Books in Cognitive psychology

Losing Control

1st Edition
November 7, 1994
Roy F. Baumeister + 2 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 1 2 0 8 3 1 4 0 1

Self-regulation refers to the self's ability to control its own thoughts, emotions, and actions. Through self-regulation, we consciously control how much we eat, whether we give in to impulse, task performance, obsessive thoughts, and even the extent to which we allow ourselves recognition of our emotions. This work provides a synthesis and overview of recent and long-standing research findings of what is known of the successes and failures of self-regulation.Peop... the world over suffer from the inability to control their finances, their weight, their emotions, their craving for drugs, their sexual impulses, and more. The United States in particular is regarded by some observers as a society addicted to addiction. Therapy and support groups have proliferated not only for alcoholics and drug abusers but for all kinds of impulse control, from gambling to eating chocolate. Common to all of these disorders is a failure of self-regulation, otherwise known as "self-control."The consequences of these self-control problems go beyond individuals to affect family members and society at large. In Losing Control, the authors provide a single reference source with comprehensive information on general patterns of self-regulation failure across contexts, research findings on specific self-control disorders, and commentary on the clinical and social aspects of self-regulation failure. Self-control is discussed in relation to what the "self" is, and the cognitive, motivational, and emotional factors that impinge on one's ability to control one's "self."

The Grasping Hand

1st Edition
Volume 104
February 3, 1994
C.L. MacKenzie + 1 more
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 7 5 8 8

The simple task of grasping objects has been studied for centuries by scientists, therapists and engineers who have tried to understand and duplicate the versatility of the human hand. Using an interdisciplinary approach and new framework for looking at prehension, the authors uncover the subleties of the amazing interaction between the hand and the brain. They draw from such diverse fields as experimental psychology, kinesiology, robotics, neural networks, artificial intelligence, neuropsychology and rehabilitation. A triangle strategy is presented, starting from conceptual models that suggest both experimental and computational models. Chapters describe the multiple postures established by the hand, phases in the dynamic process of reaching for, grasping and manipulating various objects, and the constraints acting on such activity.Appendices provide the complete anatomy of the upper limb, the basics of computational modelling, and the fundamentals of prosthetic and dextrous robot hands. The ultimate goal of this book is to develop a common vocabularly for multidisciplinary researchers who strive to understand a system as complex as the hand under the control of the human brain.

Psychology of Learning and Motivation

1st Edition
Volume 30
October 19, 1993
Douglas L. Medin
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 3 8 1 8

With a long-standing tradition for excellence, this series is a collection of quality papers that are widely read by researchers in cognitive and experimental psychology. Each chapter thoughtfully integrates the writings of leading contributors, who present and discuss significant bodies of research relevant to their discipline.

Memory in Everyday Life

1st Edition
Volume 100
August 25, 1993
G.M. Davies + 1 more
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 7 5 4 0

The last decade has seen a major growth in research on how memory is used in everyday life. This volume represents a reaction to traditional laboratory-bound studies of the first half of the century which sought to identify the fundamental principles of learning and memory through the use of materials and methods totally divorced from the real world. The new wave of memory research has had considerable success in charting how memory develops, the role it plays in educational and social skills and the impact of memory impairment on mental life. The current volume consists of authoritative reviews of this emerging area linked to comment and criticism from major researchers in the field.Contrasted, probably for the first time, are two major styles of research in applied memory research: The naturalistic approach, which has sought to study memory in everyday environments, using actual experiences from people's lives as the raw data from which to derive more general principles, and the applied cognitive approach, whereby theories and methods are developed using orthodox laboratory techniques which are then validated by applying them directly to real phenomena. This is one of the few books to bring together evidence across the very wide spectrum of humdrum activity that constitutes the everyday uses of memory.

The Intelligent Imitator

1st Edition
Volume 95
November 20, 1992
R. Kvadsheim
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 7 4 9 6

This monograph presents a novel conceptual framework for the study of human social behavior with potentially far-reaching implications. Owing to the role it accords to stored memory representations of observed occurrences (examples) of actions, the proposed framework is referred to as the Exemplar Choice Theory, or ECT. The theory links perception and action and combines an expectancy-value perspective on choice behavior, with features of recent exemplar-based approaches to the study of human information processing. It addresses the influence of social models, as well as the impact of past action consequences and differs from extant theories of instrumental learning. The volume focuses on two extreme classes of conditions defined in terms of the actor's limited access to information and discusses available evidence from many areas of psychology. Its structure is as follows: the introductory chapter locates the proposed theory within a historical context; this is followed by an overview of the main structure of the conceptual framework; subsequently, general propositions are presented and discussed in detail; later, empirical implications are derived for certain extreme classes of choice conditions and considered in the light of empirical evidence. It is hoped the publication will inspire students and researchers of psychology, biology, zoology and of many social sciences, including sociology, anthropology, decision research, marketing, economics, cognitive science and mass media studies to undertake further research and to reconsider existing data and frameworks.

Psychology of Learning and Motivation

1st Edition
Volume 28
October 14, 1992
Douglas L. Medin
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 3 7 9 5

The objective of the series has always been to provide a forum in which leading contributors to an area can write about significant bodies of research in which they are involved. The operating procedure has been to invite contributions from interesting, active investigators, and then allow them essentially free rein to present their perspectives on important research problems. The result of such invitations over the past two decades has been collections of papers which consist of thoughtful integrations providing an overview of a particular scientific problem. The series has an excellent tradition of high quality papers and is widely read by researchers incognitive and experimental psychology. The volume presents research ranging from classical and instrumental conditioning to complex learning and problem solving. Topics covered fall within a wide range of disciplines from neuroscience to artificial intelligence.

Psychophysical Approaches to Cognition

1st Edition
Volume 92
August 20, 1992
D. Algom
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 7 4 6 5

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.

The Role of Eye Movements in Perceptual Processes

1st Edition
Volume 88
July 6, 1992
E. Chekaluk + 1 more
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 6 7 4 2 7

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.

Tutorials in Motor Behavior II

1st Edition
Volume 87
May 6, 1992
J. Requin + 1 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 8 8 8 0 1 3

This book appraises the main theoretical ideas currently characteristic of the motor behavior field, bringing together contributions from many internationally known scientists who are doing this important research. Much of the work presented utilizes new recording techniques aimed at obtaining a complete kinematic account of how movement is executed. The motor behavior field as described in this volume is dominated by approaches which emphasize the dynamics and kinematics of movement. There is also an emphasis on new electrophysiological measures. The volume is organized into several sections based on specific themes. Chapters contained in each section discuss many currently debated questions in the field concerning motor mechanisms and their implementation for motor control.

Intelligence

2nd Edition
March 20, 1992
Nathan Brody
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 9 1 7 0 5 4

This is the Second Edition of Nathan Brody's popular book Intelligence, originally published in 1976. It presents a comprehensive review of contemporary research in this field, including coverage of such controversial topics as the genetic and environmental influences on IQ and individual and group differences in intelligence. The book also discusses both the psychometric and cognitive approaches to intelligence as well as new theories in the field.

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Health

Books in Cognitive psychology

Losing Control

The Grasping Hand

Psychology of Learning and Motivation

Memory in Everyday Life

The Intelligent Imitator

Psychology of Learning and Motivation

Psychophysical Approaches to Cognition

The Role of Eye Movements in Perceptual Processes

Tutorials in Motor Behavior II

Intelligence