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Cognition
COGNITION offers a comprehensive overview of cognition, including recent developments in perception, imagery, problem solving, and creativity. Advances in such areas as memory and language are also discussed with expanded theoretical approaches. This text is celebrated for its up-to-date coverage of important research and theories, as well as the extensive references. Margaret Matlin's commitment to current research, accessible writing, demonstrations, real-world applications, and student-oriented pedagogy has made this book a leader in the cognition course area.
640 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 22, 2008
my 'working memory' is on strike.
November 27, 2019
Fairly readable, but contains a handful of errors, especially in the fifth chapter.
October 27, 2013
I'm too lazy to write my own review. So I'll just repost what Michael wrote cuz it's all true:
"This, in fact, is the Platonic Ideal of a textbook. It is perfectly organized, clearly written, optimally internally referenced, and - best of all - it explains, step-by-step /why/ its particular approach to teaching works. Indeed, this textbook would be ideal for all students to read in their first year of college, because much of its text is devoted to teaching them how to learn more effectively. Similarly, beginning teachers of any subject would be advised to consult this book before constructing a syllabus or preparing a lecture or test, because it will teach them how their students can best learn the material. Finally, it gives the beginning psychology student a surprisingly concise and interesting overview of the state of their field in relation to the internal working of the mind.
It even works well for students who are not traditionally text-oriented or lecture-oriented learners. The many "demonstrations" (which I would call "exercises," but perhaps that word has a stigma attached) serve as opportunities to step away from the text and reinforce the concepts given. Perhaps a particular student will not remember what "prospective memory" is from reading the definition, but will remember that crazy exercise where they tried tying string around their finger to see if it helped them remember to take out the garbage. Often I found the demonstrations helped me to understand the results of a given experiment better - because now I had had a chance to be a participant and to see what they were trying to do.
Cognition is increasingly popular in psychology, and the tools with which we attempt to understand it are increasingly sophisticated. Anyone who is interested in knowing how their mind works can benefit from this book."
"This, in fact, is the Platonic Ideal of a textbook. It is perfectly organized, clearly written, optimally internally referenced, and - best of all - it explains, step-by-step /why/ its particular approach to teaching works. Indeed, this textbook would be ideal for all students to read in their first year of college, because much of its text is devoted to teaching them how to learn more effectively. Similarly, beginning teachers of any subject would be advised to consult this book before constructing a syllabus or preparing a lecture or test, because it will teach them how their students can best learn the material. Finally, it gives the beginning psychology student a surprisingly concise and interesting overview of the state of their field in relation to the internal working of the mind.
It even works well for students who are not traditionally text-oriented or lecture-oriented learners. The many "demonstrations" (which I would call "exercises," but perhaps that word has a stigma attached) serve as opportunities to step away from the text and reinforce the concepts given. Perhaps a particular student will not remember what "prospective memory" is from reading the definition, but will remember that crazy exercise where they tried tying string around their finger to see if it helped them remember to take out the garbage. Often I found the demonstrations helped me to understand the results of a given experiment better - because now I had had a chance to be a participant and to see what they were trying to do.
Cognition is increasingly popular in psychology, and the tools with which we attempt to understand it are increasingly sophisticated. Anyone who is interested in knowing how their mind works can benefit from this book."
July 6, 2009
This, in fact, is the Platonic Ideal of a textbook. It is perfectly organized, clearly written, optimally internally referenced, and - best of all - it explains, step-by-step /why/ its particular approach to teaching works. Indeed, this textbook would be ideal for all students to read in their first year of college, because much of its text is devoted to teaching them how to learn more effectively. Similarly, beginning teachers of any subject would be advised to consult this book before constructing a syllabus or preparing a lecture or test, because it will teach them how their students can best learn the material. Finally, it gives the beginning psychology student a surprisingly concise and interesting overview of the state of their field in relation to the internal working of the mind.
It even works well for students who are not traditionally text-oriented or lecture-oriented learners. The many "demonstrations" (which I would call "exercises," but perhaps that word has a stigma attached) serve as opportunities to step away from the text and reinforce the concepts given. Perhaps a particular student will not remember what "prospective memory" is from reading the definition, but will remember that crazy exercise where they tried tying string around their finger to see if it helped them remember to take out the garbage. Often I found the demonstrations helped me to understand the results of a given experiment better - because now I had had a chance to be a participant and to see what they were trying to do.
Cognition is increasingly popular in psychology, and the tools with which we attempt to understand it are increasingly sophisticated. Anyone who is interested in knowing how their mind works can benefit from this book.
It even works well for students who are not traditionally text-oriented or lecture-oriented learners. The many "demonstrations" (which I would call "exercises," but perhaps that word has a stigma attached) serve as opportunities to step away from the text and reinforce the concepts given. Perhaps a particular student will not remember what "prospective memory" is from reading the definition, but will remember that crazy exercise where they tried tying string around their finger to see if it helped them remember to take out the garbage. Often I found the demonstrations helped me to understand the results of a given experiment better - because now I had had a chance to be a participant and to see what they were trying to do.
Cognition is increasingly popular in psychology, and the tools with which we attempt to understand it are increasingly sophisticated. Anyone who is interested in knowing how their mind works can benefit from this book.
January 16, 2017
Veldig (VELDIG) grunnfag, men en fin plass å starte dersom du fortsatt tror bevissthet kommer fra en spesifikk hjerneregion.
February 25, 2022
This is a very practical, internally referenced text on the psychological topics of cognition. It pairs neuroscience, linguistics, and perception, masterfully, in plain language. If you are using this text for a class on the general cognitive processes associated with memory and perception, this is it. It is up to date (10th Ed.) with multiple references from the late 18th century and well into the 2010s.
The reasoning for a four star rating is embedded in the minor politically correct comments that are inherent to the book. The book also bears minor syntactic and punctuational errors. As another reviewer mentioned, the latter errors are quite noticeable in chapter 5. The former issue, political correctness, comes as the author tends to possess a left-leaning stance in their conveyance of particular phenomena that is not identity specific and is widely generalizable. For instance, gender biases and ethnic biases are conveyed as being centered on particular groups where the “advantageous identity” is implicitly identifiable.
Notwithstanding, I would recommend this reading as a brief introduction to the cognitive aspects of psychology.
The reasoning for a four star rating is embedded in the minor politically correct comments that are inherent to the book. The book also bears minor syntactic and punctuational errors. As another reviewer mentioned, the latter errors are quite noticeable in chapter 5. The former issue, political correctness, comes as the author tends to possess a left-leaning stance in their conveyance of particular phenomena that is not identity specific and is widely generalizable. For instance, gender biases and ethnic biases are conveyed as being centered on particular groups where the “advantageous identity” is implicitly identifiable.
Notwithstanding, I would recommend this reading as a brief introduction to the cognitive aspects of psychology.
September 1, 2020
A good introduction to Cognitive Psychology. Very easy to read, although repetitive at times. The repetition is good for reinforcing ideas, though. I read it a few months ago, and can't recall most of it. I guess my long term memory is not as good as my short term one.
June 15, 2018
This was one of the easiest to read textbooks I have ever read. It was enjoyable.
Read
February 12, 2021It's a college book
April 25, 2010
I finished reading all the assigned chapters earlier this week, though we still have an cumulative exam later this semester.
The layout of this book is easy to follow. I found it a little confusing when the 5 Themes were laid out and the common references to them, but they are important to remember, and helps tie topics together.
Matlin uses Demonstrations widely in her book, and they helped, when I did the few I did. We weren't required to do all, or our professor would have us try one in class, but for demonstrations we widely used the CogLab books we bought for the class. Her constant mention of recent or historical studies was also very useful and pertinent. I liked how she sorted out the end of the book into glossary, index, people index (not necessarily in this order). Yeah, having an index of people and researchers mentioned was really useful.
While I thought some issues she didn't talk about equally, overall this is one of the best textbooks I've had to use for my classes here.
The layout of this book is easy to follow. I found it a little confusing when the 5 Themes were laid out and the common references to them, but they are important to remember, and helps tie topics together.
Matlin uses Demonstrations widely in her book, and they helped, when I did the few I did. We weren't required to do all, or our professor would have us try one in class, but for demonstrations we widely used the CogLab books we bought for the class. Her constant mention of recent or historical studies was also very useful and pertinent. I liked how she sorted out the end of the book into glossary, index, people index (not necessarily in this order). Yeah, having an index of people and researchers mentioned was really useful.
While I thought some issues she didn't talk about equally, overall this is one of the best textbooks I've had to use for my classes here.
December 22, 2015
Although this textbook explained concepts well, it was extremely repetitive. Because almost every concept was repeated (but rephrased a bit differently each time), on average, three times in a section, it was torturous to read. I found it boring to read. I also found it ironic how it says that repetition isn't the best way to remember things, but half of the textbook's content are just repeated statements. Concepts were stated, rephrased, state research that supports it, and then restated again to portray exactly how the concept was supported by research. Finally, the concept is restated again in the section summary.
February 20, 2009
Really student friendly text. I wish that the development chapter had been more integrated into the other chapters rather than its own chapter. Also, the instructors resources are severely lacking!
January 5, 2012
$120+ for a book?!? SERIOUSLY?
PSYCH333 better be one damn amazing class!
PSYCH333 better be one damn amazing class!
February 23, 2012
This book is very well written for a textbook. It's a pretty interesting read, and the exercises help apply the information to real life as well as cement the information in your brain.
November 18, 2013
Great intro cognition text
October 8, 2014
Great book. Clear enough material that I got an A+ in the class.
Read
March 29, 2011I need it for my best research
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews