Cognitive Psychology and Information Processing: An Introduction [Paperback]

First published in 1979. Basic research, at its essence, is exploration of the unknown. When it is successful, isolated pieces of reality are deciphered and described. Most of the history of an empirical discipline consists of probes into this darkness-some bold, others careful and systematic. Most of these efforts are initially incorrect. At best, they are distant approximations to a reality that may not be correctly specified for centuries. How, then, can we describe the fragmented knowledge that characterizes a scientific discipline for most of its history? A dynamic field of science is held together by its paradigm. The authors think it is essential to adequate scientific education to teach paradigms, and believe that there is an effective method. The method emphasizes the integral nature, rather than the objective correctness, of a given set of consensual commitments. They believe that paradigmatic content can be effectively combined with the technical research literature commonly presented in scientific texts. This book represents the culmination of those beliefs.1. SCIENCE AND PARADIGMS:THE PREMISES OF THIS BOOK 2. PSYCHOLOGY'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE INFORMATION-PROCESSING PARADIGM 3. CONTRIBUTIONS OF OTHER DISCIPLINES TO INFORMATION-PROCESSING PSYCHOLOGY 4. THE INFORMATION-PROCESSING PARADIGM 5. REACTION TIME: THE MEASURE OF AN EMERGING PARADIGM 6. CONSCIOUSNESS AND ATTENTION 7. SOME STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF HUMAN MEMORY: THE EPISODIC MEMORY SYSTEM AND ITS PARTS 8. FLEXIBILITY IN THE EPISODIC MEMORY SYSTEM: NEW DIRECTIONS FOR MUL TISTORE MODELS 9. SEMANTIC MEMORY 10. PSYCHOLINGUISTICS 11. COMPREHENSION FROM THE PSYCHOLINGUISTIC VIEWPOINT 12. DISCOURSE PROCESSING AND GLOBAL MODELS OF COMPREHENSION 13. PATTERN RECOGNITION 14. EPILOGUE: CRITIQUES OF THE PARADIGMRoy Lachman and Janet L. Lachman University of Houston, Earl. C.Butterfield University of Kansas Medical CenterUSCopyright? 1979 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.