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Popular Books on Psychology
Cognitive Domain
Alkon, D. L. (1994). Memory’s voice: Deciphering the mind-brain code. New York: HarperCollins.
- This is a highly readable discussion of the biological roots of thinking, memory, and emotion with emphasis on memory. It contains the author’s memoirs, which are used to explore the factors that influenced the direction of his scientific career.
Baards, B. J. (1997). In the theater of consciousness: The workspace of the mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Baards presents a fascinating overview of how top scientists understand the processes underlying conscious experience. This text is a valuable introduction to the field of consciousness.
Baddeley, A. (1997). Human memory: Theory and practice (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
- The author extensively reviews memory research to create a model for how memory works.
Cartwright, R., & Lemberg, L. (1992). Crisis dreaming: Using your dreams to solve your problems. New York: HarperCollins.
- An eminent sleep/dream researcher and an award-winning journalist describe how to use dreams to gain self-insight. The book covers dream processes, ways to capture or retrieve dream content, and ways to change the course of dreams while asleep! It also includes case studies of people in crisis and their dreams.
Coren, S. (1997). Sleep thieves: An eye-opening exploration into thescience and mysteries of sleep. New York: Free Press.
- A thorough explanation of sleep processes is explored in this text.
Coren, S. (1993). The left-hander syndrome: The causes and consequences of left-handedness. New York: Random House.
- The title refers to handedness, but the author also describes other asymmetries (footedness, eyedness) and discusses their sources as well as their links to other things such as intelligence and creativity. The book also discusses coping strategies for left-handers’ world. Clear and entertaining with lots of good anecdotes, the book may overstate the negative effects of being left-handed.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: HarperCollins.
- Flow describes the psychology of happiness as obtained through “optimal experiences” in which deep enjoyment is experienced through focused concentration. It includes suggestions for controlling and creating these “flow states” as well as many examples and case studies.
Dennett, D. C. (1996). Kinds of minds: Toward an understanding of consciousness. New York: Basic Books.
- This addresses metaphysical questions about the mind from an evolutionary perspective.
Gardner , H. (1987). The mind’s new science: A history of the cognitive revolution. New York: Basic Books.
- Gardner examines the history of the cognitive revolution in psychology and the nature of cognitive science today. He traces the roots of early thinkers and follows the thread through the 19th century and into the 20th century. He includes discussions of artificial intelligence, linguistics, anthropology, and neuroscience, and shows the effect of the cognitive revolution on our understanding of perception, imagery, concept formation, and reasoning, among others.
Gardner , H. (1993). Creating minds. New York: Basic Books.
- Here, Gardner applies the theory of multiple intelligences to understanding creativity in such people as Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, T. S. Eliot, Martha Graham, and Mahatma Gandhi.
Gardner , H. (1995). Leading minds: An anatomy of leadership. New York: Basic Books.
- Gardner applies cognitive psychology (in particular creativity) to understanding the minds of selected leaders and followers. He discusses Margaret Thatcher, George Marshall, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, and Margaret Mead, among others.
Gardner , H., Kornhaber, M. L., & Wake, W. K. (1996). Intelligence: Multiple perspectives. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt.
- This well-written book is on the subject of intelligence.
Gardner, Howard (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21 st Century. New York: Basic Books.
- Intelligence Reframed examines how the theory of multiple intelligences is changing our understanding of education and human development.
Gilovich, T. (1991). How we know what isn’t so: The fallibility of human reason in everyday life. New York: Free Press.
- This imaginative work examines cognitive factors that predispose humans to making bad judgments.
Gould, S. J. (1996) The mismeasure of man (Rev. ed.). New York: Norton.
- This book offers a delightful discussion of the evolution of measurement devoted to capturing human individual differences.
Halpern, D. F. (1995). Thought and knowledge: An introduction to critical thinking (3 rd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- This outstanding (although challenging) application of psychological principles to critical thinking, memory, thought and language, analysis, probability, decision making, problem solving, and creative thinking. It includes hundreds of exercises and suggested readings.
Herrnstein, R., & Murray, C. (1994). The Bell Curve. New York : Free Press.
- This controversial book about intellectual capacity examines social problems through the lens of intelligence and concludes intelligence is largely inheritable.
Jacoby, R., & Glauberman, N. (Eds.) (1995). The Bell Curve Debate. Three Rivers, MI : Three Rivers Press.
- This book on race, class, and intelligence serves generally as counterpoint to the Herrnstein and Murray book (see above), providing scholarship and polemic from different points of view.
Johnson, George (1992). In the palaces of memory: How we build the worlds inside our heads. New York: Vintage Books.
- Johnson addresses how memory works by examining the work of three scholars from three different disciplines.
Jouvet, Michel (1999). The paradox of sleep: The story of dreaming.
Translated by Gary Laurence. Cambridge: MIT Press.
- This book offers controversial ideas about how and why we dream, along with a review of the history of the field.
Langer, E. J. (1997). The power of mindful learning. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
- This book offers a new way of learning in different contexts to promote curiosity and mindful attention.
Levy, D. A. (2003). Tools of Critical Thinking. Prospect Heights , IL : Waveland Press.
- This is a systematic and comprehensive catalog and series of exercises designed to encourage critical thinking and reveal ways in which humans’ thought processes are error-prone.
Loftus, E., & Ketcham, K. (1991). Witness for the defense: The accused, the eyewitness, and the expert who puts memory on trial. New York: St. Martin’s.
- Witness is a lively, personal, and informative examination of eight cases that centered on disputed eyewitness identifications in light of what psychology has to tell us about human memory. It also explores the thorny and often personal issues of psychologists serving as expert witnesses in cases.
Loftus, E., & Ketcham, K. (1994). The myth of repressed memory: False memories and allegations of sexual abuse. New York: St. Martin’s.
- This book presents an attack on the belief in “recovered memories,” particularly repressed memories of alleged sexual abuse; authors argue that they are mostly fabrications.
Martin, G., & Pear, J. (2002). Behavior modification: What is it and how to do it (7 th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- This offers guidelines for modifying habits and behavior using learning strategies.
O’Donahue, W., & Ferguson, K. E. (2001). The Psychology of B.F. Skinner. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- This is a guide to Skinner's theories and their application in the field of behaviorism.
Plous, S. (1993). The psychology of judgment and decision making. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Comprehensive but reader-friendly, this text introduces psychological research on how people make decisions and focuses on the social aspects of decision making.
Restak, R. (2001). Mozart’s brain and the fighter pilot: Unleashing your brain’s potential. New York: Harmony Books.
- Restak’s book combines the latest research in neurology and psychology and provides informative and practical steps that readers can take to improve their cognitive abilities.
Rock, A. (2004). The mind at night: The new science of how and why we dream. New York: Basic Books.
- This book discusses the breakthroughs in the study of the dreaming mind from the 1950s to the present day.
Root-Bernstein, R., & Root-Bernstein, M. (1999). Sparks and genius: The 13 thinking tools of the world’s most creative people. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
- The authors describe the “thinking tools” of geniuses such as Albert Einstein, Amadeus Mozart, Jane Goodall, and Virginia Woolf, and show readers how to use their own imaginations to spark creativity.
Rothenberg, A. (1990). Creativity and madness: New findings and old stereotypes. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- An interesting and thorough examination of the relationship between creativity and mental illness, this book includes consideration of Sylvia Plath, August Strindberg, Emily Dickinson, Robert Penn Warren, John Cheever, Eugene O’Neal, and William Faulkner, among others.
Schaie, K.W. ( 1996). Intellectual development in adulthood. New York : Cambridge University Press.
- In this book, Schaie analyzes his comprehensive study on aging’s effects on intelligence.
Schaller, S. (1991). A man without words. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
- This moving account is of a 27-year-old man who is normal except that he has no idea of language, much less the ability to speak or write. The book sheds light on the role of language in thinking.
Shermer, M. (2002). Why people believe weird things. Minneapolis, MN: Sagebrush Education Resources.
- Why People Believe critiques popular superstitions, prejudices, and pseudoscience.
Siegler, R. (1996). Emerging minds: The process of change in children’s thinking. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- This book addresses fundamental questions about children's thinking, providing an evolutionary framework for how thinking changes in children.
Skinner, B. F. (1976). Walden two. New York: Macmillan.
- A classic novel about behavioral principles, this 1976 edition includes a retrospective commentary by Skinner almost three decades after the book first appeared.
Sternberg, R. (1988). The Triarchic Mind: A new theory of human intelligence . New York: Viking.
- This book introduces a three part model of human intelligence based upon the traditional notion of academic performance and includes practical intelligence and creative intelligence.
Sternberg, R. (1997). Successful intelligence. New York : Simon & Schuster.
- Successful Intelligence e xplores the multifaceted nature of intelligence based on Sternberg’s triarchic theory.
Sutherland, S. (1992). Irrationality: Why we don’t think straight. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
- This is an engaging discussion of human irrationality in all its guises—obedience and conformity, ignoring and distorting evidence, mistakes, misinterpretations, foolish risk taking, intuition, and more.
Wiener, D. (1996). Skinner, B.F.: Benign anarchist. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
- In this candid biography, Wiener reflects on Skinner's emotional and interpersonal characteristics. It includes references and a chronological bibliography of Skinner's work.
Wilson, T. (2002). Strangers to ourselves: Discovering the adaptive unconscious.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- This book offers an incredible tour of the unconscious, as defined by contemporary psychological science. Wilson introduces the reader to a hidden mental world of judgments, feelings, and motives.
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