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Books in Arts and humanities

Elsevier's Arts and Humanities titles encompass a rich spectrum of scholarship that explores human culture, history, philosophy, and creative expression. These works offer deep insights into language, literature, visual arts, and critical theory, supporting the academic community in understanding diverse perspectives and cultural legacies. Designed for scholars, educators, and students, this collection bridges classic studies with contemporary issues, fostering a deeper appreciation and knowledge of the human experience.

  • Stimulating Creativity

    Individual Procedures
    • 1st Edition
    • Morris I. Stein
    • English
    Stimulating Creativity: Volume 1, Individual Procedures discusses the psychological and social factors affecting creativity, including techniques applicable in technological and consumer-related product areas. Creativity is a process consisting of three overlapping stages—hypothesis formation, hypothesis testing, and the communication of results. The book reviews past criteria of creativity, and then suggests techniques, based on social and psychological differentiating characteristics of creativity, that can stimulate creativity. The text also considers some procedures which the individual can use to stimulate creativity, or overcome blocks that stop creativity. The book explains in detail individual procedures, group procedures, as well the techniques appropriate in each stage of the creative process. The text notes that the creative process occurs in a social context, primarily manifested during the communication stage. The book considers the following group procedures for stimulating creativity, namely, brainstorming, creative problem-solving, synectics, and a personality-insight approach. Examples of programs employed in different companies or organization can free an individual from difficulties and problems, make him more receptive to other programs, or he can use these programs as basis to develop newer programs. The book can prove insightful for psychiatrists, psychologists, behavioral scientists, child educators, students or professors in psychology, for parents of young children or adolescents, and also for general readers interested in self-improvement.
  • Shawnee Minisink

    A Stratified Paleoindian–Archaic Site in the Upper Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania
    • 1st Edition
    • Charles W. McNett
    • English
    Studies in Archaeology: Shawnee Minisink: A Stratified Paleoindian-Archaic Site in the Upper Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania focuses on the excavation of the Shawnee Minisink and its connection with the lifestyles of the earliest inhabitants of North America. The selection first offers information on the Upper Delaware Valley Early Man Project, early history of archaeological research at the Shawnee Minisink Site, and methodology and research design at the Shawnee Minisink Site. Discussions focus on data recovery design, evaluation of methodology, research context, and goals. The text then examines the biophysical conditions of the Upper Delaware Valley; aboriginal subsistence and site ecology as interpreted from microfloral and faunal remains; and artifact morphology and chronology at the Shawnee Minisink Site. The book takes a look at myth, reality, and the Upper Delaware Valley, Paleoindian artifact form and function at Shawnee Minisink, and Paleoindian to early archaic transition at the Shawnee Minisink Site. Topics include environmental setting, lithic analysis results, secondary modifications, hafting, endscraper distributional pattern, analytic technique and procedure, and paleoecological reconstruction. The selection is a dependable reference for archeologists wanting to conduct further studies on the Shawnee Minisink Site.
  • A Research Primer for the Social and Behavioral Sciences

    • 1st Edition
    • Miriam Schapiro Grosof + 1 more
    • English
    A Research Primer for the Social and Behavioral Sciences provides an introductory but comprehensive overview of the research process that primarily concerns human subjects. This book discusses the methods of acquiring knowledge, importance of a well-chosen problem, review of the literature, and relationship between theory-building and hypothesis-testing. The common sources of invalidity in practice, non-experimental research types, Stevens' classification of scales, and estimation based on probabilistic sampling are also elaborated. This text likewise covers the role of computer in research, techniques for analysis of data, univariate and bivariate statistics, and assumptions underlying analysis of variance. Other topics include the canonical correlation analysis, non-parametric analysis of variance, deterministic problem analysis techniques, and common errors in presentation of findings. This publication is intended for novice investigators in the broad category of social and behavioral sciences.
  • Open Systems Handbook

    • 2nd Edition
    • Alan R. Simon + 1 more
    • English
    Open Systems Handbook, Second Edition provides an easy-to-read, thorough, and management-oriented explanation of the promises, dangers, and realities of open systems. This edition describes specific products and various open systems that have been updated to reflect the events of the mid-1990s. Emerging open technologies that either didn't exist in 1991 or were in their infancy, such as client/server middleware, are also covered. Topics include the definitions and history of open systems, open systems components, end user interaction points, and elements of open systems software. The general communications hardware, visual application development, models of integration, and advantages of open systems are likewise elaborated. This publication is a good reference for computing professionals and engineers working on open systems.
  • Studies in Neurolinguistics

    • 1st Edition
    • Haiganoosh Whitaker + 1 more
    • English
    Studies in Neurolinguistics, Volume 2 provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of neurolinguistics, which represent a synthesis of the brain sciences, the behavioral sciences, and the clinical sciences. This book discusses the interesting problems of neurolinguistics. Organized into eight chapters, this volume begins with an overview of neurolinguistic analysis of a rare form of language impairment identified as mixed transcortical aphasia. This text then explains spoken language, reading ability, and writing ability in terms of both psychological and linguistic measures. Other chapters consider a theoretical discussion with supporting evidence which concludes that there is a common relationship between sequential movements of the upper limbs and verbal expression. This book discusses as well the linguistic properties of the right hemisphere and the nonlinguistic properties of the left hemisphere. The final chapter deals with analyzing evidence on cerebral localization and the linguistic features of the alexias. This book is a valuable resource for clinical neurologists, psychologists, and speech pathologists.
  • Generative Phonology

    Description and Theory
    • 1st Edition
    • Michael Kenstowicz + 1 more
    • English
    Generative Phonology: Description and Theory provides a basic understanding of the fundamental concepts of generative phonology and the applications of these concepts in further study of phonological structure. This book is composed of 10 chapters and begins with a survey of phonology in the overall model of generative grammar and introduces the principles of phonetics to. The subsequent chapters introduce the fundamental concept of a phonological rule that relates an underlying representation to a phonetic representation and this concept is applied to the analysis of morphophonemic alternation. These topics are followed by a presentation of phonological sketches of four diverse languages in terms of rules relating underlying and phonetic representations, as well as the major corpus-internal principles and techniques of phonological analysis. The discussion then shifts to the theoretical aspects of phonology, the various degrees of abstractness, and the proposals to limit the divergence between underlying and phonetic representation. Other chapters deal with some of the issues revolving around the representation of sounds and the various hypotheses as to how phonological rules apply to convert the underlying representation to the phonetic representation, particularly the kinds of considerations that motivate rule-ordering statements. The last chapters explore the major notational devices commonly employed in the formulation of phonological rules and the role of syntactic and lexical information in controlling the application of phonological rules. This book is intended primarily for linguistics and phonologists.
  • Linguistic Minorities, Policies and Pluralism

    Applied Language Studies
    • 1st Edition
    • John Edwards
    • English
    Linguistic Minorities, Policies and Pluralism examines the position of some linguistic minority groups, including policies that affect them. This book provides a useful perspective on group relations, emphasizing the aims, purposes, and values held by the societies in which linguistic minority groups exist. The structure of society and perceptions of pluralism and assimilation are also described. This text demonstrates that there is not a simple opposition between pluralism and assimilation, there are difficulties with educational programs intended to support minority group language and identity, minority views are not themselves homogeneous, and advocates of cultural pluralism often hold over-simplified and unrealistic ideas. This publication is a good reference for students and researchers conducting work on pluralism, assimilation, language maintenance/shift, and ethnolinguistic identity.
  • Understanding Language

    An Information-Processing Analysis of Speech Perception, Reading, and Psycholinguistics
    • 1st Edition
    • Dominic W. Massaro
    • English
    Understanding Language: An Information-Processi... Analysis of Speech Perception, Reading, and Psycholinguistics focuses on the progress of approaches, principles, and practices involved in speech perception, reading, and psycholinguistics. The selection first offers information on language and information processing, articulatory and acoustic characteristics of speech sounds, and acoustic features in speech perception. Discussions focus on vowel and consonant recognition, production of speech sounds, general acoustic properties and occurrence of speech sounds, vowel phonemes of English, and information, auditory, and visual information processing. The text then examines preperceptual images, processing time, and perceptual units in speech perception, theories of perception, and visual features, preperceptual storage, and processing time in reading. Topics include processing time, visual features, summary of information-processi... analysis of speech perception, role of linguistic structure in model building, and preperceptual images and processing time. The manuscript takes a look at an analysis of psychological studies of grammar, word and phrase recognition in speech processing, and linguistic theory and information processing, including psychological function of certain transformation rules, psychological reality of constituent structure, and linguistics and psychology. The selection is a vital source of data for researchers interested in speech perception, reading, and psycholinguistics.
  • Archaeological Hammers and Theories

    • 1st Edition
    • James A. Moore + 1 more
    • English
    Studies in Archaeology: Archaeological Hammers and Theories provides information pertinent to the archeological method, with emphasis on the interaction of data and technique with theory and problems. This book describes the nature of archeological data, the range of archeological theories, and the scope of archeological problems. Organized into three parts encompassing 13 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the products of the archeological record. This text then examines survey sampling, site formation studies, and lithic and ceramic analysis. Other chapters consider the behavioral concepts that are implicit in the notions of special behavior, optimization, decision making, and population dynamics. This book discusses as well the analysis of pottery, which plays a leading part in the reconstruction of culture histories in archeology. The final chapter suggests an alternative set of philosophical issues that might serve to focus a philosophy or archeology. This book is a valuable resource for archeologists.
  • Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction

    • 1st Edition
    • Jim Schenkein
    • English
    Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction examines the different features of conversational interaction, which reflect a vigorous research paradigm for the study of natural conversations. This book discusses the naturally occurring interactions that have been recorder and transcribed. Organized into 10 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the turn-taking system for conversation and explains that the organization of taking turns at talk is one type of organization operative in conversation. This text then discusses encounters with strangers that only conduct their business under the auspices of their official identity relations. Other chapters consider the production of compliment responses, which are sensitive to the cooperation of multiple constraint systems. This book discusses as well the conversational activity of telling stories and listening to stories. The final chapter deals with an analysis of a dirty joke. This book is a valuable resource for sociologists, conversationalists, linguists, grammarians, and anthropologists.