Cognition
The Thinking Animal

Explains foundational experiments and basic theories of cognition, and explains how they relate, in a clear, structured narrative.

Daniel T. Willingham (Author), Cedar Riener (Author)

9781107525122, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 August 2019

448 pages, 500 colour illus. 6 tables
25.4 x 20.5 x 2.2 cm, 1.1 kg

'An excellent choice for an introductory cognitive psychology course. The writing style is clear and engaging, and the authors provide fun, real-world examples that help make the information relatable to daily life.' Carmen Westerberg, Texas State University

By describing experiments that control, manipulate and measure mental processes, this book shows how we can discover the answers to key questions about the mind, such as: 'Can we focus attention on more than one thing?' and 'Is language unique to humans?' Written in a down-to-earth narrative prose that avoids jargon, addresses the reader directly and draws on the authors' unique style ('suppose Willingham split his pants at a junior high dance …'), this text takes complex experiments in cognitive psychology and describes them for undergraduate students. Willingham has a record of excellence in translating cognitive psychology research for K-12 teachers with his bestselling Why Don't Students Like School? and other popular books. This book applies the clear and approachable prose style towards building foundational knowledge in cognitive psychology for undergraduates.

1. Introduction: cognitive psychologists' approach to research
2. Methods of cognitive psychology
3. Visual perception
4. Attention
5. Sensory and working memory
6. Long term memory structure
7. Long term memory processes. Memory encoding
8. Memory retrieval
9. Concepts and categories
10. Language structure
11. Language processing
12. Visual imagery
13. Decision making and reasoning
14. Problem solving.

Subject Areas: Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Psychology [JM]