness. Dr. John Yates offers a new and fascinating model of how the mind works, including steps to overcome mind wandering and dullness, extending your attention span while meditating, and subduing subtle distractions.

This groundbreaking manual provides illustrations and charts to help you work through each stage of the process, offering tools that work across all types of meditation practices. The Mind Illuminated is an essential read, whether you are a beginner wanting to establish your practice or a seasoned veteran ready to master the deepest state of peace and mindfulness.

This revised textbook, now co-authored by an eminent child neuropsychologist, combines a well-developed theoretical orientation with practical, remedial suggestions and includes helpful, pertinent case studies to effectively illustrate the neuropsychological principles. A new chapter on "Attention Deficit Disorder" has been added. As with the two previous editions, this one follows the tradition of providing a highly integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to learning disabilities in adults and children. From the reviews of the first edition: "William Gaddes has attempted and...accomplished a very difficult task - that of communicating the complex assortment of neuropsychological research and evidence on learning disorders so that professionals in various disciplines can make use of such information in their daily practice..." #Journal of Learning Disabilities#1

This definitive volume is the result of collaboration by top scholars in the field of children's cognition. * New edition offers an up-to-date overview of all the major areas of importance in the field, and includes new data from cognitive neuroscience and new chapters on social cognitive development and language * Provides state-of-the-art summaries of current research by international specialists in different areas of cognitive development * Spans aspects of cognitive development from infancy to the onset of adolescence * Includes chapters on symbolic reasoning, pretend play, spatial development, abnormal cognitive development and current theoretical perspectives

This Handbook is a comprehensive volume outlining the foremost issues regarding research and teaching of second language speaking, examining such diverse topics as cognitive processing, articulation, knowledge of pragmatics, instruction in sub-components of speaking (e.g., grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary) and the attrition of the first language. Outstanding academics have contributed chapters to provide an integrated and inclusive perspective on oral language skills. Specialized contexts for speaking are also explored (e.g., English as a Lingua Franca, workplace, and interpreting). The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Speaking will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars in applied linguistics, cognitive psychology, linguistics, and education.

Cognitive psychology is an enormous field with a rich history. One problem confronting instructors in cognitive psychology courses is covering such diverse topics as pattern recognition, attention, memory, language, decision-making, and problem solving. It is virtually impossible to both cover these topics and provide details regarding the beauty of the experimental studies that have tackled important topics in a single textbook. Cognitive Psychology: Key Readings helps fill this void and provides students with the opportunity to learn about the details of the actual articles and chapters that have had major influences in the development of this discipline. The classic papers were selected because they have been central in defining distinct areas of research or changing the way researchers think about a given topic. The reader can learn about the available literature that motivated a study, the theoretical rationale, and the details of the methods and results that were used to develop a better understanding of the topic. In this way, the reader can learn about the actual science of uncovering the theoretical issues, instead of simple overviews of the results. In addition, because cognitive psychology is constantly evolving, introductory sections to each topic are provided to help the reader better understand why a particular study is so important to the field. Along with an overview chapter that provides introductions to theoretical and methodological approaches that cognitive researchers have employed, Cognitive Psychology: Key Readings will begin to appreciate how scientists are unravelling how the mind works.

Related link: Free Email Alerting
Related link: Available for Inspection

This volume is the fruit of the 5th conference on Naturalistic Decision Making which focused on the importance of studying people who have some degree of expertise in the domain in which they make decisions. The substantive concerns pertain to how individuals and groups make decisions in professional and organizational settings, and to develop suitable methods for studying these questions rigorously.
This volume appeals to practitioners in business and government, as well as academics and students who are interested in naturalistic decision making.

Cultural neuroscience combines brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related brain potentials with methods of social and cultural psychology to investigate whether and how cultures influence the neural mechanisms of perception, attention, emotion, social cognition, and other human cognitive processes. The findings of cultural neuroscience studies improve our understanding of the relation between human brain function and sociocultural contexts and help to reframe the "big question" of nature versus nurture. This book is organized so that two chapters provide general views of the relation between biological evolution, cultural evolution and recent cultural neuroscience studies, while other chapters focus on several aspects of human cognition that have been shown to be strongly influenced by sociocultural factors such as self-concept representation, language processes, emotion, time perception, and decision-making. The main goal of this work is to address how thinking actually takes place and how the underlying neural mechanisms are affected by culture and identity.

This book explores the work of Cervantes in relation to the ideas about the mind that circulated in early modern Europe and were propelled by thinkers such as Juan Luis Vives, Juan Huarte de San Juan, Oliva Sabuco, Andres Laguna, Andres Velasquez, Marsilio Ficino, and Gomez Pereira. The editors bring together humanists and scientists: literary scholars and doctors whose interdisciplinary research integrates diverse types of sources (philosophical and medical treatises, natural histories, rhetoric manuals, pharmacopoeias, etc.) alongside Cervantes's works to examine themes and areas including emotion, human development, animal vs. human consciousness, pathologies of the mind, and mind-altering substances. Their chapters trace the cognitive themes and points of inquiry that Cervantes shares with other early modern thinkers, showing how he both echoes and contributes to early modern views of the mind.