ABSTRACT
It may seem obvious to the layman that thinking, knowledge and intelligence are interconnected. Indeed, they are often defined in terms of each other, intelligence being defined as knowing how to think constructively. This chapter discusses both human thinking and knowledge and their implications for theories designed to explain intelligent behaviour. Despite everyday experience, most definitions of intelligence stress sheer 'brain power', mean the ability to think things through in a logical way and to adapt thinking to the problem in hand. Emphasis on the reasoning required to solve well-defined logical problems masks another aspect of human thinking. Most psychological theories have been geared to discovering mental processes common to all human thinking. Studies of creativity and insight also encourage novel solutions rather than the use of well-tried procedures. Cognitive psychologists have made many brave attempts to model mental representations of knowledge and the processes which enable knowledge to be used in interpreting events, planning actions and acquiring new knowledge.
