Thinking

Reasoning processes allow the human cognitive system to go beyond the infor mation readily available in the environment. This review focuses on the pro cesses of human thinking, including deductive reasoning, induction, mental simulation, and analogy. We survey recent trends across several areas, incl uding categorization, mental models, cognitive development, and decision ma king. Our chief organizing principle is the contrast between traditional ap proaches that focus on abstract logical reasoning and a number of current a pproaches that posit domain-specific, knowledge-intensive cognition. We sug gest that some instances of domain-specific cognition result from domain-ge neral processes operating on domain-specific representations. Another theme is the link between reasoning and learning. We suggest that learning typic ally occurs as a byproduct of reasoning, rather than as an end in itself.