Nersessian Nancy J
College of Computing and School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Learning Sciences, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University.
Top Cogn Sci. 2025 Jan;17(1):7-33. doi: 10.1111/tops.12777. Epub 2024 Dec 10.
Scientific thinking is one of the most creative expressions of human cognition. This paper discusses my research contributions to the cognitive science of science. I have advanced the position that data on the cognitive practices of scientists drawn from extensive research into archival records of historical science or collected in extended ethnographic studies of contemporary science can provide valuable insight into the nature of scientific cognition and its relation to cognition in ordinary contexts. I focus on contributions of my research on analogy, model-based reasoning, and conceptual change and on how scientists enhance their natural cognitive capacities by creating modeling environments that integrate cognitive, social, material, and cultural resources. I provide an outline of my trajectory from a physicist to a philosopher of science to a hybrid cognitive scientist in my quest to understand the nature of scientific thinking.
科学思维是人类认知最具创造性的表现形式之一。本文讨论了我对科学认知科学的研究贡献。我提出这样一种观点，即从对历史科学档案记录的广泛研究中获取的、或在对当代科学的长期人种学研究中收集的有关科学家认知实践的数据，能够为科学认知的本质及其在普通情境中与认知的关系提供有价值的见解。我重点介绍了我在类比、基于模型的推理和概念变化方面的研究贡献，以及科学家如何通过创建整合认知、社会、物质和文化资源的建模环境来增强其天生的认知能力。我概述了自己从物理学家到科学哲学家再到混合型认知科学家的轨迹，以探索科学思维的本质。
