This chapter normalizes failure as a routine part of AI research and of the PhD itself. It describes how setbacks can appear as technical breakdowns, weak results, conceptual dead ends, or stalled momentum, and explains why these experiences often feel personal even when they are structurally built into research. The chapter offers a simple way to diagnose “stuckness” and outlines practical responses: simplify and test assumptions when experiments misbehave, step back and reframe when the question no longer holds, restore structure when process slips, and prioritize recovery when motivation collapses. It also reframes rejection as feedback and encourages documenting failures so they become reusable knowledge rather than repeated pain.

This is an introduction, explaining the origins and significance of the subject of the book and summarizing its contents, chapter by chapter. It concludes with a description of the purpose of the book, which can be used as the basis of a postgraduate course or as a reference work for more experienced researchers.

The way B-visa applicants’ presentation of self to surveyors and officers in their visa interviews differs from those that are applying for other types of visas-like degree-seeking student visas, cultural exchange visas, and skilled worker visas, which are more frequently converted to immigrant visas. This is due to a provision in the immigration law statute–the dual-intent doctrine–that encourages US visa officers to evaluate immigrant intent more strictly with the former than the latter by not denying nonimmigrant visas to such latter applicants based on the likelihood that they will change their mind about immigrating after they arrive in the United States. Therefore, I show how B nonimmigrant visa (NIVs) applicants answer questions differently than all other nonimmigrant visa applicants about how they first came to go abroad, why they want to visit the United States rather than another country, what questions the visa officer asked them, and why or why not they would immigrate or not into the United States. (Im)mobility capital is not as important to demonstrate for those applying for such high-conversion visas as those with low-conversion visas due to the dual-intent doctrine.

Chapter 1 describes the defining characteristics of motivation ( i.e. purpose, flexibility and goal direction, reinforcement, affect, a capacity to overcome obstacles, resolution of competition), with varying sensitivity to internal (e.g. nutrient levels) and external incentive (e.g. food) factors. The dichotomy between approach and avoidance is introduced. It goes on to introduce the topics of the remaining chapters of the book. Motivation potentiates certain functionally appropriate responses (e.g. lordosis in the female rat). The chapter describes Tinbergen’s four types of explanation: causal, functional, evolutionary, and developmental/learning.

This chapter examines creativity as a cognitive, social, and motivational process that involves divergent idea generation and convergent refinement. It contextualizes generative AI within the long history of technology shaping art, from Renaissance science to modern algorithmic art. Through cases such as AARON and MidJourney, the authors question whether AI creativity is “real” or an illusion shaped by anthropomorphism. They highlight how motivation, childhood development, and organizational culture shape creativity, and how AI can act as collaborator, accelerator, or threat depending on its use. Ultimately, human–AI co-creativity is positioned as both an opportunity and a challenge for redefining authorship and innovation.

How do you become a creative, successful, and hopefully, happy psychologist? We have studied psychological scientists who have become eminent in their field (Sternberg, 2016). We draw upon what we have learned in this chapter. In particular, the chapter draws from the list of characteristics that typify psychological scientists who make it to the top. Most of these characteristics apply to practicing psychologists as well. We have supplemented the list with characteristics especially important for practicing psychologists. We hope you find the list useful to you in developing your career, whatever that career may be!

The study of conversational interaction among second language (L2) learners and their interlocutors has been central to the study of second language acquisition since the beginning of the 1980s. Numerous studies have shown the facilitative role of interaction for L2 acquisition and several factors that influence the process have been identified and investigated in depth. The main aim of this chapter is to provide the reader with updated information on three particular areas in which research has grown in the past decade, namely the mediating role of individual differences in the process of interaction, interaction in technology-mediated environments and child interaction in low-input (foreign language) contexts. The first two topics are of general interest for the cognitive-interactionist framework, while the third focuses on an underresearched population about which basically no studies were published in the previous decade. The major findings in those three areas will be highlighted and lines for further research identified.

Roughly half of the world’s population are bilingual, that is, around four billion people. Worldwide, language learning is on the rise, driven by factors such as immigration, globalization, and an increased awareness of the value of learning another language. In this chapter we explain how we learn languages in addition to our mother tongue, that is, the language we grew up speaking from early childhood. How is learning a second language different to learning a first? What are some of the challenges people face when learning another language? We explore issues around translation, and the creative inventions of sci-fi like the babel fish and the Tardis, versus the capabilities and limitations of AI. We take a look at unique cases of true (and fake) polyglot savants, and we revisit those who suddenly speak with another accent, or even in an entirely different language. We also see what science says about the considerable cognitive and social benefits of learning a new language.

The chapter addresses: 1. Overview of Design Principles. 2. Principles to Motivate Learners to Exert Effort to Learn. 3. Principles to Help Learners Focus on Relevant Information. 4. Principles to Help Learners Manage the Flow of Relevant Information. 5. Principles to Help Learners Build Connections Between Corresponding Verbal and Visual Information. 6. Principles to Help Learners Actively Make Sense of Incoming Information. 7. Future Directions

The chapter addresses: 1. Overview of the Positivity Principle. 2. Theoretical Rationale for the Positivity Principle. 3. Empirical Rationale for the Positivity Principle. 4. Boundary Conditions for the Positivity Principle. 5. Applications of the Positivity Principle

The chapter addresses: 1. Overview of the Personalization Principle. 2. Theoretical Rationale for the Personalization Principle. 3. Empirical Rationale for the Personalization Principle. 4. Boundary Conditions for the Personalization Principle. 5. Applications of the Personalization Principle