Fundamentals of Cognitive Neuroscience: A Beginner's Guide

by Bernard Baars PhD, Nicole M. Gage PhD

Overview

Fundamentals of Cognitive Neuroscience is a comprehensive and easy-to-follow guide to cognitive neuroscience. Winner of a 2013 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Text and Academic Authors Association, this book was written by two leading experts in the field to be highly accessible to undergraduates with limited neuroscience training. It covers all aspects of the field—the neural framework, sight, sound, consciousness, learning/memory, problem solving, speech, executive control, emotions, socialization and development—in a student-friendly format with extensive pedagogy and ancillaries to aid both the student and professor.

This introductory text takes a unique thematic approach, guiding students along a clear path to understand the latest findings whether or not they have a background in neuroscience. It includes case studies and everyday examples designed to help students understand the more challenging aspects of the material. It is richly illustrated with carefully selected color graphics to enhance understanding. Enhanced pedagogy highlights key concepts for the student and aids in teaching. Chapter outlines, study questions, glossary, and image collection are also available on the student's companion website. Ancillary support saves instructors time and facilitates learning; test questions, image collection, and lecture slides are available on the instructor's manual website.

This book will be of interest to undergraduate students in Neuroscience, Psychology, and related disciplines that teach cognitive neuroscience.

• Provides a complete introduction to mind-brain science, written to be highly accessible to undergraduates with limited neuroscience training
• Richly illustrated with carefully selected color graphics to enhance understanding
• Enhanced pedagogy highlights key concepts for the student and aids in teaching - chapter outlines, study questions, glossary, and image collection are also available on student's companion website
• Ancillary support saves instructors time and facilitates learning - test questions, image collection, and lecture slides available on instructor's manual website

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780124158658
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	01/25/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
File size:	19 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Dr. Baars is a former senior fellow at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, California, and a worldwide leader in the study of cognitive architecture and consciousness. He cofounded both the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness and the Academic Press journal Consciousness&Cognition.
Dr. Gage is a researcher at the University of California, Irvine, and the director of UCI’s Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Laboratory. She actively teaches in the area of consciousness and cognition and is the coauthor, with Bernard Baars, of our highly successful graduate-level cognitive neuroscience textbook on which Fundamentals of Cognitive Neuroscience is based.

Table of Contents

1. Mind and Brain
2. A Useful Framework
3. The Nerve Cell
4. The Brain
5. Brain Imaging
6. The Art of Seeing
7. Sound, Speech, and Music Perception
8. The Brain Is Conscious
9. Learning and Memory
10. Thinking
11. Language
12. Decisions, Goals, and Actions
13. Social Cognition
14. Growing Up

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Easy-to-follow introduction that helps undergraduate students understand the neural basis of cognition

Editorial Reviews

"This introductory textbook on cognitive neuroscience is a welcome addition to the field...The book won the 2013 Most Promising New Textbook Award in the life sciences from the Text and Academic Authors Association, an award that recognizes excellence in first-year edition textbooks and learning materials." —The Quarterly Review of Biology, June 2014

"This introductory text offers a comprehensive and easy-to- follow guide to cognitive neuroscience. Chapters cover all aspects of the field…in a student-friendly format with extensive pedagogy and ancillaries to aid both the student and professor. Throughout the text, case studies and everyday examples are used to help students understand the more challenging aspects of the material. Written by two leading experts in the field, the text takes a unique thematic approach, guiding students along a clear path to understand the latest findings whether or not they have a background in neuroscience." —Doody.com, April 24, 2013

"Fundamentals of Cognitive Neuroscience: A Beginner's Guide should be widely used as the required text in focused cognitive neuroscience courses taught at the undergraduate level. Additionally, the information it contains will likely be of use to those professors teaching a variety of psychology and biology elective courses and should be consulted for applicable reading material due to its clarity and style." —MedicalScienceBooks.com (2012)

"This introductory text offers a comprehensive and easy-to-follow guide to cognitive neuroscience. Chapters cover all aspects of the field - the neural framework, sight, sound, consciousness, learning/memory, problem solving, speech, executive control, emotions, socialization and development - in a student-friendly format with extensive pedagogy and ancillaries to aid both the student and professor. Throughout the text, case studies and everyday examples are used to help students understand the more challenging aspects of the material. Written by two leading experts in the field, the text takes a unique thematic approach, guiding students along a clear path to understand the latest findings whether or not they have a background in neuroscience." —MedicalScienceBooks.com

"There was a lot of ambiguity in the previous texts that I used for my undergraduate cognitive neuroscience course. There was so much waffling between positions and opinions in the other books that it was hard for beginning students to get a handle on basic concepts. Overall the student feedback was quite poor. I think the new Baars/Gage Fundamentals of Cognitive Neuroscience book is much more straight forward and to the point with the concepts." — Michael S. Cannizzaro, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, University of Vermont

From the Publisher