I.C. Learning & Memory

Keith Holyoak

Keith Holyoak’s research focuses on human thinking and creativity. His lab is working on ways to increase creativity, as well as educational interventions to deepen understanding of topics in math and science. Other projects explore how to combat anti-scientific beliefs and attitudes that lead to social problems, such as failure to prevent childhood diseases by vaccination. In addition to behavioral studies, he and his collaborators use neuroscience methods to investigate how the human brain supports high-level thinking such as reasoning by analogy. The lab also develops computer models that relate human thinking to artificial intelligence.

Lab website

Recent Publications:

Holyoak, K. J. (2019). The spider’s thread: Metaphor in mind, brain, and poetry. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Morsanyi, K., Stamenković, D., & Holyoak, K. J. (in press). Analogical reasoning in autism: A systematic review and meta-analysis. In K. Morsanyi & R. Byrne (Eds.), Reasoning and decision making in autism. London: Routledge.

Lu, H., Wu, Y. N., & Holyoak, K. J. (2019). Emergence of analogy from relation learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 116, 4176-4181.

Stamenković, D., Ichien, N., & Holyoak, K. J. (2019). Metaphor comprehension: An individual-differences approach. Journal of Memory and Language, 105, 108-118.

Holyoak, K. J., & Stamenković, D. (2018). Metaphor comprehension: A critical review of theories and evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 144, 641-671.

Tyumeneva, Y. A., Larina, G., Alexandrova, E., DeWolf, M., Bassok, M., & Holyoak, K. J. (2018). Semantic alignment across whole-number arithmetic and rational numbers: Evidence from a Russian perspective. Thinking & Reasoning, 24, 198-220.

DeWolf, M., Son, J. Y., Bassok, M., & Holyoak, K. J. (2017). Relational priming based on a multiplicative schema for whole numbers and fractions. Cognitive Science, 41, 2053-2088.

Powell, D., Yu, J., DeWolf, M., & Holyoak, K. J. (2017). The love of large numbers: A popularity bias in consumer choice. Psychological Science, 28, 1432-1442.

Kubricht, J. R., Lu, H., & Holyoak, K. J. (2017). Intuitive physics: Current research and controversies. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21, 749-759.

Plummer, P., DeWolf, M., Bassok, B., Gordon, P. C., & Holyoak, K. J. (2017). Reasoning strategies with rational numbers revealed by eye-tracking. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 79, 1426-1437.

Kubricht, J. R., Lu, H., & Holyoak, K. J. (2017). Individual differences in spontaneous analogical transfer. Memory & Cognition, 45, 576-588.

Chen, D., Lu, H., & Holyoak, K. J. (2017). Generative inferences based on learned relations. Cognitive Science, 41, 1062-1092.