The Rwandan genocide, the Holocaust, the lynching of African Americans, the colonial slave trade: these are horrific episodes of mass violence spawned from racism and hatred. We like to think that we could never see such evils again-that we would stand up and fight. But something deep in the human psyche-deeper than prejudice itself-leads people to persecute the other: dehumanization, or the human propensity to think of others as less than human. An award-winning author and philosopher, Smith takes an unflinching look at the mechanisms of the mind that encourage us to see someone as less than human. There is something peculiar and horrifying in human psychology that makes us vulnerable to thinking of whole groups of people as subhuman creatures. When governments or other groups stand to gain by exploiting this innate propensity, and know just how to manipulate words and images to trigger it, there is no limit to the violence and hatred that can result. Drawing on numerous historical and contemporary cases and recent psychological research, On Inhumanity is the first accessible guide to the phenomenon of dehumanization. Smith walks readers through the psychology of dehumanization, revealing its underlying role in both notorious and lesser-known episodes of violence from history and current events. In particular, he considers the uncomfortable kinship between racism and dehumanization, where beliefs involving race are so often precursors to dehumanization and the horrors that flow from it. On Inhumanity is bracing and vital reading in a world lurching towards authoritarian political regimes, resurgent white nationalism, refugee crises that breed nativist hostility, and fast-spreading racist rhetoric. The book will open your eyes to the pervasive dangers of dehumanization and the prejudices that can too easily take root within us, and resist them before they spread into the wider world.

There have been two main traditions of writing on ethics in the Islamic tradition, one philosophical and related to the works of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers, represented by thinkers such as Avicenna, and one theological, represented by such figures as the famous theologian al-Qadi Abd al-Jabbar. Some later scholars attempted to combine those two traditions. For the most part, however, the views of the jurists have been ignored. Abdulaziz Sachedina here calls attention to this third tradition of ethics, which has its home in legal literature. The problem is that Islamic jurists did not produce a genre of ethical manuals, and their form of ethics, which Sachedina terms juridical ethics, must be derived or extracted from works that ostensibly treat legal rulings and obligations, or scriptural hermeneutics and legal theory. Presenting an outline of the version of Islamic ethics that is embedded in the textual legacy of the Islamic legal tradition, he argues that this juridical ethics is an important, even dominant form of ethics in modern Islam. He notes that this form of ethics has been challenged by modernity and examines the variety of ways in which legal ethical thinkers have reacted. How do Muslim religious leaders come to grips with modern demands of directing their communities to live as modern citizens of nation-states? What kind of moral and spiritual resources are being garnered by their scholars to respond to the new issues in sciences, more immediately in medicine, and constantly changing social relationships? To answer these pressing questions, it is necessary to go beyond the philosophical ethics of virtue and human character and acknowledge the importance of ethics to the formulation in Muslim interpretive jurisprudence of religious and moral decisions that are based on reason and revelation.

Ways of seeing is a book about human vision. It results from the collaboration between a world famous cognitive neuroscientist and an eminent philosopher. In the past forty years, cognitive neuroscience has made many startling discoveries about the human brain, and about the human visual system in particular. This book brings many recent empirical findings, from electrophysiological recordings in animals, the neuropsychological examination of human patients, psychophysics, and developmental cognitive psychology, to bear on questions traditionally addressed by philosophers. What is the meaning of the English verb 'to see'? How does visual perception yield knowledge of the world? How does visual perception relate to thought? What is the role of conscious visual experience in visually guided actions? How does seeing actions relate to seeing objects? In the process the book provides a new assessment of the 'two visual systems' hypothesis, according to which the human visual system comprises two anatomical pathways with separable visual functions. The first truly interdisciplinary book about human vision, it will be of interest to students and researchers in many areas of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind.

The fast-growing interdisciplinary research area of 'language and space' investigates how language and representations of space are linked in information processing systems, like the brain. This is the first book in a new series at the forefront of research in the interfaces between brain, perception, and language. When we use directions in language, such as 'under the tree', how are these directions represented in our minds before we even start speaking, and how are directions expressed in different languages? Considering the way in which language and space are linked has consequences for theories on word meaning (linguistics and philosophy), for the construction of language-to-space interfaces (computer science), for our comprehension of how people use language in different contexts and cultures (psychology and anthropology), and for the way in which we can distinguish between normal and subnormal cognitive processing (neuroscience).

The evocation of narrative as a way to understand the content of consciousness, including memory, autobiography, self, and imagination, has sparked truly interdisciplinary work among psychologists, philosophers, and literary critics. Even neuroscientists have taken an interest in the stories people create to understand themselves, their past, and the world around them. The research presented in this volume should appeal to researchers enmeshed in these problems, as well as the general reader with an interest in the philosophical problem of what consciousness is and how it functions in the everyday world.

The best example of filling-in involves the blind spot, a region of the retina devoid of photoreceptors. Remarkably, the region of visual space corresponding to the blind spot is not perceived as a dark region in space, but instead as having the same colour and texture as the surrounding background; hence the expression "filling in." While this type of perceptual completion phenomenon is common in the visual domain, it is argued by the leading scientists who contribute to this book that forms of filling-in also take place in other sensory modalities, including the auditory, somatosensory, and motor systems. In a concluding chapter an integrative approach is taken, which attempts to provide a common framework for completion phenomena occurring on a fast time scale, and cortical reorganization in sensory and motor cortex induced by peripheral damage or skill learning taking place on a slower time scale. It is proposed that systematic changes in the interplay between inhibitory and excitatory inputs permit cortical neurons to become driven by new sources of input, which, in addition to initial perceptual consequences can lead to a long-term structural reorganization of cortex.

This book represents a truly interdisciplinary approach to neuroscience, with chapters covering computational modelling, visual psychophysics, functional brain imaging, single-cell physiology, and clinical patient cases. It will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in systems neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, vision science, neuroimaging, perceptual psychology, computational neuroscience, and philosophy of mind.

This book presents the basic concepts of classical psychophysics, derived from Gustav Fechner, as seen from the perspective of modern measurement theory. The theoretical discussion is elucidated with examples and numerous problems, and solutions to one-quarter of the problems are provided in the text.

Where most of the literature in the psychology of music has focused on the processes involved when listening to music, little has been written about the processes involved in making music. Reissued by popular demand, and for the first time in paperback, Generative Processes: The Psychology of Performance, Improvisation, and Composition brings together leading figures in music psychology to present pioneering studies of the processes by which music is generated. The book looks at the generation of expression in musical performance, the problems of synchrony in ensemble performance, the development of children's song, rehearsal strategies of pianists, improvisational skill in trained and untrained musicians, children's spontaneous notations for music, formal constraints on compositional systems, and compositional strategies of music students. Edited by the leading authority on music psychology, the book will be of great interest to cognitive and developmental psychologists, as well as music educators and musicologists

Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition features contributions from the field's leading scientists, and covers recent developments and current issues in the study of cognitive and neural mechanisms that take patterns of air vibrations and turn them 'magically' into meaning. The volume makes a unique theoretical contribution in linking behavioural and cognitive neuroscience research, and cutting across traditional strands of study, such as adult and developmental processing. The book: Focusses on the state of the art in the study of speech perception and spoken word recognition Discusses the interplay between behavioural and cognitive neuroscience evidence, and between adult and developmental research Evaluates key theories in the field and relates them to recent empirical advances, including the relationship between speech perception and speech production, meaning representation and real-time activation, and bilingual and monolingual spoken word recognition Examines emerging areas of study such as word learning and time-course of memory consolidation, and how the science of human speech perception can help computer speech recognition Overall this book presents a renewed focus on theoretical and developmental issues, as well as a multifaceted and broad review of the state of research, in speech perception and spoken word recognition. Particularly interested readers will be researchers of psycholinguistics and adjoining fields as well as advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students.

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.

We make 3-5 eye movements per second, and these movements are crucial in helping us deal with the vast amounts of information we encounter in our everyday lives. In recent years, thanks to the development of eye tracking technology, there has been a growing interest in monitoring and measuring these movements, with a view to understanding how we attend to and process the visual information we encounter Eye tracking as a research tool is now more accessible than ever, and is growing in popularity amongst researchers from a whole host of different disciplines. Usability analysts, sports scientists, cognitive psychologists, reading researchers, psycholinguists, neurophysiologists, electrical engineers, and others, all have a vested interest in eye tracking for different reasons. The ability to record eye-movements has helped advance our science and led to technological innovations. However, the growth of eye tracking in recent years has also presented a variety of challenges - in particular the issue of how to design an eye-tracking experiment, and how to analyse the data. This book is a much needed comprehensive handbook of eye tracking methodology. It describes how to evaluate and acquire an eye-tracker, how to plan and design an eye tracking study, and how to record and analyse eye-movement data. Besides technical details and theory, the heart of this book revolves around practicality - how raw data samples are converted into fixations and saccades using event detection algorithms, how the different representations of eye movement data are calculated using AOIs, heat maps and scanpaths, and how all the measures of eye movements relate to these processes. Part I presents the technology and skills needed to perform high-quality research with eye-trackers. Part II covers the predominant methods applied to the data which eye-trackers record. These include the parsing of raw sample data into oculomotor events, and how to calculate other representations of eye movements such as heat maps and transition matrices. Part III gives a comprehensive outline of the measures which can be calculated using the events and representations described in Part II. This is a taxonomy of the measures available to eye-tracking researchers, sorted by type of movement of the eyes and type of analysis. For anyone in the sciences considering conducting research involving eye-tracking, this book will be an essential reference work.

In recent years, Bayesian probability theory has emerged not only as a powerful tool for building computational theories of vision, but also as a general paradigm for studying human visual perception. This book provides an introduction to and critical analysis of the Bayesian paradigm. Leading researchers in computer vision and experimental vision science describe general theoretical frameworks for modeling vision, detailed applications to specific problems and implications for experimental studies of human perception. The book provides a dialogue between different perspectives both within chapters, which draw on insights from experimental and computational work, and between chapters, through commentaries written by the contributors on each other's work. Students and researchers in cognitive and visual science will find much to interest them in this thought-provoking collection.

Technology is changing the way we do business, the way we communicate with each other, and the way we learn. This new edition is intended to help technical writers, graphic artists, engineers, and others who are charged with producing product documentation in the rapidly changing technological world. While preserving the basic guidelines for developing manuals and warnings presented in the previous edition, this new edition offers new material as well, including a much-expanded section on hazard analysis. Features Provides more explicit guidance on conducting a hazard analysis, including methods and documentation Offers in-depth discussion of digital platforms, including video, animations, and even virtual reality, to provide users with operating instructions and safety information Incorporates current research into effective cross-cultural communication-essential in today's global economy Explains new US and international standards for warning labels and product instructions Presents expanded material on user analysis, including addressing generational differences in experience and preferred learning styles Writing and Designing Manuals and Warnings, Fifth Edition explores how emerging technologies are changing the world of product documentation from videos to virtual reality and all points in between.

Virtual reality is a perceptual experience, achieved using technology. Anyone wishing to develop virtual reality should understand the human perceptual processes with which the technology seeks to interact and control. The book presents state-of-the-art reviews of the current understanding of these human perceptual processes and the implications for virtual reality. It reports research which has tried to make the technology capable of delivering the required perceptual experience, comprising a basis for future virtual reality research, so as to achieve the optimum development of the field. It is intended to be of use to anyone who is involved with the creation of a virtual reality experience.

This book provides a chapter-by-chapter update to and reflection on of the landmark volume by J.J. Gibson on the Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1979). Gibson's book was presented a pioneering approach in experimental psychology; it was his most complete and mature description of the ecological approach to visual perception. Perception as Information Detection commemorates, develops, and updates each of the sixteen chapters from Gibson's volume. The book brings together some of the foremost perceptual scientists in the field, from the United States, Europe, and Asia, to reflect on Gibson's original chapters, expand on the key concepts discussed and relate this to their own cutting-edge research. This connects Gibson's classic with the current state of the field, as well as providing a new generation of students with a contemporary overview of the ecological approach to visual perception. Perception as Information Detection is an important resource for perceptual scientists as well as both undergraduates and graduates studying sensation and perception, vision, cognitive science, ecological psychology, and philosophy of mind.

Sensing the World: An Anthropology of the Senses is a highly original and comprehensive overview of the anthropology and sociology of the body and the senses. Discussing each sense in turn - seeing, hearing, touch, smell, and taste - Le Breton has written a truly monumental work, vast in scope and deeply engaging in style. Among other pioneering moves, he gives equal attention to light and darkness, sound and silence, and his disputation of taste explores aspects of disgust and revulsion. Part phenomenological, part historical, this is above all a cultural account of perception, which returns the body and the senses to the center of social life. Le Breton is the leading authority on the anthropology of the body and the senses in French academia. With a repute comparable to the late Pierre Bourdieu, his 30+ books have been translated into numerous languages. This is the first of his works to be made available in English. This sensuously nuanced translation of La Saveur du monde is accompanied by a spicy preface from series editor David Howes, who introduces Le Breton's work to an English-speaking audience and highlights its implications for the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and the cross-disciplinary field of sensory studies.

Each of us is able to recognise the faces of many hundreds if not thousands of people known to us. We recognise faces despite seeing them in different views and with changing expressions. From these varying patterns we somehow extract the invariant characteristics of an individual's face, and usually remember why a face seems familiar, recalling where we know the person from and what they are called. In this book, originally published in 1988, the author describes the progress which has been made by psychologists towards understanding these perceptual and cognitive processes, and points to theoretical directions which may prove important in the future. Though emphasising theory, the book also addresses practical problems of eyewitness testimony, and discusses the relationship between recognising faces, and other aspects of face processing such as perceiving expressions and lipreading. The book was aimed primarily at a research audience, but would also interest advanced undergraduate students in vision and cognition.

In the 10 years prior to publication the quantity of research on eye movements as they pertain to psychological processes had been increasing at a rapid rate. Originally published in 1976, the editors' purpose was to bring together investigators representing different theoretical positions and methodological approaches to present their recent findings, to debate the theoretical points of view, and to identify and discuss the major research problems on eye movements at the time. An attempt was made to invite participants ranging all the way from promising graduate students through the established authorities in the field. The result was an intensive three-day session with meetings from early morning until late into the evening with much opportunity for formal and informal group discussion. The edited papers and transcripts of the discussions are the contents of this book.

How do we sort the objects, people, events and ideas in the world into their proper categories? What transforms the 'blooming, buzzing confusion' that enters our eyes and ears when we are born into the orderly world which we eventually experience and interact with? This most basic of questions about human (and animal) perception and cognition is the subject of Categorical Perception, an exhaustive survey and integration of a diverse array of findings. Categorical Perception brings together all the known examples of categorical perception, from research on humans and animals, infants and adults, in all the sense modalities: hearing, seeing and touch. The perceptual findings are interpreted in terms of the available cognitive and neuroscientific theories of how categorical perception is accomplished by the brain: is it inborn? is it learned? what is it that the mind does to the incoming continuous information to sort it into the discrete categories we can see, manipulate, name and describe? Work on elementary perceptual and psychophysical categories (colours, sounds) is then compared with work on higher-order categories: objects, patterns, abstract concepts. From a focus on the most thoroughly investigated case of categorical perception - speech perception - the book proceeds to an integrative view of categorization in general.

This book was developed to help researchers and practitioners select measures to be used in the evaluation of human/machine systems. The book begins with an overview of the steps involved in developing a test to measure human performance. This is followed by a definition of human performance and a review of human performance measures. Another section defines situational awareness with reviews of situational awareness measures. For both the performance and situational awareness sections, each measure is described, along with its strengths and limitations, data requirements, threshold values, and sources of further information. To make this reference easier to use, extensive author and subject indices are provided. Features Provides a short engineering tutorial on experimental design Offers readily accessible information on human performance and situational awareness (SA) measures Presents general description of the measure Covers data collection, reduction, and analysis requirements Details the strengths and limitations or restrictions of each measure, including proprietary rights or restrictions

Different animals have different visual systems and so presumably have different ways of seeing. How does the way in which we see depend on the optical, neural and motor components of our visual systems? Originally published in 1993, the mathematical tools needed to answer this question are introduced in this book. Elementary linear algebra is used to describe the transformations of the stimulus that occur in the formation of the optical, neural and motor images in the human visual system. The distinctive feature of the approach is that transformations are specified with enough rigour for readers to be able to set up their own models and generate predictions from them. Underlying the approach of this book is the goal of providing a self-contained source for the derivation of the basic equations of vision science. An introductory section on vector and matrix algebra covers the mathematical techniques which are applied to both sensory and motor aspects of the visual system, and the intervening steps in the mathematical arguments are given in full, in order to make the derivation of the equations easier to follow. A subsidiary goal of this book is to demonstrate the utility of current desktop computer packages which make the application of mathematics very easy. All the numerical results were produced using only a spreadsheet or mathematics package, and example calculations are included in the text.

Originally published in 1987, this title aimed to present an eclectic and biased account of the status of perception-action relationships in various fields at the time. The chapters can be divided into three sections. The first focuses on motor control, a neglected topic in the past and hence deserving the role of the starting point of this volume. In addition motor control provides a good background to discuss the clear sensory and perceptual effects. However, motor processes are also highly relevant to perception, which was usually less emphasized in the literature at the time. Therefore a special section is devoted to motor processes in perception together with the issue of integrating information from different sources. The book concludes with a section on attention and selection of perceptual information for subsequent action.

Originally published in 1987, this book is the result of a workshop on the processing of complex sounds held in 1986. All of the important contributions that are being made to understanding auditory processing of complex sounds could not be included in a single volume. However, the chapters do touch base with many of the lines of research and theory on complex sound and its perception at the time, and was felt that they should provide both food for thought and a broad introduction to the literature on a topic that the editors were sure would be studied intensely in the following couple of decades.

Originally published in 1985, this volume presents the proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Attention and Performance. With few exceptions, the central emphasis in previous meetings of the Attention and Performance Association was on the information-processing approach to normal human cognition. This emphasis had been supplemented, on occasion, by studies employing EEG methods, but there had not been systematic attempts to relate the information-processing approach to work in the neurosciences. This volume seeks to emphasize the search for mechanism with such methods of approach as the following: anatomical, physiological, neuropsychological, behavioral, and computational. The editors believed that this was in accord with recent developing trends in cognition and particularly with developments in the study of attention at the time.

Originally published in 1982, this book introduces the student to the central problem of all perceptual theories: just how does the perceiver identify particular objects? In focusing on the problem, Dr Wilding provides a coherent, well organized framework for its study, bypassing the conventional split between perception and reaction time evidence which was common to most textbooks at the time. The author draws on evidence from a wider number of research traditions and argues that each has a contribution to make to any account of perception. Throughout he emphasizes the methodological basis of the research discussed, in order to provide students with a solid foundation for their own practical work.