Cognitive science questions for cognitive development: the concepts of learning, analogy, and capacity

New concepts from cognitive science have fundamentally changed our view of cognitive development. In this paper we explore the implications of three concepts from cognitive science. These are learning (and induction), analogy, and capacity. New conceptions of learning have enabled us to understand how representations of the world are acquired. New models of analogical reasoning have suggested that “logical” inferences are often made by mapping the problem into a mental model, or schema, induced from ordinary life experience. A model of analogical reasoning, based on neural nets, provides a natural basis for capacity limitations, and specifies changes in representations over age that explain phenomena previously thought to be stage-related.