James Greeno

James G. Greeno (born in1935 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota) is an American experimental psychologist and learning scientist whose research has focused on learning and problem solving with conceptual understanding, using scientific concepts and methods of association theory, computational cognitive modeling, and discourse analysis. Greeno received a PhD. in psychology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 1961. While a student at the University of Minnesota, Greeno also studied philosophy with Herbert Feigl, May Brodbeck, Wilfred Sellars, Alan Donagan and D. B. Terrell. During that time he developed a strong interest in philosophy, which he has retained throughout his life.

In 1961 Greeno was hired by the psychology department at Indiana University. There he worked with Frank Restle, William Estes, and Cletus Burke. From 1968 he moved to the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan joining Arthur Melton, Robert Bjork, David Krantz, Edwin Martin, and Robert Pachella in the Human Performance Center. Estes, Restle, and Melton were all important mentors and good friends throughout their lifetimes. During those years Greeno’s interest in learning shifted from mathematical analyses and modeling of performance to analyses of information structures of cognition. In 1976 he joined scholars at the Learning Research and Development Center and the Department of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, working especially with Lauren Resnick and Robert Glaser. There he was also a member of the Center for Philosophy of Science, with Adolph Grunbaum and Wesley Salmon. In 1984 Greeno moved to the University of California, Berkeley, to become the chair of a new enterprise in building a strong area of the study of mathematics and science learning, with Alan Schoenfeld and Andrea diSessa, in the Program of Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology. From 1984 to 2003 he was the Margaret Jacks Professor of Education at Stanford University, where he was also Director of the Symbolic Systems Program from 1989-1992. In 1987, Greeno, John Seely Brown, and David Kearns co-founded the Institute for Research on Learning. Greeno retired from Stanford in 2003 and is now Margaret Jacks Professor of Education, Emeritus. From 2003 to 2012 he was Visiting Professor of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. During those years he has also been a Center Affiliate of the Learning, Research and Development Center, and a Resident Fellow of the Center for Philosophy of Science.

Honors and Professional Affiliations include:

Guggenheim Fellow, 1973-1974.

National Academy of Education, 1982-2013.

E. L. Thorndike Award from the Division of Educational Psychology, American Psychological Association,1994.

J. McKeen Cattell Award in 1994-1995.

Indiana University Institute for Advanced Study, Branigan Lecturer, 2011.

Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, 1998-1999.

President, Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences, 1982-1984.

President, Midwestern Psychological Association, 1977-1978.

Chair, Psychonomic Society, 1980; Governing Board, 1975-1980.

President, Division of Experimental Psychology of the American Psychological Association, 1982-1983.

Vice-President, Division of Learning and Instruction, American Educational Research Association, 1984-1986.

President, Division of Educational Psychology of the American Psychological Association, 2004-2005.

President and Fellow, Cognitive Science Society.

Chair, Society for Mathematical Psychology, 1980; Executive Committee, 1978-1983.

Secretary-Treasurer, Society of Experimental Psychologists, 1979-1982.

American Association for the Advancement of Science, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Member and Fellow, American Educational Research Association.

Member, American Psychological Society.

Member, Association for Psychological Science.

Member, Society of Experimental Psychologists.

Journals

Editor, Cognitive Science 1986-1989, Executive Editor 1993-2000, Associate Editor, 2001-2005.

Editorial board, Cognition and Instruction, 2003-2015.

Editorial board, Journal of the Learning Sciences, Consulting Editor, 1990-1992; Editorial Board, 1993-2015.

Editorial board, Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, 2001-2015.

Consulting editor, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1976-1981, 1985-1989.

Consulting editor, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 1980-1981.

Consulting editor, Memory & Cognition, 1973-1976.

Consulting editor, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1974-1976.

Associate Editor, Psychometrika, 1974-1976; President's Council, 2008-2015.

Publications include:

Elementary Theoretical Psychology (1968)

Introduction to mathematical psychology (with F. Restle, 1970)

Associative learning: A cognitive analysis (with C. T. James, F. J. DaPolito, and P. G. Polson, 1978)  

“Problem solving and reasoning” (with H. A. Simon, in Stevens’ Handbook of Experimental Psychology, 1988)

“Cognition and learning” (with A. M. Collins and L. B. Resnick, in Handbook of Educational Psychology, 1996)

“The situativity of knowing, learning, and research” (with the Middle School Mathematics through Applications Project Group, in American Psychologist, 1998)

“A situative perspective on cognition and learning in interaction” (in T. Koschmann (Ed.) Theories of learning and studies of instructional practice, 2011)   

“Learning in Activity,” (with Y. Engeström, in Handbook of the Learning Sciences, 2 Edition, 2014)

Greeno has suggested a typology of problems:

1- Problems of inducing structure: Several instances are given and the problem solver must discover the rule or pattern involved.

2- Problems of transformation: An initial state is given and the problem solver must find a sequence of operation that will produce the goal state.

3- Problems of arrangement: All of the elements are given and the problem solver must arrange them in such a way that the problem is solved.

He married Noreen H. Greeno on 15 June 1957. They have two children.