In the 1990s, the majority of texts in cognitive psychology dealt with the details of cognitive processes as individually defined. Originally published in 1997, this book was different in providing an account of cognition that focuses upon the cumulative and shared nature of human enterprise. Each of us is seen as coming to understand our world by drawing jointly upon our individual cognitive resources and the collective resources of the larger community which have been (and are being) directed towards similar ends. Accounts of human cognition that underplay the significance of collective processes tend to compensate by investing the individual mind with whatever additional internal resources appear necessary to fill the gap. Accounts that treat human knowledge as a purely social construction err in the opposite direction by overestimating the frailty of human reasoning – especially once its products have been exposed to external criticism.
The present book aims to adopt a more even-handed approach by letting both sides contribute to the debate. The result is a wide-ranging detour that starts off with cognitive science, then diverts into the domains of developmental and social psychology, before ending up in territory that is normally occupied by historians and evolutionary biologists. Although it was written with advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in psychology in mind, it will also be of interest to students of other disciplines including cognitive science, education and philosophy.
Table of Contents:
Preface. Section One: Knowledge in Mind 1. Mind Acknowledged 2. Encoding General Knowledge 3. Dual Encoding and Imagery 4. Symbol Processing Architectures: Production Systems 5. Non-symbolic Architectures: Connectionism Section Two: Memory Dynamics and the Accumulation of Knowledge 6. Accumulative Memory 7. Accumulative Memory: Developmental Perspectives 8. Cognition and Affect Section Three: Acquiring and Manipulating Knowledge 9. Management of Text Comprehension 10. Evaluating and Manipulating Knowledge Section Four: Knowledge in Minds 11. Social Cognition 12. Cultural Transmission of Knowledge: Formal Education 13. Cultural Transmission of Knowledge: Historical Change 14. Evolutionary Constraints and the Modern Mind. References. Author Index. Subject Index.
About the Author :
A. L. Wilkes was, at the time of original publication, Professor of Psychology at University of Dundee, UK.
Review :
Reviews for the original edition:
“This is a fascinating book, quite unlike anything else in the textbook literature of cognitive psychology. It does what very few other texts attempt: to set the study of cognition in its wider context. In doing so, it raises issues which are otherwise liable to be skirted round, and brings to readers ideas and information which they would probably never have encountered.” – K. I. Manktelow, University of Wolverhampton, UK
“This is a well-written book covering much ground not usually touched on by texts in cognitive psychology. It is also well aimed at final-year psychology students, and should be of interest, as a wide-ranging background survey to postgraduate students of cognitive psychology and cognitive science.” – David Over, University of Sunderland, UK
