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Course Description

Cognitive Models of Scientific and Technological Thinking

Prof. Nancy J. Nersessian

Georgia Institute of Technology

We will examine to what extent models of human reasoning and representation proposed in the cognitive sciences can provide the basis for an enriched, more nuanced understanding of the practices used in science and engineering research, and technology development. The focus of the course will be on analyses of scientific cognition developed in philosophy of science and cognitive psychology. Given the brevity of the course, only a small sample of research can be considered. Thus we will divide the course into two sections: 1) studies deriving from philosophy and cognitive-historical analysis and 2) studies deriving from psychology and cognitive ethnography. We will address such questions as: By using cognitive models, can we better understand how scientists devise and execute real world and thought experiments, construct arguments, create concepts, invent and use mathematical tools, communicate ideas and practices, and train practitioners? Can theories and methods in the cognitive sciences provide a means for reconstruction of historical "discovery processes"? What area(s) of cognitive science offer the most potential for fruitful analyses? What is the relation between cognitive and social models of science? Do cognitive analyses require abandoning traditional philosophical concerns with rationality and objectivity? Can examining the cognitive practices of scientists and engineers inform us about mundane cognition? About learning in science education?

The course will be run “seminar style” with students assigned to assist in formulating problems for discussion and all students expected to actively participate in discussion.

Lecture 1. Introduction: the problem situation in contemporary cognitive studies of science and the background in philosophy of science

Required readings:

Laudan, L. (1977). Progress and its Problems, U. Of California Press, Chapters 1 & 2

Klahr, D., & Simon, H. A. (1999). Studies of scientific discovery: Complimentary approaches and divergent findings. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 524--543.

Lecture 2. Philosophical and cognitive-historical

Required readings:

Nersessian, N. J. (1992). How do scientists think? Capturing the dynamics of conceptual change

in science. In R. Giere (Ed.), Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science (pp. 3-45). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Nersessian, N. J. (2002). The cognitive basis of model-based reasoning in science. In P. Carruthers, S. Stich & M. Siegal (Eds.), The Cognitive Basis of Science (pp. 133-153). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Optional readings:

Spranzi, M. (2004). Galileo and the mountains of the moon: Analogical reasoning, models and metaphors in scientific discovery. Cognition and Culture, 4(3-4451-485).

Lecture 3. Philosophical and cognitive-historical

Required readings:

Gooding, D. (2005). Seeing the forest for the trees: Visualization, cognition, and scientific

inference. In M. Gorman, R. D. Tweney, D. Gooding & A. Kincannon (Eds.), Scientific and Technological Thinking (pp. 173-218). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Giere, R. N. (1999). Science Without Laws. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapter 7: Visualization and Judgement

Optional readings:

Giere, R. N. (1994). The Cognitive Structure of Scientific theories. Philosophy of Science, 61, 276-296.

Lecture 4. Psychological and cognitive-ethnographic

Required readings:

Dunbar, K. (1995). How scientists really reason: Scientific reasoning in real-world laboratories.

In R. J. Sternberg & J. E. Davidson (Eds.), The Nature of Insight (pp. 365-395). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Tweney, R. D. (2004). Replication and the experimental ethnography of science. Cognition and Culture, 4(3-4), 731-758.

Optional readings:

Dunbar, K. (1997). How scientists think: On-line creativity and conceptual change. In T. Ward,

S. M. Smith & J. Vaid (Eds.), Conceptual Structures and Processes (pp. 461-493). Washington, DC: APA Press.

Lecture 5. Psychological and cognitive-ethnographic

Required readings:

Nersessian, N. J. (2005). Interpreting scientific and engineering practices: Integrating the

cognitive, social, and cultural dimensions. In M. Gorman, R. D. Tweney, D. Gooding & A. Kincannon (Eds.), Scientific and Technological Thinking (pp. 17-56). Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Roth, W.-M. (2004). Emergence of graphical practices in scientific research. Cognition and

Culture, 4(3-4), 595-628.

Optional readings:

Dunbar, K. (2001). What scientific thinking reveals about the nature of cognition.

C. D. Schunn & T. Okada (Eds.), Designing for Science: Implications for Everyday, Classroom, and Professional Settings (pp. 115-140). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kurz-Milcke, E., Nersessian, N. J., & Newstetter, W. (2004). What has history to do with cognition? Interactive methods for studying research laboratories. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 4, 663-700.