Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds

Barrett, Louise

ISBN 10: 0691126445 / ISBN 13: 9780691126449

Published by Princeton University Press, 2011

About this Item

1st edition/1st printing. Excellent copy; nearly new. Pristine, unmarked text. Binding is tight. Slight bump to bottom of spine. Cover corners are square. Small surface ding on back of jacket over cover hinge; no tears. Looks great overall. We are unable to ship oversize books and multi-volume sets internationally.

Seller Inventory # GG22503220002

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691126445
• ISBN 13: 9780691126449
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Weight: 19 ounces
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science:Neuroscience

About this title

Synopsis

A new approach to understanding animal and human cognition

When a chimpanzee stockpiles rocks as weapons or when a frog sends out mating calls, we might easily assume these animals know their own motivations--that they use the same psychological mechanisms that we do. But as Beyond the Brain indicates, this is a dangerous assumption because animals have different evolutionary trajectories, ecological niches, and physical attributes. How do these differences influence animal thinking and behavior? Removing our human-centered spectacles, Louise Barrett investigates the mind and brain and offers an alternative approach for understanding animal and human cognition. Drawing on examples from animal behavior, comparative psychology, robotics, artificial life, developmental psychology, and cognitive science, Barrett provides remarkable new insights into how animals and humans depend on their bodies and environment―not just their brains―to behave intelligently.

Barrett begins with an overview of human cognitive adaptations and how these color our views of other species, brains, and minds. Considering when it is worth having a big brain―or indeed having a brain at all―she investigates exactly what brains are good at. Showing that the brain's evolutionary function guides action in the world, she looks at how physical structure contributes to cognitive processes, and she demonstrates how these processes employ materials and resources in specific environments.

Arguing that thinking and behavior constitute a property of the whole organism, not just the brain, Beyond the Brain illustrates how the body, brain, and cognition are tied to the wider world.

About the Author

Louise Barrett is Professor of Psychology and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Cognition, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Lethbridge. She is the author of Baboons and the coauthor of Cousins, Walking with Cavemen, Human Evolutionary Psychology, and Evolutionary Psychology.