Creative Model Construction in Scientists and Students: The Role of Imagery, Analogy, and Mental Simulation

How do scientists use analogies and other processes to break away from old theories and generate new ones? This book documents such methods through the analysis of video tapes of scientifically trained experts thinking aloud while working on unfamiliar problems. Some aspects of creative scientific thinking are difficult to explain, such as the power of analogies, and the enigmatic ability to learn from thought experiments. This book is a window on that world.