Supersense

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many of the ideas I am presenting are based on academic research but they have been road-tested in public lectures and informal gatherings throughout the UK. When you need to talk in a way that most people can understand, it forces you to cut to the chase: to stop waffling and get to the heart of the matter. Academics are trained to recognize weaknesses, but in doing so we can become preoccupied with hedging our bets, qualifying our assertions and being over-cautious in our interpretations, so that we often seem to be sitting on a fence of indecision. That’s why writing a book such as this one might make an academic nervous.

Thankfully, I have been helped along the way. I am indebted to colleagues, students, friends, and family who have read different versions, made suggestions and generally encouraged me to be less nervous about the book. In alphabetical order I would like to thank Sara Baker, Horace Barlow, Susan Blackmore, Paul Bloom, Peter Brugger, Zoltan Dienes, Katy Donnelly, Shiri Einav, Norman Freeman, Susan Gelman, Iain Gilchrist, Thalia Gjersoe, Richard Gregory, Charlotte Hardie, Hilary and Peter Hodgson, Loyale Hood, Alison and Ross Hood, Marjaana Lindeman, Neil Macrae, Peter Millican, Steven Pinker, Paul Rozin, Reba Rosenberg, Ali Smith, Elaine Snell, Andrew Stuart, Arno van Voorst, Alice Wilson and Stephen Woolley. I also want to thank all those working in the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre who have supported me in this project.

The thesis I present in this book is one that I have been developing over the course of my professional academic life. However, it really came to life after my arrival at the University of Bristol, which has proved a supportive and nurturing environment in which to work. I could not have maintained my research programme without the support of the UK agencies that fund my work. I would like to thank the Economic and Social Research Council and the Medical Research Council. In addition, I would also like to thank the private foundations that support me including the Leverhulme Trust (UK), the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (UK) and the Bial Foundation (Portugal).

For this UK edition, I am particularly grateful to the support, encouragement, and vision, of Andreas Campomar of Constable & Robinson.

I dedicate this book to my family.