Thinking

12 Key excerpts on "Thinking"

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  eBook - ePub

  The Psychology of Thinking

  Reasoning, Decision-Making and Problem-Solving

  • John Paul Minda(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  1 The Psychology of Thinking Thinking is so central to the human experience that it has been described as the essence of being. We are all familiar with the phrase, “Je pense donc je suis” or “I think therefore I am”. This comes, of course, from Descartes’ Discourse on Method (1637) and underscores what is so crucial and compelling about the study of Thinking. Humans, like other animals, behave, learn, respond, communicate, and remember. But humans also think. We can discover something new by Thinking about it. We can solve problems in the mind, visualize solutions, and arrive at an important decision by Thinking. We can be aware of our own thoughts and aware of the consequences of our actions and behaviours. This book is about the psychology of Thinking. That might sound redundant, given that psychology is often defined as the study of the mind or of mental activity. In other words, if psychology is not about Thinking, what else can it be about? Psychology is a very broad field, encompassing everything from the study of neurotransmitters and basic neuroanatomy to the study of learning and memory to the understanding of mental health and the study of group behaviour. This book is concerned with the study and understanding of the thought process. Thinking is usually studied within the broader field of cognition. Cognitive psychology has traditionally been defined as the study of information processing and behaviour. This encompasses everything from basic attention and perception to memory, concepts, and Thinking. As a topic within the study of cognitive psychology, the psychology of Thinking is concerned with complex mental behaviours, such as problem-solving, reasoning, decision-making, and becoming an expert. A good understanding of basic cognition is very useful in understanding the psychology of Thinking, but it is not necessary

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  Companion Encyclopedia of Psychology

  Volume One

  • Andrew M. Colman(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  When people perform mental arithmetic, we would describe this as an act of thought. So is a computer also Thinking when it performs computations to solve problems? It appears that it is, although some philosophers (e.g., Searle, 1980) maintain that computer intelligence is intrinsically different from that of the human mind. The point of the analogy, however, is that we can see that computers can perform complex acts of information processing-depending upon their programming-but without any need to assume that they are conscious. Once you equate Thinking with information processing, then the task of the modern cognitive psychologist is clear: understanding thought is the problem of discovering the software of the human brain. Many psychological theories in fact are formulated as working computer programs which attempt to simulate the behaviour of a human being who is solving a problem or engaged in some other cognitive activity.

  In spite of this advance, arguments persist among cognitive and social psychologists as to the value of introspective reports. Some cognitive psychologists disregard them entirely on the basis of much evidence that such reports can be both incomplete and misleading (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). One interesting line of argument is that verbal reports are useful indicators of thought processes but not as used in the tradition of introspective reporting (Ericsson & Simon, 1980). According to this view, verbalizations are the products of cognitive processes and can be fruitfully interpreted by the psychologist when subjects are asked to "think aloud" while performing a task or solving a problem. Introspective reports fail because first, they are retrospective rather than concurrent, and second, they invite subjects to describe their Thinking or to theorize about the causes of their behaviour.

  The psychology of Thinking can be broadly defined to cover a wide range of topics. For example, Gilhooly (1982) distinguishes between directed Thinking- as found in problem solving and reasoning-undirected Thinking- as in day-dreaming-and creative Thinking. In this chapter we shall focus on directed Thinking: thought aimed at achieving specific goals. This is an area in which reasonable theoretical progress has been made, and for which there are clear practical applications in everyday life.

  Studies of directed Thinking fall broadly into three main areas which are described as problem solving, reasoning, and decision-making. We shall consider each in turn.

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  BIOS Instant Notes in Cognitive Psychology

  • Jackie Andrade, Jon May(Authors)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  Section A The nature of cognitive psychology

  DOI: 10.4324/9780203488294-1

  A1 Cognition

  Key notes

  Cognition	Cognition is the study of the mental processes underlying our ability to perceive the world, remember, talk about and learn from our experiences, and modify our behavior accordingly. It includes functions such as perception, memory, language and thought.
  Assumptions about cognition	The mind is a limited capacity information-processing system that behaves in a law-like fashion. Cognition is the product of top-down and bottom-up processes. Top-down processing refers to the influence of knowledge and expectations on functions such as language, perception and memory. Bottom-up processing is processing driven by an external stimulus. Cognitive functions are often assumed to be modular, that is to operate independently of each other.
  Philosophical basis	Functionalism views mental events as causal or functional because they serve to transform incoming information into output (different information or behavior). Mind is the ‘software’ of the brain and can be studied independently of it. For materialists, the mind is the brain and is studied by investigating brain activity directly. Choosing an approach is partly a matter of choosing an appropriate level of explanation for the topic of interest.
  Related topics	Methods of investigation (A2 )	Issues in consciousness research (K1 )

  Cognition

  In 1967, Ulric Neisser published a book with the title Cognitive Psychology

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  CLEP® Human Growth & Development Book + Online

  • Patricia Heindel(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Research & Education Association

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 6 Cognitive Development Throughout the Life Span Chapter 6 Cognitive Development Throughout the Life Span

  ELEMENTS OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

  Thinking is defined as the manipulation of mental representations. Cognition includes the mental activities involved in the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of knowledge. The most rapid cognitive development takes place during the first few years of life when the brain is growing rapidly. As the following discussion shows, however, cognitive development is best described as a life-long process.

  Concepts

  A basic element of thought is the concept. A concept is a label that represents a class or group of objects, people, or events that share common characteristics or qualities. We organize our Thinking by using concepts, and concepts allow us to think about something new by relating it to a concept we already know.

  Some concepts are well-defined, and each member of the concept has all of the defining properties; no nonmember does. An example would be registered voters—you either are or are not registered to vote. Other concepts are not so clearly defined but are encountered frequently in our everyday life. These natural concepts have no set of defining features but instead have characteristic features—members of this concept must have at least some of these characteristics. “Bird” is a natural concept. Birds range from chickens to sparrows to ostriches. Prototypes are objects or events that best represent a natural concept. A sparrow or robin would be considered a prototypical bird by many individuals. New concepts are easier to learn if they are organized around a prototype.

  Reasoning

  Reasoning involves processing information to reach a conclusion. It includes evaluating and generating arguments to reach a conclusion. Inductive reasoning involves reasoning from the specific to the general. For example, drawing conclusions about all members of a category or concept based on only some of the members is inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning is reasoning from the general to the specific. Making a prediction based on a theory involves deductive reasoning. Logical reasoning involves using mental procedures that yield valid conclusions.

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  The Intelligent Mind

  On the Genesis and Constitution of Discursive Thought

  • Richard Dien Winfield(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  2 Whatever those thoughts may be, they cannot be formed and apprehended without being verbalized in either inner or overt speech. The meaning of thought may be completely imageless, but that meaning cannot be verbalized unless imagination keeps in mind the configuration of the words that express Thinking. Consequently, Thinking always involves imagination to supply at least the signs of the words with which thoughts are formulated. Moreover, the thoughts that Thinking conceives may not be pure, deriving their entire content from logical determination. Thought can equally conceive concepts, judgments, and inferences that are empirical, deriving their content from general representations supplied by imagination and intuition. In the latter case, Thinking will conceive thoughts whose content is dependent upon and in relation to external sources. The thoughts so conceived do not lose their form as thoughts, but their content is alien to that form. The psychology of Thinking therefore involves distinct types of thought characterized by different relations between the form and content of Thinking. Each of these types of thought involves the logical determinations of concept, judgment, and syllogism, but each realizes these logical determinations in particular psychological activities distinguished by the psychological factors they employ. In all cases, language is necessarily at work, without having to undergo any grammatical or lexical modification. Consequently, the different stages in the psychology of Thinking are not stages in linguistic development. Although thought always involves language, the development of Thinking proper is distinct from the phylogenetic genesis of language, the historical modifications of language, and the ontogenetic maturation of discursive individuals.

  The different relations between the form and content of Thinking represent different stages in the autonomy of thought. Whenever Thinking has a content different from thought, it occupies itself with something extraneous, something given independently of its own activity. In that case, Thinking has a formal character, reflecting how its activity does not generate the content of what it thinks. Instead, it draws that content from some other source. The formality of a Thinking whose form and content fall apart thus involves heteronomy, in that Thinking takes on a content it finds given instead of Thinking something immanent to thought itself. The more Thinking determines the content of what is thought, the more heteronomy is overcome, and the more conceptual autonomy is achieved.

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  Confidence in Critical Thinking

  Developing Learners in Higher Education

  • Arlene Egan(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  This definition explains that critical Thinking is not about being negative or that there is only one way to think. Instead, it suggests an approach to Thinking that will differ depending on what is to be achieved, tapping into a range of skills necessary to carry out the task at hand.

  Halpern’s (2003) definition comes from a psychological perspective and is useful for deepening awareness of how critical Thinking relates to learning and performance in higher education. The idea that we use a range of strategies and skills appropriate to the situation and the desired outcome highlights the importance of understanding what these skills are, as well as our perceived strengths and limitations relating to these skills. This definition also helps us to conceptualise critical Thinking as being less about banging our fists on the table in an argument and more about engaging in smart, thoughtful consideration. It suggests an approach to Thinking about different situations that is practical and outcome oriented.

  For the purpose of this book, the definition provided by Halpern (2003), presented above, will be used. This definition is from a particular tradition in psychology known as ‘cognitive psychology’, which is ‘concerned with mental processes (such as perception, Thinking, learning, and memory)…’ (Merriam-Webster Dictionary.com ). Through these definitions the connection between cognitive psychology and this perspective of critical Thinking becomes evident as both are concerned with outcomes and thought processes. There are other perspectives which can be used to understand critical Thinking, and as you research and read up on this area you will notice many insights from philosophy and critical pedagogues (see ten Dam & Volman, 2004). There are merits and challenges to each perspective, which you can discover in your own time.

  Given its focus on mental process and Thinking, other work conducted in cognitive psychology by Kahneman and Egan (2011) suggests that, when we are Thinking, we use a dual processing system. In essence this means that our thoughts result in two ways; unconsciously (quick Thinking based on experience or intuition) and consciously (explicit engagement with the thought). These are labelled ‘System 1ʹ or ‘System 2ʹ Thinking. When we use System 1 Thinking, our Thinking is fast and automatic, we are not paying much attention to it and rely more on strategies such as gut feelings. System 2 Thinking is much more deliberate, analytical and takes more effort (Stupple et al., 2017). Critical Thinking is aligned to System 2 Thinking, where we experience more deliberate, conscious application of thought which takes effort and energy.

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  Psychology of Education

  Theory, Research and Evidence-Based Practice

  • Janet Lord, Janet Lord(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 5 of this book.

  Chapter Map

  • What do we mean by development?
  • Cognitive development and change
  • Nature/nurture
  • The brain and development
  • Theories of cognitive development
    • Jean Piaget’s stage theory (e.g. 1936)
    • Piaget’s four stages
    • Some criticisms of Piagetian theory
    • Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development
    • Some criticisms of Vygotskian theory
    • Similarities and differences between Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories
  • Attention, decision making and problem solving
    • Attention
    • Decision making
    • Problem solving
  • The information processing approach
    • Theories of information processing
  • Developmental issues and information processing theory

  Key words

  Development, nature/nurture, prefrontal cortex, Piaget, Vygotsky, information processing, attention, problem solving

  Learning objectives

  When you have studied this chapter, you will be able to:

  • Recognise how cognitive abilities change throughout development
  • Describe the nature–nurture debate and its importance to developmental psychology
  • Describe the stages of development according to Piaget
  • Describe Vygotsky’s approach to cognitive development
  • Describe the information approach to cognitive development
  • Consider how attention, problem solving and decision making develop
  • Relate all these concepts to educational settings

  What do we mean by development?

  Developmental psychology is a wide area of study, and one that is concerned with the description and explanation of changes that occur in psychological processes at any point in an individual’s life. Developmental psychologists study how humans change and grow from conception through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and death, taking into account individual differences as well as general laws. They view development as a lifelong process that can be studied scientifically across three developmental domains:

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  CLEP Human Growth & Development, 10th Ed., Book + Online

  • Norman Rose(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Research & Education Association

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 7 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THROUGHOUT THE LIFE SPAN Cognition, or thought, is defined as the manipulation of mental representations. Cognition includes the mental activities involved in the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of knowledge. The most intense cognitive development takes place during the first few years of life when the brain is developing rapidly. As the following discussion shows, however, cognitive development is best described as a lifelong process. Before discussing theories of cognitive development, it is important to define the basic elements of cognition. CONCEPTS A basic element of thought is the concept. A concept is a label that represents a class or group of objects, people, or events that share common characteristics or qualities. We organize our Thinking by using concepts, and concepts allow us to think about something new by relating it to a concept we already know. Some concepts are well-defined, and each member of the concept has all the defining properties, while non-members do not possess all the properties. An example would be registered voters—you either are or are not registered to vote. Other concepts are not so clearly defined but are encountered frequently in our everyday life. These natural concepts do not have a definite set of defining features but instead have characteristic features, so members of this concept must have at least some of these characteristics. “Bird” is a natural concept. Prototypes are objects or events that best represent a natural concept. A sparrow or robin would be considered a prototypical bird by many individuals, while ostriches, penguins, or hummingbirds are not prototypical

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  Wittgenstein, Anti-foundationalism, Technoscience and Philosophy of Education

  An Educational Philosophy and Theory Reader Volume VIII

  • Michael A. Peters(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  I begin with the admonition, ‘Always historicize! Always pluralize!’, for Reason also has a history. The narrative of critical reason has at least five ‘chapters’ beginning, first, with Kant; followed by, second, its bifurcation with Horkheimer and Adorno into theoretical and practical reason; third, its separation into three by Habermas (1987) according to knowledge interests—technical, practical and emancipatory; and, finally, its pluralization in the material conditions of discourses (Wittgenstein, Foucault, Lyotard). The fifth chapter is in a sense a postscript—a working out of the consequences of accepting that reason, like knowledge and the value of knowledge, is rooted in social relations. In some forms this is both a naturalization and a pluralization of Kant: not one reason, but many. It is clear that the history of reason is the history of philosophy itself, and as history, both revisable and open to interpretation.

  To talk of ‘Thinking skills’—a concept that dominates contemporary educational discourse—is already to adopt a particular view of Thinking, that is, Thinking as a kind of technology. This view of Thinking is a reductive concept of Thinking as a means–ends instrumentality, a series of techniques that can move us from one space to another. In the so-called knowledge economy emphasis in the curriculum has passed from the knowledge and understanding of traditional subjects and disciplines to generic, transferable skills that allegedly equip learners with the means by which they can learn. These are often described in psychological language as metacognitive skills, that is, learning how to learn, and are now squared off against information-processing skills, knowledge management skills, entrepreneurial skills, and social skills like team-building.

  In part, this reductive notion of Thinking receives an impetus from both cognitive psychology and neoclassical economics. The work of the first wave cognitivists, especially Piaget, conceptualized Thinking in terms of developmental stages and mental operations . He was among the first to operationalize Thinking and to define it according to stages of children’s development.3 Second wave cognitivists, picking up on the information-processing model of the mind, initiated by Claude Shannon’s work in information theory, that began to model the mind on the brain by way of a strict analogy with the computer. This has led, in the third wave, to the study of Thinking and the mind in terms of brain states, pursued in different ways by Howard Gardner (1983), who talks of ‘multiple intelligences’, and the Churchlands (P. S. Churchland, 1989; P. M. Churchland, 1995), who talk of ‘neural nets’ (connectionism) and devise naturalized epistemologies.4

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  Teaching Psychology 14-19

  Issues and Techniques

  • Matt Jarvis(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  2001 ) the answer is a resounding ‘no’. A good psychologist must be able to think like a scientist but also, on occasion, like an anthropologist, a historian, a philosopher and a therapist. This is a challenging idea for psychology teachers at both school and undergraduate level who (necessarily) spend considerable time inculcating in students an understanding of the scientific method. However, although we place considerable value on psychology as a science, even at introductory levels we do teach and value other ways of Thinking, albeit often implicitly.

  Time to get more technical. One way to understand the range of Thinking that we might call ‘psychological’ is with reference to the distinction between analytic and synthetic modes of Thinking (Sternberg, 1997 ; McGhee 2001 ). In this context, the terms analysis and synthesis are used more broadly than in Bloom’s model. Analytic Thinking is logical, based on drawing inferences from available data. Synthetic Thinking, on the other hand, is free flowing and imaginative. We think analytically when we apply rules to decide the truth or falsity of an explanation, when we statistically analyse data and when we design an experiment to eliminate the influence of all independent variables bar the one we are interested in. This is very much traditional scientific Thinking and many psychologists think of it as the correct way to think about psychology.

  Without a degree of synthetic Thinking, however, sciences never make great leaps. As McGhee puts it: ‘It is the imaginative leaps carried out by Copernicus, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking that set them apart from their merely excellent peers’ (2001). Whenever we generate a new hypothesis to test a theory, use an analogy to make a model accessible – such as the multistore model – or apply a psychological theory or idea to understanding a new situation, we are Thinking synthetically. But what does this scientific philosophy have to do with classroom teaching? The answer is that being able to appreciate both analytic and synthetic Thinking allows students to think more widely when looking for the commentary and evaluation that comprise AO2 marks. This is put into practice in designing Thinking skills toolkits (see p82) and is reflected in the type of sequenced learning activities that follow from Sternberg’s triarchic model of psychology teaching (p86).

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  How to Rethink Psychology

  New metaphors for understanding people and their behavior

  • Bernard Guerin(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  We have common-sense metaphors about these which psychology has adopted uncritically on the whole, but the main metaphor from the 1960s onwards has been that ‘cognitive processes’ take place within our brains, and that these processes do the Thinking and believing events, or they are those events. I do not want to throw out all the research on cognition but, rather, to give it a new metaphor that is in line with a contextual view of how things operate in the world (Guerin, 2001a, 2001b). This does not reject any cognitive data, just reframes them (fairly radically, I must admit …). Part of this is going to comprise some of the weirdest of the 180º changes in reThinking in this entire book, so here and elsewhere (Chapter 5) I will give you more places to read others who have said the same or similar things

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  The Child's Mind

  • John White(Author)
  • 2002(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 1 on the close association traditionally made between the mind and abstract thought.) Comments are also made on the cultivation of both contemplation and sign-cognition.

  Further reading

  Gilbert Ryle’s essays on the concept of Thinking are included in Ryle, G., (1979) On Thinking Towota, NJ: Roman and Littlefield. For more recent discussions, see McGinn, C., (1982) The Character of Mind Oxford: Oxford University Press, ch. 4; Kenny, A., (1989) The Metaphysics of Mind Oxford: Oxford University Press, ch. 9; and McGinn’s entry on ‘Thought’ in Guttenplan, S., (1994) A Companionto the Philosophy of Mind Oxford: Blackwell.

  On the educational side, there is a good full-length discussion of the role of Thinking and general Thinking skills in Schrag, F., (1988) Thinking in School and Society London: Routledge. A further critique of general Thinking skills in education is to be found in Johnson, S., (2001) The Teaching of Thinking Skills Impact Pamphlet No. 9, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. The subordination of theoretical reasoning to practical reasoning among educational priorities is a theme of White, J., (1990) Education and the Good Life London: Kogan Page, especially ch. 7. For a contrasting view, see Wringe, C., (1988) Understanding Educational Aims London: Unwin Hyman, especially Part IV. On practical reasoning see also MacIntyre, A., (1999) Dependent Rational Animals London: Duckworth, chs 8, 9. The inspiration for MacIntyre’s and many other contemporary philosophers’ interest in practical reasoning comes from Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics,

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