HOW DOES COGNITIVE-INTERACTIONIST PSYCHOLOGY TREAT THINKING?
Cognitive interactionists interpret thinking to be a reflective process within which persons either develop new or change existing tested generalized insights or understanding. So construed, reflective thinking combines both inductive-fact gathering-and deductive processes in such a way as to find, elaborate, and test hypotheses. Thus, ther is no essential difference between reflective thinking and scientific processes, broadly defined. However, the term reflective does carry a connotation that is somewhat better suited to a description of student thinking than does the term scientific. For many persons, science implies white-gowned technicians, microscopes and telescopes, chemical tables, and cyclotrons. Furthermore, it suggests precise measurement, use of mathematics, a large amount of rather esoteric wizardry, and neglect of moral values. However, scientific in its broadest sense covers not only a special kind of gadgetry and techniques but also a unique outlook, attitude, and metho
