• to present various approaches to modeling and exploring human thinking;
• to present and discuss experimental findings about human thinking;
• to develop skills in critically understanding theories and experiments on thinking as well as designing their own experiments;
• to get a vision of the relation between and historical developments of ideas and theories about human thinking.

• demonstrate familiarity with ideas and concepts about human thinking and various approaches to it;
• debate and discuss theoretical issues and concepts as well as evaluate psychological adequacy of models;
• design and perform experiments on reasoning and problem solving;
• present arguments and evidence coherently in verbal and written form;
• critically evaluate particular approaches to and theories of thinking.

• lectures;
• running of experiments;
• group discussions.

Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition, 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company.

Osherson, D. & Smith, E. editors (1990),

Thinking: An Invitation to Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Gilhooly, K. (1988) ,

Thinking: Directed, Undirected and Creative, 2nd edition, London: Academic Press.

Anderson, J. (1990),

Cognitive Psychology and its Implications, 3rd edition, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Halpern, D. (1989) ,

Thought and Language: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

• introduction: running an experiment and discussion of basic concepts;
• reasoning: overview of various models of reasoning and their experimental verification;
• problem solving: overview of various aproaches to problem solving modeling and their verification;
• dynamic aspects of thinking: experimental findings about the development of thinking abilities and expertise;
• concluding discussions: methods of studying human thinking and tracking back the development of theoretical ideas.

Introduction

Topic 1: Introduction: running an experiment in class; discussing students intuitive ideas about human thinking; basic concepts, classification of problems, brief history of research.
Required reading:

• Mayer, R. (1992) Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition. 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company Chapter 1.

Reasoning

Topic 2: Deductive Reasoning: syllogistic reasoning, atmosphere effect, four card selection problem, Logical approaches, Set theory approaches, Mental Model approaches.
Required reading:

• Mayer, R. (1992) Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition. 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company Chapter 1.

Topic 3: Inductive Reasoning: hypotheses generation and testing, concept identification, simulated and real research environment.
Required reading:

• Mayer, R. (1992) Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition. 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company Chapter 1.

Topic 4: Analogical Reasoning: experiments of analog retrival, mapping and evaluation, structure mapping theory, constraint satisfaction.
Required reading:

• Kokinov, B.: Analogy-Making: Psychological Data and Computational Models. In: Kokinov, B. (ed.) Perspectives on Cognitive Science, vol. 2, NBU Press, 1996.
• Mayer, R. (1992) Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition. 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company Chapter 14.

Topic 5: Diagrammatic Reasoning: intrinsic properties of diagrammatic representations, hypotheses about the role of diagrams in reasoning, mental imagery and problem solving, models of diagrammatic reasoning.
Required reading:

• Narayanan, H. (1997). Diagrammatic Communication: A Taxonomic Overview. In: Perspectives on Cognitive Science, vol.3, NBU Press.
• Glasgow, J. & Papadias, D. (1995). Computational Imagery. In: Glasgow, Narayanan, Chandrasekaran (eds.) Diagrammatic Reasoning. MIT Press.

Additional reading:

• Qin & Simon, H. (1995). Imagery and Mental Models. In: Glasgow, Narayanan, Chandrasekaran (eds.) Diagrammatic Reasoning. MIT Press.

Problem Solving

Topic 6: Problem Solving as Reinforcement Learning: Associationosm, Behaviorism, Connectionist models.
Required reading:

• Mayer, R. (1992) Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition. 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company Chapter 2.

Topic 7: Problem Solving as Search: State Space, Forward and Backward Search, Means-End Analysis, Planning and problem decomposition, Production Systems Models.
Required reading:

• Mayer, R. (1992) Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition. 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company Chapter 2.

Topic 8: Problem Solving as Perception: Gestalt Psychology, problem representation and restructing, Parallel constraint satisfaction models, Hofstadter's approach.
Required reading:

• Mayer, R. (1992) Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition. 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company Chapter 3.
• Chalmers, D., French, R., Hofstadter, D. (1992) High-Level Perception, Representation, and Analogy: A Critique of Artificial Intelligence Methodology. JETAI, vol. 4(3), reprinted in: Kokinov (ed.) Perspectives on Cognitive Science, vol. 1, NBU Press.

Topic 9: Problem Solving as Domain Specific Knowledge: Schema theory and models of problem solving.
Required reading:

• Mayer, R. (1992) Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition. 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company Chapter 8, 15.

Dynamic Aspects of Thinking

Topic 10: Development of Basic Thinking Abilities: A Cognitive Development Perspective: domain specific vs. domain general learning, stage theories and conceptual change, Piaget, the Theory theory, Intelligence.
Required reading:

• Mayer, R. (1992) Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition. 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company Chapter 8, 15.

Topic 11: Development of Expertise: thinking as influenced by experience and learning, the cases of chess, physics, Mathematics; Novice-Advanced Beginner-Competence-Proficiency-Expertise; Learning new rules, new schemata, knowledge compilation, accumulation of examples and explanations, generalizations.
Required reading:

• Mayer, R. (1992) Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition. 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company Chapter 8, 15.

Topic 12: Development of Critical Thinking Abilities: creative processes, incubation effects and insights, thinking as a learnable skill, thinking teaching programs and their results, increasing idea production (brainstorming, checklists, synectics, lateral thinking).
Required reading:

• Mayer, R. (1992) Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition. 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company Chapter 12.
• Halpern, D. (1989) Thought and Language: An Introduction to Critical Thinking. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Chapters 1 and 2.

Topic 13: Thinking in Context: Context and Priming Effects, Functional fixedness, Set effects; Thinking as Based on Social Context, Anthropological studies, the role of Artifacts and external representations in reasoning and PS, Situated Approach.
Required reading:

• Mayer, R. (1992) Thinking, Problem Solving, Cognition. 2nd ed., NY: Freeman & Company Chapter 16.

Concluding Discussions

Topic 14: Analyzing Methods for Studying Human Thinking: controlled experiments (RT, classifications of solutions, verbal reports), simulation experiments (reasoning and PS), neuropsychological experiments (role of frontal lob) discussion and studentsÕ representations of their own studies.

Topic 15: History of Ideas Development in the Study of Human Thinking: relations between different theories, complementary and contradictory approaches, open questions.