Tall Tales about the Mind and Brain

Does listening to Mozart make us more intelligent? Is there such a thing as a gay gene? Does the size of the brain matter? Does the moon influence our behaviour? Can we communicate with the dead? Can graphology tell us anything about a person's character? Is the human brain clonable? What role do dreams have in cognition? Can mind conquer matter and diseases? Are out-of-body experiences possible? Can we trust our intuitions? To some, the answer to all these questions might well be a resounding 'no', but to many people these represent serious beliefs about the mind and brain - beliefs that drive their everyday behaviour, beliefs that cost them huge amounts of money. Whole industries have developed founded on these dubious claims about the mind and brain. Even major corporations have dabbled with assessment methods such as those advocated by graphology, accepting and rejecting candidates on the basic of their handwriting. Expectant parents buy books and tapes by the dozen showing them how to improve the intelligence of their child by playing them classical music. People subscribe to expensive therapies founded on beliefs rather than science, or risk their health buying books that tell them how they can conquer illness through positive thinking, perhaps at the expense of more scientifically proven treatments. Tall Tales about the Mind and Brain presents a sweeping survey of common myths about the mind and brain. In a lighthearted and accessible style, it exposes the truth behind these beliefs, how they are perpetuated, why people believe them, and why they might even exist in the first place.

Editor of Cortex, Fellow Royal Society (Edinburgh) - FRSE, Fellow British Psychological Society - FBPsS

- Part I - Where Do Tall Tales about the Mind and the Brain Come From? - Introduction - the myth of 10% and other tall tales about the mind and the brain - 1: Christopher C French and Krissy Wilson: Cognitive factors underlying paranormal beliefs and experiences - 2: Peter Lamont: Critically thinking about paranormal belief - 3: Massimo Polidoro: The magic in the brain; how conjuring works to deceive our minds - Part II - Tall Tales on Memory and Learning - 4: Nelson Cowan, Candice C Morey and Zhijian Chen: The legend of the magical number seven - 5: Seema L Clifasefi, Maryanne Garry and Elizabeth Loftus: Setting the record (or video camera) straight on memory: the video camera model of memory and other memory myths - 6: Amina Memon and Don Thomson: The myth of the incredible eyewitness - 7: Rachel Sutherland, Deryn Strange and Maryanne Garry: We've got the whole child witness thing figured out, or do we? - Part III - Tall Tales on Intelligence - 8: David Carey: Is bigger really better? The search for brain size and intelligence in the 21st century - 9: Mike Anderson: Biology and intelligence: the race/IQ controversy - 10: Colin Gray and Sergio Della Sala: The refined Mozart effect: let's enjoy the music - 11: David G Myers: The powers and perils of intuuition - 12: Ken Gilhooly: Creative thinking: the mystery myth - Part IV - Tall Tales on Language and Communication - 13: Antonella Sorace: The more, the merrier: facts and beliefs about the bilingual mind - 14: Nick Miller: The Merry Vibes of Wintzer: the tale of foreign accent syndrome - 15: Ray Hyman: Talking with the dead, communicating with the future and other myths created by cold reading - 16: Barry L Beyerstein: Graphology - a total write-off - 17: Aldert Vrij and Samantha Mann: The truth about deception - Part V - Tall Tales on the Brain - 18: Michael C Corballis: The dual-brain myth - 19: Barry L Beyerstein: The neurology of the weird: brain states and anamalous experience - 20: Giovanni Berlucchi: The myth of the clonable human brain - 21: Peter Brugger and Marion Funk: Out on a limb: neglect and confabulation in the study of aplasic phantoms - 22: Cesare Cornoldi and Rossana DeBeni: Imagery and blindness - 23: Christopher C French and Julia Santomauro: Something wicked this way comes: causes and interpretations of sleep paralysis - Part VI - Tall Tales on the Mind - 24: Eric H Chudler: The power of the full moon. Running on empty? - 25: Ray Hyman: Ouija, dowsing, and other seductions of ideomotor action - 26: Olaf Blanke and Gregor Thut: Inducing out-of-body experiences - 27: Barry L Beyerstein, Wallace I Sampson, Zarka Stojanovic and James Handel: Can mind conquer cancer? - 28: Fernando Saravi: The elusive search for a "gay gene" - 29: Mark Solms and Oliver Turnbull: To sleep, perchance to REM? The rediscovered role of emotion and meaning in dreams