Grounding Cognition: The Role of Perception and Action in Memory, Language, and Thinking

Product Description

One of the key questions in cognitive psychology is how people represent knowledge about concepts such as football or love. Recently some researchers have proposed that concepts are represented in human memory by the sensorimotor systems that underlie interaction with the outside world. These theories represent a recent development in cognitive science to view cognition no longer in terms of abstract information processing, but in terms of perception and action. In other words, cognition is grounded in embodied experiences. Studies show that sensory perception and motor actions support understanding of words and object concepts. Moreover, even understanding of abstract and emotion concepts can be shown to rely on more concrete, embodied experiences. Finally, language itself can be shown to be grounded in sensorimotor processes. This book brings together theoretical arguments and empirical evidence from several key researchers in this field to support this framework.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #690528 in Books
* Published on: 2005-01-10
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 334 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
'... the chapters of this book provide convincing evidence that higher cognitive processes draw heavily upon perceptual and motor knowledge ... [it] allows readers to appreciate the diversity of ideas that fall under the embodied view of cognition ...' Applied Cognitive Psychology

Download Description
One of the key questions in cognitive psychology is how people represent knowledge about concepts such as football or love. Recently some researchers have proposed that concepts are represented in human memory by the sensorimotor systems that underlie interaction with the outside world. These theories represent a recent development in cognitive science to view cognition no longer in terms of abstract information processing, but in terms of perception and action. In other words, cognition is grounded in embodied experiences. Studies show that sensory perception and motor actions support understanding of words and object concepts. Moreover, even understanding of abstract and emotion concepts can be shown to rely on more concrete, embodied experiences. Finally, language itself can be shown to be grounded in sensorimotor processes. This book brings together theoretical arguments and empirical evidence from several key researchers in this field to support this framework.

About the Author
Diane Pecher is assistant professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands). She received a PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 1999. Her dissertation 'Dynamics of Semantic Memory' was supervised by Jeroen G. W. Raaijmakers. Her research is funded by a grant from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO).

Rolf A. Zwaan is Professor of Psychology at Florida State University. He received his PhD from Utrecht University, The Netherlands, in 1992 and is the author of over 60 scientific publications. His journal publications include articles in Psychological Science, Cognition, and Psychological Bulletin. His research is funded by grants from the National Institute of Health.

Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind by Ian Stewart

Product Description

Peppered with wit and controversial topics, this is a refreshing new look at the co-evolution of mind and culture. Bestselling authors Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen (The Collapse of Chaos, 1994) eloquently argue that our minds evolved within an inextricable link with culture and language. They go beyond conventional views of the function and purpose of the mind to look at the ways that the mind is the response of an evolving brain that is constantly adjusting to a complex environment. Along the way they develop new and intriguing insights into the nature of evolution, science, and humanity that will challenge conventional views on consciousness. The esteemed authors tantalize the reader with these bold new outlooks while putting a revolutionary spin on such classic philosophical problems as the nature of free will and the essence of humanity. This clearly written and enjoyable book will inspire any educated reader to critically evaluate the existing notions of the nature of the human mind.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #340646 in Books
* Published on: 1999-10-28
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 340 pages

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
In Figments of Reality, mathematician Ian Stewart and biologist Jack Cohen's thesis (or schtick) is that human minds are produced by complicity between human brains and culture. In their earlier book The Collapse of Chaos, Stewart and Cohen used the power of Humpty Dumpty to redefine complicity to mean properties that emerge from the mutual interaction of complex systems. "Our minds, our societies, our cultures, and our global multiculture, are all evolving within a reality that we mould in images of our own creation. We are a figment of reality--but reality is increasingly a figment of us."

Reality is not the only figment in the book. Stewart and Cohen use a group of eight "weird alien beings from the planet Zarathustra, resembling fluffy yellow ostriches but with much stranger habits" as a sounding board, as comedy relief, and as a philosophical-experimental playpen. To quote:

"Ringmaster: What is this?
Liar-to-children [=teacher]: A continuing educational narrative of some kind, Ringmaster. Based upon a revered/reviled (delete whichever is inapplicable) ancient text. [Watches the screen and interprets the tale that unfolds--a long and dramatic story of an exploding universe, elements born in stars, complex carbon-based molecular machines, a doubly-helical genetic molecule, the origins of life, evolution, sense organs, brains, minds, and intelligence.]
R: What a fascinating narrative.
LtC: And such a convincing story.
Destroyer-of-facts [=scientist]: Such vigor and power! Such unified scientific insight!
R: Not a word out of place, no loose ends--amazing!
ALL: [In unison] Must be wrong, then."

Read it and think, read it and giggle, read it and come back for more. At long last, a worthy successor to Gödel, Escher, Bach, updated, twisted, and put through a Monty Python filter.

From Library Journal
Mathematics and geometry professor Stewart, who writes the "mathematical recreations" column in Scientific American, and biologist Cohen are witty, erudite, clever, at times funny, and generally clearheaded in this rationalist's view of the universe and human evolution. Their thesis is that the human mind evolved in response to the complexity of the world and that language?and, indeed, culture?are inextricable parts of this process: there could be no mind without evolution but no evolution without mind. As is apparently mandatory in books on this subject, the authors include examples, anecdotes, and samples from literally every field of human and animal endeavor to illustrate, illuminate, and elucidate their thesis, making their case by seemingly having on hand millions of bits of information. A delightful but heavy read that is excellent for academic collections and general collections with a highly literate readership.?Mark L. Shelton, Univ. of Massachusetts Medical Ctr., Worcester
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"One of the most heartening and innovative books of the year...This kind of book explodes the notion of the imminent and final theory of everything; by the same token, it shows that the death of science has been greatly exaggerated." The Sunday Times of London

"[The authors] are witty, erudite, clever, and generally clear-headed in this rationalist's view of the universe and human evolution...delightful..." Library Journal

"It analyzes the evolution of mankind's consciousness from a new and intriguing perspective. It argues that the mind evolved in the context of culture and language, aiding survival in a complex and competitive world." Biology Digest

"The most thought-provoking book I've read all year." Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series

"A stimulating theory of how mind, consciousness, and culture have coevolved to create our species by two masters of informed, scientific speculation. Try it...you'll learn a lot. Who could ask for more?" John L. Casti, Santa Fe Institute and Technical University of Vienna, author of Would-Be Worlds

"Figments of Reality is highly recommended for college-level collections and any non-specialist general reader." Bookwatch

"A delightful read that is excellent for academic collections and general collections with a highly literate readership." Mark L. Shelton, Library Journal

"Stewart and Cohen show how intelligence and extelligence interact by way of language and how the end product formulates culture...the authors are quick-witted and provide a lively exposition." Science News

"While the subject matter is rather heady, the authors are quickwitted and provide a lively exposition." Science News Books

"It analyzes the evolution of mankind's consciousness from a new and intriguing perspective. It argues that the mind evolved in the context of culture and language, aiding survival in a complex and competitive world." Biology Digest
Customer Reviews

Evolution of mind and human culture4
While there is relatively little about the brain itself in this book, the authors do consider the importance of symmetries in neural processing. Thus, a discussion of the recognition of male and female faces takes advantage of an eigenvector (or eigenface) that embodies the difference between an average him and her. (Enthusiasts of the quantum mind approach to consciousness studies should note that such ideas are the coin of modern nonlinear science, and not at all dependent upon the extrapolation of quantum theory to the macroscopic world: a point that was clearly made by Niels Bohr back in 1933.)
Unfortunatly, there is no mention of recent research by Hermann Haken and his colleagues in connection with this work, although this sort of eigenvector analysis is closely related to ideas presented in his book Principles of Brain
Functioning (1996).

A short chapter on free will is interesting but ultimately somewhat disappointing because the authors seem to be sitting on both sides of the philosophical fence. Recognizing that the assumption of free will is necessary for the orderly functioning of any culture and scornful of the inflated claims of genetic determinists, they note that theoretical reasons can be imagined for anything that occurs. To me, at least, this is as true as it is unconvincing. It is always possible to cobble together some sort of explanation of whatever transpires after the fact. Does this imply that the future is determined by the present? What might such an assertion mean? This chapter ends with the statement: ``Therefore free will is not just an illusion: it is a figment rendered real by the evolutionary complicity of mind and culture'' (p.241). Maybe I am dense, but this doesn't mean much to me. Perhaps the authors would have been wiser to omit this chapter, admitting that they do not know what free will is.
Two final chapters deal with some of the details of our many interactions with the surrounding culture, noting that a very large amount of knowledge is presently available to us all through libraries, schools, theater, television, and more recently the World Wide Web. The first of these chapters, entitled Extelligence, considers in some detail the ever increasing pool of information in which we are embedded in by our technological culture. The authors consider their notion of extelligence to be somewhat different from (say) Karl Popper's World 3, because it involves complicit interactions with individuals in a culture. This is, in my view, such an extremely important aspect of the overall subject of consciousness studies, that it deserves a book of its own. Perhaps the authors will team up with an informed and imaginative ethnologist in the not too distant future and work on such a project. The last chapter - entitled ``Simplex, Complex, Multiplex'' - describes the relationships between the organization of biological cells and human social systems. From this perspective, the village is analogous to a bacterium, whereas a town is compared to an eukaryote, and a city to a multi-celled organism. The chapter title alludes to increasingly sophisticated ways that individuals have of perceiving the intricacy of their social environments in a human culture.

Alwyn Scott
http://personal.riverusers.com/~rover/

Life, consciousness, mind, and reality explained5
How does life arise from inanimate matter? How does consciousness arise from life? Is consciousness of the universe an illusion? Or is mind itself an illusion?

The British authors of this book are a mathematician and biologist pair who boldly tackle these classic questions in philosophy with some original approaches. Maintaining that life, consciousness, and culture cannot understood by reducing them to the material elements from which they arise, the authors deftly develop a set of interesting concepts. Some of these are not especially original, but they are presented in an unusual light particularly as the authors ably illustrate them with very accessible descriptions of complex biochemical pathways of living matter.

A key concept is that of emergence - well established in philosophy and roughly equated to the popular idea of the whole being more than the sum of its parts. The authors couple this concept with one of their own - complicity, or the interaction of different things which lead them to become entirely new things. A third, among several others, is that of extelligence which arises from the interaction of the intellegences of individuals and is rooted in human culture. Using these and other concepts, the book, which is at the nexus of science and philosophy, seeks to explain how life, consciousness, culture, and reality arise and the relationship between them.

Be prepared to wade through these pages slowly to enjoy the masterful exposition of this book. Or, if you find this tedious, enjoy the elegant prose which uses the lens of science and philosophy to describe events which we might normally frame in different language. In the four-page prologue, a graphic sequence of events unfolds which chart the creation of the universe to the emergence of the symbolic literary creatures which constitute the human species: QUOTE Fifteen thousand million years ago the universe was no bigger than the dot at the end of this sentence......today, the two descendants of those tiny creatures are busy delineating their own limited version of the entire story in strange, angular geometric symbols impressed in contrasting pigment upon sheets of impressed white vegetable matter. UNQUOTE

Having long forgotten more than half the courses I took in college, this book allowed me to relive and reinforce the pleasures of two wonderful philosophy seminars - on theories of mind and philosophy of science. Expect, if you get through the book cover to cover, to see the world a little differently from when you start at the prologue.

Gets one thinking along new channels.5
Okay, okay, I admit it; I should never argue with Steven Haines about a book. I had first discovered the title Figments of Reality while reading another author. When I finally got the book, though, I discovered that I really couldn't get into it, but Steven Haines' review was so enthusiastic

The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness (Penguin Psychology) by R. D. Laing

Product Description

This work is available on its own or as part of the 7 volume set Selected Works of R. D. Laing
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #231223 in Books
* Published on: 1965-08-30
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 224 pages

Customer Reviews

ontological roots of schizophrenia4
This is an interesting book on how schizophrenia is more of an 'existential' problem than an illness. I think it has some real practical applications for those who work with this population. I wouldn't, however, throw out the more clinical way of viewing psychosis.

R. D. Laing is good 4
In particular, I endorse the back cover of another of his books, where it says that schizophrenics constantly try to escape because they perceive it is impossible to fulfill their needs. He stated it in a better way, of course; this is just how I remember it.

respect5
i just think that this book should be one that everyone reads at some point in their lives (sooner rather than later!). it really gives you something special, something i have very rarely experienced in a book. open the book and open your mind!

25 Days to Better Thinking and Better Living: A Guide for Improving Every Aspect of Your Life by Linda Elder

Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #569429 in Books
Published on: 2006-04-01
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
128 pages
Editorial Reviews

Review

Elder and Paul, both specialists in the area of critical thinking, present a 25-step plan for overcoming bad thinking habits and, in turn, improving one’s quality of life. Starting with the premise that faulty reasoning is at the heart of most problems, the authors provide daily exercises that focus on a particular habit. For instance, on day three (integrity), readers are asked to notice contradictions in their behavior and reduce hypocrisy. Strategies for achieving results are given every step of the way; readers are encouraged to keep a journal of daily progress. In its brevity and usefulness to all sectors of the population, this book is recommended for all public libraries.


(Library Journal, 5/1/2006)

From the Back Cover

You are what you think! Take control of your thinking...and start living life to the fullest! In just 25 days, you can discover how to cut through lies, gain insight, and make smarter choices in every area of your life—from work and money to your intimate relationships. Discover how to overcome bad thinking habits caused by self-delusion or out-of-control emotions...clarify what you really want...recognize what you don’t know. Ask the right questions...resist brainwashing, manipulation, and hypocrisy...Avoid worrying, conformism, and blame!
25 powerful ways to improve your thinking—and make smarter, better decisions.
Stop deceiving yourself: Overcome built-in self-delusion, wishful thinking, and worrying.
Use better thinking to make better decisions at work, at home, and throughout your life.
Critically evaluate what you’re told by advertisers, politicians, your boss...even your family!
Quick, practical, easy to use! Includes daily/weekly action plans, progress notes, and more.

About the Author

Dr. Linda Elder is President of the Foundation for Critical Thinking and Executive Director of the Center for Critical Thinking, a leading international institute that promotes critical thinking in every domain of human life. An educational psychologist, she has developed an original stage theory of critical thinking development and coauthors a column on critical thinking for The Journal of Developmental Education. She is highly published and has done original research into the relation of thought and emotion and into the stages of critical thinking development. She is a regular keynoter at the International Conference on Critical Thinking, is highly sought after as a presenter, and is a recognized leader in critical thinking.

Dr. Richard Paul is Director of Research and Professional Development at the Center for Critical Thinking and Chair of the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking. He is an internationally recognized authority on critical thinking, with nine books and more than 200 articles on the subject. His views on critical thinking have been canvassed in the New York Times, Education Week, The Chronicle of Higher Education, American Teacher, Reader’s Digest, Educational Leadership, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report.

The works of Linda Elder and Richard Paul have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese. Translations are underway in Russian, Malay, and Korean. The growing demand for translations into increasing numbers of languages testifies to the emerging international recognition of the importance of critical thinking in human life and work and of the authoritative nature of the contribution of Paul and Elder in the field.

The Foundation for Critical Thinking seeks to promote essential change in society through the cultivation of fair-minded critical thinking, thinking predisposed toward intellectual empathy, humility, perseverance, integrity, and responsibility. In a world of accelerating change, intensifying complexity, and increasing interdependence, critical thinking is now a requirement for economic and social survival. Contact the Foundation for Critical Thinking at www.criticalthinking.org.
Customer Reviews

Great guide. Highly recommended.
The book is organized into 25 daily readings, and postulates that by focusing our attention on certain ways of thinking, we can become a more critical thinker, which in turn helps us "observe, monitor, analyze, assess, and reconstruct" our thinking, which can help us live better lives.

After reading this book for the prescribed 25 days, I have to agree that my thinking did improve and my life was made richer by focusing my attention on the daily thinking goals. For example, Day 9 has you thinking through implications; on Day 14 you are to stop thinking like a conformist; and on Day 21 you are to strive to be a citizen of the world.

Once you read through the book, the authors suggest turning this 25 day plan into a 25 week plan whereby you'd focus on each single day's thinking suggestion for an entire week. I will definitely read this book again and again.

Political Correctness Disguised as Critical Thinking
This book does provoke thought which is what it was meant to do, but it doesn't examine itself critically. From the book, "Needless to say, food manufacturers and the sugar industry have a vested interest in avoiding the obesity issue, since they are the primary contributors to it." While the first half of this statement is true, saying that these industries "... are the primary contributors to it [obesity]." is uncritical to say the least. Maybe the prime contributors are the people themselves and their poor eating habits. The book exhorts people not to be victims, but paints them here as victims of the cunning sugar industry.

The section "Be a Citizen of the World" only makes things worse. "Take one world problem - for instance, global warming, malnutrition, disease, overpopulation - and find out as much as you can from multiple international sources. Then compare what your nation is doing about the problem. Are you surprised by what you find?" Maybe they should have the reader consider the problems themselves? Are there others who disagree that the problem exists (global warming), what are some of the contributing factor of these problems (Banning DDT to control mosquitoes that carry malaria), and are there agendas behind these "problems" ("The Population Bomb" was released in 1968 why is overpopulation being rehashed).

Mental Health
I was looking for an excercise book for mental health to keep from becoming distorted and this fit the bill perfectly. It is rewarding to practice the lessons both to yourself and others around you.

Speed Reading

Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #306098 in Books
Published on: 1991-01-30
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
192 pages
Customer Reviews

Get an audio program in addition to this book
Like in all of his books, Tony Buzan reiterates his favorite assertions on mind mapping and mental abilities of a human.

This book consists of history and the new developments of speed reading, self tests and exercises, mixed with short essays on physiologic aspects of reading, like left and right cortical research, the number of brain cells and their interconnections, the anatomy of eyes (including the cross-section), control of eye movements t to increase the speed and comprehension of reading (with diagrams of eyes' progression while reading).

The author addressed the common reading problems: subvocalization, finger-pointing, regression and back-skipping, and presents the new approaches to overcoming them. He gives practical advises on improving your concentration and increasing your comprehension. Much attention is given to developing advanced skimming and scanning techniques, range reading skills, metronome training.

The book finishes with tips on getting control of different kinds of text: the newspapers, literature and poetry.

In addition to this book, I can recommend exercising with a speed reading audio program, that should be listened while reading. I can suggest "The Speed Reading 16-Minute Audio Program" which I have personally used.

speed reading
Good content...but today's teens will not sit down and use this book.It is very technical.

I might be out of step here, but I liked it.
I have several of Tony Buzan's books, and I appreciate his work very much. Although I don't believe that he is the only word in mind improvement, he has been extremely helpful to me.

And this book was no exception. He covers what I feel to be important parts of reading speed improvement -- using the hand to guide, the different guiding movements, improving eye span (among other things). He also touches on the importance of building up vocabulary, and of course, Tony Buzan would not be Tony Buzan if he didn't mention something about Mind Mapping -- another tool of his that has helped me greatly.

You'll have to put in some dedicated, sustained effort into the exercises in this book. They are understandable, but improving reading speed is always a challenge. I've improved my reading speed through this book, and I want to take the book again and work with it to keep the skill up.

I can't answer for those who say that the book did them no good. Perhaps it didn't. But it did do me good. And I'm glad I bought it.

Body Language by Julius Fast

Product Description

This classic book introduces kinetics, the science of non-verbal communication, which is used to analyze the common gestures we use and observe every day, gestures which reveal our deepest feelings and hidden thoughts to total strangers--if they know how to read them.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #287235 in Books
* Published on: 2002-05-25
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 192 pages

Customer Reviews

How to make a million bucks5
Written in 1970, it's a foundational book in the subject of body language. It's also a great case study on how to make a million dollars from an instructional book without having to do any research.

Fast has a pattern with every chapter. He starts with amusing anecdote, then quotes a book of research that someone else has done, and then dedicates that chapter to the book of research.

It answers questions like, "Why don't we talk to each other in elevators?" And many more.

One of the things I wanted to figure out by reading this book is if it was better than one of my favorite books, "Emotions Revealed" by Daniel Goleman, about facial movements being indicators of emotions. I was disappointed, kind of, that I couldn't answer this question, because one of the chapters is based on the early research of Golemen and how he had just started to test his theories with Australian aborigines.

I really liked chapter 9, the chapter on eye contact. I think everyone should at least read that chapter. Here's an excerpt:

"In the subway or bus where long rides in very close circumstances are a necessity, we may be hard put to find some way of not staring. We sneak glances, but look away before our eyes can lock. Or we look with an unfocused mouth, the body--for any place but the eyes is an acceptable looking spot for the unfocused glance."

"If our eyes do meet we can sometimes mitigate the message with a brief smile. The smile must not be too long or too obvious. It must say, "I am sorry we have looked, but we both know it was an accident."

Good for Young People4
I was required to read this book at 13 for a drama course. It is a good introduction to something I was not aware of conciously. For someone who was an aspiring actor, it helped greatly to help me put "more" into my performance. Additionally, it helped relieved some of the anxiety with dealling with the opposite sex. I then had a mean's to look at them and get a better idea as to whether they liked me and what body signals to send back so I didn't inadvertantly give the wrong message.

Many have complained in other reviews that this book is not effective, however, they are looking for something written for an experienced adult. This book is a good introduction for a younger person, written in very simple language.

Useful, but very subjective4
OK, I know some people think they can read your intentions through body language. In some cases, I'm sure it can be done, but it is by NO MEANS reliable. People are just too different. To its credit, the author does mention this a few times. But then the author launches right back into the stereotyping, with an authoritative narrative that seems to scream universal authenticity, which is misleading.

A broad application of the principles stated seems acceptable, but rarely to the extent that people can be "read like an open book." If you tried it, you would simply be falling prey to the old adage "judging a book by its cover."

I found myself saying "Uh, no, that is not why I do that..." many times while reading through the examples in this book. However, as a fiction writer, I did find the desciptive elements very useful, and have used many of them to good effect in my novels. So, while you have to take the "stereotyping" in this book with a grain of salt, it can be put to use.

Behavior Analysis and Learning by W. David Pierce

Product Description

Behavior Analysis and Learning is an essential textbook covering the basic principles in the field of behavior analysis and learned behaviors. Both active researchers, the authors are disciples of a coherent theory--experimental analysis of behavior--pioneered by B.F. Skinner. Using this theory as a base to explain human behavior, researchers must understand the interactions between an individual and his or her environment.

Expanding on concepts of the past editions, this book:
*is an advanced introductory text on operant conditioning from a very consistent Skinnerian perspective;
*covers a range of principles from basic respondent conditioning through applied behavior analysis into cultural design;
*treats the topic from a consistent world view of selectionism;
*elaborates on Darwinian components and biological connections with behavior; and
*expands most chapters with revised references and additional citations.

The material presented inthis book provides the reader with the best available foundation in behavior science. The discovery of functional relations between the organism and the environment constitute the objective foundation for this book. These functional relationships are described, and their application in accounting for old behavior and generating new behavior is illustrated. As such, this book is a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in psychology or other behavior-based disciplines.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #576352 in Books
Published on: 2003-08-01
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
528 pages
Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover
This introduction focuses on basic research findings and illustrates behavior principles with everyday human examples. The Second Edition has retained the positive features of the first edition, while adding new aspects as suggested by reviewers, instructors and students. It now contains a more thorough treatment of the principles and processes of respondent conditioning, dividing its coverage into two chapters—one devoted to reflexes and simple conditioning and the other focused on compound conditioning and complex respondent processes.
Customer Reviews

Excellent Resource
The 3rd edition of this text was extremely helpful for me in my behavior analysis course. Word definitions were listed in the back for easy access, if they weren't defined in the text itself. Examples given were very helpful in understanding concepts and a lot of diagrams were given to help those of us who understand better via visual learning. Reviews at the end of each chapter included study questions which were very helpful. It was an interesting read, at least for someone already interested in the topic.

Terrible!
This text is simply awful. It's badly written, sports terrible examples, gives outright incorrect information at times, and includes a full glossary of completely useless definitions. Half of said definitions don't even qualify as valid members of that category - the entries drone on about related concepts and examples without ever defining the word. Even when things are actually defined, they're often defined very very badly or just wrong. There's typos everywhere and even simple math errors. Please don't waste your money and PLEASE don't use this text for any valid course on Behavior Analysis. You'll loose credibility immediately, not least with your students.

Quantum Consciousness: The Guide to Experiencing Quantum Psychology by Stephen Wolinsky

Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #119121 in Books
Published on: 1993-09
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
266 pages
Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher
This book is a major contribution which could reinvigorate the entire field of psychology
Customer Reviews

As one unfamiliar with quantum concepts
I was not familiar with the concept of quantum physics or the theory of quantum consciousness. Although I may not subscribe to all the beliefs I was able to understand the concept behind quantum consciousness. This book is written in a very neutral non-threatening manner so that even those of us with religious beliefs do not feel offended or assaulted. It is informative without being pushy.

Is this a joke?
I honestly hope the other reviewers really did become as fulfilled from reading this as they say. I was given it because I have a background in Physics and an interest in psychology and religions. Unlike most information in these areas, this book offers no substantiation for anything. It's a little bit watching a cartoon. It's somewhat entertaining for about five minutes, but you know it's not real. Most people will find it really hard to take the book seriously when there's no evidence for anything the author says.

Exceptional Book
This book has certainly changed my life. This is one of those books the reader must want to experience because it can be read at many different levels. Like learning anything one starts with simple steps then in time what seemed simple takes on deeper meaning. Wolinsky's writing style is exceptionally clear and lucid. Over and over I have found myself going back to read the same passages only to find out with each reading I learned even more. Remarkable book. Pretty amazing book might be better.