New books on consciousness
It’s been a while since we announced new books, but here we present some of the most recent titles that should grab your attention. The experimental phenomena of consciousness – a brief dictionary Talis Bachmann, Bruno Breitmeyer, and Haluk Ogmen Although it was treated respectfully by early researchers such as Wilhelm Wundt, William James, and […]
It’s been a while since we announced new books, but here we present some of the most recent titles that should grab your attention.
The experimental phenomena of consciousness – a brief dictionary
Talis Bachmann, Bruno Breitmeyer, and Haluk Ogmen
Although it was treated respectfully by early researchers such as Wilhelm Wundt, William James, and Edward Titchener, the concept of consciousness virtually disappeared from academic psychology until the 1980s, when it made a triumphant return to the behavioural sciences and reappeared as a legitimate subject of empirical study. There is, however, no succinct handbook or dictionary covering the most important experimental phenomena and research paradigms that have become the psychophysical basis for the modern empirical study of consciousness. This volume provides the first systematic listing and description of the typical experimental phenomena and effects where consciousness appears as a variable of interest. The authors describe the names and labels of these phenomena, the principal authors behind the respective research, the basic experimental designs needed to produce research, and provide a list of useful references that will help readers to expand and deepen their own knowledge of the consciousness.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Cognition, Brain and Consciousness — textbook
Bernard B. Baars & Nicole Gage
A textbook for psychology, neuroscience, pre-medical students, and everybody interested in the neuroscience of cognition. A wave of new research is transforming our understanding of the human mind and brain. Many educational fields now require a basic understanding of the new topic of cognitive neuroscience. However, available textbooks are written more for biology audiences than for psychology and related majors. This text aims to bridge that gap. A background in biology of neuroscience is not required. The thematic approach builds on widely understood concepts in psychology, such as working memory, selective attention, and social cognition. Edited by two leading experts in the field, the book guides the reader along a clear path to understand the latest findings. A support website at http://textbooks.elsevier.com provides all figures in electronic format with export to Powerpoint, as well as supplementary material including movies and support material for teachers and students. (note: support website will be available after June 10, 2007) FEATURES * Written specifically for psychology, pre-medical, education and neuroscience undergraduate and graduate students * The thematic approach builds on on accepted concepts, not presuming a background in neuroscience or biology * Ancillary material includes a companion website and Learning Guide for students * Includes two Appendices on brain imaging and neural networks written by Thomas Ramsoy and Igor Aleksander * Introduces the brain in a step-by-step, readable style, with gradually increasing sophistication * Richly illustrated in full color with clear and detailed drawings that build the brain from top to bottome, simplifying the layout of the brain for students * Pedagogy includes exercises and study questions at the end of each chapter, including drawing exercises
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Consciousness, Function and Representation
Ned Block
This volume of Ned Block’s writings collects his papers on consciousness, functionalism, and representationism. A number of these papers treat the significance of the multiple realizability of mental states for the mind-body problem–a theme that has concerned Block since the 1960s. One paper on this topic considers the upshot for the mind-body problem of the possibility of a robot that is functionally like us but physically different–as is Commander Data of Star Trek‘s second generation. The papers on consciousness treat such conceptual issues as phenomenal versus access consciousness, Dennett’s theory of consciousness, and the function of consciousness, as well as such empirical matters as “How Not to Find the Neural Correlate of Consciousness,” and (in an expanded version of a paper originally in Trends in Cognitive Sciences) an argument that there are distinct neural correlates for access consciousness and phenomenal consciousness. Turning to the mind-body problem, Block defends physicalism against Max Black’s argument concerning phenomenal modes of presentation. The papers on representationism consider “mental paint” as well as the “Inverted Earth” thought experiment–a world in which colors are reversed but there is a compensating reversal in the words that are used to describe them.Consciousness, Function, and Representation, bringing together papers that have appeared primarily in journals and conference proceedings, can be regarded as Block’s most complete statement of his positions on consciousness.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Hypnosis and conscious states
Graham Jamieson
The phenomenon of hypnosis provides a rich paradigm for those seeking to understand the processes that underlie consciousness. Understanding hypnosis tells us about a basic human capacity for altered experiences that is often overlooked in contemporary western societies. Throughout the 200 year history of psychology, hypnosis has been a major topic of investigation by some of the leading experimenters and theorists of each generation. Today hypnosis is emerging again as a lively area of research within cognitive (systems level) neuroscience informing basic questions about the structure and biological basis of conscious states.
This book describes the latest advances in understanding hypnosis and similar trance states by researchers within the neuroscience of consciousness. It contains many new and exciting contributions from up and coming researchers and provides a lively debate on methodological and theoretical issues central to the development of emerging research paradigms in the neuroscience of conscious states.
The book introduces and describes many of the recent new tools that have become available to researchers in this field. Academics, researchers, and clinicians wanting to develop their knowledge of the latest findings, theories and methods in the scientific study of hypnosis and related states of consciousness will find this an up to date guide to this rapidly advancing field.
