Steven Sloman
Steven_Sloman-whoisat-Brown. edu
Professor of Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences
Brown University
Address: Box 1978
Telephone: 401-863-7595
Ph.D. Stanford University

Selected Publications:
New Book:

Causal reasoning

Categorization

Probability judgment

Steven Sloman is concerned with the cognitive processes underlying inductive inference. How are people able, despite limited knowledge and experience, to adapt and reason in a world that is constantly changing? His main approach is to experimentally test formal models of reasoning and judgment.

One set of issues Sloman studies concerns how people reason about cause. Causation is special because all knowledge may be structured around our understanding of causal mechanism. Yet, causal relations cannot directly be observed and seem to require an assessment of counterfactuals, events that have not actually occurred (simplifying, if A causes B, then B wouldn't have occurred if A hadn't, even if A did occur). Ongoing research examines the viability of formal, probabilistic models of causal and counterfactual inference and induction. One focus concerns people's sensitivity to the distinction between observation and action. Through action, people can run mini-experiments that might afford causal inference.

Sloman also studies several issues of categorization. First, do people have fixed categories of things in their heads or are categories completely determined by specific categorization tasks? For example, how well do the categories we use to name things correspond to the categories we use to induce the properties of things? Second, what are the "core" or central properties of an object and what makes them so important? The answer may have something to do with the causal activities that we engage in with the object.

Sloman also studies judgments of confidence and probability. The goal in this research is to understand the principles of coherence that underlie our beliefs. What makes evidence seem consistent with an hypothesis? In what sense and to what degree do our judgments have a rational basis?

My book has just come out! It’s called Causal models: How people think about the world and its alternatives. It’s published by Oxford University Press. Here’s a peek at the Table of contents. For more info, click here: