What Brain Sciences Reveal About Integrating Theory and Practice

Abstract

Theory and practice are integrated in the human brain. Situation recognition and response are key to this integration. Scholars of decision making and expertise have found that people with great expertise are more adept at situational recognition and intentional about their decision-making processes. Several interdisciplinary fields of inquiry provide insights into how we manage situation recognition in the face of complexity. Classic works on bounded rationality and satisficing, contingency theory, cognitive science, and decision sciences have been identifying how the brain processes information through conceptual screens to facilitate cutting through the messy, confusing, overwhelming chaos of the real world so that we can avoid analysis paralysis. This article presents six conceptual screens that, in combination, constitute a theory to practice situation recognition framework: (1) intended users’ contingencies; (2) nature of the evaluand; (3) evaluation purpose: findings use options; (4) process options; (5) context & situational contingencies; and (6) evaluator characteristics.