Kategoria BISAC: Science >> Cognitive Science

Why psychology is in peril as a scientific discipline--and how to save it

Psychological science has made extraordinary discoveries about the human mind, but can we trust everything its practitioners are telling us? In recent years, it has become increasingly apparent that a lot of research in psychology is based on weak evidence, questionable practices, and sometimes even fraud. The Seven Deadly Sins of Psychology diagnoses the ills besetting the discipline today and proposes sensible, practical solutions to ensure that it remains a legitimate and reliable science in...

It's happened to all of us at some point. You walk into the kitchen, or flip open your laptop, or stride confidently up to a lectern, filled with purpose--and suddenly haven't the foggiest idea what you're doing. Welcome to your idiot brain.

Yes, it is an absolute marvel in some respects--the seat of our consciousness, the pinnacle (so far) of evolutionary progress, and the engine of all human experience--but your brain is also messy, fallible, and about 50,000 years out-of-date. We cling to superstitions, remember faces but not names, miss things sitting right in front of us, and...

Reason, we are told, is what makes us human, the source of our knowledge and wisdom. If reason is so useful, why didn't it also evolve in other animals? If reason is that reliable, why do we produce so much thoroughly reasoned nonsense? In their groundbreaking account of the evolution and workings of reason, Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber set out to solve this double enigma. Reason, they argue with a compelling mix of real-life and experimental evidence, is not geared to solitary use, to arriving at better beliefs and decisions on our own. What reason does, rather, is help us justify our...

Making art has always been 'costly' (money, time, political threats, survival fitness, ...). So why do we bother? It's all part of what prevents human brains (as opposed to those of animals and computers) from being terribly maladaptive.

The key lies in (Piaget's) constructivism. While we might intuit that meaning is conveyed via a medium/media, how then is art (e.g., the Mona Lisa) distinguished from artifact (e.g., a light bulb)? The book reconsiders the notions of 'intelligence' and 'communication' from a multidisciplinary array of discourses, ultimately proposing a...

Yet scientists are now waking up to the influence of ideology on research and its...

Neuroscience is an ever-expanding frontier. Researchers are constantly making discoveries about the connection between the physical brain and the mind.

Keeping abreast of this information can be overwhelming, but author Camaron J. Thomas, PhD, has come to your rescue with a book that is ideal for people working in the helping professions.

As a helping professional herself, Thomas understands how knowledge of neuroscience can assist readers in improving the care they provide to others-whether they're employed in traditional fields such as psychology, social work, nursing,...

With contributions from the founders of the field including Justin Barrett, Armin Geertz and Harvey Whitehouse as well as from younger scholars from successive stages in the field's development, this is an important survey of the first twenty-five years of the cognitive science of religion.

Each chapter provides the author's views on the contributions the cognitive science of religion has made to the academic study of religion, as well as any shortcomings in the field and challenges for the future. Religion Explained? The Cognitive Science of Religion after Twenty-five Years...

A new field of collective intelligence has emerged in the last few years, prompted by a wave of digital technologies that make it possible for organizations and societies to think at large scale. This "bigger mind"--human and machine capabilities working together--has the potential to solve the great challenges of our time. So why do smart technologies not automatically lead to smart results? Gathering insights from diverse fields, including philosophy, computer science, and biology, Big Mind reveals how collective intelligence can guide corporations, governments, universities, and...

Based on an idea originally proposed by Charles Darwin, Torrey marshals evidence...