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Books in Social sciences and humanities

Confidential Information Sources
Public and Private
2nd Edition
John M. Carroll
English
This edition includes the effects of massive computerization on the collection, storage, and reporting of personal data. For investigations and back-ground checks of any type, this outstanding volume tells how to hire reliable employees, sell to solvent customers, and purchase from reliable vendors. Carroll also examines troubling issues of ethics, accuracy, and privacy in our age of electronic information transfer.
Mental Images in Human Cognition
1st Edition
Volume 80
R.H. Logie + 1 more
English
This book represents the research efforts of individuals whose scientific expertise lies in reflection on what Sartre described as reflective acts. Theory in the cognitive psychology of mental imagery, endeavors not only being able to describe the contents and nature of mental imagery, but also being able to understand the underlying functional cognition. Psychologists need not solely rely on the techniques of introspection, and the last two decades have seen highly creative developments in techniques for eliciting behavioural data to be complemented by introspective reports. This level of sophistication has provided singular insights into the relationship between imagery and other consequential and universal aspects of human cognition: perception, memory, verbal processes and problem solving. The recognition that imagery, despite its ubiquitous nature, differs between individuals both in prevalence and in kind, and the dramatic rise in cognitive science has provided the additional potential for integrating our understanding of cognitive function with our understanding of neuroanatomy and of computer science. All of these relationships, developments and issues are dealt with in detail in this book, by some of the most distinguished authors in imagery research, working at present in both Europe and the USA.
Text and Text Processing
1st Edition
Volume 79
G. Denhiere + 1 more
English
The book presents the state-of-the-art in major aspects of text analysis and cognitive text processing by some of the most well-known European and American researchers in the field of text-linguistics and cognitive psychology. Comprehensive views and new perspectives are proposed in the following topics: cognitive and metacognitive aspects of text processing, structures and processes involved in the construction of multi-level semantic representations in relation with text and reader characteristics, achievement of local and global coherence of meaning during reading and comprehension, assessment of knowledge, knowledge acquisition of concepts and complex systems by text, and cognitive and metacognitive aspects of text production.
Advances in the Study of Behavior
1st Edition
Volume 20
English
Adaptability of Human Gait
Implications for the Control of Locomotion
1st Edition
Volume 78
A.E. Patla
English
A large number of volumes have been produced summarizing the work on generation and control of rhythmic movements, in particular locomotion. Unfortunately most of them focus on locomotor studies done on animals. This edited volume redresses that imbalance by focusing completely on human locomotor behaviour. The very nature of the problem has both necessitated and attracted researchers from a wide variety of disciplines ranging from psychology, neurophysiology, kinesiology, engineering, medicine to computer science. The different and unique perspectives they bring to this problem provide a comprehensive picture of the current state of knowledge on the generation and regulation of human locomotor behaviour.A common unifying theme of this volume is studying the adaptability of human gait to obtain insights into the control of locomotion. The intentional focus on "adaptability" is meant to draw attention to the importance of understanding the generation and regulation of "skilled locomotor behaviour" rather than just the generation of basic locomotor patterns which has been the major focus of animal studies. The synthesis chapter at the end of the volume examines how the questions posed, the technology, and the experimental and theoretical paradigms have evolved over the years, and what the future has in store for this important research domain.
Submodular Functions and Optimization
1st Edition
Volume 47
S. Fujishige
English
The importance of submodular functions has been widely recognized in recent years in combinatorial optimization. This is the first book devoted to the exposition of the theory of submodular functions from an elementary technical level to an advanced one. A unifying view of the theory is shown by means of base polyhedra and duality for submodular and supermodular systems. Among the subjects treated are: neoflows (submodular flows, independent flows, polymatroidal flows), submodular analysis (submodular programs, duality, Lagrangian functions, principal partitions), nonlinear optimization with submodular constraints (lexicographically optimal bases, fair resource allocation). Special emphasis is placed on the constructive aspects of the theory, which lead to practical, efficient algorithms.
Targets of Violence and Aggression
1st Edition
Volume 76
R. Baenninger
English
The chapters in this volume have been written by authors whose research work emphasizes the aggression-eliciting characteristics of people and other animals, the traits that make them targets of aggressive behavior. The clear focus of the book is on aggression by humans, although some of the authors may refer to data from other species. Chapters include aggression and violence towards other species, sexual minorities, psychiatric workers, school children, athletes, women, and drivers on highways. There are additional targets of aggressive behavior which have not been included because they are not emphasised in the research literature of psychology. Since the major concern of psychological science is with the behavior of individuals rather than groups, topics such as racial violence, warfare, and political violence have been specifically excluded.
Agricultural Economics and Policy: International Challenges for the Nineties
Essays in Honour of Prof. Jan de Veer
1st Edition
Volume 7
K. Burger + 3 more
English
International challenges in agricultural economics for the nineties will come from a redirection of the EC policy, stimulated by GATT negotiations, the opening towards Eastern Europe and environmental considerations, from a production oriented policy towards rural policy, aiming at protecting vulnerable regions, maintaining a rural population, curtailing production in the West and fostering it in the East, and aiming at the provision of environmentally desirable output.This book focusses on developments that are bound to dominate the discussion of agricultural economics and policy in the years to come. Together, the contributions give a vivid picture of the dynamic times that lie ahead for both Eastern and Western European agriculture, and of the profound changes that will be forced upon agricultural policy.
Perception and Artistic Style
1st Edition
Volume 73
D.M. Parker + 1 more
English
Perception and Artistic Style explores the role of visual processes in the creation and perception of painting and drawing. By looking at the relationship between perception and representation evidence is provided that purely visual processes are a richer source of artistic inspiration than is commonly realised. Many of the obvious variations in artistic style are firmly rooted in visual perception and visual cognition. This book looks at a range of fundamental visual processes and investigates their contribution to major stylistic features of works of art. A wide selection of pictures is considered; ancient, medieval, renaissance, nineteenth and twentieth century and primitive, and both well known and relatively obscure works are examined.The volume includes 86 figures, 13 grey-scale illustrations of artworks and 43 line drawings. This book will be of value to students of perception, students of art and art history, and, since the more technical aspects have been confined to the notes, the general reader who wishes to increase his/her appreciation and understanding of pictorial art.
Understanding Word and Sentence
1st Edition
Volume 77
G.B. Simpson
English
Research concerning structure and processing in the mental lexicon has achieved central prominence within cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics. Historically, however, much of the research on the lexicon focussed not on its role in language comprehension, but as a medium for studying semantic memory. This picture has changed in recent years, with much more research examining the role of lexical processes and output in language comprehension.Gather... together in this volume is the work of some of those researchers who are responsible for this shift of emphasis. Chapters deal with the role of sentence contexts in word recognition, processes involved in the activation and enhancement of lexical information, and the interaction of lexical and syntactic information in sentence processing. A wide range of theoretical and empirical issues relating to language understanding are discussed.

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