This broad-ranging volume includes a series of articles that were originally published as a special issue of Cognition produced to celebrate the 50th volume of the journal. Written by some of the foremost scientists studying different aspects of the mind, the articles review progress achieved over the past twenty-five years in the main areas of the discipline. They provide a unique record of what is happening today in the field of cognition, with an added historical perspective that is often absent from other volumes that seek to cover so much ground.

The chapters have been arranged in sections on Neuropsychology, Thinking, and Language and Perception. These thematic areas deal with theoretical aspects ranging from the status of explanations in cognitive science, to evolutionary accounts of human cognitive faculties, to the way in which humans use these faculties to reason about, perceive, and interact with their environment and each other. There are also contributions dealing with the abilities of young infants and articles that relate behaviors to their underlying neural substrata.