Profile

Douglas (Doug) Medin Co-Director, Program in Cognitive Studies of the Environment Director, Program in Culture, Language and Cognition Professor, Psychology Professor, Education 2029 Sheridan Rd Room 222 2029 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208-4000 Phone: (847) 467-1660 Fax: (847) 491-7859

Websites

Department of Psychology webpage

Awards/Honors

2008 - APA Presidential Citation

Research/Scholarship
Education

Year		Degree		Institution
1968		PhD		University of South Dakota

Selected Publications

Atran, S. & Medin, D.L. (2008). The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature. Cambirdge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Anggoro, F. K., Waxman, S.R. & Medin, D.L (2008). Naming practices and the acquisition of key biological concepts: Evidence from English and Indonesian. Psychological Science: 314-319.

Tanner, C., Medin, D.L., & Iliev, R. (2008). Influence of deontological versus consequentialist orientations on act choices and framing effects: When principles are more important than consequences. European Journal of Social Psychology: 757-769.

Medin, D.L. & Bang, M (2008). Perspective Taking, Diversity and Partnerships. American Psychological Association.

Waxman, S.R., Medin, D.L., & Ross, N. (2007). Folkbiological reasoning from a cross-cultural developmental perspective: Early essentialist notions are shaped by cultural beliefs. Developmental Psychology: 294-308.

Medin, D.L., Ross, N., Cox, D. & Atran, S. (2007). Why folkbiology matters: resource conflict despite shared goals and knowledge. Human Ecology: 315-329.

Bartels, D.M., Medin, D.L. (2007). Are morally-motivated decision makers insensitive to the consequences of their choices?. Psychological Science: 24-28.

Medin, D.L., Unsworth, S.J. & Hirschfeld, L. (2007). Cultures, Categorization and Reasoning in Kitayama, S. & Cohen, D., Handbook of Cultural Psychology.

Burnett, R. & Medin, D.L. (2007). Reasoning across cultures in Rips, L. & Adler, J., Reasoning: Studies of Human Inference and its Foundations.

Medin, D.L., Unsworth, S.J. & Hirschfeld, L. (2007). Cultures, categorization and reasoning in Kitayama, S. & Cohen, D., Handbook of Cultural Psychology.

Medin, D.L. & Waxman, S. (2007). Interpreting Asymmetries of Projection in Children’s Inductive Reasoning in A. Feeney & E. Heit, Inductive reasoning: 55-80.

Blok, S., Osherson, D., & Medin, D.L. (2007). Similarity to Chance in A. Feeney & E. Heit, Inductive reasoning: 137-166.

Ginges, J., Atran, S., Medin, D., & Shikaki, K. (2007). Sacred bounds on rational resolution of violent political conflict. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 7357-7360.

Bartels, D. M. & Medin, D. L. (2007). Are morally-motivated decision makers insensitive to the consequences of their choices? . Psychological Science.

Ross, N., Medin, D. & Cox, D. (2007). Epistemological Models: How meanings affect values, goals and stereotypes: A case study of Menominee and majority culture hunters in Wisconsin. Ethos: 478-515.

Medin, D.L., Ross, N., Cox, D, & Atran, S. (2007). Why folkbiology matters: Resource conflict despite shared goals and knowledge. Human Ecology.

Waxman, S. & Medin, D. (2007). Experience and cultural models matter: Placing firm limits on childhood anthropocentrism. Human Development: 23-30.

Waxman, S.R., Medin, D.L., & Ross, N. (2007). Folkbiological reasoning from a cross-cultural developmental perspective: Early essentialist notions are shaped by cultural beliefs. Developmental Psychology.

Bang, M., Medin, D., & Atran, S (2007). Cultural Mosaics and Mental Models of Nature. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 13868-13874.

Medin, D.L., Ross, N.O., & Cox, D (2006). Culture and Resource Conflict: Why Meanings Matter. Russell Sage.

Bloomfield, A.N., Sager, J.A., Bartels, D.M. & Medin, D.L. (2006). Caring about framing effects. Mind & Society, 5: 123-138.

Rips, L.J. & Medin, D.L. (2005). Concepts, Categories, and Semantic Memory in Holyoak, K., & Morrison, R., Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning: 37-72.

Atran, S., Medin, D.L, & Ross, N. (2005). The Cultural Mind: Environmental Decision Making and Cultural Modeling Within and Across Cultures. Psychological Review: 744-776.

Selected Presentations

Medin, D.L. (2007). APS Presidential Symposium.

Medin, D.L. (2007). Kellogg Values Conference.

Medin, D.L. (2007). AERA workshop paper.

Medin, D.L. (2007). Cognitive Science Society.

Medin, D.L. (2007). Psychonomic Society and Judgment and Decision Making Society. Colloquia: University of Arizona, University of Chicago.

Other Research/Scholarship

Louis B Menck Chair award address-Northwestern University—Cognitive Science Society Virtual Colloquium Cognitive Science Society, Psychonomic Society and Judgment and Decision Making Society papers

Research Interests

Learning, reasoning, and conceptual change in adults and children, mental models; acquisition of meaning, culture and education.

Teaching/Advising
Courses

LOC 351		Culture and Cognition Instructor: Douglas Medin Course Description: This course, as the title suggests, is about culture and cognition. It is not about learning and organizational change nor is it about the culture of organizations or organizational cultures. But it is about something that surrounds us, much like air. In a sense everything is cultural and reflects values and orientations. It is easy for people to think of culture as something that other people have, something that makes them different; unless you are a minority, it is difficult to see just how culturally embedded your own life is. This course will survey research and theory on the inter-relatedness of culture and thought. Much of the work will involve cross-cultural comparisons but we will also take up multi-culturalism and ideas about how cultures both change and perpetuate themselves. There will be some examples involving organizations but the overall focus is on culture. Assignments: For each reading everyone will write a short reaction paper or alternative form of response that will serve as the basis for class discussion. It’s fine for students to work in teams. In some cases, there will be outside of class observations or analyses that will be required. Grades: Will be based on class discussion (30%), responses and mini-projects (40%) and final projects (30%).
LOC 301		Macrocognition How people learn to understand, reason, and solve problems; knowledge representation, expertise, transfer, and metacognition; study of distributor congnition.
LOC_301		Macrocognition A social and cultural investigation of cognition, studying macrocognition in the wider context of cognitive science research.  Course will discuss conceptual tools, examine studies and research frameworks, and design and conduct a macrocogniive study of a social context.
LRN_SCI 451 sec 21		Learn Sci Topics Chicago Curr & School Reform

Service/Recognition
Professional Service

Year		Organization		Position		Description
2007		NSF Ford Foundation award committee		Member
2007		NRC committee on International Research Collaboration		Member
2007		NRC committee on Informal Science Learning		Member
2007		Governing Board, APS		Member