Cognitive Unconscious and Human Rationality

Examining the role of implicit, unconscious thinking on reasoning, decision making, problem solving, creativity, and its neurocognitive basis, for a genuinely psychological conception of rationality.

This volume contributes to a current debate within the psychology of thought that has wide implications for our ideas about creativity, decision making, and economic behavior. The essays focus on the role of implicit, unconscious thinking in creativity and problem solving, the interaction of intuition and analytic thinking, and the relationship between communicative heuristics and thought. The analyses move beyond the conventional conception of mind informed by extra-psychological theoretical models toward a genuinely psychological conception of rationality—a rationality no longer limited to conscious, explicit thought, but able to exploit the intentional implicit level.

The contributors consider a new conception of human rationality that must cope with the uncertainty of the real world; the implications of abandoning the normative model of classic logic and adopting a probabilistic approach instead; the argumentative and linguistic aspects of reasoning; and the role of implicit thought in reasoning, creativity, and its neurological base.

Contributors
Maria Bagassi, Linden J. Ball, Jean Baratgin, Aron K. Barbey, Tilmann Betsch, Eric Billaut, Jean-François Bonnefon, Pierre Bonnier, Shira Elqayam, Keith Frankish, Gerd Gigerenzer, Ken Gilhooly, Denis Hilton, Anna Lang, Stefanie Lindow, Laura Macchi, Hugo Mercier, Giuseppe Mosconi, Ian R. Newman, Mike Oaksford, David Over, Guy Politzer, Johannes Ritter, Steven A. Sloman, Edward J. N. Stupple, Ron Sun, Nicole H. Therriault, Valerie A. Thompson, Emmanuel Trouche-Raymond, Riccardo Viale

Laura Macchi is Professor of General Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Milano-Biococca.

Maria Bagassi is Senior Researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Milano-Biococca.

Riccardo Viale is Professor of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences at the Scuola Nazionale dell'Amministrazione, Rome.

Gerd Gigerenzer is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. He is the author of Calculated Risks, among other books, and the coeditor of Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox and Heuristics and the Law, both published by the MIT Press.

Maria Bagassi is Senior Researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Milano-Biococca.

Laura Macchi is Professor of General Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Milano-Biococca.

Ron Sun is Professor of Cognitive Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and President of International Neural Networks Society.

Riccardo Viale is Professor of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences at the Scuola Nazionale dell'Amministrazione, Rome.