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The Student's Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience, 2nd Edition

By Jamie Ward

Published January 4th 2010 by Psychology Press – 464 pages

Purchasing Options:

  • Add to CartPaperback: $77.95
    978-1-84872-003-9
  • Hardback:
    978-1-84872-002-2
    Out-of-print

Description

Reflecting recent changes in the way cognition and the brain are studied, this thoroughly updated edition of the best-selling textbook provides a comprehensive and student-friendly guide to cognitive neuroscience. Jamie Ward provides an easy-to-follow introduction to neural structure and function, as well as all the key methods and procedures of cognitive neuroscience, with a view to helping students understand how they can be used to shed light on the neural basis of cognition.

The book presents an up-to-date overview of the latest theories and findings in all the key topics in cognitive neuroscience, including vision, attention, memory, speech and language, numeracy, executive function, and social and emotional behavior. This edition also contains two completely new chapters on developmental cognitive neuroscience and hearing. Throughout, case studies, newspaper reports and everyday examples are used to help students understand the more challenging ideas that underpin the subject.

In addition each chapter includes:

  • Summaries of key terms and points
  • Example essay questions
  • Recommended further reading
  • Feature boxes exploring interesting and popular questions and their implications for the subject.

Written in an engaging style by a leading researcher in the field, and now presented in full-color including numerous illustrative materials, this book will be invaluable as a core text for undergraduate modules in cognitive neuroscience. It can also be used as a key text on courses in cognition, cognitive neuropsychology, or brain and behavior. Those embarking on research will find it an invaluable starting point and reference.

The Student’s Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience, 2nd Edition is accompanied by a set of online resources available free of charge to departments that recommend the textbook. These resources include:

  • A chapter-by-chapter, illustrated slideshow lecture course
  • A bank of multiple-choice questions which allow for confidence-weighted answers
  • Student resources to aid exam preparation.

Reviews

"This new edition of Jamie Ward’s best-selling textbook, is a clear and informative read. Within the text all the chapters have been restructured with up-to-date references, making this book an essential purchase for someone looking for an all-inclusive overview of cognitive neuroscience. … [The book] is useful to students, tutors or those who just wish to read up on this area." – Samantha L. Heaton, assistant psychologist at Rampton Hospital, in The Psychologist

"This book is the best introductory textbook I know. I teach with it myself and I recommend it to colleagues in other fields who want to understand the basic questions, methods and findings of cognitive neuroscience." - Martha J. Farah, Director, Center for Neuroscience & Society, University of Pennsylvania, USA

"I thought the first edition was the best textbook I have come across on cognitive neuroscience. This second edition is even better." – Robert H. Logie, Professor of Human Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh, UK

"Ward presents all the essential topics in cognitive neuroscience in a compact, impeccably organized, well-referenced and newly colorful package. But where this text really excels is in engaging the student and stimulating critical thinking by consistently asking the student to think about the "why" and not just the "what." – Jennifer Mangels, Associate Professor, Baruch College, City University of New York, USA

Praise for the 1st edition:

"Jamie Ward has done a great service to the neuroscience community: he has written an easy to read, enjoyable introduction to cognitive neuroscience that will attract many students to the discipline. … I will certainly use this book for my courses." - Professor Alfonso Caramazza, the Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory, Harvard University, USA

"The Student's Guide To Cognitive Neuroscience is unique in that there are no comparable textbooks aimed at this level and it does an excellent job of providing a solid grounding in this broad field." - Charvy Narain, in Nature Neuroscience

"Jamie Ward manages to explain complicated features of cognitive neuroscience by introducing examples, articles from the media, historical cameos and case studies to provide an engaging and challenging book. … This is a seminal text that is all the more impressive for bringing cognitive neuroscience to life for subject students and non-experts alike." - Dr. Judith Whitmarsh, University of Wolverhampton, in ESCalate

Contents

1. Introducing Cognitive Neuroscience. 2. Introducing the Brain. 3. The Electrophysiological Brain. 4. The Imaged Brain. 5. The Lesioned Brain. 6. The Seeing Brain. 7. The Spatial Brain. 8. The Acting Brain. 9. The Remembering Brain. 10. The Hearing Brain. 11. The Speaking Brain. 12. The Literate Brain. 13. The Numerate Brain. 14. The Executive Brain. 15. The Social and Emotional Brain. 16. The Developing Brain.

Author Bio

Jamie Ward is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sussex, UK, and has researched and taught extensively in many areas of cognitive neuroscience. He has a special interest in synesthesia, a subject on which he is a leading authority, and has contributed to an understanding of it in both academic and lay circles.

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Name: The Student's Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience, 2nd Edition (Paperback) – Psychology Press 
Description: By Jamie Ward. Reflecting recent changes in the way cognition and the brain are studied, this thoroughly updated edition of the best-selling textbook provides a comprehensive and student-friendly guide to cognitive neuroscience. Jamie Ward provides an easy-to-follow...
Categories: Cognitive Neuropsychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuroscience