Simulating Science: Heuristics, Mental Models, and Technoscientific Thinking

by Michael E. Gorman

This study of cognitive processes and scientific research begins with an autobiographical account of a research program that was designed to simulate scientific thinking. It explores such questions 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, among them 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.

292 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1992