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Aspects of Rationality

Reflections on What It Means To Be Rational and Whether We Are

• No Author/Editor data available

What does it mean to be rational – to reason well and effectively? How does rationality, broadly conceived, relate to the knowledge one acquires, the beliefs one forms, the explanations one constructs or appropriates, the judgments and decisions one makes, the values one adopts? What is the character of human reasoning and, in particular, does it tend to be rational?

Much has been written about human rationality – or lack thereof. In recent years, some writers have focused attention on the numerous ways in which people appear not to be rational, at least if being rational is taken to mean always thinking or behaving in accordance with some normative standard. Others have argued that, if human reasoning is as flawed as this work suggests, it is a wonder that we, as a species, are around to notice the fact.

This book examines much of the experimental research on reasoning as it relates to a variety of conceptions of rationality, not limited to conformity of thought and behavior or to the dictates of one or another normative system. The discussion focuses on specific topics that represent essential aspects of any adequately inclusive conception of rationality: intelligence and knowledge; beliefs; goals, values and affect; explanations; judgment and choice; understanding and wisdom.

ISBN: 9781841694870

Published November 19 2007 by Psychology Press.

The Syllable in Speech Production

Perspectives on the Frame Content Theory

• Edited by Barbara L. Davis, Krisztina Zajdo

As a testament to the scope of Peter MacNeilage’s scholarly work across his 40 year career, contributions to this tribute volume represent a broad spectrum of the seminal issues addressed by phonetic and evolutionary science over a number of years. Approaches to the problems raised by attempting to understand these fundamental topics are illustrated in the broad diversity of paradigms represented in the volume. This diversity in itself is a tribute to the breadth of scholarly questions pursued by MacNeilage across his career.

Chapters are arranged around five thematic areas. Two themes, Evolutionary Perspectives on Speech Production and Acquisition of Speech, reflect the major thrust of Peter’s scholarly career over the past 25 years. The other themes are reflective of the broad implications of MacNeilage’s work for scholars in disparate scientific domains. One of the strengths of this volume is the unitary focus of contributions by scientists from diverse scientific backgrounds in considering the applicability of the Frame Content Theory within their own scholarly perspectives. Thematic strands in the volume include:

- Evolutionary Perspectives on Speech Production

- Neurobiological Aspects of Speech

- Perception / Action Relationships

- Acquisition of Speech Production Skill

- Modeling and Movement

- Alternative Perspectives on the Syllable.

ISBN: 9780805854794

Published February 15 2008 by Taylor and Francis.

The Development and Education of the Mind

The Selected Works of Howard Gardner

• By Howard Gardner

Leading American psychologist and educator Howard Gardner has assembled his most important writings about education. Spanning over thirty years, this collection reveals the thinking, the concepts and the empirical research that have made Gardner one of the most respected and cited educational authorities of our time.

Trained originally as a psychologist at Harvard University, Howard Gardner begins with personal sketches and tributes to his major teachers and mentors. He then presents the work for which he is best-known – the theory of multiple intelligences – including a summary of the original theory and accounts of how it has been updated over the years. Other seminal papers featured include:

• education in the arts
• the nature of understanding
• powerful ways in which to assess learning
• broad statements about the educational enterprise
• how education is likely to evolve in the globalised world of the twenty-first century.

ISBN: 9780415367295

Published November 24 2005 by Routledge.

Verbalising Visual Memories

A special issue of European Journal of Cognitive Psychology

• No Author/Editor data available

This special issue, Verbalising Visual Memories, comprises research on: (a) verbal interference and facilitation in face and person processing; (b) similarities and differences between effects of verbalisation and processing in the Navon task (Navon, 1977); and (c) effects of verbalisation in visual imagery and object memory. It is clear that verbal processes influence the encoding, storage and retrieval of visual information. Moreover, different forms of verbal interference and facilitation are likely to be due to different mechanisms in different contexts. The state-of-the-art is that we are just beginning to understand the rich complexity of the problem.

ISBN: 9781841698533

Published June 10 2008 by Psychology Press.

Social Relationships

Cognitive, Affective and Motivational Processes

• Edited by Joseph P. Forgas, Julie Fitness

Human beings are an intrinsically gregarious species - our personal relationships are of immense interest to us and are a key factor in achieving happiness and well being. From the moment of birth, humans crave love and intimacy and we devote much energy to creating and maintaining successful personal relationships throughout our personal and our working lives. However, modern industrialized societies present a particularly challenging environment for sustaining rewarding personal relationships. Understanding how people initiate, develop, maintain, and terminate relationships is one of the core issues in psychology, and the subject matter of this book.

Contributors to this volume are all leading researchers in relationship science, and they seek here to explore and integrate the subtle influence that evolutionary, socio-cultural, and intra-psychic (cognitive, affective and motivational) variables play in relationship processes. In addition to discussing the latest advances in areas of relationship research, they also advocate an expanded theoretical approach that incorporates many of the insights gained from evolutionary psychology, social cognition, and research on affect and motivation.

The contributions should be highly relevant to researchers, teachers, students, laypersons and to everyone who is interested in the subtleties of human relationships. The book is also highly recommended to clinical, health, and relationship professionals who deal with relationship issues in their daily work.

ISBN: 9781841697154

Published May 24 2008 by Psychology Press.

Computational Modelling

A Special Issue of Cognitive Neuropsychology

• No Author/Editor data available

The papers in the special issue describe computational models and principles that attempt to explain the performance of brain damaged subjects. The models elucidate the cognitive processes that underlie speaking, reading, spelling, and visuospatial planning by implementing hypothesized mechanisms and then identifying the consequences of specific "lesions" in these mechanisms for the model’s behaviour which, in turn, is related to the subjects’ behaviour. Although most of the presented models view cognitive mechanisms in connectionist or neural-network terms, they exhibit considerable variety in their underlying cognitive theories, their approach to modelling pathology, and particularly in how they use models to draw conclusions about theory.

ISBN: 9781841698557

Published July 01 2008 by Psychology Press.

The Science of Stories

An Introduction to Narrative Psychology

• By János László

The Science of Stories explores the role narrative plays in human life. Supported by in-depth research, the book demonstrates how the ways in which people tell their stories can be indicative of how they construct their worlds and their own identities.

Based on linguistic analysis and computer technology, Laszlo offers an innovative methodology which aims to uncover underlying psychological processes in narrative texts. The reader is presented with a theoretical framework along with a series of studies which explore the way a systematic linguistic analysis of narrative discourse can lead to a scientific study of identity construction, both individual and group.

The book gives a critical overview of earlier narrative theories and summarizes previous scientific attempts to uncover relationships between language and personality. It also deals with social memory and group identity: various narrative forms of historical representations (history books, folk narratives, historical novels) are analyzed as to how they construct the past of a nation.

The Science of Stories is the first book to build a bridge between scientific and hermeneutic studies of narratives. As such, it will be of great interest to a diverse spectrum of readers in social science and the liberal arts, including those in the fields of cognitive science, social psychology, linguistics, philosophy, literary studies and history.

ISBN: 9780415457941

Published May 28 2008 by Routledge.

Understanding Developmental Language Disorders

From Theory to Practice

• No Author/Editor data available

Developmental language disorders (DLD) occur when a child fails to develop his or her native language often for no apparent reason. Delayed development of speech and/or language is one of the most common reasons for parents of preschool children to seek the advice of their family doctor. Although some children rapidly improve, others have more persistent language difficulties. These long-term deficits can adversely affect academic progress, social relationships and mental well-being.

Although DLDs are common, we are still a long way from understanding what causes them and how best to intervene. Understanding Developmental Language Disorders summarises the recent research developments in genetics and neuroimaging studies, assessment techniques and treatment studies to provide an overview of all aspects of DLD. The book investigates the possible genetic and biological causes of the disorder, how best to assess children's language skills to identify when and where communication breakdown occurs, what the long-term outcomes are for children who grow up with DLD, overlaps between DLD and other childhood disorders such as dyslexia and autism and how best to treat children with the disorder. Each chapter is written by a leading authority in the field in a format accessible to researchers, clinicians and families alike.

This book, with its focus on both theory and practice, will be invaluable to students and researchers of speech-language pathology, psychology, psychiatry, linguistics and education. It will also be of interest to practicing speech-language pathologists, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, educational psychologists, and teachers and parents of children with developmental language disorders.

ISBN: 9781841696669

Published July 01 2008 by Psychology Press.

Flashbulb Memories

New Issues and New Perspectives

• Edited by Olivier Luminet, Antonietta Curci

We all have memories of highly emotional personal and public events that may have happened some years ago but which are felt as strongly as if they happened yesterday. We remember where they happened, the people who were with us, and seemingly irrelevant details such as the weather, particular sounds or specific clothes. Why do we remember these things? Is it because such events are so deeply emotional or so unexpected or because people talk about them so many times? Why are these "flashbulb memories" so vivid and lasting?

Flashbulb Memories: New Issues and New Perspectives explores these questions in the first book on flashbulb memories (FBMs) for more than a decade. It considers the many developments over the last 10 years, including new models of FBM formation, advances in statistical methods and neuroscience, and two key public events, the death of Princess Diana and the September 11th attacks in the US, which can help test FBM. The book examines the status of FBMs as "special" or "ordinary" memory formations, and the expert contributors represent a balance between those that favour each approach. It also investigates controversial topics of research such as:

• Are emotional, cognitive, or social factors highly relevant for the formation of FBMs?
• How can sociological, historical, and cultural issues help us to understand the process of FBMs?
• What are the differences between FBMs, memories for traumatic experiences, and highly vivid personal memories?
• How can we provide a valid and reliable measure for FBMs?

This book gathers together specialists in the field in order to make significant progress in this area of research which has remained divisive for the past 30 years. It will provide essential reading for researchers in FBM and also be of interest to those in related areas such as social psychology, cognitive psychology, cross-cultural psychology, sociology, political sciences and history as well as clinicians dealing with those who have strong FBMs after personal traumatic events.

ISBN: 9781841696720

Published November 19 2008 by Psychology Press.

Emotions

A Social Science Reader

• No Author/Editor data available

Are emotions becoming more conspicuous in contemporary life? Are the social sciences undergoing an an 'affective turn'? This Reader gathers influential and contemporary work in the study of emotion and affective life from across the range of the social sciences. Drawing on both theoretical and empirical research, the collection offers a sense of the diversity of perspectives that have emerged over the last thirty years from a variety of intellectual traditions. Its wide span and trans-disciplinary character is designed to capture the increasing significance of the study of affect and emotion for the social sciences, and to give a sense of how this is played out in the context of specific areas of interest. The volume is divided into four main parts:

• universals and particulars of affect
• embodying affect
• political economies of affect
• affect, power and justice.

Each main part comprises three sections dedicated to substantive themes, including emotions, history and civilization; emotions and culture; emotions selfhood and identity; emotions and the media; emotions and politics; emotions, space and place, with a final section dedicated to themes of compassion, hate and terror. Each of the twelve sections begins with an editorial introduction that contextualizes the readings and highlights points of comparison across the volume. Cross-national in content, the collection provides an introduction to the key debates, concepts and modes of approach that have been developed by social scientist for the study of emotion and affective life.

ISBN: 9780415425636

Published December 01 2008 by Routledge.

Advances in Morphological Processing

A Special Issue of Language and Cognitive Processes

• Edited by Ram Frost, Jonathan Grainger, Manuel Carreiras

Ten years ago, a group of researchers investigating the processing of morphological information met in the south of France to discuss how morphology affects word recognition, perception and production from a cross-linguistic perspective. This special issue is the fourth volume to expose the results of this on-going research effort.

The volume begins with a comprehensive review of the nature of morphological priming, followed by a series of experimental papers that examine morphological processing in a variety of languages such as English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Chinese, and Spanish. The parallel monitoring of morphological processing in reading, speech perception and production, using a wide array of experimental methods such as masked priming, long-term priming, the monitoring of eye movements, and the recording of electrophysiological activity, provides converging evidence regarding the nature of morphemic representations in the various languages.

The cross-linguistic perspective that characterizes the research effort of the present volume, as well as the previous ones, is used to investigate whether there are qualitative differences in the principles of lexical organization and lexical processing in different alphabetic orthographies that arise from qualitative differences in morphological structure.

ISBN: 9781841698670

Published February 05 2009 by Psychology Press.

Modern Psychometrics, 3rd Edition

The Science of Psychological Assessment

• By John Rust, Susan Golombok

Today psychometrics plays an increasingly important role in all our lives as testing and assessment occurs from preschool until retirement. This book introduces the reader to the subject in all its aspects, ranging from its early history, school examinations, how to construct your own test, controversies about IQ and recent developments in testing on the internet.

In Part one of Modern Psychometrics, Rust and Golombok outline the history of the field and discuss central theoretical issues such as IQ, personality and integrity testing and the impact of computer technology and the internet. In Part two a practical step-by-step guide to the development of a psychometric test is provided. This will enable anyone wishing to develop their own test to plan, design, construct and validate it to a professional standard. This third edition has been extensively updated and expanded to take into account recent developments in the field, making it the ideal companion for those studying for the British Psychological Society’s Certificates of Competence in Testing.

Modern Psychometrics combines an up to date scientific approach to the subject with a full consideration of the political and ethical issues involved in the large scale implementation of psychometrics testing in today’s highly networked society, particularly in terms of issues of diversity and internationalism. It will be useful to students and practictioners at all levels who are interested in psychometrics.

ISBN: 9780415442169

Published December 03 2008 by Routledge.

Binding

A Special Issue of Visual Cognition

• Edited by James R. Brockmole, Steven Franconeri

Visual processing acts as a prism, splitting visual information from the retinal image into separately processed features such as color, shape, and orientation. Binding refers to the set of cognitive and neural mechanisms that re-integrate these features to create a holistic representation of the objects in the visual field. The binding problem in vision refers to how this integration is achieved. The binding problem, however, isn’t a singular problem, but a constellation of interrelated problems. The articles in this special issue of Visual Cognition cover three major types of binding, each of which may require a unique solution: The binding of features within objects, the relational binding among objects, and the binding between temporally related events. Within these broad topics, articles consider the role of attention in feature binding, the representation of static and moving multi-feature objects, the binding of objects to scenes, binding processes involved in learning and long-term memory, the development of binding abilities, and binding of information between visual and non-visual memory systems. Rather than disseminate conclusive solutions to these various instantiations of the binding problem, this collection of work describes the current state-of-the science, highlights the interconnections between the binding problems and the approaches taken to solve them, and outlines the critical issues that have yet to be resolved. In this single volume readers will confront work with children, young adults, and patients, and work that uses traditional behavioural measures, eye movement recording, functional imaging, and transcranial magnetic stimulation.

ISBN: 9781841698656

Published January 31 2009 by Psychology Press.

Understanding Consciousness

• By Max Velmans

Understanding Consciousness, 2nd Edition provides a unique survey and evaluation of consciousness studies, along with an original analysis of consciousness that combines scientific findings, philosophy and common sense. Building on the widely praised first edition, this new edition adds fresh research, and deepens the original analysis in a way that reflects some of the fundamental changes in the understanding of consciousness that have taken place over the last 10 years.

The book is divided into three parts; Part one surveys current theories of consciousness, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. Part two reconstructs an understanding of consciousness from first principles, starting with its phenomenology, and leading to a closer examination of how conscious experience relates to the world described by physics and information processing in the brain. Finally, Part three deals with some of the fundamental issues such as what consciousness is and does, and how it fits into to the evolving universe. As the structure of the book moves from a basic overview of the field to a successively deeper analysis, it can be used both for those new to the subject and for more established researchers.

Understanding Consciousness tells a story with a beginning, middle and end in a way that integrates the philosophy of consciousness with the science. Overall, the book provides a unique perspective on how to address the problems of consciousness and as such, will be of great interest to psychologists, philosophers, neuroscientists and other professionals concerned with mind/body relationships, and all who are interested in this subject.

ISBN: 9780415425155

Published March 25 2009 by Routledge.

Episodic Memory and Healthy Ageing

A Special Issue of Memory

• Edited by Chris Moulin, Moshe Naveh-Benjamin, Celine Souchay

A characteristic feature of the aging process is a decline in episodic memory, that form of memory related to a particular time and place in an individual’s personal history. This volume gathers together articles by leaders in the field exploring aging and episodic memory in healthy adults. These articles provide interesting and novel findings on different aspects of episodic memory, including patterns of decline and sparing, heterogeneity in older adults’ memory performance, and cognitive and non-cognitive factors that potentially improve older adults’ memory performance. This volume presents a state of the art account of episodic memory function in older adults.

ISBN: 9781848727083

Published March 24 2009 by Psychology Press.

Cognitive Neuroscience

• Edited by Jamie Ward

Standing at the junction of psychology, neuroscience, and biology, cognitive neuroscience seeks to provide brain-based accounts of mental functions such as language, memory, perception, action, emotions, and decision-making. Its emergence as a coherent discipline came about relatively recently through the amalgamation of techniques that had already been in existence (such as research into the effects of brain lesion on cognition, and electrical recordings of the brain) with newly established techniques (principally brain-imaging methods), originally developed for medical diagnostic purposes.

As cognitive neuroscience flourishes as never before, this new title in Psychology Press’s Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Psychology, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of the subject’s already vast literature and the continuing explosion in research output. Edited by a prominent scholar, and the author of the field’s leading student textbook, Cognitive Neuroscience is a four-volume collection of foundational and contemporary contributions.

The four volumes are divided into eight principal sections: History, Methods, and Key Concepts; Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience; Perception and Attention; Action; Learning and Memory; Language; Executive Functions and Decision-Making; and Emotions and Social Neuroscience. The collection is also fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical, intellectual, and practical context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students of cognitive neuroscience as a vital one-stop research tool.

ISBN: 9780415461399

Published June 26 2009 by Routledge.

Predicting and Changing Behavior

The Reasoned Action Approach

• By Martin Fishbein, Icek Ajzen

This book describes the reasoned action approach, an integrative framework for the prediction and change of human social behavior. It provides an up-to-date review of relevant research, discusses critical issues related to the reasoned action framework, and provides methodological and conceptual tools for the prediction and explanation of social behavior and for designing behavior change interventions.

ISBN: 9780805859249

Published July 24 2009 by Psychology Press.

The Development and Structure of Conscience

• Edited by Willem Koops, Daniel Brugman, Tamara J. Ferguson, Andries F. Sanders

This book focuses on the structure and development of conscience, a subject that has been dominant in developmental psychology since the 18th century. International experts in the field contribute to this broad overview of the relevant research on the development of moral emotions and on the Kohlbergian-originated cognitive aspects of moral development.

The first section of the book focuses on the cultural conditions that create the context for the development of conscience, such as moral philosophy, religion, and media violence. Building on the theory and research on emotion, other chapters cover issues including the development of shame, self regulation and moral conduct, social cognition, and models of guilt. The book also covers moral reasoning, moral identity, moral atmosphere, moral behavior, and discusses subjects such as lying, how to measure moral development, the impact of parenting, the dysfunctions of conscience evident in narcissism, psychopathy, issues surrounding gender, and aggression.

The Development and Structure of Conscience will be ideal reading for researchers and students of developmental and educational psychology.

ISBN: 9781841697420

Published September 24 2009 by Psychology Press.

Expository Discourse in Children, Adolescents, and Adults

Development and Disorders

• Edited by Marilyn A. Nippold, Cheryl M. Scott

School success in the 21st century requires proficiency with expository discourse -- the use and understanding of informative language in spoken and written modalities. This occurs, for example, when high school students read their textbooks and listen to their teachers' lectures, and later are asked to demonstrate their knowledge of this complex topic through oral reports and essay examinations.

Although many students are proficient with the expository genre, others struggle to meet these expectations. This book is designed to provide information on the use and understanding of expository discourse in school-age children, adolescents, and young adults. Recently, researchers from around the world have been investigating the development of this genre in typical students and in those with language disorders. Although many books have addressed the development of conversational and narrative discourse, by comparison, books devoted to the topic of expository discourse are sparse.

This crossdisciplinary volume fills that gap in the literature and makes a unique contribution to the study of language development and disorders. It will be of interest to a range of professionals, including speech-language pathologists, teachers, linguists, and psychologists who are concerned with language development and disorders.

ISBN: 9781841698922

Published October 26 2009 by Psychology Press.

The Development of Autobiographical Memory

• By Hans J. Markowitsch, Harald Welzer

Autobiographical memory constitutes an essential part of our personality, giving us the ability to distinguish ourselves as an individual with a past, present and future. This book reveals how the development of a conscious self, an integrated personality and an autobiographical memory are all intertwined, highlighting the parallel development of the brain, memory and personality.

Focusing strongly on developmental aspects of memory and integrating evolutionary and anthropological perspectives, areas of discussion include:

• why non-human animals lack autobiographical memory
• development of the speech areas in the brain
• prenatal and transnatal development of memory
• autobiographical memory in young children.

This book offers a unique approach through combining both neuroscientfic and social scientific viewpoints, and as such will be of great interest to all those wanting to broaden their knowledge of the development and acquisition of memory and the conscious self.

ISBN: 9781848720206

Published October 28 2009 by Psychology Press.