Applying cognitive science to everyday life, January 3, 2012

Art Markman is a leader in the field of cognitive psychology and is someone who has made an impressive career by studying how people think. His book Smart Thinking is, well, smart. Engagingly written, Markman describes the most effective ways for people to approach, think about, and learn about new problems.This should be required reading for any student coming to college, new employee starting a career, or anyone who wants to be more thoughtful in life. Part "how-to" and part good science, this is a fun book to read. When you're finished, you will have a better understanding of how toilets flush, why proverbs are helpful, and why multitasking is evil.

Every once in a while you need a manual to teach you how to do something. You can easily find books with detailed guidelines for how to cook, how to operate a camcorder, how to write good scholarly papers, etc. What you don't easily find is a manual that teaches you how to think. Well, if you're looking for one, look no more! You have just found it. Art Markman's book is a truly engaging and easy-to-read manual of how to think effectively. He provides a very simple formula (believe me: it IS simple) that promotes smart thinking. Even better: the success and the basis of this simple formula are explained (and supported) by a number of interesting findings in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science. Dr. Markman presents these findings in a very accessible way, with lots of examples, and even provides some "tasks" that you can use right away to start thinking more effectively. If you want to understand why we create habits -- and how to create smart ones --, how to apply the knowledge...

This wonderful book is very well written, insightful, and packed with practical advice. The science and theory are explained, but done in a way that is focused on what you can do to make use of those ideas. At heart this book is practical advice. This is not a hard book to read or comprehend. It is about 200 pages of extremely well organized material that is explained very clearly. The author follows his own advice in introducing his topics in each chapter and ending each with a "takeaway" section that summarizes it very nicely. He seems well qualified for the topic on which he writes. The three key ideas of the book are Smart Habits, High-Quality Knowledge, and Applying Your High-Quality Knowledge.I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve their thinking. The chapter on analogy was by itself worth the price of the book. The explanations of memory were also excellent.The book is organized in the following topic chapters:...