Everyday Cognition

The authors present relevant data that open up new directions for those studying cognitive aging.

Based on the proceedings of the twelfth biennial conference on life-span developmental psychology, most of the contributions in this volume deal with the mechanisms of everyday cognition. However, a broad spectrum of additional concerns is addressed within the domain of everyday cognition: its metatheoretical underpinnings, theory and theoretical issues, methods of investigation, empirical considerations, and social issues and applications. Addressing everyday cognition in infancy, childhood, adolescence, young and middle adulthood, and old age, this book is consistent with the chronological life-span theme of this series. The contributors collectively discuss some of the traditional concerns of life-span psychology: the dialectical nature of everyday cognition, individual differences, and contextual influences. Leading and concluding chapters provide overview, integration, and summary. In bringing together a wide array of age periods and points of view within the domain of everyday cognition, the editors hope that students and researchers in developmental psychology and cognitive science will find a useful cross-fertilization of ideas. A huge variety of theoretical perspectives is presented ranging from the position that everyday cognition and academic (laboratory) cognition are different manifestations of the same underlying processes to the position that the underlying processes are completely separate. Also of importance, a large assortment of research methods is illustrated including interviews, laboratory simulations, real-life observations and psychometric methods.

Answering fundamental questions about musical preference, ability, and communication, the field of Musical Cognition and Development is critical to the understanding of how music is processed, grasped, and learned. Drawn from the widely acclaimed New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning (Oxford, 2002), the MENC Handbook of Musical Cognition and Development covers the latest theoretical and practical techniques that explain meaning and understanding in music. A distinguished team of internationally recognized experts offers cogent and concise insights providing readers up-to-date information and references. The volume covers the most important topics in this field, including skill development in music performance, research on communicating music expressiveness, the neurobiology of music, the cognitive constraints in the listening process, and music and medicine as applied to neuroscience. Practical and affordable, this volume will prove essential for students and scholars of music education and the psychology of music. It is both an excellent starting point for those looking to gain an orientation to the field, and an up-to-date presentation of the most recent research findings for experienced researchers, instructors, and pedagogues.

Most previous research on human cognition has focused on problem-solving, and has confined its investigations to the laboratory. As a result, it has been difficult to account for complex mental processes and their place in culture and history. In this startling - indeed, disco in forting - study, Jean Lave moves the analysis of one particular form of cognitive activity, - arithmetic problem-solving - out of the laboratory into the domain of everyday life. In so doing, she shows how mathematics in the 'real world', like all thinking, is shaped by the dynamic encounter between the culturally endowed mind and its total context, a subtle interaction that shapes 1) Both tile human subject and the world within which it acts. The study is focused on mundane daily, activities, such as grocery shopping for 'best buys' in the supermarket, dieting, and so on. Innovative in its method, fascinating in its findings, the research is above all significant in its theoretical contributions. Have offers a cogent critique of conventional cognitive theory, turning for an alternative to recent social theory, and weaving a compelling synthesis from elements of culture theory, theories of practice, and Marxist discourse. The result is a new way of understanding human thought processes, a vision of cognition as the dialectic between persons-acting, and the settings in which their activity is constituted. The book will appeal to anthropologists, for its novel theory of the relation of cognition to culture and context; to cognitive scientists and educational theorists; and to the 'plain folks' who form its subject, and who will recognize themselves in it, a rare accomplishment in the modern social sciences.

A unified, general theory of functional cognition is presented in this book. Its generality appears in the titles of the 13 chapters listed below. Its unity appears in the effectiveness of the same methods and concepts across all of these areas. Generality and unity both stem from the foundation axiom of purposiveness. The axiom of purposiveness has been made effective through capability for functional measurement of values, which embody the goal-directed character of purposiveness. This measurement capability is based on the general cognitive algebra established in information integration theory. Functional theory can thus be made precise and effective near the level of everyday phenomenology. The book is written at a relatively simple level, directed at readers in every field of psychology. Among its characteristics are: * self-sufficient theory near the level of everyday phenomenology; * foundation on structure of the internal world; and * solid grounding in experimental analysis.

Over the last decade, the field of socio-emotional development and aging has rapidly expanded, with many new theories and empirical findings emerging. This trend is consistent with the broader movement in psychology to consider social, motivational, and emotional influences on cognition and behavior. The Oxford Handbook of Emotion, Social Cognition, and Problem Solving in Adulthood provides the first overview of a new field of adult development that has emerged out of conceptualizations and research at the intersections between socioemotional development, social cognition, emotion, coping, and everyday problem solving. This field roundly rejects a universal deficit model of aging, highlighting instead the dynamic nature of socio-emotional development and the differentiation of individual trajectories of development as a function of variation in contextual and experiential influences. It emphasizes the need for a cross-level examination (from biology and neuroscience to cognitive and social psychology) of the determinants of emotional and socio-emotional behavior. This volume also serves as a tribute to the late Fredda Blanchard-Fields, whose thinking and empirical research contributed extensively to a life-span developmental view of emotion, problem solving, and social cognition. Its chapters cover multiple aspects of adulthood and aging, presenting developmental perspectives on emotion; antecedents and consequences of emotion in context; everyday problem solving; social cognition; goals and goal-related behaviors; and wisdom. The landmark volume in this new field, The Oxford Handbook of Emotion, Social Cognition, and Problem Solving in Adulthood is an important resource for cognitive, developmental, and social psychologists, as well as researchers and graduate students in the field of aging, emotion studies, and social psychology.

By 2030 there will be about 70 million people in the United States who are older than 64. Approximately 26 percent of these will be racial and ethnic minorities. Overall, the older population will be more diverse and better educated than their earlier cohorts. The range of late-life outcomes is very dramatic with old age being a significantly different experience for financially secure and well-educated people than for poor and uneducated people. The early mission of behavioral science research focused on identifying problems of older adults, such as isolation, caregiving, and dementia. Today, the field of gerontology is more interdisciplinary. When I'm 64 examines how individual and social behavior play a role in understanding diverse outcomes in old age. It also explores the implications of an aging workforce on the economy. The book recommends that the National Institute on Aging focus its research support in social, personality, and life-span psychology in four areas: motivation and behavioral change; socioemotional influences on decision-making; the influence of social engagement on cognition; and the effects of stereotypes on self and others. When I'm 64 is a useful resource for policymakers, researchers and medical professionals.