This book describes the basic features of specifically human psychology the ways in which we perceive, think, and act that are different from all other animal species. Topics include the traditional themes of language and tool-making as well as less-commonly discussed subjects such as music and visual art. The mental processes of animals are fundamentally dyadic (associational), whereas the human mind demonstrates an ability for triadic cognition.
The big question in the science of psychology is: Why are human cognition and behavior so different from the capabilities of every other animal species on Earth including our close genetic relations, the chimpanzees? This book provides a coherent answer by examining those aspects of the human brain that have made triadic forms of perception and cognition possible. Mechanisms of dyadic association sufficiently explain animal perception, cognition, and behavior but a three-way associational mechanism is required to explain the human talents for language, tool-making, harmony perception, pictorial depth perception, and the joint attention that underlies all forms of social cooperation.
Recenzijos
'Cook's unique thesis is that the human mind emerged from two related evolutionary changes: triadic sensory processing and cerebral laterality. In making stone tools, our early ancestors learned how to handle visual, auditory and touch information simultaneously in posterior association cortex. But, in making tools they were obliged to train one hand (hemisphere) to be the motor executive. Precisely because the other 'non-dominant' hemisphere was not an executive, it developed its own talents for various types of configurational processing: face recognition, harmony perception, language prosody and other holistic processes not requiring executive control.' Theodor Landis, Université de Genčve
Daugiau informacijos
This book addresses the difference between the mental processes of animals and those of the human mind.
1. Introduction;
2. Human hearing: harmony;
3. Human seeing: perspective;
4. Human work: tools and handedness;
5. Human communication: language;
6. Consciousness;
7. Loose ends;
8. Conclusion.
Norman D. Cook has authored three books on human psychology, Stability and Flexibility (1980), The Brain Code (1986) and Tone of Voice and Mind (2002). He has also published articles in numerous journals, including Nature, Perception, Journal of Experimental Psychology, Brain, American Scientist, Behavioral Science, Empirical Aesthetics, Music Perception, Spatial Vision, Cognitive Science, Brain and Language, Brain and Cognition, Consciousness and Cognition and Neuroscience. He is currently a professor of cognitive psychology at Kansai University, Osaka.
