K. Warner Schaie
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195156737
- eISBN:
- 9780199786817
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156737.003.0007
- Subject:
- Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This chapter reports the results of the cognitive intervention studies and their long-term follow-up and replication with new cohorts, as part of the Seattle Longitudinal Study. These studies lead to ...
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This chapter reports the results of the cognitive intervention studies and their long-term follow-up and replication with new cohorts, as part of the Seattle Longitudinal Study. These studies lead to the conclusion that, for many persons, cognitive decline in old age may be a function of disuse rather than deterioration of the physiological substrates of cognitive behavior. A brief five-hour training program on the abilities of Inductive Reasoning and Spatial Orientation involving individual tutorials was designed to improve the performance of participants above the age of sixty-four years. Participants were assigned either to training in the ability on which they had declined or randomly to one of the two training conditions if they had declined or remained stable on both abilities.Less
This chapter reports the results of the cognitive intervention studies and their long-term follow-up and replication with new cohorts, as part of the Seattle Longitudinal Study. These studies lead to the conclusion that, for many persons, cognitive decline in old age may be a function of disuse rather than deterioration of the physiological substrates of cognitive behavior. A brief five-hour training program on the abilities of Inductive Reasoning and Spatial Orientation involving individual tutorials was designed to improve the performance of participants above the age of sixty-four years. Participants were assigned either to training in the ability on which they had declined or randomly to one of the two training conditions if they had declined or remained stable on both abilities.
Claudio Ciborra
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199275267
- eISBN:
- 9780191714399
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199275267.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Information Technology
Turbulent economic times put improvisation at the centre stage of business management and organization studies. In principle, when reconstructing improvised decision making, symbolic representations ...
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Turbulent economic times put improvisation at the centre stage of business management and organization studies. In principle, when reconstructing improvised decision making, symbolic representations of the ongoing problem can be drawn, algorithms can be identified, and problem solving programmes can be written. But, once improvisation gets analysed as quick design and simultaneous implementation of plans of action, factoring early feedback from execution, where has its magic gone? Can such an analysis offer anything new or alternative to the prevailing managerial and systems models that put at the centre of their discourse information, knowledge modelling, and planning? To overcome such an impasse, there is a need to assess the intellectual roots of situated action, of which improvisation is considered a special case, in phenomenology.Less
Turbulent economic times put improvisation at the centre stage of business management and organization studies. In principle, when reconstructing improvised decision making, symbolic representations of the ongoing problem can be drawn, algorithms can be identified, and problem solving programmes can be written. But, once improvisation gets analysed as quick design and simultaneous implementation of plans of action, factoring early feedback from execution, where has its magic gone? Can such an analysis offer anything new or alternative to the prevailing managerial and systems models that put at the centre of their discourse information, knowledge modelling, and planning? To overcome such an impasse, there is a need to assess the intellectual roots of situated action, of which improvisation is considered a special case, in phenomenology.
Ronald N. Giere
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199753628
- eISBN:
- 9780199950027
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753628.003.0004
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology
The question that frames this chapter is how humans have managed to learn such amazing things as the age of the universe. After briefly reviewing logical, methodological, historical, and social ...
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The question that frames this chapter is how humans have managed to learn such amazing things as the age of the universe. After briefly reviewing logical, methodological, historical, and social approaches to this question, the chapter focuses on contributions of the cognitive study of science. This leads to a comparison of the cognitive study of science and the psychology of science, which study how fundamental cognitive mechanisms operate in the context of generating scientific knowledge. There is, however, a second way humans use their psychological powers in the pursuit of knowledge, namely, by designing material and symbolic artifacts that greatly increase their cognitive powers. The resulting physical-computational-human systems have been incorporated into the cognitive sciences as “distributed cognitive systems.” The chapter proposes adoption of an agent-centered approach, in which ever more ubiquitous distributed cognitive systems can be fully cognitive without being fully computational.Less
The question that frames this chapter is how humans have managed to learn such amazing things as the age of the universe. After briefly reviewing logical, methodological, historical, and social approaches to this question, the chapter focuses on contributions of the cognitive study of science. This leads to a comparison of the cognitive study of science and the psychology of science, which study how fundamental cognitive mechanisms operate in the context of generating scientific knowledge. There is, however, a second way humans use their psychological powers in the pursuit of knowledge, namely, by designing material and symbolic artifacts that greatly increase their cognitive powers. The resulting physical-computational-human systems have been incorporated into the cognitive sciences as “distributed cognitive systems.” The chapter proposes adoption of an agent-centered approach, in which ever more ubiquitous distributed cognitive systems can be fully cognitive without being fully computational.
Denis Mareschal, Sylvain Sirois, Gert Westermann, and Mark H. Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198529934
- eISBN:
- 9780191689727
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198529934.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
What are the processes, from conception to adulthood, that enable a single cell to grow into a sentient adult? The processes that occur along the way are so complex that any attempt to understand ...
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What are the processes, from conception to adulthood, that enable a single cell to grow into a sentient adult? The processes that occur along the way are so complex that any attempt to understand development necessitates a multi-disciplinary approach, integrating data from cognitive studies, computational work, and neuroimaging — an approach till now seldom taken in the study of child development. This book seeks to redress this balance, presenting an integrative new framework for considering development. Computer and robotic models provide concrete tools for investigating the processes and mechanisms involved in learning and development. This book illustrates the principles of neuroconstructivist development, with contributions from nine different labs across the world. Each of the contributions illustrates how models play a central role in understanding development. The models presented include standard connectionist neural network models as well as multi-agent models. Also included are robotic models emphasizing the need to take embodiment and brain-system interactions seriously. A model of autism and one of specific language impairment also illustrate how atypical development can be understood in terms of the typical processes of development but operating under restricted conditions.Less
What are the processes, from conception to adulthood, that enable a single cell to grow into a sentient adult? The processes that occur along the way are so complex that any attempt to understand development necessitates a multi-disciplinary approach, integrating data from cognitive studies, computational work, and neuroimaging — an approach till now seldom taken in the study of child development. This book seeks to redress this balance, presenting an integrative new framework for considering development. Computer and robotic models provide concrete tools for investigating the processes and mechanisms involved in learning and development. This book illustrates the principles of neuroconstructivist development, with contributions from nine different labs across the world. Each of the contributions illustrates how models play a central role in understanding development. The models presented include standard connectionist neural network models as well as multi-agent models. Also included are robotic models emphasizing the need to take embodiment and brain-system interactions seriously. A model of autism and one of specific language impairment also illustrate how atypical development can be understood in terms of the typical processes of development but operating under restricted conditions.
Jamie Cohen-Cole
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226092164
- eISBN:
- 9780226092331
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226092331.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines development of and changes in the research culture at Harvard's Center for Cognitive Studies. The directors applied their psychological expertise in how humans think and learn ...
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This chapter examines development of and changes in the research culture at Harvard's Center for Cognitive Studies. The directors applied their psychological expertise in how humans think and learn to design a research environment that would maximize the chances for acquiring reliable knowledge about world—specifically, about the nature of human thinking. They saw learning as, fundamentally, the acquisition of new structures of thought and of new tools with which to think. Therefore what was important was not simply facts that people learned or scientists discovered. Rather more significant were the procedures, forms of mental representation, and heuristic methods that enabled individuals to have original forms of ideas, novel hypotheses, and techniques for investigating the world. Accordingly the Center was organized along interdisciplinary lines in order to facilitate the construction of new theories and new scientific tools while establishing the disciplined study of human cognition on a stable foundation. Several years later, once its work was well under way, the Center's culture became multidisciplinary. Rather than emphasizing the creation of cognitive science by sharing, invention, location, discussion and stabilization of new research techniques, the Center's new multidisciplinary atmosphere involved researchers working in parallel.Less
This chapter examines development of and changes in the research culture at Harvard's Center for Cognitive Studies. The directors applied their psychological expertise in how humans think and learn to design a research environment that would maximize the chances for acquiring reliable knowledge about world—specifically, about the nature of human thinking. They saw learning as, fundamentally, the acquisition of new structures of thought and of new tools with which to think. Therefore what was important was not simply facts that people learned or scientists discovered. Rather more significant were the procedures, forms of mental representation, and heuristic methods that enabled individuals to have original forms of ideas, novel hypotheses, and techniques for investigating the world. Accordingly the Center was organized along interdisciplinary lines in order to facilitate the construction of new theories and new scientific tools while establishing the disciplined study of human cognition on a stable foundation. Several years later, once its work was well under way, the Center's culture became multidisciplinary. Rather than emphasizing the creation of cognitive science by sharing, invention, location, discussion and stabilization of new research techniques, the Center's new multidisciplinary atmosphere involved researchers working in parallel.
Suzanne Keen
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195175769
- eISBN:
- 9780199851232
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195175769.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book presents an account of the relationships among novel reading, empathy, and altruism. Though readers' and authors' empathy certainly contribute to the emotional resonance of fiction and its ...
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This book presents an account of the relationships among novel reading, empathy, and altruism. Though readers' and authors' empathy certainly contribute to the emotional resonance of fiction and its success in the marketplace, this book finds the case for altruistic consequences of novel reading inconclusive. It offers instead a detailed theory of narrative empathy, with proposals about its deployment by novelists and its results in readers. The book engages with neuroscience and contemporary psychological research on empathy, bringing affect to the center of cognitive literary studies' scrutiny of narrative fiction. Drawing on narrative theory, literary history, philosophy, and contemporary scholarship in discourse processing, the book brings together resources and challenges for the literary study of empathy and the psychological study of fiction reading. Empathy robustly enters into affective responses to fiction, but its proper role in shaping the behavior of emotional readers has been debated for three centuries. The book surveys these debates and offers a series of hypotheses about literary empathy, including narrative techniques inviting empathetic response. It argues that above all readers' perception of a text's fictiveness increases the likelihood of readers' empathy, by releasing readers from their guarded responses to the demands of real others. The book confirms the centrality of narrative empathy as a strategy, as well as a subject, of contemporary novelists. Despite the disrepute of putative human universals, novelists from around the world endorse the notion of shared human emotions when they overtly call upon their readers' empathy. Consequently, the book suggests, if narrative empathy is to be better understood, women's reading and popular fiction must be accorded the respect of experimental inquiry.Less
This book presents an account of the relationships among novel reading, empathy, and altruism. Though readers' and authors' empathy certainly contribute to the emotional resonance of fiction and its success in the marketplace, this book finds the case for altruistic consequences of novel reading inconclusive. It offers instead a detailed theory of narrative empathy, with proposals about its deployment by novelists and its results in readers. The book engages with neuroscience and contemporary psychological research on empathy, bringing affect to the center of cognitive literary studies' scrutiny of narrative fiction. Drawing on narrative theory, literary history, philosophy, and contemporary scholarship in discourse processing, the book brings together resources and challenges for the literary study of empathy and the psychological study of fiction reading. Empathy robustly enters into affective responses to fiction, but its proper role in shaping the behavior of emotional readers has been debated for three centuries. The book surveys these debates and offers a series of hypotheses about literary empathy, including narrative techniques inviting empathetic response. It argues that above all readers' perception of a text's fictiveness increases the likelihood of readers' empathy, by releasing readers from their guarded responses to the demands of real others. The book confirms the centrality of narrative empathy as a strategy, as well as a subject, of contemporary novelists. Despite the disrepute of putative human universals, novelists from around the world endorse the notion of shared human emotions when they overtly call upon their readers' empathy. Consequently, the book suggests, if narrative empathy is to be better understood, women's reading and popular fiction must be accorded the respect of experimental inquiry.
Michael Burke and Emily T. Troscianko (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190496869
- eISBN:
- 9780190496883
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190496869.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
This book brings together researchers with cognitive-scientific and literary backgrounds to present innovative research in all three variations on the possible interactions between literary studies ...
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This book brings together researchers with cognitive-scientific and literary backgrounds to present innovative research in all three variations on the possible interactions between literary studies and cognitive science. The tripartite structure of the volume reflects a more ambitious conception of what cognitive approaches to literature are and could be than is usually encountered, and thus aims both to map out and to advance the field. The first section corresponds to what most people think of as ‘cognitive poetics’ or ‘cognitive literary studies’: the study of literature by literary scholars drawing on cognitive-scientific methods, findings, and/or debates to yield insights into literature. The second section demonstrates that literary scholars need not only make use of cognitive science to study literature, but can also, in a reciprocally interdisciplinary manner, use a cognitively informed perspective on literature to offer benefits back to the cognitive sciences. Finally, the third section, ‘literature in cognitive science’, showcases some of the ways in which literature can be a stimulating object of study and a fertile testing ground for theories and models, not only to literary scholars but also to cognitive scientists, who here engage with some key questions in cognitive literary studies with the benefit of their in-depth scientific knowledge and training.Less
This book brings together researchers with cognitive-scientific and literary backgrounds to present innovative research in all three variations on the possible interactions between literary studies and cognitive science. The tripartite structure of the volume reflects a more ambitious conception of what cognitive approaches to literature are and could be than is usually encountered, and thus aims both to map out and to advance the field. The first section corresponds to what most people think of as ‘cognitive poetics’ or ‘cognitive literary studies’: the study of literature by literary scholars drawing on cognitive-scientific methods, findings, and/or debates to yield insights into literature. The second section demonstrates that literary scholars need not only make use of cognitive science to study literature, but can also, in a reciprocally interdisciplinary manner, use a cognitively informed perspective on literature to offer benefits back to the cognitive sciences. Finally, the third section, ‘literature in cognitive science’, showcases some of the ways in which literature can be a stimulating object of study and a fertile testing ground for theories and models, not only to literary scholars but also to cognitive scientists, who here engage with some key questions in cognitive literary studies with the benefit of their in-depth scientific knowledge and training.
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226292120
- eISBN:
- 9780226292144
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226292144.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
The argument that scientific knowledge is perspectival has proceeded largely by reflecting on the actual practice of science itself. The argument that theorizing is perspectival did, however, appeal ...
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The argument that scientific knowledge is perspectival has proceeded largely by reflecting on the actual practice of science itself. The argument that theorizing is perspectival did, however, appeal to a conception of modeling derived largely from the philosophy of science. Nevertheless, for the most part, the conclusion that scientific knowledge is perspectival stands on its own. This chapter now seeks additional support for this conclusion from another source, the cognitive study of science. Many of the activities of scientists are directed toward the acquisition of new knowledge. Because acquiring knowledge is indisputably a cognitive activity, we can say that, to a large extent, science is a cognitive activity. It is thus an appropriate object for the application of the concepts and methods of the cognitive sciences. The chapter considers only one concept from the cognitive sciences, that of distributed cognition. It is argued that much of the cognitive activity of scientists involves the operation of distributed cognitive systems, most of which incorporate the sorts of instruments and models that have been characterized as perspectival.Less
The argument that scientific knowledge is perspectival has proceeded largely by reflecting on the actual practice of science itself. The argument that theorizing is perspectival did, however, appeal to a conception of modeling derived largely from the philosophy of science. Nevertheless, for the most part, the conclusion that scientific knowledge is perspectival stands on its own. This chapter now seeks additional support for this conclusion from another source, the cognitive study of science. Many of the activities of scientists are directed toward the acquisition of new knowledge. Because acquiring knowledge is indisputably a cognitive activity, we can say that, to a large extent, science is a cognitive activity. It is thus an appropriate object for the application of the concepts and methods of the cognitive sciences. The chapter considers only one concept from the cognitive sciences, that of distributed cognition. It is argued that much of the cognitive activity of scientists involves the operation of distributed cognitive systems, most of which incorporate the sorts of instruments and models that have been characterized as perspectival.
Karin Kukkonen
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190634766
- eISBN:
- 9780190634780
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190634766.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
This book argues that the neoclassical critical tradition of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with its cognitive perspective on the workings of literature, constitutes a key chapter in the ...
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This book argues that the neoclassical critical tradition of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with its cognitive perspective on the workings of literature, constitutes a key chapter in the prehistory of current cognitive approaches to literature. It argues for an understanding of neoclassical criticism as a debate (and not a dogma). As the neoclassical critics considered vraisemblance, that is, the designed mimesis of a work of art, they integrated both cultural and cognitive aspects; this makes them a valuable partner in conversation with today’s cognitive poetics. The continued relevance of the neoclassical rules of poetic justice, the unities, and decorum (as well as their cognitive underpinnings) is illustrated through case studies that trace the explicit and implicit influences which these rules had on the developing narrative shape of the novel in the eighteenth century. These case studies consider canonical novels (such as Pamela, Clarissa, and Tom Jones), their alternative versions (such as Shamela and Anti-Pamela), and works that have recently gathered more critical attention (such as The Female Quixote). It is shown that the neoclassical heritage influenced novels across different modes, including realist and utopian works (such as L’An 2440) as well as Gothic fiction (such as The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Castle of Otranto).Less
This book argues that the neoclassical critical tradition of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with its cognitive perspective on the workings of literature, constitutes a key chapter in the prehistory of current cognitive approaches to literature. It argues for an understanding of neoclassical criticism as a debate (and not a dogma). As the neoclassical critics considered vraisemblance, that is, the designed mimesis of a work of art, they integrated both cultural and cognitive aspects; this makes them a valuable partner in conversation with today’s cognitive poetics. The continued relevance of the neoclassical rules of poetic justice, the unities, and decorum (as well as their cognitive underpinnings) is illustrated through case studies that trace the explicit and implicit influences which these rules had on the developing narrative shape of the novel in the eighteenth century. These case studies consider canonical novels (such as Pamela, Clarissa, and Tom Jones), their alternative versions (such as Shamela and Anti-Pamela), and works that have recently gathered more critical attention (such as The Female Quixote). It is shown that the neoclassical heritage influenced novels across different modes, including realist and utopian works (such as L’An 2440) as well as Gothic fiction (such as The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Castle of Otranto).
Karin Kukkonen
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190634766
- eISBN:
- 9780190634780
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190634766.003.0002
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
This chapter connects neoclassical criticism with today’s cognitive approaches to literature conceptually by introducing the notion of “situational logic,” derived from Karl Popper. For a literary ...
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This chapter connects neoclassical criticism with today’s cognitive approaches to literature conceptually by introducing the notion of “situational logic,” derived from Karl Popper. For a literary text, the situational logic refers to the world, characters, and actions of the narrative. Its shape can be described by the neoclassical rules, which cover different dimensions of the narrative and create its overall vraisemblance. Different choices for this situational logic are always possible and will be discussed in relation to alternative versions of the main narratives in the case studies. In addition, the chapter introduces the key cognitive approaches as they correspond to the overarching neoclassical model of literature and interact with each other in the framework of situational logic. Finally, this chapter addresses the historical context from which the texts emerge.Less
This chapter connects neoclassical criticism with today’s cognitive approaches to literature conceptually by introducing the notion of “situational logic,” derived from Karl Popper. For a literary text, the situational logic refers to the world, characters, and actions of the narrative. Its shape can be described by the neoclassical rules, which cover different dimensions of the narrative and create its overall vraisemblance. Different choices for this situational logic are always possible and will be discussed in relation to alternative versions of the main narratives in the case studies. In addition, the chapter introduces the key cognitive approaches as they correspond to the overarching neoclassical model of literature and interact with each other in the framework of situational logic. Finally, this chapter addresses the historical context from which the texts emerge.
Vanessa Joosen (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496815163
- eISBN:
- 9781496815200
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496815163.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Media narratives in popular culture often ascribe interchangeable characteristics to childhood and old age. In the manner of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By, the authors in this ...
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Media narratives in popular culture often ascribe interchangeable characteristics to childhood and old age. In the manner of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By, the authors in this volume envision the presumed semblance between children and the elderly as a root metaphor that finds succinct articulation in the idea that “children are like old people” and vice versa. The volume explores the recurrent use of this root metaphor in literature and media from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. The authors demonstrate how it shapes and is reinforced by a spectrum of media products from Western and East-Asian countries. Most the media products addressed were developed for children as their primary audience, and range from children’s classics such as Heidi to recent Dutch children’s books about euthanasia. Various authors also consider narratives produced either for adults (for instance, the TV series Mad Men, and the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) or for a dual audience (for example, the family film Paddington or The Simpsons). The diversity of these products in terms of geography, production date, and audience buttresses a broad comparative exploration of the connection between childhood and old age, allowing the authors to bring out culturally specific aspects and biases. Finally, since this book also unites scholars from a variety of disciplines (media studies, children’s literature studies, film studies, pedagogy, sociology), the individual chapters provide a range of methods for studying the connection between childhood and old age.Less
Media narratives in popular culture often ascribe interchangeable characteristics to childhood and old age. In the manner of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By, the authors in this volume envision the presumed semblance between children and the elderly as a root metaphor that finds succinct articulation in the idea that “children are like old people” and vice versa. The volume explores the recurrent use of this root metaphor in literature and media from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. The authors demonstrate how it shapes and is reinforced by a spectrum of media products from Western and East-Asian countries. Most the media products addressed were developed for children as their primary audience, and range from children’s classics such as Heidi to recent Dutch children’s books about euthanasia. Various authors also consider narratives produced either for adults (for instance, the TV series Mad Men, and the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) or for a dual audience (for example, the family film Paddington or The Simpsons). The diversity of these products in terms of geography, production date, and audience buttresses a broad comparative exploration of the connection between childhood and old age, allowing the authors to bring out culturally specific aspects and biases. Finally, since this book also unites scholars from a variety of disciplines (media studies, children’s literature studies, film studies, pedagogy, sociology), the individual chapters provide a range of methods for studying the connection between childhood and old age.
Terence Cave
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198749417
- eISBN:
- 9780191817328
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198749417.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This ‘virtual manifesto’ outlines a programme for future directions in cognitive literary study, defining its objectives and emphasizing the key notion of ‘thinking with literature’: literature as an ...
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This ‘virtual manifesto’ outlines a programme for future directions in cognitive literary study, defining its objectives and emphasizing the key notion of ‘thinking with literature’: literature as an instrument of cognition for writers, readers and critics.Less
This ‘virtual manifesto’ outlines a programme for future directions in cognitive literary study, defining its objectives and emphasizing the key notion of ‘thinking with literature’: literature as an instrument of cognition for writers, readers and critics.
Catherine J. Stevens
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199659647
- eISBN:
- 9780191771651
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659647.003.0019
- Subject:
- Psychology, Music Psychology, Social Psychology
Studies of expressiveness in music from a cognitive psychological perspective have, until now, tended to analyze emotional response to music as a proxy for expression. The present collection, ...
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Studies of expressiveness in music from a cognitive psychological perspective have, until now, tended to analyze emotional response to music as a proxy for expression. The present collection, together with contemporary views of cognition as extended, situated, distributed, and embodied, point to the significance of cultural, social and historical influences on what it is to be expressive. Building from these updated assumptions, this brief prospective for cognitive studies discusses multimodal and inter-sensory expressiveness in music, song as a natural intersection of speech and music, and the importance of investigating diverse musical materials, performance settings, and genres. The challenge for cognitive psychology is to develop sophisticated ways of observing, recording, analyzing, and interpreting musical phenomena that connect across levels of description. The knitting together of micro and macro levels of description via theory is The Next Big Thing.Less
Studies of expressiveness in music from a cognitive psychological perspective have, until now, tended to analyze emotional response to music as a proxy for expression. The present collection, together with contemporary views of cognition as extended, situated, distributed, and embodied, point to the significance of cultural, social and historical influences on what it is to be expressive. Building from these updated assumptions, this brief prospective for cognitive studies discusses multimodal and inter-sensory expressiveness in music, song as a natural intersection of speech and music, and the importance of investigating diverse musical materials, performance settings, and genres. The challenge for cognitive psychology is to develop sophisticated ways of observing, recording, analyzing, and interpreting musical phenomena that connect across levels of description. The knitting together of micro and macro levels of description via theory is The Next Big Thing.
Isabel Jaen and Julien Jacques Simon (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190256555
- eISBN:
- 9780190256579
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190256555.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Cognitive Approaches to Early Modern Spanish Literature is the first anthology exploring human cognition and literature in the context of early modern Spanish culture. It includes the leading voices ...
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Cognitive Approaches to Early Modern Spanish Literature is the first anthology exploring human cognition and literature in the context of early modern Spanish culture. It includes the leading voices in the field, along with the main themes and directions that this important area of study has been producing. The book begins with an overview of the cognitive literary studies research that has been taking place within early modern Spanish studies over the last fifteen years. Section II traces the creation of self in the context of the novel, focusing on Cervantes’ Don Quixote in relation to the notions of embodiment and autopoiesis as well as the faculties of memory and imagination as understood in early modernity. Section III illustrates how the concept of embodiment is especially pertinent to delve into the mechanics of the interaction between actors and audience both in the jongleuresque and the comedia traditions. Section IV centers on cognitive theories of perception, the psychology of immersion in fictional worlds, and early modern and modern-day notions of intentionality to discuss the role of perceiving and understanding others in performance, Don Quixote, and courtly conduct manuals. Section V focuses on the affective dimension of audience–performer interactions in the theatrical space of the Spanish corrales and how emotion and empathy can inform new approaches to presenting Las Casas’ work in the literature classroom. The volume closes with an afterword offering strategies to design a course on mind and literature in early modernity.Less
Cognitive Approaches to Early Modern Spanish Literature is the first anthology exploring human cognition and literature in the context of early modern Spanish culture. It includes the leading voices in the field, along with the main themes and directions that this important area of study has been producing. The book begins with an overview of the cognitive literary studies research that has been taking place within early modern Spanish studies over the last fifteen years. Section II traces the creation of self in the context of the novel, focusing on Cervantes’ Don Quixote in relation to the notions of embodiment and autopoiesis as well as the faculties of memory and imagination as understood in early modernity. Section III illustrates how the concept of embodiment is especially pertinent to delve into the mechanics of the interaction between actors and audience both in the jongleuresque and the comedia traditions. Section IV centers on cognitive theories of perception, the psychology of immersion in fictional worlds, and early modern and modern-day notions of intentionality to discuss the role of perceiving and understanding others in performance, Don Quixote, and courtly conduct manuals. Section V focuses on the affective dimension of audience–performer interactions in the theatrical space of the Spanish corrales and how emotion and empathy can inform new approaches to presenting Las Casas’ work in the literature classroom. The volume closes with an afterword offering strategies to design a course on mind and literature in early modernity.
Vanessa Joosen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496815163
- eISBN:
- 9781496815200
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496815163.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The introduction addresses the urgent need to study intergenerational relationships and situates the connection between childhood and old age in a historical context and within age studies. The main ...
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The introduction addresses the urgent need to study intergenerational relationships and situates the connection between childhood and old age in a historical context and within age studies. The main theoretical concepts on which the authors in this volume rely are introduced: drawing on cognitive studies, they treat the connection between childhood and old age as a “root metaphor” (Lakoff & Johnson) and study age not as a biological given, but as a social performance. A performative take on age in fiction involves terminological challenges, and the introduction situates ways of defining age and phases in the life course in a multinational, multimedia context. It also offers some pragmatic solutions for discussing age despite these challenges. Finally, the introduction establishes three basic patterns in the way that old age and childhood are connected: affinity, complementarity, and conflict. Each pattern is discussed in detail with reference to the contributions in the volume.Less
The introduction addresses the urgent need to study intergenerational relationships and situates the connection between childhood and old age in a historical context and within age studies. The main theoretical concepts on which the authors in this volume rely are introduced: drawing on cognitive studies, they treat the connection between childhood and old age as a “root metaphor” (Lakoff & Johnson) and study age not as a biological given, but as a social performance. A performative take on age in fiction involves terminological challenges, and the introduction situates ways of defining age and phases in the life course in a multinational, multimedia context. It also offers some pragmatic solutions for discussing age despite these challenges. Finally, the introduction establishes three basic patterns in the way that old age and childhood are connected: affinity, complementarity, and conflict. Each pattern is discussed in detail with reference to the contributions in the volume.
Natalie Gerber
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282043
- eISBN:
- 9780823285983
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282043.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
Modernist American poets Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams insisted on the values of linguistic sound beyond the semantic. Stevens focused on the modulations of the sounds ...
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Modernist American poets Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams insisted on the values of linguistic sound beyond the semantic. Stevens focused on the modulations of the sounds and lexical stresses of individual words within the meter. Frost and Williams focused on the less predictable intonational contours of phrases and sentences (although for Frost, the intonational contours play with and against the metrical pattern, whereas for Williams, lines tend to align with intonational phrases, turning prosodic speech tunes into a prosodic verse measure). Drawing on recent cognitive studies that pertain to the processing of speech sound and birdsong, this article suggests a need to revise critical assessments of the poets’ investments of belief in sound; it also considers why, given this research, Frost’s theory of sentence sounds has, perhaps unfairly, fared a worse critical reception.Less
Modernist American poets Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams insisted on the values of linguistic sound beyond the semantic. Stevens focused on the modulations of the sounds and lexical stresses of individual words within the meter. Frost and Williams focused on the less predictable intonational contours of phrases and sentences (although for Frost, the intonational contours play with and against the metrical pattern, whereas for Williams, lines tend to align with intonational phrases, turning prosodic speech tunes into a prosodic verse measure). Drawing on recent cognitive studies that pertain to the processing of speech sound and birdsong, this article suggests a need to revise critical assessments of the poets’ investments of belief in sound; it also considers why, given this research, Frost’s theory of sentence sounds has, perhaps unfairly, fared a worse critical reception.
Jonas Grethlein, Luuk Huitink, and Aldo Tagliabue (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198848295
- eISBN:
- 9780191882845
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198848295.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This volume, which brings together thirteen essays written by international specialists in the language, literature, and culture of ancient Greece, pursues a new approach to ancient Greek narrative ...
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This volume, which brings together thirteen essays written by international specialists in the language, literature, and culture of ancient Greece, pursues a new approach to ancient Greek narrative beyond the taxonomies of structuralist narratologies. Focusing on the phenomenal and experiential dimension of our response to narrative, it triangulates ancient narrative with ancient criticism and cognitive approaches. Concepts such as immersion and embodiment help to establish a more comprehensive understanding of ancient narrative and ancient reading habits, as manifested in Greek criticism and rhetorical theory. At the same time, the rich ancient material opens up a historical perspective for cognitive studies. The individual chapters tackle a wide range of narrative genres, broadly understood, besides epic, historiography, and the novel, also tragedy and early Christian texts, while also considering such media as dance and sculpture. They do so with the help of a rich set of theoretical and methodological tools, taken from cognitive studies, phenomenology, and linguistics.Less
This volume, which brings together thirteen essays written by international specialists in the language, literature, and culture of ancient Greece, pursues a new approach to ancient Greek narrative beyond the taxonomies of structuralist narratologies. Focusing on the phenomenal and experiential dimension of our response to narrative, it triangulates ancient narrative with ancient criticism and cognitive approaches. Concepts such as immersion and embodiment help to establish a more comprehensive understanding of ancient narrative and ancient reading habits, as manifested in Greek criticism and rhetorical theory. At the same time, the rich ancient material opens up a historical perspective for cognitive studies. The individual chapters tackle a wide range of narrative genres, broadly understood, besides epic, historiography, and the novel, also tragedy and early Christian texts, while also considering such media as dance and sculpture. They do so with the help of a rich set of theoretical and methodological tools, taken from cognitive studies, phenomenology, and linguistics.
Karin Kukkonen
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190913045
- eISBN:
- 9780190913076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190913045.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter challenges the assumption that throughout history the novel gets progressively better at realism and at matching its language in cognitive processes. It characterises this assumption as ...
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This chapter challenges the assumption that throughout history the novel gets progressively better at realism and at matching its language in cognitive processes. It characterises this assumption as “the curse of realism,” which retroactively imposes standards from the nineteenth-century novel onto texts from earlier periods and evaluates them as lacking stylistic and narrative achievements that they never aimed for. A counter-model, based on embodied cognition and predictive, probabilistic cognition, is proposed. This allows cognitive approaches to literature to move away from a teleological perspective (where the novel improves its match with cognition) and towards a dialectic perspective (where literary texts can relate to cognition in ways that are not inherently more accurate than others). This chapter lays the overall theoretical foundations for the case studies in the following chapters.Less
This chapter challenges the assumption that throughout history the novel gets progressively better at realism and at matching its language in cognitive processes. It characterises this assumption as “the curse of realism,” which retroactively imposes standards from the nineteenth-century novel onto texts from earlier periods and evaluates them as lacking stylistic and narrative achievements that they never aimed for. A counter-model, based on embodied cognition and predictive, probabilistic cognition, is proposed. This allows cognitive approaches to literature to move away from a teleological perspective (where the novel improves its match with cognition) and towards a dialectic perspective (where literary texts can relate to cognition in ways that are not inherently more accurate than others). This chapter lays the overall theoretical foundations for the case studies in the following chapters.
Paul Griffiths, Edouard Machery, and Stefan Linquist
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199927418
- eISBN:
- 9780190267698
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199927418.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
There have been several philosophical analyses of the concept of innateness which lead to an assumption that there is a single, consistent notion of innateness apart from its usage in the cognitive ...
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There have been several philosophical analyses of the concept of innateness which lead to an assumption that there is a single, consistent notion of innateness apart from its usage in the cognitive studies. This chapter illustrates that these investigations each apply one aspect of the vernacular concept of innateness while disregarding its other equally important features. It provides evidence supporting this argument by delving into a pre-scientific or vernacular comprehension of innateness. It then discusses the concept of folk biology and suggests a structure of vernacular innateness based on it. It also presents experimental studies testing this proposal and concludes that the concept of innateness is better understood through biological critic instead of philosophical analyses.Less
There have been several philosophical analyses of the concept of innateness which lead to an assumption that there is a single, consistent notion of innateness apart from its usage in the cognitive studies. This chapter illustrates that these investigations each apply one aspect of the vernacular concept of innateness while disregarding its other equally important features. It provides evidence supporting this argument by delving into a pre-scientific or vernacular comprehension of innateness. It then discusses the concept of folk biology and suggests a structure of vernacular innateness based on it. It also presents experimental studies testing this proposal and concludes that the concept of innateness is better understood through biological critic instead of philosophical analyses.
Karin Kukkonen
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190913045
- eISBN:
- 9780190913076
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190913045.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
The early novel developed modes of writing that are considered gripping and immersive, because they foreground physical states, meaningful gestures, and emotional excitement. This monograph shows how ...
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The early novel developed modes of writing that are considered gripping and immersive, because they foreground physical states, meaningful gestures, and emotional excitement. This monograph shows how these changes relate to “embodied” and “enactive” cognition, “embed” themselves into the cultural and material contexts, and “extend” readers’ thoughts. In an investigation of works from Eliza Haywood, Charlotte Lennox, Sarah Fielding, and Frances Burney, it traces the ways in which such “4E cognition” can contribute to a new perspective on stylistic and narrative changes in eighteenth-century fiction. The embodied dimension of literary language is then related to the media ecologies of letter writing, book learning, and theatricality in the eighteenth century. As the novel feeds off and into these social and material contexts, it comes into its own as a lifeworld technology that might not answer to standards of nineteenth-century realism but that feels real because it is integrated into the lifeworld and its embodied experiences. Together with the issue of realism, this book revisits traditional understandings of the “rise of the novel” and earlier historical perspectives in cognitive literary studies. And the perspective from 4E cognition, it is argued, opens links to book history and media ecologies that can launch historically situated cognitive approaches to literature.Less
The early novel developed modes of writing that are considered gripping and immersive, because they foreground physical states, meaningful gestures, and emotional excitement. This monograph shows how these changes relate to “embodied” and “enactive” cognition, “embed” themselves into the cultural and material contexts, and “extend” readers’ thoughts. In an investigation of works from Eliza Haywood, Charlotte Lennox, Sarah Fielding, and Frances Burney, it traces the ways in which such “4E cognition” can contribute to a new perspective on stylistic and narrative changes in eighteenth-century fiction. The embodied dimension of literary language is then related to the media ecologies of letter writing, book learning, and theatricality in the eighteenth century. As the novel feeds off and into these social and material contexts, it comes into its own as a lifeworld technology that might not answer to standards of nineteenth-century realism but that feels real because it is integrated into the lifeworld and its embodied experiences. Together with the issue of realism, this book revisits traditional understandings of the “rise of the novel” and earlier historical perspectives in cognitive literary studies. And the perspective from 4E cognition, it is argued, opens links to book history and media ecologies that can launch historically situated cognitive approaches to literature.