Cognitive Science

Two neuroscientists trace a sweeping new vision of consciousness across eighteen increasingly intelligent minds, from microbes to humankind and beyond. Why do minds exist? How did mud and stone develop into beings that can experience longing, regret, love, and compassion—beings that are aware...

The hardest choices are also the most consequential. So why do we know so little about how to get them right? Big, life-altering decisions matter so much more than the decisions we make every day, and they're also the most difficult: where to live, whom to marry, what to believe, whether to...

Cameron Diaz follows up her #1 New York Times bestseller, The Body Book, with a personal, practical, and authoritative guide that examines the art and science of growing older and offers concrete steps women can take to create abundant health and resilience as they age. Cameron Diaz wrote The...

The New York Times bestselling author of The Beck Diet Solution teams up with her daughter and colleague at the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior to teach readers how to think their way thin, offering practical, proven tools for escaping common diet traps for good. Most diet programs work at...

“An invaluable operating manual,” says Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO and author of Delivering Happiness. Using brilliantly simple logic that illuminates the universal truths in common emotional challenges, popular motivational speaker and bestselling author Chip Conley has written “a fresh...

“Fascinating and useful . . . The distinguished memory researcher Scott A. Small explains why forgetfulness is not only normal but also beneficial.”—Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs Who wouldn’t want a better memory? Dr. Scott Small has dedicated...

*Nominated for the 2016 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award* *An NBC News Notable Science Book of 2015* *Named one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2015* *A Book of the Month for Brain HQ/Posit Science* *Selected by Forbes as a Must Read Brain Book of 2015* *On Life Changes...

"Every day of our lives, we make judgments—and we don’t always do a very good job of it. Thinking 101 is an invaluable resource to anyone who wants to think better. In remarkably clear language, and with engaging and often funny examples, Woo-kyoung Ahn uses cutting-edge research to explain...

The Next Big Idea Club, August 2023 Must-Read Book In 2016, scientists proved that humans could see light at the level of a single photon. We are living in historic times when humans may look at the very fabric of the universe in a laboratory setting. Around the world, other recent discoveries...

This book introduces the Anthropic-Independent Reality Index, a conceptual framework designed to assess the degree to which ideas are shaped — or distorted — by evolved cognitive structures. Drawing on insights from evolutionary epistemology, cognitive neuroscience, and the philosophy of science, the index offers a non-utilitarian scale for measuring the ontological independence of a concept from the adaptive biases of the human mind.

"The road in life forks in every moment, with one path leading toward confusion, separateness, and entanglement, and the other toward clarity, connection, and mental freedom. With mind whispering, the choice can be ours." Why sometimes do even the smallest events send us into a downward spiral?...

Based on cutting-edge science, Boost Your Brain is internationally recognized neurologist Majid Fotuhi's complete program for increasing brain size and enhancing brain function, including memory, creativity, comprehension, and concentration. Our brains don't have to decline as we get older...

We forget our passwords. We pay too much to go to the gym. We think we’d be happier if we lived in California (we wouldn’t), and we think we should stick with our first answer on tests (we shouldn’t). Why do we make mistakes? And could we do a little better? We human beings have design...

A playful deep dive into anthropomorphism (our peculiar tendency to humanize the nonhuman) that will resonate with anyone who has thrown a birthday party for their dog. Bestselling science writer Justin Gregg explores the science behind our instinct to see ourselves in the creatures and objects...

Weaving together the story of his fractured relationship to his mother with research into her paranormal abilities, Dr. Christian Smith has created, in The Scientist and the Psychic, a captivating, one-of-a-kind memoir of belief, skepticism and familial love. Christian Smith realized his mother...

Are you sick and tired of bad habits dictating your life? Have you tried endless other solutions but nothing seems to work for more than a few weeks? Do you finally want to say goodbye to trauma/PTSD and discover something which works for you?...you can utilize principles of neuroplasticity to improve cognitive flexibility, eliminate depression, and so much more without experiencing any negative side effects and without spending a lot of money!

A genetics expert and professor challenges our understanding of intelligence, explaining what it truly means to be “smart,” why conventional assessments are misleading, and what everyone can do to optimize their potential. Growing up in middle-class suburban Los Angeles in the 1980s, Rina...

Leading lifespan psychologist Margie Lachman creates an inspiring new framework for midlife, based on her landmark thirty years of research and work on the MIDUS study, as the defining years of life. We’ve all heard the term “midlife crisis” and the stereotypes that come with it. But what...

This 10th anniversary edition of the beloved classic features 10 new stories written by Dr. Robbins that help listeners gain deeper insight into the role our brains play in shaping our thoughts and actions, and what we can do to be more curious and open-minded in our diverse world. Based on his study of the fields of behavioral science and cognitive neuroscience, Robbins explores unconscious bias in many of its forms, including availability bias, confirmation bias, anchoring bias, and others.

Edited by John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, Thinking presents original ideas by today's leading psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers who are radically expanding our understanding of human thought.