This two-volume reference set exploring the human mind gets high marks for credibility and comprehensiveness. Editor Harold Pashler is a well-regarded psychologist who has gathered an impressive list of contributors providing “brief but authoritative entries covering all major disciplines concerned with the study of the mind” (xxix). The intended audience is college and university students studying cognitive science and related fields. For this reason, it fills a gap in the existing literature for this subject area. The volumes are of most use to students with a working knowledge of science.

The entries are appropriate in length and depth for reference books. The editor has presented 293 individual topics related to the human mind. Examples of topics covered are Apraxia, Cognitive Dissonance, Desirable Difficulties Perspective on Learning, Gesture and Language Processing, Placebo Effect, Development of Spatial Cognition, and Visual Imagery. The explanations are broken down into common approaches to the subject area: computational, cultural, evolutionary, philosophical perspectives, practical applications, and psychological research.

A strong point is the “Further Readings” list at the end of each entry. This can give a college student a list of additional resources to consider for their research topic. These are accessible from electronic subscription databases on most college and university campus libraries. The “See Also” list of terms after each entry provides more comprehensive information on a topic by referencing other relevant entries. There is consecutive pagination between volumes.

There is one design weakness. While there is consecutive pagination, the index for both volumes is in the back of Volume Two, making it difficult to quickly find entries in Volume One or make it easy to browse both volumes. The List of Entries found in the front matter of both volumes would have been more effective with the page number and volume number next to it for easy access.

In the ongoing struggle between print and electronic resources in libraries, print reference books will need to follow Pasler’s example of credibility and comprehensiveness to survive in the marketplace.