admin%cogsci@UCBVAX.BERKELEY.EDU (Cognitive Science Program) (01/23/86)
BERKELEY COGNITIVE SCIENCE PROGRAM
Spring 1986
Cognitive Science Seminar - IDS 237B
Tuesday, January 28, 11:00 - 12:30
[NB. New Location] 2515 Tolman Hall
Discussion: 12:30 - 1:30 [location TBA]
``Knowledge in Pieces''
Andrea A. diSessa
Math Science and Technology, School of Education
Abstract
Naive Physics concerns expectations, descriptions and
explanations about the way the physical world works that people
seem spontaneously to develop through interaction with it. A
recent upswing in interest in this area, particularly concern-
ing the relation of naive physics to the learning of school
physics, has yielded significant interesting data, but little
in the way of a theoretical foundation. I would like to pro-
vide a sketch of a developing theoretical frame together with
many examples that illustrate it.
In broad strokes, one sees a rich but rather shallow (in a
sense I will define), loosely coupled knowledge system with
elements that originate often as minimal abstractions of common
phenomena. Rather than a "change of theory" or even a shift in
content of the knowledge system, it seems that developing
understanding of classroom physics may better be described in
terms of a change in structure that includes selection and
integration of naive knowledge elements into a system that is
much less data-driven, less context dependent, more capable of
"reliable" (in a technical sense) descriptions and explana-
tions. In addition I would like to discuss some hypothetical
changes at a systematic level that do look more like changes of
theory or belief. Finally, I would like to consider the poten-
tial application of this work to other domains of knowledge,
and the relation to other perspectives on the problem of
knowledge.