A Study of Thinking

A Study of Thinking
Author: Jerome Bruner
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2017-07-12
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1351534467

A Study of Thinking is a pioneering account of how human beings achieve a measure of rationality in spite of the constraints imposed by bias, limited attention and memory, and the risks of error imposed by pressures of time and ignorance. First published in 1956 and hailed at its appearance as a groundbreaking study, it is still read three decades later as a major contribution to our understanding of the mind. In their insightful new introduction, the authors relate the book to the cognitive revolution and its handmaiden, artificial intelligence. The central theme of the work is that the scientific study of human thinking must concentrate upon meaning and its achievement rather than upon the behaviorists' stimuli and responses and the presumed connections between them. The book's point of departure is how human beings group the world of particulars into ordered classes and categories-concepts-in order to impose a coherent and manageable order upon that world. But rather than relying principally on philosophical speculation to make its point, A Study of Thinking reports dozens of experiments to elucidate the strategies that people use in penetrating to the deep structure of the information they encounter. This seminal study was a major event in the cognitive revolution of the 1950s. Reviewing it at the time, J. Robert Oppenheimer said it "has in many ways the flavor of conviction which makes it point to the future."

A Study of Thinking

A Study of Thinking
Author: Jerome Seymour Bruner
Publisher:
Total Pages: 330
Release: 1956
Genre: Thought and thinking
ISBN: 9780882754956

The Act of Thinking

The Act of Thinking
Author: Derek Melser
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2004-09-03
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0262263831

A new theory proposes that thinking is a learned action. In this remarkable monograph, Derek Melser argues that the core assumption of both folk psychology and cognitive science—that thinking goes on in the head—is mistaken. Melser argues that thinking is not an intracranial process of any kind, mental or neural, but is rather a learned action of the person. After an introduction in which he makes a prima facie case that thinking is an action, Melser reviews action-based theories of thinking advanced by Ryle, Vygotsky, Hampshire and others. He then presents his own theory of "token concerting," according to which thinking is a special kind of token performance, by the individual, of certain social, concerted activity. He examines the developmental role of concerted activity, the token performance of concerted activity, the functions of speech, the mechanics and uses of covert tokening, empathy, the origins of solo action, the actional nature of perception, and various kinds and aspects of mature thinking. In addition, he analyzes the role of metaphors in the folk notion of mind. While intending his theory as a contribution to the philosophy of mind, Melser aims also at a larger goal: to establish actions as a legitimate philosophical given, self-explanatory and sui generis. To this end, he argues in the final chapter against the possibility of scientific explanation of actions. The Act of Thinking opens up a large new area for philosophical research.

The Oxford Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning

The Oxford Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning
Author: Keith J. Holyoak, Ph.D.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 865
Release: 2012-04-19
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0199734682

The Oxford Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning brings together the contributions of many of the leading researchers in thinking and reasoning to create the most comprehensive overview of research on thinking and reasoning that has ever been available. Each chapter includes a bit of historical perspective on the topic, and concludes with some thoughts about where the field seems to be heading.

Thinking in Perspective

Thinking in Perspective
Author: Andrew Burton
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2022-12-15
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1000804070

Originally published in 1978, the main task of this book was to consider the psychology of thinking in relation to the various perspectives from which thought processes were studied at the time. It provided an up-to-date and critical evaluation of current experimental studies of thinking organized within a framework which reflects the separate theoretical orientations and methodologies through which these investigations are carried out. This approach will help the reader to become aware of the complex relationship between the theoretical orientations, the problems selected for investigation and the methods used for studying them. An important underlying theme of the book concerns the relationship between the activities of the thinker and the demands of his environment. As far as is known, this was the only textbook on thinking to deal with the subject matter specifically in terms of theoretical approaches and methods of investigation at the time.

The Psychology of Thinking

The Psychology of Thinking
Author: John Paul Minda
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2015-09-26
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1473933943

How do we define thinking? Is it simply memory, perception and motor activity or perhaps something more complex such as reasoning and decision making? This book argues that thinking is an intricate mix of all these things and a very specific coordination of cognitive resources. Divided into three key sections, there are chapters on the organization of human thought, general reasoning and thinking and behavioural outcomes of thinking. These three overarching themes provide a broad theoretical framework with which to explore wider issues in cognition and cognitive psychology and there are chapters on motivation and language plus a strong focus on problem solving, reasoning and decision making – all of which are central to a solid understanding of this field. The book also explores the cognitive processes behind perception and memory, how we might differentiate expertise from skilled, competent performance and the interaction between language, culture and thought.

Towards a Theory of Thinking

Towards a Theory of Thinking
Author: Britt Glatzeder
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2010-03-20
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 3642031293

What is Thinking? – Trying to Define an Equally Fascinating and Elusive Phenomenon Human thinking is probably the most complex phenomenon that evolution has come up with until now. There exists a broad spectrum of definitions, from subs- ing almost all processes of cognition to limiting it to language-based, sometimes even only to formalizable reasoning processes. We work with a “medium sized” definition according to which thinking encompasses all operations by which cog- tive agents link mental content in order to gain new insights or perspectives. Mental content is, thus, a prerequisite for and the substrate on which thinking operations are executed. The largely unconscious acts of perceptual object stabilization, ca- gorization, emotional evaluation – and retrieving all the above from memory inscriptions – are the processes by which mental content is generated, and are, therefore, seen as prerequisites for thinking operations. In terms of a differentia specifica, the notion of “thinking” is seen as narrower than the notion of “cognition” and as wider than the notion of “reasoning”. Thinking is, thus, seen as a subset of cognition processes; and reasoning processes are seen as a subset of thinking. Besides reasoning, the notion of thinking includes also nonexplicit, intuitive, and associative processes of linking mental content. According to this definition, thinking is not dependant on language, i. e. also many animals and certainly all mammals show early forms of thinking.

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thinking, Fast and Slow
Author: Daniel Kahneman
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 511
Release: 2011-10-25
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1429969350

*Major New York Times Bestseller *More than 2.6 million copies sold *One of The New York Times Book Review's ten best books of the year *Selected by The Wall Street Journal as one of the best nonfiction books of the year *Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient *Daniel Kahneman's work with Amos Tversky is the subject of Michael Lewis's best-selling The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds In his mega bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, world-famous psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions. Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Topping bestseller lists for almost ten years, Thinking, Fast and Slow is a contemporary classic, an essential book that has changed the lives of millions of readers.

The Neurology of Thinking

The Neurology of Thinking
Author: David Frank Benson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 338
Release: 1994
Genre: Medical
ISBN:

This book presents an innovative study of cognition from a clinical point of view. From observations of patients' behavior, it illustrates and analyzes the disorders of the thinking process caused by focal brain damage or more widespread cerebral dysfunction. The disorders are organized in functional categories and integrated in the effort to outline a neural basis for thought processing. The author takes a broad view of this subject, ranging from sensory input to executive control of cognition and motor output. He uses striking clinical vignettes throughout the book to illustrate the various disorders, and discusses the case histories with respect to relevant literature. This detailed work provides an illuminating account of the neurological basis for components of thinking such as language, memory, visual imagery, and emotion. It will interest all who are concerned with the relation between brain and behavior, including neurologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and cognitive scientists.

Apprenticeship in Thinking

Apprenticeship in Thinking
Author: Barbara Rogoff
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1990
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN:

This interdisciplinary work presents an integration of theory and research on how children develop their thinking as they participate in cultural activity with the guidance and challenge of their caregivers and other companions. The author, a leading developmental psychologist, views development as an apprenticeship in which children engage in the use of intellectual tools in societally structured activities with parents, other adults, and children. The author has gathered evidence from various disciplines--cognitive, developmental, and cultural psychology; anthropology; infancy studies; and communication research--furnishing a coherent and broadly based account of cognitive development in its sociocultural context. This work examines the mutual roles of the individual and the sociocultural world, and the culturally based processes by which children appropriate and extend skill and understanding from their involvement in shared thinking with other people. The book is written in a lively and engaging style and is supplemented by photographs and original illustrations by the author.