As suggested by its subtitle, this volume looks at issues in cognitive science from varying perspectives, given in the five parts to the book: psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and philosophy. Each part contains two chapters, the first of which reviews the development of the field as well as basic issues, and the second of which introduces some specific topics of current interest. The more specific topics include, among others: in psychology, propositional networks, mental imagery, problem solving, and memory; in neuroscience, functional and structural brain-mapping techniques; in linguistics, first and second language acquisition (covered in a total of 7–8 pages), aphasia, machine translation, and natural language processing by computer; in artificial intelligence, expert systems, connectionism, and robotics; and, in philosophy, the mind-body problem, free will, and consciousness.

Sobel is a linguist by trade but does not devote more coverage to linguistics than is warranted by the subject matter of the book. The material in all of the areas covered is sound, well researched, and up to date, as far as I could determine. The writing style is fresh, lively, and quite accessible. Almost every chapter begins with a small story or personal anecdote that brings the issue of the chapter to life. The coverage, as indicated in the summary, is also quite extensive for a book of this length. Additionally, there are a number of creative and interesting “Questions to Think About” at the end of every chapter, many of which could form the basis for class discussions or essay questions on exams. There is also a glossary of technical terms.

Many topics—for example, concepts and categories, the Turing test, the Whorfian hypothesis, consciousness, and natural language processing by machine—are mentioned at many points in the text, in different chapters. This interweaving of approaches to these topics from different perspectives provides a kind of coherence that is rarely found in cognitive science texts. In this way, Sobel has solved the problem of the order in which to present things in a cognitive science course.

There are two main drawbacks to the book. The first is its skimpy coverage of almost everything that is included. For virtually all of the topics previously mentioned, as well as others, the coverage consists of just a few pages, sometimes, as noted, scattered throughout the book. The preface warns instructors that they will have to supplement the readings, and most likely any instructor using this text would also want to use an anthology of readings. (There is an instructor's manual, which offers additional suggestions for readings as well as exercises and exams.)

The most notable of the omissions is vision, of which there is barely a mention in the whole book. It is true that aspects of the literature on vision are very technical and would probably go beyond what is suitable for an introductory text such as this, but others (e.g., the literature on object recognition) are fairly accessible. Another omission—somewhat surprising in view of the generally up-to-date coverage—is a section on the evolution of cognition and consciousness. Despite these drawbacks, this is an excellent book in a field where such a text is desperately needed.