James R. Anderson – författare

It is well established that children recognize themselves in mirrors by the end of infancy, showing awareness of the self as an object in the environment. However, the cognitive impact of objective self-awareness requires further elucidation. This gap in the literature is addressed in a series of 7 experiments exploring the role of self in 3- and 4-year-olds' event memory. A mnemonic bias for self-relevant material has been described in adults. This effect is thought to be based on the organizational properties of a highly elaborated self-concept, and so offers a clear route to study the child's developing sense of self. However, very few studies have investigated the ontogeny of this effect. New evidence is provided to suggest that preschool children, like adults, show a mnemonic advantage for material that has been physically linked with the self through performance of a depicted action (Experiment 1). Moreover, 3- and 4-year olds show a bias for material that has been visually and linguistically processed with the self-image (Experiments 2, 3, 4), and material that has been socio-cognitively linked to the self in terms of ownership (Experiments 5, 6, 7). The data imply that both bottom-up (kinesthetic feedback, self-concept) and top-down (attention) aspects of self reflection may play a supporting role in early event memory, perhaps representing a nascent form of autobiographical processing. Importantly, this research highlights a promising methodology for elucidating the executive role of the self in cognition. Following William James's (1890) influential conception of the self, it seems that in typical development, "I" is primed to remember "me."

This publication makes available to historians and general readers a little-known document mapping the achievement of a crucial initiative in the plans for recovery from the harshest blows of the Great Depression, in one of America’s hardest-hit states. It presents a historically unique case history of the Federal Civil Works Administration, established by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The CWA addressed the issues of unemployment and destitution brought on by the Depression, specifically in Michigan. With a contextualizing introduction and afterword by historian James R. Anderson, the republication of this report—with its wealth of data and statistics, and its compelling information about the extent of the crisis and of the government’s initiatives—brings to light fascinating aspects of how critical (and impactful) such interventions were in the context of unprecedented economic challenges.

This book presents an overview of selected topics in comparative cognition, which is the study of behaviour and mental activities in nonhuman animals. Human psychological capacities are often used as a heuristic by comparative cognitive scientists, whose tasks include designing valid procedures for studying species’ sensory, linguistic or manipulatory abilities that differ from those of humans. Nonetheless, researchers have developed many original ways to gain insights into how other species perceive the world, store and integrate information, and communicate. The contributors to this book have all been involved in such work, and will present some of the approaches that have led to clear advances in our understanding of cognitive processes in other species. The chapters integrate a review of past literature with recent work, covering a variety of subject species including birds, domestic dogs and cats, and nonhuman primates. All contributors have worked with or been otherwise influenced by Professor Kazuo Fujita, to whom the volume will be dedicated. Fujita’s openness to research on various topics and species is reflected in the diversity of the chapters presented.The book will be of interest to students and more experienced researchers in diverse fields including psychology, anthropology, biology and veterinary studies.

This book presents an overview of selected topics in comparative cognition, which is the study of behaviour and mental activities in nonhuman animals. Human psychological capacities are often used as a heuristic by comparative cognitive scientists, whose tasks include designing valid procedures for studying species’ sensory, linguistic or manipulatory abilities that differ from those of humans. Nonetheless, researchers have developed many original ways to gain insights into how other species perceive the world, store and integrate information, and communicate. The contributors to this book have all been involved in such work, and will present some of the approaches that have led to clear advances in our understanding of cognitive processes in other species. The chapters integrate a review of past literature with recent work, covering a variety of subject species including birds, domestic dogs and cats, and nonhuman primates. All contributors have worked with or been otherwise influenced by Professor Kazuo Fujita, to whom the volume will be dedicated. Fujita’s openness to research on various topics and species is reflected in the diversity of the chapters presented.The book will be of interest to students and more experienced researchers in diverse fields including psychology, anthropology, biology and veterinary studies.