This paper presents a case study of 3- to 9-year-old children's concepts of size, weight, density, matter, and material kind. Our goal was to examine two claims: (1) that individual concepts undergo differentiation during development; and (2) that young children's concepts are embedded in theory-like structures. To make progress on the first issue, we needed to specify in representational terms what an undifferentiated concept is like and in what sense this undifferentiated concept is a parent of the more differentiated concepts. Our strategy was to use a model of conceptual differentiation suggested by the history of science to guide our search for evidence. In this model, undifferentiated concepts, like differentiated concepts, can be analyzed in terms of their component properties, features, or dimensions. The key difference is that an undifferentiated concept unites certain components which will subsequently be analyzed as components of distinct concepts, and that the undifferentiated concept is embedded in a different theoretical structure from the differentiated concepts. In our study, the same group of 78 children (18 3-year-olds, 18 4-year-olds, 18 5-year-olds, 12 6-7-year-olds, and 12 8-9-year-olds) were given a range of tasks probing their understanding of size, weight, and density; a

An understanding of a scene's causal physics---how scene elements interact and respond to forces---is a precondition to reasoning about how the scene came to be, how it may evolve in time, and how it will respond to manipulation. We propose a computationally inexpensive method for recovering causal structure from images, in which which a scene model is built incrementally through interleaved sensing and analysis. Reasoning uses generic qualitative knowledge about rigid-body interactions, reusable between domains and similar to concepts thought to be acquired or activated during child development. Causal constraint propagation reveals anomalous degrees-of-freedom in the scene model; prediction yields sensory plans to resolve them. Sensing operations are highly directed and local in scope, e.g., visual routines and proprioception. Inference-depth and the number of pixels "touched" are bounded by the complexity of the scene. We presents algorithms and semantics that have been successfully...

Research suggests that causal judgment is influenced primarily by counterfactual or covariational reasoning. In contrast, the author of this article develops judgment dissociation theory (JDT), which predicts that these types of reasoning differ in function and can lead to divergent judgments. The actuality principle proposes that causal selections focus on antecedents that are sufficient to generate the actual outcome. The substitution principle proposes that ad hoc categorization plays a key role in counterfactual and covariational reasoning such that counterfactual selections focus on antecedents that would have been sufficient to prevent the outcome or something like it and covariational selections focus on antecedents that yield the largest increase in the probability of the outcome or something like it. The findings of 4 experiments support JDT but not the competing counterfactual and covariational accounts. If causation is the cement of the universe, as the philosopher David Hume (1740/1938) put it, then it is fair to say that causal knowledge is the cement that binds together each person’s representational universe. Causal reasoning—the process that generates this glue—confers many functional advantages. In virtually every sphere of human interest, our abilities to learn and categorize

Traffic Safety Administration, in the interest of information exchange. The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department of Transportation or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The United States Government assumes no liability for its contents or use thereof. If trade or manufacturers ’ names or products are mentioned, it is only because they are considered essential to the object of publication and should not be construed as an endorsement. The United States Government does not endorse products or manufacturers.

INTRODUCTION Computers have become almos ubiquitous over the las years of the twentieth century and one of the things thatis clear about the twenty --firs century.Computers will play anincreas8UU6 screas8UU role in our workinglives andleis70 environments Thereis theisI3 of what the computer has to offeras a technology for sLR&L2I8U education more generally. ManypsI3LU37I8UK andeducationalis7 have a view that the informationtechnologies (IT)is the beginning of radical upturn in the education. But here we can sn different tendencies A great deal ofsIK3K2& developed forsrI3U us has one way: breakingdeskin learninggoals into stoI stoI and relying on reward, repetition and contingent depending of different levels to impartvarious srious Itis sKRL3& developedselopedI3R7 for individualus (Mevarech et al., 1991) The next are `Intelligent Tutoring SysingI (Woolf, 1988), which sich a teaching sachingI Butthes are only slyI part how to us the IT in the learning procesg Fo

This paper represents an attempt to summarize what is known in cognitive, developmental and social psychology on the nature of human naive theories, The parallel human mind / www is drawn, and it is shown how the challenges addressed in Data Mining and Knowledge Acquisition are present in the mind of the individual as well. The process of cognitive development and knowledge acquisition is such that uncoordinated must result. There is no process active in Long-Term memory to harmonize inconsistent parts. Coordination takes place in Working Memory (WM), and cognitive psychology has long established its extreme smallness. Units of explanation and domains of coherence are therefore small. This is, indeed, a limitation of our cognition, but it is tenable pragmatically. Naive theories on any one issue do not form, psychologically, cognitively, a natural kind.

Some curious features of the current psychological scene are briefly examined. They include the notion that psychology is undergoing a paradigm shift and that the paradigm due for suppression can be identified with "behaviourism". It is suggested that, although a return to Hull's behaviour theory con scarcely be advocated, some characteristics of Hull's approach which have now been widely abondoned, could with advantage be revived. These are (a) the objective of integration, (b) attention to motivational problems and (c) the recognition of the important contrasts, as well as continuities, between behaviour controlled by symbolic processes and behaviour not so controlled. These might enable us to avoid opposite shortcomings of contemporary Skinnerian and neo-cognitivist positions. RESUME Examen rapide de quelques caracteristiques de la situation actuelle en psychologie. On y retrouve notamment I'idee que la psychologie est en voie de changer de modele et que le modele appele a disparaitre peut s'identifier au "behaviorisme".