Reflections on Reasoning

Raymond S. Nickerson is a Senior Vice President of BBN Laboratories in Cambridge, MA. He has conducted extensive research on human perception, memory and cognition. Dr. Nickerson is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Educational Research Association, the Human Factors Society, and the Psychonomics Society. He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Experimental Psychology and Acta Psychologica. A past president of the Massachusetts Association for Retarded Citizens, Dr. Nickerson has also served on the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council and the AAAS/NSF Advisory Committee on Technology and the Handicapped.

"...crafted in an elegant manner. Nickerson considers the problems people face when attempting to understand arguments. He documents some of the errors in logic and judgment that occur during the reasoning process, and he points out ways of overcoming these difficulties. All in all, the book is provocative, well-written, and provides an excellent framework for considering seminal issues in everyday reasoning."—Nancy SteinUniversity of Chicago"...lively, straightforward and very practical; it is also thought provoking and intellectually solid. This book is probably the best available introduction to the implications of cognitive science for current classroom practice. Any educator unfamiliar with its contents is behind the times and sadly undereducated."—Jack LochheadUniversity of Massachusetts"Ray Nickerson has done an excellent job assembling and lucidly explaining many of the principles fundamental to reasoning and critical thinking. His book can and should serve as a valuable resource to teachers concerned ... with emphasizing analytic reasoning and critical thinking in all subject areas at all grade levels ... I hope it is widely disseminated and read."—Richard PaulSonoma State University

• Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Reasoning in Perspective; Chapter 3 Beliefs; Chapter 4 Assertions; Chapter 5 Arguments; Chapter 6 Stratagems; Chapter 7 Some Common Reasoning Fallacies; Chapter 8 Conclusion;