Cognitive Books - Page 23

Handbook of Positive Psychology

Amazon Price: $52.15 List Price: $57.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $44.85

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Clinical Psychology

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Psychology has long been enamored of the dark side of human existence, rarely exploring a more positive view of the mind. What has psychology contributed, for example, to our understanding of the various human virtues? Regrettably, not much. The last decade, however, has witnessed a growing movement to abandon the exclusive focus on the negative. Psychologists from several subdisciplines are now asking an intriguing question: "What strengths does a person employ to deal effectively with life?" The Handbook of Positive Psychology provides a forum for a more positive view of the human condition. In its pages, readers are treated to an analysis of what the foremost experts believe to be the fundamental strengths of humankind. Both seasoned professionals and students just entering the field are eager to grasp the power and vitality of the human spirit as it faces a multitude of life challenges. The Handbook is the first systematic attempt to bring together leading scholars to give voice to the emerging field of positive psychology.

Becoming a Critical Thinker: A User Friendly Manual (4th Edition)

Sherry Diestler

Amazon Price: $61.40 List Price: $61.40 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Prentice Hall Amazon Marketplace: 64 new & used starting at $5.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Reasoning
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Cognitive
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Educational Psychology

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Teaching Students to THINK! 5 out of 5 stars.
53 of 58 people found this review helpful.

I first utilized this excellent book in undergraduate classes about a year ago.I enjoyed using it and it received accolades from the students, (once they realized that sometimes, thinking is WORK!)

It is "user-friendly", and the segments in each chapter are short but concise. There are numerous exercises after each section so that the student can put to immediate use, their newly acquired knowledge.

But I believe the highest praise came from the students that jokingly complained, "I can't think the same way anymore!" They had become "Critical Thinkers". And we can certainly use all of those that we can get!

Editorial Review:

For courses in Critical Thinking, Informal Logic, Rhetoric, Argumentation, and English courses which cover the Argumentative Essay. This text trains students to distinguish high-quality, well-supported arguments from arguments with little or no evidence to support them. It develops the skills required to effectively evaluate the many claims facing them as citizens, learners, consumers, and human beings, and also to be effective advocates for their beliefs.

Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking (Thought & Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking)

Diane F. Halpern

Amazon Price: $48.60 List Price: $54.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Lawrence Erlbaum Amazon Marketplace: 53 new & used starting at $29.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Cognitive

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This best-selling textbook, written by award-winning educator and past president of the APA, Diane Halpern, applies theory and research from the learning sciences to teach students the thinking skills they need to succeed in today's world. This new edition retains features from earlier editions that have helped its readers become better thinkers. A rigorous academic grounding based in cognitive psychology is presented in a clear writing style with a humorous tone and supported by numerous practical examples and anecdotes.

Thought & Knowledge, Fourth Edition has been revised to help students meet the challenges of a global neighborhood and make meaningful conclusions form the overwhelming quantity of information now available at the click of a mouse. The skills learned with this text will help students learn more efficiently, research more productively, and present logical, informed arguments.

New features include:
*Template for Making Arguments. This is a crucial preparation tool for students in any subject area. For those planning on continuing to Graduate School, this feature is an essential reference. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) now requires that all test takers write an argument on a contemporary topic.
*Concept Maps provide students with strategies to clarify complex information and retain long-term knowledge.
*Contemporary Examples, throughout the text, relate current events to the book discussions.
*Explanations on How to Evaluate Information found on Web sites.
*Revised Student Workbook. Thinking Critically About Critical Thinking, Fourth Edition is filled with new exercises to reinforce learning and practice newly acquired skills. This workbook can be purchased in a student package with the text or as a separate item.

Thought & Knowledge, Fourth Edition is appropriate for use as a textbook incritical thinking courses offered in departments of psychology, philosophy, English, humanities, or as a supplement in any course where critical thinking is emphasized.

Narrative Therapy in Practice: The Archaeology of Hope (Jossey-Bass Psychology Series)

Amazon Price: $40.00 List Price: $50.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Jossey-Bass Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $32.94

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Cognitive

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A revelation. 5 out of 5 stars.
29 of 31 people found this review helpful.

There are so many books on therapy that reiterate old ideas or advance faddish approaches: this is NOT one of them. The authors develop a new way of assisting clients in overcoming problems in their lives using insights from social construction. The approach is respectful, optimistic, and culturally sensitive. This book is a wonderful antidote to therapist burn-out.

Excellent Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 14 people found this review helpful.

This collection of chapters is essential reading for people learning the narrative approach. Brilliant!

Comprehensive and easy to read 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This book was required for a Narrative Therapy class I'm taking. It is well written with lots of examples from practice, ranging from child therapy to women with anorexia to community work.

Great introduction to narrative therapy 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This was easy to read and a great foundation upon which to further explore this fascinating story-based practice.

Editorial Review:

How to apply the definitive postmodern therapeutic technique in a variety of situations, including treating alcoholics, counseling students, treating male sexual abuse survivors, and more. Written with scholarship, energy, practicality, and awareness.

In the Mind's Eye: Visual Thinkers, Gifted People With Dyslexia and Other Learning Difficulties, Computer Images and the Ironies of Creativity

Thomas G. West

Amazon Price: $20.45 List Price: $30.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Prometheus Books Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $11.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Intelligence
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Cognitive
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Creativity & Genius

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The computer-generated information superhighway could launch a new renaissance of creativity for millions of visual thinkers! Some of the greatest minds in politics, science, literature, and the arts experienced undetected learning disabilities that stopped them from assimilating information the same way as their peers. Some of our most original intellects Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Lewis Carroll, and Winston Churchill relied heavily on visual modes of thought, processing information in terms of images instead of words or numbers. In the "Mind's Eye" profiles gifted individuals who used non-traditional methods in their work as it explodes many myths about conventional intelligence and charts new vistas for today's computer visualisation technologies.Thomas G. West examines the learning difficulties experienced by these people and others, and how recent neurological research shows an association between visual talents and verbal difficulties. In the "Mind's Eye" probes new data on dyslexics to see how computers enhance the creative potential of visual thinkers, as well as interactive computer applications to all levels of education and work. Updated with a new preface, epilogue, and expanded notes, this volume could be the clarion call for educators and corporations to mine this untapped resource of highly creative talent in our midst.

Logic Primer (Bradford Books)

Colin Allen, Michael Hand

List Price: $18.95 By: The MIT Press Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Cognitive
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This text presents a self-contained introduction to logic suitable for majors and nonmajors, and can be covered entirely in a one-semester course. Natural deduction systems of sentential logic and of first-order logic, truth tables, and the basic ideas of model theory are presented without superfluous discussion. This allows the instructor to choose various ways of presenting the material. The text is organized into definitions, comments, examples, and exercises in a modern, visually helpful format. Comments are kept to a minimum so that definitions and examples are usually on the same page, making it easy for students to compare the two. In addition, there are over 500 exercises, with solutions to more than half of them provided in an appendix.

Logic Primer differs from existing texts in several important ways. The proofs are shorter and more elegant. The rules of proof are stated in terms of denials of sentences rather than negations; this results in more intuitive rules that students learn more quickly. Most important pedagogically, the authors' natural deduction systems explicitly track the assumptions on which each step in a proof depends.

Colin Allen is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Michael Hand is Associate Professor of Philosophy, both at Texas A&M University.

Landscape Within: Insights and Inspirations for Photographers

David Ward

Amazon Price: $23.10 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks By: Aurum Press Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $16.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Equipment
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Nature & Wildlife
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Photographers, A-Z -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

For the Photographer's Mind 5 out of 5 stars.
38 of 39 people found this review helpful.

Even though this book has weaknesses, I feel that it's an important book for any advanced landscape photographer to read, and perhaps other advanced photographers as well.

The book has two different parts that are only vaguely related. One part is a collection of Ward's landscape photographs. The other is a philosophical examination of creativity and vision in landscape photography. It is this series of essays that I find most intriguing.

The author initially discusses the nature of photographs; that they are not real and that they capture time. He suggest that while most landscape photographers are interested in the grand vistas, most might be better served by concentrating on the intimate landscape because there are more opportunities there for discovery. He also suggest that one of the best procedures one can follow in landscape photography is to go slowly and delay taking the photograph as long as possible to let your vision crystallize. Eventually the author takes a semiotic approach to landscape photography. (Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols as means of communication.) Ward notes the importance of realizing both the connotation and denotation of photographs as signs or symbols. Along the way, Ward provides a history of landscape photography, with particular emphasis on developments relating to creativity and vision.

One of the main problems of Ward's essays is that they never do reveal to us what the nature of photographic vision and creativity is. That may be because this is something unknowable and ineffable. Yet thinking around the edges of these profound ideas may help the photographer to develop them, and that makes this book worth reading.

It's a sign of the difficulty of the subject that I often felt Ward had not made the right choices in the design of his book such as leaving the discussion of how we perceive things to the last rather then presenting it in the beginning of the book.

Turning to Ward's pictures, which are scattered throughout the book, they are terrific. They demonstrate a vision and beauty we could all emulate. I have said elsewhere that editors feel that books of great pictures do not sell, and so they ask great photographers to write "how to" books. That conclusion was too focused. Books of great pictures do sell, provided that the pictures tell a story, or that there is a synergistic effect in the way that the pictures are presented. But Ward seems to reject that approach. Although quotes from the text appear alongside his pictures, the pictures do not illustrate the text, except in the broadest possible way. And Ward refuses to provide technical data on his pictures, saying this is a "why book", not a "how to book". He seems to be challenging the reader to construct his or her own book!

The bottom line on this book is that there seems to be no silver bullet for creativity and vision. Perhaps the author should have called this a workbook, because even after reading the stimulating ideas, one will have to do plenty of psychological and, dare I say, spiritual work to develop the landscape within.

Editorial Review:

Written by one of Britain's best-known landscape photographers, this superbly illustrated volume offers unique insights into the sources of photographic inspiration.

The New Unconscious (Social Cognition and Social Neuroscience)

Amazon Price: $38.25 List Price: $42.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $33.38

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Cognitive

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Over the past two decades, a new picture of the cognitive unconscious has emerged from a variety of disciplines that are broadly part of cognitive science. According to this picture, unconscious processes seem to be capable of doing many things that were thought to require intention, deliberation, and conscious awareness. Moreover, they accomplish these things without the conflict and drama of the psychoanalytic unconscious. These processes range from complex information processing, through goal pursuit and emotions, to cognitive control and self-regulation.
This collection of 20 original chapters by leading researchers examines the cognitive unconscious from social, cognitive, and neuroscientific viewpoints, presenting some of the most important developments at the heart of this new picture of the unconscious.
The volume, the first book in the new Social Cognition and Social Neuroscience series, will be an important resource on the cognitive unconscious for researchers in cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

Thinking and deciding

Jonathan Baron

By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $47.45

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Intelligence
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Cognitive
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Decisions, decisions, decisions 5 out of 5 stars.
33 of 35 people found this review helpful.

This is a _very_ impressive book. I can't imagine a more thorough overview of the study of human judgment, decisionmaking, and rationality.

It's hard to find a good single volume in this field. For the psychology of judgment and decisionmaking, there's Scott Plous's excellent book of that title. For the heuristics on which we seem to rely and the biases they seem to generate, there's the modern classic _Judgment Under Uncertainty_ by (the late) Amos Tversky and (recent Nobel prize winner) Daniel Kahneman. And there are other books devoted to special topics and subtopics.

But so far as I know, this is the only broad, general introduction to the entire field of thinking, how we do it, how we probably ought to do it, and the sorts of things we do it about.

The book is divided into three broad sections. "Thinking In General" covers just that: what thinking is, and the nature of rationality and logic. "Probability and Belief" introduces not only probability theory (including, importantly, Bayes's Theorem) but the various theories about what probability _is_, as well as hypothesis testing, correlation, and "actively open-minded thinking." The largest section, "Decisions and Plans," is eleven chapters long and covers everything else: uncertainty, utility, decision analysis, theories of morality fairness, and justice, and risk.

As you might imagine, Baron doesn't leave too many stones unturned. Heck, his bibliography alone is thirty-odd pages long.

The book is eminently readable. The third edition is aimed mainly at graduate students but I gather Baron still uses it in his undergraduate courses. If you're a lay reader interested in this field, you'll be able to read it on your own with no difficulty.

A Dictionary of Psychology (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Andrew M. Colman

Amazon Price: $12.21 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $6.26

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Cognitive

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great Value! 5 out of 5 stars.
20 of 20 people found this review helpful.

I have never seen a one-volume dictionary of psychology that comes close to this book in its exhaustive coverage of topics in the field of psychology. It seems like every time I see a book with the word "Oxford" on the cover it's a sure bet that I'm going to give it five stars.

Although I haven't read the entire book (who reads a whole dictionary?) I won't rule out doing so in the future.

Editorial Review:

With over 11,000 entries, this comprehensive and up-to-date dictionary covers all branches of psychology. Clear, concise descriptions for each entry offer extensive coverage of key areas including cognition, sensation and perception, emotion and motivation, learning and skills, language, mental disorders, and research methods. The range of entries extends to related disciplines including psychoanalysis, psychiatry, the neurosciences, and statistics. Entries are extensively cross-referenced for ease of use, and cover word origins and derivations as well as definitions.
In addition to the alphabetical entries, the Dictionary of Psychology, Second Edition also includes appendices covering over 800 commonly used abbreviations and symbols, as well as a list of phobias and phobic stimuli, with definitions. Comprehensive and clearly written, this dictionary is an invaluable work of reference for students, lecturers, and the general reader with an interest in psychology.