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Books in Psychology

Elsevier's Psychology collection is vital for students and psychologists, providing a thorough understanding of the mind and behavior. Covering human thought, development, personality, emotion, and motivation, it offers insights into both theoretical and practical aspects. Through topics like cognitive, developmental, and clinical psychology, it equips researchers and students to address real-world challenges and advance their understanding of the field.

  • Learning and Memory in Normal Aging

    • 1st Edition
    • Donald H. Kausler
    • English
    Donald Kausler is one of the founding fathers of research on aging. Internationally recognized, his efforts have formed the cornerstone of research on how age affects memory and learning. Now, in one comprehensive volume, Kausler condenses research findings in this realm into one engaging and forthright book. What are the effects of aging on classical and operant conditioning? How does age affect memory capacity/transfer of learning skill acquisition? Kausler addresses all of these issues and more in a clearly presented, easily understood review of major research findings.

  • The Psychology of Risk Taking Behavior

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 107
    • R.M. Trimpop
    • English
    This book aims to help the reader to understand what motivates people to engage in risk taking behavior, such as participating in traffic, sports, financial investments, or courtship. The consequences of risk taking may be positive, or result in accidents and injuries, especially in traffic. The wealth of studies and theories (about 1000 references) is used to offer a cohesive, holistic view of risk motivation. The risk motivation theory is a dynamic state-trait model incorporating physiological, emotional and cognitive components of risk perception, processing and planning. If a deficit exists between desired and perceived risk, risk compensation behavior results. A feedback loop provides new information for the next perception-motivatio... process. Assumptions were tested and support was found with 120 subjects in a longitudinal study. The concepts and findings are discussed in relation to psychological theories and their meaning for our daily lives.

  • Advances in the Study of Behavior

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 23
    • English
    Advances in the Study of Behavior continues to serve scientists across a wide spectrum of disciplines. Focusing on new theories and research developments with respect to behavioral ecology, evolutionary biology, and comparative psychology, these volumes serve to foster cooperation and communication in these diverse fields. Volume 23 focuses on research on the lower vertebrates with respect to the functional significance of different breeding strategies, the level at which natural selection acts, methods of teasing apart the genetic control of behavior, the assumptions underlying models of territoriality, and signalling systems and the sensory mechanisms on which they depend.

  • Intelligence, Mind, and Reasoning

    Structure and Development
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 106
    • A. Demetriou + 1 more
    • English
    This volume aims to contribute to the integration of three traditions that have remained separate in psychology. Specifically, the developmental, the psychometric, and the cognitive tradition. In order to achieve this aim, the text deals with these three aspects of human knowing that have been the focus of one or more of the three traditions for many years. Answers are provided to questions such as the following: What is common to intelligence, mind, and reasoning? What is specific to each of these three aspects of human knowing? How does each of them affect the functioning and development of the other?The chapters are organized into two parts. Part I focuses on intelligence and mind and has reasoning at the background. The papers in this part present new theories and methods that systematically attempt to bridge psychometric theories of intelligence with theories of cognitive development or information processing theories. Part II focuses on mind and reasoning and has intelligence at the background. The papers in this part develop models of reasoning and attempt to show how reasoning interacts with mind and intelligence. Two discussion chapters are also included. These highlight the convergences and the divergences of the various traditions as represented in the book.

  • The Grasping Hand

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 104
    • C.L. MacKenzie + 1 more
    • English
    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.

  • Dynamical Systems in Social Psychology

    • 1st Edition
    • Robin R. Vallacher + 1 more
    • English
    A dynamical system refers to a set of elements that interact in complex, often nonlinear ways to form coherent patterns. Because of the complexity of these interactions, the system as a whole may evolve over time in seemingly unpredictable ways as new patterns of behavior emerge. This metatheory has proven useful in understanding diverse phenomena in meteorology, population biology, statistical mechanics, economics, and cosmology. The book demonstrates how the dynamical systems perspective can be applied to theory construction and research in social psychology, and in doing so, provides fresh insight into such complex phenomena as interpersonal behavior, social relations, attitudes, and social cognition.

  • Psychology of Learning and Motivation

    Advances in Research and Theory
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 30
    • English
    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.

  • Cognitive Issues in Motor Expertise

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 102
    • J. Starkes + 1 more
    • English
    The intent of this book is to describe those perceptual and cognitive components which contribute to skilled motor performance in a wide variety of disciplines, including sports, microsurgery, video games, and speech. Also considered are issues in the measurement of motor skill, the development of motor skill across the life span, and the importance of individual differences in the development of motor skill. Many chapters contain studies employing the expertise approach used so successfully to study cognitive skills in psychology. Using this approach, expert performers are compared to novices on domain relevant laboratory tasks in order to determine whether specific cognitive or perceptual processes are related to performance differences.This volume will be of value to kinesiologists, sport psychologists, physical educators, and cognitive psychologists who are interested in a new perspective on the nature of motor skills. The majority of the chapters include reviews of the literature necessary to understand the case being made. Thus, the book may be understood by any reader with a basic course in psychology or motor behavior.

  • Memory in Everyday Life

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 100
    • G.M. Davies + 1 more
    • English
    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.

  • Foundations of Perceptual Theory

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 99
    • S.C. Masin
    • English
    Historical analysis reveals that perceptual theories and models are doomed to relatively short lives. The most popular contemporary theories in perceptual science do not have as wide an acceptance among researchers as do some of those in other sciences. To understand these difficulties, the authors of the present volume explore the conceptual and philosophical foundations of perceptual science. Based on logical analyses of various problems, theories, and models, they offer a number of reasons for the current weakness of perceptual explanations. New theoretical approaches are also proposed. At the end of each chapter, dicussants contribute to the conclusions by critically examining the authors' ideas and analyses.

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