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North Holland

Percepts, Concepts and Categories
The Representation and Processing of Information
1st Edition
Volume 93
B. Burns
English
The most important distinction derived from the computational view of thought is between structures and processes. So proclaimed Farah and Kosslyn in 1982, arguing that structures and processes cannot be examined in isolation and concluding that converging operations are required to isolate the structure-process pair that can explain a particular finding. The distinction between structure and process within the study of percepts, concepts and categories is considered in depth in this volume, with penetrating commentaries by fellow authors concluding each chapter. This interesting format achieves a broad coverage of the various aspects and implications of the structure-process distinction. It affords a salient indication of the diversity of positions as to the description and utility of distinguishing structures and processors. At the same time, it reveals that researchers specializing in areas of study ranging from simple structure and process involved in perceptual organization and texture to complex structure and process associated with reading graphs and chess expertise, do utilize such a distinction in similar ways. The analysis is organized into four major parts within the book: Early Visual Representation and Processing; Percepts, Concepts, Categories and Development; Categories, Concepts and Learning; and Higher-Order Representation and Processing.
Psychophysical Approaches to Cognition
1st Edition
Volume 92
D. Algom
English
Our lives are informed by perceptual and cognitive processes at all levels, from instrumental learning to metaphorical discourse to memorial representation. Yet, historically, these two branches of experimental psychology, perception and cognition, have developed separately using independent methods of experimentation and analysis. This volume is motivated by the assumption that a fundamental integration of the two fields is fruitful methodologically and indispensable theoretically. It explores how the notion of psychophysics aligned with cognitive processes shapes the study of perception and cognition, and illuminates a variety of contemporary research issues from a novel theoretical perspective. The papers raise conceptual and metatheoretical issues against the background of relevant empirical data.The authors provide a virtually narrative account of the most recent developments in their respective fields of expertise in psychophysics and cognitive psychology. Hence, this volume gives the interested reader an opportunity to reflect critically upon some of the current issues defining the two domains and their conjunction. Topics discussed include the psychology and psychophysics of similarity, the psychophysics of visual memory and cognitive factors in judgment. The emerging notion of cognitive psychophysics may well warrant the attention of experts in the field.
Combinatorics '90
Recent Trends and Applications
1st Edition
Volume 52
A. Barlotti + 3 more
English
This volume forms a valuable source of information on recent developments in research in combinatorics, with special regard to the geometric point of view. Topics covered include: finite geometries (arcs, caps, special varieties in a Galois space; generalized quadrangles; Benz planes; foundation of geometry), partial geometries, Buekenhout geometries, transitive permutation sets, flat-transitive geometries, design theory, finite groups, near-rings and semifields, MV-algebras, coding theory, cryptography and graph theory in its geometric and design aspects.
Chemistry of Cements for Nuclear Applications
1st Edition
Volume 27
P. Barret + 1 more
English
In recent times the nuclear industry has thrown up challenges which cannot be met by the application of conventional civil and materials engineering knowledge. The contributions in this volume investigate all aspects of cement performance. The scope of the papers demonstrate the current balance of activities which have as their objective the elucidation of kinetics and immobilization, determining material interactions and of assessing future performance. The papers reflect the varied goals of the sponsors who include national governments, the Commission of the European Communities and the nuclear industries, coming together to keep each other at the forefront of advanced technology.
The Nature and Origin of Mathematical Skills
1st Edition
Volume 91
J.I.D. Campbell
English
A broad range of current experimental research on numerical cognition and the acquisition of mathematical skills is covered in this volume. The individual chapters provide in-depth analysis of specific issues, methodologies, phenomena, and theory. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part the focus is on the acquisition and development of numerical skills. Part 2 of the book contains research on the information-processi... basis of numerical skills, focusing on the mechanisms of perception, attention, and memory that support number skills.The range of theoretical and methodological orientations represented in the volume captures both the diversity and coherence of contemporary research into mathematical skills. The research of educational psychologists, cognitive psychologists, and cognitive neuropsychologists mutually informs and reinforces theoretical developments within each area. The multidisciplinary interest in mathematics skills reflects the pervasiveness and importance of mathematics in education, technology, and science, and also indicates that questions about mathematical competence address important issues in diverse areas of psychology and cognitive science.
Tree Automata and Languages
1st Edition
Volume 10
M. Nivat + 1 more
English
The theory of tree languages, founded in the late Sixties and still active in the Seventies, was much less active during the Eighties. Now there is a simultaneous revival in several countries, with a number of significant results proved in the past five years. A large proportion of them appear in the present volume.The editors of this volume suggested that the authors should write comprehensive half-survey papers. This collection is therefore useful for everyone interested in the theory of tree languages as it covers most of the recent questions which are not treated in the very few rather old standard books on the subject. Trees appear naturally in many chapters of computer science and each new property is likely to result in improvement of some computational solution of a real problem in handling logical formulae, data structures, programming languages on systems, algorithms etc. The point of view adopted here is to put emphasis on the properties themselves and their rigorous mathematical exposition rather than on the many possible applications.This volume is a useful source of concepts and methods which may be applied successfully in many situations: its philosophy is very close to the whole philosophy of the ESPRIT Basic Research Actions and to that of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science.
Group Representations Volume 1 Part B
Introduction to Group Representations and Characters
1st Edition
Volume 1
English
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The Role of Eye Movements in Perceptual Processes
1st Edition
Volume 88
E. Chekaluk + 1 more
English
It has become a truism that the frozen optical diagram representation of vision is the worst possible picture of the way in which we visually interact with the environment. Even apart from our reaction to moving targets by pursuit movements, our visual behaviour can be said to be characterised by eye movements. We sample from our environment in a series of relatively brief fixations which move from one point to another in a series of extremely rapid jerks known as saccades. Many questions arising from this characteristic of vision are explored within this volume, including the question of how our visual world maintains its perceptual stability despite the drastic changes in input associated with these eye movements.
Fourth Czechoslovakian Symposium on Combinatorics, Graphs and Complexity
1st Edition
Volume 51
J. Nešetril + 1 more
English
This volume in the Annals of Discrete Mathematics brings together contributions by renowned researchers in combinatorics, graphs and complexity. The conference on which this book is based was the fourth in a series which began in 1963, which was the first time specialists from East and West were able to come together. The 1990 meeting attracted 170 mathematicians and computer scientists from around the world, so this book represents an international, detailed view of recent research.
Progress in Optics
1st Edition
Volume 30
English
Confirming the fact that optics continues to be a highly active field of research where many interesting developments are currently taking place, the latest volume in this renowned series presents five review articles by well-known experts, on topics of current interest in optics. The first article concerns quantum fluctuations, a phenomenon encountered directly or indirectly in all optical measurements. Such fluctuations set limits to attainable accuracy with which measurements can be made. In recent years theoretical as well as experimental research has demonstrated that limitations arising from quantum fluctuations can sometimes be circumvented to some extent. These developments are of importance from the standpoint of basic physics as well as in connection with technological applications, such as noise reduction in communication systems. The second article deals with correlation holographic interferometry and speckle photography, paying special attention to the effects of random variation of surface microstructure on the contrast of interference fringes. The article which follows covers an important subject in the broad area of wave propagation in random media, namely wave localization. This phenomenon is a subtle manifestation of interference of multiply scattered waves and provides information about important properties of disordered systems. The article considers mainly localization in one-dimensional systems, which elucidate some of the underlying physics. The fourth article discusses an important nonlinear phenomenon, namely soliton propagation in fibres. Solitons are pulses which can propagate over long distances without change in shape. Because of their considerable stability, they are of particular interest for communication systems. The concluding article presents the theory and describes experiments on elementary quantum systems in the context of cavity quantum optics. Such experiments are providing deeper understanding of the interaction of light with matter and give new insights into the foundations of quantum mechanics.

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