Abstract
In this paper, I present a framework where possible relations between learning and mental models are explored. In particular, I’ll be concerned with non-symbolic gestures accompanying discourse and their role in inducing the construction of models and therefore deep comprehension and learning in the listener. Also, I’ll be concerned with cognitive and socio-cognitive conflicts and their roles in inducing construction of alternative models of a problem and therefore in learning to reason. Human ability to learn is of great importance for individuals interested in change. Indeed, to learn both declarative and procedural knowledge means to change, and in order to be able to intervene on change in a desired way it is necessary to have a theory of the mental representations and processes involved in learning and a theory of the communication and contexts that favour learning.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alibali MW, Goldin-Meadow S (1993) Gesture-speech mismatch and mechanisms of learning: what the hands reveal about a child’s state of mind. Cogn Psychol 25:468–523
Alibali MW, Kita S, Bigelow LJ, Wolfman CM, Klein SM (2001) Gesture plays a role in thinking for speaking, vol 18. Actes du colloque, Orange, Aix-en-Provence, pp 407–410
Alibali MW, Kita S, Young AJ (2000) Gesture and the process of speech production: we think, therefore we gesture. Lang Cogn Proc 15:593–613
Anderson JR (1983) The architecture of cognition. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Azmitia M (1988) Peer interaction and problem solving: when are two heads better than one? Child Dev 59:87–96
Antinucci F, Troise A, Natale F, Berlinguer L (1994) How does hypermedia affect learning? In: Levonen J, Tukiainen M (eds) Complex learning in computer environments. TOTY, Joensuu, pp 74–77
Bara BG (1995) Cognitive science: a developmental approach to the simulation of the mind. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hove
Bara B, Bucciarelli M, Geminiani G (2000) Development and decay of extra-linguistic communication. Brain Cogn 43:1–3
Baron-Cohen S (1994) How to build a baby that can read minds: cognitive mechanism in mind reading. Cah Psychol Cogn 13:1–40
Biggs JB (2001) Enhancing learning: a matter of style or approach? In: Sterneberg RJ, Zhang LF (eds) Perspectives on thinking, learning, and cognitive styles. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, pp 73–102
Bruner JS, Olver RR, Greenfield PM (1966) Studies on cognitive growth. Wiley, New York
Bucciarelli M (2005) Pointing and communicative meanings. Curr Anthropol 46(1):152–153
Bucciarelli M, Colle L, Bara BG (2003) How children comprehend speech acts and communicative gestures. J Pragmatics 35:207–241
Bucciarelli M, Johnson-Laird PN (2001) Falsification and the role of the theory of mind in the reduced array selection task. Curr Psychol Lett 4:7–22
Byrne RMJ, Handley SJ (1997) Reasoning strategies for suppositional deductions. Cognition 62:1–49
Caravita S, Halldén O (1994) Re-framing the problem of conceptual change. Learn Instrum 4:89–111
Carney RN, Levin JR (2002) Pictorial illustrations still improve students’ learning from text. Educ Psychol Rev 14(1):5–26
Chan C (2001) Peer collaboration and discourse patterns in learning from incompatible information. Instrum Sci 29:443–479
Cheng PW, Holyoak KJ (1989) On the natural selection of reasoning theories. Cognition 33:285–314
Church RB (1999) Using gesture and speech to capture transitions in learning. Cogn Dev 14:313–342
Clement JJ, Steinberg MS (2002) Step-wise evolution of mental models of electric circuits: a “learning-aloud” case study. J Learn Sci 11:389–452
Craik FIM, Tulving E (1975) Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory. J Exp Psychol Gen 104:268–294
Cuevas HM, Fiore SM, Oser RL (2002) Scaffolding cognitive and metacognitive processes in low verbal ability learners: use of diagrams in computer-based training environments. Instrum Sci 30(6):433–464
Cummins DD (1996) Evidence of deontic reasoning in 3- and 4-year-old children. Mem Cogn 24(6):823–829
Cutica I, Bucciarelli M (2003) Gestures and the construction of models. In: Proceedings of the second international conference on reasoning and decision making. Reasoning and understanding: mental models, relevance and limited rationality approaches, March 17–18, Padova, p 11
Cutica I, Bucciarelli M (2007) Gestures and mental models in learning from discourse (Submitted)
Doise W, Mugny G (1984) The social development of the intellect. Pergamon, Oxford
Druyan S (2001) A comparison of four types of cognitive conflict and their effect on cognitive development. Int J Behav Dev 25:226–236
Fuchs LS, Fuchs D, Kazdan S, Karns K, Calhoon MB, Hamlett CL, Hewlett S (2000) Effects of workgroup structure and size on student productivity during collaborative work on complex tasks. Elem School J 100:183–212
Garber P, Alibali MW, Goldin-Meadow S (1998) Knowledge conveyed in gesture is not tied to the hands. Child Dev 69:75–84
Garber P, Goldin-Meadow S (2002) Gesture offers insight into problem-solving in children and adults. Cogn Sci 26:817–831
García-Madruga J, Carriedo N, González-Labra MJ (eds) (2000) Mental models in reasoning. UNED, Madrid
Girotto V, Light P, Colbourn CJ (1988) Pragmatic schemas and conditional reasoning in children. Q J Exp Psychol 40A:469–482
Glenberg AM, Langston WE (1992) Comprehension of illustrated text: pictures help to build mental models. J Mem Lang 31:129–151
Goldin-Meadow S (2001) Giving the mind a hand: the role of gesture in cognitive change. In: McClelland J, Siegler RS (eds) Mechanisms of cognitive development. Behavioral and neural perspectives. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, pp 5–31
Goldin-Meadow S, Butcher C (2003) Pointing toward two-word speech in young children. In: Kita S (ed) Pointing. Where language, culture, and cognition meet. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, pp 85–107
Goldin-Meadow S, Sandhofer CM (1999) Gestures convey substantive information about a child’s thoughts to ordinary listeners. Dev Sci 2:67–74
Griggs RA, Cox JR (1982) The elusive thematic-materials effect in Wason’s selection task. Br J Psychol 73:407–420
Gyselinck V (1996) Illustrations and mental models in text comprehension. Ann Psychol 96:495–516
Hadamard J (1945) The psychology of invention in the mathematical field. Dover, New York
Halford G (1993) Children’s understanding: the development of mental models. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale
Johnson-Laird PN (1983) Mental models: towards a cognitive science of language, and consciousness. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Johnson-Laird PN (2001) Mental models and human reasoning. In: Dupoux E (ed) Language, brain, and cognitive development: essays in honor of Jacques Mehler. The MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 85–102
Johnson-Laird PN, Bethell-Fax C (1978) Memory for questions and amount of processing. Mem Cogn 6:496–501
Johnson-Laird PN, Byrne RMJ (1991) Deduction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, London
Johnson-Laird PN, Byrne RMJ (2002) Conditionals: a theory of meaning, pragmatics, and inference. Psychol Rev 109:646–678
Johnson-Laird PN, Legrenzi P, Sonino-Legrenzi M (1972) Reasoning and a sense of reality. Br J Psychol 63:395–400
Johnson-Laird PN, Savary F, Bucciarelli M (2000) Strategies and tactics in reasoning. In: Schaeken WS, Vandierendonck A, De Vooght G, d’Ydewalle G (eds) Deductive reasoning and strategies. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, pp 209–240
Karmiloff-Smith A (1992) Beyond modularity: a developmental perspective on cognitive science. The MIT Press, Cambridge
Kelly GA (1955) The psychology of personal construct. Norton, New York
Kelly S, Church RB (1998) A comparison between children’s and adults’ ability to detect conceptual information conveyed through representational gestures. Child Dev 69:85–93
Krauss RM, Morrel-Samuels P, Colasante C (1991) Do conversational hand gestures communicate? J Pers Soc Psychol 61:743–754
Kroger K, Cheng PW, Holyoak KJ (1993) Evoking the permission schema: the impact of explicit negation and a violation-checking context. Q J Exp Psychol 46A:615–635
Kuhn D (1989) Children and adults as intuitive scientists. Psychol Rev 96:674–689
Kuhn D (2000) Metacognitive development. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 9(5):178–181
Kuhn D, Kats JB, Dean D (2004). Developing reason. Think Reason 10:197–219
Legrenzi P, Butera F, Mugny G, Pérez JA (1991) Majority and minority influence in inductive reasoning. Eur J Soc Psychol 21:359–363
Leslie AM (1987) Pretense and representation: the origins of “theory of mind”. Psychol Rev 94:412–426
Light P, Glachan M (1985) Facilitation of individual problem solving through peer interaction. Educ Psychol 5:217–225
Limón M (2001) On the cognitive conflict as an instructional strategy for conceptual change: a critical appraisal. Learn Instrum 11:357–380
Limón M, Carretero M (1997) Conceptual change and anomalous data: a case study in the domain of natural sciences. Eur J Psychol Educ 12(2):213–230
Manktelow KI, Over DE (1990) Inference and understanding. Frances-Routledge, Florence
Manktelow KI, Over DE (1991) Social roles and utilities in reasoning with deontic conditionals. Cognition 39:85–105
Mayer RE (1997) Multimedia learning: are we asking the right questions? Educ Psychol 32:1–19
Mayer RE, Moreno R (2002) Aids to computer-based multimedia learning. Learn Instrum 12:107–119
McClelland JL (1995) A connectionist perspective on knowledge and development. In: Simon TJ, Halford GS (eds) Developing cognitive competence. New approaches to process modeling. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hove, pp 157–204
McKendree J, Small C, Stenning K, Conlon T (2002) The role of representation in teaching and learning critical thinking. Educ Rev 54:57–67
Montgomery H (1984) Mental models and problem solving: three challenges to a theory of restructuring and insight. Scand J Psychol 29:85–94
Moreno R, Mayer RE (1999) Cognitive principles of multimedia learning: the role of modality and contiguity. J Educ Psychol 91:358–368
Moreno R, Mayer RE (2002) Verbal redundancy in multimedia learning: when reading helps listening. J Educ Psychol 94:156–163
Perret-Clermont AN (1980) Social interaction and cognitive development in children. Academic, London
Popper K (1982) In: Bartely WW III (ed) Postscript to “the logic of scientific discovery”. Hutchinson, London
Premack D, Woodruff G (1978) Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? Behav Brain Sci 1:515–526
Rickheit G, Wrobel H (1999) Cognitive aspects of coordination processes. In: Rickheit G, Habel C (eds) Mental models in discourse processing and reasoning. North-Holland/Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 113–130
Roazzi A, Bryant P (1998) The effects of symmetrical and asymmetrical social interaction on children’s logical inferences. Br J Dev Psychol 16:175–181
Russell J (1982) Cognitive conflict transmission and justification: conservation attainment through dyadic interactions. J Genet Psychol 140:283–297
Sacco K, Bucciarelli M (2007) The role of cognitive and socio-cognitive conflict in learning to reason. Mind Soc (in press)
Schnotz W, Bannert M (1999) Influence of the type of visualization on the construction of mental models during picture and text comprehension. Z Exp Psychol 46:217–236
Schwartz DL, Black JB (1996) Shuttling between depictive models and abstract rules: induction and fallback. Cogn Sci 20:457–497
Siegler RS (1976) Three aspects of cognitive development. Cogn Psychol 8:481–520
Siegler RS (1995) How does change occur: a microgenetic study of number conservation. Cogn Psychol 28:225–273
Simon TJ, Halford SG (1995) Computational models and cognitive change. In: Simon TJ, Halford SG (eds) Developing cognitive competence. New approaches to process modeling. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hove, pp 1–30
Spiro RJ, Jehng JC (1990) Cognitive flexibility & hypertext: theory & technology for the nonlinear & multidimensional traversal of complex subject matter. In: D Nix R Spiro (eds) Cognition, education, & multimedia: exploring ideas in high technology. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, pp 163–205
Stanovich KE, West RF (1998) Cognitive ability and variation in selection task performance. Think Reason 4:193–230
Stenning K (2000) Distinctions with differences: comparing criteria for distinguishing diagrammatic from sentential systems. Theory and application of diagrams. Lect Notes Artif Int 1899:132–148
Vandenplas-Holper C (1996) Intraindividual and interindividual cognitive conflict, related variables and relations with cognitive development. Swiss J Psychol 55(2/3):161–175
Vekiri I (2002) What is the value of graphical displays in learning? Educ Psychol Rev 14(3):261–312
Vosniadou S (ed) (1994) Conceptual change in the physical sciences. Learn Instrum 4 (special issue)
Vygotsky LS (1978) Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
van Dijk IA, Kintsch W (1983) Strategies of discourse comprehension. Academic, New York
Wason P (1966) Reasoning. In: Foss BM (ed) New horizons in psychology. Penguin, Harmondsworth, pp 135–151
Wason P (1968) Reasoning about a rule. Q J Exp Psychol 20:273–281
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Bruno Bara, Cristina Becchio, Ilaria Cutica and Katiuscia Sacco, who criticized earlier versions of this paper. This work was supported by MIUR of Italy, PRIN project (research code: 2004111320_002).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bucciarelli, M. How the construction of mental models improves learning. Mind & Society 6, 67–89 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-006-0026-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-006-0026-y