The Psychology of Thinking by John Paul Minda

The Psychology of Thinking by John Paul Minda

How do we define thinking? Is it simply memory, perception and motor activity or perhaps something more complex such as reasoning and decision making? This book argues that thinking is an intricate mix of all these things and a very specific coordination of cognitive resources. Divided into three key sections, there are chapters on the organization of human thought, general reasoning and thinking and behavioural outcomes of thinking. These three overarching themes provide a broad theoretical framework with which to explore wider issues in cognition and cognitive psychology and there are chapters on motivation and language plus a strong focus on problem solving, reasoning and decision making - all of which are central to a solid understanding of this field. The book also explores the cognitive processes behind perception and memory, how we might differentiate expertise from skilled, competent performance and the interaction between language, culture and thought.

The Psychology of Thinking is an accessible, broad and integrative approach to a topic that rewards such treatmentWithout getting bogged down, John Paul Minda explains how a variety of mental processes contribute to and shape human thinking.

-- Professor Bradley Love

The Psychology of Thinking offers students an excellent introduction to a number of important, fascinating topics with an insightful organization and integration.  Minda engagingly presents the material to have both theoretical substance and practical appeal. 

-- Professor Brian H. Ross
As a former CEO of Mercedes-Benz I always tried to foster and trigger ideas for innovations in employees - the business result showed that focusing on creativity in your workforce pays out. This book is very relevant for practitioners who lead people and need to tap their brains, which is the ′gold mine′ for problem solving. I compliment J. P. Minda, since I think that his wish "for a single, comprehensive textbook on this topic" came true. -- Professor Alexander Paufler
This is a well-written book and it is easy to comprehend. It discusses in a lucid manner, core concepts of cognitive psychology with a thinking-based approach and can serve as an excellent text for undergraduate students of cognitive psychology. -- Naveen Kashyap

John Paul Minda is a Professor of Psychology and a member of the Brain and Mind Institute at Western University, in London, Ontario. As a researcher, he is interested in thinking as it relates to concepts and categories. He runs a research laboratory that investigates how people learn new categories and represent them with concepts. He also studies how conceptual structure interacts with and affects behavioural outcomes. He has done research on medical expertise and on the kinds of reasoning tasks that physicians engage in. As an instructor, and as a psychologist in general, he is interested in other aspects of thinking as well. Every year since 2003, he has taught a course on the Psychology of Thinking.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781446272473
ISBN 10	1446272478
Title	The Psychology of Thinking
Author	John Paul Minda
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Sage Publications Ltd
Year published	2015-09-25
Number of pages	272
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.