Psychology

Profile

Background

In my theoretical and historical work, I have been examining the origins of the dualistic thinking that pervades modern psychology: mind vs. world, mind vs. body, subject vs. object, individual vs. society, biology vs. culture.  Drawing in a critical way upon pragmatism, phenomenology and ecological psychology, my work has been an attempt to develop an alternative approach to mainstream cognitivist psychology, based on the mutuality of animals and environments, people and their situations.  My research interests are wide, and include: children’s drawings, psychology of art, music perception, perfect pitch, autism, event perception, the meanings of things (‘affordances’), so-called ‘theory of mind’, and anthrozoology.  The topics of my current courses are ecological psychology, and the nature of science, but have also presented courses on the psychology of art, and on Darwin’s impacts on psychology.

Previous academic positions:

University of Southampton (1975-1994), University College London (1974).

Fellowships:

Visiting Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, 2001.

Visiting Humanities Scholar, University of Georgia, 2001

Simon Senior Research Fellow, University of Manchester, 1994.

Fellow, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Uppsala, 1991.

Associate Editor/Book Review Editor: British Journal of Psychology (1995-99; 2000-2007)

Member of the Editorial Boards of Anthrozoos, Ecological Psychology, History of the Human Sciences, History and Philosophy of Psychology, Integrative Psychological and Behavioural Science, New Ideas in Psychology, Philosophical Psychology, Rivista di Psicologia, Teorie e Modelli: Rivista di Storia e Metodologia della Psicologia, Theory and Psychology.

Recent Publications

More recent publications

 

Publications before 2008

Books and other edited works

Leudar, I & Costall, A. (January 2009) Against Theory of Mind. Palgrave Macmillan.  (more info)

Costall, A., & Dreier, O.  (Eds.).  (2006).  Doing things with things: The design and use of objects.  London: Ashgate.(more info)

Leudar, I., & Costall, A. (Eds.)  (2004).  Special issue: Theory of mind.  Theory and Psychology, 14(5), 573-757.

Costall, A. (Editor and translator).  (2001).  Georges-Henri Luquet, Children's drawings.   London: Free Associations Press.

Costall, A. & Leudar, I. (Eds.)  (1996)  Special issue: Situating action.  Ecological Psychology, 8(2), 101-187.

 

Thinès, G., Costall, A., & Butterworth, G.E. (1991)  Michotte's experimental phenomenology of perception.  Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Still, A. & Costall, A. (Eds.) (1991)  Against cognitivism: Alternative foundations for cognitive psychology.  Hemel Hempstead: Harvester-Wheatsheaf.

Costall, A. & Still, A.W. (Eds.) (1987)  Cognitive psychology in question. New York: St. Martin's Press, Brighton: Harvester Press.

Journal Articles

Costall, A., & Leudar, I. (2007). Getting over “the problem of other minds”: Communication in context. Journal of Infant Behavior and Development, 30, 289-295.

Costall, A. (2006). Introspectionism and the mythical origins of modern scientific psychology.  Consciousness and Cognition, 15, 634-654.

Costall, A., Leudar, I., & Reddy, V. (2006).  Failing to see the irony in ‘mind-reading.’  Theory & Psychology, 16, 163-167.

Williams, E., Kendall-Scott, L., & Costall, A. (2005). Parents’ experiences of introducing everyday object use to their children with autism.  Autism: International Journal of Research & Practice, 9, 521-540.

Costall, A., & Leudar, I. (2004). Where is the 'theory' in theory of mind? Theory and Psychology, 14, 625-648.

Costall, A.  (2004).  From Darwin to Watson (and Cognitivism) and back again: the principle of animal-environment mutuality.  Behavior & Philosophy, 32, 179-195.

Connelly, J. & Costall, A.  (2000).  R.G. Collingwood and the idea of an historical psychology.  Theory & Psychology, 10, 147-170.

Costall, A.  (1999).  Dire straits:  the divisive legacy of the Cambridge anthropological expedition of 1898.  Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 35, 345-358.

Williams, E., Costall, A. & Reddy, V. (1999).  Children with autism experience problems with both objects and people. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29, 367-378.

Costall, A. (1997).  Innocence and corruption: Conflicting images of child art. Human Development, 40, 133-144.

Valenti, S. & Costall, A.P. (1997).  Visual perception of lifted weight from kinematic and static (photographic) displays. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 23,  181-198.

Costall, A.  (1995).  Socializing affordances. Theory and Psychology, 5, 467-481.

Costall, A.  (1993).  How Lloyd Morgan’s canon backfired. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 29, 113-124.

Costall, A.  (1993).  Beyond linear perspective:  A cubist manifesto for visual science. Image and Vision Computing, 11, 334-341.

Costall, A.. (1991).  The 'meme' meme. Cultural Dynamics, 4, 321-335.


Book Chapters

Costall, A. (2007).  The windowless room: Mediationism and how to get over it.  In J. Valsiner, & A. Rosa (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of socio-cultural psychology (pp. 109-123).  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Costall, A.  (2006). On being the right size:  Affordances and the question of scale.  In G. Lock & B. Molyneaux (Eds.), Confronting scale in archaeology: Issues of theory and practice.  New York: Springer.

Costall, A.  (2003).  From direct perception to the primacy of action: A closer look at James Gibson's ecological approach to psychology. In G. J. Bremner & A.M. Slater (Eds.), Theories of infant development (pp. 70-89).  Oxford: Blackwell.

Costall, A. (2001).  Pear and his peers.  In G.C. Bunn, A.D. Lovie, & G.D. Richards (Eds.), Psychology in Britain: historical essays and personal reflections (pp. 188-204).  London: Science Museum/Leicester, UK: British Psychological Society.

Costall, A. (1997).  Things and things like them: Beyond the picture theory of pictures.  In B. Molyneux (Ed.), The cultural life of images: Visual representations in archaeology (pp. 49-61).  London: Routledge.

Costall, A.  (1994)  The competent neonate: Sleepless nights for representational theorists?  In P. van Geert, L.P. Mos, & W.J. Baker (Ed.),  Annals of theoretical psychology:, Vol. 10: Developmental psychology (pp.  27-41).  New York: Plenum.

Costall, A. (1991).  Graceful degradation: Cognitivism and the metaphors of the computer.  In A. Still. & A. Costall (Eds.),  Against cognitivism: Alternative foundations for cognitive psychology  (pp. 151-170).  Hemel Hempstead: Harvester-Wheatsheaf.

Costall, A. (1990).  Picture perception as 'indirect' perception.  In K. Landwehr (Ed.), Ecological perception research, visual  communication and aesthetics (pp. 15-22). New York: Springer-Verlag.

Costall, A.  (1989).  A closer look at 'direct perception'. In  A. Gellatly, D. Rogers, & J.A. Sloboda (Eds.), Cognition and  social worlds  (pp. 10-21).  Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Costall, A. (1985).  The relativity of absolute pitch. In P. Howell, I. Cross, & R. West (Eds.), Musical structure and cognition  (pp. 189-208). New York: Academic Press.

Costall, A. (1985).  Specious origins: Darwinism and developmental theory. In G. Butterworth, J. Rutkowska, & M. Scaife (Eds.), Evolution and developmental psychology  (pp. 30-41). Brighton: Harvester Press.

Costall, A. (1985).  How meaning covers the traces. In N.H. Freeman & M.V. Cox (Eds.), Visual order  (pp. 17-30). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Costall, A. (1981).  On how so much information controls so much behaviour. In G. Butterworth (Ed.), Infancy and epistemology  (pp. 30-51).  New York: St. Martin's Press/Brighton: Harvester Press.