ABSTRACT
This volume illustrates the advantages of using a variety of methods to study the processes involved in scientific and technological thinking. A provocative essay by Richard Feynman (Feynman & Leighton, 1985) described the dangers of “cargo cult” science, making an analogy to the South Sea islanders who—in hopes of bringing the departed World War II cargo planes back again—put a man in a hut with bamboo antennae on his head. Psychologists who assert that the only scientific way to study scientific thinking is by using experimental or computational techniques adapted from “harder” sciences are acting like cargo cult scientists. Sociologists who claim that only thick descriptions can be used to understand the processes involved in discovery and invention are making a similar error.
