Use Of Conceptual Knowledge Research Articles

Reasoning with Concepts: A Unifying Framework

Over the past few decades, cognitive science has identified several forms of reasoning that make essential use of conceptual knowledge. Despite significant theoretical and empirical progress, there is still no unified framework for understanding how concepts are used in reasoning. This paper argues that the theory of conceptual spaces is capable of filling this gap. Our strategy is to demonstrate how various inference mechanisms which clearly rely on conceptual information—including similarity, typicality, and diagnosticity-based reasoning—can be modeled using principles derived from conceptual spaces. Our first topic analyzes the role of expectations in inductive reasoning and their relation to the structure of our concepts. We examine the relationship between using generic expressions in natural language and common-sense reasoning as a second topic. We propose that the strength of a generic can be described by distances between properties and prototypes in conceptual spaces. Our third topic is category-based induction. We demonstrate that the theory of conceptual spaces can serve as a comprehensive model for this type of reasoning. The final topic is analogy. We review some proposals in this area, present a taxonomy of analogical relations, and show how to model them in terms of distances in conceptual spaces. We also briefly discuss the implications of the model for reasoning with concepts in artificial systems.

Semantic cognition in healthy ageing: Neural signatures of representation and control mechanisms in naming typical and atypical objects

Effective use of conceptual knowledge engages semantic representation and control processes to access information in a goal-driven manner. Neuropsychological findings of patients presenting either degraded knowledge (e.g., semantic dementia) or disrupted control (e.g., semantic aphasia) converge with neuroimaging evidence from young adults, and delineate the neural segregation of representation and control mechanisms. However, there is still scarce research on the neurofunctional underpinnings of such mechanisms in healthy ageing. To address this, we conducted an fMRI study, wherein young and older adults performed a covert naming task of typical and atypical objects. Three main age-related differences were found. As shown by age group and typicality interactions, older adults exhibited overactivation during naming of atypical (e.g., avocado) relative to typical concepts in brain regions associated to semantic representation, including anterior and medial portions of left temporal lobe (respectively, ATL and MTG). This provides evidence for the reorganization of neural activity in these brain regions contingent to the enrichment of semantic repositories in older ages. The medial orbitofrontal gyrus was also overactivated, indicating that the processing of atypical concepts (relative to typical items) taxes additional control resources in the elderly. Increased activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was observed in naming typical items (relative to atypical ones), but only for young adults. This suggests that naming typical items (e.g., strawberry) taxes more on control processes in younger ages, presumably due to the semantic competition set by other items that share multiple features with the target (e.g., raspberry, blackberry, cherry). Together, these results reveal the dynamic nature of semantic control interplaying with conceptual representations as people grow older, by indicating that distinct neural bases uphold semantic performance from young to older ages. These findings may be explained by neural compensation mechanisms coming into play to support neurocognitive changes in healthy ageing.

Toward a unified theory of rational number arithmetic.

To explain children's difficulties learning fraction arithmetic, Braithwaite et al. (2017) proposed FARRA, a theory of fraction arithmetic implemented as a computational model. The present study tested predictions of the theory in a new domain, decimal arithmetic, and investigated children's use of conceptual knowledge in that domain. Sixth and eighth grade children (N = 92) solved decimal arithmetic problems while thinking aloud and afterward explained solutions to decimal arithmetic problems. Consistent with the hypothesis that FARRA's theoretical assumptions would generalize to decimal arithmetic, results supported 3 predictions derived from the model: (a) accuracies on different types of problems paralleled the frequencies with which the problem types appeared in textbooks; (b) most errors involved overgeneralization of strategies that would be correct for problems with different operations or types of number; and (c) individual children displayed patterns of strategy use predicted by FARRA. We also hypothesized that during routine calculation, overt reliance on conceptual knowledge is most likely among children who lack confidence in their procedural knowledge. Consistent with this hypothesis, (d) many children displayed conceptual knowledge when explaining solutions but not while solving problems; (e) during problem-solving, children who more often overtly used conceptual knowledge also displayed doubt more often; and (f) problem solving accuracy was positively associated with displaying conceptual knowledge while explaining, but not with displaying conceptual knowledge while solving problems. We discuss implications of the results for rational number instruction and for the creation of a unified theory of rational number arithmetic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

A video-based study of student teachers' participation and content processing in cooperative group work

In the present study, video data was used to examine the effects of structuring procedures in cooperative learning on student teachers' interactions during group work. Using quantitative content analyses, we analyzed videos of students working on complex case-based tasks with regard to their active participation in the group discussions, use of conceptual knowledge and transactive communication during concept-based talk. In addition, we assessed students' individual case knowledge after they finished the group work. Two-level analyses revealed that student teachers in high-structure cooperative learning groups used more concept-driven ideas to solve the case than students in low-structure cooperative learning groups. They also referred to the ideas of other group members more often and externalized their ideas more without referring to each other. Students in high-structure cooperative learning groups gained more case-related knowledge than those in low-structure cooperative learning groups. No difference between conditions was detected for students' active participation in the group work. These findings indicate that emphasizing interdependence and accountability in cooperative groups might not increase the intensity of students' case discussion but does improve its quality.

Conceptual Knowledge, Procedural Knowledge, and Metacognition in Routine and Nonroutine Problem Solving.

When, how, and why students use conceptual knowledge during math problem solving is not well understood. We propose that when solving routine problems, students are more likely to recruit conceptual knowledge if their procedural knowledge is weak than if it is strong, and that in this context, metacognitive processes, specifically feelings of doubt, mediate interactions between procedural and conceptual knowledge. To test these hypotheses, in two studies (Ns = 64 and 138), university students solved fraction and decimal arithmetic problems while thinking aloud; verbal protocols and written work were coded for overt uses of conceptual knowledge and displays of doubt. Consistent with the hypotheses, use of conceptual knowledge during calculation was not significantly positively associated with accuracy, but was positively associated with displays of doubt, which were negatively associated with accuracy. In Study 1, participants also explained solutions to rational arithmetic problems; using conceptual knowledge in this context was positively correlated with calculation accuracy, but only among participants who did not use conceptual knowledge during calculation, suggesting that the correlation did not reflect "online" effects of using conceptual knowledge. In Study 2, participants also completed a nonroutine problem-solving task; displays of doubt on this task were positively associated with accuracy, suggesting that metacognitive processes play different roles when solving routine and nonroutine problems. We discuss implications of the results regarding interactions between procedural knowledge, conceptual knowledge, and metacognitive processes in math problem solving.

Learning and Representation of Hierarchical Concepts in Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex.

A key aspect of conceptual knowledge is that it can be flexibly applied at different levels of abstraction, implying a hierarchical organization. It is yet unclear how this hierarchical structure is acquired and represented in the brain. Here we investigate the computations underlying the acquisition and representation of the hierarchical structure of conceptual knowledge in the hippocampal-prefrontal system of 32 human participants (22 females). We assessed the hierarchical nature of learning during a novel tree-like categorization task via computational model comparisons. The winning model allowed to extract and quantify estimates for accumulation and updating of hierarchical compared with single-feature-based concepts from behavior. We find that mPFC tracks accumulation of hierarchical conceptual knowledge over time, and mPFC and hippocampus both support trial-to-trial updating. As a function of those learning parameters, mPFC and hippocampus further show connectivity changes to rostro-lateral PFC, which ultimately represented the hierarchical structure of the concept in the final stages of learning. Our results suggest that mPFC and hippocampus support the integration of accumulated evidence and instantaneous updates into hierarchical concept representations in rostro-lateral PFC.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT A hallmark of human cognition is the flexible use of conceptual knowledge at different levels of abstraction, ranging from a coarse category level to a fine-grained subcategory level. While previous work probed the representational geometry of long-term category knowledge, it is unclear how this hierarchical structure inherent to conceptual knowledge is acquired and represented. By combining a novel hierarchical concept learning task with computational modeling of categorization behavior and concurrent fMRI, we differentiate the roles of key concept learning regions in hippocampus and PFC in learning computations and the representation of a hierarchical category structure.

Using concept typicality to explore semantic representation and control in healthy ageing.

Successful use of conceptual knowledge entails the assembling of semantic representations and control processes to access the subsets of knowledge relevant in each situation. Research has suggested that representation and control mechanisms interact to support categorization. Notably, depleted representations in semantic dementia and disrupted control processes in semantic aphasia impair categorization of atypical concepts. Yet, it remains unclear how knowledge accumulation and control decay in healthy ageing impact categorization. To address this question, we compared young and older adults' performance in a categorization task of items varying in concept typicality. Critically, older adults were more accurate in categorizing atypical concepts than the younger counterparts, as indicated by the interaction between group and typicality. Moreover, the elderly outperformed the younger in categorizing atypical concepts that were also less familiar. Thus, the decay in semantic control observed along ageing did not significantly hinder the categorization of atypical items. Our data suggest that, relative to young adults, older adults possess enriched conceptual knowledge, which supports retrieval of the category-related features needed for categorizing atypical and less familiar exemplars.

Reverse-engineering the cortical architecture for controlled semantic cognition.

We employ a ‘reverse-engineering’ approach to illuminate the neurocomputational building blocks that combine to support controlled semantic cognition: the storage and context-appropriate use of conceptual knowledge. By systematically varying the structure of a computational model and assessing the functional consequences, we identified the architectural properties that best promote some core functions of the semantic system. Semantic cognition presents a challenging test case as the brain must achieve two seemingly contradictory functions: abstracting context-invariant conceptual representations across time and modalities, whilst producing specific context-sensitive behaviours appropriate for the immediate task. These functions were best achieved in models possessing a single, deep multimodal hub with sparse connections from modality-specific regions, and control systems acting on peripheral rather than deep network layers. The reverse-engineered model provides a unifying account of core findings in the cognitive neuroscience of controlled semantic cognition, including evidence from anatomy, neuropsychology, and functional brain imaging.

The time course of colour congruency effects in picture naming

In our interactions with people and objects in the world around us, as well as in communicating our thoughts, we rely on the use of conceptual knowledge stored in long-term memory. From a frame-theoretic point of view, a concept is represented by a central node and recursive attribute-value structures further specifying the concept. The present study explores whether and how the activation of an attribute within a frame might influence access to the concept's name in language production, focussing on the colour attribute. Colour has been shown to contribute to object recognition, naming, and memory retrieval, and there is evidence that colour plays a different role in naming objects that have a typical colour (high colour-diagnostic objects such as tomatoes) than in naming objects without a typical colour (low colour-diagnostic objects such as bicycles). We report two behavioural experiments designed to reveal potential effects of the activation of an object's typical colour on naming the object in a picture-word interference paradigm. This paradigm was used to investigate whether naming is facilitated when typical colours are presented alongside the to-be-named picture (e.g., the word “red” superimposed on the picture of a tomato), compared to atypical colours (such as “brown”), unrelated adjectives (such as “fast”), or random letter strings. To further explore the time course of these potential effects, the words were presented at different time points relative to the to-be-named picture (Exp. 1: −400 ms, Exp. 2: −200 ms, 0 ms, and + 200 ms). By including both high and low colour-diagnostic objects, it was possible to explore whether the activation of a colour differentially affects naming of objects that have a strong association with a typical colour. The results showed that (pre-)activation of the appropriate colour attribute facilitated naming compared to an inappropriate colour. This was only the case for objects closely connected with a typical colour. Consequences of these findings for frame-theoretic accounts of conceptual representation are discussed.

Wspieranie rozwoju mądrości. Perspektywa dialogowa

The article presents internal dialogical activity as one of the possible ways of developing wisdom, understood here primarily in terms of dialectical thinking. The author explains the relationships between internal dialogical activity and dialectical thinking and describes the cognitive processes that accompany inner dialogs, related to imaginative thinking, attention management, metacognition, and the use of conceptual knowledge with ambiguous contents. The active involvement of these processes seems indispensable for achieving dialectic effects through dialogical activity, including the acceptance of contradictions and the integration of different viewpoints. The final part of the article discusses practical methods of supporting wisdom based on three manifestations of inner dialogical activity: identity dialogs, temporal dialogs, and dialogs simulating social interactions.

Wspieranie rozwoju mądrości. Perspektywa dialogowa

The article presents internal dialogical activity as one of the possible ways of developing wisdom, understood here primarily in terms of dialectical thinking. The author explains the relationships between internal dialogical activity and dialectical thinking and describes the cognitive processes that accompany inner dialogs, related to imaginative thinking, attention management, metacognition, and the use of conceptual knowledge with ambiguous contents. The active involvement of these processes seems indispensable for achieving dialectic effects through dialogical activity, including the acceptance of contradictions and the integration of different viewpoints. The final part of the article discusses practical methods of supporting wisdom based on three manifestations of inner dialogical activity: identity dialogs, temporal dialogs, and dialogs simulating social interactions.

Grade 11 students’ interconnected use of conceptual knowledge, procedural skills, and strategic competence in algebra: a mixed method study of error analysis

The purpose of this mixed-method study was to investigate grade 11 university/college stream mathematics students’ difficulties in applying conceptual knowledge, procedural skills, strategic competence, and algebraic thinking in solving routine (instructional) algebraic problems. A standardized algebra test was administered to thirty randomly selected grade 11 students in an urban school in Ontario, Canada. Ten students were later interviewed. In this paper, we discuss the solutions and interviews of five students. The results showed that the majority of university/college stream mathematics students were in the transition stage from arithmetic to algebra. Another prominent feature of these students’ problem solving process was their overuse of procedures without being able to critically evaluate whether these procedures would work or not. They also demonstrated lack of relational, application, and structural abilities when solving instructional problems. We emphasize that, in order to be successful, all components of problem solving (procedural work, local focus, strategic skills, and algebraic reasoning) should work together in a coherent manner, as the main learning challenge in problem solving remains keeping cohesion between its multiple interconnected components. Therefore, it is necessary that to show them the arithmetic-algebraic connection in problem solving and to facilitate them to systematically check their answers in the context of a general strategy.

The scope and limits of action semantics: Reply to comments on ‘Action semantics: A unifying conceptual framework for the selective use of multimodal and modality-specific object knowledge’

In our target paper [1], we have provided an integrative review of the current state of affairs regarding research on the use of conceptual knowledge for action. In short, we argue that humans have developed declarative and procedural knowledge about objects, i.e. action semantics that enable them to use objects in a purposeful and effective manner. We were impressed by both the quantity and the quality of the commentaries on our position paper. We would like to thank the commentators for their valuable contributions, pointing out supportive evidence for our framework, indicating additional and complementary strands of research in this field and raising important conceptual and theoretical challenges for our proposed model. Here we take the opportunity to briefly indicate how additional lines of research could be integrated in our framework and how potentially conflicting findings could be reconciled. Joachim Hermsdorfer suggests that the overlap between the kinematics of pantomimed and object-directed actions points towards the existence of a common motor program, while at the same time task context also modulates the low-level features of action execution [2]. The suggestion that the context may exert both an indirect effect (i.e. through a top-down selection of motor programs) and a direct effect on movement execution (e.g. by providing participants with stronger task constraints and sensory feedback through a direct interaction with an object) provides an excellent illustration of the role of context, as proposed in our model of action semantics. A similar role of context on the activation of motor programs is proposed by Anna Borghi [3], who showed that the context (i.e. provided by the task, the inclusion of other objects, semantic information or the presence of other persons) can have a strong influence on the activation of object affordances.

Procedural and Conceptual Knowledge: Exploring the Gap Between Knowledge Type and Knowledge Quality

Abstract Following Star (2005, 2007), we continue to problematize the entangling of type and quality in the use of conceptual knowledge and procedural knowledge. Although those whose work is guided by types of knowledge and those whose work is guided by qualities of knowledge seem to be referring to the same phenomena, actually they are not. This lack of mutual understanding of both the nature of the questions being asked and the results being generated causes difficulties for the continued exploration of questions of interest in mathematics teaching and learning, such as issues of teachers’ knowledge.

The inverse relation between multiplication and division: Concepts, procedures, and a cognitive framework

Researchers have speculated that children find it more difficult to acquire conceptual understanding of the inverse relation between multiplication and division than that between addition and subtraction. We reviewed research on children and adults’ use of shortcut procedures that make use of the inverse relation on two kinds of problems: inversion problems (e.g., \( {9} \times {24} \div {24} \)) and associativity problems (e.g., \( {9} \times {24} \div {8} \)). Both can be solved more easily if the division of the second and third numbers is performed before the multiplication of the first and second numbers. The findings we reviewed suggest that understanding and use of the inverse relation between multiplication and division develops relatively slowly and is difficult for both children and adults to implement in shortcut procedures if they are not flexible problem solvers. We use the findings to expand an existing model, highlight some similarities and differences in solvers’ use of conceptual knowledge across operations, and discuss educational implications of the findings.

Developmental change and individual differences in children's multiplication.

Age-related change and patterns of individual differences in children's knowledge and skill in multiplication were investigated for students in Grades 4 and 6 (approximately ages 9 and 11, respectively) by examining multiple measures of computational skill, conceptual knowledge, and working memory. Regression analyses revealed that indexes reflecting probability of retrieval and special problem characteristics overshadow other, more general indexes (problem size and frequency of presentation) in predicting solution latencies. Some improvement in the use of conceptual knowledge was evident between Grades 4 and 6, but this change was neither strong nor uniform across tasks. Finally, patterns of individual differences across tasks differed as a function of grade level. The findings have implications for understanding developmental change and individual differences in mathematical cognition.

Visual perception of intentional motion.

A series of experiments were performed to investigate how motion sequences provide information about the intentional structure of moving figures or actors. Observers had to detect simulations of biologically meaningful motion within a set of moving letters. In the first two experiments a factorial design was used, with type of instruction as a between-subject factor and six movement parameters (number of items, speed and directness of target and distractors, and 'relentlessness' of target movement) as within-subject factor; in the final two experiments, the visibility of the goal towards which the target moved and the use of a tracking movement to distinguish the target were varied. In such displays search time increases with increasing number of stimuli. It was found that (a) the more direct the motion, the more likely it was to be interpreted as intentional; (b) intentional motion was much easier to detect when the target moved faster than the distractors than when it moved more slowly; (c) recognition of intentionality was impaired but not abolished if the goal towards which the target was moving was invisible; and (d) participants did not report intentional movement when the target was distinguished by brightness rather than the manner in which it moved. We argue that the perception of intentionality is strongly related to observers' use of conceptual knowledge, which in turn is activated by particular combinations of features. This supports a process model, in which intentionality is seen as the result of a conceptual integration of objective visual features.