Psychological essentialism is the idea that certain categories, such as 'lion'or 'female', have
an underlying reality that cannot be observed directly. Where does this idea come from …

Much of children's knowledge is derived not from their direct experiences with the
environment but rather from the input of others. However, until recently, the focus in studies …

Essentialism is the idea that certain categories, such as" dog,"" man," or" intelligence," have
an underlying reality or true nature that gives objects their identity. Where does this idea …

This ambitious, interdisciplinary book seeks to explain the origins of religion using our
knowledge of the evolution of cognition. A cognitive anthropologist and psychologist, Scott …

We propose that human reasoning relies on an inherence heuristic, an implicit cognitive
process that leads people to explain observed patterns (eg, girls wear pink) predominantly …

This article describes cross-cultural and developmental research on folk biology: that is, the
study of how people conceptualize living kinds. The combination of a conceptual module for …

Research and theory development in cognitive psychology and science education research
remain largely isolated. Biology education researchers have documented persistent …

The authors present a similarity-based model of induction and categorization in young
children (SINC). The model suggests that (a) linguistic labels contribute to the perceived …

Human cognition is characterized by enormous variability and structured by universal
psychological constraints. The focus of this article is on the development of knowledge …

The theory-based model of categorization posits that concepts are represented as theories,
not feature lists. Thus, it is interesting that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental …