Michael J. Call's Books

A Natural History of Human Thinking

By: Michael Tomasello

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A Natural History of Human Thinking

By: Michael Tomasello

A Wall Street Journal Favorite Read of the Year A Guardian Top Science Book of the Year Tool-making or culture, language or religious belief: ever since Darwin, thinkers have struggled to identify what fundamentally differentiates human beings from other animals. In this much-anticipated book, Michael Tomasello weaves his twenty years of comparative studies of humans and great apes into a compelling argument that cooperative social interaction is the key to our cognitive uniqueness. Once our ancestors learned to put their heads together with others to pursue shared goals, humankind was on an evolutionary path all its own. “Michael Tomasello is one of the few psychologists to have conducted intensive research on both human children and chimpanzees, and A Natural History of Human Thinking reflects not only the insights enabled by such cross-species comparisons but also the wisdom of a researcher who appreciates the need for asking questions whose answers generate biological insight. His book helps us to understand the differences, as well as the similarities, between human brains and other brains.” —David P. Barash, Wall Street Journal

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193

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674986830

ISBN 13

9780674986831

Becoming Human

A Theory of Ontogeny

By: Michael Tomasello

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Becoming Human

A Theory of Ontogeny

By: Michael Tomasello

Winner of the William James Book Award Winner of the Eleanor Maccoby Book Award “A landmark in our understanding of human development.” —Paul Harris, author of Trusting What You’re Told “Magisterial...Makes an impressive argument that most distinctly human traits are established early in childhood and that the general chronology in which these traits appear can...be identified.” —Wall Street Journal Virtually all theories of how humans have become such a distinctive species focus on evolution. Becoming Human looks instead to development and reveals how those things that make us unique are constructed during the first seven years of a child’s life. In this groundbreaking work, Michael Tomasello draws from three decades of experimental research with chimpanzees, bonobos, and children to propose a new framework for psychological growth between birth and seven years of age. He identifies eight pathways that differentiate humans from their primate relatives: social cognition, communication, cultural learning, cooperative thinking, collaboration, prosociality, social norms, and moral identity. In each of these, great apes possess rudimentary abilities, but the maturation of humans’ evolved capacities for shared intentionality transform these abilities into uniquely human cognition and sociality. “How does human psychological growth run in the first seven years, in particular how does it instill ‘culture’ in us? ...Most of all, how does the capacity for shared intentionality and self-regulation evolve in people? This is a very thoughtful and also important book.” —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution “Theoretically daring and experimentally ingenious, Becoming Human squarely tackles the abiding question of what makes us human.” —Susan Gelman “Destined to become a classic. Anyone who is interested in cognitive science, child development, human evolution, or comparative psychology should read this book.” —Andrew Meltzoff

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393

Publisher

Belknap Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674980859

ISBN 13

9780674980853

Animal Behavior

By: Michael D. Breed,Janice Moore

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Animal Behavior

By: Michael D. Breed,Janice Moore

Animal Behavior, Second Edition, covers the broad sweep of animal behavior from its neurological underpinnings to the importance of behavior in conservation. The authors, Michael Breed and Janice Moore, bring almost 60 years of combined experience as university professors to this textbook, much of that teaching animal behavior. An entire chapter is devoted to the vibrant new field of behavior and conservation, including topics such as social behavior and the relationship between parasites, pathogens, and behavior. Thoughtful coverage has also been given to foraging behavior, mating and parenting behavior, anti-predator behavior, and learning. This text addresses the physiological foundations of behavior in a way that is both accessible and inviting, with each chapter beginning with learning objectives and ending with thought-provoking questions. Additionally, special terms and definitions are highlighted throughout. Animal Behavior provides a rich resource for students (and professors) from a wide range of life science disciplines. - Provides a rich resource for students and professors from a wide range of life science disciplines - Updated and revised chapters, with at least 50% new case studies and the addition of contemporary in-text examples - Expanded and updated coverage of animal welfare topics - Includes behavior and homeostatic mechanisms, behavior and conservation, and behavioral aspects of disease - Available lab manual with fully developed and tested laboratory exercises - Companion website includes newly developed slide sets/templates (PowerPoints) coordinated with the book

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561

Publisher

Academic Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0128016833

ISBN 13

9780128016831

Infertility and the Novels of Sophie Cottin

By: Michael J. Call

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Infertility and the Novels of Sophie Cottin

By: Michael J. Call

Caught between the ideological positions she had embraced and the reality of her sterility, she cast about for alternatives. In the early years of her widowhood, she took up writing in a serious way, admitting that she found writing therapeutic. Her story, little known to modern readers on either side of the Atlantic, may nevertheless be a perfect case study of a woman's "coming to writing" in post-revolutionary France. This book explores the crucial connections between her self-perceived "defectiveness" and her literary production."--Jacket.

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Page Count

180

Publisher

University of Delaware Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0874138078

ISBN 13

9780874138078

Self-Control in Animals and People

By: Michael Beran

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Self-Control in Animals and People

By: Michael Beran

Self-Control in Animals and People takes an interdisciplinary look at what self-control is, how it works, and whether humans are alone as a species in their ability to demonstrate self-control. The book outlines historical and recent empirical approaches to understanding when self-control succeeds and fails, and which species may share with humans the ability to anticipate better future outcomes. It also provides readers with in-depth explorations of whether various species can delay gratification, the ways in which people and animals exhibit other forms of self-control, what influences the capacity and expression of self-control, and much more. In addition to its comprehensive coverage of self-control research, the book also describes self-control assessment tests that can be used with young children, adults, and a wide variety of nonhuman species, with the goal of making fair and clear comparisons among the groups. This combination makes Self-Control in Animals and People a valuable resource for cognitive, developmental, and clinical psychologists, philosophers, academic students and researchers in psychology and the social sciences, and animal behaviorists. - Provides a comprehensive perspective of the evolutionary emergence of self-control across species - Explores different "kinds" of self-control and their links to one another, and whether self-control can be improved or strengthened - Offers insight on mental time travel (chronesthesia) and how it relates to self-control - Demonstrates how to develop self-control tests for human and nonhuman animals, and how to make fair and clear comparisons among those groups

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Page Count

333

Publisher

Academic Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0128125098

ISBN 13

9780128125090

Advances in Telephone Survey Methodology

By: James M. Lepkowski,N. Clyde Tucker,J. Michael Brick,Edith D. de Leeuw,Lilli Japec,Paul J. Lavrakas,Michael W. Link,Roberta L. Sangster

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Advances in Telephone Survey Methodology

By: James M. Lepkowski,N. Clyde Tucker,J. Michael Brick,Edith D. de Leeuw,Lilli Japec,Paul J. Lavrakas,Michael W. Link,Roberta L. Sangster

A complete and comprehensive collaboration providing insight on future approaches to telephone survey methodology Over the past fifteen years, advances in technology have transformed the field of survey methodology, from how interviews are conducted to the management and analysis of compiled data. Advances in Telephone Survey Methodology is an all—encompassing and authoritative resource that presents a theoretical, methodological, and statistical treatment of current practices while also establishing a discussion on how state—of—the—art developments in telecommunications have and will continue to revolutionize the telephone survey process. Seventy—five prominent international researchers and practitioners from government, academic, and private sectors have collaborated on this pioneering volume to discuss basic survey techniques and introduce the future directions of the telephone survey. Concepts and findings are organized in four parts—sampling and estimation, data collection, operations, and nonresponse—equipping the reader with the needed practical applications to approach issues such as choice of target population, sample design, questionnaire construction, interviewing training, and measurement error. The book also introduces important topics that have been overlooked in previous literature, including: The impact of mobile telephones on telephone surveys and the rising presence of mobile—only households worldwide The design and construction of questionnaires using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) software The emerging use of wireless communication and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) versus the telephone Methods for measuring and improving interviewer performance and productivity Privacy, confidentiality, and respondent burden as main factors in telephone survey nonresponse Procedures for the adjustment of nonresponse in telephone surveys In—depth reviews of the literature presented along with a full bibliography, assembled from references throughout the world Advances in Telephone Survey Methodology is an indispensable reference for survey researchers and practitioners in almost any discipline involving research methods such as sociology, social psychology, survey methodology, and statistics. This book also serves as an excellent text for courses and seminars on survey methods at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

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Page Count

700

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Published Date

ISBN 10

0470173394

ISBN 13

9780470173398

Primate Cognition: Volume 1

Social Cognition

By: Josep Call,Michael Tomasello

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Primate Cognition: Volume 1

Social Cognition

By: Josep Call,Michael Tomasello

First published in 1997, Primate Cognition was a groundbreaking and highly successful book that set the agenda for a new field of study. Borrowing theoretical constructs and paradigms from human cognitive science and developmental psychology, the book reviewed all of the empirical research existing at that time concerning both physical cognition (space and objects, tools and causality, features and categories, and quantities) as well as social cognition (social knowledge and interaction, social strategies and communication, social learning and culture, and theory of mind). Since that time research on primate cognition has burgeoned, and this all-new second edition mainly focuses on research conducted after 1997. It is divided into two volumes, the current volume on Primate Social Cognition and a forthcoming volume on Primate Physical Cognition. Existing areas of research are updated with the latest findings, and there are several areas of research that for all practical purposes did not exist at the time of the first edition, for example, on prosocial behavior, behavior in social dilemmas, and metacognition. There is also a chapter on theories of primate social cognition and an account of how the human primate fits into the overall evolutionary picture. This second edition of Primate Cognition provides an up-to-date survey of the field.

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385

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198910649

ISBN 13

9780198910640

Extreme NXT

Extending the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT to the Next Level

By: Philippe Hurbain,Michael Gasperi

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Extreme NXT

Extending the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT to the Next Level

By: Philippe Hurbain,Michael Gasperi

Written by three world-leading experts in LEGO Mindstorms homebrew hardware, this book contains the detailed instructions for the construction of sensors and other extensions to the NXT. Over 15 projects are explained with well-illustrated, clear, step-by-step instructions so people with even limited experience in electronics can follow. This book is for intermediate-level users of NXT who would like to advance their capabilities by learning some of the basics of electronics. It makes a great reference for the NXT hardware interfaces. Examples even come complete with multiple, alternative NXT languages.

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295

Publisher

Apress

Published Date

ISBN 10

1430202114

ISBN 13

9781430202110

Shared Agency

A Planning Theory of Acting Together

By: Michael Bratman

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Shared Agency

A Planning Theory of Acting Together

By: Michael Bratman

Human beings act together in characteristic ways that matter to us a great deal. This book explores the conceptual, metaphysical and normative foundations of such sociality. It argues that appeal to the planning structures involved in our individual, temporally extended agency provides substantial resources for understanding these foundations of our sociality.

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232

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199339996

ISBN 13

9780199339990

Group Theory in Physics

Problems and Solutions

By: Michael Aivazis

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Group Theory in Physics

Problems and Solutions

By: Michael Aivazis

This solutions booklet is a supplement to the text book 'Group Theory in Physics' by Wu-Ki Tung. It will be useful to lecturers and students taking the subject as detailed solutions are given.

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128

Publisher

World Scientific

Published Date

ISBN 10

9810204868

ISBN 13

9789810204860

Cluster Analysis for Applications

Probability and Mathematical Statistics: A Series of Monographs and Textbooks

By: Michael R. Anderberg

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Cluster Analysis for Applications

Probability and Mathematical Statistics: A Series of Monographs and Textbooks

By: Michael R. Anderberg

Cluster Analysis for Applications deals with methods and various applications of cluster analysis. Topics covered range from variables and scales to measures of association among variables and among data units. Conceptual problems in cluster analysis are discussed, along with hierarchical and non-hierarchical clustering methods. The necessary elements of data analysis, statistics, cluster analysis, and computer implementation are integrated vertically to cover the complete path from raw data to a finished analysis. Comprised of 10 chapters, this book begins with an introduction to the subject of cluster analysis and its uses as well as category sorting problems and the need for cluster analysis algorithms. The next three chapters give a detailed account of variables and association measures, with emphasis on strategies for dealing with problems containing variables of mixed types. Subsequent chapters focus on the central techniques of cluster analysis with particular reference to computational considerations; interpretation of clustering results; and techniques and strategies for making the most effective use of cluster analysis. The final chapter suggests an approach for the evaluation of alternative clustering methods. The presentation is capped with a complete set of implementing computer programs listed in the Appendices to make the use of cluster analysis as painless and free of mechanical error as is possible. This monograph is intended for students and workers who have encountered the notion of cluster analysis.

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376

Publisher

Academic Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1483191397

ISBN 13

9781483191393

A Natural History of Human Morality

By: Michael Tomasello

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A Natural History of Human Morality

By: Michael Tomasello

Winner of the Eleanor Maccoby Book Award in Developmental Psychology, American Psychological Association Winner of a PROSE Award, Association of American Publishers Shortlist, Cognitive Development Society Book Award A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year A Natural History of Human Morality offers the most detailed account to date of the evolution of human moral psychology. Based on extensive experimental data comparing great apes and human children, Michael Tomasello reconstructs how early humans gradually became an ultra-cooperative and, eventually, a moral species. “Tomasello is convincing, above all, because he has run many of the relevant studies (on chimps, bonobos and children) himself. He concludes by emphasizing the powerful influence of broad cultural groups on modern humans... Tomasello also makes an endearing guide, appearing happily amazed that morality exists at all.” —Michael Bond, New Scientist “Most evolutionary theories picture humans as amoral ‘monads’ motivated by self-interest. Tomasello presents an innovative and well-researched, hypothesized natural history of two key evolutionary steps leading to full-blown morality.” —S. A. Mason, Choice

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207

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674915879

ISBN 13

9780674915879

Bayes Linear Statistics

Theory and Methods

By: Michael Goldstein,David Wooff

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Bayes Linear Statistics

Theory and Methods

By: Michael Goldstein,David Wooff

Bayesian methods combine information available from data with any prior information available from expert knowledge. The Bayes linear approach follows this path, offering a quantitative structure for expressing beliefs, and systematic methods for adjusting these beliefs, given observational data. The methodology differs from the full Bayesian methodology in that it establishes simpler approaches to belief specification and analysis based around expectation judgements. Bayes Linear Statistics presents an authoritative account of this approach, explaining the foundations, theory, methodology, and practicalities of this important field. The text provides a thorough coverage of Bayes linear analysis, from the development of the basic language to the collection of algebraic results needed for efficient implementation, with detailed practical examples. The book covers: The importance of partial prior specifications for complex problems where it is difficult to supply a meaningful full prior probability specification. Simple ways to use partial prior specifications to adjust beliefs, given observations. Interpretative and diagnostic tools to display the implications of collections of belief statements, and to make stringent comparisons between expected and actual observations. General approaches to statistical modelling based upon partial exchangeability judgements. Bayes linear graphical models to represent and display partial belief specifications, organize computations, and display the results of analyses. Bayes Linear Statistics is essential reading for all statisticians concerned with the theory and practice of Bayesian methods. There is an accompanying website hosting free software and guides to the calculations within the book.

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Page Count

536

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Published Date

ISBN 10

0470065672

ISBN 13

9780470065679

Weighted Littlewood-Paley Theory and Exponential-Square Integrability

By: Michael Wilson

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Weighted Littlewood-Paley Theory and Exponential-Square Integrability

By: Michael Wilson

Littlewood-Paley theory is an essential tool of Fourier analysis, with applications and connections to PDEs, signal processing, and probability. It extends some of the benefits of orthogonality to situations where orthogonality doesn’t really make sense. It does so by letting us control certain oscillatory infinite series of functions in terms of infinite series of non-negative functions. Beginning in the 1980s, it was discovered that this control could be made much sharper than was previously suspected. The present book tries to give a gentle, well-motivated introduction to those discoveries, the methods behind them, their consequences, and some of their applications.

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233

Publisher

Springer Science & Business Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

3540745823

ISBN 13

9783540745822

Group Theory In Physics: Problems And Solutions

By: Michael Aivazis,Wu-ki Tung

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Group Theory In Physics: Problems And Solutions

By: Michael Aivazis,Wu-ki Tung

This solutions booklet is a supplement to the text book 'Group Theory in Physics' by Wu-Ki Tung. It will be useful to lecturers and students taking the subject as detailed solutions are given.

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122

Publisher

World Scientific Publishing Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

9813103566

ISBN 13

9789813103566

Scheduling

Theory, Algorithms, and Systems

By: Michael L. Pinedo

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Scheduling

Theory, Algorithms, and Systems

By: Michael L. Pinedo

The sixth edition provides expanded Discussion and Comments and References sections at the end of each chapter, creating a spotlight on practical applications of the theory presented in that chapter. New topics include rules for stochastic parallel machine scheduling and for stochastic online scheduling, models of flow shops with reentry, fixed parameter tractability, and new designs and implementations of scheduling systems. The main structure of the book as per previous edition consists of three parts. The first part focuses on deterministic scheduling and the related combinatorial problems. The second part covers probabilistic scheduling models; in this part it is assumed that processing times and other problem data are random and not known in advance. The third part deals with scheduling in practice; it covers heuristics that are popular with practitioners and discusses system design and implementation issues. All three parts of this new edition have been revamped and streamlined and the references have been made up-to-date. Theoreticians and practitioners alike will find this book of interest. Graduate students in operations management, operations research, industrial engineering, and computer science will find the book an accessible and invaluable resource. Scheduling - Theory, Algorithms, and Systems will serve as an essential reference for professionals working on scheduling problems in manufacturing, services, and other environments. Michael L. Pinedo is the Julius Schlesinger Professor of Operations Management in the Stern School of Business at New York University.

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Page Count

691

Publisher

Springer Nature

Published Date

ISBN 10

3031059212

ISBN 13

9783031059216

Why We Cooperate

By: Michael Tomasello

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Why We Cooperate

By: Michael Tomasello

Understanding cooperation as a distinctly human combination of innate and learned behavior. Drop something in front of a two-year-old, and she's likely to pick it up for you. This is not a learned behavior, psychologist Michael Tomasello argues. Through observations of young children in experiments he himself has designed, Tomasello shows that children are naturally—and uniquely—cooperative. Put through similar experiments, for example, apes demonstrate the ability to work together and share, but choose not to. As children grow, their almost reflexive desire to help—without expectation of reward—becomes shaped by culture. They become more aware of being a member of a group. Groups convey mutual expectations, and thus may either encourage or discourage altruism and collaboration. Either way, cooperation emerges as a distinctly human combination of innate and learned behavior. In Why We Cooperate, Tomasello's studies of young children and great apes help identify the underlying psychological processes that very likely supported humans' earliest forms of complex collaboration and, ultimately, our unique forms of cultural organization, from the evolution of tolerance and trust to the creation of such group-level structures as cultural norms and institutions. Scholars Carol Dweck, Joan Silk, Brian Skyrms, and Elizabeth Spelke respond to Tomasello's findings and explore the implications.

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229

Publisher

MIT Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0262013592

ISBN 13

9780262013598

How the Brain Got Language

The Mirror System Hypothesis

By: Michael A. Arbib

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How the Brain Got Language

The Mirror System Hypothesis

By: Michael A. Arbib

Unlike any other species, humans can learn and use language. This book explains how the brain evolved to make language possible, through what Michael Arbib calls the Mirror System Hypothesis. Because of mirror neurons, monkeys, chimps, and humans can learn by imitation, but only "complex imitation," which humans exhibit, is powerful enough to support the breakthrough to language. This theory provides a path from the openness of manual gesture, which we share with nonhuman primates, through the complex imitation of manual skills, pantomime, protosign (communication based on conventionalized manual gestures), and finally to protospeech. The theory explains why we humans are as capable of learning sign languages as we are of learning to speak. This fascinating book shows how cultural evolution took over from biological evolution for the transition from protolanguage to fully fledged languages. The author explains how the brain mechanisms that made the original emergence of languages possible, perhaps 100,000 years ago, are still operative today in the way children acquire language, in the way that new sign languages have emerged in recent decades, and in the historical processes of language change on a time scale from decades to centuries. Though the subject is complex, this book is highly readable, providing all the necessary background in primatology, neuroscience, and linguistics to make the book accessible to a general audience.

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Page Count

436

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199896690

ISBN 13

9780199896691

Quantum Topology And Global Anomalies

By: Randy A Baadhio,Michael P Thorman

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Quantum Topology And Global Anomalies

By: Randy A Baadhio,Michael P Thorman

Anomalies are ubiquitous features in quantum field theories. They can ruin the consistency of such theories and put significant restrictions on their viability, especially in dimensions higher than four. Global gauge and gravitational anomalies are to date, one of the scant powerful and probing tools available to physicists in the pursuit of uniqueness.This monograph is one of the very few that specializes in the study of global anomalies in quantum field theories. A discussion of various issues associated to three dimensional physics — the Chern-Simons-Witten theories — widen the scope of this book. Topics discussed here comprises: the ongoing quest for three-manifolds invariant, the role of the mapping class groups in (a) the detection and cancellation of global anomalies, (b) formulating three-manifolds invariant; the geometric quantization of Chern-Simons-Witten theories; deformation quantization; study of chiral and gravitational anomalies; anomalies and the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer Index theorem; exotic spheres; global gravitational anomalies in some six and ten dimensional supergravity and superstring theories, with an additional case study of Witten SU(2) Global Gauge Anomalies.In addition, five chapters lay out the mathematical basis for a thorough use of the topics above. One chapter focuses on the relationship between Teichmüller spaces, moduli spaces and mapping class groups. Another chapter is devoted to mapping class groups and arithmetic groups. Gauge theories on Riemann surfaces are studies in well over two chapters, the first one centered on the theory of bundles and the second on connections.Many readers will find this a useful book, especially theoretical physicists and mathematicians. The material presented here will be of interest to both the experts who will find complete, detailed and precise descriptions of important topics of current interest in mathematical physics, and to students and newcomers to the field, who will appreciate the vast amount of information provided here, especially on global anomalies.

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286

Publisher

World Scientific

Published Date

ISBN 10

9814498777

ISBN 13

9789814498777

The Recursive Mind

The Origins of Human Language, Thought, and Civilization - Updated Edition

By: Michael C. Corballis

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The Recursive Mind

The Origins of Human Language, Thought, and Civilization - Updated Edition

By: Michael C. Corballis

The Recursive Mind challenges the commonly held notion that language is what makes us uniquely human. In this compelling book, Michael Corballis argues that what distinguishes us in the animal kingdom is our capacity for recursion: the ability to embed our thoughts within other thoughts. "I think, therefore I am," is an example of recursive thought, because the thinker has inserted himself into his thought. Recursion enables us to conceive of our own minds and the minds of others. It also gives us the power of mental "time travel"--the ability to insert past experiences, or imagined future ones, into present consciousness. Drawing on neuroscience, psychology, animal behavior, anthropology, and archaeology, Corballis demonstrates how these recursive structures led to the emergence of language and speech, which ultimately enabled us to share our thoughts, plan with others, and reshape our environment to better reflect our creative imaginations. He shows how the recursive mind was critical to survival in the harsh conditions of the Pleistocene epoch, and how it evolved to foster social cohesion. He traces how language itself adapted to recursive thinking, first through manual gestures, then later, with the emergence of Homo sapiens, vocally. Toolmaking and manufacture arose, and the application of recursive principles to these activities in turn led to the complexities of human civilization, the extinction of fellow large-brained hominins like the Neandertals, and our species' supremacy over the physical world.

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Page Count

308

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691160945

ISBN 13

9780691160948

Marvelous Minds

The Discovery of what Children Know

By: Michael Siegal

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Marvelous Minds

The Discovery of what Children Know

By: Michael Siegal

Children have a spontaneous interest in the world around them - whether the workings of the earth, sun, and stars, the nature of number, time and space, or the functioning of the body. Yet what is there in children's minds that is the key to their knowledge? This book examines what children can and do know, based on extensive studies from a range of different cultures. Topics include 'theory of mind' - the knowledge that others may have beliefs that differ from one's own and from reality, astronomy and geography, food, health and hygiene, processes of life and death, number and arithmetic, as well as autism and brain research on language and attention. Since what children say and do may not really reflect the depth of their knowledge of the world around them, our goal should be to discover new methods to accurately test children's knowledge, instead of trying to understand the range of failing answers they might give on the many tests that have been devised to determine what they know. Contrary to earlier studies, it is now established that in many areas considerable knowledge is within the grasp of young children with benefits for their later development. For example, although certain number concepts - in particular, fractions, proportions, and infinity - can be difficult to grasp, children generally do not need to undergo a fundamental change in their thinking and reasoning to master these. What the author of this book proposes is that children often display a capacity for understanding that we simply overlook. Written by a reknowned developmental psychologist, this book presents a fascinating exploration of children minds, and how we can better understand them.

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