B.F. Skinner died in August 1990. He was praised as one of the most influential psychologists of this century, but was also attacked by a variety of opponents within and outside the field of psychology. Originally published in 1993, this introduction to his work is first of all a guide to a correct reading of his writings, a reading void of the distortions and misinterpretations often conveyed by many commentators, including psychologists. It frames Skinner s contributions with reference to major European traditions in psychological sciences, namely Pavlov, Freud, Lorenz and Piaget....

Originally published in 1987, this title aimed to present an eclectic and biased account of the status of perception-action relationships in various fields at the time. The chapters can be divided into three sections. The first focuses on motor control, a neglected topic in the past and hence deserving the role of the starting point of this volume. In addition motor control provides a good background to discuss the clear sensory and perceptual effects. However, motor processes are also highly relevant to perception, which was usually less emphasized in the literature at the time. Therefore...

Originally published in 1993, the study of cognitive development in children had moved from a focus on the intellectual processes of the individual studied in relative isolation, as in the classic work of Piaget, to a concern in the 1970s and 1980s with social cognition characterized by Vygotsky's views. In the years following, the trend toward an understanding of the "situated" nature of cognition had evolved even further and the extent to which thinking and knowing are inextricably linked to contextual constraints was at last being defined.
Experts of international repute, the...

Originally published in 1990, this title attempts to provide for the educational practitioner an overview of a field that responded in the 1980s to a major educational agenda. This innovative agenda called for teaching students in ways that dramatically improved the quality of their thinking. Its context is a variety of changes in education that brought the explicit teaching of thinking to the consciousness of more and more teachers and administrators."

Originally published in 1987, this book is the result of a workshop on the processing of complex sounds held in 1986. All of the important contributions that are being made to understanding auditory processing of complex sounds could not be included in a single volume. However, the chapters do touch base with many of the lines of research and theory on complex sound and its perception at the time, and was felt that they should provide both food for thought and a broad introduction to the literature on a topic that the editors were sure would be studied intensely in the following couple of...

Originally published in 1986, this volume was the result of a conference in honor of the 65th birthday of the late Kenneth MacCorquodale, an exceptionally eloquent spokesman for the field of experimental analysis of behaviour at the time. The present volume grew directly out of the issues raised by MacCorquodale and Meehl in their "Excursis: The Response Concept" paper and which MacCorquodale posed so often when he taught. It is a fitting tribute to the man on his 65th birthday that a group of scholars whom he held in the highest regard convened in one place to think out loud about two of...

Originally published in 1974, this volume is primarily devoted to what is known about human infancy from an ethological, evolutionary viewpoint. Included are discussions of pan-specific traits, presumably shared by all infants; individual genetic variations on these behaviours (as judged by twin-studies); sex differences, presumably shared by infants of all ethnic groups; and genetically based ethnic differences. However, the author favours neither biological determinism nor cultural determinism, and does not consider interactionism to be a viable solution. Instead, a monistic position is...