Dr. Toplak’s research spans cognitive science and clinical research. She studies cognitive science models of rational thinking and decision-making in typically developing samples and in developmental psychopathology. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters across the fields of decision-making and clinical research, including two books: Individual Differences in Judgement and Decision-Making: A Developmental Perspective (Psychology Press, 2016) and The Rationality Quotient: Toward a Test of Rational Thinking (MIT Press, 2018), the latter of which won the 2017 PROSE Award in Education Theory.
Understanding what underlies the large individual differences in reasoning abilities is a critical question, for both theoretical and practical reasons. In this book, Maggie Toplak has provided a remarkably detailed and theoretically rich account of the development of rational reasoning skills, much of which is based on her own work. The impact of a variety of different components on reasoning is clearly detailed, and the consequences for real-world functioning are highlighted. I would highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in understanding the complex web of factors that impact how individuals reason. -- Henry Markovits, Professor, Psychology Department, Universite du Quebec a Montreal