Author Archive

September 19, 2007: 3:19 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

The Handbook of Aging and Cognition, 3rd edn

  • Edited by Fergus I. M. Craik, Timothy A. Salthouse

Cognitive aging is a flourishing area of research. A significant amount of new data, a number of new theoretical notions, and many new research issues have been generated in the past 10 years. This new edition reviews new findings and theories, enables the reader to assess where the field is today, and evaluates its points of growth.

The chapters are organized to run from a consideration of the neural correlates of age-related changes in cognition, through the "mainstream" topics of perception, attention, memory, and language, to more applied areas, and finally to reviews of cognitive changes in the contexts of emotion, motivation, and personality. This edition has a broader scope than its predecessors, progressing from structural changes in the brain to a consideration of changes in the self concept and in social cognition.

ISBN: 9780805859904

Published October 03 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

September 17, 2007: 1:17 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Prospective Memory

Cognitive, Neuroscience, Developmental, and Applied Perspectives

  • Edited by Matthias Kliegel, Mark A. McDaniel, Gilles O. Einstein

Over the last decade, the topic of prospective memory – the encoding, storage and delayed retrieval of intended actions – has attracted much interest, and this is reflected in a rapidly growing body of literature: 350 scientific articles have been published on this topic since the appearance of the first edited book in 1996. In addition to the quantity, the quality and diversity of approaches to research in the field has also developed rapidly.

Prospective Memory provides an accessible, integrated guide to the expanded literature on the topic. While many of the authors also contributed to the 1996 book and can be regarded as the founders of current prospective memory research, other contributions come from authors who are relatively new to the field and who are examining broader aspects of prospective memory and, as a result, extending our understanding of it. Besides more generally reviewing the expanded literature, all authors have been encouraged to consider future directions for research and to raise questions that they believe all researchers in this area will need to address. The book is divided into four sections that together provide a broad and deep introduction to the cognitive, neuroscience, developmental, and applied aspects of prospective memory. Following the model of the first prospective memory volume, prominent memory researchers evaluate the papers in each section and comment more generally on the state of prospective memory research in the four major areas targeted.

ISBN: 9780805858587

Published December 19 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

: 1:17 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Bridging Cognitive Science and Education: Learning, Memory and Metacognition

A Special Issue of the European Journal of Cognitive Psychology

  • Edited by Lisa Son, Andre Vandierendonck

The fields of cognitive science and education have worked hard to discover effective principles of learning with the goal of improving educational achievement. And although each has made significant advances, there has been, until today, a gap between the two disciplines. This special issue brings together researchers aiming to bridge laboratory data with real world learning practices, each providing recent and crucial information concerning the improvement of learning. The readings will allow both researchers and educators to understand strategies that would most benefit students by improving learning as well as the ability of learning to learn - or what has been defined as metacognition.

ISBN: 9781841698359

Published September 17 2007 by Psychology Press.

September 12, 2007: 8:12 am: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure

Implications for Learnability

  • Edited by Melissa Bowerman, Penelope Brown

This book offers a unique interdisciplinary perspective on argument structure and its role in language acquisition. Drawing on a broad range of crosslinguistic data, this volume shows that languages are much more diverse in their argument structure properties than has been realized.

The volume is the outcome of an integrated research project and comprises chapters by both specialists in first language acquisition and field linguists working on a variety of lesser-known languages. The research draws on original fieldwork and on adult data, child data, or both from seventeen languages from eleven different language families. Some chapters offer typological perspectives, examining the basic structures of a given language with language-learnability issues in mind. Other chapters investigate specific problems of language acquisition in one or more languages. Taken as a whole, the volume illustrates how detailed work on crosslinguistic variation is critical to the development of insightful theories of language acquisition.

Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure integrates important contemporary issues in linguistics and language acquisition.

ISBN: 9780805841947

Published December 19 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

September 6, 2007: 2:06 am: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Information Processing Speed in Clinical Populations

  • Edited by John DeLuca, Jessica H. Kalmar

Although investigated for over 100 years, it is only now that we are beginning to understand how speed of information processing is affected in various clinical populations. Processing speed has a major impact on higher level cognitive abilities and is extremely vulnerable to neurological insult and the aging process. The importance of processing speed with respect to brain function, cognition and overall quality of life is now the focus of a new and exciting body of research in clinical populations.

This book provides a scholarly and clinically sensitive review of research on processing speed and its issues in clinical populations. Readers will come away with an in-depth understanding of human information processing speed including its historical development, its relationship to other cognitive functions, the developmental course of the ability across the lifespan, and its impact on everyday life in various clinical populations. Other highlights of the text are its discussion of the speed vs. accuracy trade-off, tools available for measuring processing speed, the unfolding research on genetic contributions to processing speed, and the latest ideas in rehabilitation.

With contributing authors who are experts in their fields, Information Processing Speed in Clinical Populations represents a valuable resource for researchers, scholars, and clinicians by providing a concise summary of the existing research on processing speed across an array of disciplines and populations.

ISBN: 9781841694764

Published September 06 2007 by Psychology Press.

August 22, 2007: 6:22 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Developmental Perspectives on Embodiment and Consciousness

  • Edited by Willis Overton, Ulrich Mueller, Judith Newman

Until recently, the body has been largely ignored in theories and empirical research in psychology, particularly in developmental psychology. Recently however, several conceptions of the relation between body and mind have been developed. Common among these conceptions is the idea that the body plays an important role in our emotional, social, and cognitive lives.

This latest volume in the Jean Piaget Society Symposia Series illustrates different ways in which the concept of embodiment can be used in developmental psychology and related disciplines. It explores the role of the body in the development of meaning, consciousness, and psychological functioning. The overall goal is to demonstrate how the concept of embodiment can deepen our understanding of developmental psychology by suggesting new possibilities of integrating biological, psychological, and socio-cultural approaches.

Developmental Perspective on Embodiment and Consciousness explores embodiment in two ways. First, embodiment is examined as a condition of and influencing the particular shape of psychological experience. This sense of embodiment reflects the effort to put the mind back into the body. Second, embodiment is examined as a reflective experience in the sense that the mind forms particular images about the body. This sense of embodiment reflects the effort to put the body into the mind.

The book opens with a discussion of embodiment from a meta-theoretical perspective. Then the role of embodiment in grounding conceptual meaning is examined. This is followed by discussions of the role of embodiment in strengthening our understanding of emotions, cognitive development, religious experiences, and social development. Then the role of the body in spatial cognition and the role of language in the development of complex forms of consciousness are explored. The final chapters examine the impact of culture on the conceptualization of the embodied self. The book concludes with an overview of the historical context of the mind-body dualism and a discussion of how the idea of embodiment transcends this dualism.

Intended for researchers and advanced students in developmental, cognitive, and social psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, anthropology, biology, and sociology, this new book also serves as a reference for advanced courses on cognition and development.

ISBN: 9780805850697

Published November 02 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

August 21, 2007: 5:21 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Memory and Mind

A Festschrift for Gordon H. Bower

  • Edited by Mark A. Gluck, John R. Anderson, Stephen M. Kosslyn

A comprehensive overview of the current state of research on memory and mind, this book captures the career and influence of Gordon H. Bower (as told by 22 of his students and colleagues), showing how Bower's research and mentoring of students has broadly and deeply affected modern research. In addition to many personal reminisces about Bower's research and graduate training in the 1950s through 1990s, this book illustrates how Bower's early research and ideas lay the groundwork for much of modern psychological studies of memory, expertise, psychological assessment, and mental imagery.

ISBN: 9780805863444

Published October 02 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

August 20, 2007: 4:20 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Single-Word Reading

Behavioral and Biological Perspectives

  • Edited by Elena L. Grigorenko, Adam J. Naples

As the first title in the new series, New Directions in Communication Disorders Research: Integrative Approaches, this volume discusses a unique phenomenon in cognitive science, single-word reading, which is an essential element in successful reading competence. Single-word reading is an interdisciplinary area of research that incorporates phonological, orthographic, graphemic, and semantic information in the representations suitable for the task demands of reading. Editors Elena L. Grigorenko and Adam J. Naples have organized a collection of essays written by an outstanding group of scholars in order to systematically sample research on this important topic, as well as to describe the research within different experimental paradigms.

Single-Word Reading provides an introduction to unfamiliar areas of research, and is an inspiration for future study. The introductory chapter sets up a contextual stage for connections between spoken and written word processing, the stage-based nature of their development, and the role of education. Succeeding chapters address visual word processing; the role of morphology in word recognition; the role of lexical representation; the biological bases of single-word reading and related processes; and more.

Reading researchers will take interest in this substantial book, as will professionals and practitioners linked to the teaching of reading in the departments of school psychology, special education, communication disorders, neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, and reading.

ISBN: 9780805853506

Published August 20 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

August 17, 2007: 1:17 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

The Articulate Mammal

An Introduction to Psycholinguistics

  • By Jean Aitchison

An established bestseller, The Articulate Mammal is a concise and highly readable introduction to the main topics in psycholinguistics. This fifth edition brings the book up to date with recent theories, including new material on:

  • The possibility of a ‘language gene’
  • Post-Chomskyan ideas
  • Language within an evolutionary framework
  • Spatial cognition and how this affects language
  • How children become acclimatized to speech rhythms before birth
  • The acquisition of verbs
  • Construction and cognitive grammar
  • Aphasia and dementia

Requiring no prior knowledge of the subject, chapter by chapter, The Articulate Mammal tackles the basic questions central to the study of psycholinguistics. Jean Aitchison investigates these issues with regard to animal communication, child language and the language of adults, and includes in the text full references and helpful suggestions for further reading.

ISBN: 9780415420167

Published September 06 2007 by Routledge.

July 19, 2007: 3:19 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Mating Intelligence

Sex, Relationships, and the Mind's Reproductive System

  • Edited by Glenn Geher, Geoffrey Miller
Human intelligence is sexually attractive, and strongly predicts the success of sexual relationships, but the behavioral sciences have usually ignored the interface between intelligence and mating. This is the first serious scholarly effort to explore that interface, by examining both universals and individual differences in human mating intelligence. Contributors include some of the most prominent evolutionary psychologists and promising new researchers in human intelligence, social psychology, intimate relationships, and sexuality.

David Buss’ Foreword and the opening chapter explore what ‘mating intelligence’ means, and why it is central to human cognition and sexuality. The book’s six sections then examine (1) our mating mechanisms—universal emotional and cognitive adaptations for mating intelligently—that guide mate search, mate choice, and courtship; (2) how mating intelligence strategically guides our choice of mating tactics and partners given different relationship goals, personality traits, forms of deception, and the existence of children; (3) the genetic and psychiatric causes of individual differences in mating intelligence; (4) how we use mental fitness indicators—forms of human intelligence such as creativity, humor, and emotional intelligence—to attract and retain sexual partners; (5) the ecological and social contexts of mating intelligence; (6) integrative models of mating intelligence that can guide future research.

Mating Intelligence is intended for researchers, advanced students, and courses in human sexuality, intimate relationships, intelligence research, behavior genetics, and evolutionary, personality, social, and clinical psychology.

ISBN: 9780805857481

Published September 05 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

July 12, 2007: 8:12 am: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Situation Models and Levels of Coherence

Toward a Definition of Comprehension

  • By Isabelle Tapiero

The mental representation of what one reads is called a "situation model" or a "mental model." The process of reading causes an interaction of the new knowledge with what is already known. Though a number of theories and models have been proposed to describe this interaction, Tapiero proposes a new model that assumes a variety of storage areas to previous knowledge, and that the reader picks and chooses which of these models is most relevant to what is being read. These are called "levels of coherence." It’s a dynamic process as well, as the reader chooses and abandons the storage units of previous knowledge as he or she reads on. Situation Models and Levels of Coherence is of professional and scholarly interest to cognitive scientists who specialize in reading, knowledge representation, mental models, discourse analysis, and metaphor/symbol.

ISBN: 9780805855500

Published July 12 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

June 20, 2007: 4:20 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Human Emotions

A sociological theory

  • By Jonathan H. Turner

This major new theoretical work takes existing work on the emotions in significantly new directions. It gives a comprehensive account of emotions, beginning with general sociological principles, moving over important theory construction of social formation and applying this to a detailed and unified 'grand' theory of human emotions.

Presenting a unified view of the emotions in the social universe, the book explores the relationships between emotions, social structure, and culture. Turner hypotheses how social structure and culture affect emotional arousal in humans, and vice versa.

This book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students researching sociology of emotions, social psychology, and contemporary social theory, and is also relevant for students and researchers working in the fields of psychology and cultural studies.

ISBN: 9780415427814

Published June 21 2007 by Routledge.

June 12, 2007: 8:12 am: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

The Role of Formal Features in Second Language Acquisition

  • Edited by Juana M. Liceras, Helmut Zobl, Helen Goodluck

This edited volume dealing with formal features in Second Language Acquisition is defined within current generative grammatical theory, such as the Principles and Parameters Theory and the Minimalist Program. Formal features are essential to any account of language acquisiton because they are basic components of lexical and functional categories. This is a subject of much current research as evidenced by the number of published articles in journals and in conference proceedings. This is what the editors say: While L2 acquisition is the focus of our volume, the papers address the role of features in the current versions of generative grammar and explore the role of features for learnability theory as it relates to native and non-native acquisition. To our knowledge, the volume represents the first scholarly contribution specifiacally devoted to features in language acquisition.

There are many generativists in SLA, including our two series editors, Susan Gass and Jacquelyn Schacther. When asked if the formalist bias will be a big detraction, Jacquelyn said, "The formal features book will definitely be formalist in tone, and within the latest framework. But what I see the formalists doing big time is becoming cognitive neuroscientists. This is a good idea, I think because they're forced to deal with psycholinguistics and biological matters, like it or not. And I see that a number of the proposed authors for this volume are in fact working with psychologists and neuroscientists, especially the European authors, of which there are many. And I like the book for ...the expansion beyond SLA to agrammaticism, SLKI, bilingualism, the similarities between SLA and linguistic defects, etc."

ISBN: 9780805853544

Published October 23 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

June 6, 2007: 2:06 am: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Straight Choices

The Psychology of Decision Making

  • By Benjamin R. Newell, David A. Lagnado, David R. Shanks

We all face a perplexing array of decisions every day. Straight Choices provides an integrative account of the psychology of decision making, in which clear connections are made between empirical results and how these results can help us to understand our uncertain world.

Throughout the text, there is an emphasis on the relationship between learning and decision making. The authors argue that the best way to understand how and why decisions are made is in the context of the learning and knowledge acquisition that precedes them and the feedback that follows them. The mechanisms of learning and the structure of environments in which decisions are made are carefully examined to explore the ways in which they act on our choices. From this, the authors go on to consider whether we are all constrained to fall prey to biases or whether with sufficient exposure can we find optimal decision strategies and improve our decision making.

This novel approach integrates findings from the decision and learning literatures to provide a unique perspective on the psychology of decision making. It will be of interest to researchers and students in cognitive psychology, as well as researchers in economics and philosophy interested in the nature of decision making.

ISBN: 9781841695884

Published June 14 2007 by Psychology Press.

May 22, 2007: 6:22 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Expertise Out of Context

Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Naturalistic Decision Making

  • Edited by Robert R. Hoffman
Researchers have revealed that real expertise, while applied to well-defined tasks with highly circumscribed contexts, often stretches beyond its routine boundaries. For example, a medical doctor may be called upon to diagnose a rare disease or perform emergency surgery outside his or her area of specialization because other experts are not available. Moreover, in some cases, the context for expertise is in a constant state of flux, such that no one case is identical. Expertise Out of Context is a culmination of some of the most insightful studies conducted by researchers in the fields of cognitive systems engineering and naturalistic decision making in the effort to better understand expertise and its development.

Born out of the Sixth International Conference on Naturalistic Decision Making, a conference that gathers researchers who study cognition, perception, and reasoning outside of the traditional laboratory, this book is organized in five parts, the first of which provides an overview of the topic and presents varied perspectives. Consequent sections cover how to make sense of things, tools for thinking out of context, how to cope with uncertainty in a changing workplace, and teams operating out of context.

As researchers in naturalistic decision making have investigated such areas as the knowledge and decision-making skills of expert firefighters, critical care nurses, military commanders, and aircraft pilots, this volume is of importance to an expansive audience, including individuals in business, government, industry, and society at large.

ISBN: 9780805855098

Published May 22 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

: 6:22 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Thinking With Data

  • Edited by Marsha C. Lovett, Priti Shah

The chapters in Thinking With Data are based on presentations given at the 33rd Carnegie Symposium on Cognition. The Symposium was motivated by the confluence of three emerging trends: (1) the increasing need for people to think effectively with data at work, at school, and in everyday life, (2) the expanding technologies available to support people as they think with data, and (3) the growing scientific interest in understanding how people think with data.

What is thinking with data? It is the set of cognitive processes used to identify, integrate, and communicate the information present in complex numerical, categorical, and graphical data. This book offers a multidisciplinary presentation of recent research on the topic. Contributors represent a variety of disciplines: cognitive and developmental psychology; math, science, and statistics education; and decision science. The methods applied in various chapters similarly reflect a scientific diversity, including qualitative and quantitative analysis, experimentation and classroom observation, computational modeling, and neuroimaging. Throughout the book, research results are presented in a way that connects with both learning theory and instructional application.

The book is organized in three sections:

  • Part I focuses on the concepts of uncertainty and variation and on how people understand these ideas in a variety of contexts.
  • Part II focuses on how people work with data to understand its structure and draw conclusions from data either in terms of formal statistical analyses or informal assessments of evidence.
  • Part III focuses on how people learn from data and how they use data to make decisions in daily and professional life.

ISBN: 9780805854213

Published May 22 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

May 21, 2007: 5:21 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

An Essential Guide to Hearing and Balance Disorders

  • Edited by R. Steven Ackley, T. Newell Decker, Charles J. Limb

An Essential Guide to Hearing and Balance Disorders consolidates the most significant clinical aspects of hearing and balance disorders, ranging from cause and diagnosis to treatment and cure. Experts in various subspecialties of this extensive topic introduce readers to the most sophisticated and state of the art methods of diagnosis and treatment. Each chapter expands on a specific topic area along the continuum of how medical personnel diagnose hearing and balance disorders, to how surgical implantation of the cochlea and rehabilitation can remedy various conditions.

In concise format, the book begins with a case history and follows with comprehensive descriptions of current knowledge regarding fundamental causes of hearing loss and balance disorders, as well as a thorough examination of objective assessment. The latter half of the volume presents specialized treatment and rehabilitative options for various disorders. The chapters in this part cover special topics and conclude with pertinent case studies. Unique areas of discussion in a text of this kind include:

  • genetics of deafness
  • pediatric hearing loss and hearing loss later in life
  • business essentials in audiology private practice
  • professional issues, such as ethics, methods of practice, and conflicts of interest.

As its title implies, this book is critically important for all students and professionals in hearing/balance related disciplines, including audiology, otolaryngology, general medicine, and rehabilitation oriented allied health care occupations.

ISBN: 9780805858938

Published May 22 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

May 17, 2007: 1:17 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Hypothetical Thinking

Dual Processes in Reasoning and Judgement

  • By Jonathan St. B. T. Evans

Hypothetical thought involves the imagination of possibilities and the exploration of their consequences by a process of mental simulation. Using a recently developed theoretical framework called Hypothetical Thinking Theory, Jonathan St. B. T. Evans provides an integrated theoretical account of a wide range of psychological studies on hypothesis testing, reasoning, judgement and decision making.

Hypothetical thinking theory is built on three key principles, implemented in a revised and updated version of Evans' well-known heuristic–analytic theory of reasoning. The central claim of this book is that this theory can provide an integrated account of some apparently very diverse phenomena including confirmation bias in hypothesis testing, acceptance of fallacies in deductive reasoning, belief biases in reasoning and judgement, biases of statistical judgement and a number of characteristic findings in the study of decision making. The author also provides broad ranging discussion of cognitive biases, human rationality and dual-process theories of higher cognition.

Hypothetical Thinking draws on and develops arguments first proposed in Evans’ earlier work from this series, Bias in Human Reasoning. In the new theory, however, cognitive biases are attributed equally to analytic and heuristic processing and a much wider range of phenomena are reviewed and discussed. It will therefore be of great interest to researchers and post-graduates in psychology and the cognitive sciences, as well as to undergraduate students looking for a comprehensive review of current work on reasoning and decision-making.

ISBN: 9781841696607

Published May 17 2007 by Psychology Press.

May 14, 2007: 10:14 am: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Arguing About the Mind

  • Edited by Brie Gertler, Lawrence Shapiro

Arguing About the Mind is an accessible, engaging introduction to the core questions in the philosophy of mind. This collection offers a selection of thought-provoking articles that examine a broad range of issues from the mind and body relation to animal and artificial intelligence. Topics addressed include:

  • the problem of consciousness
  • the nature of the mind
  • the relationship between the mind, body and world
  • the notion of selfhood
  • pathologies and behavioural problems
  • animal, machine and extra-terrestrial intelligence.

The editors provide lucid introductions to each section and give an overview of the debate and outline the arguments of the papers. An original and stimulating reader, it is ideal for students new to the philosophy of mind.

ISBN: 9780415771627

Published May 16 2007 by Routledge.

April 1, 2007: 10:02 pm: Cognitive Psychology Arena - New TitlesUncategorized

Psychology's Territories

Historical and Contemporary Perspectives From Different Disciplines

  • By Mitchell Ash, Thomas Sturm

ISBN: 9780805861365

Published April 02 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.