Seeing Reason Image and Language in Learning to Think

'A picture is worth a thousand words' Or is it? What difference does it make whether information is presented using illustrations or language? 'Seeing Reason' is an interdisciplinary study of a central topic in cognitive science: how does the mind respond to different kinds of representation of the same information, especially when learning, reasoning, and communicating. It uses philosophical, logical, linguistic, psychological, andeducational methods to explore this topic, reporting theories, observations, and arguments developed during several years' research. Though the focus is on fundamental cognitive theories of human capacities, the issues are closely related to intensely practical issues about the teaching and learningof reasoning and communication skills. Along the way it examines why the human mind has so evolved, the relationship between private language and public thought, and integrates cognitive and social accounts of communication.Written to be accessible to students and researchers within the fields of philosophy and psychology, this book shares new insights into how people process information, and how we use that information to reason, make decisions, and develop theories about the world in which we live.

Psychology and philosophy at Oxford. PhD at Rockefeller University in New York. Taught at Liverpool University before moving to Edinburgh to the Center for Cognitive Science in 1983. Now Director of the Human Communication Research Centre.
ESRC Senior Research Fellow 1999-2002
Chairman-elect of Cognitive Science Society 2002-2003
Research interests are in the cognitive science of human reasoning and communication, especially thelearning of reasoning and communication skills. What is the relation between logical foundations and empirical psychology of human representation and reasoning capacities? How can cognitive and social accounts of human reasoning and communication be integrated?