Pentsamenduaren psikologia

Laburpena

This article aims to be a short and straightforward introduction to the psychology of thinking. It includes topics that are usual in this kind of works: the concept of thinking, the history of the psychology of thinking, and the methodological problems in the psychological study of thinking. The section of concept deals with the features of thinking, the distinction between directed and undirected thinking, and Johnson-Laird's taxonomy of thinking. The section about the history of psychology includes the controversy between Wundt and the Würzburg School, the behaviorist and the Gestalt viewpoints, and the information-processing and connectionist approaches to cognition. As regards the methodological problems, the points discussed are the question of introspection and the «think aloud» method. Moreover, before these classical topics, there is a discussion about how much people seem to like to think.