Harold Pashler – Encyclopedia of the Mind

Автор: Harold Pashler
Название книги: Encyclopedia of the Mind
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Психология
Страницы: 897
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

It's hard to conceive of a topic of more broad and personal interest than the study of the mind. In addition to its traditional investigation by the disciplines of psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience, the mind has also been a focus of study in the fields of philosophy, economics, anthropology, linguistics, computer science, molecular biology, education, and literature. In all these approaches, there is an almost universal fascination with how the mind works and how it affects our lives and our behavior. Studies of the mind and brain have crossed many exciting thresholds in recent years, and the study of mind now represents a thoroughly cross-disciplinary effort. Researchers from a wide range of disciplines seek answers to such questions as: What is mind? How does it operate? What is consciousness?

This encyclopedia brings together scholars from the entire range of mind-related academic disciplines from across the arts and humanities, social sciences, life sciences, and computer science and engineering to explore the multidimensional nature of the human mind.

The study of the mind, at least in the West, was
begun by philosophers several thousand years ago
and to this day continues to be a major focus of
work in philosophy. Over the past several centuries,
however, this study has come to occupy an
increasing amount of human intellectual activity
in many disciplines and to attract increasing public
attention. In the 19th century, the discipline of
experimental psychology emerged in Germany
with an initial focus on memory. In the 20th century,
the study of mind became one of the most
important (and, in some circles, fashionable) intellectual
pursuits of the era as ambitious (some
would say, overweening) movements stepped forward
with claims of understanding the fundamental
nature of the human psyche: psychoanalysis
(which emerged from psychiatry) and behaviorism
(which emerged from academic experimental
psychology).
Near the end of the 20th century, psychologists’
theoretical ambitions retreated as the field became
devoted to more highly focused empirical and analytical
research. New ventures addressing the nature
of thought (cognitive science) and the links between
the mind and the brain (cognitive neuroscience)
gathered force, propelled by the emergence of computing
technologies as well as by new methods for
investigating brain activity. As we enter the 21st century,
interest in mental life continues to grow across
many disciplines, with computational approaches
attracting ever greater interest, powered by the successes
of contemporary computer scientists in producing
striking feats of intelligence (or at least the
appearance of intelligence) through reliance upon
large-scale statistical computation.
Scope
The Encyclopedia of the Mind is unique in its
breadth and scope, providing brief but authoritative
Introduction
entries on topics ranging across the entire landscape
just described. The encyclopedia covers topics and
perspectives from all the major contemporary disciplines
concerned with the study of the mind. Not
surprisingly, psychology—often defined as the study
of the mind and behavior—looms large here. The
coverage of psychology in the encyclopedia includes
not only cognitive psychology but also other major
areas such as social psychology, developmental psychology,
cognitive neuropsychology (the study of
how brain damage affects cognitive processes), and
the psychology of perception. The psychology of
language (including psycholinguistics) and the field
of linguistics, insofar as it bears on the mind generally,
are also well represented. Philosophy continues
to play a pivotal role in this encyclopedia, reflecting
the fascinating and often provocative scholarship
taking place in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics,
with entries on topics such as the mind-body
problem, personal identity, and the relationship
between human action and underlying physical
states.
A unique feature of the encyclopedia is its coverage
of computational perspectives on the mind.
Beginning in the 1960s, it became clear that a full
understanding of mental life would need to include
a mechanistic understanding of the kinds of information
processing operations that allow intelligent
behavior to emerge. The field of artificial intelligence
thus bloomed, focused on building artificial minds.
In its initial efforts, artificial intelligence focused
on high-level symbolic processing approaches.
However, in the past 10 years or so, much activity
in this area shifted to the banner of “machine learning,”
a discipline with strong connections to statistics.
Computational approaches are well covered in
the Encyclopedia of the Mind.
The editors of the encyclopedia decided at the
outset that, although the volumes would cover the
brain bases of mental activity to the extent that this
work sheds light on the mind, the Encyclopedia of
the Mind would not aspire to be a reference work on
the biology of the brain per se.
Organization
The Encyclopedia of the Mind contains 293 entries
that fall under the following broad topics: Action
and Motor Control, Attention, Concepts and
Categories, Consciousness, Decision Making,
Disorders and Pathology, Emotion, Epistemology,
Genetics, Groups, Intelligence, Language and
Communication, Learn ing, Memory, Metaphysics,
Methodology, Mind/Body Problem, Morality/Ethics,
Perception, Person ality, The Social Mind, and
Thinking and Reasoning.
Under each of these broad topics, there are a
number of general approaches that recur, including
Computational Perspectives, Cultural Perspectives,
Development, Evolutionary Perspectives, Neural
Basis, Philosophical Perspectives, Practical
Applications, and Psychological Research.
This structure—broad topics with cross-cutting
research approaches—is reflected in the Reader’s
Guide, which provides a convenient way for readers
to find entries on a particular topic. Reflecting the
interdisciplinary nature of the encyclopedia, many
entries discuss more than one topic or discuss topics
from more than one perspective. In addition, each
entry is followed by cross-references to other entries
in the encyclopedia.
How the Encyclopedia Was Created
The preparation of this encyclopedia (which began in
2007) has been a long process involving a great deal
of work by many people. There were five basic steps
to its creation:
Step 1. In consultation with SAGE, the editorin-
chief appointed four highly distinguished scholars
to the editorial board. The board consisted of
professors Fernanda Ferreira (University of
Edinburgh), an internationally recognized expert
in the psychology of language and linguistics;
Richard Zemel (University of Toronto Department
of Computer Science), an expert in artificial intelligence
and machine learning; Marcel Kinsbourne
(New School for Social Research), a worldrenowned
neurologist and neuropsychologist; and
Tim Crane (University of Cambridge), one of the
most distinguished contemporary philosophers of
mind.
Step 2. The editor-in-chief, together with the
editorial board, met and decided upon the basic
structure for the encyclopedia, as discussed above
and as reflected in the Reader’s Guide.
Step 3. Working together, the editorial team
identified potential contributors to write entries
and explored the availability of these contributors.
Many of the suggestions for contributors came
from the editorial board, but others emerged from
a literature review conducted by the editor-in-chief
in consultation with colleagues around the globe.
The focus was on identifying potential authors
with a broad command of the subject matter and
its context. The entry authors include many upand-
coming junior scholars (typically assistant
professors or equivalent) but also many highly
respected senior figures.
Step 4. When the first draft of each entry
arrived, it was reviewed and suggestions for revisions
were made. The typical entry was revised and
then accepted. Associate Editor Emily Goldknopf,
PhD, was crucially involved in this editorial review,
under the guidance of the editor-in-chief.
Step 5. In the final step of the process, the encyclopedia
underwent further editorial review and
copy editing by SAGE Publications, and additional
rounds of review by the editors and SAGE proofreaders
prior to publication.
Intended Audience
Our goal in commissioning and editing articles for
this work was to emphasize accessibility for an educated
readership. Authors were instructed to make
their work understandable to college and university
students in cognitive science and related fields such as
philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, and mathematical
formulas were kept to a minimum.
Acknowledgments
A number of individuals played key roles in the creation
of the Encyclopedia of the Mind. Jim Brace-
Thompson of SAGE Publications helped formulate
the concept of the encyclopedia in early discussions
with the editor-in-chief. Diana Axelsen of SAGE was
the lead developmental editor for the great majority
of the development process. She provided advice and
encouragement at all stages along the way. Also at
SAGE, Jane Haenel played an important role as production
editor.
Working closely with the editor-in-chief at the
University of California, San Diego, Editorial
Assistant Ruth Hsiao (currently a medical student at
the University of Illinois) was responsible for communicating
with authors and keeping the entire process
running smoothly.
In the editorial review process, Associate Editor
Emmy Goldknopf played a key role in reviewing
and editing articles. The quality of the encyclopedia
owes a great deal to Dr. Goldknopf’s broad knowledge
of cognitive science as well as her editorial skills
and persistence.
Bringing an encyclopedia of this scope to completion
has been a challenge for all of us, but it is hoped
that the results will prove useful and illuminating to
a wide variety of students of the mind.
Hal Pashler