Inductive Reasoning: Experimental, Developmental, and Computational Approaches - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521672449 ISBN 13: 9780521672443

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2007

Synopsis

Without inductive reasoning, we couldn't generalize from one instance to another, derive scientific hypotheses, or predict that the sun will rise again tomorrow morning. Despite the widespread nature of inductive reasoning, books on this topic are rare. Indeed, this is the first book on the psychology of inductive reasoning in twenty years. The chapters survey recent advances in the study of inductive reasoning and address questions about how it develops, the role of knowledge in induction, how best to model people's reasoning, and how induction relates to other forms of thinking. Written by experts in philosophy, developmental science, cognitive psychology, and computational modeling, the contributions here will be of interest to a general cognitive science audience as well as to those with a more specialized interest in the study of thinking.

About this title

About the Authors

Aidan Feeney is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Durham University. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Trinity College, Dublin in 1992 and completed his Ph.D. in the Centre for Thinking and Language at the University of Plymouth. He was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Durham University in 1998 where he became Senior Lecturer in 2005. Dr Feeney's research has been supported by a number of grants from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK). He has published approximately twenty journal articles, book chapters, and papers on the psychology of hypothesis testing and reasoning. He has published articles in Thinking and Reasoning, Memory and Cognition, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, British Journal of Psychology, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, and Applied Cognitive Psychology.

Evan Heit is currently Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science, and Founding Faculty, at the University of California, Merced. Previously, Professor Heit was on the faculty in the Psychology Department of the University of Warwick, UK. He has undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He also carried out post-doctoral research at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University. Professor Heit has published more than fifty papers on the psychology of reasoning, memory, and categorization. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Economic and Social Research Council (UK), and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UK). He is currently on the editorial board of Memory and Cognition and the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, and is Associate Editor of the Journal of Memory and Language.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521672449
• ISBN 13: 9780521672443
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 376
• Editor: Feeney Aidan