Philip Johnson-Laird



Philip Johnson-Laird (12 October 1936 - ) is a psychologist and author of several notable books on human cognition and reasoning.

He was educated at Culford School and University College London where he won the Rosa Morison Medal in 1964, a James Sully Scholarship between 1964–66 and achieved BA in 1964 and PhD in 1967. He was elected to a Fellowship in 1994.

He is currently the Stuart Professor of Psychology at Princeton University.

His entry in Who's Who (2007 edition) records the following career history:


 * 10 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
 * Reader, 1973, Professor, 1978, in Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex
 * Assistant Director, MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge University, 1983–89
 * Fellow, Darwin College, Cambridge, 1984–89
 * Visiting Member, Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, 1971–72
 * Visiting Fellow, Stanford University, 1980
 * Visiting Professorships: Stanford University, 1985; Princeton Univ., 1986.

He is a Fellow of the American Philosophical Society and has been awarded honorary doctorates from: Göteborg, 1983; Padua, 1997; Madrid, 2000; Dublin, 2000; Ghent, 2002; Palermo, 2005. He won the Spearman Medal in 1974, the British Psychological Society President's Award, 1985; and the International Prize from Fondation Fyssen in 2002.

He's a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences since 2007.

Selected Publications


Philip Johnson-Laird