Cognition At Work

This book brings together contributions from researchers within various social science disciplines who seek to redefine the methods and topics that constitute the study of work. They investigate work activity in ways that do not reduce it to a 'psychology' of individual cognition nor to a 'sociology' of societal structures and communication. A key theme in the material is the relationship between theory and practice. This is not an abstract problem of interest merely to social scientists. Rather, it is discussed as an issue that working people address when they attempt to understand a task and communicate its demands. Mindful practices and communicative interaction are examined as situated issues at work in the reproduction of communities of practice in a variety of settings including: courts of law, computer software design, the piloting of airliners, the coordination of air traffic control, and traffic management in underground railway systems.

In Cognition and Work, Max Scheler offers an early critique of American pragmatism and demonstrates the dynamic relation that not only the human being but all living beings have to the environment they inhabit.

"The TSW program is an evidence-based intervention that enhances people's cognitive functioning in order to help them get and keep competitive jobs. This book explains how to provide the TSW program, and includes materials for implementing it, such as educational handouts and assessment tools. In addition, the book contains a wealth of information about overcoming common cognitive obstacles to steady employment that may be useful to the broad range of professionals helping individuals return to work"--

Janet and Charles Keller provide an account of situated learning based on the ethnographic study of blacksmithing.

v. 1. Research findings -- v. 2. Concepts and methodology -- v. 3. Implementation issues -- v. 4. Programs, tools and products.

Training is both a teaching and a learning experience, and just about everyone has had that experience. Training involves acquiring knowledge and skills. This newly acquired training information is meant to be applicable to specific activities, tasks, and jobs. In modern times, where jobs are increasingly more complex, training workers to perform successfully is of more importance than ever. The range of contexts in which training is required includes industrial, corporate, military, artistic, and sporting, at all levels from assembly line to executive function. The required training can take place in a variety of ways and settings, including the classroom, the laboratory, the studio, the playing field, and the work environment itself. The general goal of this book is to describe the current state of research on training using cognitive psychology to build a complete empirical and theoretical picture of the training process. The book focuses on training cognition, as opposed to physical or fitness training. It attempts to show how to optimize training efficiency, durability, and generalizability. The book includes a review of relevant cognitive psychological literature, a summary of recent laboratory experiments, a presentation of original theoretical ideas, and a discussion of possible applications to real-world training settings.

Edwin Hutchins combines his background as an anthropologist and an open ocean racing sailor and navigator in this account of how anthropological methods can be combined with cognitive theory to produce a new reading of cognitive science. His theoretical insights are grounded in an extended analysis of ship navigation—its computational basis, its historical roots, its social organization, and the details of its implementation in actual practice aboard large ships. The result is an unusual interdisciplinary approach to cognition in culturally constituted activities outside the laboratory—"in the wild." Hutchins examines a set of phenomena that have fallen in the cracks between the established disciplines of psychology and anthropology, bringing to light a new set of relationships between culture and cognition. The standard view is that culture affects the cognition of individuals. Hutchins argues instead that cultural activity systems have cognitive properties of their own that are different from the cognitive properties of the individuals who participate in them. Each action for bringing a large naval vessel into port, for example, is informed by culture: the navigation team can be seen as a cognitive and computational system. Introducing Navy life and work on the bridge, Hutchins makes a clear distinction between the cognitive properties of an individual and the cognitive properties of a system. In striking contrast to the usual laboratory tasks of research in cognitive science, he applies the principal metaphor of cognitive science—cognition as computation (adopting David Marr's paradigm)—to the navigation task. After comparing modern Western navigation with the method practiced in Micronesia, Hutchins explores the computational and cognitive properties of systems that are larger than an individual. He then turns to an analysis of learning or change in the organization of cognitive systems at several scales. Hutchins's conclusion illustrates the costs of ignoring the cultural nature of cognition, pointing to the ways in which contemporary cognitive science can be transformed by new meanings and interpretations. A Bradford Book

By 2030 there will be about 70 million people in the United States who are older than 64. Approximately 26 percent of these will be racial and ethnic minorities. Overall, the older population will be more diverse and better educated than their earlier cohorts. The range of late-life outcomes is very dramatic with old age being a significantly different experience for financially secure and well-educated people than for poor and uneducated people. The early mission of behavioral science research focused on identifying problems of older adults, such as isolation, caregiving, and dementia. Today, the field of gerontology is more interdisciplinary. When I'm 64 examines how individual and social behavior play a role in understanding diverse outcomes in old age. It also explores the implications of an aging workforce on the economy. The book recommends that the National Institute on Aging focus its research support in social, personality, and life-span psychology in four areas: motivation and behavioral change; socioemotional influences on decision-making; the influence of social engagement on cognition; and the effects of stereotypes on self and others. When I'm 64 is a useful resource for policymakers, researchers and medical professionals.

Highlights the roles of intention and intentionality in social cognition.

In the World Library of Psychologists series, international experts present career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces—extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, and their major practical theoretical contributions. Susan T. Fiske has an international reputation as an eminent scholar and pioneer in the field of social cognition. Throughout her distinguished career, she has investigated how people make sense of other people, using shortcuts that reveal prejudices and stereotypes. Her research in particular addresses how these biases are encouraged or discouraged by social relationships, such as cooperation, competition, and power. In 2013, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and, in 2011, to the British Academy. She has also won several scientific honours, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the APA Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award, the APS William James Fellow Award, as well as the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations Wundt-James Award and honorary degrees in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland. This collection of selected publications illustrates the foundations of modern social cognition research and its development in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. In a specially written introductory chapter, Fiske traces the key advances in social cognition throughout her career, and so this book will be invaluable reading for students and researchers in social cognition, person perception, and intergroup bias.