私たちの論理的思考や推論、問題解決、意思決定能力は、的確な質問を繰り出したり、新しい視点でものを見たりする想像力に負っている、ということを認知心理学的に解説する一冊です。20世紀初頭の行動心理学者やゲシュタルト心理学者の取り組みを皮切りに、仮説的思考、条件推論、演繹、合理性、直感や、過学習、IQ、認知バイアスなどの役割にも触れ、認知機能研究の歩みを紹介します。進化史を根拠に、思考には異なる二つの方法が考えられるとする見方についても考察します。
 

• Analyses the uniquely human capacity to think and reason, which sets us apart from all other animals
• Explores the psychological processes involved in problem solving, decision making, and reasoning
• Describes the various approaches, from past theories to present day understanding of impact of past memory and cognitive biases

Our extraordinary capacity to reason and solve problems sets us aside from other animals, but our evolved thinking processes also leave us susceptibile to bias and error. The study of thinking and reasoning goes back to Aristotle, and was one of the first topics to be studied when psychology separated from philosophy. 

In this Very Short Introduction Jonathan Evans explores cognitive psychological approaches to understanding the nature of thinking and reasoning, problem solving, and decision making. He shows how our problem solving capabilities are hugely dependent on also having the imagination to ask the right questions, and the ability to see things from a completely new perspective. Beginning by considering the approaches of the behaviourists and the Gestalt psychologists, he moves on to modern explorations of thinking, including hypothetical thinking, conditionals, deduction, rationality, and intuition. Covering the role of past learning, IQ, and cognitive biases, Evans also discusses the idea that there may be two different ways of thinking, arising from our evolutionary history.