Beliefs and expectancies influence our everyday thoughts, feelings, and actions. These attributes make a closer examination of beliefs and expectancies worthwhile in any context, but particularly so within the high-stakes arena of the legal system. Whether the decision maker is a police officer assessing the truthfulness of an alibi, a juror evaluating the accuracy of an eyewitness identification, an attorney arguing a case involving a juvenile offender, or a judge deciding whether to terminate parental rights-these decisions matter and without doubt are influenced by beliefs and expectancies. This volume is comprised of research on beliefs and expectancies regarding alibis, children's behaviour while testifying, eyewitness testimony, confessions, sexual assault victims, judges' decisions in child protection cases, and attorneys' beliefs about jurors' perceptions of juvenile offender culpability. Areas for future research are identified, and readers are encouraged to discover new ways that beliefs and expectancies operate in the legal system. This book was originally published as a special issue of Psychology, Crime & Law.

Why do we consider incest wrong, even when it occurs between consenting adults unable to have children? Why are words that gross us out more likely to be deemed "obscene" and denied the protection of the First Amendment? In a world where a gruesome photograph can decisively influence a jury and homosexual behavior is still condemned by some as "unnatural," it is worth asking: is our legal system really governed by the power of reason? Or do we allow a primitive human emotion, disgust, to guide us in our lawmaking? In Objection, psychologists Debra Lieberman and Carlton Patrick examine disgust and its impact on the legal system to show why the things that we find stomach-turning so often become the things that we render unlawful. Shedding light on the evolutionary and psychological origins of disgust, the authors reveal how ancient human intuitions about what is safe to eat or touch, or who would make an advantageous mate, have become co-opted by moral systems designed to condemn behavior and identify groups of people ripe for marginalization. Over time these moral stances have made their way into legal codes, and disgust has thereby served as the impetus for laws against behaviors almost universally held to be "disgusting" (corpse desecration, bestiality) - and as the implicit justification for more controversial prohibitions (homosexuality, use of pornography). Written with a critical eye on current events, Lieberman and Patrick build a case for a more reasoned approach to lawmaking in a system that often confuses "gross" with "wrong."

When most people think of space, they think of physical space. However, visual space concerns space as consciously experienced, and it is studied through subjective measures, such as asking people to use numbers to estimate perceived distances, areas, angles, or volumes. This book explores the mismatch between perception and physical reality, and describes the many factors that influence the perception of space including the meaning assigned to geometric concepts like distance, the judgment methods used to report the experience, the presence or absence of cues to depth, and the orientation of a stimulus with respect to point of view. The main theme of the text is that no single geometry describes visual space, but that the geometry of visual space depends upon the stimulus conditions and mental shifts in the subjective meaning of size and distance.
In addition, "The Geometries of Visual Space: "
*contains philosophical, mathematical, and psychophysical background material;
*looks at synthetic approaches to space perception including work on hyperbolic, spherical, and Euclidean geometries;
*presents a meta-analysis of studies that ask observers to directly estimate size, distance, area, angle, and volume;
*looks at the size constancy literature in which observers are asked to adjust a comparison stimulus to match a variety of standards at different distances away;
*discusses research that takes a multi-dimensional approach toward studying visual space; and
*discusses how spatial experience is influenced by memory.
While this book is primarily intended for scholars in perception, mathematical psychology, and psychophysics, it will also be accessible to awider audience since it is written at a readable level. It will make a good graduate-level textbook on space perception.

Variations in speech melody (intonation) can be used to express different meanings (e.g. question vs. statement, friendliness). Yet, intonational information is hardly used in presentday linguistic models. When intonational information is used, it is mostly based on introspection rather than on empirical investigation; almost exclusively, a one-to-one relation between accent types and semantic function is assumed. This book focuses on an empirical investigation of thematic contrast in German. Thematic contrast has received considerable attention in semantics because sentences with contrastive themes can be used to imply propositions of various kinds without saying them explicitly. In this book, first an acoustic comparison between sentences produced in contrastive and non-contrastive contexts is described. Intonational realisation is quantified in terms of the height and position of tonal targets. The perceptual reality of different productions and the relevance of different accoustic cues are tested by means of rating experiments. Finally, the data are prosodically annotated by a group of linguists to explore the validity and explanatory power of different accent categories for contrastive and non-contrastive themes in German.

This book combines insights from the humanities and modern neuroscience to explore the contribution of affect and embodiment on meaning-making in case studies from animation, video games, and virtual worlds. As we interact more and more with animated characters and avatars in everyday media consumption, it has become vital to investigate the ways that animated environments influence our perception of the liberal humanist subject. This book is the first to apply recent research on the application of the embodied mind thesis to our understanding of embodied engagement with nonhumans and cyborgs in animated media, analyzing works by Emile Cohl, Hayao Miyazaki, Tim Burton, Norman McLaren, the Quay Brothers, Pixar, and many others. Drawing on the breakthroughs of modern brain science to argue that animated media broadens the viewer's perceptual reach, this title offers a welcome contribution to the growing literature at the intersection of cognitive studies and film studies, with a perspective on animation that is new and original. 'Affect and Embodied Meaning in Animation' will be essential reading for researchers of Animation Studies, Film and Media Theory, Posthumanism, Video Games, and Digital Culture, and will provide a key insight into animation for both undergraduate and graduate students. Because of the increasing importance of visual effect cinema and video games, the book will also be of keen interest within Film Studies and Media Studies, as well as to general readers interested in scholarship in animated media.

Why do we enjoy art? What inspires us to create artistic works? How can brain science help us understand our taste in art? The Psychology of Art provides an eclectic introduction to the myriad ways in which psychology can help us understand and appreciate creative activities. Exploring how we perceive everything from colour to motion, the book examines art-making as a form of human behaviour that stretches back throughout history as a constant source of inspiration, conflict and conversation. It also considers how factors such as fakery, reproduction technology and sexism influence our judgements about art. By asking what psychological science has to do with artistic appreciation, The Psychology of Art introduces the reader to new ways of thinking about how we create and consume art.

Since 1991, the edited book series Studies in Perception and Action has appeared in conjunction with the biennial International Conference of Perception and Action (ICPA), a conference that provides an opportunity for individuals who share interests in ecological psychology to come together to present current research, exchange ideas, and engage in conversation on theoretical and methodological concerns. The Studies in Perception and Action series is a way to preserve the dialogues between conference attendees and researchers displaying their latest work. This volume, the eighth in the series, presents the conversations held at the 13th ICPA meeting in the summer of 2005.
 
"Studies in Perception and Action VIII "includes broad coverage of the most current advances in research on perceiving and acting, including contributions from researchers in Australia, China, Japan, Europe, and North America. It addresses cutting-edge research in dynamics and human movement, recent progress in ecological approaches to perceiving and acting, and substantially extends our knowledge of just how rich a source of information the world is across a wide range of modalities.
 
This volume will appeal to individuals who follow the research literature in ecological psychology, as well as those interested in perception, perceptual development, human movement dynamics, and social processes.

Originally published in 1976, this title deals with the problem of how we tell left from right. The authors argue that the ability to tell left from right depends ultimately on a bodily asymmetry, such as preference for one or the other hand, or dominance of one side of the brain. This has implications for child development, reading disability, navigation, art, and culture.

In this volume, originally published in 1978, the authors survey the historical and contemporary research literature pertaining to two-dimensional visual-geometric illusions. They bring together much of the known data, summarising and evaluating theories that have been offered to explain these phenomena. Coren and Girgus provide a new conceptual framework that suggest that visual illusions are not unitary phenomena. Within this framework, illusions do not represent a breakdown in normal perceptual processing. Rather, it is proposed that each illusion is produced by a number of mechanisms operating at different levels in the visual information processing system. The book contains an extensive collection of illusion figures. It will be essential reading for all of those concerned with vision and visual perception, since it integrates the study of illusions into the main body of psychological and perceptual theories at the time.

This book uncovers how we make meaning of abstraction, both historically and in present times, and examines abstract images as a visual language. The contributors demonstrate that abstraction is not primarily an artistic phenomenon, but rather arises from human beings' desire to imagine, understand and communicate complex, ineffable concepts in fields ranging from fine art and philosophy to technologies of data visualization, from cartography and medicine to astronomy. The book will be of interest to scholars working in image studies, visual studies, art history, philosophy and aesthetics.

Contents:
Part I: Saying, Seeing and Acting. Background to the Domain. Introduction to the Domain. Saying Spatial Prepositions and Lexical Semantics. Grounding Language in Perception - From "Saying" to "Seeing and Acting". Part II: Saying, Seeing and Acting: Constructing an Account. Introducing the Functional Geometric Framework. Experimental Evidence for the Functional Geometric Framework. The So-called Topographical Prepositions. Experimental Evidence for the Functional Geometric Framework. Which Way up is up? The Projective Prepositions. Experimental Evidence for the Functional Geometric Framework. Other Prepositions: Proximity, Coincidence and Being between. Part III: Putting Saying, Seeing and Acting Together. The Functional Geometric Framework in Action. Putting It all Together. Cross-linguistic and Developmental Implications. Extensions, Links and Conclusions. References.

Understanding visual perceptual organization remains a challenge for vision science. Perceptual Organization in Vision: Behavioral and Neural Perspectives explores ideas emanating from behavioral, developmental, neuropsychological, neurophysiological, and computational approaches to the problem of perceptual organization. The growing body of research on perceptual organization has converged on a number of critical issues, most of which are addressed in this volume. These include issues concerning the nature and order of organizational processes, the stimulus factors that engage the mechanisms of organization, the developmental stage at which the mechanisms of organization are available, the role of past experience and learning in organization, the neural mechanisms underlying perceptual organization, and the relations between perceptual organization and other cognitive processes, in particular, object recognition and visual attention. Divided into four parts, the book is designed not only to detail the current state of the art in the field but also to promote an interdisciplinary approach to the study of perceptual organization. Part I presents an overview of the problem of perceptual organization, different frameworks for understanding perceptual organization, and a state-of-the-art summary of the domain. Part II details which organizational processes are hardwired in the perceptual system, which are acquired through experience, and how object perception relates to other aspects of cognition. Part III describes various attempts to understand the neural mechanisms underlying perceptual organization using two different approaches--neurophysiological and neuropsychological. Part IV offers a computational approach to the problem. This book is intended for cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, computational vision scientists, and developmental psychologists.

Spatial vision is a subject in which philosophy, psychology, ophthalmology, neurophysiology and pathology meet. It is the unique contribution of this book that gives a survey of the whole subject, in historical perspective. The author, a former professor of ophthalmology at the University of Amsterdam, is an authority in the field of binocular vision (Diplopia, 1973) and colour vision (History of Color, 1999). Seeing Space is written for ophthalmologists, optometrists, orthoptists and other practitioners of visual science, but also for psychologists and anybody interested in the philosophy and science of perception. The book contains three parts: Part I contains chapters on objective and subjective space and on non-visual space perception. Part II begins with a short survey of the visual system. As eye movements are of crucial importance in the perception of space, the evolution of the eye and the eye movements is described. There are chapters on the perception of direction, stereoscopic depth and movement. A sensorimotor theory of space perception is elaborated. Part III is dedicated to the perception of objects. There are chapters on the perception of contours, surfaces, dimensionality and size (including the "moon illusion"). Finally the problem of the relation between mind and matter is raised, but not solved.

First published in 2002. Written in 1959, this volume looks at the philosophical problems of perception, that arise mainly because our traditional common-sense notions clash with the factual evidence concerning not only the occurrence of illusions and hallucinations but also the essential role played by complex causal and psychological processes in perceiving.

This book is a testimony to Evgeny Nikolaevich Sokolov's years of work in developing knowledge in the areas of perception, information processing and attention, and to the research it has spawned. It presents a historical account of a research program, leading the reader toward a cognitive science approach to the study of perception and attention. An understanding of neuroscience and mathematical modeling are helpful prerequisites. The co-authors collected data on orienting, attention, and information processing in the brain using single-cell recordings, central, autonomic, cognitive, behavioral, and verbal measures. This commonality brought them together for a series of meetings which resulted in the production of this book. The book ends with a review of some of the co-authors studies that have developed from or in parallel with Sokolov's research. They investigate, in particular, the concepts of attention and anticipation using a psychophysiological methodology.

A cognitive psychologist and an industrial design engineer draw on their own experiences of cognition in the context of everyday life and work to explore how people attempt to find practical solutions for complex situations. The book approaches these issues by considering higher-order relations between humans and their ecologies such as satisfying, specifying, and affording. This approach is consistent with recent shifts in the worlds of technology and product design from the creation of physical objects to the creation of experiences. Featuring a wealth of bespoke illustrations throughout, A Meaning Processing Approach to Cognition bridges the gap between controlled laboratory experiments and real-world experience, by questioning the metaphysical foundations of cognitive science and suggesting alternative directions to provide better insights for design and engineering. An essential read for all students of Ecological Psychology or Cognitive Systems Design, this book takes the reader on a journey beyond the conventional dichotomy of mind and matter to explore what really matters.

The simple act of seeing an object conceals an array of fascinating and difficult scientific questions. Since objects occlude themselves and each other, the information available for seeing objects is fragmentary. Yet we perceive whole objects, and doing so provides a key foundation for action, thought, language and learning. As we move, the visible parts of objects change, yet we experience these objects as being stable over time. The phenomenal coherence and stability of objects are simple facts of perceptual experience, but they result from complex computational processes. Despite years of work, researchers in biological and computational vision have yet to achieve satisfactory accounts of unit formation. The present period, however, is one of new insights and rapid progress. This book addresses the problem of how the human visual system organizes inputs that are fragmented in space and time into coherent, stable perceptual units - objects. In doing so it addresses the following questions: what kinds of segmentation and grouping abilities exist in human perceivers? What information and computational processes achieve segmentation and grouping? What are the psychological consequences of perceiving whole objects? In an effort to give a comprehensive, integrative answer to these questions the volume includes chapters from authors in five areas: philosophical foundations; computational and neural models of segmentation and grouping; attention and grouping; development; segmentation and grouping over time (event perception). The chapters review the contemporary state of the field, describe recent theoretical and empirical research, and provide some explicit suggestions for future research direction. "From Fragments to Objects: Segmentation and Grouping in Vision" takes a comprehensive cognitive science approach to object perception, brings together separate lines of research in object perception in one volume, gives an integrated and up-to-date review of theory and empirical research and offers directions for future study.

This book explores the nature of one of the most ancient tools for nonverbal communication: drawings. They are naturally adaptable enough to meet an incredibly wide range of communication needs. But how exactly do they do their job so well?
Avoiding the kinds of aesthetic rankings of different graphic domains so often made by art historians and critics, Manfredo Massironi considers an extensive and representative sample of graphic applications with an open mind. He finds a deep mutuality between the material components of images and the activation of the perceptual and cognitive processes that create and decipher them.
Massironi first examines the material components themselves: the mark or line, the plane of representation (the angle formed by the actual drawing surface and the depicted objects), and the position of the viewpoint relative to the depicted objects. The roles played by these three components are independent of the content of the drawing; they function in the same way in concrete and abstract representations. He then closely scrutinizes the choices made by the person planning and executing the drawings. Given that any object can be depicted in an infinite number of different ways, the drawer performs continuous work emphasizing and excluding different features. The choices are typically unconscious and guided by his or her communicative goals. A successful graph, be it simple or complex, is always successful precisely because the emphasized features are far fewer in number than the excluded ones. Finally, he analyzes the perceptual and cognitive integrations made by the viewer.
Drawings are not simply tools for communication but important instruments for investigating reality and its structure. Richly illustrated, the book includes a series of graphic exercises that enable readers to get a sense of their own perceptual and cognitive activity when inspecting images. Massironi's pathbreaking taxonomy of graphic productions will illuminate all the processes involved in producing and understanding graphic images for a wide audience, in fields ranging from perceptual and cognitive psychology through human factors and graphic design to architecture and art history.

This book explores the nature of one of the most ancient tools for nonverbal communication: drawings. They are naturally adaptable enough to meet an incredibly wide range of communication needs. But how exactly do they do their job so well?
Avoiding the kinds of aesthetic rankings of different graphic domains so often made by art historians and critics, Manfredo Massironi considers an extensive and representative sample of graphic applications with an open mind. He finds a deep mutuality between the material components of images and the activation of the perceptual and cognitive processes that create and decipher them.
Massironi first examines the material components themselves: the mark or line, the plane of representation (the angle formed by the actual drawing surface and the depicted objects), and the position of the viewpoint relative to the depicted objects. The roles played by these three components are independent of the content of the drawing; they function in the same way in concrete and abstract representations. He then closely scrutinizes the choices made by the person planning and executing the drawings. Given that any object can be depicted in an infinite number of different ways, the drawer performs continuous work emphasizing and excluding different features. The choices are typically unconscious and guided by his or her communicative goals. A successful graph, be it simple or complex, is always successful precisely because the emphasized features are far fewer in number than the excluded ones. Finally, he analyzes the perceptual and cognitive integrations made by the viewer.
Drawings are not simply tools for communication but important instruments for investigating reality and its structure. Richly illustrated, the book includes a series of graphic exercises that enable readers to get a sense of their own perceptual and cognitive activity when inspecting images. Massironi's pathbreaking taxonomy of graphic productions will illuminate all the processes involved in producing and understanding graphic images for a wide audience, in fields ranging from perceptual and cognitive psychology through human factors and graphic design to architecture and art history.

Why do we respond to others-both to their physical appearances and to their personalities? What are the social influences on face perception? Current research perspectives on physical appearance by distinguished behavioral scientists from around the world were brought together in a special issue of Current Psychology and are offered here in a useful compendium.

Chapters and contributors include: "Assessing the State of Organizational Safety-Culture or Climate?" Kathryn J. Mearns and Rhona Flin; "Why Did It Happen to Me? Social Cognition Processes in Adjustment and Recovery from Criminal Victimization and Illness" by Malcolm D. MacLeod; "What's in a Name, What's in a Place? The Role of Verbal Labels in Distinct Cognitive Tasks" by J.B. Deegowski, D.M. Parker, and P. George; "On Disregarding Deviants: Exemplar Typicality and Person Perception" by C. Neil Macrae, Galen V. Bodenhausen, Alan B. Milne, and Luigi Castelli; "Mood in Chronic Disease: Questioning the Answers" by Marie Johnston; "The Emotional Impact of Faces (but not Names): Face Specific Changes in Skin Conductance Responses to Familiar and Unfamiliar People" by Hadyn D. Ellis, Angela H. Quayle, and Andrew W. Young; "Average Faces are Average Faces" by Jim Pollard, John Shepard, and Jean Shepard; "Computer Graphic Studies of the Role of Facial Similarity in Judgments of Attractiveness" by I.S. Penton-Voak, D.I. Perrett, and J.W. Peirce; "One Extreme or the Other, or Perhaps the Golden Mean? Issues of Spatial Resolution in Face Processing" by Dennis M. Parker and Nicholas P. Costen; "The Impact of Character Attribution on Composite Production: A Real World Effect?" by Graham Davies and Heidi Oldman; "Repetition Priming of Face Gender Judgments: An Instance Based Explanation" by Dennis C. Hay.

Validation in Psychology will benefit students, researchers, and practitioners of psychology, criminology, sociology, and experts in organizational behavior who are concerned with the impact of physical appearance on health psychology, crime, organizational safety, and above all, person perception.

Originally published in 1978, The Occult Sourcebook has been compiled primarily for the many people who are for the first time becoming engrossed by the numerous and often confusing possibilities underlying the occult sciences. It consists of a series of articles on key areas, providing the reader with easy access to basic facts, together with a carefully planned guide to further reading. Critical comments on the recommended books allow the reader to select those which best suit their interests. The authors have also included a 'Who's Who of the occult' to provide short biographies of some of the more amazing figures who have already travelled down the mystic path. The book offers a programmed system of exploration into the realms of the unknown. It will be invaluable to the increasing number of people who are concerned with the exploration of enlarging human consciousness.

Originally published in 1974, this introductory text has been designed specifically for teachers in training, and it presents the basic psychological principles governing learning, perception, motivation and the retention of knowledge at the time. The text is carefully tailored for would-be teachers in its clear and informal style, and in its selective aspects of psychology which the teacher can use to advantage in his efforts to assist the child. The book has an eclectic approach to psychological theory, drawing upon the insights of behaviourism, perceptualism and the Gestalt school, as well as the developmental theories of Jean Piaget. The author discusses in some detail theories concerning the nature of intelligence, and the relationship between creativity and intelligence; and he investigates the dynamics of social adjustment, introducing the part that may be played by meditation in helping to solve some of the problems of emotional stress within the learning situation. In his consideration of the management of learning, the author lays much emphasis upon the importance of individual cognitive styles, individualizing instruction and independent learning. In one chapter Dr Mueller is concerned with factors in the measurement of personality and of performance in the classroom, and he reflects upon the specific problem of objectivity in such assessment. Finally, some consideration is given to the problems and characteristics of the socially disadvantaged child and to the role of the teacher in helping to solve some of the learning problems of these children.

Originally published in 1982, The Shaman and the Magician draws on the author's wide experience of occultism, western magic and anthropological knowledge of shamanism, to explore the interesting parallels between traditional shamanism and the more visionary aspects of magic in modern western society. In both cases, as the author shows, the magician encounters profound god-energies of the spirit, and it is up to the individual to interpret these experiences in psychological or mythological terms. The book demonstrates that both shamanism and magic offer techniques of approaching the visionary sources of our culture.

Maintaining the strong pedagogy, abundant student-friendly examples, and engaging conversational style of the previous editions, the sixth edition of this introductory textbook makes technical scientific information accessible to those who are beginning to specialize in cognitive psychology. Sensation and Perception, Sixth Edition is newly available in a more affordable paperback version, making it ideal for undergraduate students. In this new edition Bates has built on Foley and Matlin's core text to add updates focusing on multisensory integration, neural plasticity, and cognitive neuroscience, as well as real-world examples and practical applications of psychological phenomena. The sixth edition retains the clear organization of previous versions, covering a wide range of core topics, from skin senses such as touch to chemical senses such as taste and smell, to our complex visual and auditory sensory systems. This book is essential reading for undergraduates and postgraduates studying courses on sensation and perception.

John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding is among the most important books in philosophy ever written. It is also a difficult work dealing with many themes, including the origin of ideas; the extent and limits of human knowledge; the philosophy of perception; and religion and morality. This volume is original in that it focuses on the last two of these topics and provides a clear and insightful survey of these overlooked aspects of Locke's best known work. Four eminent Locke scholars present authoritative discussions of Locke's view on the ethics of belief, personal identity, free will and moral theory. Contributors include John Passmore (Australian National University), Harold Noonan (Birmingham University), Vere Chappell (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), and Daniel Flage (James Madison University).