Bradford Books

When thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Tilley and her parents board the Mayflower in 1620, they have high hopes for a better life in the New World. Although they are not Puritan Separatists like many of the passengers, the Tilleys have few economic opportunities in England. But after a long and difficult sea voyage, the Mayflower arrives in Cape Cod in the dead of winter. On deck one night, Elizabeth sees Dorothy Bradford, one of the other passengers, standing by the railing, but tells no one. The next morning, Dorothy has disappeared, presumed drowned. Elizabeth feels terrible guilt and is determined to hide her secret, fearing blame. Soon after, both of Elizabeth's parents die from disease. Elizabeth feels all alone, without family and with few friends, and burdened by the terrible secret she hides.

This was a good historical novel about the voyage on the Mayflower and the settling of Plymouth colony. Elizabeth Tilley was a real passenger on the Mayflower, and the authors did a good job at imagining what her life might have been like in the first years of the colony. I would recommend this book to young readers who enjoy stories about Colonial America and the Pilgrims.

I read this book as part of a Robotics Research project. It is a good introduction to Neuronal Modeling, and it was the first technical handbook of computational neuroscience. The book is a series of 13 articles on topics such as computer simulations of neural circuits, biophysical mechanisms for computation in neurons, etc. Each chapter concludes with a description of the model discussed and the details of its implementation on the computer. Since it is a series of articles, with many authors, the book feels a little bit fragmented. However, it is put together nicely and must have been skillfully edited. The book is easy to read, as well as interesting.

The book should be of interest to a variety of people in Medicine and Technology (other than the people in the specific field), but especially to those who work with Artificial Neural Networks. An interested layman could also read this book. I have to admit that I have not read the second edition of this book, but hopefully it is equally good, in addition to being more up to date, so the second edition would probably be the one you should buy first.

The essays in this book are speculative, but most of the book consists of reviews of "where we have been, where we are now" with cautious extrapolations towards the future. There are a few exceptions, but I skimmed them: I'll read a good SF novel instead.

Published in 1996, as a body the essays have aged very well. There has been a great deal of progress in neuroscience in the last decade, and it continues to pace ahead. Still, this is a good book for getting up to speed and virtually every paragraph is easily understood by laymen.

I found four spelling errors in my hardcover copy.

This book could be considered to be a non-mathematical introduction to Bayesian networks, as applied to the field of cognitive psychology. It is readily apparent that the author does not believe that traditional statistical methods, such as factor and regression analysis, are unsuitable tools for the study of how the human mind gains an understanding and knowledge of the causal structure of the world. Bayesian networks are thus brought in to replace these methods.

The author begins the book by distinguishing between `graphical causal structures,' which include structures with feedback, from `causal Bayes nets', which do not. He concentrates on the latter in the book, believing that they have great utility in psychological theory, namely in studies of adult judgment, psychometrics, cognitive neuropsychology, and in developmental and social psychology. In particular, causal Bayes nets can be used to successfully model the 'theory theory' which was developed to understand how cognition develops in infants and children. Children are of course able to learn the causal structure of the world, and this ability can be captured by the use of causal Bayes nets. In the context of developmental psychology, the emphasis in the book is on how children obtain the ability to predict and control their environment, and not on how they obtain the ability to generate explicit causal explanations.

The author gives a brief history of cognitive psychology in order to motivate the ideas in the book. The discussion is intriguing, for it sheds light on the attitudes, biases, and the frequent extreme pessimism of practitioners in the field. Some cognitive psychologists for example held to the belief that humans are unable to conform to moral or rational standards, and that even if they are able to do this in some contexts or circumstances, a change in these circumstances will suppress this conformity. Science, the ultimate in rational endeavor, is in this view an "unstable oddity" that can only be sustained if sophisticated structures of social interaction are constructed.

The author though has a realistic assessment of practice, and points to the "child scientist" as being one that has a genuine desire for the understanding and control of the environment, is not worried about competition for jobs or tenure, and thus is not unduly biased by the need for them. The "child scientist" is to be distinguished from the "adult scientist," the latter of which is distracted by societal issues that force them out of their rational equilibrium.

Most interesting, because the author is a professional philosopher, is his statement that twentieth-century philosophy does not seem to permit any concept of the logic of discovery. Scientific inquiry or investigation, hypothesis testing, etc, cannot be described algorithmically. The author though describes these views as being "quaint," and offers as proof the progress that has been made in machine learning. The study of machines or 'computational systems' that can gain knowledge of the world via its sensory inputs and 'primitive abilities' is what the author has designated as 'android epistemology.' The author characterizes 'android epistemology' as being the most ambitious project of all in artificial intelligence. What he does not mention though is that major progress has been made in this project in the last decade. Along these same lines, a newcomer to artificial intelligence will hear mention of the 'frame problem,' which involves the need for the specification of not only what changes but also what does not change under a particular action. The frame problem has been the subject of considerable debate in the artificial intelligence community, and is also an issue in the developmental psychology of infants and children.

The construction of a causal Bayes net uses the causal Markov assumption and the notion of an acyclic directed graph. The author views causes, effects, etc. in terms of concepts: The concept of the causes of a feature or collection of features; the concept of the effects of a feature or collection of features, and most importantly causes are to be distinguished from covariates. To reduce computational complexity, edges can be reduced or connections with low probability can be eliminated. Variables with a common effect can be collapsed, as well as causes with distinct effects. Features that are mutually exclusive can be represented by an abstract variable. Variables that are intermediate between other variables can be deleted if adjustments are made, and variables can be refined and coarsened if needed. Prior knowledge can be used or omitted if desired.

A sizable portion of the book is devoted to the discussion of the efficacy of human judgment in causation. The author discusses experiments that test this efficacy, and how the data is interpreted with respect to the Rescorla-Wagner model. This model has dominated psychological theories of human and animal learning for many years, but the author discusses an example that indicates problems with this model. This is followed by a discussion of the Cheng model of human judgment of generative causal power. The Cheng model can be expressed as a Bayes net, and the author gives detailed discussion on just how effective this representation can be.

The most interesting chapter of the book concerns the use of neural networks to study the effects of brain lesions. A baseline neural network is constructed that is supposed to emulate the normal capacity of the brain. This network is then altered in order to model the functioning of a damaged brain. This strategy is particularly interesting, and very important considering the enormous efforts that are currently being made to connect experimental data to neural network architectures. The author quotes theorems that indicate that the transmission functions of the neural network are really arbitrary as far as the independence properties of the network are concerned. The "lesioning" of the neural network cannot eliminate any of these independencies. These results, which seem to cast doubt on the strategy of using lesioning, do not negate the use of Bayesian neural networks to study brain lesions. These theorems do not invalidate the use of Bayesian neural networks.

"Cognitive Science" is a slippery notion, which may be intrinsic to any endeavor (oops, Thagard's Canadian; make that "endeavour") that emerges from many different fields. But Thagard makes an honorable and largely successful stab at giving it some boundaries and some internal structure. If you're intrigued by the idea of mind science and just want a general idea of what the issues, approaches and shortcomings of its current state are, then this book (written for an introductory, probably undergraduate, course) is a fine place to start.

Philosophical ethics generally takes the form of deriving moral principles from arguments based on reason alone. The only bow to empirical reality is, in Kant's phrase, "ought implies can"; i.e., a moral principle must be capable of being followed by normal mortals. This position is virtually forced upon philsophers who accept Hume's critique of the "naturalistic fallacy," according to which it is impossible to derive normative principles from empirical facts alone ("is" cannot imply "ought"), or Moore's argument that "the Good" cannot be reduced to a set of descriptions of the natural world.

Casebeer rejects both arguments, and attempts to develop a naturalistic ethical theory from human nature (evolution) and the structure of the human brain (connectionism), arriving at an Aristotelian "virtue theory" in which the virtuous person strikes the appropriate mean between possible extremes of social behavior. Casebeer's argument is an extended and rigorous defense of Paul Churchland's treatment of moral cognition as a "skill" that is learned by example. "Moral knowledge becomes" Casebeer concludes (p. 105) "...knowledge of the structure of our social environment and how to navigate effectively within it."

Casebeer is an intelligent and engaging writer, and there are many very interesting insights and arguments in this book, which I therefore recommend to others interested in ethics. However, I do not believe Casebeer succeeds in defending his position, and indeed, I think it is quite indefensible.

Ethics, for Casebeer, Churchland, and perhaps even Aristotle, is the study of how people should behave if they are to "flourish" in the sense of maximizing their human potential, which is what is meant by "navigating successfully" in society. Ethical behavior is like good manners and appropriate dress, all of which are higher level social skills that allow one to better cultivate the self. It is thus virtually taken for granted that if one knows what is ethically correct, one will naturally follow its precepts (Casebeer follows Aristotle in analyzing "akrasia"---knowing the right thing to do but choosing not to do it---to "weakness of will" or other forms of irrationality).

This view of morality is of some personal and social importance, but does not cover moral choices that involve sacrificing one's personal well-being on behalf of the well-being of others (e.g., voting, participating in a collective action, saving a drowning child, fighting bravely for one's country), or when to behave in certain ways that are personally costly but have higher moral value (e.g., being honest or working hard). Nor does this view cover basic issues of political ethics, such as when is authority justified, what is the proper division of labor between the sexes, is it ethical to buy and sell bodily organs, and should abortion be legal? These fall completely outside the framework of this book.

The relationship between ethics (even of the limited sort entertained by Casebeer) and connectionism is also less obviously important than the author would have us believe. Connectionism as a psychological theory is itself not highly plausible, despite the voluminous writings of its few advocates, since neural nets reflect some but probably not all of brain structure. Moreover, the only implication of connectionism with ethics that I could ascertain from this book (and the writings of Paul Churchland and other connectionists) is that moral teaching is better accomplished by example than by the listing of basic principles. This may be true, but it does not require connectionism and it is hardly an earthshaking insight.

A final point: there is virtually nothing about evolution in this book.

I'm a photographer who thinks about photography and its relationship to human vision. Wade's book is an inspiration for that kind of thinking. What is remarkable about this book is the way it reveals that understanding HOW we see did not come easily to humanity.

by Susan Tam

Elizabeth has been touring a restored village on the St. Lawrence river in Canada with her classmates. She is drawn to the tavern on the grounds. As she follows the tour guide, she is thrown back in time. She is no longer Elizabeth Duncan but Elizabeth Frobisher. She is no longer in the present but back in the past, the War of 1812 is about to begin and she is watching it happen.

Elizabeth Frobisher is slowly recovering from her illness. Thus her family and friends dismisses her "strangeness" as part of her illness. She is found wandering around by family friends and brought home. Elizabeth realizes she is living in the past and tries to remember all she was taught in history class. She has to learn how to live in the 19th century - from the clothing to the food. She gets to interact with the Indians living in the area and she is a caretaker for her many siblings. Elizabeth's brother is joining the militia to fight. She is worried since she knows that the war will be starting soon. Can Elizabeth find her way back to the future? Or is she fated to stay in the past forever?

This book would be excellent for young readers. It presents "history" in an unique way. The story pulls the reader in and keeps you interested till the very last page. The author details the many facets of living in the early 19th century. She provides a nice balance in the amount of information she provides - it is just enough to educate and inform the reader and not so much as to drag the storyline down. The story was an easy read and I believe young readers will enjoy learning about "history" in the context of the storyline.

A reader curious about Paul would be unlikely to find a better guide to the places and cultural forces that formed his life. The book begins with descriptions of man, ship, and ports, an almost journalistic reporting of the transport of a man to Rome for trial -- "a man of consequence", treated with deference by his guards, middle-aged, educated,"a Levantine -- possibly a Jew." The author then describes, quoting occasionally from ancient historians, the city of his birth, Tarsus, typical familial life of one of his community (Pharisees), his probable education in Jerusalem, and extensive detail on the political and decadent social millieu of this Roman era. The author peppers the story of Paul with facts of the lives and foibles of other influential personalities of the period, including the Caesars and the scholars who tutored them. Gives one a very real sense of the small world of the new Christian sect, within the small world of Judea and Jewish culture, overwhelmed by the forces of the Roman Empire at the height of it's power and corruption. After the initial flashback the author hypothesyzes Paul's travels and missionary/revolutionary work with a continuation of detail, rich with knowledge of the places and cultures visited.

Attention continues to be a principle topic of cognitive psychology research, and Pashler has done well to create a seminal text on attention.

The book has three main divisions: the introduction, "attention and perception," and "attention, memory, and action." Beginning with a concise introduction to the major theories of attention, Pashler proceeds to review numerous topics of attention research while carefully relating those topics to the principle theories he first describes. In the four chapters addressing research relating attention and perception, Pashler reviews topics on attentional selection in respects to attentional capacity and early versus late selection process. Later in his work, the author bridges topics relating to memory and task performance. Throughout his chapters, Pashler covers many of the classic and most fundamental studies on (or related to) attention. The procedures and results of these studies are usually presented with clarity, although occasionally readability breaks down due to the complexity of ideas or incorporation of jargon (e.g., with Pashler's discussion of Shiffrin & Gardner, 1972, and the SIM/SUCC conditions).

While Pashler has accomplished a considerable overview of important work relating to the psychology of attention, his text is limited by not incorporating many recent studies. In general, Pashler's focus is on studies performed in the 1980's or earlier. Given that the text was originally published in 1998/99, it is unfortunate that more work from the 1990's was not incorporated. For example, the discussion on attention across different modalities misses many important, albeit post-1990, studies. Hopefully, Pashler will develop an updated version that incorporates more recent experimental results. A second, less significant, draw-back to Pashler's text is the sometimes dry writing style. At times, it can be a challenge to attend to Pashler's text about attention.

These flaws aside, Pashler's work is one of the most important works on attention and should be required reading for any researcher who investigates topics in cognitive psychology. Indeed, Pashler's text presents so many ideas that researchers (and students) interested in topics to include cognitive and neuroscience research on attention, perception, and modality functioning will find worthwhile material within this book.