by Jamie Ward
"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, Harvard University
In this interview we talk to Jamie Ward about the development of cognitive neuroscience, its portrayal in the media, his textbook The Student's Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience, and the recent debate on the usefulness (or seductiveness!) of the "flickering lights" of fMRI:
More information about this interview, including details of subscribing to a podcast of all future Psychology Press interviews, can be found on our Cognitive Neuroscience Arena.
Reflecting recent changes in the way cognition and the brain are studied, this book provides a comprehensive and student-friendly guide to cognitive neuroscience which covers methods, theories and findings in all the key research domains.
Following an introduction to neural structure and function, all the key methods and procedures of cognitive neuroscience are explained with a view to helping students understand how they can be used to shed light on the neural basis of cognition.
The second part of the book goes on to present 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.
Throughout, case studies, newspaper reports and everyday examples are used to provide an easy way in to understanding the more challenging ideas that underpin the subject. In addition each chapter includes:
- Summaries of key terms and points
- Example essay questions to aid exam preparation
- 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, 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.
We offer CD-ROM based resources free of charge to instructors who recommend The Student's Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience by Jamie Ward. These resources include:
- A chapter-by-chapter, illustrated slideshow lecture course
- An innovative bank of Multiple Choice Questions, graded according to difficulty and which allow for confidence weighted answers
- Comprehensive lecture planning advice tailored to different length courses.