Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience

Key differences between 4th and 3rd editions

• Time lapse between current and previous publications: 4 years (2014 vs 2010).
• Chapter 1: Modern Research in Cognitive Psychology includes Sian Beilock's research on phenomenon of "choking under pressure".
• Chapter 2:
• New section Why Study Cognitive Neuroscience? introduces the idea of levels of analysis and an expanded discussion of the rationale for the physiological study of the mind.
• Discussion of research work of scientists at University of California (Berkeley) on creating semantic brain maps through MRI data, which was collected while the subjects watched movies.
• New section All Together Now: Neural Networks covers new MRI technique -- diffusion tenaor imaging.
• Section Something to Consider "Neural Networks" provides examples of how neuroscience can contribute to the understanding of mechanisms suggested by behavioral resaarch.
• Chapter 3:
• Chapter begins with a discussion of why it is so difficult to design robotic vision systems.
• Pain is used to demonstrate the top-down processing.
• Helmholtz's theory of unconscious inference now includes Bayesian studies of visual perception.
• Section Something to Consider "Where Perception Meets Memory " describes how neurons in the hippocampus fire to remembered perceptions (results of an experiment by H. GelbardSagiv and coworkers, 2008)
• Chapter 4:
• New opening emphasizes the idea that there are a number of different aspects of attention.
• Treatment of distractions while driving discusses new research conducted by Strayer in 2013, which revealed that voice-activated in-car technologies dangerously undermine driver attention.
• New section Something to Consider "Taking Possession by the Brain"covers the physiology of attention that reflects William James's idea of attention "taking possession" of the mind.
• Chapter 5:
• New opening introduces the different types of memory.
• Discussion of the capacity of short-term memory features attempt to measure the capacity of visual memory in terms of the amount of information (Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2004).
• Discussion of MRI study showing that the visual cortex is involved in holding information during a delay (Harrison & Tong. 2009).
• Section Something to Consider "Moth Performance and Working Memory" describes how writing can prevent "choking under pressure".
• Chapter 6:
• New opening "Division and Interaction" features different types of memory mechanisms that interact with each other.
• Petrican's research on how memories age.
• Section Imagining the Future outlines the connection between episodic memory and the ability to imagine the future (Addis et. al., 2007; Schacter 2012).
• Chapter 7: Section Consolidation: The Life History of Memories includes new research on the multiple trace hypothesis (Viskontas et al.. 2009) and system consolidation of memory during sleep (Wilhelm et al., 2011).
• Chapter 8:
• Discussion of memory and emotion includes how emotion can enhance consolidation (Cahill et al. 2003; Roozendaal & McGaugh 2011) and how emotion can interfere with memory (Mather & Sutherland, 2011).
• Discussion of flashbulb memory includes recent findings that emotion can increase recollection but decrease memory for details (Rimmele 2011).
• Section Something to Consider "The Raver of Pictures" describes how pictures can create false memories (Nash & Wade 2009).
• Chapter 9:
• The Representation of Concepts in the Brain includes an expanded discussion of categories in the brain to more accurately reflect the varied approaches proposed to explain how concepts are represented (Hoffman & Lambon Ralph. 2011; Mahon & Caramazza 2011; Pulvermuller 2013)
• New methods "Sentence Verification Technique"; "Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)".
• Chapter 10: New section Something to Consider "Imagery and Food Craving" describes imagery processes underlying food cravings (Harvey et al, 2005).
• Chapter 11:
• Treatment of lexical ambiguity includes a discussion of how accessing a word's meaning is affected by meaning dominance.
• New material on making predictions based on knowledge of the environment and language constructions.
• New material on predictions based on knowledge about situations (Metusalem et al., 2012).
• Section on conversations includes material on common ground.
• Chapter 12:
• Treatment of creative problem solving includes new examples, a new topic on practical creativity, and a discussion of problem solving as a process.
• Section Something to Consider "Creativity, Mental Illness, and the Open Mind" considers whether there is a link between mental illness and creativity.
• Chapter 13:
• Chapter now opens with material on judgment and heuristics.
• New examples illustrate how decision making is influenced by the number of alternatives available (Shen et al., 2010); decision-making worsens when people are tired, hungry, or upset (Danziger et al. 2011).