Conversation and Cognition

This book looks at the challenging implications of discourse approaches to the topic of cognition.

Hedwig te Molder (Edited by), Jonathan Potter (Edited by)

9780521790208, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 April 2005

300 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.57 kg

'Conversation and Cognition is a remarkable volume … The burgeoning field of discursive psychology may still have one or two philosophical kinks to iron out of its program, though it largely deserves the credit for bringing these issues into sharp relief. In my opinion on this particular showing, ethnomethology stands apart in its clarity on the relations between cognition and conversation.' Human Studies

Written by some of the leading figures in the fields of conversation analysis, discursive psychology and ethnomethodology, this book looks at the challenging implications of discourse-based approaches to the topic of cognition. This volume shows how cognition can be reworked using analyses of engaging examples of real life interaction such as conversations between friends, relationship counselling sessions and legal hearings. It includes an extended introduction that overviews the history and context of cognitive research and its basic assumptions to provide a frame for understanding the specific examples discussed, as well as surveying cutting edge debates about discourse and cognition. This comprehensive and accessible book opens up important ways of understanding the relation between language and cognition.

1. Talking cognition: mapping and making the terrain Jonathan Potter and Hedwig te Molder
Part I. The Interface between Cognition and Action: 2. Validating 'observations' in discourse studies: a methodological reason for attention to cognition Robert Sanders
3. Language without mind Jeff Coulter
4. Using participants' video stimulated comments to complement analyses of interactional practices Anita Pomerantz
5. From paradigm to prototype and back again: interactive aspects of 'cognitive processing' in stardardized survey interviews Nora Cate Schaeffer and Douglas Maynard
6. A cognitive agnostic in conversation analysis: when do strategies affect spoken interaction? Robert Hopper
Part II. Cognition in Action: 7. Is confusion a state of mind? Paul Drew
8. Cognition in discourse John Heritage
9. From process to practice: language, interaction and 'flashbulb' memories Robin Wooffitt
10. 'My memory has been shredded': a non-cognitivist of 'mental' phenomena Michael Lynch and David Bogen
11. Discursive psychology, mental states and descriptions Derek Edwards and Jonathan Potter.

Subject Areas: Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Sociolinguistics [CFB]