Spherical horses and shared toothbrushes: Lessons learned from a workshop on scientific and technological thinking

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Abstract

We briefly summarize some of the lessons learned in a workshop on cognitive studies of science and technology. Our purpose was to assemble a diverse group of practitioners to discuss the latest research, identify the stumbling blocks to advancement in this field, and brainstorm about directions for the future. Two questions became central themes. First, how can we combine artificial studies involving ‘spherical horses’ with fine-grained case studies of actual practice? Results obtained in the laboratory may have low applicability to real world situations. Second, how can we deal with academics’ attachments to their theoretical frameworks? Academics often like to develop unique ‘toothbrushes‘and are reluctant to use anyone else’s. The workshop illustrated that toothbrushes can be shared and that spherical horses and fine-grained case studies can complement one another. Theories need to deal rigorously with the distributed character of scientific and technological problem solving. We hope this workshop will suggest directions more sophisticated theories might take.

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Gorman, M. E., Kincannon, A., & Mehalik, M. M. (2001). Spherical horses and shared toothbrushes: Lessons learned from a workshop on scientific and technological thinking. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) (Vol. 2226, pp. 74–86). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45650-3_10

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