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Keith Stanovich

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Keith E. Stanovich
Born(1950-12-13)December 13, 1950
Youngstown, Ohio, US
NationalityUS citizen
OccupationProfessor Emeritus
Years active1987-present
Known forStudy of rationality and reading development
SpousePaula Stanovich
AwardsAlbert J Harris 1988, 1992
Oscar Causey 1996
Sylvia Scribner 1997
Distinguished Scientific Contribution 2000
Grawemeyer 2010
E.L. Thorndike Career Achievement 2012
Academic background
EducationOhio State University (BA, 1973)
University of Michigan (MA, PhD, 1977)
ThesisWord Recognition in Reaction Time and Tachistoscopic Tasks (1977)
Academic work
Disciplinerationality, psychology of reading
InstitutionsUniversity of Toronto
Oakland University
Websitekeithstanovich.com

Keith E. Stanovich (born 1950) [1] is a research scientist and psychologist. He is an Emeritus Professor of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the University of Toronto and former Canada Research Chair of Applied Cognitive Science. His primary research areas are the psychology of reasoning and the psychology of reading. Stanovich has been acknowledged by his peers as one of the most influential cognitive psychologists in the world. His book What Intelligence Tests Miss won the 2010 Grawemeyer Award in Education. In 2012 Stanovich received the E. L. Thorndike Career Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society and also the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

Education

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Stanovich is known for his work in cognitive science, however, originally he began studying as a physics major, and only became drawn to psychology when he earned money serving as a paid subject in psychology experiments. He went on to obtain a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio State University, as well as an MBA and PhD from the University of Michigan[2].

Academic career

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Stanovich is an Emeritus Professor of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the University of Toronto and former Canada Research Chair of Applied Cognitive Science[3]. His primary research areas are the psychology of reasoning and the psychology of reading. Stanovich has been acknowledged by his peers as one of the most influential cognitive psychologists in the world[4]. Stanovich's research in the field of reading was "fundamental to the emergence of today's scientific consensus about what reading is, how it works, and what it does for the mind" according to author David Boulton[5]. His research on the cognitive basis of rationality has been featured in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Boulton purports that Stanovich is, "a scientist's scientist and a man whose pioneering work has contributed substantially to both the cognitive science and reading science fields"[5].

Stanovich has done extensive research on reading, language disabilities, and the psychology of rational thought[6]. His article on the Matthew effect in education has been cited over 2,700 times in scientific literature[3]. The Matthew Effect, with respect to education, refers to a research phenomenon regarding how new readers acquire the skills to read. Stanovich has explored the concept, as well as the relationship between rationality and intelligence. He is the author of over 200 scientific articles[7], some of which have become Current Contents Citation Classics[8]. In a 1993 article, in the Journal of Learning Disabilities[9] Stanovich coined the term dysrationalia[10] to refer to the tendency toward irrational thinking and action despite adequate intelligence[11].

In his book The Rationality Quotient: Toward a Test of Rational Thinking, Stanovich and colleagues followed through on the claim that a comprehensive test of rational thinking is scientifically possible, given current knowledge. Stanovich co-authored a prototype of a rational thinking test, the Comprehensive Assessment of Rational Thinking (CART)[10]. Stanovich researched people’s scores on rationality tests, comparing them with their scores on conventional intelligence tests. He found that they don’t have a lot of correlation; on some tasks, there is almost a complete dissociation between rational thinking and intelligence[12].

As a leading expert on the psychology of reading and on rationality[12], Stanovich theorizes that the thinking mind consists of three parts[12]:

  • the “autonomous mind” which engages in problematic cognitive shortcuts. Stanovich calls this “Type 1 processing.” It happens quickly, automatically and without conscious control[12].
  • the algorithmic mind, engages in Type 2 processing; the slow, laborious, logical thinking that intelligence tests measure. The algorithmic mind can be ready to fire on all cylinders, but it can’t help you if you never engage it[12].
  • the reflective mind. Which decides when the judgments of the autonomous mind will suffice versus when to employ the algorithmic mind. The reflective mind determines how rational you are. When and how your reflective mind is activated depends on a number of personality traits, including whether you are dogmatic, flexible, open-minded, able to tolerate ambiguity or conscientious[12].

Studies reflect that a good way to improve Critical thinking is to think of the opposite. Once this habit becomes ingrained, it helps you to not only consider alternative hypotheses, but to avoid traps such as anchoring, confirmation and myside bias[12].

In a three-year survey of citation rates during the mid-1990s[13], Stanovich was listed as one of the fifty most-cited developmental psychologists. He has also been named one of the 25 most productive educational psychologists[14]. In a citation survey of the period 1982–1992, he was designated the most cited reading disability researcher in the world[15].

Other acheivements

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Stanovich is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and of the American Psychological Society. He is also a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry[16]. From 1986-2000 Stanovich was the Associate Editor of Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, a leading journal of human development[3].

Awards

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Stanovich is the only two-time winner of the Albert J. Harris Award (1988 and 1992)[17] from the International Reading Association for influential articles on reading[3]. In 1995, he was elected to the Reading Hall of Fame as the youngest member of that honorary society. In 1996, he was given the Oscar Causey Award from the National Reading Conference[18] for contributions to research and in 1997, he received the Sylvia Scribner Award from the American Educational Research Association[19]. In 2000, he received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award[20] from the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. He was awarded the 2010 Grawemeyer Award for Education[4] from the University of Louisville for his 2009 book, What Intelligence Tests Miss: The Psychology of Rational Thought[21]. He received the E. L. Thorndike Career Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association in 2012.

Stanovich is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Divisions 3 [experimental], 7 [developmental], 8 [Personality & Social], & 15 [Educational]), the American Psychological Society, the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities, and is a Charter Member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. He was a member of the Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children[22] of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. From 1986 to 2000, he was the associate editor of Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, a leading journal of human development[3].

Publications

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Stanovich has written nine books, six essays, and authored, or co-authored, over 200 research papers on reasoning and reading[3].

Book listing

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— (March 1, 1999). Who Is Rational?: Studies of individual Differences in Reasoning (1 ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum. ISBN 0-8058-2473-1.
— (April 21, 2000). Progress in Understanding Reading: Scientific Foundations and New Frontiers (1 ed.). Guilford Press. ISBN 1-57230-565-7.
— (May 15, 2004). The Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin (1 ed.). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-77089-3.
— (January 27, 2009). What Intelligence Tests Miss: The Psychology of Rational Thought (1 ed.). Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12385-2.
— (July 30, 2009). Decision Making and Rationality in the Modern World. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532812-7.
— (2011). Rationality and the Reflective Mind (1 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-534114-0.
— (September 29, 2012). How to Think Straight About Psychology (10 ed.). Pearson. ISBN 978-0-205-91412-8.
— (2016). The Rationality Quotient: Toward a Test of Rational Thinking (1 ed.). MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-03484-5.
— (2021). The Bias That Divides Us: The Science and Politics of Myside Bias (1 ed.). MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-04575-9.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Richard, West. "SRCD ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW" (PDF). Society for Research in Child Development. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
  2. ^ Kaufman, Scott Barry. "Rationality, Bias, Politics, and AI". Beautiful Minds Newsletter. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Keith Stanovich (Inducted 1995)". Reading Hall of Fame. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Smart people can make dumb decisions, says Grawemeyer Award winner". Grawemeyer Awards. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  5. ^ a b Boulton, David. "Cognitive Science: The Conceptual Components of Reading & What Reading Does for the Mind". Children of the Code. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
  6. ^ "ResearchGate". ResearchGate. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  7. ^ Stanovich, Keith. "Centre for Inquiry Speaker Bio". Centre for Inquiry. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
  8. ^ Library, Garfield. "Current Contents" (PDF). garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics.html. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  9. ^ Stanovich, Keith E. (1993). "Dysrationalia: A New Specific Learning Disability". Journal of Learning Disabilities. 26 (8): 501–515. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
  10. ^ a b Visser, Coert. "The Rationality Quotient - Progress toward measuring rationality". Progress-focused. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
  11. ^ Stanovich, Keith E. (October 1993). "Dysrationalia A New Specific Learning Disability" (pdf). ResearchGate. PubMed: ResearchGate. pp. 501–515. doi:10.1177/002221949302600803. Retrieved 24 November 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Kleiner, Kurt. "Why Smart People Do Stupid Things". University of Toronto magazine. University of Toronto. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  13. ^ Byrnes, J. P. (1997). Explaining citation counts of senior developmental psychologists. Developmental Review, 17, 62–77
  14. ^ Smith, M. C., et al., Productivity of educational psychologists in educational psychology journals, 1997–2001. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 28, 422–430
  15. ^ Nicolson, R. I. Developmental dyslexia: Past, present and future. Dyslexia, 1996, 2, 190–207
  16. ^ "CSI Fellows and Staff". Retrieved August 2, 2013.
  17. ^ "Albert J. Harris Award Past Recipients list". International Literacy Association. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  18. ^ "Oscar Causey Award winners". Literary Research Association. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  19. ^ "American Educational Research Association awards". American Educational Research Association. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  20. ^ "SSSR Past Award winners". Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR). Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  21. ^ "Video interview with Keith Stanovich, winner of the 2010 Grawemeyer Award in Education".
  22. ^ "Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children". National Academies Press. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
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