This work argues that cognitive development is experience driven, and processes entailed in acquiring information about the world are analyzed based on recent models of learning and induction. The way information is represented and accessed when performing cognitive tasks is considered paying particular attention to the implications of Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) models for cognitive development. The first half of the book contains analyses of human reasoning processes (drawing on PDP models of analogy), development of strategies, and task complexity -- all based on aspects of PDP representations. It is proposed that PDP representations become more differentiated with age, so more vectors can be processed in parallel, with the result that structures of greater complexity can be processed. This model gives an account of previously unexplained difficulties in children's reasoning, including some which were influential in stage theories. The second half of the book examines processes entailed in some representative cognitive developmental tasks, including transitive inference, deductive inference (categorical syllogisms), hypothesis testing, learning set acquisition, acquisition and transfer of relational structures, humor, hierarchical classification and inclusion, understanding of quantity, arithmetic word problems, algebra, conservation, mechanics, and the concept of mind. Process accounts of tasks are emphasized, based on applications of recent developments in cognitive science.

To define better techniques of mathematics education, this book combines a knowledge of cognitive science with mathematics curriculum theory and research. The concept of the human reasoning process has been changed fundamentally by cognitive science in the last two decades. The role of memory retrieval, domain-specific and domain-general skills, analogy, and mental models is better understood now than previously. The authors believe that cognitive science provides the most accurate account thus far of the actual processes that people use in mathematics and offers the best potential for genuine increases in efficiency. As such, they suggest that a cognitive science approach enables constructivist ideas to be analyzed and further developed in the search for greater understanding of children's mathematical learning.
Not simply an application of cognitive science, however, this book provides a new perspective on mathematics education by examining the nature of mathematical concepts and processes, how and why they are taught, why certain approaches appear more effective than others, and how children might be assisted to become more mathematically powerful. The authors use recent theories of analogy and knowledge representation -- combined with research on teaching practice -- to find ways of helping children form links and correspondences between different concepts, so as to overcome problems associated with fragmented knowledge. In so doing, they have capitalized on new insights into the values and limitations of using concrete teaching aids which can be analyzed in terms of analogy theory.
In addition to addressing the role of understanding, the authors have analyzed skill acquisition models in terms of their implications for the development of mathematical competence. They place strong emphasis on the development of students' mathematical reasoning and problem solving skills to promote flexible use of knowledge. The book further demonstrates how children have a number of general problem solving skills at their disposal which they can apply independently to the solution of novel problems, resulting in the enhancement of their mathematical knowledge.

To define better techniques of mathematics education, this book combines a knowledge of cognitive science with mathematics curriculum theory and research. The concept of the human reasoning process has been changed fundamentally by cognitive science in the last two decades. The role of memory retrieval, domain-specific and domain-general skills, analogy, and mental models is better understood now than previously. The authors believe that cognitive science provides the most accurate account thus far of the actual processes that people use in mathematics and offers the best potential for genuine increases in efficiency. As such, they suggest that a cognitive science approach enables constructivist ideas to be analyzed and further developed in the search for greater understanding of children's mathematical learning.
Not simply an application of cognitive science, however, this book provides a new perspective on mathematics education by examining the nature of mathematical concepts and processes, how and why they are taught, why certain approaches appear more effective than others, and how children might be assisted to become more mathematically powerful. The authors use recent theories of analogy and knowledge representation -- combined with research on teaching practice -- to find ways of helping children form links and correspondences between different concepts, so as to overcome problems associated with fragmented knowledge. In so doing, they have capitalized on new insights into the values and limitations of using concrete teaching aids which can be analyzed in terms of analogy theory.
In addition to addressing the role of understanding, the authors have analyzed skill acquisition models in terms of their implications for the development of mathematical competence. They place strong emphasis on the development of students' mathematical reasoning and problem solving skills to promote flexible use of knowledge. The book further demonstrates how children have a number of general problem solving skills at their disposal which they can apply independently to the solution of novel problems, resulting in the enhancement of their mathematical knowledge.