“Students will find this an excellent primer....Whets the appetite and then satisfies the cognitive scientist, with a complex mix of multidisciplinary studies, plentiful data, and functional applications. The second edition is worth the purchase given the advances in the field.”

—Doody's Review Service


“Superb....Written and edited by internationally recognized cognitive neuroscientists, this book represents the astonishing advances that have taken place in the study of attention and its mechanisms....4 Stars!”

—Doody's Electronic Journal


“Posner has done a tremendous service to the field....A 'must read.'”

—Applied Cognitive Psychology


“Posner, the world’s foremost expert on attention, has assembled an all-star team of scientists covering the whole range of cognitive neuroscience research into attention. No stone is left unturned—from discrete working memory slots to frontal and cingulate neural circuits, from resting-state networks to temperament, genetics, and education, the reader is exposed to all of the concepts and findings that count in this rapidly evolving field. Any student or researcher who reads these concise, pithy chapters will be taken to the forefront of contemporary knowledge.”

—Stanislas Dehaene, PhD, Professor at Collège de France and Director, INSERM-CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, France


“This ambitious second edition provides even more than the title suggests. Cutting-edge coverage of five major themes—cognition, imaging, neuroscience, development, and deficits—makes the book appropriate for multiple disciplines, especially for my two (psychology and psychiatry), where an update like this is sorely needed to keep up and separate the solid advances from claims that lack support. Even in the areas where I thought I was completely up to date, I learned a lot. The book succeeds in addressing the complexities of attention with methodological rigor while also suggesting how advances in science might be translated into clinical applications. It should have wide appeal for students in psychology and medicine and for clinicians who need guidance to sift through claims about new treatments.”

—James M. Swanson, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Irvine, and Department of Psychiatry, Florida International University


“William James once wrote: 'Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought.' This enduring definition has only recently become understood in terms of its neural instantiation and cognitive dimensions, a clear result of the revolution in cognitive neuroscience that commenced a century later. This second edition of the definitive work on attention—edited by the leading contemporary authority—should be on the bookshelf of anyone seriously thinking about the subject.”

—Marcus Raichle, MD, Professor of Radiology, Neurology, Neurobiology and Biomedical Engineering, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis