The autonomous brain : a neural theory of attention and learning /

Milner (McGill Univ.) describes his neural theory of behavior in this tribute to Karl Lashley and D.O. Hebb. The author focuses on motivation, attention and recognition, memory and amnesia, and motor processes. The level of analysis is principally at the subcortical level. He contrasts the theory with stimulus response (behaviorist) psychology, with which it competed vigorously during the middle 40 years of the 20th century. Milner describes his theory, then uses it to describe observed behavior. However, this book lacks testable and falsifiable hypotheses, which could be useful for developing and modifying the theory. Readers may also be interested in Jack Orbach's The Neuropsychological Theories of Lashley and Hebb: Contemporary Perspectives Fifty Years After ... (1998). Useful to graduate students and faculty. R. A. Drake; Western State College of Colorado