Cognition : The Thinking Animal

by Willingham, Daniel T.

• ISBN13: 9780131736887
• ISBN10: 0131736884
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-03-22
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This unique book helps readers understandwhycognitive psychologists approach problems as they do. It explains the questions cognitive psychologists ask, gives clear answers, and provides interesting, lively and comprehensive coverage of controversies in the field.This book is a study of cognition: of how humans think. Topics covered include visual perception, attention, sensory and primary memory, memory encoding, memory retrieval, memory storage, motor control, visual imagery, decision making and deductive reasoning, problem solving, and language.For readers that are interested in understanding the mysteries of cognition, including psychiatrists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, and those in the field of cognitive neuroscience.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Cognitive Psychologists' Approach to Research	1	(36)
Why Make Assumptions?	3	(3)
How Did Philosophers and Early Psychologists Study the Mind?	6	(16)
Philosophical Underpinnings	6	(7)
The Beginnings of Modern Psychology	13	(3)
The Response: Behaviorism	16	(2)
Behaviorism's Success	18	(4)
How Do Cognitive Psychologists Study the Mind?	22	(15)
What Behaviorism Couldn't Do	22	(2)
Failures of Behaviorism to Account for Human Behavior	24	(2)
The Computer Metaphor and Information Processing	26	(2)
The Behaviorist Response	28	(1)
Abstract Constructs in Other Fields	29	(4)
So What, Finally, is the Cognitive Perspective?	33	(4)
Methods of Cognitive Psychology	37	(30)
Can We Use Behavioral Data to Test Cognitive Theories?	38	(11)
Testing Cognitive Theories	40	(3)
Descriptive Research	43	(1)
Relational Research	44	(1)
Experimental Research	45	(4)
Can We Use Neuroscientific Data to Test Cognitive Theories?	49	(12)
Where is the Damage?	50	(2)
Where is the Activation?	52	(5)
The Behavioral Side of the Equation	57	(1)
Problems and Limitations of Localization Studies	58	(1)
Do We Really Need Cognitive Psychology?	59	(2)
The Five-Minute Brain Anatomy Lesson	61	(6)
Cerebral Cortex	62	(2)
The Rest of the Brain	64	(3)
Visual Perception	67	(40)
What Makes Visual Perception Hard?	69	(3)
How Are Visual Ambiguities Resolved?	72	(16)
Shape	73	(2)
Brightness	75	(2)
Distance and Size	77	(4)
Top-Down Influences in Vision	81	(2)
An Alternative: The Ecological Approach	83	(5)
What is Visual Perception For?	88	(19)
Identifying Objects	89	(10)
Navigation	99	(8)
Attention	107	(36)
In What Way is Attention Limited?	109	(11)
Parallel Performance	110	(2)
Consistent Attention Requirements	112	(3)
Allocation of Attention	115	(1)
Reduction in Attention Demands with Practice: Automaticity	116	(4)
What is the Fate of Sensory Stimuli That Are Not Selected to Receive Attention?	120	(13)
Early Filter Theories	122	(2)
Late Filter Theories	124	(2)
The Movable Filter Model	126	(2)
What is Selected?	128	(3)
How Does Selection Operate?	131	(2)
Why Does Selection Fail?	133	(10)
Properties of Attention That Cause Selection Failures	133	(4)
Interaction of Attention with Other Components of Cognition	137	(6)
Sensory Memory and Primary Memory	143	(29)
What is Sensory Memory?	145	(7)
Early Span of Apprehension Studies	145	(2)
Sperling's Partial Report Procedure	147	(2)
Characteristics of Iconic Memory	149	(2)
Echoic Memory	151	(1)
What Are the Characteristics of Primary Memory?	152	(10)
Impetus to Study Primary Memory	152	(2)
How Forgetting Occurs	154	(1)
Representation	155	(4)
Capacity	159	(3)
How Does Primary Work?	162	(10)
Models of Primary Memory	163	(1)
Working Memory	164	(4)
Neural Basis of Working Memory	168	(1)
Working Memory as a Workspace	169	(3)
Memory Encoding	172	(29)
What Determines What We Encode in Memory?	174	(17)
Factors That Help Memory: Depth and Emotion	174	(10)
Factors That Don't Help Memory: Intention to Learn and Repetition	184	(3)
Match Between Encoding and Retrieval: Transfer Appropriate Processing	187	(4)
Why Do We Encode Information As We Do?	191	(10)
Prior Knowledge Reduces What We Must Remember	192	(2)
Prior Knowledge Guides the Interpretation of Details	194	(2)
Prior Knowledge Makes Unusual Things Stand Out	196	(5)
Memory Retrieval	201	(32)
Why is Memory Retrieval Unreliable?	202	(16)
Measures of Memory	203	(1)
Differences in Cues	204	(2)
Encoding and Retrieval Redux	206	(1)
Retrieval Cues and Memory Test Sensitivity	207	(1)
Retrieval Cues and the Physical Environment	208	(1)
Retrieval and Prior Knowledge	209	(4)
False Memory	213	(5)
Why Do We Forget?	218	(15)
Occlusion	219	(1)
Unlearning	220	(1)
Decay	221	(1)
Changes to Target Memories	222	(3)
Repression	225	(1)
The Permanence of Memory	226	(7)
Memory Storage	233	(38)
What is in the Storehouse?	234	(12)
The Classical View of Categorization	235	(3)
The Probabilistic View of Categorization	238	(5)
The Multiple Systems View of Categorization	243	(3)
How is Memory Organized?	246	(14)
Addressing Systems	247	(1)
Content-Addressable Storage	247	(1)
Hierarchical Theory	247	(3)
Spreading Activation Theories	250	(2)
Spreading Activation Models: An Example	252	(4)
Distributed Representation (Parallel Distributed Processing)	256	(4)
What Else is in Memory?	260	(11)
What Are Separate Memory Systems?	261	(2)
Five Separate Memory Systems	263	(5)
Cognitive Differences Among Memory Systems	268	(3)
Visual Imagery	271	(31)
What Purpose Does Visual Imagery Serve?	273	(6)
Imagery in Early Psychology	274	(1)
Imagery Reenters Psychology	274	(2)
Imagery and Perception	276	(3)
Are Visual Images Supported by a Separate Representation System?	279	(9)
Propositional Versus Analog Representation	279	(6)
The Metaphor is Misleading	285	(1)
Demand Characteristics and Tacit Knowledge	285	(1)
The Brain and the End of the Imagery Debate	286	(2)
How Does Visual Imagery Work?	288	(14)
Image Generation	288	(4)
Image Maintenance	292	(1)
Image Inspection	293	(2)
Image Transformation	295	(7)
Motor Control	302	(33)
How Do We Select a Movement?	304	(8)
Efficiency Theories	305	(1)
Synergy Theories	306	(3)
The Mass Spring Model	309	(3)
How Are Movements Sequenced?	312	(7)
Motor Program Theories	313	(1)
Heirarchical Control in Motor Programs	314	(3)
Sequencing in the Brain	317	(2)
How is Perceptual Information Integrated Into Ongoing Movements?	319	(6)
Vision	319	(2)
Proprioception	321	(4)
How Are Motor Skills Learned?	325	(10)
Three Properties of Motor Skill Learning	325	(3)
Two Approaches to Motor Skill Learning	328	(7)
Decision Making and Deductive Reasoning	335	(37)
Do People Consistently Make Optimal Decisions?	337	(7)
Normative or Rational Models	337	(2)
Demonstrations of Human Irrationality	339	(5)
What Shortcuts Do People Use to Make Decisions?	344	(10)
Representativeness	344	(2)
Availability	346	(1)
Anchoring and Adjustment	347	(1)
Information We Ignore	347	(4)
Probabilities Versus Frequencies	351	(3)
Do People Reason Logically?	354	(18)
Formal Logic	354	(4)
Human Success and Failure in Reasoning: Conditional Statements	358	(4)
Human Success and Failure in Reasoning: Syllogisms	362	(3)
General Models of Reasoning	365	(7)
Problem Solving	372	(38)
How Do People Solve Novel Problems?	374	(7)
Problem Spaces	374	(2)
Selecting Operators	376	(5)
How Do People Apply Experience to New Problems?	381	(15)
Background Knowledge	382	(1)
Analogy	383	(5)
Functional Fixedness	388	(8)
What Makes People Good at Solving Problems?	396	(14)
How Do Experts Differ from Novices?	397	(3)
How Do People Become Experts?	400	(4)
What Makes Nonexperts Good at Solving Problems?	404	(6)
Language Structure	410	(31)
What is Language?	411	(11)
The Definition of Language	411	(1)
Levels of Language	412	(4)
Grammar	416	(6)
Is Language Special?	422	(19)
Is Language Developmentally Special?	423	(5)
Is Language Particularly Human?	428	(5)
Is Language Cognitively Special?	433	(8)
Language Processing	441	(30)
What Makes Language Processing Difficult?	443	(5)
Phonemes	443	(1)
Words	444	(2)
Sentences	446	(1)
Texts	447	(1)
How are Ambiguities Resolved?	448	(23)
Phonemes	449	(3)
Words	452	(7)
Sentences	459	(4)
Texts	463	(8)
Afterward	471	(3)
Appendix	474	(10)
Answers	484	(22)
Glossary	506	(17)
References	523	(36)
Credits	559	(2)
Author Index	561	(12)
Subject Index	573