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"Working at the intersection of psychology and economics, Weber is an expert on behavioral models of judgment and decision making under risk and uncertainty. Recently, she has been investigating psychologically appropriate ways to measure and model individual and cultural differences in risk taking, specifically in risky financial situations and environmental issues. She describes her research as follows: "I try to gain an understanding and appreciation of decision making at a broad range of levels of analysis, which is not easy, given that each level requires different theories, methods and tools. So at the micro end of the continuum, I study how basic psychological processes like attention, emotion and memory (and their representation in the brain) influence preference and choice. At the macro end of the continuum, I think about how policy makers may want to present policy initiatives to the public to make them maximally effective. This range of topics and methods is challenging, but at least in my mind the different levels of analysis inform and complement each other." "

Science News Share Blog Cite Print Email Bookmark Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis? ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2009) - As technology has played a bigger role in our lives, our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined, while our visual skills have improved, according to research by Patricia Greenfield, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles. See also: Mind & Brain Intelligence Educational Psychology Computers & Math Video Games Computer Graphics Science & Society Popular Culture Educational Policy Reference Computing power everywhere Webcast Computer-generated imagery Aptitude Learners have changed as a result of their exposure to technology, says Greenfield, who analyzed more than 50 studies on learning and technology, including research on multi-tasking and the use of computers, the Internet and video games. Her research was published this month in the journal Science. Reading for pleasure, which has declined among young people in recent decades, enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not, Greenfield said. How much should schools use new media, versus older techniques such as reading and classroom discussion? "No one medium is good for everything," Greenfield said. "If we want to develop a variety of skills, we need a balanced media diet. Each medium has costs and benefits in terms of what skills each develops." S

Theories of Learning in Educational Psychology John Seely Brown: Cognitive Apprenticeship

An approach to teaching that leads with active questioning.

"Child Development Research Child Development Videos » History, Theory & Research » Child Development Research Child development research encompasses a broad range of topics, and included here are titles illustrating some of the many branches of developmental psychology and child development theory. Methods of research and observation have changed dramatically in the past century, allowing for vast amounts of new information to be compiled and assessed. Our collective knowledge of how children grow has grown exponentially, thanks to researchers from around the world. Titles in this section offer an in-depth look at this new and compelling research, and the lives of the individuals who founded them. "

Offers definitions of critical thinking and links to quality resources on topics such as argument mapping, assessment, cognitive biases, critical reading and writing, experts and expertise. (this resource was identified in Microsoft's "Developing Critical Thinking Through Web Research skills") Top Ten 1. Argument Mapping Tutorials. Six online tutorials in argument mapping, a core requirement for advanced critical thinking. 2. The Skeptic's Dictionary - over 400 definitions and essays. 3. The Fallacy Files by Gary Curtis. Best website on fallacies. 4. Butterflies and Wheels. Excellent reading - news, articles, and much more. 5. Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts by Peter Facione. Good overview of the nature of critical thinking. (pdf file) 6. Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion by John Stuart Mill. Classic chapter, densely packed with wisdom about thinking. 7. Chance - best resource for helping students think critically about issues involving probability and statistics 8. Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, by Richards Heuer. A good overview of how to improve thinking in the light of insights from cognitive psychology. 9. A Handbook on Writing Argumentative and Interpretative Essays by Ian Johnston 10. Baloney Detection Part 1 and Part 2 - by Michael Shermer. 10 step guide.

"A Brief History of the Habits of Mind HABITS OF MIND ARE･….dispositions that are skillfully and mindfully employed by characteristically intelligent, successful people when they are confronted with problems, the solutions to which are not immediately apparent. The Habits of Mind were derived from studies of effective, skillful problem-solvers and decision makers from, many walks of life. They are synthesized from the works of such leaders from the fields of education, philosophy, psychology and the arts as Alan Glatthorn and Jonathan Baron[i], Reuven Feuerstein[ii], Edward de Bono[iii], Robert Ennis[iv] Arthur Whimbey[v], Robert Sternberg, [vi] and David Perkins[vii]. While each of these authors have different labels for describing the characteristics of thinking, their intentions were similar: to describe how people behave intelligently by becoming more flexible and open in thinking, monitoring one's own thoughts, being curious and having a questioning attitude. Gradually these studies were synthesized by Arthur Costa into what was originally titled, "Intelligent Behaviors" and described 7 behaviors. With further reading and research, the list expanded from the original 7 to 12 then 14 and now 16 and there could be more."

"Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT and the founder (2001) and current director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. Professor Turkle received a joint doctorate in sociology and personality psychology from Harvard University and is a licensed clinical psychologist. Professor Turkle is the author of Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud's French Revolution (Basic Books, 1978; MIT Press paper, 1981; second revised edition, Guilford Press, 1992); The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (Simon and Schuster, 1984; Touchstone paper, 1985; second revised edition, MIT Press, 2005); Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (Simon and Schuster, 1995; Touchstone paper, 1997); and Simulation and Its Discontents (MIT Press, 2009). She is the editor of three books about things and thinking, all published by the MIT Press: Evocative Objects: Things We Think With (2007); Falling for Science: Objects in Mind (2008); and The Inner History of Devices (2008). "

Digital Introspection and the Importance of Self-Knowledge MAR 18 2011, 11:00 AM ET By Shelley Hayduk As the world changes, for better or worse, we continue to assimilate new experiences and ideas that define who we are. With the advent of new social networking tools, we can join the web of digitized relationships to connect with people and share these views. But in addition to connecting outward we also need to turn inward to reflect on our ideas and the relationships that we hold implicitly in our own minds. The connections we make in our head are unique to every individual. It's a fascinating journey to try and understand what they are. So how do we examine ourselves -- our thoughts and experiences? One method is introspection, and it's going digital. SELF-ANALYSIS THROUGH LANGUAGE Language and writing are key vehicles for introspection. Many people keep diaries of their thoughts and experiences to get to know themselves. Some people even write autobiographies. In fact, a key premise of psychotherapy (in the Freudian sense) is to become explicitly conscious of your feelings and subconscious beliefs by talking through them, i.e capturing your understanding in language. In expressing underlying forces of your life through words you can identify relevant psychological angst and formulate a better way to live. In each case, we capture our feelings and implicit views with words, articulating their meaning through language. Now technology gives us the ability to take this a step further, but before we get to that, a word about mental models. YOUR MENTAL MODEL We are the aggregation of how all our thoughts, feelings and experiences connect. This gestalt forms a perspective of the world as we see it. It's kind of like a miniature version of the world in our heads -- a "mental model" if you will. We use our mental models to store, analyze and decide everything. When we make a decision we check our mental models and use them to try to predict what will happen in the

"Twitter Literacy (I refuse to make up a Twittery name for it) Post-Oprah and apres-Ashton, Twittermania is definitely sliding down the backlash slope of the hype cycle. It's not just the predictable wave of naysaying after the predictable waves of sliced-breadism and bandwagon-chasing. We're beginning to see some data. Nielsen, the same people who do TV ratings, recently noted that more than 60% of new Twitter users fail to return the following month. To me, this represents a perfect example of a media literacy issue: Twitter is one of a growing breed of part-technological, part-social communication media that require some skills to use productively. Sure, Twitter is banal and trivial, full of self-promotion and outright spam. So is the Internet. The difference between seeing Twitter as a waste of time or as a powerful new community amplifier depends entirely on how you look at it - on knowing how to look at it. "

Using twitter effectively is a critical thinking skill. Howard describes this in detail.

Robert K. Merton and Elinor Barber's The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity (English-language translation 2004) is the history of a word and its related concept. The choice of writing a book about a word may surprise those who are not acquainted with Merton's work, but certainly not those sociologists that have chosen him as a master. Searching, defining, and formulating concepts has always been Merton's main intellectual activity.