Product Description
This is the first book to explore the cognitive science of effortless attention and action. Attention and action are generally understood to require effort, and the expectation is that under normal circumstances effort increases to meet rising demand. Sometimes, however, attention and action seem to flow effortlessly despite high demand. Effortless attention and action have been documented across a range of normal activities--from rock climbing to chess playing--and yet fundamental questions about the cognitive science of effortlessness have gone largely unasked.

This book draws from the disciplines of cognitive psychology, neurophysiology, behavioral psychology, genetics, philosophy, and cross-cultural studies. Starting from the premise that the phenomena of effortless attention and action provide an opportunity to test current models of attention and action, leading researchers from around the world examine topics including effort as a cognitive resource, the role of effort in decision making, the neurophysiology of effortless attention and action, the role of automaticity in effortless action, expert performance in effortless action, and the neurophysiology and benefits of attentional training.

Contributors: Joshua M. Ackerman, James H. Austin, John A. Bargh, Roy F. Baumeister, Sian L. Beilock, Chris Blais, Matthew M. Botvinick, Brian Bruya, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Marci S. DeCaro, Arne Dietrich, Yuri Dormashev, László Harmat, Bernhard Hommel, Rebecca Lewthwaite, Örjan de Manzano, Joseph T. McGuire, Brian P. Meier, Arlen C. Moller, Jeanne Nakamura, Evgeny N. Osin, Michael I. Posner, Mary K. Rothbart, M. R. Rueda, Brandon J. Schmeichel, Edward Slingerland, Oliver Stoll, Yiyuan Tang, Töres Theorell, Fredrik Ullén, Robert D. Wall, Gabriele Wulf

A Bradford Book ... Read more

Product Description
Written by an assembly of leading researchers in the field, this volume provides an innovative and non-technical introduction to cognitive science, and the key issues that animate the field. ... Read more

Product Description
An Invitation to Cognitive Science provides a point of entry into thevast realm of cognitive science, offering selected examples of issuesand theories from many of its subfields. All of the volumes in thesecond edition contain substantially revised and as well as entirely newchapters.

Rather than surveying theories and data in the manner characteristic ofmany introductory textbooks in the field, An Invitation to CognitiveScience employs a unique case study approach, presenting a focusedresearch topic in some depth and relying on suggested readings to conveythe breadth of views and results. Each chapter tells a coherentscientific story, whether developing themes and ideas or describing aparticular model and exploring its implications.

The volumes are self contained and can be used individually inupper-level undergraduate and graduate courses ranging from introductorypsychology, linguistics, cognitive science, and decision sciences, tosocial psychology, philosophy of mind, rationality, language, and visionscience.

CONTENTS

The Study of Cognition Daniel Osherson Language:Introduction Lila R. Gleitman and Mark Liberman The Invention ofLanguage by Children: Environmental and Biological Influences on theAcquisition of Language Lila R Gleitman and Elissa L. Newport TheCase of the Missing Copula: The Interpretation of Zeroes inAfrican-American English William Labov Why the Child Holded theBaby Rabbits: A Case Study in Language Acquisition Steven PinkerThe Sound Structure of Mawu Words: A Case Study in the CognitiveScience of Speech Mark Liberman Exploring Developmental Changesin Cross-language Speech Perception Janet F. Werker LanguageAcquisition Steven Pinker Speaking and Misspeaking Gary S.Dell Comprehending Sentence Structure Janet Dean FodorComputational Aspects of the Theory of Grammar Mark SteedmanThe Forms of Sentences Howard Lasnik Lexical Semantics andCompositionality Barbara H. Partee Semantics Richard LarsonBrain Regions of Relevance to Syntactic Processing Edgar B. ZurifSome Philosophy of Language James Higginbotham Daniel N.Osherson, general editor ... Read more

Product Description
The essays in this volume are concerned with our everyday and developed scientific systems of explanation of human behavior in terms of beliefs, attitudes, memories, and the like. The volume provides an introduction to the lively contemporary debate about the status and theoretical viability of such forms of "folk-psychological" explanation, in the light of recent developments in neurobiology and cognitive science.It can be used as a textbook for advanced courses in the philosophy of mind, psychology, and cognitive science. ... Read more

Product Description

Does a knowledge of Latin facilitate he learning of computer programming? Does skill in geometry make it easier to learn music? The issue of the transfer of learning from one domain to another is a classic problem in psychology as well as an educational question of great importance, which this ingenious new book sets out to solve through a theory of transfer based on a comprehensive theory of skill acquisition.

The question was first studies systematically at the turn of the century by the noted psychologist Edward L. Thorndike, who proposed a theory of transfer based on common elements in two different tasks. Since then, psychologists of different theoretical orientations—verbal learning, gestalt, and information processing—have addressed the transfer question with differing and inconclusive results. Singley and Anderson resurrect Thorndike's theory of identical elements, but in a broader context and from the perspective of cognitive psychology. Making use o a powerful knowledge–representation language, they recast his elements into units of procedural and declarative knowledge in the ACT* theory of skill acquisition. One skill will transfer to another, they argue, to the extent that it involves the same productions or the same declarative precursors. They show that with production rules, ransfer can be localized to specific components—in keeping with Thorndike's theory—and yet still be abstract and mentalistic.

The findings of this book have important implications for psychology and the improvement of teaching. They will interest cognitive scientists and educational psychologists, as well as computer scientists interested in artificial intelligence and cognitive modeling.

Product Description
This book, a member of the Series in Affective Science, is a unique interdisciplinary sequence of articles on the cognitive neuroscience of emotion by some of the most well-known researchers in the area. It explores what is known about cognitive processes in emotion at the same time it reviews the processes and anatomical structures involved in emotion, determining whether there is something about emotion and its neural substrates that requires they be studied as a separate domain. Divided into four major focal points and presenting research that has been performed in the last decade, this book covers the process of emotion generation, the functions of amygdala, the conscious experience of emotion, and emotion regulation and dysregulation. Collectively, the chapters constitute a broad but selective survey of current knowledge about emotion and the brain, and they all address the close association between cognitive and emotional processes. By bringing together diverse strands of investigation with the aim of documenting current understanding of how emotion is instantiated in the brain, this book will be of use to scientists, researchers, and advanced students of psychology and neuroscience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A comprehensive, contemporary view on emotions. What neuroscience can teach us about emotional psychology!
Introduction:
Psychology is no longer a substantial mean by which emotion can be explained thus a new view on emotion based on neuroscience is necessary and substantiated by this book. Interestingly, select parts of famous emotional theories proposed by people such as Freud, Darwin, Pavlov, and Piaget have been found to have some validity; even more surprisingly has been the discovery of a neural basis for social phenomena such as sex differences in emotional processing and subliminal messaging. While there were a few times I felt like I had to stop reading because of information overload or boredom, I cannot think of a better book that describes the research and developments pertaining to the neuroscience of emotion. There probably have been a large amount of breakthroughs since the book was written in 2000, yet I believe this book still offers an intriguing and extensive review of this field.

Recommendation Audience:
This book is recommended for readers who are at least familiar with neuroscience though I recommended this book for readers who understand the fundamentals of neuroscience. The book is a volume of scholarly reviews and thus the complexity of the material and reading level of the chapters are appropriate for such literary works; however, individual chapters are so well written that readers who struggle a little with reading reviews will be pleased that the the authors convey their ideas in an easily understood manner. Unless you are already well versed in this field, reading the book a chapter at a time is recommended since the chapters are compact and contain tons of information.

Summary:
This is a non-spoiler summary of the book since the books contains so much detailed information it cannot be summarized in such a short manner.

The book is an extensive compilation of scholarly reviews on the neuroscience of emotion and related cognitive processes. Each chapter is separate review written by an influential author (or a few) in this field and the book is edited by an emotional researcher and psychiatrist and by a cognitive neuroscientist. The presented themes are defining emotion and its behavioral and/or physiological responses, the neuroanatomical basis of emotion as modeled using the amygdala, the role of consciousness in emotion, and the relevance and diversity of emotion of human neuroscience. Below I will briefly summarize each theme as presented in the same order as in the book.

Emotions, feelings, and moods are explicitly defined as separate states: emotions are a collection of responses to external or internal stimuli, whereas feelings are the conscious experience of emotion, and moods are frequently or even continuously occurring emotions. Emotions are about something and are built by determining the significance of that something, a process known as appraisal. Emotional appraisal occurs using two different routes (reinstatement of previous experience or computation) that are based on categorization (prototype or theory based) governed by reasoning (associative or rule based) and serve behavioral functions (preparedness or flexibility) that enhance the probability of survival. The general consensus for the purpose of emotion is as an adaptive survival tool. Moreover, emotions and their behavioral responses do not require conscious processing. Survival was dependent on speed and so processing of emotionally significant stimuli required fast processing which antecedes conscious processing. In higher order animal(especially humans) cognition plays a role in the behaviors and feelings that emotions produce.

Survival (in some higher animals) depends on social groups and avoiding dangerous situations. Facial expression and processing of other's faces are of particular importance for the first while fear is of particular importance for the later. Fear produces easily measurable physiological responses across animal species such as changes in heart rate, behavioral changes, sweat response, and activation of the amygdala (a well studied brain region) and thus is widely studied as a model for emotional processing. The amygdala plays an important role in conjunction with the hippocampus in encoding long-term emotional memories especially those dealing with fear; fear conditioning induces a long-term potentiation-like plasticity in the amygdala and enhances learning. Pavlovian conditioning cannot take place if either the hippocampus or amygdala are removed. The exact functions of the amygdala are not fully understood but additional functions probably include a role in stimulus-reward associations (determination of emotional significance of stimuli) and social hierarchy (dominance). Interestingly, "amygdala damage in monkeys produces a pronounced loss of affective behavior and a catastrophic breakdown in social interactions, comparable changes in humans...often appear unremarkable."

Much of cognitive neuroscience is focused on the production and purpose of consciousness. If, "Emotions evolved from simple reflexive actions...among the most primitive and general of these responses are movements towards positive, appetitive things and movements away from negative, unpleasant things," then what is the purpose of emotional consciousness since responses to emotionally significant stimuli can be carried out fully without awareness? The role of consciousness was studied using patients with blindsight or using subliminal masking techniques, and these studies do show that emotion is still processed regardless of consciousness. The purpose of awareness of emotions may be to delay behavioral responses where immediate action is not required and thereby allowing for more informed decisions to be made thus increasing the probability of survival. Furthermore, the purpose of awareness may be to facilitate communication of emotions to others using language; "cognitive development...consists of the transformation of knowledge from implicit (procedural, sensorimotor) to explicit conscious thought forms through the use of language...the way language is used to describe emotion modifies what one knows about emotion and how emotion is consciously experience." Theories on how emotional awareness is created include self-perception using visceral feedback that detect physiological changes (i.e. sympathetic afferents), facial feedback, and more modern theories concerning diencephalic theories , left-right social emotional theory, and modular theory. The book focuses on modular theory which divides emotions into 3 dimensions: valence (positive/negative), arousal, and motor activation and approach-avoidance. They postulate that emotional experience may depend on patterns of neural activation of this modular network; possible brain regions associated with awareness are the anterior cingulate cortex, the medial prefrontal cortex, and the paralimbic cortex.

Dispersed throughout the book are numerous examples (physical and mental) of abnormal and normal patterns of emotion. Abnormal brain function and structure from congenital defects, lesioning, or traumatic injury have provided much of what we know about what brain regions are associated with what functions. Studies have provided information that have therapeutic relevance, and in some cases applications, for depression, anxiety disorders (including phobias), and specialized therapy for specific brain damaged regions. The data presented additionally provides insight into general social behaviors such as the neural basis of differences between emotional processing in men and women. "Females are more facially expressive, males are more reactive [to arousal] in the electrodermal system," "woman are more sensitive to emotional cues in themselves and others than men," and these difference are most likely due to disparities in activation of specific brain areas associated with the respective responses.

Opinion of the Book:
Overall this book was extremely informative and considering the amount of the information packed into each chapter this book is relatively short. The tactical use of figures, diagrams, and other pictures was essential to comprehension of the material and keeping that material interesting; additionally, I truly appreciated the fact that the pictures in the book were large enough to clearly see them and extract the full meaning of the information they conveyed. I generally conquer with the order of the chapters. I believe readers will appreciate the organization of each chapter. Methods, the parts that are the hardest to pay attention to, were easily identified and could be skipped without losing too much important information but were there for those interested in the scientific method. Lastly, I liked the fact that many of the key points were either briefly introduced in a short paragraph or listed out explicitly.

Translation of of scientific information to real-world application is important, and the authors and editors made sure they include applicable and relevant material; moreover, the editors did not forget about future directions of research. The book did not get lost in the localization of brain function and was open to a variety of plausible theories. "Studies of the future will likely be geared to address how specific brain areas execute their functions rather than identifying where in the brain these functions are instantiated." I think the most important thing in terms of content presented by this book was that the material was not presented as hard fact, and the book did not forget to mention the limitations of studies. For future data obtained from functional imaging the data should support other testing methods and not alone be presented as concrete evidence.

Where I have issues with the book begin with the repetitiveness of material. Many of the chapters repeated the material of previous chapters in the same amount of detail. At first when getting use to all the technical jargon and anatomical information this is good, but after a few chapters this become mentally taxing. Because each individual chapter was essential its own review, the amount of material in each chapter was more than enough information for one sitting. I found it quite difficult to pay attention and comprehend each chapter thereafter. Lastly, I can understand why the book focused on fear since it is well categorized emotion and the behavioral and physiological response are easily measured; however, I feel like the book should have covered a greater variety of emotions and more complex emotions such as love; it is not like there is a lack of scholarly material on such subjects.

Great.
Emotion had been largely ignored in cognitive neuroscience until some year ago (with LeDoux, Damasio, Panksepp leading the way) Now, there are various attempts to restore emotion as a very important and fruitfull line of research. Cognition cannot be understood stripped of emotion. This book is a collection of the many issues in affective neuroscience. There are various papers dealing with its neuronal correlates, its place in the cognitive hierarchy, with value, its conscious expression, among many other things. Emotion is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, and cognitive neuroscience is trying to explain it from many prespectives. This book is the culmination of these attempts. Must-read for anyone interested in emotion and neuroscience. ... Read more

Product Description
An Invitation to Cognitive Science provides a point of entry into thevast realm of cognitive science, offering selected examples of issuesand theories from many of its subfields. All of the volumes in thesecond edition contain substantially revised and as well as entirely newchapters.

Rather than surveying theories and data in the manner characteristic ofmany introductory textbooks in the field, An Invitation to CognitiveScience employs a unique case study approach, presenting a focusedresearch topic in some depth and relying on suggested readings to conveythe breadth of views and results. Each chapter tells a coherentscientific story, whether developing themes and ideas or describing aparticular model and exploring its implications.

The volumes are self contained and can be used individually inupper-level undergraduate and graduate courses ranging from introductorypsychology, linguistics, cognitive science, and decision sciences, tosocial psychology, philosophy of mind, rationality, language, and visionscience.

CONTENTS

I · CONCEPTS AND REASONING Concepts and Categorization E.E. Smith Probability Judgment D. N. Osherson DecisionMaking E. Shafir and A. Tversky Continuity and Discontinuity inCognitive Development S. Carey Classifying Nature AcrossCultures S. Atran Rationality G. Harman II · PROBLEMSOLVING AND MEMORY Working Memory and Thinking J. JonidesProblem Solving K. Holyoak Deduction and Cognition L. RipsSocial Cognition: Information Accessibility and Use in SocialJudgment N. Schwartz The Mind as the Software of the Brain N.Block Daniel N. Osherson, general editor ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Condition from Seller
Once again, I am satisfied with the sellers on Amazon. I've been buying textbooks for school on Amazon and every time I am extremely satisfied with the products. This book came in great condition as if new and it came in the correct time frame proposed.

THinking
THis book is okay, however does not seem to incorporate many of the more important aspects of cognitive science. ... Read more

Product Description
In this study, Don Ross explores the relationship of economics to other branches of behavioral science, asking, in the course of his analysis, under what interpretation economics is a sound empirical science. The book explores the relationships between economic theory and the theoretical foundations of related disciplines that are relevant to the day-to-day work of economics—the cognitive and behavioral sciences. It asks whether the increasingly sophisticated techniques of microeconomic analysis have revealed any deep empirical regularities—whether technical improvement represents improvement in any other sense. Casting Daniel Dennett and Kenneth Binmore as its intellectual heroes, the book proposes a comprehensive model of economic theory that, Ross argues, does not supplant but recovers the core neoclassical insights and counters the caricaturish conception of neoclassicism so derided by advocates of behavioral or evolutionary economics.

Because he approaches his topic from the viewpoint of the philosophy of science, Ross devotes one chapter to the philosophical theory and terminology on which his argument depends and another to related philosophical issues. Two chapters provide the theoretical background in economics, one covering developments in neoclassical microeconomics and the other treating behavioral and experimental economics and evolutionary game theory. The three chapters at the heart of the argument then apply theses from the philosophy of cognitive science to foundational problems for economic theory. In these chapters economists will find a genuinely new way of thinking about the implications of cognitive science for economics and cognitive scientists will find in economic behavior a new testing site for the explanations of cognitive science. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An exploration of the fundamental blocks of economic science. Big subject, over-academic treatment.
Don Ross explores the tangled and much-argued relationship between economic theory and cognitive science and manages the feat of creating a cohesive perspective. Ever since the 1970s and the psychology experiments of Kahnemann & Tversky (which went on to win a Nobel Prize in economics - Kahnemann confessed he'd never in his life so much as studied Economics 101) the precepts of economics, based on the "rational man" have been under attack and the philosophical basis has been questioned. Is economics the product of atomised individual actions - or a social construct?

What Don Ross does here is stand back and look at the fundamentals of economic theory, and attempts to cohesively tie things together. Is there a neat fit between the way humans tick and the way markets tick?

The authority (and humour) of Ross' voice elevates this book above the sometimes shrill pop-marketplace of ideas, and this volume, all 450 pages of it, really sets out to establish a new milestone in economics: knocking down old theories and assumptions, and building out of this rubble a new platform.

I don't think it succeeds. I feel Ross would have achieved a lot more if he had used a wider research scope. For the most part Ross' book is a meta-analysis of the work of other economic theorists including Philip Mirowski, Paul Samuelson and the author's own hero Daniel Dennett, and it really could have benefitted, if the author had incorporated, with little additional effort, more insights from the rapidly evolving ground of Cognitive Science. A shame, because the title of the book, and the subheading, promises this. As it turns out Ross doesn't appear comfortable delving into the realities of the human mind, and he prefers to wander back to the Departments of Economics and Philosophy where he clearly feels at ease.

My second criticism is that he has produced some very, very heavy reading. Ross has some awful writing habits that could have done with a firm editor. So I blame the publisher as much as Don Ross. A good editor would surely have pulled out these things:

- Strange metaphors (Tarzan anyone?) that distract rather than illuminate.
- Constant use of acronyms (RPT, OISF, EGT...) which effectively encode rather than clarify the meaning of his long sentences.
- Academic jargon. Example: "Eliminativism." This books is aimed squarely at his peers rather than at the intelligent public. The old My Fair Lady song "Why can't the English learn to Speak?" came to mind. "Why can't intelligent academics learn to communicate?"

My guess is that Ross has been inspired by Dennett's own writing style, which is damned lively, but this author hasn't quite pulled it off.

So I have very mixed views on this book. Even so, it deserves wider reading in the finance sector where the quants too often ignore the realities and irregularities of the humans who make up the market. But fasten your seatbelts. This is not an easy read. ... Read more

Product Description
The Alex StudiesCognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey ParrotsIrene Maxine PepperbergCan a parrot understand complex concepts and mean what it says? Since the early 1900s, most studies on animal-human communication have focused on great apes and a few cetacean species. Birds were rarely used in similar studies on the grounds that they were merely talented mimics--that they were, after all, "birdbrains." Experiments performed primarily on pigeons in Skinner boxes demonstrated capacities inferior to those of mammals; these results were thought to reflect the capacities of all birds, despite evidence suggesting that species such as jays, crows, and parrots might be capable of more impressive cognitive feats. Twenty years ago Irene Pepperberg set out to discover whether the results of the pigeon studies necessarily meant that other birds--particularly the large-brained, highly social parrots--were incapable of mastering complex cognitive concepts and the rudiments of referential speech. Her investigation and the bird at its center--a male Grey parrot named Alex--have since become almost as well known as their primate equivalents and no less a subject of fierce debate in the field of animal cognition. This book represents the long-awaited synthesis of the studies constituting one of the landmark experiments in modern comparative psychology.Irene Maxine Pepperberg is Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Associate Professor of Psychology, and Affiliate in the Program in Neuroscience at the University of Arizona.January 61/8 x 91/4 10 halftones, 11 line illus., 44 tables 448 pp.Amazon.com Review
When Irene Pepperberg, a professor at the University ofArizona, says goodnight, she typically hears the reply "Bye. I'm gonnago eat dinner. I'll see you tomorrow." Though the response itself isnot unusual, the source is, for it comes from Alex, a gray parrot,Pepperberg's main research subject for the past 22 years. That parrotscan talk is well known; what Pepperberg set out to study was theircognitive abilities. By teaching the bird the meaning--not just thesound--of words in order to communicate, she hoped to discover how hisbrain worked. She exhaustively details her fascinating results inThe Alex Studies.

Pepperberg bought Alex--a parrot of average intelligence and withoutlofty pedigree or training--from a pet store when he was 1. Sinceworking with Pepperberg, he has developed a 100-word vocabulary andcan identify 50 different objects, recognizing quantities up to six,distinguishing seven colors and five shapes, and understanding thedifference between big and small, same and different, over andunder. He can tell you, for instance, that corn is yellow even ifthere is no corn in view, as well as correctly select the squareobject among various shapes and identify it verbally. What this allmeans, stresses Pepperberg, is that Alex is not merely parroting butactually thinking; he bases answers on reason rather than instinct ormimicry.

Though the anecdotes are rich and Alex makes a lively subject, this isprincipally a research paper relying on intricate details and aprodigious amount of data (the notes and references alone run to 79pages). This is not light reading, particularly for thelayperson. Still, The Alex Studies manages to be more than avaluable contribution to science, for in providing ample evidence ofour similarities to other creatures, the book ultimately calls intoquestion the concept of human supremacy over the animalkingdom. Pepperberg's stated goal is "to provoke awareness in humansthat animals have capacities that are far greater than we were onceled to expect, and to remind us that all we need to examine thesecapacities are some enlightened research tools." She has provided suchtools in this seminal work. --Shawn Carkonen ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

AN INTRIGUING "HUMAN/ANIMAL COMMUNICATION" STUDY
Irene Maxine Pepperberg (born 1949) is an adjunct professor of psychology at Brandeis University and a lecturer at Harvard University, and is perhaps most noted for her studies in animal cognition. She notes in the Preface to this 1999 book, "When I began my studies, the capacities of Grey parrots were unknown... How much DID these birds really understand? How much COULD these birds learn to understand? Given an appropriately enriched environment, might parrots turn out to be the great apes of the bird world? I set out to find answers to these questions."The Grey parrot was named Alex, and this book summarizes her research with him.

She states, "At the very least, my research demonstrated that a Grey parrot was capable of far more than simply the ability to mimic human speech."Her results were ambiguous about Alex's counting ability, and she admits, "despite intriguing data, I cannot claim that Alex counts."

She states in the concluding chapter, "I have, however, avoided even trying to answer a question that arises at many of my public talks: Why do these birds have such abilities? I have suggested that a parrot's capacity to learn what I teach in the laboratory must be based on an existent cognitive architecture, but have not intimated why this cognitive architecture should exist--or, from an evolutionary standpoint, what selection pressures may have shaped such an architecture and hence Grey parrot behavior."

Excellent condition!
I needed this book for a research paper I was writing; the only problem was that the latest possible delivery date was five days after the paper was due.But I took a chance and scored big, because this book arrived promptly and in excellent condition and I made an A.

Alex and Me
I have followed Irene Pepperburg's articles on her African Grey Parrot, Alex, for years, both learning and teaching my own African Greys with her methods.I was so happy to see her write this book as her own personal tribute to Alex who was not just a lab specimen but a friend as well.Thank you, Irene.Alex will be missed by many.

Too technical!
I read Alex & Me first and I'm glad I did.This 'studies' book is NOT for the lay person as it is very scientific and technical.I read one page and put it back on Amazon.Unless you want to duplicate these studies you probably will not enjoy this book.

There is so much more we could understand
Animals have magnificent powers of communication. I'm convinced of it. We humans just have not taken the time to ask them questions. All too often we treat all animals as livestock, here on earth as decorations or food. Again and again I've seen people make amazing communications with their pets, ones you wouldn't think pets were capable of -- because we have to change our thoughts about animals. We are the weak ones because we have cognition and communication skills but have not chosen to bring out the same skills in animals. For more on these kinds of ideas I would recommend Paws & Effect: The Healing Power of Dogs, which shows how amazing dogs can predict heart attacks and diagnose cancer. The book shows that probably all dogs can do these things -- we just haven't asked them. Animals are amazing. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

A Callto Arms
This courageous and compelling volume aims to bring about a revolution in Literary Studies comparable to what happened years ago to the sister discipline of Linguistics, when the researches of Sapir, Bloomfield, Harris, and many others converted it to a legitimate branch of the Social Sciences with all the attention to scientific method that such membership implies.
Gottschall convincingly delineates the pretentiousness and impenetrability of current literary studies, leading to a precipitous decline in their status and achievements. He proposes a scientization of such studies, dealing in the first part of his book with theory, methods, and attitude. In the second part he describes experiments which he has elaborated and conducted, exemplifying the use of the scientific method which he advocates.
Gottschall's reading is wide, and his documentation provides an excellent conspectus of research in this and related areas. He thus gives the reader who may lack background an entry into the bases of the position he holds. This factor alone makes the book of great value to the general reader who is interested in the better understanding of our complex world. I congratulate the author on this clear and convincing exposition. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of eleven essays dealing with methodological and empirical issues in cognitive science and in the philosophy of mind, Representations convincingly connects philosophical speculation to concrete empirical research.

One of the outstanding methodological issues dealt with is the status of functionalism considered as an alternative to behavioristic and physicalistic accounts. of mental states and properties. The other issue is the status of reductionism considered as an account of the relation between the psychological and physical sciences. The first chapters present the main lines of argument which have made functionalism the currently favored philosophical approach to ontology of the mental.

The outlines of a psychology of propositional attitudes which emerges from consideration of current developments in cognitive science are contained in the remaining essays.

Not all of these essays are re-presentations. The new introductory essay seeks to present an overview and gives some detailed proposals about the contribution that functionalism makes to the solutions of problems about intentionality. The concluding essay, also not previously published, is a sustained examination of the relation between theories about the structure of concepts and theories about how they are learned. Finally, the essay "Three cheers for propositional attitudes", a critical examination of some of D. C. Dennett's ideas, has been completely rewritten for this volume.

A Bradford Book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Philosophy must respect cognitive science
The mind-body problem is of relatively recent vintage in Western philosophy, but it has become of importance of late due to the role it plays in the "strong A.I." problem. Although the field of artificial intelligence is no where near to creating thinking machines, let alone conscious ones, the debate over whether the latter is indeed possible has been raging now for several decades. Sometimes philosophy raises and debates issues that have no immediate practical significance, and the possibility of "strong A.I." is currently one of these. But developments in A.I. may indeed make these discussion not as vacuous as they currently are, and so it may in some sense be helpful to analyze some of these arguments, with also the hope that they can shed light on the nature of intelligence and help those who are interested in the building of an artificial mind.

The author considers his book a blending of three ideas, namely functionalism, intensionality, and mental representation. He introduces these via a consideration of the arguments against Cartesian dualism that were being formulated in the early 1960's. The author labels "logical behaviorism" and "central state identity theory" as being two of the strategies for doing this. In logical behaviorism, mental processes are semantically equivalent to behavioral dispositions, and the definitions of these reduced to that of stimulus and response parameters, these parameters left essentially undefined. The author gives counterexamples to show that logical behaviorism falls short of being a theory of mental causation that allows nontrivial psychological theories to be constructed. Throughout the book, the author makes the requirement that a science of mind must define mental properties in a way that makes them natural from the standpoint of psychological theory construction. He makes the point, interestingly, that information processing systems can provide a natural domain for this kind of theory construction. He thus admits the possibility that these systems can share our psychology but not share our physical make-up. He sums this up by saying that "philosophical theories about the nature of mental properties carry empirical commitments about the appropriate domains for psychological generalizations". Physicalism does not meet these requirements he states.

The author thus asserts the need for a "relational" treatment of mental properties, and so he turns his attention to "functionalism". Along with stimulus/response, this theory also allows reference to other mental states. But functionalism is not a reductionist philosophy like behaviorism, for it admits mentalistic concepts, and these are relationally defined and causal. It thus allows psychological theory construction of the kind that a psychologist requires. However, the author is careful to note that functionalism must deal with two problems, one being the development of a vocabulary which specifies the allowed kinds of descriptions for causes and effects, the other being that one must gaurantee that functional individuation only takes place when there is a mechanism that can carry out the function and only where there is an idea of what such a mechanism is. One wants, in functionalism, to avoid "pseudo-explanations" like those arising in physicalism.

This is where the author brings in the (Turing) machines, via "machine functionalism", which he claims solve the above problems. Functional definitions of psychological kinds are identical to the ones used to specify the program states of the computer. The author then elaborates in detail on just how machine functionalism is able to cope with the problems discussed. The Turing machine can provide a sufficient condition for the mechanical realizability of a functional theory, and thusmental processes correspond to a certain Turing machine process, and for each Turing machine process a mechanical realization.

He is careful though to not let this theory do more than it should (or can), such as circular arguments that involve the postulating of processes for which no mechanical realization can exist. He then addresses the degree to which functionalism could be said to be a successful theory. Could one really accept that it is relational properties that induce pain rather than an itch? His argument involves the difference between "qualia inversion" and "propositional attitude inversion", the former possible, the latter not. He argues that it is not a conceptual possibility of one person's belief being different from another's despite the identity of their inferential roles. He does however give references for possible ways of avoiding this.

The author is firmly committed to having both a philosophical and psychological theory of propositional attitudes. His attitude here is an interesting one, for I think it is a sign of things to come in the intersection between science and philosophy. He states that the goal of cognitive psychology is to systematize and explain how the propositional attitudes of an organism are affected by experience, by genes, and other propositional attitudes that it has. The success of such a psychological theory puts constraints on the construction of the philosophical theory. This, again, is a most interesting move, for it is an example of a new way of doing philosophy, namely that of constructing philosophical theories that must respect scientific results. For the author, the distinction between a philosophical and a psychological theory is heuristic, namely it is a quick way of indicating which kinds of constraints are being used in the motivating of a given strategy in theory construction. This book is an example of this kind of strategy, and as a whole it is a fascinating one, particularly in the context of current research in artificial intelligence.When philosophers see the rise of thinking machines in the near future, their philosophical theories will have to adapt themselves to the abilities of these machines. And the machines themselves will have their own (unique) theories about their abilities. ... Read more

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The interdisciplinary field of cognitive science brings together elements of cognitive psychology, mathematics, perception, and linguistics. Focusing on the main areas of exploration in this field today, Cognitive Science presents comprehensive overviews of research findings and discusses new cross-over areas of interest. Contributors represent the most senior and well-established names in the field. This volume serves as a high-level introduction, with sufficient breadth to be a graduate-level text, and enough depth to be a valued reference source to researchers. ... Read more

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Debate over the nature of science has recently moved from the halls of academia into the public sphere, where it has taken shape as the "science wars." At issue is the question of whether scientific knowledge is objective and universal or socially mediated, whether scientific truths are independent of human values and beliefs. Ronald Giere is a philosopher of science who has been at the forefront of this debate from its inception, and Science without Laws offers a much-needed mediating perspective on an increasingly volatile line of inquiry.

Giere does not question the major findings of modern science: for example, that the universe is expanding or that inheritance is carried by DNA molecules with a double helical structure. But like many critics of modern science, he rejects the widespread notion of science--deriving ultimately from the Enlightenment--as a uniquely rational activity leading to the discovery of universal truths underlying all natural phenomena. In these highly readable essays, Giere argues that it is better to understand scientists as merely constructing more or less abstract models of limited aspects of the world. Such an understanding makes possible a resolution of the issues at stake in the science wars. The critics of science are seen to be correct in rejecting the Enlightenment idea of science, and its defenders are seen to be correct in insisting that science does produce genuine knowledge of the natural world.

Giere is utterly persuasive in arguing that to criticize the Enlightenment ideal is not to criticize science itself, and that to defend science one need not defend the Enlightenment ideal. Science without Laws thus stakes out a middle ground in these debates by showing us how science can be better conceived in other ways. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Interesting insights still not well developed
Giere's "Explaining Science" is meant to give a naturalisticaccount of science. Traditional philosophy of science pursued the projectof the foundation of science. Naturalists maintain that the only purpose ofphilosophy of science is to explain science. The title of Giere's book is,then, programmatic. The book is intended to cover a wide subject andthroughout his sections handle with topics like the naturalization ofphilosophy of science, the scientific realism (where Giere defends a formof constructivistic realism) and scientific judgement (where the authorsuggests the use of bounded rationality models as a framework for theexplanation of the scientific judgement). The book is very ambitious butthe arguments in it are not always well developed and persuasive. Forexample, the use of bounded rationality models of decision in thephilosophy of science can be a very interesting insight, but this requiresa strong analysis of the social mechanisms that mediate the choices of theindividuals (bounded rationality requires an organization). Giere arresthimself too frequently only on the surface of this problems. But ofteninitiators are compelled to give only hints, and this is only the beginningof a beautiful friendship between philosophy of science and(cognitive)science that eventually will lead to the science of science sofrequently proposed.

Interesting insights still not well developed
Giere's "Explaining Science" is meant to give a naturalisticaccount of science. Traditional philosophy of science pursued the projectof the foundation of science. Naturalists maintain that the only purpose ofphilosophy of science is to explain science. The title of Giere's book is,then, programmatic. The book is intended to cover a wide subject andthroughout his sections handle with topics like the naturalization ofphilosophy of science, the scientific realism (where Giere defends a formof constructivistic realism) and scientific judgement (where the authorsuggests the use of bounded rationality models as a framework for theexplanation of the scientific judgement). The book is very ambitious butthe arguments in it are not always well developed and persuasive. Forexample, the use of bounded rationality models of decision in thephilosophy of science can be a very interesting insight, but this requiresa strong analysis of the social mechanisms that mediate the choices of theindividuals (bounded rationality requires an organization). Giere arresthimself too frequently only on the surface of this problems. But ofteninitiators are compelled to give only hints, and this is only the beginningof a beautiful friendship between philosophy of science and(cognitive)science that eventually will lead to the science of science sofrequently proposed.

Interesting insights still not well developed
Giere's "Explaining Science" is meant to give a naturalisticaccount of science. Traditional philosophy of science pursued the projectof the foundation of science. Naturalists maintain that the only purpose ofphilosophy of science is to explain science. The title of Giere's book is,then, programmatic. The book is intended to cover a wide subject andthroughout his sections handle with topics like the naturalization ofphilosophy of science, the scientific realism (where Giere defends a formof constructivistic realism) and scientific judgement (where the authorsuggests the use of bounded rationality models as a framework for theexplanation of the scientific judgement). The book is very ambitious butthe arguments in it are not always well developed and persuasive. Forexample, the use of bounded rationality models of decision in thephilosophy of science can be a very interesting insight, but this requiresa strong analysis of the social mechanisms that mediate the choices of theindividuals (bounded rationality requires an organization). Giere arresthimself too frequently only on the surface of this problems. But ofteninitiators are compelled to give only hints, and this is only the beginningof a beautiful friendship between philosophy of science and science thateventually will lead to the science of science so frequently proposed.

Interesting insights still not well developed
Giere's "Explaining Science" is meant to give a naturalisticaccount of science. Traditional philosophy of science pursued the projectof the foundation of science. Naturalists maintain that the only purpose ofphilosophy of science is to explain science. The title of Giere's book is,then, programmatic. The book is intended to cover a wide subject andthroughout his sections handle with topics like the naturalization ofphilosophy of science, the scientific realism (where Giere defends a formof constructivistic realism) and scientific judgement (where the authorsuggests the use of bounded rationality models as a framework for theexplanation of the scientific judgement). The book is very ambitious butthe arguments in it are not always well developed and persuasive. Forexample, the use of bounded rationality models of decision in thephilosophy of science can be a very interesting insight, but this requiresa strong analysis of the social mechanisms that mediate the choices of theindividuals (bounded rationality requires an organization). Giere arresthimself too frequently only on the surface of this problems. But ofteninitiators are compelled to give only hints, and this is only the beginningof a beautiful friendship between philosophy of science and science thateventually will lead to the science of science so frequently proposed. ... Read more

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Exploring fluency from multiple vantage points that together constitute a cognitive science perspective, this book examines research in second language acquisition and bilingualism that points to promising avenues for understanding and promoting second language fluency. Cognitive Bases of Second Language Fluency covers essential topics such as units of analysis for measuring fluency, the relation of second language fluency to general cognitive fluidity, social and motivational contributors to fluency, and neural correlates of fluency. The author provides clear and accessible summaries of foundational empirical work on speech production, automaticity, lexical access, and other issues of relevance to second language acquisition theory. Cognitive Bases of Second Language Fluency is a valuable reference for scholars in SLA, cognitive psychology, and language teaching, and it can also serve as an ideal textbook for advanced courses in these fields. ... Read more

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There is wide interest in the potential of 'serious' video games as vehicles for learning. Especially in the health education domain, there are now many reports of the use of video games intended to produce changes in players' knowledge, attitudes or behaviours that will transfer to 'real life' settings outside the context of the game. The authors of this book analyse the learning models implicit in health games described in the literature, and relates these to established learning models in order to illustrate the nature of the gaps between current game designs and relevant learning theory and technology. This analysis provides a systematic framework for identifying principles of game design that are soundly based both in theory and research evidence. Examples are provided from recent game designs. This book also reports on whether computer games can be put to good use for mathematics educational purposes for young teenagers. The authors believe that computer games can be used as a complement for making routine practice more varied, more enjoyable and more effective.In addition, digital epistemic games are computer-based games that mediate mental, intellectual, knowledge-oriented activities. This book presents a strategy for how to analyse digital epistemic games. Other chapters in this book investigate the relationship between video game play and dreams and the emergence of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) in the past decade. ... Read more

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This new and exciting American Psychological Reader includes timely, cutting-edge articles, giving readers a real-world perspective¿from a reliable source¿Current Directions in Psychological Science journal. This reader includes over 20 articles that have been carefully selected and taken from the very accessible Current Directions in Psychological Science journal. Articles discuss today's most current and pressing issues in cognitive science and are broken down into these main sections: visual perception; memory; associative learning and causal reasoning; solving problems and making decisions; language; and minds and brains. For psychologists and those interested in psychological science.

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What will be the future of social science? Where exactly do we stand, and where do we go from here? What kinds of problems should we be addressing, with what kinds of approaches and arguments?In Cognitive Dimensions of Social Science, Mark Turner offers an answer to these pressing questions: social science is headed toward convergence with cognitive science. Together they will give us a new and better approach to the study of what human beings are, what human beings do, what kind of mind they have, and how that mind developed over the history of the species.Turner, one of the originators of the cognitive scientific theory of conceptual integration, here explores how the application of that theory enriches the social scientific study of meaning, culture, identity, reason, choice, judgment, decision, innovation, and invention.About fifty thousand years ago, humans made a spectacular advance: they became cognitively modern. This development made possible the invention of the vast range of knowledge, practices, and institutions that social scientists try to explain. For Turner, the anchor of all social science - anthropology, political science, sociology, economics - must be the study of the cognitively modern human mind. In this book, Turner moves the study of those extraordinary mental powers to the center of social scientific research and analysis. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Important indeed, but rather fuzzy
Turners message, that social science would benefit from a closer integration with cognitive science, is an important one, and is easy to agree with. On the other hand, it is not a particularly original point to make. You will find it more clearly stated and better argued in E. O. Wilson "Consilience" or S. Pinker "The Blank Slate".

I find this book rather fuzzy when it comes down to the details. What exactly is the state of contemporary cognitive science? What theories of social science would we have to discard when we take this research into account? What would this integration mean for modelling and testing? Turner is quite neubolus on questions like these, and offers surprisingly few references to neurobiological studies. He does not care to present too much evidence in support for his theories. I expected more rigour from this book, honestly.

Important New Ideas for Social Scientists
Cognitive Dimensions of Social Science is skillfully written and deeply relevant to a wide range of social scientific endeavors. In it, Mark Turner traces the origin of human choices to conceptual blending - a subconscious cognitive process that affects how people make sense of complex environments. His work demonstrates the substantial benefits that emerge from integrating cognitive science principles into social scientific practice. Read this book and witness the seeds of a powerful new paradigm being sown. ... Read more

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The development of cognitive science is one of the most remarkable and fascinating intellectual achievements of the modern era. The quest to understand the mind is as old as recorded human thought; but the progress of modern science has offered new methods and techniques which have revolutionized this enquiry. Oxford University Press now presents a masterful history of cognitive science, told by one of its most eminent practitioners.

Cognitive science is the project of understanding the mind by modeling its workings. Psychology is its heart, but it draws together various adjoining fields of research, including artificial intelligence; neuroscientific study of the brain; philosophical investigation of mind, language, logic, and understanding; computational work on logic and reasoning; linguistic research on grammar, semantics, and communication; and anthropological explorations of human similarities and differences. Each discipline, in its own way, asks what the mind is, what it does, how it works, how it developed - how it is even possible. The key distinguishing characteristic of cognitive science, Boden suggests, compared with older ways of thinking about the mind, is the notion of understanding the mind as a kind of machine. She traces the origins of cognitive science back to Descartes's revolutionary ideas, and follows the story through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the pioneers of psychology and computing appear. Then she guides the reader through the complex interlinked paths along which the study of the mind developed in the twentieth century. Cognitive science, in Boden's broad conception, covers a wide range of aspects of mind: not just 'cognition' in the sense of knowledge or reasoning, but emotion, personality, social communication, and even action. In each area of investigation, Boden introduces the key ideas and the people who developed them.

No one else could tell this story as Boden can: she has been an active participant in cognitive science since the 1960s, and has known many of the key figures personally. Her narrative is written in a lively, swift-moving style, enriched by the personal touch of someone who knows the story at first hand. Her history looks forward as well as back: it is her conviction that cognitive science today--and tomorrow--cannot be properly understood without a historical perspective. Mind as Machine will be a rich resource for anyone working on the mind, in any academic discipline, who wants to know how our understanding of our mental activities and capacities has developed. ... Read more

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Behavioral experiments are one of the central and most powerful methods of intervention in cognitive therapy. Yet until now, there has been no volume to guide clinicians wishing to design and implement behavioral experiments. Behavioural Experiments in Cognitive Therapy fills this gap. It is written by clinicans for clinicians. It is a practical, easy to read handbook, which is relevant for practicing clinicians at every level, from trainees to cognitive therapy supervisors. Following an introduction by David Clark, the first two chapters provide a theoretical and practical background for the understanding and development of behavioral experiments. Therafter, the remaining chapters of the book focus on particular problem areas. These include problems which have been the traditional focus of cognitive therapy, such as depression and anxiety disorders, as well as those which have only once more recently become a subject of study, such as biopolar disorder and psychotic symptoms. Additionally, it includes some which are still int their relative infancy--physical health problems, and brain injury. The book includes several chapters on transdiagnostic problems, such as avoidance of affect, low self-esteem, interpersonal issues, and self-injurious behavior. A final chapter by Christine Padesky provides some signposts for future development. Containing examples of over 200 behavioral experiments, this book will be of enormous practical value for all those involved in cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as stimulting exploration in both its readers and their patients. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Book review
I am about to start a CBT training course and the book was recommended by a friend who has previously completed the course. Inital reading has been informative and I hope it will become a working handtool in my practice ... Read more