Cognition and Tool Use Forms of Engagement in Human and Animal Use of Tools

It brings together several different disciplines, from archaeology and anthropology to psychology and ergonomics. Graduate students, professionals, and researchers will find this guide to be invaluable.Analyzing tool use as a psychomotor activity, Cognition and Tool Use presents a coherent account of both successful and unsuccessful efforts to design and develop usable tools. It includes an exploration of tool use by primates and other animals, and contrasts primate tool use with that of young children. It considers design ergonomics, and the various meanings ascribed to tools, discusses contemporary tool use, as well as future developments in human-computer interfaces, such as haptic virtual reality and tangible user interfaces. Compiling research from archaeology and anthropology to psychology and ergonomics, this volume provides the most complete reference available on this subject.Christopher Baber is Lecturer in Ergonomics at the University of Birmingham, UK.The ability to use tools is a distinguishing feature of human beings. It represents a complex psychomotor activity which we are only beginning to understand. This text looks at theoretical accounts which allow us to understand better how people use tools & which explain how animal tool-use differs.This book brings together research from different disciplines to examine contemporary tool use in various domains, presenting a single coherent account of human tool use.The ability to use tools is a distinguishing feature of human beings. It represents a complex psychomotor activity that we are only now beginning to comprehend. Robust new theoretical accounts allow us to better understand how people use tools and explain differences in human and animal tool use from the perspective of cognitive science.Our understanding needs to be grounded upon research into how people use tools, which draws upon many disciplines, from ergonomics to anthropology to cognitive science to neuropsychology. Cognition and Tool Use: Forms of Engagement in Human and Animal Use of Tools presents a single coherent account of human tool use as a complex psychomotor activity. It explains how people use tools and how this activity can succeed or fail, then describes the design and development of usable tools. This book considers contemporary tool use in domains such as surgery, and considers future developments in human-computer interfaces, such as haptic virtual reality and tangible user interfaces.No other single text brings together the research from the different disciplines, ranging from archaeology and anthropology to psychology and ergonomics, which contribute to this topic. Graduate students, professionals, and researchers will find this guide to be invaluable.