DJ Levitin - Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core Readings

Scientists from many disciplines, including physics, chemistry, biology, and neuroscience, contribute to the study of cognition. Cognitive psychology, the science of the human mind and of how people process information, is at the core of empirical investigations into the nature of mind and thought.

This anthology is based on the assumption that cognitive psychology is at heart empirical philosophy. Many of the core questions about thought, language, perception, memory, and knowledge of other people's minds were for centuries the domain of philosophy. The book begins with the philosophical foundations of inquiry into the nature of mind and thought, in particular the writings of Descartes, and then covers the principal topics of cognitive psychology including memory, attention, and decision making.

The book organizes a daunting amount of information, underlining the essentials, while also introducing readers to the ambiguities and controversies of research. It is arranged thematically and includes many topics not typically taught in cognition courses, including human factors and ergonomics, evolutionary psychology, music cognition, and experimental design.

The contributors include Daniel Dennett, Daniel Kahneman, Jay McClelland, Donald Norman, Michael Posner, Stephen Palmer, Eleanor Rosch, John Searle, Roger Shepard, and Anne Treisman.

Reviews

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Far from being like the old, dry, boring Psychology books of yore, "Foundations of Cognitive Psychology", though a required text for the Cognitive Psychology students at McGill, is able to hold its own and rise above the competition. A collection of articles, ranging from the philosophical "Where Am I?" by D. Dennett to the downright scientific (for example "Features and Objects in Visual Processing" by A. Treisman), the book gives the reader and the student a sample of the many possible views and stances regarding Cognition. According to Webster's dictionary, Cognitive Psychology is defined as "relating to, or being conscious of mental activity (as thinking, remembering, learning or using language)." Levitin's "Foundations" proves that Cognition is much more complicated than just a simple definition in the dictionary. Students and interested readers will benefit from this text.

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