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Essential Cognitive Psychology
218
Book reviews / Intelligence 30 (2002) 209–219
Essential Cognitive Psychology Alan J. Parkin (2000). East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press. ISBN 0-86377-672-8 (hardback), 0-86377-673-6 (paperback), pp. xiv+354, pbk price £13.95
Essential Cognitive Psychology is a special book, because it was handed in to the publisher just before the author, Alan J. Parkin, died at the age of 49. The book opens appropriately with a tribute to the author and a dedication to his young daughter. The book was revised through the assistance of a number of professional colleagues, including his partner. The book is a fine introduction to cognitive psychology for undergraduates. It covers most of the essential topics — origins of cognitive psychology, visual perception, attention, memory, knowledge, language, reasoning, and problem solving — in 15 brief chapters. Like most cognitive-psychology texts, it is all in black and white. Each chapter contains bolded terms, an ‘‘Overview,’’ ‘‘Suggested further reading,’’ and ‘‘Revision questions’’ that are open-ended (and for which suggested answers are not provided). The questions survey both factual comprehension and critical thinking. The book also contains a useful glossary although, oddly, the words in the glossary do not correspond systematically to the words that are bolded in the text, and, sometimes, the bolding occurs in strange places. For example, the word theory is bolded on p. 117, rather late in the book for such an essential word, but, nevertheless, it does not appear in the glossary. The coverage and sequencing are fairly standard for cognitive-psychology texts. Four omissions are worthy of note. (1) There is fairly weak coverage of methodology, which is brief and limited to Chapter 1. (2) There is relatively little on connectionism aside from roughly 1½ pages in Chapter 1. This description is not terribly clear. For example, the concept of back propagation, unlikely to be familiar to readers, is used without being defined. (3) Coverage of cognitive neuroscience is largely limited to two pages in Chapter 1. The study of cognitive psychology and of cognitive neuroscience are becoming increasingly integrated, and it may be difficult in the future not to devote at least one chapter to this increasingly important topic. (4) Readers of Intelligence will perhaps be particularly disturbed by the omission of the topic of intelligence from this and many other cognitive-psychology texts. Much theorizing about intelligence is distinctly cognitive in nature, from Spearman’s early speculations about the qualitative principles of cognition to Deary’s recent work on inspection time. Other theories and research, including that of Hunt, Sternberg, and Gardner have had a largely cognitive basis. Even factor-analytic work such as Carroll’s concerns itself largely with cognitive processes. None of these investigators are cited in the book for their work on intelligence. Although these omissions are troubling, the book was written as an ‘‘essentials’’ book, and every teacher and researcher has his or her own idea of what is essential. In addition, the strengths of the book are as noteworthy as the weaknesses by omission.
Book reviews / Intelligence 30 (2002) 209–219
219
(1) The writing is generally quite lucid and engaging. Introductory cognitive psychology can be a difficult topic to present in an engaging way to undergraduate students: The author succeeds. (2) With a few exceptions, the book is up to date. An example of an exception is the discussion of echoic memory as a contemporary construct, when, in fact, even one of its originators (Robert G. Crowder) has largely abandoned the construct as untenable. (3) The author dares to take a point of view on issues that American writers often leave largely unevaluated for fear of decreased sales. An example of such a point of view is in the discussion of recovery of repressed memories (which Parkin does not accept as valid). In sum, this book is a good introduction to cognitive psychology, although a less nearly complete one than can be obtained from some of the book’s competitors.
Acknowledgments Preparation of this essay was supported by Grant REC-9979843 from the National Science Foundation and by a grant under the Javits Act Program (Grant No. R206R950001) as administered by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. Grantees undertaking such projects are encouraged to express freely their professional judgment. This article, therefore, does not necessarily represent the position or policies of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement or the U.S. Department of Education, and no official endorsement should be inferred. Robert J. Sternberg Department of Psychology Yale University, PO Box 208205 New Haven, CT 06520-8205, USA Tel.: +1-203-432-4633 Fax: +1-203-432-8317 E-mail address: [email protected] PII: S 0 1 6 0 - 2 8 9 6 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 9 5 - 2
Book reviews / Intelligence 30 (2002) 209–219
Essential Cognitive Psychology Alan J. Parkin (2000). East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press. ISBN 0-86377-672-8 (hardback), 0-86377-673-6 (paperback), pp. xiv+354, pbk price £13.95
Essential Cognitive Psychology is a special book, because it was handed in to the publisher just before the author, Alan J. Parkin, died at the age of 49. The book opens appropriately with a tribute to the author and a dedication to his young daughter. The book was revised through the assistance of a number of professional colleagues, including his partner. The book is a fine introduction to cognitive psychology for undergraduates. It covers most of the essential topics — origins of cognitive psychology, visual perception, attention, memory, knowledge, language, reasoning, and problem solving — in 15 brief chapters. Like most cognitive-psychology texts, it is all in black and white. Each chapter contains bolded terms, an ‘‘Overview,’’ ‘‘Suggested further reading,’’ and ‘‘Revision questions’’ that are open-ended (and for which suggested answers are not provided). The questions survey both factual comprehension and critical thinking. The book also contains a useful glossary although, oddly, the words in the glossary do not correspond systematically to the words that are bolded in the text, and, sometimes, the bolding occurs in strange places. For example, the word theory is bolded on p. 117, rather late in the book for such an essential word, but, nevertheless, it does not appear in the glossary. The coverage and sequencing are fairly standard for cognitive-psychology texts. Four omissions are worthy of note. (1) There is fairly weak coverage of methodology, which is brief and limited to Chapter 1. (2) There is relatively little on connectionism aside from roughly 1½ pages in Chapter 1. This description is not terribly clear. For example, the concept of back propagation, unlikely to be familiar to readers, is used without being defined. (3) Coverage of cognitive neuroscience is largely limited to two pages in Chapter 1. The study of cognitive psychology and of cognitive neuroscience are becoming increasingly integrated, and it may be difficult in the future not to devote at least one chapter to this increasingly important topic. (4) Readers of Intelligence will perhaps be particularly disturbed by the omission of the topic of intelligence from this and many other cognitive-psychology texts. Much theorizing about intelligence is distinctly cognitive in nature, from Spearman’s early speculations about the qualitative principles of cognition to Deary’s recent work on inspection time. Other theories and research, including that of Hunt, Sternberg, and Gardner have had a largely cognitive basis. Even factor-analytic work such as Carroll’s concerns itself largely with cognitive processes. None of these investigators are cited in the book for their work on intelligence. Although these omissions are troubling, the book was written as an ‘‘essentials’’ book, and every teacher and researcher has his or her own idea of what is essential. In addition, the strengths of the book are as noteworthy as the weaknesses by omission.
Book reviews / Intelligence 30 (2002) 209–219
219
(1) The writing is generally quite lucid and engaging. Introductory cognitive psychology can be a difficult topic to present in an engaging way to undergraduate students: The author succeeds. (2) With a few exceptions, the book is up to date. An example of an exception is the discussion of echoic memory as a contemporary construct, when, in fact, even one of its originators (Robert G. Crowder) has largely abandoned the construct as untenable. (3) The author dares to take a point of view on issues that American writers often leave largely unevaluated for fear of decreased sales. An example of such a point of view is in the discussion of recovery of repressed memories (which Parkin does not accept as valid). In sum, this book is a good introduction to cognitive psychology, although a less nearly complete one than can be obtained from some of the book’s competitors.
Acknowledgments Preparation of this essay was supported by Grant REC-9979843 from the National Science Foundation and by a grant under the Javits Act Program (Grant No. R206R950001) as administered by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. Grantees undertaking such projects are encouraged to express freely their professional judgment. This article, therefore, does not necessarily represent the position or policies of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement or the U.S. Department of Education, and no official endorsement should be inferred. Robert J. Sternberg Department of Psychology Yale University, PO Box 208205 New Haven, CT 06520-8205, USA Tel.: +1-203-432-4633 Fax: +1-203-432-8317 E-mail address: [email protected] PII: S 0 1 6 0 - 2 8 9 6 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 9 5 - 2