"The question for me is how can the human mind occur in the physical universe. We now know that the world is governed by physics. We now understand the way biology nestles comfortably within that. The issue is how will the mind do that as well."--Allen Newell, December 4, 1991, Carnegie Mellon University. The argument John Anderson gives…

Humans appear to reason using two processing styles: System 1 processes that are quick, intuitive, and effortless and System 2 processes that are slow, analytical, and deliberate that occasionally correct the output of System 1. Four experiments suggest that System 2 processes are activated by metacognitive experiences of difficulty or disfluency…

In today's world, where the volume of knowledge everyone must deal with is increasing exponentially, many educators agree that schools must focus on developing skills for life-long learning. But what does that mean for an area such as algebra? Teachers' goal in school algebra should be to guide students to "work smarter" with algebraic symbols and…

This article stresses the need to use words in relationship to reality and to make language a means of communication rather than a means of deception. (PD)

The author describes and discusses a mediation situation where principles of general semantic epistemology were used to promote accord and communication leading to negotiation. (MS)

Analogous thinking has been commonly discussed as being an inherent and distinguishing characteristic of human cognition (e.g., Gentner, 2010; Goldstone, Day, & Son, 2010; Holyoak, in press; Rittle-Johnson & Star, in press). Gentner (2003) has argued that as part of the human cognitive toolbox, comparison accompanied by the relational language to…

How do children learn math--and why do some children struggle with it? The answers are in "Number Sense and Number Nonsense," a straightforward, reader-friendly book for education professionals and an invaluable multidisciplinary resource for researchers. More than a first-ever research synthesis, this highly accessible book brings math…

Wertsch's clarification of Vygotsky's claims about the role of social interaction in the development of children's thinking made an important contribution to educational research. Revisiting that clarification, I suggest that "talk" instead of "speech" best describes Vygotsky's concern with the functional dynamics of dialogue rather than the…

Non-determinism is one of the most important, yet abstract, recurring concepts of Computer Science. It plays an important role in Computer Science areas such as formal language theory, computability theory, distributed computing, and operating systems. We conducted a series of studies on the perception of non-determinism. In the current research,…

It is commonly assumed that psychologists studying human reasoning may safely ignore the normative issue of rationality, and that philosophers may analyze rationality without reference to empirical research on actual human reasoning. Presenting five arguments against such a mutually exclusive dichotomy, this paper concludes that although empirical…

A color-blot exercise is described as a way of getting students involved in abstract thinking by a low risk, confidence-building activity. Students are asked to combine poetry and art. (CL)

The difficulty and the beauty of Chinese lies in the simultaneous concreteness and ambiguity of each graph. (Author)

As analytic philosophy shows no sign of being abandoned or superseded in the English-speaking world, the prospects of continued conceptual clarification of nonphilosophical disciplines must be regarded as highly favorable at this point in time. (60 references) (Author/MM)