How Scientists Build Models In Vivo Science as a Window on the Scientific Mind

Abstract

How do scientists think, reason, and generate new models and theories? Over the past decade, I have been addressing these questions by investigating scientists in their own labs, reasoning about their research “live’ and by conducting experiments on scientific thinking and model building. The labs are molecular biology and immunology laboratories in the U.S., Canada, and Italy. I have found that one place where much reasoning and new discoveries are made is at weekly lab meetings. We have performed extensive cognitive analyses of these meetings and have identified some of the key components of contemporary scientific thinking that are important in generating new models, modifying old models and solving difficult problems. In this paper I will outline four important activities that are important in model building: analogical reasoning, attention to unexpected findings, experimental design, and distributed reasoning.