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Books in Arts and humanities

Elsevier's Arts and Humanities titles encompass a rich spectrum of scholarship that explores human culture, history, philosophy, and creative expression. These works offer deep insights into language, literature, visual arts, and critical theory, supporting the academic community in understanding diverse perspectives and cultural legacies. Designed for scholars, educators, and students, this collection bridges classic studies with contemporary issues, fostering a deeper appreciation and knowledge of the human experience.

    • Coursebook for Economics

      Private and Public Choice
      • 2nd Edition
      • Richard Stroup + 2 more
      • English
      Coursebook for Economics: Private and Public Choice contains questions and problems dealing with market decisions, market process, taxes, government spending. The book is designed to help students using the textbook "Economics: Private and Public Choice, Second Edition." The text also provides a section on "Problems and Projects" which emphasizes mechanics and economic reasoning with case-study type problems, report preparation, or economic data presentation for hypothesis development. The book also provides "complex application"-type problems which can be solved by the student's utilization of economic principles to realistic situations. The text showcases selected articles in the section "Perspectives in Economics" to expand on important concepts, to explain historical viewpoints, as well as to offer original ideas of current influential economists. Among the articles are: "How Government Profits from Inflation;" "The Awful Year Inflation Ran Wild;" "How the Federal Reserve Decides How Much Money to Put into the Economy;" and "The Roller-Coaster Income Tax." The book is suitable for students of economics and business, sociologists, general readers interested in real-world economics, and policy makers involved in national economic development.
    • Fundamentals of Learning and Memory

      • 2nd Edition
      • John P. Houston
      • English
      Fundamentals of Learning and Memory, Second Edition provides information pertinent to the basic conditioning processes. This book presents an integration of the fields of animal and human learning. Organized into six parts encompassing 17 chapters, this edition begins with an overview of the definition of learning that encompasses many of the elements of alternative definitions. This text then considers the processes of acquisition, including a detailed discussion of contiguity, practice, and reinforcement. Other chapters include an extensive discussion of issues, problems, and alternative theories within the field of retention. This book discusses as well the problem of transfer, with emphasis on stimulus generation and transfer of training. The final chapter deals with behavior modification as a general method for understanding, altering, and controlling behavior, which differs dramatically from more traditional clinical or therapeutic approaches. This book is a valuable resource for psychologists, behavior therapists, behavior modification theorists, and psychology students.
    • Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction

      • 1st Edition
      • Jim Schenkein
      • English
      Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction examines the different features of conversational interaction, which reflect a vigorous research paradigm for the study of natural conversations. This book discusses the naturally occurring interactions that have been recorder and transcribed. Organized into 10 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the turn-taking system for conversation and explains that the organization of taking turns at talk is one type of organization operative in conversation. This text then discusses encounters with strangers that only conduct their business under the auspices of their official identity relations. Other chapters consider the production of compliment responses, which are sensitive to the cooperation of multiple constraint systems. This book discusses as well the conversational activity of telling stories and listening to stories. The final chapter deals with an analysis of a dirty joke. This book is a valuable resource for sociologists, conversationalists, linguists, grammarians, and anthropologists.
    • A Research Primer for the Social and Behavioral Sciences

      • 1st Edition
      • Miriam Schapiro Grosof + 1 more
      • English
      A Research Primer for the Social and Behavioral Sciences provides an introductory but comprehensive overview of the research process that primarily concerns human subjects. This book discusses the methods of acquiring knowledge, importance of a well-chosen problem, review of the literature, and relationship between theory-building and hypothesis-testing. The common sources of invalidity in practice, non-experimental research types, Stevens' classification of scales, and estimation based on probabilistic sampling are also elaborated. This text likewise covers the role of computer in research, techniques for analysis of data, univariate and bivariate statistics, and assumptions underlying analysis of variance. Other topics include the canonical correlation analysis, non-parametric analysis of variance, deterministic problem analysis techniques, and common errors in presentation of findings. This publication is intended for novice investigators in the broad category of social and behavioral sciences.
    • On Understanding Grammar

      • 1st Edition
      • Talmy Givón
      • Harry A Whitaker
      • English
      On Understanding Grammar covers the interdependencies among the various aspects of linguistics and the human language. This eight-chapter text considers some pertinent topics in linguistics, such as discourse-pragmatics... diachronic syntax, topology, creology, method, and ontology. Chapter 1 describes the notions of fact, theory, and explanation, particularly about how these notions manifest themselves in actual practice. Chapter 2 redefines syntax in terms of communicative function and discourse-pragmatics... and about the relation between the function of grammatical devices and their formal properties. Chapter 3 deals with discourse-pragmatics and how it transcends the narrow bounds of deductive logic, as well as the function and ontology of negation in language, and how those relate to the fundamental information-theoreti... principle of figure versus ground. Chapter 4 explores the two major aspects of case systems, namely, the semantic role and pragmatic function, and how the two interact in determining the typological characteristics of grammars. Chapter 5 examines the relation between discourse and syntax based on diachronic, ontogenetic, phylogenetic viewpoints. Chapter 6 tackles the relation between synchronic grammar and diachronic change, while Chapter 7 describes the relationship between human language and its phylogenetic evolution. Chapter 8 is about language and ontology, as well as the relation between cognition and the universe. This book will prove useful to linguistics and language researchers.
    • Qsar es-Seghir

      An Archaeological View of Medieval Life
      • 1st Edition
      • Charles L. Redman
      • English
      Qsar es-Seghir: An Archaeological View of Medieval Life presents the findings of archaeological investigations at Qsar es-Seghir, a medieval port midway between Tangier and Ceuta on the Moroccan shores of the Strait of Gibraltar. The archaeology and material inventory of Qsar es-Seghir are described, along with the reconstruction of the city based on archaeological analysis. Comprised of seven chapters, this book begins with an introduction to Qsar es-Seghir and an overview of the Moroccan-American Archaeological Project that was launched with the support of the Smithsonian Institution and the government of Morocco to study life in this ancient Islamic city during the medieval period. After documenting the history of Qsar es-Seghir, the Islamic city is described based on the accounts of geographers and historians and then as it emerged through the archaeological excavations. Emphasis is on the architecture and town plan as they reveal the organizing principles of the society and the daily lifeways of its inhabitants. Subsequent chapters focus on the artifacts used by the people of Qsar es-Seghir, including tools, weapons, tableware, and jewelry; the activities that were conducted at Qsar es-Seghir; and the town plan, fortifications, monuments, and housing at Qsar es-Seghir as a Portuguese colony. This monograph should be of value to students, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of archaeology and anthropology, as well as to laypersons interested in medieval life.
    • Communication and Affect

      A Comparative Approach
      • 1st Edition
      • Thomas Alloway + 2 more
      • English
      Communication and Affect: A Comparative Approach examines the communication of affective or emotional feelings from a broad phylogenetic and ontogenetic perspective. The book presents basic research findings and theoretical orientations with regards to affective responses and communication involving humans, machines, chimpanzees, monkeys, dogs, and rodents. Comprised of seven chapters, this volume begins with a discussion on the development of love in primates throughout its entire sequential course, from the mother-infant stage of pious, proper propinquity to the adult stage of seasoned, salacious, seductive success. In all the stages of love, much of the essential social information is supplied by unlearned communications which are rapidly overlaid by a veneer of learning. Subsequent chapters explore attachment and dependence; signs of language in children and chimpanzees; affective aspects of aesthetic communication; the communication of affect and the possibility of human-machine interaction as a dyad; and development of affect in dogs and rodents. This book should be of use to psychologists, linguists, and educators interested in the evolution and development of communication and affect in mammals.
    • Language Development and Neurological Theory

      • 1st Edition
      • Sidney J. Segalowitz + 1 more
      • English
      Language Development and Neurological Theory presents a neuropsychological theory of language development. The discussions are organized around the following themes: cerebral specialization for language in normal and brain-damaged individuals; development of cerebral dominance; and speech perception. Much emphasis is placed on the issue of cerebral specialization, or lateralization. Comprised of 20 chapters, this volume begins with a review of some of the methods used to correlate neurophysiological and behavioral functions, as well as some of the issues involved in trying to unite the empirical science of neuropsychology and the rationalist science of linguistics. The next chapter deals with lateralization for speech sounds shown by young infants and possible factors in the sound signal responsible for the differentiation. Subsequent chapters focus on asymmetries in young children during continuous verbal-nonvisual and visual-nonverbal story tasks; the effects of multi-language elementary school program on the degree of lateralization for language; intramodal and cross-modal pattern perception in stroke patients with lateralized lesions; and visual half-field asymmetries in deaf and hearing children. Several hypotheses as to why language is lateralized to the left hemisphere rather than to the right are also examined. This book is addressed to researchers and students of the neuropsychology of language, whether they call themselves psychologists, neuropsychologists, neurologists, or linguists.
    • The Future of Man

      Proceedings of a Symposium Held at the Royal Geographical Society, London, on 1 April, 1971
      • 1st Edition
      • F. J. Ebling + 1 more
      • English
      The Future of Man documents the proceedings of a Symposium held at the Royal Geographical Society London, on April 1, 1971. This book deals with choices that man makes or may make, attempting to understand the paradox that the more man knows about himself and the environment the more baffling and controversial his choices become. The major problems of human survival, such as living space, natural resources, relationships with the rest of the living world, and creation, nurture and prolongation of life are also described. Other topics include the past and future distribution of homo sapiens and his activities in Great Britain, artificial synthesis of new life forms in relation to social and industrial evolution, and nature and control of aging. This compilation is recommended for biologists and scientists aiming to understand the effects of technical innovation on people and their environment.
    • The Functions of Language and Cognition

      • 1st Edition
      • Grover J. Whitehurst + 1 more
      • English
      The Functions of Language and Cognition provides a forum for articulating a functional approach to language and cognition. This book discusses the influence of structural approaches to language and thought. Organized into 10 chapters, this book begins with an overview of a comprehensive alternative treatment of cognitive and linguistic functioning from a social, functional perspective. This text then discusses some considerations for a theory of skills and of cognitive development in general. Other chapters focus on acquisition of perceptual concepts rather than logical, verbal, or mathematical concepts. This book examines as well each of the possible limits in terms of their potential effects on cognitive development and in terms of the evidence regarding their actual effects. The final chapter deals with the influence of personal standards and strategies on therapy outcomes. This book is a valuable resource for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in developmental psychology, clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, education, and rehabilitation.