Fuzzy-trace theory and children's acquisition of mathematical and scientific concepts

Abstract

We summarize the historical background of fuzzy-trace theory along with its major assumptions about cognitive development. The theory is a product of two forces: the current dissatisfaction with Piagetian and information processing metaphors for cognition and the basic processes movement in memory development research. Intuition is the theory's core metaphor for cognition. Its key explanatory constructs are (a) gist extraction, (b) fuzzy-to-verbatim continua of memory representations, (c) the fuzzy-processing preference, (d) hierarchies of gist, (e) simple readout versus reconstructive retrieval, (f) readout and reconstruction in both short- and long-term memory, (g) memory limitations as a function of the time courses of verbatim and gist representations, and (h) output interference. We define these constructs and discuss their implications for developmental and individual differences in cognition with special reference to mathematical and scientific reasoning.