Cynthia M. Sifonis, PhD
Dr. Cynthia M. Sifonis is a co-founder of Structured Analogy Consultants. She is also currently an Associate Professor of
Cognitive Psychology at Oakland University. Her graduate training at Texas
A&M University emphasized the creative cognition approach to creativity.
This approach examines how people use normal cognitive processes such as analogy
and their knowledge of the world they live in to produce creative products and
ideas. Following graduation, two years of post-doctoral training at the Beckman
Institute at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign further refined her
research skills in the area of Cognitive Science. During the past ten years,
these skills have been used on a daily basis to further both basic and applied
laboratory research examining the various factors influencing the creative
process. A main area of focus for this research is determining the processes
underlying analogical reasoning and how people use existing knowledge to
innovate. Cynthia's research findings have resulted in publications in some of
the most highly ranked peer-reviewed journals in her field and presentations at
a wide variety of national and international conferences.
