Barbara Koslowski
Associate Professor / Director of Graduate Studies
2009
HDWeb Bio Page
Current Activities
Current Research Activities
Several cognitive behaviors are continuous with, and enable people to engage in, scientific reasoning. The particular behaviors I have been working on deal with people’s tendency to generate, evaluate, and sometimes relinquish their explanations for various phenomena. One of the threads in my current research has to do with the way that our background knowledge, including our knowledge about theories or mechanisms, intersects with various formal rules that underwrite scientific inquiry, such as controlling for alternative hypotheses. Another thread grows out of the fact that people do, occasionally, change their explanations for events, which raises interesting questions about the prevalence of, and alternative interpretations for, confirmation bias.
Biography
Biographical Statement
I was trained as a developmental psychologist and, for the past several years, my main research focus has been on the development of scientific reasoning. I have an ancillary interest in the way people come to integrate the conceptual basis of scientific reasoning with various techniques that are peculiar to a particular science. I am also engaged in research relevant to confirmation bias.
Education
Ed.D. 1974 - Harvard University
Human Development
B.A. 1967 - Wayne State University
Psychology
Administrative Responsibilities
Director of Graduate Studies (fall)
Member, HD Executive Committee
Keywords
Cognitive development, cognition, scientific reasoning, causal reasoning, thinking and reasoning, confirmation bias
Courses, Websites, Pubs
Courses Taught
HD620 (spring)
HD401 (spring)
HD432 (spring)
HD620 (fall)
HD401(fall)
Selected Publications
Koslowski, B. (1996). Theory and Evidence: The Development of Scientific Reasoning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Koslowski, B., Marasia, J., Chelenza, M., Dublin, R. (2008) Information becomes evidence when an explanation can incorporate it into a causal framework. Cognitive Development, Vol. 23, Issue 4, October-December 2008, pp. 472-487: Special Issue on: Scientific reasoning: Where are we now?
Koslowski, B. & Masnick, A. (2002). Causal Reasoning. In U. Goswami (Ed.), Handbook of Child Cognitive Development. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Koslowski, B. & Thompson, S. (2002). Theorizing is important, and collateral information constrains how well it is done. In P. Carruthers, S. Stich, & M. Siegal (Eds.) The Cognitive Bases of Science: An Interdisciplinary Approach. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Masnick, A. & Koslowski, B. (2001). Attitude change and reasoning. Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society.
Koslowski, B., Masnick, A., Thompson, S., & Barnett, S. (1997). What makes theories or explanations convincing? Proceedings of the biennial meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development.
Koslowski, B. & Maqueda, M. (1993). What is confirmation bias and when do people have it? Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 39(1), 104-130. Invitational issue entitled The development of rationality and critical thinking.