Professor Kevin N. Dunbar, Ph.D.
The goal of my research is to understand the way that people think, reason, and solve problems in a variety of
contexts ranging from scientists reasoning in their labs, children and adults learning new scientific concepts,
and politicians engaged in debate (see the Dunbar Lab web page for detailed descriptions of my research). We
analyze reasoning in naturalistic contexts, as well as conducting controlled experiments in the cognitive
laboratory in which we investigate analogy, causal reasoning, and deductive reasoning. We are also investigating
the ways that the brain is involved in thinking and reasoning using fMRI. By investigating thinking and
reasoning in these different contexts we are able to provide new insights into the cognitive and brain-based
mechanisms underlying human thinking. In particular, our investigations of scientists reasoning in their labs
has enabled us to go beyond the myths of chance discovery, flash of insight, and the lone scientist toiling
against the grain. Instead, we find scientists use well defined strategies for analogical reasoning and causal
reasoning as well as group reasoning strategies. This research has implications for the way scientists are
educated, science is taught, and theories of how scientists think, reason and make discoveries. The findings
from this research can also be incorporated into computer programs that can be used to make scientific
discoveries. Finally, this research is providing new insights and models of basic cognitive processes involved
in analogy, causal reasoning, induction, problem solving, group reasoning, diagrammatic reasoning and deduction. Laboratory Home Page | Back to People