ABSTRACT

Performance on a variety of reasoning tasks, including logical and probabilistic tasks, can be improved when one is asked to explain. This is why explaining the study material and responding to explanatory questions is such a good way to learn new material encountered in a course. According to the pattern conception, explanations fit particular statements about phenomena into a more general framework of laws and principles. A satisfying explanation of why the sky is blue relies on some sophisticated scientific theorizing: sunlight travels in straight lines unless some obstruction either reflects it, like a mirror; bends it, like a prism; or scatters it, like the molecules of gas in the Earth's atmosphere. The value-free ideal suggests that science is simply a source of objective facts about the world, immune to influence by human values. Values guide scientists' judgments about what types of research to pursue, as well as which studies to perform and which to put on the back burner.