creators_name: Clancey, William
type: journalp
datestamp: 2003-06-03
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:51
metadata_visibility: show
title: Is Abstraction a Kind of Idea or How Conceptualization Works?
ispublished: pub
subjects: appl-cog-psy
full_text_status: public
abstract: In this commentary, I review papers by Ohlsson & Regan (O&R), van Oers, and Dreyfus, Hershkowitz, & Schwarz (DH&S). The papers are nominally about abstraction and learning, but emphasize different kinds of problems and levels of analysis. O&R focus on mathematical, “domain independent” characteristics of abstract thinking, claiming that experience in a domain is not the main determinant of scientific discovery. van Oers focuses on the development of abstraction within activities, especially as a sequence of nested domains of concern. DH&S emphasize how nested conceptualizations co-define and provide meaning for each other (a dialectic relation).
date: 2001-03
date_type: published
publication: Cognitive Science Quarterly
volume: 1
number: 3-4
pagerange: 389-421
refereed: TRUE
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citation:   Clancey, William  (2001) Is Abstraction a Kind of Idea or How Conceptualization Works?  [Journal (Paginated)]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/1988/3/CSQCommentaryClancey.pdf