Customer Reviews

Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the Study of Mind

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

What a horrible book. If you are a professor looking for a textbook for an interdisciplinary cognitive science class, absolutely DO NOT use this one. If you want to learn anything about the subject, DO NOT buy it. This horrible excuse for a textbook was written by a couple of psychologists who obviously don't know the first thing about philosophy, AI, computer science, or any of the other topics they attempt to address. An inordinately large amount of text is devoted to a complete history of psychology, while philosophical issues crucial to the field are given the short shrift.

Not only is the material in the book of reprehensible quality, it is presented in an embarrassingly slipshod manner. I can't imagine how a publisher could print this book and still respect themselves. The illustrations from the book consist of clip art and worse, and consistently look pixelly and distorted. As if it weren't bad enough that the material is second-rate, it's cheaply presented with useless and confusing diagrams and tables.

All in all, my undergraduate class could have put together a better text. Throughout the course we were consistently correcting and refuting the text. Our professor only ordered it for the class because he had not read it. This book is a waste of time, money, trees, effort, and space. Avoid it at all costs.

I totally agree with the previous negative review, so I'll just add my own disappointments here. I am currently taking a cognitive science course, and this is the textbook we're using. It's new this year, and I have a hunch it won't be on the menu for next semester.

It seems like at least a third of the text in this book is dedicated to sentences like this: "We have just now read [topic A], which was [description of topic A], and next we will cover topic B, and after that we'll cover topic C." This fluff/dust makes the book hard to read, and there is very little "meat" in between.

Here's an actual quote that made me laugh out loud this morning: (page 167)

"Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT). This technique was first developed in the 1970s. [short explanation of what it is, then new paragraph: ] Positron Emission Tomography (PET). This imaging proceedure (developed in the 1980s) was developed later than computerized axial tomography." Well, how about that, they even attempt to teach me about time: the 1980s came after the 1970s!!

Don't buy this book.

I read "Cognitive Science An Introduction to the Study of Mind" not for a course requirement, but because I was interested in the topic. The book provided a comprehensive and readable account of this new field. It explained ideas in a way that I could follow, not having had any specialized training in the different areas. The figures effectively broke up the text and helped to explain and expand upon concepts introduced in the chapters. The exercises and web links at the chapter endings invite to reiterate and explore topics in greater detail. There was also a web site with practice exams and electronic flash cards. I can see that it would be useful for an undergraduate if assigned for a course.

For the amount of material it covers, this is a great book. I read it cover to cover and I've kept even after finishing my intro to Cognitive Science course because it is straightforward and covers all of the basics of modern cognitive science. There is much more breadth to it than Thagard's book Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science, and Gazzaniga's Methods in Mind (although those are great books, they're more specific and more suited for upper level classes or as a supplement ot this book). I don't think the one star reviews are valid assessments; my major is Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology (it's a single interdisciplinary major at my school)and coming from a program with a heavier emphasis on philosophy than most cognitive science and psychology majors, I think it's unfair to demand that an introductory book like this delve too deeply into that aspect of the material. This gives a cursory explanation of the philosophical debates going on, but ultimately there's way too much going on in philosophy of the mind to be adequately introduced in a book that's also supposed to be giving an overview of cognitive psychology and neuroscience. To be fair, the text can get repetitive because the structure is the same througout the book, but that didn't keep me from reading it when I was taking the class. As a plus, the publisher's website offers some flashcards and review questions for each chapter which really helped me study for exams. If I were a cognitive science professor I'd use this for my intro class over Thagard's or Gazzaniga's.