Robert W. Proctor – författare

"Contextualism, in my view, will be the major theoretical issue in psychology (as well as in the social sciences generally) in the first quarter of the next century. The authors have written the best general account of the issues at stake, and it is my guess that this will be the most important and perhaps the best-selling item in your list for some years. I say this even though I am one of those dreadful contextualist excoriated by the authors."  

--James E. Deese, University of Virginia

"I admit I was a bit reluctant to tackle this one having looked at a lot of the subject in two tries at a Philosophy of Psychology course. I was pleased way beyond my expectations, and I am thoroughly envious of what 'they' have done. It is a wonderful book and should be on the 'must read' list of all psychologists, especially those new to or just entering psychology."  

--David C. Edwards, Iowa State University

"It is written in a remarkably lucid and articulate manner, particularly considering the abstract, erudite, indeed even esoteric and abstruse topic to which it is addressed."  

--Michael Wertheimer, University of Colorado, Boulder

"This book will give you the grounds for comparing and evaluating the claims of the several alternative 'postmodern' psychologies that have appeared in recent years. It will show you their varieties, their grounds for disagreement with mainstream psychology, and the adequacy of their claims and complaints. Along the way it will instruct you in some modern perspectives on what makes up an adequate philosophy of science."  

--David C. Edwards, Iowa State University

Contextualism is a major growing movement that sees itself in opposition to the currently dominant approach in psychology, which it characterizes as mechanism. Contextualism is a variety of pragmatism that endorses radical empiricism and is closely related to a variety of other relativistic movements, such as social constructionism. This book identifies two distinct contextualist camps and asks whether either form of contextualism provides a satisfactory basis for the conduct of empirical and theoretical psychology. The two varieties of contextualism are contrasted with the authors' own conception of the philosophy of science, which is freely adopted from Larry Laudan. This conception provides a much more up-to-date and better basis than contextualism for the conduct of research and theory in psychology. The book describes methodological changes in contextualism that will have to occur if its impact on psychology is to increase.

"Contextualism, in my view, will be the major theoretical issue in psychology (as well as in the social sciences generally) in the first quarter of the next century. The authors have written the best general account of the issues at stake, and it is my guess that this will be the most important and perhaps the best-selling item in your list for some years. I say this even though I am one of those dreadful contextualist excoriated by the authors."  

--James E. Deese, University of Virginia

"I admit I was a bit reluctant to tackle this one having looked at a lot of the subject in two tries at a Philosophy of Psychology course. I was pleased way beyond my expectations, and I am thoroughly envious of what 'they' have done. It is a wonderful book and should be on the 'must read' list of all psychologists, especially those new to or just entering psychology."  

--David C. Edwards, Iowa State University

"It is written in a remarkably lucid and articulate manner, particularly considering the abstract, erudite, indeed even esoteric and abstruse topic to which it is addressed."  

--Michael Wertheimer, University of Colorado, Boulder

"This book will give you the grounds for comparing and evaluating the claims of the several alternative 'postmodern' psychologies that have appeared in recent years. It will show you their varieties, their grounds for disagreement with mainstream psychology, and the adequacy of their claims and complaints. Along the way it will instruct you in some modern perspectives on what makes up an adequate philosophy of science."  

--David C. Edwards, Iowa State University

Contextualism is a major growing movement that sees itself in opposition to the currently dominant approach in psychology, which it characterizes as mechanism. Contextualism is a variety of pragmatism that endorses radical empiricism and is closely related to a variety of other relativistic movements, such as social constructionism. This book identifies two distinct contextualist camps and asks whether either form of contextualism provides a satisfactory basis for the conduct of empirical and theoretical psychology. The two varieties of contextualism are contrasted with the authors' own conception of the philosophy of science, which is freely adopted from Larry Laudan. This conception provides a much more up-to-date and better basis than contextualism for the conduct of research and theory in psychology. The book describes methodological changes in contextualism that will have to occur if its impact on psychology is to increase.

Skill Acquisition and Training describes the building blocks of cognitive, motor, and teamwork skills, and the factors to take into account in training them. The basic processes of perception, cognition and action that provide the foundation for understanding skilled performance are discussed in the context of complex task requirements, individual differences, and extreme environmental demands. The role of attention in perceiving, selecting, and becoming aware of information, in learning new information, and in performance is described in the context of specific skills.

A theme throughout this book is that much learning is implicit; the types of knowledge and relations that can profitably be learned implicitly and the conditions under which this learning benefits performance are discussed. The question of whether skill acquisition in cognitive domains shares underlying mechanisms with the acquisition of perceptual and motor skills is also addressed with a view to identifying commonalities that allow for widely applicable, general theories of skill acquisition. Because the complexity of real-world environments puts demands on the individual to adapt to new circumstances, the question of how skills research can be applied to organizational training contexts is an important one. To address this, this book dedicates much content to practical applications, covering such issues as how training needs can be captured with task and job analyses and how to maximize training transfer by taking trainee self-efficacy and goal orientation into account.

This comprehensive yet readable textbook is optimized for students of cognitive psychology looking to understand the intricacies of skill acquisition.

Skill Acquisition and Training describes the building blocks of cognitive, motor, and teamwork skills, and the factors to take into account in training them. The basic processes of perception, cognition and action that provide the foundation for understanding skilled performance are discussed in the context of complex task requirements, individual differences, and extreme environmental demands. The role of attention in perceiving, selecting, and becoming aware of information, in learning new information, and in performance is described in the context of specific skills.

A theme throughout this book is that much learning is implicit; the types of knowledge and relations that can profitably be learned implicitly and the conditions under which this learning benefits performance are discussed. The question of whether skill acquisition in cognitive domains shares underlying mechanisms with the acquisition of perceptual and motor skills is also addressed with a view to identifying commonalities that allow for widely applicable, general theories of skill acquisition. Because the complexity of real-world environments puts demands on the individual to adapt to new circumstances, the question of how skills research can be applied to organizational training contexts is an important one. To address this, this book dedicates much content to practical applications, covering such issues as how training needs can be captured with task and job analyses and how to maximize training transfer by taking trainee self-efficacy and goal orientation into account.

This comprehensive yet readable textbook is optimized for students of cognitive psychology looking to understand the intricacies of skill acquisition.