The Machines Inside Our Brain: Cognitive Mechanisms of Information Processing

The Machines Inside Our Brain: Cognitive Mechanisms of Information Processing is an innovative anthology that not only provides students with engaging articles pertaining to brain processes of information processing and storage, but also teaches students how to strategically read, analyze, and digest scientific articles.

The collection begins with a comprehensive instructional chapter that teaches students how to approach the consumption and analysis of a scientific article. Readers learn about the compositional features of an article, what it means when an article is peer reviewed, how to effectively annotate an article to increase personal comprehension, and more. Students are then challenged to apply these techniques to the articles within the anthology, then answer a variety of deep, applied questions regarding their contents. The readings within the collection share research cover the variety of cognitive processes that our brains carry out. Specific articles explore attention, automatic processing of information, the manipulation of mental representations, accessing memory, the structure of short-term memory, the nature of knowledge representation, expertise, problem solving, and more.

A unique anthology that shares both classic and cutting-edge research while teaching students how to critically examine scientific articles, The Machines Inside Our Brain is well-suited for courses that focus on memory and brain processes, as well as classes that seek to provide a comprehensive survey of cognitive psychology while teaching students to read the primary scientific literature.

Geoffrey F. Woodman, Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, the director of graduate studies in the Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt University, and the co-director of a National Eye Institute T32 to the Vanderbilt Vision Research Center. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Iowa. Dr. Woodman's research examines how the mechanisms of visual attention and memory influence how we interact with the world around us. Visit his website at www.geoffwoodman.com.

Ashleigh M. Maxcey, Ph.D., is a visiting associate professor in the Department of Psychology at The Ohio State University, currently with a summer appointment at Vanderbilt University. She earned her master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Iowa with a specialization in cognition and perception. Dr. Maxcey's current research examines how human memory functions. Visit her website at www.ashleighmaxcey.com.

“The methods described in this book taught me strategies for reading and critically thinking about articles that helped me score in the 100th percentile on the MCAT. Success on the MCAT requires you to interpret complicated passages and apply the information you have studied to come to the correct answer. The methods in this book helped me practice this skill, significantly improving my MCAT score.”
Samantha Stallkamp, Neuroscience Major, The Ohio State University, Class of 2019