ABSTRACT
An important concern of cognitive psychology in recent years has been the description of children's and adults’ physical knowledge. This research has focused on three important questions. First, investigators have sought to describe the content of children's and adults’ knowledge. Physical domains that have been examined include astronomy (Vosniadou & Brewer, 1989), biology (Carey, 1985), and physics (Clement, 1982; D. Gentner & D. R. Gentner, 1983; Karmiloff-Smith & Inhelder, 1975; McCloskey, 1983; Siegler, 1978). Second, researchers have attempted to elucidate the structure of children's and adults’ physical knowledge. Different models have been proposed, ranging from lists of local rules to naive models or “theories” organized around causal principles (Carey, 1985; Gelman, 1990; D. Gentner & Stevens, 1983; Keil, 1990; Siegler, 1978, 1983; Vosniadou & Brewer, 1989; Wellman, in press). Finally, investigators have been concerned with the development of children's and adults’ physical knowledge. Of particular interest has been the comparison of novices’ and experts’ representations of physical domains (Chi, Feltovitch, & Glaser, 1981; Larkin, 1983; Wiser & Carey, 1983).
