769Book reviews / International Journal of Educational Development 24 (2004) 761–771

The literature review is particularly disappoint-ing. Lynn Davies uses chapters or articles byMarc Sommers and Margaret Sinclair instead oftheir significant contributions to the burgeoningfield of education in emergency or conflict sit-uations ( Sommers, 2002; Sinclair, 2002). Whenshe does identify a particularly relevant study,such as Retamal and Aedeo-Richmond (2002)or Miller and Affolter (2002), she tends todraw on them too extensively—with no fewerthan nine references to the latter in Chapter 9!Despite the claim that the study ‘‘is the resultof extensive research’’, the chapters in Part IV:‘Strategic responses to conflict’ rely too heavilyon analysing secondary sources rather than onempirical research.The most glaring omission in the study is the

lack of analysis of the increasing significance ofeducation in countries affected by conflict in cur-rent development agencies’ policies. Althoughthere are references to some recent initiatives byUNESCO, UNHCR, UNRWA and UNICEF,there is no attempt to analyse their specificstrengths or comparative advantage. Despite abrief comment that the Dakar Framework forAction that emerged from the World EducationForum stipulates that ‘‘EFA initiatives must takeinto account the needs of adults and childrenaffected by armed conflict’’ (p. 6), there is no ref-erence to the significant thematic study com-missioned by UNESCO for the EFA (UNESCO,2000). IIEP’s excellent case studies on Educationin Emergencies and Reconstruction ( Bird, 2002;Obura, 2002) are uncited. Significant publicationsfrom the World Bank’s experience on post-con-flict reconstruction are absent, and the growinginterest in bilateral agencies in this area goesunrecorded. For example, it is a pity that Smithand Vaux’s study on Education, Conflict andInternational Development ( DFID, 2003) does notfeature, given that it follows a similar argumentabout the way that education can contributenegatively, as well as positively, to conflict resol-ution in countries emerging from conflict.Since this appears to be a study in which the

author is intent on putting forward ‘complexityshut down theory’ as the worse case scenario whennegative conflict arises from ‘‘a lack of con-

nectivity, of feedback, of use of information andof willingness to benefit from diversity’’, the posi-tive options that could alter the all-pervasivegloomy state of affairs depicted by Lynn Daviesshould have been explored in greater depth.Although there are occasional hints as to the wayforward, this study misses the opportunity to pro-vide a comprehensive evidence-based analysis ofcurrent challenges and issues that the practitionerin the field would welcome.

Carew B.W.Treffgarne,Senior Education Advisor, DFID, 1 Palace Street,

London, UK

References

Bird, L., 2002. Surviving School: Education for Refugee Chil-

dren from Rwanda 1994 –1996. IIEP, Paris.

DFID, Smith, A., Vaux, T., 2003. Education, Conflict and

International Development. DFID, London.

Miller, V., Affolter, F. (Eds.), 2002. Helping Children to

Outgrow War. UNESCO, Paris.

Obura, A., 2002. Never Again: Education Reconstruction in

Rwanda. IIEP, Paris.

Retamal, X., Aedeo-Richmond, X. (Eds.), 2002. Education

as a Humanitarian Response. UNESCO, Paris.

Sinclair, M., 2002. Planning Education in and after Emerg-

encies. Paris: IIEP Fundamentals of Education Planning

No. 73.

Sommers, M., 2002. Children, Education and War. Wash-

ington, DC: World Bank Conflict Prevention and Recon-

struction Unit, Working Paper No. 1, June 2002.

UNESCO, 2000. Education in Situations of Emergency and

Crisis: Challenges for the New Century. UNESCO, Paris.

doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2004.06.009

Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science

Academic achievement–Environmental Psychology,Vol. 1; Epilepsy–Mental Imagery, PhilosophicalIssues about, Vol. 2; Mental Models–SignalDetection Theory, Vol. 3; Similarity–Zombies,Vol. 4; Editor in chief Lynn Nadel; NaturePublishing Group/Macmillan, 2003, ISBN 0-333-792610, £675

Make no mistake: despite the somewhat daunt-ing title, this is a book with educational intentions:

Book reviews / International Journal of Educational Development 24 (2004) 761–771770

The publishers and editor felt that it would behelpful, at this time in the evolution of cogni-tive science, to provide an in depth look at thebest ideas and research, written by individualswho have themselves been responsible for cre-ating the current knowledge in the field. Weaimed at a set of volumes that would providefood for thought for any interested and curi-ous reader who wanted to know the best cur-rent answer to the kinds of questions a cleverchild might ask: where do my thoughts comefrom, why is the moon so large on the hor-izon, can animals talk, and so on. Our planfrom the outset was to provide multiple levelsof information so that readers at variouslevels could benefit from the articles. Someare written at an introductory level andprovide an overview of a domain, others arewritten at some depth and with considerabletechnical detail. In all cases, however, wehave attempted to make the material asaccessible as possible to an intelligent readerby avoiding jargon wherever we could. (LynnNadel in the Preface)

And it is true, there is a wealth of fascinatingmaterial in these volumes, each of which has athousand or so pages, that takes them beyondclassification as a set of reference materials. Theeditors and authors have gone to great lengths toaddress the non-specialist and the lay reader, notjust those who work in this specialised and inter-disciplinary field. Most of the articles are classi-fied as introductory or intermediate and a few asadvanced, though this is to some extent an arbi-trary classification. The first advanced article Ifound was by Ned Block on the ‘Hard Problem’of explaining consciousness; this article is conciseand clear, albeit about an abstract issue. On theother hand, an article on Hodgkin–Huxley equa-tions (for explaining nerve impulse transmission)that is graded ‘intermediate’, though again amodel of concise explanation, demands a level ofmathematical facility that might deter some layreaders. The point is perhaps that if you are moti-vated and interested in a topic, then the ‘level’ isnot relevant, but as the index (which is detailedand comprehensive) does not indicate the level,

then you only discover it when you arrive at thearticle, so failing to deter the determined reader.One aspect of the collection I particularly like

is the inclusion of biographies. As with most ofthe other articles, these are short but for the mostpart free from the risk of caricature. There aresome intriguing inclusions, Freud, Hume andWittgenstein for instance. There is also an exten-sive glossary and index.Writing a review is difficult because while you

are looking for one thing your eye keeps beingcaught by something new. I am in the Ss and I for-get now why because I have been distracted bySleep and Dreaming, Speech Acts and StoryUnderstanding. Now I have just jumped to theB section looking for something on the ButterflyMind but been lured into reading about Blindsight.Given the invitation in the preface, I tried

searching the collection for an explanation of theharvest moon. I think I remember it from collegeclasses but I was never convinced by the explan-ations that we were offered. The clever child Ithought would look up the word ‘moon’ but‘moon’ does not appear in the index. ‘Size’ doesappear but leads to the article on Depth Percep-tion (followed by Descartes—but that was a sidetrack). I suspect the answer lies in Perception, butthis has almost a page of entries, none of whichlooked obvious. I found my way to Illusions andlearnt about the Ponzo illusion, cafe wall distor-tion and the rotating spiral (which expands with-out getting bigger), but I am still searching for ananswer for the harvest moon (and today is Hal-loween, but no, Halloween is not in the index).The thing about this book is that it starts tochange the way you think.Even though this collection has been written and

edited to encourage the grazer and the browser, at£675 (US$ 950) this is a collection for the universitylibrary rather than the family room and inevitablythis will restrict its use more than the editors hoped.I wonder too how well suited the print volume is inthe contemporary academic workplace. Most of us,most of the time look first to digital resources. Forbetter and for worse, a couple of seconds google-searching is what we have come to expect as a routeto information, rather than hours treading theboards and turning the pages in the library. If the

771Book reviews / International Journal of Educational Development 24 (2004) 761–771

articles were available digitally, this would makesearching easier (though might not provide the sidetracks I so enjoy).I called the publishers to see if a digital version

of the books would become available and theytold me it would only if there were sufficientdemand. To an academic mind, it seems back-to-front, to make the digital version available onlyonce the publishers had sold enough copies of theprinted text version. I can see the business caselogic but wonder how many of us would pay foraccess on a subscription or per-hit basis. It seemsa shame we cannot think of better ways now that

the technology is available. The authors and edi-

tors deserve better! Sample articles are, however,

available at http://www.cognitivescience.net/.

Rob Walker,

Centre for Applied Research,

University of East Anglia, Norwich NR2 7TJ, UK

E-mail address: rob.walker@uea.ac.uk

doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2004.06.010