Examines the shared cognitive dimensions of cultural institutions like museums, libraries, and parks, suggesting they make similar situations for transmitting information. The article encourages a critical understanding of public cultural institutions to enlarge the potential for discourse about their analysis and criticism. Heuristic questions…

Proposes causal field theory as a model of causal reasoning. Suggests that anomaly detection through comparison with natural events triggers causal reasoning. This anomaly is interpreted in terms of agency; therefore, natural phenomena can be understood through an appeal to agency. The mechanism proposed never changes with development, whereas…

Examined children's use of the representativeness heuristic with two types of decision problems adapted from research with adults--standard representativeness problems and conjunction fallacy problems. Findings on both problems indicate the use of decision heuristics in the early grade-school years, and suggests these should be the years for…

Examined cognitive processing and performance of 12 average seventh-grade students during cooperative problem solving. Factors that impeded performance included lack of an experiential framework, imposition of unrequired restrictions, lack of individual monitoring of cognitive activity, and unproductive beliefs. Factors that enhanced performance…

Problem solving has been a concern of science education for at least three quarters of a century. This book presents a comprehensive review of the research that has occurred in problem solving. The studies included in this summary range across the continuum. Some are concerned with gaps between conditions and resolutions; some involve science…