Philip Nicholas Johnson-Laird, FRS, FBA (born 12 October 1936) is a philosopher of language and reasoning and a developer of the
mental model theory of reasoning The mental model theory of reasoning was developed by Philip Johnson-Laird and Ruth M.J. Byrne (Johnson-Laird and Byrne, 1991). It has been applied to the main domains of deductive inference including relational inferences such as spatial and temp ...
.
He was a professor at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
's
Department of Psychology, as well as the author of several notable books on human
cognition and the
psychology of reasoning
The psychology of reasoning (also known as the cognitive science of reasoning) is the study of how people reason, often broadly defined as the process of drawing conclusions to inform how people solve problems and make decisions. It overlaps w ...
.
Biography
He was educated at
Culford School
Culford School is a co-educational independent day and boarding school for pupils age 1-18 in the village of Culford, miles north of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England. The headmaster is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Con ...
and
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
where he won the Rosa Morison Medal in 1964 and a
James Sully Scholarship between 1964–66. He achieved a BA there in 1964 and a PhD in 1967.
He was elected to a Fellowship in 1994.
His entry in
Who's Who (2007 edition) records the following career history:
*Ten years of miscellaneous jobs, as surveyor, musician, hospital porter (alternative to National Service), librarian, before going to university.
*Assistant Lecturer, then Lecturer, in Psychology,
UCL, 1966–73
*Visiting Member,
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...
in
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...
, 1971–72
*Reader, 1973, Professor, 1978, in Experimental Psychology,
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
*Visiting Fellow,
Stanford University, 1980
*Assistant Director,
MRC Applied Psychology Unit,
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
, 1983–89
*Fellow,
Darwin College, Cambridge, 1984–89
*Visiting Professorships:
Stanford University, 1985; Princeton Univ., 1986.
He joined the department of psychology at Princeton University in 1989, where he became the Stuart Professor of Psychology in 1994.
He retired in 2012.
Johnson-Laird is a member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
,
a Fellow of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
, a Fellow of the
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences.
It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...
, a William James Fellow of the
Association for Psychological Science, and a Fellow of the
Cognitive Science Society
The Cognitive Science Society is a professional society for the interdisciplinary field of cognitive science. It brings together researchers from many fields who hold the common goal of understanding the nature of the human mind. The society pr ...
. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from: Göteborg, 1983; Padua, 1997; Madrid, 2000; Dublin, 2000; Ghent, 2002; Palermo, 2005. He won the
Spearman Medal
The Spearman Medal is an early-career award of the British Psychological Society's Research Board, given in recognition of outstanding published work in psychology which represents a significant body of work in terms of theoretical contributions, o ...
in 1974, the
British Psychological Society President's Award in 1985, and the International Prize from
Fyssen Foundation in 2002.
Along with several other scholars, Johnson-Laird delivered the 2001
Gifford Lectures
The Gifford Lectures () are an annual series of lectures which were established in 1887 by the will of Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford. Their purpose is to "promote and diffuse the study of natural theology in the widest sense of the term – in o ...
in
Natural Theology at the
University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
,
published as ''The Nature and Limits of Human Understanding'' (ed. Anthony Sanford, T & T Clark, 2003). He has been a member of the United States
National Academy of Sciences since 2007.
Selected publications
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson-Laird, Philip
1936 births
Living people
People educated at Culford School
Alumni of University College London
Princeton University faculty
British consciousness researchers and theorists
American cognitive psychologists
20th-century British psychologists
Fellows of Darwin College, Cambridge
Academics of University College London
Fellows of the Royal Society
British expatriate academics in the United States
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Fellows of the British Academy
Fellows of the Cognitive Science Society