First published in 1967, this seminal volume by Ulric Neisser was the first attempt at a comprehensive and accessible survey of Cognitive Psychology; as such, it provided the field with its first true textbook.
Its chapters are organized so that they began with stimulus information that came 'inward' through the organs of sense, through its many transformations and reconstructions, and finally through to its eventual use in thought and memory.
The volume inspired numerous students enter the field of cognitive psychology and some of the today's leading and most respected cognitive psychologists cite Neisser's book as the reason they embarked on their careers.
Foreword to the Classic Edition by Ira Hyman. Preface. Part 1: Introduction. 1. The Cognitive Approach. Part 2: Visual Cognition. 2. Iconic Storage and Verbal Coding. 3. Pattern Recognition. 4. Focal Attention and Figural Synthesis. 5. Words as Visual Patterns. 6. Visual Memory. Part 3: Auditory Cognition. 7. Speech Perception. 8. Echoic Memory and Auditory Attention. 9. Active Verbal Memory. 10. Sentences. Part 4: The Higher Mental Processes. 11. A Cognitive Approach to Memory and Thought.
Biography
Ulric Neisser (December 8, 1928 – February 17, 2012) was a German-born American psychologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was a significant figure in the development of cognitive science and the shift from behaviorist to cognitive models in psychology. He earned a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1950, a master’s at Swarthmore College, and a doctorate from Harvard’s Department of Social Relations in 1956. He then taught at Brandeis and Emory universities, before establishing himself at Cornell.
