Thanks for the note, Dave! I’m glad you liked the post. The only text I can think of that might relate some of these concepts directly to design research and synthesis is Jon Kolko’s Exposing the Magic of Design. It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but as I recall Kolko definitely gets into the cognitive nuts and bolts of the synthesis process.

That said, I’m sure there are other books out there that take this on in depth – I’d love to see other folks’ suggestions.