The Psychology of Scientific Thinking (original) (raw)

Scientific thinking about scientific thinking

Monographs of the Society for research …, 1995

Readers come to the Commentaries of these Monographs with three questions in mind. First, is the Monograph worth reading? Second, does it raise specific points that deserve further attention, emphasis, or criticism? Finally, are there broad issues raised by the Monograph ...

Elements for Development of Scientific Thinking

Abstract: All kinds of discovery are the consequences of the scientific thinking. Galileo Galilee, Einstein, Lavoisier, James watt, Ampere, Newton, C.B.Raman, Aryabhatta etc. all became a well known Scientist only by their scientific thinking and restless experiments. The way of thinking leading from examples to the rule or the law creation and vice- versa are the indication of scientific thinking. The human mind continues thinking always but randomly, it in this manner cannot yield any useful product. When the mind continues thinking in a definite direction, associating one fact to the next, then the mind becomes able to reach and find out the useful yield or product. Scientific thinking demands the answers for the prime questions generating from “why” and “how”. Associative observation of natural elements and matter, thinking over the natural process of growth, seeking the steps of natural phenomena and processes, critical thinking over the developed scientific theories, continuity and regularity in directional thinking, seeking clarity against a doubt, open-mindedness and prejudice free, complete listening and interpretation of statements, seeking reasons of any event, seeking effects of conditions, divergent thinking at regretting situation, convergent thinking at multi-factors, reflective thinking in gap, inductive thinking in examples, deductive thinking in formula, concept of science contents, procedural activities as scientific methods are the most essential elements to compose the mind of scientific thinking. Scientific productivity of a nation depends upon the extent of the development of scientific thinking among the people of the country. Keywords: Scientific Thinking, Convergent, Divergent, Directional thinking, and Associative observation

How Scientists think and reason

The mental processes underlying scientific thinking and discovery have been investigated by cognitive psychologists, educators, and creativity researchers for over half a century. Despite this wide interest in scientific thinking, the field has been regarded as an intriguing offshoot of cognitive psychology that provides scientific cover stories for theories of analogy, concept acquisition, problem solving, and cognitive development rather than revealing something new about the nature of cognition. In this chapter, I will provide a summary of recent research that we have conducted on scientific thinking and I will argue that this research provides a new perspective on the ways that basic cognitive processes function. Thus, scientific thinking allows us to understand complex cognition and generate new models of basic cognitive processes that have eluded researchers using arbitrary and simple stimuli that are commonly used in psychology experiments. Rather than being an offshoot of mainstream cognitive theories, I will propose that scientific thinking is a paradigmatic example of cognition that reveals the key features of many basic cognitive processes. Recent research on the nature of scientific thinking has implications not only for theories of cognition, but also for both the content and practice of science education.

How Scientists Think in the Real World

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2000

Research on scientific thinking and science education is often based on introspections about what science is, interviews with scientists, prescriptive accounts of science, and historical data. Although each of these approaches is valuable, each lacks some key components of what scientists do, which makes it difficult to determine what scientists are being trained for and what essential thinking and reasoning tools they must have. The research reported herein sought to determine the cognitive processes underlying reasoning in science using two approaches. The first is to bring participants into the laboratory and give them scientific problems to work on. The second is to investigate real scientists as they work at their own problems. Both approaches make it possible to propose several thinking and reasoning strategies that are conducive to making discoveries. Both also make it possible to understand some of the basic cognitive mechanisms underlying scientific thinking.