The majority of research on eyewitness memory has traditionally studied children and young adults. By contrast, this volume is designed to provide an overview of empirical research on the cognitive, social, and health related factors that impact the accuracy of eyewitness testimony given by the elderly. The book takes a lifespan developmental perspective that incorporates research on witnesses of all ages, but uses the findings to focus on issues unique to the elderly. This includes research on recognition memory with lineup identifications and recall memory that occurs when an elderly witness is asked to describe an event in court. The Elderly Eyewitness also examines jurors' reactions to the testimony of an elderly witness, and the legal and social policy issues that emerge when the elderly witness participate in legal proceedings. While reviewing what is known about the elderly witness, the book also provides a direction for future research into this new frontier of scientific inquiry. Its audience spans researchers in cognitive and developmental psychology, and professionals working in the growing area of psychology and law.

This book presents an authoritative overview of memory in everyday contexts. Written by an expert team of international authors, it gathers together research on some of the more neglected but revealing areas of memory, to provide a comprehensive overview of remembering in real life situations. Contributions from leading experts deal with a variety of important questions concerning everyday memory, from under-researched areas such as memory for odours, to more well known areas, like collective memory. Topics covered also include: Beliefs about memory and the metaphors used to discuss memory The relation between self-referent beliefs and actual memory performance The development of autobiographical memory. Everyday Memory summarises current knowledge and presents new interpretations and hypotheses to be explored by future research. It discusses aspects of human memory which are frequently ignored or dealt with only very briefly by ordinary textbooks and as a result will have a broad appeal for researchers and students.

Recent advances in techniques available to memory researchers have led to a rapid expansion in the field of cognitive neuroscience of memory. This book provides accessible coverage of four key areas of recent advance, including research on functional imaging, electrophysiological and lesion studies, and developments from the computational modelling approach. The first section reviews functional imaging studies in humans, with particular emphasis on how imaging methods have clarified the cortical areas involved in memory formation and retrieval. The second section describes electrophysiological and lesion research in monkeys, where lesion and disconnection studies are rapidly adding to our knowledge of both information processing and modulatory aspects of memory formation. In the third section, electrophysiological and lesion studies in rats are reviewed allowing for a detailed study of the role of novelty and exploration in memory formation. The final section reviews current research in computational modelling which has allowed the development of new theoretical and experimental approaches to the study of memory encoding and retrieval. This volume draws together the current developments in each field, allowing the synthesis of ideas and providing converging evidence from a range of sources. It will be a useful resource for both advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of psychology, as well as researchers in the field and anyone with an interest in cognitive neuroscience.

The relationship between short-term and long-term memory systems is an issue of central concern to memory theorists. The association between temporary memory mechanisms and established knowledge bases is now regarded as critical to the development of theoretical and computational accounts of verbal short-term memory functioning. However, to date there is no single publication that provides dedicated and full coverage of current understanding of the association between short-term and long-term memory systems. Interactions between Short-Term and Long-Term Memory in the Verbal Domain is the first volume to comprehensively address this key issue. The book, focusing specifically on memory for verbal information, comprises chapters covering current theoretical approaches, together with the very latest experimental work, from leading researchers in the field. Chapters contributed to the book draw on both cognitive and neuropsychological research and reflect both conceptual and computational approaches to theorising. The contributing authors represent current research perspectives from both sides of the Atlantic. By addressing this important topic head-on, Interactions between Short-Term and Long-Term Memory in the Verbal Domain represents an invaluable resource for academics and students alike.

Memory and forgetting are inextricably intertwined. In order to understand how memory works we need to understand how and why we forget. The topic of forgetting is therefore hugely important, despite the fact that it has often been neglected in comparison with other features of memory. This volume addresses various aspects of forgetting, drawing from several disciplines, including experimental and cognitive psychology, cognitive and clinical neuropsychology, behavioural neuroscience, neuroimaging, clinical neurology, and computational modeling. The first chapters of the book discuss the history of forgetting, its theories and accounts, the difference between short-term and long-term forgetting as well as the relevance of forgetting within each of the numerous components of memory taxonomy. The central part summarizes and discusses what we have learned about forgetting from animal work, from computational modeling, and from neuroimaging. Further chapters discuss pathological forgetting in patients with amnesia and epilepsy, as well as psychogenic forgetting. The book concludes by focusing on the difference between forgetting of autobiographical memories versus collective memory forgetting. This book is the first to address the issue of forgetting from an interdisciplinary point of view, but with a particular emphasis on psychology. The book is scientific and yet accessible in tone, and as such is suitable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of psychology and related subjects, such as science and neuroscience.

A negative effect of the ageing population is that more individuals are experiencing cognitive decline and some form of neurodegenerative disease. With the number of people experiencing dementia likely to double in the next 20 years, this change in society presents one of greatest challenges facing public health personnel in the 21st century. The aim of this volume is to describe research that is in progress, and the major findings that have been obtained in the scientific study of dementia. The chapters in the first section of the book focus upon early signs of dementia, and consider several approaches to finding early cognitive signs and biological markers of dementia. The second section considers whether dementia is inevitable for people who become very old, and features chapters on risk factors and proactive influences, cognitive reserve and intervention. Each chapter in the final section describes phenomena which are related to differences in function between memory systems, including anterograde memory in fronto-temporal dementia, and the role semantic memory and semantic cognition may play in developing an understanding of the development of the degenerative processes in dementia. With contributions from world-class researchers in this area, the volume offers a concise overview of key findings in recent research on dementia and memory. It will be of great interest to researchers and advanced students of cognitive psychology, and to those working in related fields, such as gerontology, rehabilitation sciences, and allied health.

How is the complex history of the ancient Near East and Islamic World brought to bear in contemporary political discourse? In this book, Medieval Near Eastern historian Jacob Lassner explores the resonance of ancient and medieval history in the political disputes that dominate the contemporary Middle East. From identification with ancient forbears as a method of legitimization and nation-building, to tracing the deep history of the concept of revolution in the Arab world, the author probes the historical foundations of modern conflicts in the region. A medievalist, the author takes the position that an appreciation of cultural history is essential to understanding the debate surrounding the Israel/Palestine conflict. In turn, the book identifies the misappropriation and misunderstanding of the past, deliberate or accidental, as key weapon in the ongoing conflict.

Originally published in 1973, this book contains the 1971 William James Lectures at Harvard, the first by that name to be given by a British psychologist. In addition, there are reprints of four shorter lectures which had not been easily available before. Together the resulting collection gave a broad picture of a number of advances in human psychology in the previous ten years. Memory, attention, language, and the processes of decision are discussed, and typical recent ideas and experiments described. Each topic is presented, however, with continual reference to the reasons why the research was done, its implications for philosophy and for scientific method, and its connection with an attitude to politics and life as a whole. The author not only describes little known facts about the way people take decisions or remember, but also argues that we are living through a change in our attitudes to human nature: and that proper concern for human values, or understanding of people with minds different from our own, must demand a more scientific and less intuitive analysis of man. Experiments on human beings still strike many of us as cold-blooded and inhuman; this book tries to explain why some scientists devote themselves to this approach. It makes the connection between measurements of reaction time or of ability to see a written word in a brief flash, and our political and personal beliefs. Donald E. Broadbent is well recognised as a major influence on cognitive psychology today. This reissue is an opportunity to see his exceptional writing in print again and should be read with equal interest by psychologists as well as laymen who would like to know about some of the more practical aspects of psychological enquiry of the time.

This book is a condensation of a large body of work concerning human learning carried out over a period of more than five years by Dr. Sun and his collaborators. In a nutshell, this work is concerned with a broad framework for studying human cognition based on a new approach that is characterized by its focus on the dichotomy of, and the interaction between, explicit and implicit cognition and a computational model that implements this framework. In this work, a broad, generic computational model was developed that instantiates Dr. Sun's framework and enables the testing of his theoretical approach in a variety of ways. With this model, simulation results were matched with data of human cognition in a variety of different domains. Formal (mathematical and computational) analyses were also carried out to further explore the model and its numerous implementational details. Furthermore, this book addresses some of the most significant theoretical issues, such as symbol grounding, intentionality, social cognition, consciousness, and other theoretical issues in relation to the framework. The general framework and the model developed generate interesting insights into these theoretical issues.

This volume is a festschrift for Katherine Nelson, an NYU professor who was a pioneer in infant perception and memory. The "mediated mind" is a term coined by Dr. Nelson and it refers to how cognitive development is mediated by the sociocultural context, including language and social interaction. The impact of Nelson's views on the sociocultural basis of cognition and her functionalist perspective on cognitive development are evident in the collection of chapters in this book. The contributors--all leaders in the field of cognitive development--examine ways in which cognition is embedded in everyday, meaningful activities and the role of social context and cultural symbol symptoms, such as language and text influence children's developing concepts and thought. The concept of the mediated mind is examined from a variety of perspectives, including research in concept development, memory development, language learning, the development of literacy, narrative analysis, and children's theory of mind. The significant contribution of this volume is that it addresses all aspects of the mediated mind. Memory--both autobiographical and event-semantic--theory of mind, mental representation, temporality, narrative, and metalinguistic awareness comprise the chapter topics. The breadth of topics represented is a tribute to the impact Nelson's vision has on many developmental "domains." The contributors acknowledge and honor her work. Her theory and research paved the way for the advances in understanding a mediated mind that are evident and that will continue to shape notions of how the human mind develops and evolves within a social, interactive world.

As little as 10 years ago, it was believed that memory went from short to long term via one consolidation practice that made that memory intractable. Since then, research has shown that long-term memories can be activated, modified, and reconsolidated in their new form. This research indicates that memories are more dynamic than once believed. And understanding how this process works and helping people to redefine established memories can be clinically useful if those memories lead to problems, as is the case in post-traumatic stress disorder.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of research on memory reconsolidation; what this has to say about the formation, storage, and changeability of memory; and the potential applications of this research to treating clinical disorders.
Presents both neuroscience and psychological research on memory reconsolidationDiscusses what findings mean for understanding memory formation, storage, and retrieval Includes treatment applications of these findings

Divided into four parts, the first section of this book deals with levels of processing and memory theory, the second addresses working memory and attention, the third deals with cognitive aging, and the last addresses neuroscience perspectives.

Autobiographical memory constitutes an essential part of our personality, giving us the ability to distinguish ourselves as an individual with a past, present and future. This book reveals how the development of a conscious self, an integrated personality and an autobiographical memory are all intertwined, highlighting the parallel development of the brain, memory and personality. Focusing strongly on developmental aspects of memory and integrating evolutionary and anthropological perspectives, areas of discussion include: why non-human animals lack autobiographical memory development of the speech areas in the brain prenatal and transnatal development of memory autobiographical memory in young children. This book offers a unique approach through combining both neuroscientfic and social scientific viewpoints, and as such will be of great interest to all those wanting to broaden their knowledge of the development and acquisition of memory and the conscious self.

Human reasoning is marked by an ability to remember one's personal past and to imagine one's future. Together these capacities rely on the notion of a temporally extended self or the self in time. Recent evidence suggests that it is during the preschool period that children first construct this form of self. By about four years of age, children can remember events from their pasts and reconstruct a personal narrative integrating these events. They know that past events in which they participated affect present circumstances. They can also imagine the future and make decisions designed to bring about desirable future events even in the face of competing immediate gratification. This book brings together the leading researchers on these issues and for the first time in literature, illustrates how a unified approach based on the idea of a temporally extended self can integrate these topics.

Working memory - the conscious processing of information - is increasingly recognized as one of the most important aspects of intelligence. This fundamental cognitive skill is deeply connected to a great variety of human experience - from our childhood, to our old age, from our evolutionary past, to our digital future. In this volume, leading psychologists review the latest research on working memory and consider what role it plays in development and over the lifespan. It is revealed how a strong working memory is connected with success (academically and acquiring expertise) and a poor working memory is connected with failure (addictive behavior and poor decision-making). The contributions also show how working memory played a role in our cognitive evolution and how the everyday things we do, such as what we eat and how much we sleep, can have an impact on how well it functions. Finally, the evidence on whether or not working memory training is beneficial is explored. This volume is essential reading for students, researchers, and professionals with an interest in human memory and its improvement, including those working in cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, gerontology, education, health, and clinical psychology.

Working memory - the conscious processing of information - is increasingly recognized as one of the most important aspects of intelligence. This fundamental cognitive skill is deeply connected to a great variety of human experience - from our childhood, to our old age, from our evolutionary past, to our digital future. In this volume, leading psychologists review the latest research on working memory and consider what role it plays in development and over the lifespan. It is revealed how a strong working memory is connected with success (academically and acquiring expertise) and a poor working memory is connected with failure (addictive behavior and poor decision-making). The contributions also show how working memory played a role in our cognitive evolution and how the everyday things we do, such as what we eat and how much we sleep, can have an impact on how well it functions. Finally, the evidence on whether or not working memory training is beneficial is explored. This volume is essential reading for students, researchers, and professionals with an interest in human memory and its improvement, including those working in cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, gerontology, education, health, and clinical psychology.

In recent years there has been increasing interaction between basic and applied memory researchers, ranging from heated debates to highly productive collaborations. This collection of papers -- based on presentations at the Third Practical Aspects of Memory conference -- reviews the progress, as well as obstacles to progress, in the ongoing collaboration between basic and applied memory researchers.
This volume represents the state of the art in memory research domains that straddle the basic-applied divide. The text is organized around three themes, including theoretical and metatheoretical issues concerning the interaction of basic and applied memory research, laboratory investigation of real world memory problems, and solutions of everyday problems using theoretical concepts derived from basic memory research. The first section illustrates why collaboration between basic and applied memory researchers should be beneficial and provides guidelines for avoiding some of the pitfalls. The second and third sections present some of the most significant, contemporary findings by researchers whose work is basic-yet-applicable or applied-yet-theoretically-based.
Students and professional memory researchers will find the substantive results to be provocative and theoretically engaging, making the information presented in this volume invaluable. These examples of successful application will be of substantial, pragmatic value and researchers are certain to be grappling with these issues for years to come.

The nature of memory for everyday events, and the contexts that can affect it, are controversial topics being investigated by researchers in cognitive, social, clinical, and developmental/lifespan psychology today. This book brings many of these researchers together in an attempt to unpack the contextual and processing variables that play a part in everyday memory, particularly for emotion-laden events. They discuss the mental structures and processes that operate in the formation of memory representations and their later retrieval and interpretation.

Research on applied memory is one of the most active, interesting and vibrant areas in experimental psychology today. This book provides descriptions of cutting-edge research and applies them to three key areas of contemporary investigation: education, the law and neuroscience. In the area of education, findings from the study of memory are described which could have a major impact on testing practice, revision techniques for examinations and teaching basic literacy and numeracy. In applications to the law, recent findings shed new light on the dynamics of child abuse investigations, the status of traumatic memories recovered after long delays and a further challenge for the eyewitness: change blindness. Finally, in neuroscience, contributions cover the frightening question of whether patients can remember incidents during surgical operations under anaesthetic, the unexpected impact of handedness and rapid eye movements on memory proficiency and the status of deja vu: mystical experience or memory error? These accounts of recent research on applied memory have been written by leading experts in the field from both Europe and America, with the non-specialist in mind. They will interest students who wish to extend their reading beyond core material in cognitive psychology, graduates on more specialised courses in education, forensics and neuropsychology, and all those who wish to enrich their knowledge of the contemporary frontiers of applied memory research.

This book is grounded in the debates of the 1980s and 1990s that surrounded recollections of childhood sexual abuse, particularly those that emerged in the context of psychotherapy. When growing numbers of therapists claimed that they were recovering deeply repressed memories of early sexual violations in their female clients, a wave of alarmed critics countered that therapists were implanting the very memories they were discovering. In looking back at this volatile and heated controversy, Memory Matters takes up disturbing questions that linger concerning memory, sexuality, and childhood. Beginning with a re-analysis of cases from the recovered memory era, the volume goes on to offer fresh perspectives on recollections of childhood sexual abuse. Informed by feminist and critical perspectives within psychology, contributing authors introduce examples from their own qualitative research on processes of remembering. They offer rich examples from a wide range of applied settings, from the courts, psychotherapy, institutions for the disabled, to self-help groups and the media. A shared set of questions is addressed by each of the authors to create a dialogue with the reader on recurring motifs. Memory Matters is an ideal resource for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in the social sciences and legal studies, as well as practitioners in the fields of mental health, crisis services, and the law. Scholarly and accessible in tone, the book also offers helpful insights for professionals working with childhood memory.

Within the last three decades, interest in the psychological experience of human faces has drawn together cognitive science researchers from diverse backgrounds. Computer scientists talk to neural scientists who draw on the work of mathematicians who explicitly influence those conducting behavioral experiments. The chapters in this volume illustrate the breadth of the research on facial perception and memory, with the emphasis being on mathematical and computational approaches. In pulling together these chapters, the editors sought to do much more than illustrate breadth. They endeavored as well to illustrate the synergies and tensions that inevitably result from adopting a broad view, one consistent with the emerging discipline of cognitive science.

Tip-of-the-Tongue experiences are one of those illusive oddities of human cognition. Like slips of the tongue, deja vu, and visual illusions, TOTs dazzle us with their subjective strength, yet, at the same time, puzzle us with our frustrating inability to retrieve the desired word. This book discusses what little is known about TOTs and speculates about much of the rest of the riddle. Cognitive psychologists know a lot about processes but generally avoid issues of conscious experience and phenomenology. Because the larger goal of this book is to relate the TOT experience to the study of human phenomenology, it goes beyond the conventional cognitive psychology question, "What causes tip-of-the-tongue experiences?" to ask, "Why do we experience TOTs at all?"

- Draws together two distinct fields of research, Visual Perception and Memory, to provide new insights into how visual memory works. - Considers the latest research based on findings from neuroimaging and computational modeling techniques to provide the most up to date visual memory book in over a decade. - Uniquely appealing to readers from both perception and memory backgrounds, as well as those from related fields including human-computer interaction, data visualization, cognitive science, and cognitive enhancement.

This volume provides a tutorial review and evaluation of scientific research on the accuracy and reliability of eyewitness identification. The book starts with the perspective that there are a variety of conceptual and empirical problems with eyewitness identification as a form of forensic evidence, just as there are a variety of problems with other forms of forensic evidence. There is then an examination of the important results in the study of eyewitness memory and the implications of this research for psychological theory and for social and legal policy. The volume takes the perspective that research on eyewitness identification can be seen as the paradigmatic example of how psychological science can be successfully applied to real-world problems.

A focus on memory has come to prominence across a wide range of disciplines. History, literature, philosophy, anthropology, and cultural studies have placed memory at the heart of their interrogations of subjectivity, narrative, time and imagination. At the same time, memory has emerged as a central theme and preoccupation in popular literature, film and television, and the emergence of memory as an academic theme cannot be separated from its prominence in the wider culture. This volume represents, explores and interrogates the current developments, engaging directly with the place of memory in culture, and with memory's meaning's and history.