Book picks similar to
The Cognitive Neuroscience of Consciousness by Stanislas DehaenePhilip M. Merikle
neuroscience
science
psychology
philosophy
Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose
Deirdre Barrett - 2010
Our instincts—for food, sex, or territorial protection— evolved for life on the savannahs 10,000 years ago, not in today’s world of densely populated cities, technological innovations, and pollution. We now have access to a glut of larger-than-life objects, from candy to pornography to atomic weapons—that gratify these gut instincts with often-dangerous results. Animal biologists coined the term “supernormal stimuli” to describe imitations that appeal to primitive instincts and exert a stronger pull than real things, such as soccer balls that geese prefer over eggs. Evolutionary psychologist Deirdre Barrett applies this concept to the alarming disconnect between human instinct and our created environment, demonstrating how supernormal stimuli are a major cause of today’s most pressing problems, including obesity and war. However, Barrett does more than show how unfettered instincts fuel dangerous excesses. She also reminds us that by exercising self-control we can rein them in, potentially saving ourselves and civilization. 55 illustrations.
Mental Combat: The Sports Psychology Secrets You Can Use to Dominate Any Event!
Phil Pierce - 2015
The problem is that many of these techniques are kept secret and other guides are heavy and full of jargon. So how can you use the simple power of Sports Psychology techniques to revolutionize your performance today? Clearly you need more than just a system, you need the right kind of system. Not just the science behind mental strength but a super-simple, step-by-step guide to unlocking the power of your brain. As a bestselling author, martial arts and fitness coach, I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the best experts around the world. With input from top instructors and researchers I discovered easy tactics that can be effortlessly used by everyone. From fitness fans, runners and gym athletes to combat styles like boxing, MMA, and martial arts. Even the busy office worker can dominate any competitive or stressful event in minutes! This is “Mental Combat”... and once applied to your training it quickly revolutionizes performance – every time! What Is Mental Combat? Mental Combat is a simple, easy set of tactics for unlocking the full power of your brain and body. Moreover, it gives you the proven scientific benefits of Sports Psychology without needing to understand the complex history and theories. Whilst traditional guides can be heavy and difficult to follow, Mental Combat is a simple, tactical approach. Perfect for martial artists, fitness fans, gym enthusiasts and even the busy office worker! Stressful, nerve-wracking events become a walk in the park when transformed using the right techniques. A busy and cluttered mind becomes laser focused. Would you like to know the quickest and easiest way to experience the incredible benefits of mental training? The Easy New Way To Get Started with Mental Training Inside “Mental Combat” you’ll discover… How to “psych-out” an opponent. “Mind Hacks” for instant, rock-solid confidence and cool. Powerful motivation and concentration skills. Revealed: the body position to banish nerves quickly and easily. The truth behind meditation. (and why it’s easier than you think). How to unlock the power of your brain for any event. The secret to managing victory, like a pro. The secret to handling defeat… and coming back stronger. How you can use Sports Psychology tactics even if you don’t do sports! And much more! Want To See For Yourself How Mental Combat Can Transform Your Performance? Click and grab your copy of Mental Combat now to see you’ve been missing! To say thanks for checking out this book you can claim your free guide: “3 Steps to Explosive Power” FREE from my website. Just visit: www.BlackBeltFit.
An Introduction to Theories of Learning
Matthew H. Olson - 1982
Accessible for undergraduates yet thorough enough for graduate students, this comprehensive text defines learning and shows how the learning process is studied. The text places learning in its historical perspective, giving students an appreciation for the figures and theories that have shaped 100 years of learning theory research.
Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology
James D. Mauseth - 1991
The Topics And Chapters Are Organized In A Sequence That Is Easy To Follow, Beginning With The Most Familiar -- Structure -- And Proceeding To The Less Familiar -- Metabolism -- Then Finishing With Those Topics That Are Probably The Least Familiar To Most Beginning Students -- Genetics, Evolution, The Diversity Of Organisms, And Ecology.
The Atoms Of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules Of Grammar
Mark C. Baker - 2001
This problem has deep philosophical implications: If languages are all the same, it implies a fundamental commonality--and thus mutual intelligibility--of human thought.We are now on the verge of solving this problem. Using a twenty-year-old theory proposed by the world's greatest living linguist, Noam Chomsky, researchers have found that the similarities among languages are more profound than the differences. Languages whose grammars seem completely incompatible may in fact be structurally almost identical, except for a difference in one simple rule. The discovery of these rules and how they may vary promises to yield a linguistic equivalent of the Periodic Table of the Elements: a single framework by which we can understand the fundamental structure of all human language. This is a landmark breakthrough both within linguistics, which will herewith finally become a full-fledged science, and in our understanding of the human mind.
The Best American Science Writing 2000
James Gleick - 2000
The first volume in this annual series of the best writing by Americans, meticulously selected by bestselling author James Gleick, one of the foremost chronicles of scientific social history, debuts with a stellar collection of writers and thinkers. Many of these cutting-edge essays offer glimpses of new realms of discovery and thought, exploring territory that is unfamiliar to most of us, or finding the unexpected in the midst of the familiar. Nobel Laureate physicist Steven Weinberg challenges the idea of whether the universe has a designer; Pulitzer Prize winner Natalie Angier reassesses caveman (and-woman) couture; bestselling author and Darwinian theorist Stephen Jay Gould makes a claim for the man whose ideas Darwin discredited; Timothy Ferris proposes a realistic alternative to wrap-speed interseller travel; neurologist and bestselling author Oliver Sacks reminisces about his first loves-chemistry and math. This diverse, stimulating and accessible collection is required reading for anyone who wants to travel to the frontier of knowledge.
Advice for a Young Investigator
Santiago Ramón y Cajal - 1897
Hailed as the father of modern anatomy and neurobiology, he was largely responsible for the modern conception of the brain. His groundbreaking works were New Ideas on the Structure of the Nervous System and Histology of the Nervous System in Man and Vertebrates. In addition to leaving a legacy of unparalleled scientific research, Cajal sought to educate the novice scientist about how science was done and how he thought it should be done. This recently rediscovered classic, first published in 1897, is an anecdotal guide for the perplexed new investigator as well as a refreshing resource for the old pro.Cajal was a pragmatist, aware of the pitfalls of being too idealistic--and he had a sense of humor, particularly evident in his diagnoses of various stereotypes of eccentric scientists. The book covers everything from valuable personality traits for an investigator to social factors conducive to scientific work.
Phenomenology of Perception
Maurice Merleau-Ponty - 1945
What makes this work so important is that it returned the body to the forefront of philosophy for the first time since Plato.
Biological Psychology: An Introduction to Behavioral, Cognitive, and Clinical Neuroscience
S. Marc Breedlove - 2010
It encompasses lucid descriptions of behaviour, evolutionary history, development, proximate mechanisms and applications.
Mind, Life, and Universe: Conversations with Great Scientists of Our Time
Lynn Margulis - 2007
Co-editor Eduardo Punset--one of Spain's most loved personages for his popularization of the sciences--interviews an impressive collection of characters drawing out the seldom seen personalities of the world's most important men and woman of science. In Mind, Life and Universe they describe in their own words the most important and fascinating aspects of their research. Frank and often irreverent, these interviews will keep even the most casual reader of science books rapt for hours.Can brain science explain feelings of happiness and despair? Is it true that chimpanzees are just like us when it comes to sexual innuendo? Is there any hard evidence that life exists anywhere other than on the Earth? Through Punset's skillful questioning, readers will meet one scientist who is passionate about the genetic control of everything and another who spends her every waking hour making sure African ecosystems stay intact. The men and women assembled here by Lynn Margulis and Eduardo Punset will provide a source of endless interest.In captivating conversations with such science luminaries as Jane Goodall, James E. Lovelock, Oliver Sachs, and E. O. Wilson, Punset reveals a hidden world of intellectual interests, verve, and humor. Science enthusiasts and general readers alike will devour Mind, Life and Universe, breathless and enchanted by its truths.
Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion: An Anthropological Study of the Supernatural
Pamela A. Moro - 1985
The engaging articles on all key issues related to the anthropology of religion grab the attention of students, while giving them an excellent foundation in contemporary ideas and approaches in the field. The multiple authors included in each chapter represent a range of interests, geographic foci, and ways of looking at each subject. Divided into ten chapters, this book begins with a broad view of anthropological ways of looking at religion, and moves on to some of the core topics within the subject, such as myth, ritual, and the various types of religious specialists.
Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology
Valentino Braitenberg - 1984
They are vehicles, a series of hypothetical, self-operating machines that exhibit increasingly intricate if not always successful or civilized behavior. Each of the vehicles in the series incorporates the essential features of all the earlier models and along the way they come to embody aggression, love, logic, manifestations of foresight, concept formation, creative thinking, personality, and free will. In a section of extensive biological notes, Braitenberg locates many elements of his fantasy in current brain research.
Social Psychology
Michael A. Hogg - 1997
This is the ideal textbook for those studying social psychology and includes a range of features to aid independent study such as theory and concept boxes, research highlights and real world applications. Plus, the new user-friendly website features an interative recap and reminder of the main text, self test materials, and podcasts from different researchers for students to consolidate and test their understanding.
Practical Wisdom: The Right Way To Do the Right Thing
Barry Schwartz - 2010
It's in our nature to want to succeed. It's also human nature to want to do right. But we've lost how to balance the two. How do we get it back? Practical Wisdom can help. "Practical wisdom" is the essential human quality that combines the fruits of our individual experiences with our empathy and intellect-an aim that Aristotle identified millennia ago. It's learning "the right way to do the right thing in a particular circumstance, with a particular person, at a particular time." But we have forgotten how to do this. In Practical Wisdom, Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe illuminate how to get back in touch with our wisdom: how to identify it, cultivate it, and enact it, and how to make ourselves healthier, wealthier, and wiser.
Thought-Forms
Annie Besant - 1905
A study on the nature and power of thoughts this is the most well-known book of the prominent Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator.