The Danger of Mental Shortcuts:

Dr. Markman holds a B.S. in Cognitive Science from Brown University and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Illinois. Dr. Markman's research has focused on several areas. First, he researches the way people see things to be similar, and how they process similarity and analogy comparisons. His study of similarity is valuable for its own sake, and also for what it can tell us about other psychological processes. In order to look at the way that our ability to make comparisons affects our cognitive processing, Dr. Markman does research on category learning and decision making. He is also interested in the way that motivational factors affect learning, decision-making, and cognition more generally.

Dr. Markman served as the founding director of the program in the Human Dimensions of Organizations from 2011-2018. This program aims to provide education in the humanities and the social and behavioral sciences to people in business, nonprofits, government, and the military. The aim is to teach leaders about how people, groups, and cultures influence the workplace. In addition to teaching courses for Executive Education, Dr. Markman is now executive director of the IC² Institute – a think-and-do tank that focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship to explore rural and small city economic development in Texas, the US, and around the world.

Dr. Patton has been a people analyst in industry for almost six years, one year at PepsiCo, and almost five years at Google. During the last several years, he has taught classes in subjects such as Statistics, I-O Psychology, and People Analytics at Santa Clara University and the University of Texas at Austin.