The Nature of Cognition

Most cognitive psychology texts are organized around empirical findings on standard substantive topics such as perception, memory, vision, and language. This book is the first to introduce the study of cognition in terms of the major conceptual themes that underlie virtually all the substantive topics. Taking a dialectical approach, the chapters contrast alternative approaches to the underlying themes (e.g., domain-generality vs. domain-specificity), then show how a synthesis of the two approaches provides the best understanding. The book is organized into six sections: general issues in cognition, representation and process in cognition, methodology in cognition, kinds of cognition, group and individual differences in cognition, and a conclusion.

Contributors: Rhianon Allen, Axel Buchner, Patricia A. Carpenter, Stephen J. Ceci, Michael Cole, Eduardus DeBruyn, Randall W. Engle, Peter A. Frensch, Elena L. Grigorenko, Earl Hunt, P. N. Johnson-Laird, Marcel Adam Just, Michael Kahana, John F. Kihlstrom, Geoffrey Loftus, Valerie S. Makin, Timothy P. McNamara, Thomas O. Nelson, Raymond S. Nickerson, Natalie Oransky, Elizabeth A. Phelps, Dennis R. Proffitt, Arthur S. Reber, Paul J. Reber, Daniel N. Robinson, Tina B. Rosenblum, Brian H. Ross, Steven Sloman, Robert J. Sternberg.