The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (MITECS)

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The state-of-the-art knowledge about knowledge is contained within the MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences. Its 471 comprehensive entries cover topics as diverse as "Hemispheric Specialization," "Epiphenomenalism," and "Algorithms" in 1,000 to 1,500 words each, thoroughly cross-indexed and extensively referenced to launch further research. A few biographical entries are also included, highlighting such giants as Alan Turing and Santiago Ramón y Cajal. The editors selected their contributors well, assigning "Neurobiology of Consciousness" to Christof Koch and Francis Crick, for example. Even better, six longer essays introduce the Encyclopedia, each providing an overview of one of the six disciplines that overlap to form cognitive science: computational intelligence; culture, cognition, and evolution; linguistics and language; neurosciences; philosophy; and psychology. These are enormously helpful to the researcher, as they are general enough to allow easy entry but still meaty enough to be useful themselves and as pointers to specific entries. The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences, while not a casual entry into the field, is an essential addition to the reference shelf for anyone seriously interested in AI, consciousness, or other aspects of natural and artificial brains. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

Since the 1970s the cognitive sciences have offered multidisciplinary ways of understanding the mind and cognition. The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (MITECS) is a landmark, comprehensive reference work that represents the methodological and theoretical diversity of this changing field.

At the core of the encyclopedia are 471 concise entries, from Acquisition and Adaptationism to Wundt and X-bar Theory. Each article, written by a leading researcher in the field, provides an accessible introduction to an important concept in the cognitive sciences, as well as references or further readings. Six extended essays, which collectively serve as a roadmap to the articles, provide overviews of each of six major areas of cognitive science: Philosophy; Psychology; Neurosciences; Computational Intelligence; Linguistics and Language; and Culture, Cognition, and Evolution. For both students and researchers, MITECS will be an indispensable guide to the current state of the cognitive sciences.

Customer Reviews:

good book to have.......2001-07-08

i am an engineering student and i enjoy reading this book. Although many topics are about psychology, you can find all kind of different subjects that you will never find anywhere else. That is way it is so valuable. the book is very heavy.

Required reading for cognitive scientists.......2000-07-13

The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences - "MITECS" - is a truly excellent book. MITECS is the book I spent four years wishing for back when I started studying cognitive science. MITECS is also a very *large* book; I've set out to read all 471 articles, and I'm currently on "Computational Neuroscience" (p. 166 of 900), although I've also read a lot of other articles as circumstances required. From that sample size, my comments:

The good news: There are some truly excellent articles in this book. Microcolumns and macrocolumns, cerebellar chips, the pathways of the visual system - you can read this book and find out a hundred amazingly cool things that you never even realized you desperately needed to know. Oddly enough, MITECS is also a pretty good as an encyclopedia - if you suddenly need to know more about vision, you'll find what you need to know in "Visual Anatomy and Physiology". (Or "Visual Processing Streams". Or "High-Level Vision". Or "Computational Vision". Or "Mental Rotation". You do need to do a certain amount of hunting, if it's a sufficiently broad subject. More than half the cerebral cortex is devoted to vision - see "Mid-Level Vision" - and MITECS reflects this fact.)

MITECS *excels* as an authoritative reference; you'll almost never need to quote anything else. If you're familiar with cognitive science, you'll often laugh when you get to the end of an article and see the author's byline: "Columns and Modules" by William Calvin, "Chinese Room Argument" by John Searle, "Evolutionary Computation" by Melanie Mitchell, "Evolutionary Psychology" by Leda Cosmides and John Tooby.

The bad news: If you try to read MITECS linearly, you will find that many of the articles, perhaps even a majority, are eminently skippable. (For the record, I read them anyway.) As all of the articles were written by independent individuals - none of whom could read the book first, since it didn't exist yet - there is understandably a great deal of duplication of information. Every third author feels the need to inform you that the mind is a computational information-processing system. (If I had one request to make of the hundreds of authors who write the next edition, it would be: "Skip all the introductory material and the philosophy and try to pack in as much useful detail as you can.") There are also some understandable problems with depth of coverage, made worse by the aforesaid tendency to write introductions; whenever I read an article about a topic that I had earlier studied in more detail, it really brought home the realization that each of these 471 articles tries to cover a topic about which *multiple* entire books have been written.

There are several things I'd like to see in future editions of this book. First and foremost is *less philosophy* and more focus on concrete details, particularly *surprising* details, or details that have something substantial to say about how the mind works. I don't want to know what David Hume thought about causality; I want to know if anything interesting happens when research subjects are asked to reason about causality. (I must also confess myself uninterested in most of the biographical articles that form much of MITECS - but then, that's probably because I'm not using it to study history.) Finally, I would like to see a neuroanatomical index as well as a table of contents. It's already a big book, but they can afford another six pages to show a detailed neuroanatomical map, with names for the areas, and references to the appropriate sections of the book. Such a map would be an enormous help to those of us trying to build up a concrete visualization of the brain.

Conclusion: This is a *really good* book. It's not so much "a good book with a few drawbacks" as "an excellent book with tremendous potential for *even more* improvement", and I mean this in all seriousness. If you're a cognitive scientist, you have basically no choice but to buy this book. If you're a student of the mind or a cognitive hobbyist, then this may not be the *first* book you buy, but you will buy it sooner or later.

Book Description

This is an innovative and engaging companion to the language of memory research. It consists of over 130 entries, bound within a coherent conceptual framework. Each entry starts with a definition, or a set of definitions, followed by an in-depth and provacative discussion of the origin,
meaning, usage and aplicability of ideas and problems central to the neuroscience of memory and scientific culture at large. The entries, linked by webs of associations, can be read and enjoyed, and provide a versatile tool kit: a source for definitions, information and further reading; a trigger
for contemplation, discussion and experimentation; and an aid to study, teaching and debate in classes and seminars. The text is supported by an extensive reference listing, and there is a comprehensive subject index, incorporating a much wider range of terms relevant to the field.

The Encyclopedia of Memory and Memory Disorders (Facts on File Library of Health and Living)

Average customer rating:

An excellent guide to memory exploration

The Encyclopedia of Memory and Memory Disorders (Facts on File Library of Health and Living)
Carol Turkington , and Joseph R., Ph.D. Harris
Manufacturer: Facts on File
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Clinical Psychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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Cognitive Psychology | Behavioral Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0816041415

Customer Reviews:

An excellent guide to memory exploration.......2001-05-17

The entries in this helpful encyclopedia may be brief, but no one would call them incomplete. From Marsel Proust to the methods of assessing the memory disorders to the different kinds of amnesia, this is the book to consult first, whatever the memory-related issue is. It's written in a concise, clear, and assessible language. In fact, it's just as interesting as any fiction book, in my personal opinion. Definitely something to own.

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Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science
L Nadel
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Cognitive | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Medical | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

An exciting reference work which captures current thinking about the workings of the mind and brain, focusing on problems that are as old as recorded history, but reflecting new approaches and techniques that have emerged since the 1980's.

The Encyclopedia contains 696 articles covering in depth the entire spectrum of the cognitive sciences. Reviewing the common themes of information and information processing, representation and computation, it also covers in depth the core areas of psychology, philosophy, linguistics, computer science, and neuroscience. Ancillary topics such as education, economics, evolutionary biology and anthropology are also covered.

The articles have been written to provide multiple levels of information so that readers from various levels can benefit from this set – from undergraduate and postgraduate students to university lecturers.

With extensive cross-referencing, a glossary and subject index to further aid the reader through the book, the Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science is an essential addition to any library or office shelf.

The Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (ECS) includes:

4 Volumes
4000 pages
696 articles
Contributions from the world’s leading experts
1,500 illustrations
Detailed indexes and appendices
Extensive cross-referencing

Cognition: An entry from Thomson Gale's
<i>Gale Encyclopedia of Science, 3rd ed.</i>

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Cognition: An entry from Thomson Gale's Gale Encyclopedia of Science, 3rd ed.
Zoran Minderovic
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000M5A116

Book Description

The “Gale Encyclopedia of Science” is written at a level somewhere between the introductory sources and the highly technical texts currently available. This six-volume set covers all major areas of science and engineering, as well as mathematics and the medical and health sciences, while providing a comprehensive overview of current scientific knowledge and technology. Alphabetically arranged entries provide a user-friendly format that makes the broad scope of information easy to access and decipher. Entries typically describe scientific concepts, provide overviews of scientific areas and, in some cases, define terms.

Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science [A book review from: International Journal of Educational Development]

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Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science [A book review from: International Journal of Educational Development]
R. Walker
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR0UGA

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from International Journal of Educational Development, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:

Memory: An entry from Thomson Gale's
<i>Gale Encyclopedia of Science, 3rd ed.</i>

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Memory: An entry from Thomson Gale's Gale Encyclopedia of Science, 3rd ed.
Marie Doorey
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Behavioral Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000M5A7QA

Book Description

The Mit Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science

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The Mit Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science
Robert A. (EDT) / Keil, Frank C. Wilson
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OR0UNQ

Book Description

Glacial Analysis is an innovative, interactive learning CD-ROM which introduces basic concepts in glaciology and glacial environments through detailed explanations of the main techniques for analyzing glacial sediments. Specific sections cover till types, till fabric analysis, and how folds and fabric can be analyzed to interpret the glacial environment. Each section is supported by exercises for project work and self-assessment.

Video segments illustrate contrasting glaciated environments from Alaska, New Zealand, Svalbard and the Alps, including full color images, animations, links to Internet sites and full hypertext presentation, allowing for full user interaction. Two navigation pathways are offered--a student learning pathway for more advanced study or a revision pathway--making this an invaluable resource for both introductory and more advanced users.

Book Description

About four years ago a prominent string theorist was quoted as saying that it might be possible to understand quantum mechanics by the year 2000. Sometimes new mathematical developments make such understanding appear possible and even close, but on the other hand, increasing lack of experimental verification make it seem to be further distant. In any event one seems to arrive at new revolutions in physics and mathematics every year. This book hopes to convey some of the excitment of this period, but will adopt a relatively pedestrian approach designed to illuminate the relations between quantum and classical. There will be some discussion of philosophical matters such as measurement, uncertainty, decoherence, etc. but philosophy will not be emphasized; generally we want to enjoy the fruits of computation based on the operator formulation of QM and quantum field theory. In Chapter 1 connections of QM to deterministic behavior are exhibited in the trajectory representations of Faraggi-Matone. Chapter 1 also includes a review of KP theory and some preliminary remarks on coherent states, density matrices, etc. and more on deterministic theory. We develop in Chapter 4 relations between quantization and integrability based on Moyal brackets, discretizations, KP, strings and Hirota formulas, and in Chapter 2 we study the QM of embedded curves and surfaces illustrating some QM effects of geometry. Chapter 3 is on quantum integrable systems, quantum groups, and modern deformation quantization. Chapter 5 involves the Whitham equations in various roles mediating between QM and classical behavior. In particular, connections to Seiberg-Witten theory (arising in N = 2 supersymmetric (susy) Yang-Mills (YM) theory) are discussed and we would still like to understand more deeply what is going on. Thus in Chapter 5 we will try to give some conceptual background for susy, gauge theories, renormalization, etc. from both a physical and mathematical point of view. In Chapter 6 we continue the deformation quantization then by exhibiting material based on and related to noncommutative geometry and gauge theory.

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A Chick-Lit Change

Phoebe Fine, Part Deux

recommended

Why she didn't read this whole book...

cute cover, bad book

Why She Went Home: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Lucinda Rosenfeld
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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What She Saw...: A Novel

ASIN: 081297171X
Release Date: 2005-03-01

Book Description

You have to love her, even when you’re laughing at her—Phoebe Fine, that is, the star of this hilariously eccentric and affecting new novel.

On the cusp of thirty, Phoebe has fled the high life and, ultimately, the no life of trying and failing to “be somebody” in Manhattan. She returns to her parents’ Depression-era bungalow across the river in New Jersey, the house she grew up in, to lie low with the crabgrass and dust bunnies and memories of her childhood, and perhaps just be herself. Easier said than done. Once resettled, Phoebe hatches a plan to resell her neighbors’ garbage on eBay, begins work on a solo album for electric violin and voice called Bored and Lonely, and accepts a date with the conductor of the Newark Symphony Orchestra, Roget Mankuvsky, a man with acid-washed jeans and a mysterious past. And so, with the hope of progress on both fronts, Phoebe’s search for a good way to make a living and a good man to make a life with continues.

In this second installment of Phoebe Fine’s life story, author Lucinda Rosenfeld raises the emotional and romantic stakes. Though still consumed with appearances, including her own, Phoebe now has serious grown-up issues to deal with—her mother’s illness, a hostile and competitive older sister with marital problems, and a moral and financial crisis involving a viola that may be worth millions of dollars. But the comic notes prevail. The question is, will Phoebe?

From the Hardcover edition.

Download Description

You have to love her, even when you're laughing at her -- Phoebe Fine, that is, the star of this hilariously eccentric and affecting new novel.

On the cusp of thirty, Phoebe has fled the high life and, ultimately, the no life of trying and failing to "be somebody" in Manhattan. She returns to her parents' Depression-era bungalow across the river in New Jersey, the house she grew up in, to lie low with the crabgrass and dust bunnies and memories of her childhood, and perhaps just be herself. Easier said than done. Once resettled, Phoebe hatches a plan to resell her neighbors' garbage on eBay, begins work on a solo album for electric violin and voice called Bored and Lonely, and accepts a date with the conductor of the Newark Symphony Orchestra, Roget Mankuvsky, a man with acid-washed jeans and a mysterious past. And so, with the hope of progress on both fronts, Phoebe's search for a good way to make a living and a good man to make a life with continues.

In this second installment of Phoebe Fine's life story, author Lucinda Rosenfeld raises the emotional and romantic stakes. Though still consumed with appearances, including her own, Phoebe now has serious grown-up issues to deal with -- her mother's illness, a hostile and competitive older sister with marital problems, and a moral and financial crisis involving a viola that may be worth millions of dollars. But the comic notes prevail. The question is, will Phoebe?

"Funny, sassy... Rosenfeld's style is witty and winning."
   PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"Twenty- and thirtysomethings experiencing the same ennui as Phoebe will relate to her struggles in this charming, often hilarious novel."
   BOOKLIST

"Who knew that a voice this hysterically funny can render family life with such sadness and depth. By the fifth page, I was ready to follow Lucinda Rosenfeld's heroine to hell and back, not to mention her native New Jersey. Take this book home with you!"
    GARY SHTEYNGART, AUTHOR OF THE RUSSIAN DEBUTANTE'S HANDBOOK

"With swift humor and intriguing melancholy Rosenfeld gets to the heart of the struggle of growing up. She captures what it feels like to move away from the bright lights, and into the real world, where your childhood is either squarely behind you -- or you're on the verge of re-creating it. Either way, it's scary, fun and filled with surprises."
    JILL DAVIS, AUTHOR OF GIRLS' POKER NIGHT

Customer Reviews:

A Chick-Lit Change.......2006-09-27

I loved this book. It was a change from the fluffy chick-lit type. It was refreshing to see a woman have a date that wasn't so perfect. A lot of chick-lit female characters find the perfect mate. It was nice to have a female character who didn't meet the perfect guy who is strong, handsome, ambitious and rich considering that all men aren't.
There were other areas that are similar to other chick-lit books - being unemployed and having difficulty in getting on with family members, but in this regard all books are different.
After reading so many chick-lit books that were very similar this was a bit of a change and I hope another sequel comes out. Plus you didn't have to read the first book (What She Saw) to understand "Why she went home", even though characters re-occur.

Phoebe Fine, Part Deux.......2004-10-22

Normally I cannot stand overly neurotic characters, but there's just something so likeable about Phoebe Fine and her aging musician parents that keeps me reading and laughing. Think of Anastasia Krupnik all grown up and you'll get Phoebe Fine.

Phoebe's life is going nowhere in the Big Apple, so she returns to suburban New Jersey and its shopping center landscape to put the pieces back together. Her mother has cancer, their house is falling apart, and even her "perfect" sister Emily seems to be losing some of her polish.

Throw in some fake Eastern Europeans, a broken viola, an old elementary school crush, and a really lousy first date, and this novel somehow comes together. I think my favorite character might actually be Jorge, Emily's South American Jewish lawyer husband and his awkward English.

Rosenfeld's prose isn't always pretty, but her characters are unique and a blast to read. And by all means, before moving back home, read this book.

recommended.......2004-09-30

One could complain that this book offers too many coincidences (like the Dickens novel it mentions). One could complain about, say, the copyediting (e.g., the missing word on page 230). But Phoebe Fine knows complaints, already, being something of a virtuoso in that department. Though not only a complainer, but a mirror of kaleidoscopic emotions and observations, with occasional surprise that they are apparently her own. I quite enjoyed Phoebe's story (I missed the first volume). Thanks, Lucinda.

Why she didn't read this whole book..........2004-09-13

This book was so boring and infuriating that I skimmed through about 100 pages and read the last few chapters, just so I could see how it ended. Why Phoebe would ever keep dating Roget is beyond me- he was pompous, rude, annoying and cheap. Even though she can't stand him she apparently keeps dating him because she has the self esteem of a doormat. I skimmed the book to see when she would dump him and was so disgusted when that didn't happen. This book has it's humorous moments, but they are so few and far between that it is not worth reading.

cute cover, bad book.......2004-05-25

I chose this book as my selection for our monthly Book Club. (I'd read a raving good review of it in a magazine)
I was disappointed and found it to be a BORING book. Nobody else in the book group found it to be that wonderful either.

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