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Judging Merit

• By Warren Thorngate, Robyn Dawes, Margaret Foddy

Merit-based tests and contests have become popular methods for allocating rewards – from trophies to contracts, jobs to grants, admissions to licenses. With origins in jurisprudence, methods of rewarding merit seem fairer than those rewarding political or social connections, bribery, aggression, status, or wealth. Because of this, merit-based competitions are well-suited to the societal belief that people should be rewarded for what they know or do, and not for who they know or are; however, judging merit is rarely an easy task – it is prone to a variety of biases and errors. Small biases and errors, especially in large competitions, can make large differences in who or what is rewarded. It is important, then, to learn how to spot flaws in procedures for judging merit and to correct them when possible.

Based on over 20 years of theory and research in human judgment, decision making and social psychology, this unique book brings together for the first time what is known about the processes and problems of judging merit and their consequences. It also provides practical suggestions for increasing the fairness of merit-based competitions, and examines the future and limits of these competitions in society.

ISBN: 9780805858358

Published November 20 2008 by Psychology Press.

The Routledge Companion To Creativity

• Edited by Tudor Rickards, Mark A. Runco, Susan Moger

Creativity can be as difficult to define as it is to achieve. This is a complex and compelling area of study and this volume is perfectly poised to explore how creativity can be better understood, and used, in a range of contexts. The book not only centres on creativity in wider organizational theory, but also defines the conditions in which creativity can flourish, and assesses how the contemporary business environment has an impact on creative solutions.

The volume grounds the concept of creativity in a sound theoretical framework and explores issues of practical and theoretical consequence covering a range of themes, including:

• innovation and entrepreneurship
• creativity and design
• environmental influences
• knowledge management
• meta-theories of creativity
• personal creativity
• structured interventions

Comprising articles written by an unusually wide array of leading creativity scholars, The Routledge Companion to Creativity is an insightful and cutting edge resource. It is an essential purchase for anyone with an interest in creativity from a business, psychology or design perspective.

ISBN: 9780415773171

Published November 20 2008 by Routledge.

The Visual World in Memory

• No Author/Editor data available

The book examines how well we remember what we see. Research in human memory for visual material varies tremendously across the time scales, stimuli, and scenarios of interest. Because of these distinct pursuits, research in the field of 'visual memory' is in practice rather compartmentalized and as such is disseminated across a range of literatures. The Visual World in Memory pulls together this disparate field with a series of chapters, each written by a leading expert, that concisely present the state-of-the-science in all the areas of research. The result is a single source of information that bridges the divides that separate the field as a whole. Each chapter reviews and analyzes current theories and controversies regarding such issues as visual and spatial working memory, memory for visual features, conjunctions, objects, and locations, memory for faces, memory for real-world scenes, memory for visual events, the role of visual memory in motor planning and action, the relationship between visual memory, reference frames, and navigation, and visual imagery.

The rigorous discussion and analysis included in each chapter will appeal to established researchers and vision scientists whilst the breadth of the book will make it an ideal companion for students learning about memory.

ISBN: 9781841696843

Published October 08 2008 by Psychology Press.

The Development of Memory in Infancy and Childhood

• Edited by Mary Courage, Nelson Cowan

Human memory is not only the repository of our past but the essence of who we are. As such, it is of enduring fascination. We marvel at its resilience in some situations and its fragility in others. The origin of this extraordinary cognitive capacity in infancy and childhood is the focus of vigorous research and debate as we seek to understand the record of our earliest beginnings.

The first edition of this volume, The Development of Memory in Childhood, documented the state-of-the-science of memory development a decade ago. This new edition, The Development of Memory in Infancy and Childhood, provides a thorough update and expansion of the previous text and offers reviews of new research on significant themes and ideas that have emerged since then. Topics include basic memory processes in infants and toddlers, the cognitive neuroscience of memory development, the cognitive and social factors that underlie our memory for implicit and explicit events, autobiographical memory and infantile amnesia, working memory, the role of strategies and knowledge in driving memory development, and the impact of stress and emotion on these basic processes. The book also includes applications of basic memory processes to a variety of real world settings from the courtroom to the classroom.

Including contributions from many of the best researchers in the field, this classic yet contemporary volume will appeal to senior undergraduate and graduate students of developmental and cognitive psychology as well as to developmental psychologists who want a compendium of current reviews on key topics in memory development.

ISBN: 9781841696423

Published September 09 2008 by Psychology Press.

Infant Pathways to Language

Methods, Models, and Research Directions

• Edited by John Colombo, Peggy McCardle, Lisa Freund

The behavioral and brain sciences are faced with important new challenges at the beginning of the new millennium. The enormous progress in cognitive neuroscience, and the importance of genetic factors and gene-environment interactions in shaping behavioral functions in early childhood, have both underscored the primacy of early experience and development on brain development and function.

The contributors to this volume discuss different paradigms and approaches in infant language and cognition, pushing the frontiers of research by innovatively combining methods, introducing new measures, and demonstrating the use of technologies and measurement approaches that can inform the study of word learning and categorization, gaze, attention, gesture, and physiological functions. The volume offers a blend of theories and empirical evidence to support, refute, or modify them. Most chapters examine the link between theory and methodology, and their appearance together in a single volume serves to inform and engage multiple disciplines, to engage everyone to think across disciplines and paradigms, to embrace the integration of creativity and science as the field continues to study in greater depth and with innovative measures and approaches, the infant pathways to language

This volume is derived from presentations and discussions from a workshop, sponsored jointly by the Merrill Advanced Studies Center, University of Kansas, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland.

ISBN: 9780805860634

Published October 15 2008 by Psychology Press.

Perspectives on Cognitive Task Analysis

Historical Origins and Modern Communities of Practice

• By Robert R. Hoffman, Laura G. Militello

This volume is the first comprehensive history of task analysis, charting its origins from the earliest applied psychology through to modern forms of task analysis that focus on the study of cognitive work. Through this detailed historical analysis, it is made apparent how task analysis has always been cognitive.

Chapters cover the histories, key ideas, and contributions to methodology of a number of communities of practice, including: Sociotechnics, European Work Analysis, Naturalistic Decision Making, Cognitive Systems Engineering, Ethnography, Human Factors. Further, integrative chapters focus on the purposes of cognitive task analysis.

It is shown how all the various communities of practice are living in the same scientific universe, though are in many ways distinctive in terms of their key concerns and main theories. It is a historiography of task analysis, and the people who invented task analysis. It is also an explanatory primer on what cognitive task analysis is all about and what it can do.

Perspectives on Cognitive Task Analyis will be of value to professionals in allied disciplines who might come to rely on cognitive task analysis in their system development programs. It will be invaluable to students who need to know what task analysis and cognitive task analysis are really all about. For practitioners of cognitive task analysis, this volume is a major presentation of what their scientific universe is all about.

ISBN: 9780805861402

Published September 09 2008 by Psychology Press.

Handbook of Child Language Disorders

• Edited by Richard G. Schwartz

The Handbook of Child Language Disorders provides an in-depth, comprehensive, and state-of-the-art review of current research concerning the nature, assessment, and remediation of language disorders in children. The book includes chapters focusing on specific groups of children (SLI, autism, genetic syndromes, dyslexia, hearing impairment); the linguistic, perceptual, genetic, neurobiological, and cognitive bases of these disorders; and the context of language disorders (bilingual, across dialects, and across languages). To examine the nature of deficits, their assessment and remediation across populations, chapters address the main components of language (morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and related areas (processing, memory, attention, executive function such as reading and writing). Finally, even though there is extensive information regarding research and clinical methods in each chapter, there are individual chapters that focus directly on research methods.

This handbook is a comprehensive reference source for clinicians and researchers and can be used as a textbook for undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students in speech-language pathology, developmental psychology, special education, disabilities studies, neuropsychology and in other fields interested in children's language disorders.

ISBN: 9781841694337

Published September 09 2008 by Psychology Press.

Interactions Between Short-Term and Long-Term Memory in the Verbal Domain

• By Annabel Thorn, Mike Page

The relationship between short-term and long-term memory systems is an issue of central concern to memory theorists. The association between temporary memory mechanisms and established knowledge bases is now regarded as critical to the development of theoretical and computational accounts of verbal short-term memory functioning. However, to date there is no single publication that provides dedicated and full coverage of current understanding of the association between short-term and long-term memory systems.

Interactions between Short-Term and Long-Term Memory in the Verbal Domain is the first volume to comprehensively address this key issue. The book, focusing specifically on memory for verbal information, comprises chapters covering current theoretical approaches, together with the very latest experimental work, from leading researchers in the field. Chapters contributed to the book draw on both cognitive and neuropsychological research and reflect both conceptual and computational approaches to theorising. The contributing authors represent current research perspectives from both sides of the Atlantic.

By addressing this important topic head-on, Interactions between Short-Term and Long-Term Memory in the Verbal Domain represents an invaluable resource for academics and students alike.

ISBN: 9781841696393

Published August 15 2008 by Psychology Press.

Unified Social Cognition

• By Norman Anderson

This eagerly awaited volume presents Anderson's cumulative progress in unified social psychology. The research is grounded in the three fundamental laws of information integration theory. Research shows these laws to apply to topics in social and personality psychology such as person cognition, attitudes, moral cognition, social development, group dynamics and self-cognition. This definitive work will broaden the appreciation of Anderson's unique treatment of psychological processes.

ISBN: 9781841698830

Published July 22 2008 by Psychology Press.

Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Study of Language

Research in the Tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin

• No Author/Editor data available

Dan Isaac Slobin has been a major intellectual and creative force in the field of child language development, linguistics and psycholinguistics for the past 40 years. It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of his contribution. In this volume, conceived as a tribute to Slobin's enormous intellectual contribution, researchers take up the challenge of language differences to forward research in the major areas with which Slobin has been concerned throughout his career: (i) language learning from a crosslinguistic perspective (spoken and sign languages), (ii) the integration of language specific factors in narrative skill, (iii) theoretical issues in typology, language development and language change, and (iv) the relationship between language and cognition.

ISBN: 9780805859980

Published July 01 2008 by Psychology Press (formerly published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

Adult Learning Disorders

Contemporary Issues

• Edited by Lorraine E. Wolf, Hope E. Schreiber, Jeanette Wasserstein

Recent advances in neuroimaging and genetics technologies have enhanced our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders in adults. The authors in this volume not only discuss such advances as they apply to adults with learning disorders, but also address their translation into clinical practice.

One cluster of chapters addresses developmental concerns as children and adolescents with learning disorders approach young adulthood. Experts discuss dyslexia, language-based and writing disorders, perhaps the most widely studied group of learning disorders, from the point of view of neuroimaging and genetic underpinnings. Chapters on the neuroscience of nonverbal, math and executive function disorders are also included.

Clinically-oriented chapters with case studies, recommendations for accommodation, and considerations for evaluation follow. Study of specialized populations -- such as late high school students, college, medical and law students -- further demonstrate how our expanded knowledge base may be applicable to clinical practice. The heterogeneity of adults with learning disorders, the complexity of their clinical presentation and co-existing disorders are addressed from both a scientific and clinical point of view demonstrating how empirical research and clinical practice inform each other.

This volume will enhance the practice of clinicians and educators working with adults with neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as providing essential current information for researchers of adults with learning disorders.

ISBN: 9781841694191

Published June 02 2008 by Psychology Press.

Handbook of Metamemory and Memory

• By John Dunlosky, Robert A. Bjork

This handbook examines the interplay between metamemory and memory. Each contributor discusses cutting-edge theory and research that, in some way, showcases the symbiotic relationship between metamemory and memory. Together, these chapters support a central thesis, which is that a complete understanding of either metamemory or memory is not possible without understanding their mutual influence.

The inspiration for this volume was the life and research of Thomas O. Nelson, whose pioneering and influential research in the fields of metamemory and memory consistently highlighted their integrated nature.

ISBN: 9780805862140

Published May 23 2008 by Routledge.

Behavior Analysis and Learning

Fourth Edition

• By W. David Pierce, Carl D. Cheney

Behavior Analysis and Learning, Fourth Edition is an essential textbook covering the basic principles in the field of behavior analysis and learned behaviors, as pioneered by B. F. Skinner. The textbook provides an advanced introduction to operant conditioning from a very consistent Skinnerian perspective. It covers a range of principles from basic respondent conditioning through applied behavior analysis into cultural design. Elaborating on Darwinian components and biological connections with behavior, the book treats the topic from a consistent worldview of selectionism. The functional relations between the organism and the environment are described, and their application in accounting for old behavior and generating new behavior is illustrated.

Expanding on concepts of past editions, the fourth edition provides updated coverage of recent literature and the latest findings. There is increased inclusion of biological and neuroscience material, as well as more data correlating behavior with neurological and genetic factors.

The material presented in this book provides the reader with the best available foundation in behavior science and is a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in psychology or other behavior-based disciplines. In addition, a website of supplemental resources for instructors and students makes this new edition even more accessible and student-friendly (www.psypress.com/pierceandcheney).

ISBN: 9780805862607

Published May 05 2008 by Psychology Press (formerly published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

Embodiment, Ego-Space, and Action

• Edited by Roberta L. Klatzky, Brian MacWhinney, Marlene Behrmann

The majority of research on human perception and action examines sensors and effectors in relative isolation. What is less often considered in these research domains is that humans interact with a perceived world in which they themselves are part of the perceptual representation, as are the positions and actions (potential or ongoing) of other active beings. It is this self-in-world representation that we call embodiment. Increasingly, research demonstrates that embodiment is fundamental to both executing and understanding spatially and interpersonally directed action. It has been theorized to play a role in reaching and grasping, locomotion and navigation, infant imitation, spatial and social perspective taking, and neurological dysfunctions as diverse as phantom limb pain and autism. Few formal ideas have been put forward, however, to describe how selfrepresentation functions at a mechanistic level and what neural structures support those functions. This volume reports on the 2006 Carnegie Symposium on Cognition, which brought together the contributions to these issues from a group of researchers who span perspectives of behavioral science, neuroscience, developmental psychology and computation. Together they share their findings, ideas, aspirations, and concerns.

ISBN: 9780805862881

Published August 13 2008 by Psychology Press (formerly published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

The Frog who Croaked Blue

Synesthesia and the Mixing of the Senses

• By Jamie Ward

As little Edgar Curtis lay on his porch, he remarked to his mother how the noise of the rifle range was black, the chirp of the cricket was red, and the croak of the frog was bluish. Edgar, like many other people, has synesthesia - a fascinating condition in which music can have color, words can have taste, and time and numbers float through space.

Everyone will be closely acquainted with at least 6 or 7 people who have synesthesia but you may not yet know who they are because, until very recently, synesthesia was largely hidden and unknown. Now science is uncovering its secrets and the findings are leading to a radical rethink about how our senses are organized. In this timely and thought-provoking book, Jamie Ward argues that sensory mixing is the norm even though only a few of us cross the barrier into the realms of synesthesia.

How is it possible to experience color when no color is there? Why do some people experience touch when they see someone else being touched? Can blind people be made to see again by using their other senses? Why do scientists no longer believe that there are five senses? How does the food industry exploit the links that exist between our senses? Does synesthesia have a function? The Frog Who Croaked Blue explores all these questions in a lucid and entertaining way, making it fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the intriguing workings of the mind.

ISBN: 9780415430135

Published April 18 2008 by Routledge.

Attentional Capture

A special issue of Visual Cognition

• Edited by Bradley S. Gibson, Charles Folk, Jan Theeuwes, Alan Kingstone

The notion that certain mental or physical events can capture attention has been one of the most enduring topics in the study of attention owing to the importance of understanding how goal-directed and stimulus-driven processes interact in perception and cognition. Despite the clear theoretical and applied importance of attentional capture, a broad survey of this field suggests that the term "capture" means different things to different people. In some cases, it refers to covert shifts of spatial attention, in others involuntary saccades, and in still others general disruption of processing by irrelevant stimuli. The properties that elicit "capture" can also range from abruptly onset or moving lights, to discontinuities in textures, to unexpected tones, to emotionally valenced words or pictures, to directional signs and symbols.

Attentional capture has been explored in both the spatial and temporal domains as well as the visual and auditory modalities. There are also a number of different theoretical perspectives on the mechanisms underlying "capture" (both functional and neurophysiological) and the level of cognitive control over capture.

This special issue provides a sampling of the diversity of approaches, domains, and theoretical perspectives that currently exist in the study of attentional capture. Together, these contributions should help evaluate the degree to which attentional capture represents a unitary construct that reflects fundamental theoretical principles and mechanisms of the mind.

ISBN: 9781841698496

Published April 11 2008 by Psychology Press.

Rationality and Social Responsibility

Essays in Honor of Robyn Mason Dawes

• Edited by Joachim I. Krueger

This volume brings together a diverse group of authors who have been associated with Robyn Dawes over the years. The breadth of topics covered reflects Dawes’s wide-ranging impact on psychological theory and empirical practice. The two themes of rationality and social responsibility are well developed in the book. Dawes had always urged investigators to take seriously the question of how individuals can reconcile self-interest (i.e. rationality) with the collective good (i.e. social responsibility). The area of judgment and decision-making poses a similar challenge: here, rational judgment is the most responsible judgment because it minimizes errors. To attain rationality in this domain, individuals need to accept the limitations of their own intuitions.

This volume presents an up-to-date overview of how far psychological science has come in its struggle to reconcile what is true with what is good. Each chapter is a stimulus for new research and a reminder not to forget the hard-won lessons of the past – in particular, those taught by Robyn Dawes.

ISBN: 9780805859966

Published April 10 2008 by Psychology Press (formerly published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

Child Anxiety Theory and Treatment

A special issue of Cognition & Emotion

• Edited by Andy P. Field, Sam Cartwright-Hatton, Shirley Reynolds, Cathy Creswell

Despite the negative impact of anxiety in children, theories and research have lagged behind their adult counterparts. This special issue arose from an Economic and Social Research Council funded seminar series (Child Anxiety Theory and Treatment, CATTS).

It highlights four themes in theories and research into child anxiety: the appropriateness of applying adult models to children, the need to isolate causal variables, the need to take a developmental perspective, and the importance of parents. This issue aims to stimulate debate about theoretical issues that will inform future child anxiety research.

ISBN: 9781841698519

Published May 08 2008 by Psychology Press.

Behavior Analysis and Learning, 4/E

• By W. David Pierce, Carl D. Cheney

Behavior Analysis and Learning is an essential textbook covering the basic principles in the field of behavior analysis and learned behaviors. Both active researchers, the authors are disciples of a coherent theory – experimental analysis of behavior – pioneered by B. F. Skinner. Using this theory as a base to explain human behavior, researchers must understand the interactions between an individual and his or her environment. Expanding on concepts of the past editions, this book:

• is an advanced introductory text on operant conditioning from a very consistent Skinnerian perspective;
• covers a range of principles from basic respondent conditioning through applied behavior analysis into cultural design;
• treats the topic from a consistent world view of selectionism;
• elaborates on Darwinian components and biological connections with behavior; and
• expands most chapters with revised references and additional citations.

The material presented in this book provides the reader with the best available foundation in behavior science. The discovery of functional relations between the organism and the environment constitute the objective foundation for this book. These functional relationships are described, and their application in accounting for old behavior and generating new behavior is illustrated. As such, this book is a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in psychology or other behavior-based disciplines.

ISBN: 9780805862607

Published March 20 2008 by Psychology Press (formerly published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

Space and Sense

• By Susanna Millar

How do we perceive the space around us, locate objects within it, and make our way through it? What do the senses contribute?

This book focuses on touch in order to examine which aspects of vision and touch overlap in spatial processing. It argues that spatial processing depends crucially on integrating diverse sensory inputs as reference cues for the location, distance or direction response that spatial tasks demand. Space and Sense shows how perception by touch, as by vision, can be helped by external reference cues, and that ‘visual’ illusions that are also found in touch depend on common factors and do not occur by chance.

Susanna Millar presents new evidence on the role of spatial cues in touch and movement both with and without vision, and discusses the interaction of both touch and movement with vision in spatial tasks. The book shows how perception by touch, as by vision, can be helped by external reference cues, and that ‘visual’ illusions that are also found in touch depend on common factors and do not occur by chance. It challenges traditional views of explicit external reference cues, showing that they can improve spatial recall with inputs from touch and movement, contrary to the held belief.

Space and Sense provides empirical evidence for an important distinction between spatial vision and vision that excludes spatial cues in relation to touch. This important new volume extends previous descriptions of bimodal effects in vision and space.

ISBN: 9781841695259

Published April 07 2008 by Psychology Press.