Handbook of Individual Differences in Cognition: Attention, Memory, and Executive Control

As cognitive models of behavior continue to evolve, the mechanics of cognitive exceptionality, with its range of individual variations in abilities and performance, remains a challenge to psychology. Reaching beyond the standard view of exceptional cognition equaling superior intelligence, the Handbook of Individual Differences in Cognition examines the latest findings from psychobiology, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience, for a comprehensive state-of-the-art volume.

Breaking down cognition in terms of attentional mechanisms, working memory, and higher-order processing, contributors discuss general models of cognition and personality. Chapter authors build on this foundation as they revisit current theory in such areas as processing effort and general arousal and examine emerging methods in individual differences research, including new data on the role of brain plasticity in cognitive function. The possibility of a unified theory of individual differences in cognitive ability and the extent to which these variables may account for real-world competencies are emphasized, and commentary chapters offer suggestions for further research priorities.

Coverage highlights include:

• The relationship between cognition and temperamental traits.
• The development of autobiographical memory.
• Anxiety and attentional control.
• The neurophysiology of gender differences in cognitive ability.
• Intelligence and cognitive control.
• Individual differences in dual task coordination.
• The effects of subclinical depression on attention, memory, and reasoning.
• Mood as a shaper of information.

Researchers, clinicians, and graduate students in psychology and cognitive sciences, including clinical psychology and neuropsychology, personality and social psychology, neuroscience, and education, will find the Handbook of Individual Differences in Cognition an expert guide to the field as it currently stands and to its agenda for the future.

Aleksandra Gruszka, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, and a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, United Kingdom. She has a particular interest in psychology of creativity and neuropsychology of Parkinson’s disease. In 2004, Dr Aleksandra Gruszka was awarded a Wellcome Travelling Fellowship by the Wellcome Trust, which enabled her to spend two years at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, United Kingdom. As a result, a number of collaborative projects with Dr. Adrian Owen were undertaken, including behavioral testing of novel psychological paradigms, functional neuroimaging studies of attentional mechanisms and clinical investigations in Parkinson’s disease using both techniques. She has published in the field of individual differences in cognition (Creativity Research Journal), and she has co-authored several books and chapters on creativity (Creativity Training, International Handbook of Creativity, Creativity’s Global Correspondents, 2002) and neuropsychology (Neuropsychology, Neuropsychologia).

Gerald Matthews, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at the University of Cincinnati. His research focuses on human performance, cognitive models of personality, the assessment of acute states of stress and emotion, and emotional intelligence. He has published more than 200 journal articles and book chapters on these topics. He has co-authored books on Attention and Emotion: A Clinical Perspective, Personality Traits, Human Performance: Cognition, Stress and Individual Differences and Emotional Intelligence: Science and Myth. His book on Attention and Emotion won the 1998 British Psychological Society Book Award, and the book on Emotional Intelligence was commended by the Association of American Publishers in their 2002 awards. He is also editor of Cognitive Science Perspectives on Personality and Emotion. He is the elected Secretary-Treasurer of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences. He has acted as a consultant for several organizations, including Procter and Gamble and the MIT Electronics Research Lab. He is also an associate editor for Personality and Individual Differences, and a consulting editor for Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

Blazej Szymura, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland and Warsaw School for Social Psychology, Poland. The main areas of his research interests are: preattentional and attentional mechanisms, unconscious information processing, cognitive correlates of temperamental and personality traits, creativity and innovation. He has co-authored books on Cognitive Psychology, Individual Differences Psychology, Creativity Training and published as first author or as co-author nearly 30 journal articles (Neuropsychology, Personality and Individual Differences, Polish Psychological Bulletin) as well as book chapters (Advances in Personality Studies). He was honored by Jagiellonian University (1999) and Warsaw University (2006) for the best publication of the year. He has acted as an associate editor for the special issue of Studia Psychologiczne on Aspects of Attention. He has also lead many creativity training and invention sessions for managers and employees of several major organizations (Leroy Merlin, Motorola and Masterfood).