Psychology Press Who Is Rational?: Studies of individual Differences in Reasoning

Integrating a decade-long program of empirical research with current cognitive theory, this book demonstrates that psychological research has profound implications for current debates about what it means to be rational. The author brings new evidence to bear on these issues by demonstrating that patterns of individual differences--largely ignored in disputes about human rationality--have strong implications for explanations of the gap between normative and descriptive models of human behavior. Separate chapters show how patterns of individual differences have implications for all of the major critiques of purported demonstrations of human irrationality in the heuristics and biases literature. In these critiques, it has been posited that experimenters have observed performance errors rather than systematically irrational responses; the tasks have required computational operations that exceed human cognitive capacity; experimenters have applied the wrong normative model to the task; and participants have misinterpreted the tasks. In a comprehensive set of studies, Stanovich demonstrates that gaps between normative and descriptive models of performance on some tasks can be accounted for by positing these alternative explanations, but that not all discrepancies from normative models can be so explained. Individual differences in rational thought can in part be predicted by psychological dispositions that are interpreted as characteristic biases in people's intentional-level psychologies. Presenting the most comprehensive examination of individual differences in the heuristics and biases literature that has yet been published, experiments and theoretical insights in this volume contextualize the heuristics and biases literature exemplified in the work of various investigators. Review "Stanovich and his colleagues have done an absolutely remarkable job in exploring individual differences. I think this will be the definitive work on this topic for decades. The book...is necessary reading for anyone who plans to work on this topic, whether as a philosopher or a psychological researcher."—Contemporary Psychology "This is an important book."—Informal Logic "This is an ambitious book. Any book that sets out with the goal of addressing fundamental issues of human rationality has its work cut out for it. What is impressive about this book is the extent to which it succeeds: Stanovich poses an interesting question and examines the issue from a novel prespective. The scholarship of the book is impressive, and his command of the literature and analysis of the issues produce a thoughtful and thoroughly articulated viewpoint. His arguments are carefully reasoned, and are supported by meticulous and rigorous experimental evidence."...it is an excellent summary of the important issues and current perspectives in the rationality debate, readers interested in knowing more about the broader issues are also likely to find this book to be a useful source."—Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology "The results of this project contribute to resolving the on-going debate over whether humans are fundamentally rational or irrational creatures. No one with a strong interest in judgment, decision-making, reasoning, rationality, or thinking styles should overlook this interesting, readable, and well-organized book....This book says something new and important about human rationality and is a great contribution to the field."—Cognitive Science Society Newsletter "The book is clearly structured and easy and interesting to read. All major arguments, positions and empirical studies relevant to the topic are discussed..."—Theory & Psychology "This book gives the definitive account of the relation between reasoning ability and intelligence."—Philip Johnson-LairdPrinceton University "This book describes an important project which shows consistent individual differences across a variety of reasoning problems. The consistencies involve