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Profile of Philip N. Johnson-Laird PROFILE Profile of Philip N. Johnson-Laird ur greatest technological doctorate on psycholinguistics and dem- accomplishments, from space onstrated the importance of pragmatic, or Otravel to nuclear power and the contextual, factors in language. The re- creation of the Internet, stand as sults acted as a counterbalance to the testaments to the scientific process and prevailing notion of so-called “trans- mankind’s ability to reason. These ad- formational” grammar, which relates in- vances, however, have been matched with tended meanings with actual spoken equally spectacular technological cata- words. This theory, developed by pre- strophes. “Scientists and technologists are eminent cognitive scientist Noam Chom- rational in principle,” explains Philip sky, had gained much prominence in the Johnson-Laird, a professor of psychology early 1960s. at Princeton University and recently “Transformational grammarians ar- elected member of the National Academy gued that active and passive sentences of Sciences. “But the more information had the same underlying, or ‘deep,’ syn- they have to take into account, the more tax. My work showed that factors such as working memory they need and the the use of active or passive voice affected longer time it takes them to make an in- people’s understanding of a sentence. ference.” When complex technology starts Deep syntax was not the only thing that spiraling out of hand, this abundance mattered” (1). “In truth, I don’t think of information hinders our ability to Chomsky ever thought that deep struc- make reliable decisions. “Eventually,” ture was the only thing that mattered in Johnson-Laird says, “the computational interpretation, but maybe some linguists demands overwhelm them, and this often influenced by him did.” Johnson-Laird culminates in catastrophes.” completed his doctorate in only 2 years, Johnson-Laird has been studying the Philip N. Johnson-Laird. and stayed on as a lecturer at Uni- human ability to reason for nearly a half versity College. a century. His theory of mental models, Further research by Johnson-Laird and which outlines how real or imaginary “I knew by then that I wanted an ‘in- Wason similarly undermined long-held situations are represented in the brain, teresting job,’ something in the sciences,” views about how we reason. Together, the has challenged long-held assumptions he recalls. However, because he had duo explicitly challenged theories set about how humans think. “Mental model dropped out of school before receiving forth by another influential psychologist, theory implies that we are rational because his diploma, he knew it would be Jean Piaget. “Beginning with Piaget, who we grasp that an inference is no good difficult to learn the material necessary to is considered the godfather of studies of if we can think of a counterexample to it,” pass the prerequisite examinations in children’s intellectual development, some he says. “In practice, however, we often science on his own. He therefore opted scientists believe that humans construct err, failing to find, search for, or heed for psychology, then classified both as a mental logic as a result of experience,” a counterexample.” science and art. He passed the British explains Johnson-Laird. “Of course, we’re A-levels and attended University College, not normally aware of logical rules when A Peripatetic Past London. The academic lifestyle suited we reason or grammatical rules as we Born in 1936 in a suburb of the northern Johnson-Laird well. “By the time I got speak, but Piaget’s work was taken up by English city of Leeds, Johnson-Laird to university I was 25,” he explains. “I was students of human reasoning.” left school at the age of 15. He took work older than anybody else in my class.” With Wason, Johnson-Laird undertook as a surveyor—a job he held for 5 years However, that didn’t matter, he tests of deductive reasoning and de- despite “really hating it.” Toward the end says, because “psychology was much termined that the content of reasoning of this position, he became active in more interesting than anything I’d ever plays a major role in the accuracy of politics and joined the Campaign for done before.” conclusions (2). Given descriptions of Nuclear Disarmament. He met and mar- simple regulations about the postal ser- ried his wife of more than 50 years, Content, Not Form vice, for example, individuals produced Maureen Sullivan, during this tumultuous Although he had not planned to remain at more accurate conclusions than when time. They took part in demonstra- University College after receiving his given similar rules about abstract rela- tions and civil disobedience with the undergraduate degree, a casual remark tions between objects with which they Committee of 100, the group founded from the chair of his department sealed his were familiar, such as numbers and let- in 1960 by the philosopher Bertrand future. “George Drew, who was tran- ters. “According to followers of Piaget, Russell to protest Britain’s possession of sitioning the department into the bi- mental logic should not be affected by nuclear weapons. ological sciences, said to me something content,” says Johnson-Laird. “Our re- After refusing Britain’s then-mandatory along these lines: ‘Of course you’ll be sults were not, I think, something that national military service, Johnson-Laird staying on to do a PhD.’ That took me people immediately appreciated. But they took a series of jobs as a hospital porter, aback, but I went with it.” did imply that the mind does not contain a librarian, and a baker. Musically in- The question, then, was what to study? a logic made up of formal or explicit rules clined, he moonlighted for a time as Johnson-Laird began working under the of inference.” a modern jazz pianist and gave talks direction of cognitive psychologist Peter about music on BBC radio. His family Wason, who had just returned from a stint “ ” ’ fl had no real academic tradition at all at Harvard University sin uential Center fi ’ This is a Pro le of a recently elected member of the Na- but as he neared his midtwenties, John- for Cognitive Studies. Under Wason s tional Academy of Sciences to accompany the member’s son-Laird decided to attend university. guidance, Johnson-Laird pursued his Inaugural Article on page 18243 in issue 43 of volume 107. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1117174108 PNAS Early Edition | 1of3 Downloaded by guest on September 28, 2021 Process, Not Product Laird went on to discover that the greater dent, Sangeet Khemlani, he hopes to Johnson-Laird spent the early 1970s at the number of models humans have to con- combine previously separate programs for Institute for Advanced Studies in Prince- struct, the greater the likelihood that we reasoning into one unified algorithm for ton, where he began a 5-year collaboration will draw an incorrect conclusion, as in cognitive science. the case of some technological cata- with George A. Miller, who had moved Beyond Reason there from Harvard. In 1976, he and strophes. In 1983, he published a book on fl Miller published Language and Percep- the subject, Mental Models, which in- His expansive curiosity, re ected from an tion, a book that detailed how humans tegrates the psychology of reasoning and early age in his evolving interests, have understand language. In it, Johnson-Laird the psychology of meaning (6). It has pushed Johnson-Laird toward research in fi and Miller argued that humans create since been a cornerstone in the eld. areas related to but not explicitly about mental representations of what they hear By then, Johnson-Laird had joined reason. Emotions, for example, are often or read—an idea that presaged mental a research unit in Cambridge, England, thought of as directly opposed to reason. model theory (3). Johnson-Laird explains, directed under the auspices of the British However, Johnson-Laird has demon- “As people understand a sentence, it’sas Medical Research Council. He and Ruth strated that emotions can improve our though they are setting up a computer Byrne, now a professor at Trinity College, logical conclusions. Together with psy- program. When that program runs, it Dublin, extended the theory of mental chologist Keith Oatley, now a professor yields a representation of the meaning of models to address reasoning about spatial emeritus at the University of Toronto, that sentence—almost like a bit of men- relations, conditional assertions, and dis- he embarked on an investigation of ” junctions—covering, in principle, the emotions (9). tal theater. “ Based on this idea, Johnson-Laird and same ground as formal logic (7). Evolutionarily, emotions are very old. his colleague Mark Steedman, a cognitive They predate human beings, so it stands Illusory Inferences to reason that they might affect our linguist now at the University of Edin- Aided by his former collaborator George thought processes,” he says. After un- burgh, developed computer programs that Miller, the department of psychology at dertaking an initial study, Johnson-Laird modeled aspects of human comprehen- Princeton University recruited Johnson- and Oatley proposed that individuals sion (4). Since then, Johnson-Laird has Laird in 1989, where he became the Stuart could experience only one basic emotion enjoyed relying on computer models to Professor of Psychology in 1994. Further at a time; for example, they could feel implement his ideas about language and research on human participants as well sad, and then angry, but not both simul- reasoning. “If you’re lucky, two things as in silico experiments uncovered one taneously. “Based on Oatley’s and happen,” he says. “First, the computer of the “predictable illusions” that bedevil others’ empirical research, we discovered model may suggest a neat experiment to humans when we reason. To save that this claim was false,” Johnson-Laird test your theory.
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