Product Description
Many students find it difficult to learn the kinds of knowledge and thinking required by college or high school courses in mathematics, science, or other complex domains. Thus they often emerge with significant misconceptions, fragmented knowledge, and inadequate problem-solving skills. Most instructors or textbook authors approach their teaching efforts with a good knowledge of their field of expertise but little awareness of the underlying thought processes and kinds of knowledge required for learning in scientific domains. In this book, Frederick Reif presents an accessible coherent introduction to some of the cognitive issues important for thinking and learning in scientific or other complex domains (such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, or expository writing).

Reif, whose experience teaching physics at the University of California led him to explore the relevance of cognitive science to education, examines with some care the kinds of knowledge and thought processes needed for good performance; discusses the difficulties faced by students trying to deal with unfamiliar scientific domains; describes some explicit teaching methods that can help students learn the requisite knowledge and thinking skills; and indicates how such methods can be implemented by instructors or textbook authors.

Writing from a practically applied rather than predominantly theoretical perspective, Reif shows how findings from recent research in cognitive science can be applied to education. He discusses cognitive issues related to the kinds of knowledge and thinking skills that are needed for science or mathematics courses in high schools or colleges and that are essential prerequisites for more advanced intellectual performance. In particular, he argues that a better understanding of the underlying cognitive mechanisms should help to achieve a more scientific approach to science education. ... Read more

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Cognitive science approaches the study of mind and intelligence from an interdisciplinary perspective, working at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology. With Mind, Paul Thagard offers an introduction to this interdisciplinary field for readers who come to the subject with very different backgrounds. It is suitable for classroom use by students with interests ranging from computer science and engineering to psychology and philosophy.

Thagard's systematic descriptions and evaluations of the main theories of mental representation advanced by cognitive scientists allow students to see that there are many complementary approaches to the investigation of mind. The fundamental theoretical perspectives he describes include logic, rules, concepts, analogies, images, and connections (artificial neural networks). The discussion of these theories provides an integrated view of the different achievements of the various fields of cognitive science.

This second edition includes substantial revision and new material. Part I, which presents the different theoretical approaches, has been updated in light of recent work the field. Part II, which treats extensions to cognitive science, has been thoroughly revised, with new chapters added on brains, emotions, and consciousness. Other additions include a list of relevant Web sites at the end of each chapter and a glossary at the end of the book. As in the first edition, each chapter concludes with a summary and suggestions for further reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Useful book for Cognitive Sciences' students
Very good book regarding the Computational Representational Understanding of Mind (CRUM). Althought only focusing on one theory to explain the fucntioning of our mind it has concise and easy to understand explanations, going from the most basic representations to the most complex.

Accessible Cognitive Science Primer
Unlike the other review I just read -
This TEXTBOOK is clear, concise, and logically organized.

The book provides relevant, in-line definitions for all terms and concepts used. The book teaches you the concepts, principles, and methods of cognitive science, gently in an interesting way as you read the text. The author's writes in everyday language and creates his examples and situations in the "everyday" world to illustrate specific concepts and/or methods.

This is the best, most comprehesive, easy-to-understand, introductory overview of cognitive science I have ever read.All of this is packed into a slim, 5" by 8" volume consisting of 230 pages of text & exercises by a knowledgable author with great writing skills.

A great text from beginner to practioner.

You don't need a masters degree in some specific subject to understand what the author is presenting. This book applies the standards and elements of critical thinking unself-consciously and transparently. Every student should be required to read this text because it teaches critical thinking skills in both content AND message.Delightful!!

I have not (yet) read any of Paul Thagard's other textbooks but you can be SURE that I will.

CRUM: Computational Representational Understanding of the Mind
The linguistic-analysis tradition in philosophy had achieved ascendancy in twentieth-century philosophy of science. But it has been characterized by a nominalist view, which admits a two-level semantics consisting of only (1) the linguistic symbol, such as word, and (2) the objects or individual entities the symbol references.Nominalism recognizes no mediating third level consisting of the idea, concept, "intension", proposition, or any other mental reality between linguistic signs and nonlinguistic objects.

The two-level semantics is also the view typically held by the Positivist philosophers, who rejected mentalism in psychology, and who like B.F. Skinner prefer behaviorism.However Thagard, like Herbert Simon, explicitly rejects the behavioristic approach in psychology and advocates cognitive psychology, which recognizes mediating mental realities.

The two-level semantics is also characteristic of philosophers such as Quine who accept the Russellian predicate calculus.This calculus of symbolic logic contains a notational convention that uses quantification to express existence claims.It therefore fabricates an Orwellian-likenominalist newspeak in which predicate terms are semantically vacuous, unless they are placed in the range of quantifiers, such that they reference some kind of entities called either "mental entities" or Platonic "abstract entities."The philosopher Nelson Goodman for example therefore divides all philosophers into nominalists and Platonists.Not surprisingly the Russellian symbolic logic was adopted by the Logical Positivists.Oddly Thagard does not reject the Russellian symbolic logic, although it is not clear that he recognizes the ontological implications of its notational conventions.

In this book, Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science (1996), intended as an undergraduate textbook, Thagard states that the central hypothesis of cognitive science is that thinking can best be understood in terms both of representational structures in the mind and of computational procedures that operate on those structures. He labels this central hypothesis with the acronym "CRUM", by which he means "Computational Representational Understanding of Mind."This hypothesis assumes that the mind has mental representations analogous to data structures and computational procedures analogous to algorithms, such that computer programs using algorithms applied to data structures can model the mind and its processes.

Readers interested in more commentary on Thagard are invited to read my book titled History of Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Science at my web site philsci with free downloads.See especially BOOK VIII.

Thomas J. Hickey
... Read more

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This book brings cognition to life by demonstrating the endless application of cognitive psychology to everyday life. While introducing the current research in this rapidly changing field, the text also introduces critical thinking exercises that highlight important phenomena and provide an engaging firsthand view of the everyday relevance of research in cognition. The book has three main threads that serve as unifying themes for current research in the field: Cognition and Neuroscience; Cognition and Consciousness; and Cognition and Individual Differences. A “story” introduces the book and is continually referred to throughout in installments, highlighting the application of the information and providing a useful organizing tool.

Customer Reviews (5)

Delivered on Time
The book came in a timely manner, and the product was in the condition as described.

Great Book
This book is great because it uses summaries and vocabulary at the end of each chapter.On top of that, it has review questions through the book that help as well.The only real down-side I had with this book is that it has some activities in it that are unrealistic.

A skewed interpretation. Very Biased!
This book presents data and historical facts of psychology in a very skewed manner. The writter seems to be completely in love with several theories in Cognitive Psychlogy and ignores information which contradicts or places serious doubt on his interpretation of experiments and theories.
I would recommend that no one use this book for instructional purposes. There are several other Cognitive Psychology books that stick to the facts or at least are more objective.

Excellent text
This is an excellent cognitive text. There is no pleasingthe less-motivated student. I highly recommend this as an excellent text on memory.

so bnoring
so boring, so so boring to read and follow.. they knew about cog psyc, but forget how to communicate the information appropriately. ... Read more

Product Description
Since the 1970s the cognitive sciences have offered multidisciplinary ways of understanding the mind and cognition. The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (MITECS) is a landmark, comprehensive reference work that represents the methodological and theoretical diversity of this changing field.At the core of the encyclopedia are 471 concise entries, from Acquisition and Adaptationism to Wundt and X-bar Theory. Each article, written by a leading researcher in the field, provides an accessible introduction to an important concept in the cognitive sciences, as well as references or further readings. Six extended essays, which collectively serve as a roadmap to the articles, provide overviews of each of six major areas of cognitive science: Philosophy; Psychology; Neurosciences; Computational Intelligence; Linguistics and Language; and Culture, Cognition, and Evolution. For both students and researchers, MITECS will be an indispensable guide to the current state of the cognitive sciences.Amazon.com Review
The state-of-the-art knowledge about knowledge is containedwithin the MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences. Its 471comprehensive entries cover topics as diverse as "HemisphericSpecialization," "Epiphenomenalism," and "Algorithms" in 1,000 to1,500 words each, thoroughly cross-indexed and extensively referencedto launch further research. A few biographical entries are alsoincluded, highlighting such giants as Alan Turingand SantiagoRamón y Cajal. The editors selected their contributorswell, assigning "Neurobiology of Consciousness" to ChristofKoch and FrancisCrick, for example. Even better, six longer essays introduce theEncyclopedia, each providing an overview of one of the sixdisciplines that overlap to form cognitive science: computationalintelligence; culture, cognition, and evolution; linguistics andlanguage; neurosciences; philosophy; and psychology. These areenormously helpful to the researcher, as they are general enough toallow easy entry but still meaty enough to be useful themselves and aspointers to specific entries. The MIT Encyclopedia of the CognitiveSciences, while not a casual entry into the field, is an essentialaddition to the reference shelf for anyone seriously interested in AI,consciousness, or other aspects of natural and artificialbrains. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

In a "nutshell"
This is an excellent add to any library dealing with the Cognitive Sciences or especially anyone new to that area of study.It is fantastically organized, easy to read and understand, and provides detailed yet concise information on basically EVERY Cognitive topic.Perfect for the remotely curious reader too!

good book to have
i am an engineering student and i enjoy reading this book. Although many topics are about psychology, you can find all kind of different subjects that you will never find anywhere else. That is way it is so valuable. the book is very heavy.

Required reading for cognitive scientists
The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences - "MITECS" - is a truly excellent book.MITECS is the book I spent four years wishing for back when I started studying cognitive science.MITECS is also a very*large* book; I've set out to read all 471 articles, and I'm currently on"Computational Neuroscience" (p. 166 of 900), although I've alsoread a lot of other articles as circumstances required.From that samplesize, my comments:

The good news:There are some truly excellentarticles in this book.Microcolumns and macrocolumns, cerebellar chips,the pathways of the visual system - you can read this book and find out ahundred amazingly cool things that you never even realized you desperatelyneeded to know.Oddly enough, MITECS is also a pretty good as anencyclopedia - if you suddenly need to know more about vision, you'll findwhat you need to know in "Visual Anatomy and Physiology".(Or"Visual Processing Streams".Or "High-Level Vision". Or "Computational Vision".Or "Mental Rotation".Youdo need to do a certain amount of hunting, if it's a sufficiently broadsubject.More than half the cerebral cortex is devoted to vision - see"Mid-Level Vision" - and MITECS reflects this fact.)

MITECS*excels* as an authoritative reference; you'll almost never need to quoteanything else.If you're familiar with cognitive science, you'll oftenlaugh when you get to the end of an article and see the author's byline: "Columns and Modules" by William Calvin, "Chinese RoomArgument" by John Searle, "Evolutionary Computation" byMelanie Mitchell, "Evolutionary Psychology" by Leda Cosmides andJohn Tooby.

The bad news:If you try to read MITECS linearly, you willfind that many of the articles, perhaps even a majority, are eminentlyskippable.(For the record, I read them anyway.)As all of the articleswere written by independent individuals - none of whom could read the bookfirst, since it didn't exist yet - there is understandably a great deal ofduplication of information.Every third author feels the need to informyou that the mind is a computational information-processing system.(If Ihad one request to make of the hundreds of authors who write the nextedition, it would be:"Skip all the introductory material and thephilosophy and try to pack in as much useful detail as you can.") There are also some understandable problems with depth of coverage, madeworse by the aforesaid tendency to write introductions; whenever I read anarticle about a topic that I had earlier studied in more detail, it reallybrought home the realization that each of these 471 articles tries to covera topic about which *multiple* entire books have been written.

There areseveral things I'd like to see in future editions of this book.First andforemost is *less philosophy* and more focus on concrete details,particularly *surprising* details, or details that have somethingsubstantial to say about how the mind works.I don't want to know whatDavid Hume thought about causality; I want to know if anything interestinghappens when research subjects are asked to reason about causality.(Imust also confess myself uninterested in most of the biographical articlesthat form much of MITECS - but then, that's probably because I'm not usingit to study history.)Finally, I would like to see a neuroanatomical indexas well as a table of contents.It's already a big book, but they canafford another six pages to show a detailed neuroanatomical map, with namesfor the areas, and references to the appropriate sections of the book. Such a map would be an enormous help to those of us trying to build up aconcrete visualization of the brain.

Conclusion:This is a *really good*book.It's not so much "a good book with a few drawbacks" as"an excellent book with tremendous potential for *even more*improvement", and I mean this in all seriousness.If you're acognitive scientist, you have basically no choice but to buy this book.Ifyou're a student of the mind or a cognitive hobbyist, then this may not bethe *first* book you buy, but you will buy it sooner or later.

It's justsuch a great book. ... Read more

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This edition available outside North America ONLY ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

That's SOME introduction!
I needed a good introductory text on Cognitive Science for my thesis so I chose Stillings, et al., among others.I have to say that I'm in no position (professionally) to really rate this book, but it is very detailed. I did get some good basic information but then I turned to page two, and well, it just got scary!It's chock full o' info, (more than an introduction in my humble opinion) not for the faint of heart or mind where the cognitive sciences are concerned.Great book, just not for a curious beginner like myself.

A great introduction for a low price
This old book is a great introduction to all of the fields that make up cognitive science at a relatively low price, although it could use an updated edition. It takes a computational perspective as it surveys the various areas, and that is good for someone coming from a scientific field. It covers psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and artificial intelligence, relating them all to the field of cognitive science. In spite of the complexity of each of these individual areas, there really are no hard prerequisites for reading it. However, I would recommend you have at least an upper-level undergraduate knowledge of two of the fields covered in order to better see the total interconnection of all the fields. The book probably goes into the most depth in the areas of natural language processing and vision because these are the most computationally complex. This book is not the last word on any of the fields it covers, but it will get you started. I highly recommend it in spite of its age. The following is the book's table of contents:

Chapter 1 What Is Cognitive Science?
1.1 The Cognitive View
1.2 Some Fundamental Concepts
1.3 Information Processes Can Be Analyzed At Several Levels
1.4 Computers In Cognitive Science
1.5 Applied Cognitive Science
1.6 The Interdisciplinary Nature of Cognitive Science

Chapter 2 Cognitive Psychology: The Architecture of the Mind
2.1 The Nature of Cognitive Psychology
2.2 The Notion of Cognitive Architecture
2.3 A Global View of The Cognitive Architecture
2.4 Propositional Representation
2.5 Schematic Representation
2.6 Cognitive Processes, Working Memory, and Attention
2.7 Mental Images
2.8 Automatic and Controlled Processes
2.9 The Acquisition of Skill
2.10 The Connectionist Approach to Cognitive Architecture

Chapter 3 Cognitive Psychology: Further Explorations
3.1 Concepts and Categories
3.2 Memory
3.3 Reasoning
3.4 Problem Solving

Chapter 4 Artificial Intelligence: Knowledge Representation
4.1 The Nature of Artificial Intelligence
4.2 Knowledge Representation

Chapter 5 Artificial Intelligence: Search, Control, and Learning
5.1 Search and Control
5.2 Learning

Chapter 6 Linguistics: The Representation of Language
6.1 The Study of Linguistic Knowledge
6.2 Phonology
6.3 Syntax
6.4 Universals

Chapter 7 Neuroscience: Brain and Cognition
7.1 Introduction to the Study of the Nervous System
7.2 Organization of the Central Nervous System
7.3 Neural Representation
7.4 Neuropsychology
7.5 Computational Neuroscience

Chapter 8 Philosophy: Foundations of Cognitive Science
8.1 Philosophy in Cognitive Science
8.2 The Enterprise of Cognitive Science
8.3 Ontological Issues
8.4 Epistemological Issues
8.5 The State of Cognitive Science

Chapter 9 Language Acquisition
9.1 Milestones in Acquisition
9.2 Theoretical Perspectives

Chapter 10 Semantics
10.1 Semantics and Cognitive Science
10.2 Meaning and Entailment
10.3 Reference
10.4 Sense
10.5 Problems in Possible-Worlds Semantics
10.6 Cognitive and Computational Models of Semantic Processing

Chapter 11 Natural Language Processing
11.1 Preliminaries
11.2 On the Role of Grammar in Language Processing
11.3 Connectionist Models
11.4 On the Role of Discourse
11.5 More on the Role of General Knowledge
11.6 Production
11.7 Conclusion

Chapter 12 Vision
12.1 The Problem of Vision
12.2 Low-Level Visual Processes
12.3 Intermediate Processes and Representations in Vision
12.4 High-Level Visual Processes
12.5 The Architecture of Visual Computation

An introduction, but not a gentle one...
What do you expect from a cognitive science book, which neatly separates all the major fields (Cognitive Psychology, Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Language Acquisition, Semantics, Natural Language Processing, Vision), into chapters? First of all, it is not a mile-wide inch-deep book. Quite the contrary, it has remarkable detail, and it's definitely not an easy book for the beginner. However the fragments are not well-connected to each other, and there are no threads of thought one can follow through the text. Probably the most important problem of cognitive science is the gap between the disciplines, and the lack of a common terminology. The authors have adopted an information-processing view, and overstepped this problem rather than solving it. The result is a biased book, which is really nice if you like the information theoretic approach (like I do), but as a course-book, I suggest it as the supplementary reading.

fascinating
Cognitive Science: An Introduction - 2nd Edition is a fascinatingundergraduate text that accurately shows all of the subsets of thecognitive sciences.Cognitive Science: An Introduction - 2nd Editionintroduces the advanced undergraduate student to cognitive science subsetssuch as cognitive psychology, cognitive anthropology, cognitivecomputational intelligence, cognitive linguistics, cognitive nurro-science,and the philosophy of the cognitive sciences.The diagrams in CognitiveScience: An Introduction - 2nd Edition are very vivid to demonstrateexactly what a philosophers/scientists sees in the subject matter of thecognitive sciences.The undergraduate text provides a very a empiricalperspective of the cognitive sciences that differs directly from theclassical transcendental perspective of cognition that the philosopherImmanuel Cant demonstrated in the Critique Of Pure Reason. The cognitivesciences can be very difficult to understand, but Cognitive Science: AnIntroduction - 2nd Edition is one of the best resources to explore the newempirical study of the science of the process of thought.

Please feelfree to send questions or comments to mmount@essex1.com ... Read more

Product Description
Psychological treatments have proved very effective in treating a wide spectrum of psychiatric syndromes, including depression, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, bulimia nervosa, hypochondriasis, chronic fatiguesyndrome, premenstrual syndrome and social phobia. The Science and Practice of Cognitive Behavior Therapy reviews the current literature and provides a useful examination of the science and practice within cognitive behaviour therapy. Both David Clark and Christopher Fairburn are acknowledged experts in the field and have succeeded in bringing together some of the world's foremost authorities in psychiatry. Topics covered include: the scientific foundations of cognitive behaviour therapy, efficacy and dissemination of psychological treatments, panic disorders and social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sex therapy, and attempted suicide. ... Read more

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Under NCLB, students with severe disabilities are expected to make progress on state academic content standards in language arts, math, and science. But what material should educators teach from these three content areas, and how should they teach it? With this groundbreaking textbook, future educators will finally have the answers they need. The first major research-to-practice resource on this critical topic, this text goes beyond functional and access skills and shows educators how to make the general curriculum accessible to students of all ages with significant cognitive disabilities. Twenty-five of the best-known researchers in the field. ... Read more

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This book addresses core issues related to school learning and the use of developmental/cognitive science models to improve school-based instruction. The contributors comprise a veritable "who's who" of leading researchers and scientists who are broadly trained in developmental psychology, cognitive science, economics, sociology, statistics, and physical science, and who are using basic learning theories from their respective disciplines to create better learning environments in school settings.

Developmental Cognitive Science Goes to School:

• Presents evidence-based studies that describe models of complex learning within specific subject-area disciplines
• Focuses on domain knowledge and how this knowledge is structured in different domains across the curriculum
• Gives critical attention to the topic of the ability to overcome errors and misconceptions.
• Addresses models that should be used to begin instruction for populations of children who normally fail at schooling

This is a must-read volume for all researchers, students, and professionals interested in evidence-based educational practices and issues related to domain-specific teaching and learning.

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While philosophers of mind have been arguing over the status of mental representations in cognitive science, cognitive scientists have been quietly engaged in studying perception, action, and cognition without explaining them in terms of mental representation. In this book, Anthony Chemero describes this nonrepresentational approach (which he terms radical embodied cognitive science), puts it in historical and conceptual context, and applies it to traditional problems in the philosophy of mind.

Radical embodied cognitive science is a direct descendant of the American naturalist psychology of William James and John Dewey, and it follows them in viewing perception and cognition to be understandable only in terms of action in the environment. Chemero argues that cognition should be described in terms of agent-environment dynamics rather than in terms of computation and representation. After outlining this orientation to cognition, Chemero proposes a methodology: dynamical systems theory, which would explain things dynamically and without reference to representation. He also advances a background theory: Gibsonian ecological psychology, "shored up" and clarified. Chemero then looks at some traditional philosophical problems (reductionism, epistemological skepticism, metaphysical realism, consciousness) through the lens of radical embodied cognitive science and concludes that the comparative ease with which it resolves these problems, combined with its empirical promise, makes this approach to cognitive science a rewarding one.

"Jerry Fodor is my favorite philosopher," Chemero writes in his preface, adding, "I think that Jerry Fodor is wrong about nearly everything." With this book, Chemero explains nonrepresentational, dynamical, ecological cognitive science as clearly and as rigorously as Jerry Fodor explained computational cognitive science in his classic work The Language of Thought.

A Bradford Book ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

It keeps getting better ...
The striking turn of cognitive science to understand the mind as beyond the brain and out in the body and in the environment keeps gaining momentum.This is the best yet to advance the research and the arguments for the embodied dynamic systems view of cognition.It's 200 pages of concise, well-reasoned, and well-written excursions across the field.On the content side 1) it situates the embodied tradition among competitor theories; 2) it explains and justifies the "radical" label as not requiring representations in the brain; and 3) it makes a strong case that the affordances of ecological psychology (roughly features of the environment that organisms respond to) are a less problematic and richer source for cognitive research than are representations.On the writing side, who can not be drawn to a book that begins with a dedication to the "crowd at Sweet William's Pub" and then follows with these opening lines? - "Jerry Fodor is my favorite philosopher.I think that Jerry Fodor is wrong about nearly everything."The style of writing and thinking follows just as boldly.

In doing such a good job of laying out the full arguments in favor of the radical embodied direction, there are definitely side arguments that he sews up to make his overall argument complete.At times these mental flanking maneuvers stretched my interest, but then his clarity and quickness of laying out what was worth disagreeing about or what should wait for what type of further research turned another messy corner of ideas into something satisfying.With the inclusion of other views, the frequent diagrams, the always never-wasting-time clear prose, and the relaxed fairness to other ideas, the quality of writing is at a level that matches the high level of the synthesis of ideas.It was unusually pleasant to read.

The field is in exciting ferment.The author brings it together and pushes it forward in a very deft manner.It would not surprise me if this book turns out to be a benchmark for the next 5 to 15 years even in this fast-moving field. ... Read more

Product Description
This exciting textbook introduces students to the dynamic vibrant area of Cognitive Science - the scientific study of the mind and cognition. Cognitive Science draws upon many academic disciplines, including Psychology, Computer Science, Philosophy, Linguistics and Neuroscience. This is the first textbook to present a unified view of Cognitive Science as a discipline in its own right, with a distinctive approach to studying the mind. Students are introduced to the cognitive scientist's 'toolkit' - the vast range of techniques and tools that cognitive scientists can use to study the mind. The book presents the main theoretical models that cognitive scientists are currently using, and shows how those models are being applied to unlock the mysteries of the human mind. Cognitive Science is replete with examples, illustrations, and applications, and draws on cutting-edge research and new developments to explore both the achievements that cognitive scientists have made, and the challenges that lie ahead. ... Read more

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"An important book with wide-ranging implications for the constructionof subjectivity in the Western tradition. Moreover, it is engaginglywritten, presenting difficult ideas and complex research programs withgrace, lucidity, and style." -- N. Katherine Hayles, American BookReview

The Embodied Mind provides a unique, sophisticated treatment ofthe spontaneous and reflective dimension of human experience. Theauthors argue that only by having a sense of common ground between mindin science and mind in experience can our understanding of cognition bemore complete. Toward that end, they develop a dialogue betweencognitive science and Buddhist meditative psychology and situate it inrelation to other traditions such as phenomenology and psychoanalysis. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Turgid, dated academic cat fight
This book does not have much science, but instead has a lot of argumentative philosophy.It reads like a work by academic(s) designed to show how they are right and everybody else is wrong.I found this tiresome, even though I agree with the authors' ultimate conclusion, "Cognitive science and Western philosophy have destroyed the self, but don't be a nihilist, be a Buddhist."

The book also reads like it was written in French and then translated into English.If a reader is looking for a work on philosophy that reflects the embodied mind, they would be better served by reading Lakoff & Johnson's "Philosophy in the Flesh."

Written in 1991, this book has not aged well.Much has happened in cognitive science since 1991, and the battles that the authors fight seem quaint.For anyone looking to read a book on cognitive science, this book is a waste of time.

Saving the World Through Buddhism and Brain Science
This is perhaps the most challenging and unusual book I ever read.At first it seems similar to the other books on mind and consciousness that started appearing in the late 1980s, in response to advances in neurobiology and artificial intelligence.But the final chapters confirm that the authors were shooting for something much grander.

The writers of this book, which was first published in 1991, were a "dream team" of philosopher, psychologist, and neuroscientist (the late, great Francisco Varela).They wrote for a professional audience.An interested layperson having some familiarity with philosophy of mind issues can keep up, but only with much effort; I had to stop several times to look up a term or research an important concept.But it's worth the effort.You will review a wide variety of interesting ideas and be shown how they relate to one other, including neural networks, societies of mind, object-relations psychoanalysis, adaptive resource theory, multi-chromatic vision, evolutionary drift, nihilism, the delusion of "self", and much more.

And you will also read about Buddhism. The authors introduce Buddhist concepts every second or third chapter, noting the parallels between ancient thought and modern science (and the failures of western philosophy).Yes, this does remind one of Capra`s Tao of Physics, although the conceptual juxtapositions aren't as forced.The two biggest problems that cognitive science present for western thought involve the failure to integrate and account for subjective experience, and an increasing sense of social groundlessness as science and history reveal the world to be mostly "relative".Varela and his team believe that these problems lie at the root of a major social crisis that is now being felt in the developed world, i.e. a growing sense of nihilism.When despair and confusion become prevalent and our enemies are at the gates, can the new dark ages be far behind?

The response to this gathering storm, the authors argue, can be found in the wisdom of the Buddhist tradition.However, this isn't your father's Buddhism.Varela and company have cleaned it of any supernatural accretions such as hungry ghosts, cosmic nirvana and reincarnation.And although karma is discussed, its definition is narrowed so that it could appear in any graduate textbook on psychology without objection.

The Buddhism presented in this book appears to be fully compatible with our modern scientific viewpoint.Through awareness meditation techniques, subjective experience can be grasped and integrated in a way consistent with empiricism.And in that grasping, we can learn to stop grasping. (Love those eastern paradoxes).Instead of fighting the relativity introduced over time by Einstein, quantum physics, psychoanalysis, evolution, complexity theory and cognitive research, we can learn to embrace the end of grounding.Our science can be enriched through "embodiment", expanding science's conceptual boundaries so as to embrace subjective experience without losing precision and explanatory power.And we ourselves can learn to give up the unsustainable concept of "self" and become more open-hearted and compassionate (those words are used more than once by the authors).We can work with our everyday experiences in ways that are "liberating and transformative".

I've read some professional reviews of this book, most notably by the famous neuro-philosopher Daniel Dennett.They focus on the many technical and research-oriented discussions, and generally ignore the chapters on liberation and compassion. There is so much here regarding the techniques and directions of cognitive research that one can easily ignore the hub and concentrate on the spokes.

The cognitive field appears to have responded to these spokes, i.e. to the need to take "embodiment" and subjective experience more seriously.Neuroscientists Antonio Damasio and Gerald Edelman have discussed the need to conceptualize consciousness in light of the overall human body and its "stay alive" dynamics.Even arch-representationalist Dennett became interested in "hetrophenomenology", which seeks to document a person's subjective feelings and impressions, though not without a certain distance and skepticism.

But getting back to the axis of this book - i.e. saving the world - I will now attempt to go where better minds than my own have feared to tread.First off, one can sense a truly good intent on the part of these authors.They pictured a bridge between eastern and western ideas that could allegedly convey our half-civilized, half-atavistic species toward a more mature state of collective mind and individual being.They honestly felt that brain research had reached the point where it had something earthshaking to say to humankind, once catalyzed through the wisdom of the east.They wrote this book with a sincere sense of hope and purpose. Books like this are rare, especially in the cognitive science field.

Unfortunately, science and critical thought are not compatible with the Buddhist notions presented in this book, however denuded of supernaturalism.The authors call Buddhism a "case study" regarding the positive social effects of embracing groundlessness.Unfortunately, they don't provide a citation to that case study.I'm sure that awareness meditation, the annihilation of self, and the cessation of grasping desire have helped many people to live better lives. But as to whether it works on the scale of a particular culture, or nation, or for humankind as a whole - can we answer that question?And even if we can, what would the side-effects be?Less innovation and economic wealth?Or extreme exploitation by a cabal of charlatans, as happened with Communism?We won't be fooled again? Although Buddhism is not a religion in the same sense as Christianity and Islam, Varela and company still urge a leap of faith upon the reader.

I would recommend this book to anyone even vaguely interested in the issues of the mind - but be ready for a long, tough slog.Despite all the cold technical jargon and talk of emptiness, a sincere human warmth and idealism eventually comes forth. It's kind of like listening to John Lennon's Imagine - except that these authors couldn't expect nearly the payday (and possessions) that Lennon got for his Utopian formula.

Buddhism and CogSci
This book is well worth the price if you are interested in theories of mind and Buddhism. Bert Dreyfus took some of the philosophical references to task in a review that appeared in "Mind" indicating a couple of questions concerning references to Kant's philosophy. He also points out that there is no case made in the book to support the inference that experiences derived from zazen are experiences of "reality." So there are some holes here and there...or maybe assumptions a philosopher would jump on. But I would still recommend this book. It is very interesting and lays out its facit of the Buddhist perspective quite well.

Philosophy of the Body
Reading this book contributed helpfully to my studies of the phenomenology of the embodied experience.The authors argue that we cannot understand ourselves to be isolated bodies controlled by a mind that stands apart from and judges an independent environment.I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in cognitive science, phenomenological philosophy, philosophies of embodiment, and the relationship of Buddhism to these areas of thought.

This book is amazing!
This ranks up there with Chogyam Trungpa's books for clearly presented insights. Trunpa's genius is making Buddhist ideas come alive for Western readers by clearly presenting Buddhist ideas in everyday terms. This book is a wonderful addition to the same delicious feast, building a bridge from Eastern mindfulness/awareness traditions to Western scientific thought. The effect is to improve our understanding of both. Very powerful and thought-provoking. Each page is like a meal. Hungry? Chew this one slowly and enjoy every bite! ... Read more

Product Description
Mindware: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Cognitive Science invites readers to join in up-to-the-minute conceptual discussions of the fundamental issues, problems, and opportunities in cognitive science. Written by one of the most renowned scholars in the field, this vivid and engaging introductory text relates the story of the search for a cognitive scientific understanding of mind. This search is presented as a no-holds-barred journey from early work in artificial intelligence, through connectionist (artificial neural network) counter-visions, and on to neuroscience, artificial life, dynamics, and robotics. The journey ends with some wide-ranging and provocative speculation about the complex coadaptive dance between mind, culture, and technology.
Each chapter opens with a brief sketch of a major research tradition or perspective, followed by short yet substantial critical discussions dealing with key topics and problems. Ranging across both standard philosophical territory and the landscape of cutting-edge cognitive science, Clark highlights challenging issues in an effort to engage readers in active debate. Topics covered include mental causation; machine intelligence; the nature and status of folk psychology; the hardware/software distinction; emergence; relations between life and mind; the nature of perception, cognition, and action; and the continuity (or otherwise) of high-level human intelligence with other forms of adaptive response. Numerous illustrations, text boxes, and extensive suggestions for further reading enhance the text's utility. Helpful appendices provide background information on dualism, behaviorism, identity theory, consciousness, and more. An exceptional text for introductory and more advanced courses in cognitive science and the philosophy of mind, Mindware is also essential reading for anyone interested in these fascinating and ever-changing fields. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Book, But No Introduction
First, let me say, I took so much from this book. I'm a cognitive science major myself and there were ideas in this book that hadn't ever come to my attention. I would like to say, however, that the chapter on connectionism didn't do the topic justice. Also, the book's chapters on the whole tend to mesh together to build up to the author's personal philosophical paradigm, extended mind hypothesis and largely embodied cognition (which is what most cognitive scientists believe). I find that in doing this, however, the reader misses out on the history and therefore context that these competing paradigms share.

Second, although this is a great book, I'm not sure I could recommend it to a layman audience. For that reason (not being as the title says, an introduction) I deducted one star from the review. However, if there's any philosophers of the mind, psychologists, biologists, or just curious people out there, I'd recommend this book to read for cognitive science (also, it helps a lot, for undergrad cog sci majors to give this a read before entering into your first cogs class).

Great Overview of Cognitive Science
This book was recommended to me by a cognitive scientist researcher at my university as the single best thing I could read to obtain an up-to-date overview of what's going on in cognitive science.The book lived up to this promise.I found it an excellent, scientifically and philosophically informed, treatment of this topic. ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of readings shows how cognitive science can influence most of the primary branches of philosophy, as well as how philosophy critically examines the foundations of cognitive science. Its broad coverage extends beyond current texts that focus mainly on the impact of cognitive science on philosophy of mind and philosophy of psychology, to include materials that are relevant to five other branches of philosophy: epistemology, philosophy of science (and mathematics), metaphysics, language, and ethics.

The readings are organized by philosophical fields, with selections evenly divided between philosophers and cognitive scientists. They draw on research in numerous areas of cognitive science, including cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, social psychology, psychology of reasoning and judgment, artificial intelligence, linguistics, and neuropsychology. There are timely treatments of current topics and debates such as the innate understanding of number, children's theory of mind, self-knowledge, consciousness, connectionism, and ethics and cognitive science.

Alvin I. Goldman is Professor of Philosophy and Research Scientist in Cognitive Science at the University of Arizona.

Readings by: Irving Biederman. John Holland, Keith Holyoak, Richard Nisbett, and Paul Thagard. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. Hilary Kornblith. Alvin Goldman. Jerry Fodor. Paul Churchland. Pat Langley. Herbert Simon, Gary Bradshaw, and Jan Zytkow. Karen Wynn. Ned Block. Fred Dretske. Alison Gopnik. Daniel Dennett. Daniel Schacter. Elizabeth Spelke. Nancy Soja, Susan Carey. Ray Jackendoff. C. L. Hardin. Noam Chomsky. David Rumelhart and James McClelland. Andy Clark. Philip Johnson-Laird. Antonio Damasio and Hanna Damasio. Hilary Putnam. Martin Hoffman. Owen Flanagan. Stephen Stich. Tyler Burge. Patricia Churchland. Paul Smolensky. Zenon Pylyshyn. John Searle. ... Read more

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Cognitive Science for Philosophers
This excellent book gives an overview of current events in cognitive science that are relevant for philosophers. It sometimes goes into considerable technical detail - but the details are always the important ones - important for philosophy that is. If you are interested in the Philosophy of mind, this is a definite recommendation. ... Read more

Product Description
Three leading figures in the field of cognitiveneuroscience provide an engaging, narrativedriven overview of this path-breaking field.Taking a highly interdisciplinary approach, theauthors balance cognitive theory, withneuroscientific and neuropsychological evidenceto reveal what we currently know about how thehuman mind works and to encourage students tothink like cognitive neuroscientists. The texthas been reorganized to move more seamlesslyfrom micro to macro level topics, and itsunderlying pedagogy strengthened in order tomake it an even more effective teaching tool.Maintaining its commitment to highlight the most cutting-edge trends in the field, the thirdedition includes the first ever standalonechapter of its kind on social neuroscience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Good book.
This is a nice book, written in a language that suits readers with a general scientific background. Richly illustrated with many colorful pictures and diagrams.A good introduction to the subject.

Worst textbook of my life
The goal of any good textbook, for the purposes of the layman who is unfamiliar in the field, should be to present the ideas in a clear and fluid manner, without becoming too wordy or cryptic.
This book does anything but that.

The book is incredibly dense, arcane, and unnecessarily verbose. Trying to read and understand the material is like trying to dissect a frozen, rotting carcass of a bull with a butter knife: it is arduous, squalid, and of course, without utility. It simply never gives. There were times that I would labor through a confusing paragraph, barely managing to get through without getting lost in the words, and by the time I was done, I would step back and feel completely clueless as to what I had just read. Then, after scanning the rest of the chapter and discovering that the torture went on for another 50 pages, I wanted to die. And it wasn't long--maybe about an hour and 3 pages later--that I realized I was, indeed, dying.

I love psychology, and I find neurophysiology fascinating, but I hate this textbook. Since I had to rely on it for my test, this textbook is the sole reason I suffered this semester. Having never taken a psychology course that wasn't satisfying, I was surprised that this could ever happen to me. But it did. And it sucked. It sucked like hell.

Call this review extreme, but I haven't talked to another student in my class that *doesn't* agree with me in this opinion, at least to some degree.

Tell your professors to never make their students read this book. And if your professor insists, drop the course as soon as possible, and make it out alive while you can.

I'm not even kidding.

Excellent book
This is a very good textbook that describes the field, which I haven't seen a definition for, but basically seems to be the connection between our biology and human thought, memory, speech and so on.The book is a full introduction and requires no specialized knowledge.

Neuroscience is probably the most interesting scientific field right now.Even the simplest thought processes of tiny things like worms are not yet understood but the recent giant leap in medical technology is allowing scientists to study smaller and smaller pieces of the puzzle. There are new discoveries coming out every year such as 'mirror neurons' and there will be a lot of big breakthroughs and nobel prizes here in the future.I'm especially interested in how this affects computer science, there a lot of billionaires out there plowing money into research such as at the Redwood Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience and Microsoft Research.

An excellent narrative-style textbook
I would recommend this textbook to anyone who is interested in learning cognitive neuroscience. This textbook was recommended to me by a professor at Harvard, Dr. Andrea Heberlein. Since this course is not taught at my university, I decided to cover it on my own. And, by far, this is the best textbook I've ever had. Here are the reasons why:

1) Gazzaniga along with his colleagues is the legend of cognitive psychology, so I was happy to see that the research is up-to-date featuring the frontiers of cognitive neuroscience. My understanding of scientific articles on the topics I covered improved enormously.

2) The explanations are very clear and narrative-style. That means that the author includes the stories of origination of different ideas within neuroscience, competition between different researchers in a psychological debate, descriptions of where the researchers come from (the feature that I really liked and that no other textbook has), extended examples on the subjects. This is the first textbook I read like a novel.

3) Enormous amount of excellent illustrations. This is the best illustrated book that I have seen - and I have seen many. The illustrations are very clear and colorful. They include all the aspects that are needed to support the text.

4) The textbook covers most of the material that can be covered by some textbooks on biopsychology when it comes to cognitive functions. However, it advances well beyond this level. There are separate chapters on attentions, on hemisphericality, etc. However, since the book contains almost everything you need to know, you don't even have to take biopsych in advance. In fact, it describes synapse in more detail than in both of my biopsych textbooks. Besides, the explanations in the textbook are so clear that even if you did, you will enjoy revisiting the past topics from a new perspective.

5) The book provides a perfect amount of both cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology. The authors assume that you have already taken cognitive psychology course. However, they still provide just the right amount of information on it, to refresh your memory, I guess, to proceed with the relevance to the brain.

6) The cover picture of the brain makes you want to open the textbook and read.

As for the price - I wish I would buy this textbook earlier not to waste my money on anything else. This is the best investment I made.

The Best I've Seen So Far
This book is thorough and comprehensive.It covers the basics that one needs to know to be familiar with the field as well as more in depth matters.The writing style is informal and a pleasure to read.I would highly recommend this book to students, teachers or experts in the field.Or for people like me who are interested laypersons. ... Read more

Product Description
What makes science possible? Specifically, what features of the human mind, of human cognitive development, and of human social arrangements permit and facilitate the conduct of science? The essays in this volume address these questions, which are inherently interdisciplinary, requiring co-operation between philosophers, psychologists, and others in the social and cognitive sciences. They concern the cognitive, social, and motivational underpinnings of scientific reasoning in children and lay persons as well as in professional scientists. ... Read more

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"Posner is to be congratulated on having brought together so manydistinguished authors, each contributing a tutorial chapter on theirparticular branch of the science. The best of these are exemplary, andfew of them fall below a high standard." -- L.H. Shaffer, Nature"A beautifully lucid account.... Highly recommended." -- Nick Beard,New Scientist

What is cognitive science? Foundations of Cognitive Science answers thisquestion in a way that gives a feeling for the excitement, ferment, andaccomplishments of this new field. It is the first broad treatment ofcognitive science at an advanced level. Complete and authoritative,Foundations of Cognitive Science covers the major architectures;provides background in philosophy, linguistics, cognitive psychology,and neuroscience; and deals with methods for studying both brain andmind. All of the chapters have been written especially for the book bythe leading scholars in the field. A Bradford Book ... Read more

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Cognitive Science is a major new guide to the central theories and problems in the study of the mind and brain. The authors clearly explain how and why cognitive science aims to understand the brain as a computational system that manipulates representations. They identify the roots of cognitive science in Descartes - who argued that all knowledge of the external world is filtered through some sort of representation - and examine the present-day role of Artificial Intelligence, computing, psychology, linguistics and neuroscience.
Throughout, the key building blocks of cognitive science are clearly illustrated: perception, memory, attention, emotion, language, control of movement, learning, understanding and other important mental phenomena. Cognitive Science:

• presents a clear, collaborative introduction to the subject
• is the first textbook to bring together all the different strands of this new science in a unified approach
• includes illustrations and exercises to aid the student

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Customer Reviews (1)

Publisher's information
Research on human intelligence has postulated that studying the structure and use of stories can provide important insight into the roots of self and the nature of thinking. In that spirit, this volume focuses on narrative as a crossroads where cognitive and social psychology, linguistics, literary theory, and the recent hybrid called "cognitive narratology" intersect, suggesting new directions for the cognitive sciences. The ideas contained here demonstrate the importance of narrative as a cognitive style, a genre of discourse, and a resource for literary writing and other forms of communication.

Table of Contents
Contributors
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
David Herman
I: Approaches to Narrative and Cognition
2. Cognitive Psychological Foundations of Narrative Experiences
Richard J. Gerrig and Giovanna Egidi
3. Narrative Construction, Cognitive Processing, and Health
Kitty Klein
4. Semantics and Narrative in Therapeutic Discourse
William Frawley, John T. Murray, and Raoul N. Smith
II: Narrative as Cognitive Endowment
5. Double-scope Stories
Mark Turner
6. Unnarratable Knowledge: The Difficulty of Understanding Evolution by Natural Selection
H. Porter Abbott
7. Stories as a Tool for Thinking
David Herman
III: New Directions for Cognitive Narratology
8. 'Awake! Open your eyes!' The Cognitive Logic of External and Internal Stories
Manfred Jahn
9. Cognitive Maps and the Construction of Narrative Space
Marie-Laure Ryan
10. Natural Narratology and Cognitive Parameters
Monika Fludernik
IV: Fictional Minds
11. Cognitive Science, the Thinking Mind, and Literary Narrative
Uri Margolin
12. Constructing Social Space: Sociocognitive Factors in the Interpretation of Character Relations
Catherine Emmott
13. The Mind Beyond the Skin
Alan Palmer
Name Index
Subject Index ... Read more

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The conceptual history of cognitive science remains for the most part unwritten. In this groundbreaking book, Jean-Pierre Dupuy—one of the principal architects of cognitive science in France—provides an important chapter: the legacy of cybernetics. Contrary to popular belief, Dupuy argues, cybernetics represented not the anthropomorphization of the machine but the mechanization of the human. The founding fathers of cybernetics—some of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, including John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, Warren McCulloch, and Walter Pitts—intended to construct a materialist and mechanistic science of mental behavior that would make it possible at last to resolve the ancient philosophical problem of mind and matter. The importance of cybernetics to cognitive science, Dupuy argues, lies not in its daring conception of the human mind in terms of the functioning of a machine but in the way the strengths and weaknesses of the cybernetics approach can illuminate controversies that rage today—between cognitivists and connectionists, eliminative materialists and Wittgensteinians, functionalists and anti-reductionists.

Dupuy brings to life the intellectual excitement that attended the birth of cognitive science sixty years ago. He separates the promise of cybernetic ideas from the disappointment that followed as cybernetics was rejected and consigned to intellectual oblivion. The mechanization of the mind has reemerged today as an all-encompassing paradigm in the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science. The tensions, contradictions, paradoxes, and confusions Dupuy discerns in cybernetics offer a cautionary tale for future developments in cognitive science. ... Read more