" ...should prove controversial...An important contribution to the emerging field of the cognitive science of science." - Ryan D. Tweney. This study of cognitive processes and scientific research begins with the author's autobiographical account of a research program that was designed to simulate scientific thinking. It explores such questions as: How do mental models, representations, expectations, and presumptions affect the creation of scientific knowledge? What is the effect of confirmation or disconfirmation on the process of experimentation and the direction of research? How does a scientist decide whether a model or theory is correct? The first-person narrative allows readers to follow the research step by step and to work through the issues as the author grapples with them. The book also discusses important historical examples in which these issues have loomed large - for instance, the "great Devonian controversy," the etheric force controversy, and Kepler's theory of planetary motion. One fascinating chapter compares the cognitive styles of Bell and Edison and develops a cognitive framework that can be used to compare the creative processes of scientists and inventors.
- ISBN10 0253326087
- ISBN13 9780253326089
- Publish Date 1 August 1992
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 11 July 2009
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Indiana University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 292
- Language English