Perspectives on Cognitive Task Analysis

Historical Origins and Modern Communities of Practice

• By Robert R. Hoffman, Laura G. Militello

This volume is the first comprehensive history of task analysis, charting its origins from the earliest applied psychology through to modern forms of task analysis that focus on the study of cognitive work. Through this detailed historical analysis, it is made apparent how task analysis has always been cognitive.

Chapters cover the histories, key ideas, and contributions to methodology of a number of communities of practice, including: Sociotechnics, European Work Analysis, Naturalistic Decision Making, Cognitive Systems Engineering, Ethnography, Human Factors. Further, integrative chapters focus on the purposes of cognitive task analysis.

It is shown how all the various communities of practice are living in the same scientific universe, though are in many ways distinctive in terms of their key concerns and main theories. It is a historiography of task analysis, and the people who invented task analysis. It is also an explanatory primer on what cognitive task analysis is all about and what it can do.

Perspectives on Cognitive Task Analyis will be of value to professionals in allied disciplines who might come to rely on cognitive task analysis in their system development programs. It will be invaluable to students who need to know what task analysis and cognitive task analysis are really all about. For practitioners of cognitive task analysis, this volume is a major presentation of what their scientific universe is all about.

ISBN: 9780805861402

Published September 09 2008 by Psychology Press.

The Development of Memory in Infancy and Childhood

• Edited by Mary Courage, Nelson Cowan

Human memory is not only the repository of our past but the essence of who we are. As such, it is of enduring fascination. We marvel at its resilience in some situations and its fragility in others. The origin of this extraordinary cognitive capacity in infancy and childhood is the focus of vigorous research and debate as we seek to understand the record of our earliest beginnings.

The first edition of this volume, The Development of Memory in Childhood, documented the state-of-the-science of memory development a decade ago. This new edition, The Development of Memory in Infancy and Childhood, provides a thorough update and expansion of the previous text and offers reviews of new research on significant themes and ideas that have emerged since then. Topics include basic memory processes in infants and toddlers, the cognitive neuroscience of memory development, the cognitive and social factors that underlie our memory for implicit and explicit events, autobiographical memory and infantile amnesia, working memory, the role of strategies and knowledge in driving memory development, and the impact of stress and emotion on these basic processes. The book also includes applications of basic memory processes to a variety of real world settings from the courtroom to the classroom.

Including contributions from many of the best researchers in the field, this classic yet contemporary volume will appeal to senior undergraduate and graduate students of developmental and cognitive psychology as well as to developmental psychologists who want a compendium of current reviews on key topics in memory development.

ISBN: 9781841696423

Published September 09 2008 by Psychology Press.

Handbook of Child Language Disorders

• Edited by Richard G. Schwartz

The Handbook of Child Language Disorders provides an in-depth, comprehensive, and state-of-the-art review of current research concerning the nature, assessment, and remediation of language disorders in children. The book includes chapters focusing on specific groups of childhood disorders (SLI, autism, genetic syndromes, dyslexia, hearing impairment); the linguistic, perceptual, genetic, neurobiological, and cognitive bases of these disorders; and the context of language disorders (bilingual, across dialects, and across languages). To examine the nature of deficits, their assessment and remediation across populations, chapters address the main components of language (morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and related areas (processing, memory, attention, executive function such as reading and writing). Finally, even though there is extensive information regarding research and clinical methods in each chapter, there are individual chapters that focus directly on research methods.

This Handbook is a comprehensive reference source for clinicians and researchers and can be used as a textbook for undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students in speech-language pathology, developmental psychology, special education, disabilities studies, neuropsychology and in other fields interested in children's language disorders.

ISBN: 9781841694337

Published September 09 2008 by Psychology Press.

Interactions Between Short-Term and Long-Term Memory in the Verbal Domain

• By Annabel Thorn, Mike Page

The relationship between short-term and long-term memory systems is an issue of central concern to memory theorists. The association between temporary memory mechanisms and established knowledge bases is now regarded as critical to the development of theoretical and computational accounts of verbal short-term memory functioning. However, to date there is no single publication that provides dedicated and full coverage of current understanding of the association between short-term and long-term memory systems.

Interactions between Short-Term and Long-Term Memory in the Verbal Domain is the first volume to comprehensively address this key issue. The book, focusing specifically on memory for verbal information, comprises chapters covering current theoretical approaches, together with the very latest experimental work, from leading researchers in the field. Chapters contributed to the book draw on both cognitive and neuropsychological research and reflect both conceptual and computational approaches to theorising. The contributing authors represent current research perspectives from both sides of the Atlantic.

By addressing this important topic head-on, Interactions between Short-Term and Long-Term Memory in the Verbal Domain represents an invaluable resource for academics and students alike.

ISBN: 9781841696393

Published August 24 2008 by Psychology Press.

Embodiment, Ego-Space, and Action

• Edited by Roberta L. Klatzky, Brian MacWhinney, Marlene Behrmann

The majority of research on human perception and action examines sensors and effectors in relative isolation. What is less often considered in these research domains is that humans interact with a perceived world in which they themselves are part of the perceptual representation, as are the positions and actions (potential or ongoing) of other active beings. It is this self-in-world representation that we call embodiment. Increasingly, research demonstrates that embodiment is fundamental to both executing and understanding spatially and interpersonally directed action. It has been theorized to play a role in reaching and grasping, locomotion and navigation, infant imitation, spatial and social perspective taking, and neurological dysfunctions as diverse as phantom limb pain and autism. Few formal ideas have been put forward, however, to describe how selfrepresentation functions at a mechanistic level and what neural structures support those functions. This volume reports on the 2006 Carnegie Symposium on Cognition, which brought together the contributions to these issues from a group of researchers who span perspectives of behavioral science, neuroscience, developmental psychology and computation. Together they share their findings, ideas, aspirations, and concerns.

ISBN: 9780805862881

Published August 13 2008 by Psychology Press.

Unified Social Cognition

• By Norman Anderson

This eagerly awaited volume presents Anderson's cumulative progress in unified social psychology. The research is grounded in the three fundamental laws of information integration theory. Research shows these laws to apply to topics in social and personality psychology such as person cognition, attitudes, moral cognition, social development, group dynamics and self-cognition. This definitive work will broaden the appreciation of Anderson's unique treatment of psychological processes.

ISBN: 9781841698830

Published July 15 2008 by Psychology Press.

Computational Modelling

A Special Issue of Cognitive Neuropsychology

• Edited by Gary S. Dell, Alfonso Caramazza

The papers in the special issue describe computational models and principles that attempt to explain the performance of brain damaged subjects. The models elucidate the cognitive processes that underlie speaking, reading, spelling, and visuospatial planning by implementing hypothesized mechanisms and then identifying the consequences of specific "lesions" in these mechanisms for the model’s behaviour which, in turn, is related to the subjects’ behaviour. Although most of the presented models view cognitive mechanisms in connectionist or neural-network terms, they exhibit considerable variety in their underlying cognitive theories, their approach to modelling pathology, and particularly in how they use models to draw conclusions about theory.

ISBN: 9781841698557

Published July 01 2008 by Psychology Press.

Understanding Developmental Language Disorders

From Theory to Practice

• Edited by Courtenay Frazier Norbury, J. Bruce Tomblin, Dorothy V.M. Bishop

Developmental language disorders (DLD) occur when a child fails to develop his or her native language often for no apparent reason. Delayed development of speech and/or language is one of the most common reasons for parents of preschool children to seek the advice of their family doctor. Although some children rapidly improve, others have more persistent language difficulties. These long-term deficits can adversely affect academic progress, social relationships and mental well-being.

Although DLDs are common, we are still a long way from understanding what causes them and how best to intervene. Understanding Developmental Language Disorders summarises the recent research developments in genetics and neuroimaging studies, assessment techniques and treatment studies to provide an overview of all aspects of DLD. The book investigates the possible genetic and biological causes of the disorder, how best to assess children's language skills to identify when and where communication breakdown occurs, what the long-term outcomes are for children who grow up with DLD, overlaps between DLD and other childhood disorders such as dyslexia and autism and how best to treat children with the disorder. Each chapter is written by a leading authority in the field in a format accessible to researchers, clinicians and families alike.

This book, with its focus on both theory and practice, will be invaluable to students and researchers of speech-language pathology, psychology, psychiatry, linguistics and education. It will also be of interest to practicing speech-language pathologists, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, educational psychologists, and teachers and parents of children with developmental language disorders.

ISBN: 9781841696669

Published July 01 2008 by Psychology Press.