The Context of Thought Experiments in Physics Learning

Abstract

This paper takes a cognitive perspective in an attempt to analyze mental mechanisms involved in contextual learning. In the following, it is suggested that contextualized environments evoke mental mechanisms that support reasoning about what if, imaginary situations – utilizing a powerful mental mechanism known from the history of physics as thought experiments (TEs). Thought experiments are associated with visualization of data and imagery that originate in implicit knowledge. This paper suggests that thought experiments rely on sensory memories constructed by the learner during past experience. Such sensory memories are activated by the context. The first part of the paper deals with the definition, nature, incidents, and experimental data related to implicit knowledge and TEs. Empirical results are then analyzed in order to explore the role of sensory memories and underlying schemata in TEs, thereby suggesting a set of embodied schemata that act as implicit assumptions and provide context-dependent epistemological primitives that underlie imaginary events in a manner that will statistically match the outer world.