Mark Wagner - Böcker

This volume consists of 15 chapters, each presenting a different segment of modern psychology. Topics range from biochemistry to the history of art, from epistemological arguments to the interplay of science and society; research methods include comparative, developmental, physiological, clinical, and statistical modeling. Each chapter also links current efforts to a shared history. Progress in these diverse activities is presented as the natural outgrowth of a common outlook on scientific psychology--a viewpoint known as Functionalism, first articulated around the turn of the century by William James, John Dewey, James Rowland Angell, Harvey Carr, and others.Part I takes a broad, historical perspective on the role of Functionalism in the development of scientific psychology. Essays here discuss the emergence of the Functionalist perspective; the importance of the Functionalists' appreciation of societal problems to the rapid progress and future contributions of psychology. Part II presents current research emphasizing biological aspects of psychological phenomena. It includes chapters on the evolutionary perspective that motivates comparative studies of behavior and cognition; clinical neuropsychology; how the coordinated development of psychophysiological and behavioral methods have provided insights in medicine and space travel; and research on the development of the nervous system. The next part focuses on phenomena of mental life by sampling current research on perception, cognition, and development: the Functionalist perspective in studies of cognitive development in children; changes in mental function that occur later in life and comprise a major challenge to research in cognitive gerontology; how one can best describe the structure of intelligence; and how the evolution of Western art reveals historic parallels between artistic expression and theories of perception. Part IV studies research on the interactions among people--the domain of social phenomena. Essays investigate the adaptive nature of social interactions; the social characteristics of giving and receiving; and how the behavioral effects of marijuana and patterns of usage vary by environment and social context.

When most people think of space, they think of physical space. However, visual space concerns space as consciously experienced, and it is studied through subjective measures, such as asking people to use numbers to estimate perceived distances, areas, angles, or volumes. This book explores the mismatch between perception and physical reality, and describes the many factors that influence the perception of space including the meaning assigned to geometric concepts like distance, the judgment methods used to report the experience, the presence or absence of cues to depth, and the orientation of a stimulus with respect to point of view. The main theme of the text is that no single geometry describes visual space, but that the geometry of visual space depends upon the stimulus conditions and mental shifts in the subjective meaning of size and distance.In addition, The Geometries of Visual Space:*contains philosophical, mathematical, and psychophysical background material;*looks at synthetic approaches to space perception including work on hyperbolic, spherical, and Euclidean geometries;*presents a meta-analysis of studies that ask observers to directly estimate size, distance, area, angle, and volume;*looks at the size constancy literature in which observers are asked to adjust a comparison stimulus to match a variety of standards at different distances away;*discusses research that takes a multi-dimensional approach toward studying visual space; and*discusses how spatial experience is influenced by memory.While this book is primarily intended for scholars in perception, mathematical psychology, and psychophysics, it will also be accessible to a wider audience since it is written at a readable level. It will make a good graduate-level textbook on space perception.

When most people think of space, they think of physical space. However, visual space concerns space as consciously experienced, and it is studied through subjective measures, such as asking people to use numbers to estimate perceived distances, areas, angles, or volumes. This book explores the mismatch between perception and physical reality, and describes the many factors that influence the perception of space including the meaning assigned to geometric concepts like distance, the judgment methods used to report the experience, the presence or absence of cues to depth, and the orientation of a stimulus with respect to point of view. The main theme of the text is that no single geometry describes visual space, but that the geometry of visual space depends upon the stimulus conditions and mental shifts in the subjective meaning of size and distance.In addition, The Geometries of Visual Space:*contains philosophical, mathematical, and psychophysical background material;*looks at synthetic approaches to space perception including work on hyperbolic, spherical, and Euclidean geometries;*presents a meta-analysis of studies that ask observers to directly estimate size, distance, area, angle, and volume;*looks at the size constancy literature in which observers are asked to adjust a comparison stimulus to match a variety of standards at different distances away;*discusses research that takes a multi-dimensional approach toward studying visual space; and*discusses how spatial experience is influenced by memory.While this book is primarily intended for scholars in perception, mathematical psychology, and psychophysics, it will also be accessible to a wider audience since it is written at a readable level. It will make a good graduate-level textbook on space perception.