ABSTRACT
This chapter, the author focuses primarily on generalized knowledge, although the role of exemplars in category representations becomes relevant at various points. Much of human knowledge is detached from personal experience, in that people cannot remember the particular circumstances in which it was learned. Peoples use of knowledge is impressive. Numerous important and difficult issues continue to challenge research on human knowledge. Declarative and procedural knowledge differ in important ways: Whereas people can readily examine declarative knowledge, they can examine procedural knowledge to a much lesser extent, if at all. Knowledge is clearly central to human intelligence as well. According to the intersection rule, an entity should only belong to a conceptual combination if it belongs to each of the constituent categories. Intuitive theories inform the selection of relevant properties. Cognitive psychologists also have much to learn about various types of knowledge. Finally, cognitive psychologists have little, if any, understanding of how people represent the current state of the world.
