Cognitive Psychology: Revisiting the Classic Studies

Professors complain that all cognitive psychology textbooks are the same. They can no longer do that. Cognitive Classics is a textbook with a distinct difference. The editors have chosen classic articles on key issues and recruited leaders in the field to write about the study and to provide an essay on the topic illuminated by that study. The result is a book that will educate students (and their teachers) by providing an historical introduction to the field and illuminating the topic under discussion with contemporary research, too.

In this original book, leading figures in cognitive psychology write about the impact of a selection of classic studies of the field. It is scholarly and provides the scientific background and impact of the studies, as well as a critique of each.

You don't normally expect a textbook to make you laugh out loud, but the author profiles in this one did. The quirkiness of an author's self-description sets the tone for this book; this is not a dry and dusty textbook, but a dynamic and animated discussion of how key works continue to shape the field of cognitive psychology...The various authors' passion for both their subject and their research really jumps off the page, grabbing the reader and bringing them along for the ride. Considering some of these studies are over 50 years old, making them seem so relevant and engaging shows why the studies included are classics. The main brief of the book is to ground these studies in the context of what was happening in psychology at the time and why these works were so groundbreaking...While this book will appeal to those already in the field, sufficient information is provided to give a good overview of each of the studies, enough to bring the casual reader up to speed, or provide further discussion than standard textbooks for those studying psychology.