ABSTRACT
If we are to understand any aspect of individuals – their personalities, emotional problems, everyday likes and dislikes – we need to understand their mental life. Thinking is the pinnacle of human mental life and it has attracted psychological investigation for most of this century (for an introductory review, see Eysenck and Keane 1995, chapters 15–17). Contemporary research on thinking covers a wide range of mental activities, from reasoning and problem solving to creativity and daydreaming (e.g. Johnson-Laird 1988). Within the study of thinking in general, the study of rational thought in particular has occupied pride of place. Many of the issues that psychologists confront in attempting to understand the nature of thinking are best illustrated by considering the specific example of the nature of reasoning (e.g. Oakhill and Garnham 1995), and reasoning research will be my primary focus in this chapter.
