Fundamentals Of Comparative Cognition

With the growing accessibility of original journal articles and papers, a staggering number of professors teaching junior/senior level courses are turning away from the use of textbooks in favor of primary research papers. The Fundamentals of Cognition series covers the main topics in thefield of Cognitive Psychology, and will address the need professors have for a brief, yet detailed, overview of specific topics in cognitive psychology. The books in this series will serve as a unifying discussion of the topic and provide continuity and cohesion to the discussion of primaryresearch papers. These primers will be written by prominent cognitive scientists with the ability to write accessibly about complex subjects. They will capture the current state of this fast moving field and reflect the authors' views.Comparative Cognition has countless connections to the rest of psychology and encompasses the comparative and evolutionary basis of development and social psychological processes as well as every aspect of cognition. Comparative research also provides the basis for the animal models used inbehavioral neuroscience and genetics. This text on the Fundamentals of Comparative Cognition will convey the richness and excitement of this diverse field while addressing the fundamental questions of what makes us uniquely human and what we share with other creatures. Professors' experience withShettleworth's graduate text and her clear, direct, and interesting writing style makes them very excited about the possibility of Shettleworth writing an undergraduate text in this field.

Leading researchers present current methodological approaches and future directions for a less anthropocentric study of animal cognition.

Metacognition refers to the awareness an individual has of their own mental processes (also referred to as ' thinking about thinking'). In the past thirty years metacognition research has become a rapidly growing field of interdisciplinary research within the cognitive sciences. Just recently, there have been major changes in this field, stimulated by the controversial issues of metacognition in nonhuman animals and in early infancy. Consequently the question what defines a metacognitive process has become a matter of debate: how should one distinguish between simple minds that are not yet capable of any metacognitive processing, and minds with a more advanced architecture that exhibit such a capacity? Do nonhuman animals process the ability to monitor their own mental actions? If metacognition is unique to humans, then at what stage in development does it occur, and how can we distinguish between cognitive and metacognitive processes? The Foundations of Metacognition brings together leading cognitive scientists to consider these questions. It explores them from three different perspectives: from an evolutionary point of view the authors ask whether there is sufficient evidence that some non-human primates or other animals monitor their mental states and thereby exhibit a form of metacognition. From a developmental perspective the authors ask when children start to monitor, evaluate und control their own minds. And from a philosophical point of view the main issue is how to draw the line between cognitive and metacognitive processes, and how to integrate the different functions in which metacognition is involved into a single coherent picture of the mind. The foundations of metacognition - whatever they will turn out to be - have to be as complex as this pattern of connections we discover in its effects. Bringing together researchers from across the cognitive sciences, the book is valuable for philosophers of mind, developmental and comparative psychologists, and neuroscientists.

An essential primer presenting major topics of study undertaken by evolutionary cognitive neuroscientists.

This textbook aims to present a systematic, up-to-date review of current research in the area of animal psychology.

The heart of this book is the reciprocal relationship between philosophical theories of mind and empirical studies of animal cognition. Colin Allen (a philosopher) and Marc Bekoff (a cognitive ethologist) approach their work from a perspective that considers arguments about evolutionary continuity to be as applicable to the study of animal minds and brains as they are to comparative studies of kidneys, stomachs, and hearts. Cognitive ethologists study the comparative, evolutionary, and ecological aspects of the mental phenomena of animals. Philosophy can provide cognitive ethology with an analytical basis for attributing cognition to nonhuman animals and for studying it, and cognitive ethology can help philosophy to explain mentality in naturalistic terms by providing data on the evolution of cognition. This interdiscipinary approach reveals flaws in common objections to the view that animals have minds. The heart of the book is this reciprocal relationship between philosophical theories of mind and empirical studies of animal cognition. All theoretical discussion is carefully tied to case studies, particularly in the areas of antipredatory vigilance and social play, where there are many points of contact with philosophical discussions of intentionality and representation. Allen and Bekoff make specific suggestions about how to use philosophical theories of intentionality as starting points for empirical investigation of animal minds, and they stress the importance of studying animals other than nonhuman primates.

This edited volume is scientifically based, but readable for a larger audience, covering the concept of "embodied cognition" and its implications from a transdisciplinary angle. The contributions are from the fields of psychology, computer science, biology, philosophy, and psychiatry. First, the roots of embodiment are described with historical, computer-science, and phenomenological viewpoints. It is argued that embodied cognition is relevant for the discussion of intentionality, with a particular focus on underlying neural processes as well as the context of synergetics and self-organization theory. As cognition is socially embedded, a large section of this book concentrates on "embodied communication": How does embodiment influence the way to approach others, what role do body movements play in social interaction, what is the function of nonverbal synchrony in interpersonal relationships and psychotherapy? Embodied cognitive agents are further embedded in particular cultural and environmental contexts. This book thus addresses the active role that cultural and environmental aspects play in driving cognition. Some applications of embodiment, e.g. to psychotherapy and aesthetics are also presented.

In The Evolution of Mind, outstanding figures on the cutting edge of evolutionary psychology follow clues provided by current neuroscientific evidence to illuminate many puzzling questions of human cognitive evolution. With contributions from psychologists, ethologists, anthropologists, and philosophers, the book offers a broad range of approaches to explore the mysteries of the mind's evolution - from investigating the biological functions of human cognition to drawing comparisons between human and animal cognitive abilities.

How does cognition develop in infants, children and adolescents? This handbook presents a cutting-edge overview of the field of cognitive development, spanning basic methodology, key domain-based findings and applications. Part One covers the neurobiological constraints and laws of brain development, while Part Two covers the fundamentals of cognitive development from birth to adulthood: object, number, categorization, reasoning, decision-making and socioemotional cognition. The final Part Three covers educational and school-learning domains, including numeracy, literacy, scientific reasoning skills, working memory and executive skills, metacognition, curiosity-driven active learning and more. Featuring chapters written by the world's leading scholars in experimental and developmental psychology, as well as in basic neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, computational modelling and developmental robotics, this collection is the most comprehensive reference work to date on cognitive development of the twenty-first century. It will be a vital resource for scholars and graduate students in developmental psychology, neuroeducation and the cognitive sciences.

Is it possible to learn something without being aware of it? How does emotion influence the way we think? How can we improve our memory? Fundamentals of Cognition, third edition, provides a basic, reader-friendly introduction to the key cognitive processes we use to interact successfully with the world around us. Our abilities in attention, perception, learning, memory, language, problem solving, thinking, and reasoning are all vitally important in enabling us to cope with everyday life. Understanding these processes through the study of cognitive psychology is essential for understanding human behaviour. This edition has been thoroughly updated and revised with an emphasis on making it even more accessible to introductory-level students. Bringing on board Professor Marc Brysbaert, a world-leading researcher in the psychology of language, as co-author, this new edition includes: developed and extended research activities and "In the Real World" case studies to make it easy for students to engage with the material; new real-world topics such as discussions of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, the reading problems of individuals with dyslexia, why magic tricks work, and why we cannot remember the Apple logo accurately; a supporting companion website containing multiple choice questions, flashcards, sample essay answers, instructor resources, and more. The book provides a perfect balance between traditional approaches to cognition and cutting-edge cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neuropsychology. Covering all the key topics within cognition, this comprehensive overview is essential reading for all students of cognitive psychology and related areas such as clinical psychology.