HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING EDITED BY ROBERT J. STERNBERG & JOACHIM FUNKE THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN THOUGHT AN INTRODUCTION The Psychology of Human Thought: An Introduction The Psychology of Human Thought: An Introduction Robert J. Sternberg & Joachim Funke (Eds.) Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. This book is published under the Creative Commons License 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0). The cover is subject to the Creative Commons License CC-BY ND 4.0. The electronic, open access version of this work is permanently available on Heidelberg University Publishing’s website: HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING (https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de). URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heiup-book-470-3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17885/heiUP.470 Text © 2019 by the authors. Cover image: Matthias Ripp, Gentrification (detail), https://www.flickr.com/photos/56218409@N03/16288222673 ISBN: 978-3-947732-34-0 (Softcover) ISBN: 978-3-947732-35-7 (Hardcover) ISBN: 978-3-947732-33-3 (PDF) List of Contributors Rakefet Ackerman Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management Israel Institute of Technology Technion City, Haifa 3200003, Israel Andrea Bender Department of Psychosocial Science University of Bergen 5020 Bergen, Norway Arndt Bröder School of Social Sciences Department of Psychology University of Mannheim 68131 Mannheim, Germany Janet Davidson Department of Psychology Lewis & Clark University Portland, OR 97219, USA Jonathan St. B. Evans School of Psychology University of Plymouth Devon PL4 8AA, United Kingdom Klaus Fiedler Department of Psychology Heidelberg University 69117 Heidelberg, Germany Joseph P. Forgas School of Psychology University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia Joachim Funke Department of Psychology Heidelberg University 69117 Heidelberg, Germany Kathleen M. Galotti Cognitive Science Program Carleton College Northfield, MN 55057, USA David M. Garavito Department of Human Development Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14850, USA Mary Gauvain Department of Psychology University of California, Riverside Riverside, CA 92521, USA Judith Glück Institute of Psychology University of Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, Austria Arthur C. Graesser Department of Psychology and Institute for Intelligent Systems The University of Memphis Memphis, TN 38152, USA Zach Hambrick Department of Psychology Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824, USA Kenneth J. Kurtz Cognitive and Brain Sciences Psychology Department Binghamton University Binghamton, NY 13902, USA Kimery R. Levering Department of Psychology Marist College Poughkeepsie, NY 12601, USA Anne M. Lippert Department of Psychology and Institute for Intelligent Systems The University of Memphis Memphis, TN 38152, USA Todd Lubart Institute of Psychology University of Paris Descartes (Université Sorbonne Paris Cité) Boulogne Billancourt, France Julia Nolte Department of Human Development Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14850, USA Valerie Reyna Department of Human Development Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14850, USA Chiara Scarampi Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience University College London London, United Kingdom Ulrich Schroeders Department of Psychological Assessment University of Kassel 34127 Kassel, Germany Keith T. Shubeck Department of Psychology and Institute for Intelligent Systems The University of Memphis Memphis, TN 38152, USA Robert J. Sternberg Department of Human Development Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14850, USA Branden Thornhill-Miller Institute of Psychology University of Paris Descartes (Université Sorbonne Paris Cité) Boulogne Billancourt, France & Department of Philosophy University of Oxford Oxford, United Kingdom Lisa von Stockhausen Department of Psychology University of Duisburg-Essen 45141 Essen, Germany Oliver Wilhelm Department of Individual Differences and Psychological Assessment Ulm University 89069 Ulm, Germany Contents Preface 1 1 The Psychology of Human Thought: Introduction Robert J. Sternberg & Joachim Funke 3 1.1 Goals of Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.2 Underlying Themes in the Study of Human Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.3 Seven Themes Applied to Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2 History of the Field of the Psychology of Human Thought Robert J. Sternberg 15 2.1 The Dialectical Development of Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2.2 Early Western Antecedents of the Psychology of Human Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2.3 Intermediate Periods in the Western History of Understanding Human Thought . . . . . . 17 2.4 The Early Modern Period (1600s to 1800s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2.5 The Modern Period of the Psychology of Human Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2.6 Functionalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 2.7 Pragmatism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2.8 Associationism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2.9 Behaviorism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.10 Gestalt Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.11 Cognitivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 3 Methods for Studying Human Thought Arndt Bröder 27 3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 3.2 A Natural Science of the Mind? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 3.3 Why not just Ask People about their Thoughts? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 3.4 Objective Methods for Investigating Thought Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 3.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 4 Concepts: Structure and Acquisition Kimery R. Levering & Kenneth J. Kurtz 55 4.1 How Concepts Arise from Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 4.2 Modes of Category Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 4.3 Kinds of Categories and Their Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 4.4 Future Directions in Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 5 Knowledge Representation and Acquisition Art Graesser, Anne M. Lippert, & Keith T. Shubeck 71 5.1 Knowledge Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 5.2 The Representation of Knowledge Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 5.3 Knowledge Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 5.4 Associative Representations of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 5.5 The Body in Cognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 5.6 Conversations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 5.7 Importance of Media and Technology in Knowledge Representation and Learning . . . . . 81 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 6 Metacognition: Monitoring and Controlling One’s Own Knowledge, Reasoning and Decisions Klaus Fiedler, Rakefet Ackerman & Chiara Scarampi 89 6.1 Introduction: What is Metacognition? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 6.2 Review of Insights Gained from Metacognition Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 6.3 Metacognitive Perspectives on Applied Rationality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 7 Deductive Reasoning Jonathan St. B. T. Evans 113 7.1 The Deduction Paradigm: The Main Methods and Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 7.2 Theoretical Issues in the Psychology of Deduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 7.3 The New Paradigm Psychology of Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 8 Inductive Reasoning Janet E. Davidson 133 8.1 Comparing Inductive Reasoning with Deductive Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 8.2 Inductive Reasoning at Its Best . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 8.3 Different Forms of Inductive Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 8.4 How Does Inductive Reasoning Develop? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 8.5 Development of Forms of Induction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 9 Problem Solving Joachim Funke 155 9.1 The Problem Part: What Constitutes a Problem? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 9.2 The Solving Part: What are the Steps to the Solution? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 9.3 Problem Solving: What are the Theories? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 9.4 Methods for Assessing and Measuring Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 9.5 Paradigms and Illustrating Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 9.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 10 Decision Making Julia Nolte, David Garavito & Valerie Reyna 177 10.1 Types of Models of Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 10.2 Foundational Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 10.3 Theoretical Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 10.4 Dual Process Theories of Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 10.5 Heuristics and Biases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 10.6 Decision Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 10.7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 11 Nature of Language Lisa von Stockhausen & Joachim Funke 199 11.1 Language Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 11.2 Bi- and Multilingualism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 11.3 Language as Embodied Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 11.4 Alignment in Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 11.5 The Role of Language in Representing and Constructing Social Reality . . . . . . . . . . 205 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 12 Language and Thought Andrea Bender 213 12.1 The Principle of Linguistic Relativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 12.2 Thinking before and after Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 12.3 Thinking with Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 12.4 Language as Tool for Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 13 Expertise David Z. Hambrick 235 13.1 The Science of Expertise: A Brief History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 13.2 Testing the Deliberate Practice View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 13.3 Beyond the Deliberate Practice View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 13.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 14 Intelligence Oliver Wilhelm & Ulrich Schroeders 255 14.1 Understanding Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 14.2 Measuring and Using Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 14.3 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 15 Creativity: An Overview of the 7C’s of Creative Thought Todd Lubart & Branden Thornhill-Miller 277 15.1 Creators: Person-Centered Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 15.2 Creating: The Creative Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 15.3 Collaboration: Co-Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 15.4 Contexts: Environmental Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 15.5 Creations: The Nature of Creative Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 15.6 Consumption: The Adoption of Creative Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 15.7 Curricula: Developing Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 16 Wisdom Judith Glück 307 16.1 What is Wisdom? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 16.2 How Can Wisdom Be Measured? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 16.3 Is Wisdom a Stable Personal Characteristic—Or Are We All Wise Sometimes? . . . . . . 315 16.4 Where Does Wisdom Come From? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Hot Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 17 Development of Human Thought Kathleen M. Galotti 327 17.1 Defining the Domain: Realms of Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 17.2 Infancy and Toddlerhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 17.3 The Preschool Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 17.4 Middle Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 17.5 Adolescence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 17.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340 18 Affect and Thought: The Relationship Between Feeling and Thinking Joseph Forgas 341 18.1 Affect Congruence: Affective Influences on the Content of Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . 342 18.2 Affective Influences on Thinking Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 18.3 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 19 Culture and Thought Mary Gauvain 363 19.1 A Brief Historical Look at Psychological Research on Culture and Cognition . . . . . . . 364 19.2 Defining the Relation of Culture and Cognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 19.3 Thinking in Niches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 Hot Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 Subject Index 381 Author Index 387 This book is dedicated to Dietrich Dörner (Bamberg, Germany) and the late Alexander J. Wearing (Melbourne, Australia), two research pioneers of human thought in complex and dynamic situations. Preface On a sunny day in summer 2016, the two editors (RJS and JF) were sitting in a café on the Haupt- strasse near the Psychology Department of Heidel- berg University. When the discussion moved to the topic of textbooks, RJS asked JF if he would be in- terested in coediting a textbook on the psychology of human thought. There are not many recent com- petitors, RJS noted. JF agreed that contemporary textbooks in the field of human thought are truly hard to find. Soon the idea emerged to produce an “open- access” textbook that could be used, free of charge, by students all over the world. The newly founded publishing house, “Heidelberg University Publish- ing” (HeiUP), seemed to be a perfect platform for this idea. We wrote a proposal for the Editorial Board of HeiUP, which accepted our idea and soon gave us the go-ahead. We then looked for potential contributors for our chapters and obtained commit- ments from some of the world’s leading experts in the field. Although not every college or university teaches such a course, we believe that it is an extremely important course for any psychology major—or, ar- guably, anyone at all—to take. First, we know that even a high IQ does not guarantee that a person will think well in his or her everyday life. People commit cognitive fallacies, such as the sunk-cost fallacy (oth- erwise known as “throwing good money after bad”), every day. It is important for students to understand their lapses in thinking and to have ways of correct- ing them. Second, standard cognitive-psychology or cognitive-science courses only scratch the surface of the field of human thought. Such courses need to include a wide variety of other topics, such as per- ception, learning, and memory, so that they cannot possibly go into any true depth on complex thought processes. Our textbook fills this gap. Third, we are seeing today how even leaders all over the world— individuals chosen to help guide whole countries into the future—often show astonishing and some- times seemingly inexplicable lapses in their critical thinking. We all need to understand how such lapses can occur, especially when people are under stress, and how they can be corrected. We hope, therefore, that you profit as much from this course as we both did, taking similar courses, when we were younger. The Content This idea for an edited textbook, The Psychology of Human Thought: An Introduction , is motivated by our view that much of the “action” in psychological science today involves the study of human thought (as witnessed by the success of books such as Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow , 2011, and of Steven Pinker’s The Stuff of Thought , 2007, both of which became best sellers). The excitement of the field notwithstanding, we were able to find only two textbooks on the topic of human thought (Mank- telow, 2012; Minda, 2015). Yet, a course on “Think- ing” (or any of its related course names) is one of the most exciting in psychology. Such a course, taught at the undergraduate level by the late Profes- sor Alexander Wearing, was part of what motivated RJS to enter the field of complex cognition. Be- cause of the scarcity of recent textbooks covering the broad range of this field, it seemed timely to present a new one edited and authored by experts in the field of human thought. For Whom This Book is Written This volume is intended as a primary or secondary textbook for courses on what we call “The Psychol- ogy of Human Thought”, which can take a number https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.470.c6663 Psychology of Human Thought • 1 Preface of different names, such as The Psychology of Hu- man Thought, Thinking, Reasoning, Problem Solv- ing, Decision Making, Complex Processes, Higher Processes, Complex Cognition, Higher Cognition, or similar titles. The course is usually taught at the third (col- lege junior) undergraduate level, or one level higher than courses on Cognitive Psychology. Many stu- dents with an interest in cognition take the cognitive- psychology or cognitive-science course first, fol- lowed by the more advanced course on human thought. How to Use This Book The chapters describe the specific topics of the field in terms of theories, research, and applications. The pedagogical elements in the book include: 1. Chapter summaries Each chapter has a summary of the main points at the end. 2. Questions for comprehension and reflec- tion . Five or so questions, at the end of each chapter, assess both comprehension of and re- flection on the material of the chapter. These questions are thought-based rather than sim- ple factual-recall questions. 3. Tables and figures . The use, where relevant, of tables and figures to illustrate and clarify material is based on the idea that multiple representations of information help students understand the material better. 4. Glossary . The book contains a glossary at the end of each chapter that defines key terms. These key terms are bolded in the text. 5. Hot topics This box discusses current re- search as seen by the chapter author(s), with some references and also a photograph of the author(s). Conclusion We hope that you enjoy this overview of the psychology of human thought. If you have any comments or suggestions, please send them to the editors at robert.sternberg@cornell.edu or joachim.funke@psychologie.uni-heidelberg.de The editors thank the very supportive team from Heidelberg University Publishing, especially Maria Effinger, Daniela Jakob, Anja Konopka and Frank Krabbes. Claire Holfelder and David Westley did a wonderful job in checking language from non-native authors. Also, we had the luck to have one of the best (and fastest!) copyeditors we could think of: Julia Karl. Thanks a lot for your invaluable help, Julia! It was fun to work with you! R.J.S. & J.F. Ithaca, NY, USA & Heidelberg, Germany Summer 2019 References Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow . New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. Manktelow, K. (2012). Thinking and reasoning: An in- troduction to the psychology of reason, judgment, and decision making . London: Psychology Press. Minda, J. P. (2015). The psychology of thinking: Rea- soning, decision-making, and problem solving . Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Pinker, S. (2007). The stuff of thought. Language as a window into human nature . New York: Penguin Books. 2 • Psychology of Human Thought