Tooltip Categories: Site glossary

the conceptual ecology (by analogy with the environment in which an organism develops, and may or may not thrive) refers to the wider context in which conceptual development occurs.The notion implies that a person's  concepts interact and cannot be considered to develop discretely.

consequentialism is an ethical position that what is right or wrong cannot be based simply on rules (see deontology) but has to take into account the consequences of an action (or inaction) – so in extremis, in principle, killing some people might be considered acceptable to save more lives

Read about  'Research ethics'

deontological ethics is based on following rules: e.g., do not kill, do not lie, do not steal. Of  course there may be different systems of rules (e.g., the Ferengi 'rules of acquisition' such as "Never place friendship above profit" and "Treat people in your debt like family… exploit them").

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People may easily misunderstand each other, and often have variations in the meanings they have for particular words or expressions.

.Jerome Bruner used the term 'constant transactional calibration' to describe how when people enter into genuine dialogue and have a conversation (when they 'transact') each participant can test their understandings of what the other means by responding (based on their their own understanding of the intended meaning, to see how their response is evaluated, i.e., a kind of hypothesis testing). During an extended exchange (so the process is 'constant'), where both partners are committed to understanding each other, they can test how the other is using terms and phrases against their own ways of using them) (the 'calibration' part).

This although a seemingly convoluted term, 'constant transactional calibration' nicely summarises how we can check and share meanings through talk (or less immediately through textual exchanges such as email).

This idea is important given the constructivist model of learning which suggests that we do not automatically share concepts and appreciate how others use concepts and langauge.

Working memory is the term given to the part of the cognitive apparatus where conscious perception, thinking, and problem solving take place. Working memory is considered to have a very limited capacity, and only holds information for the short time it is being consciously mentipulated.

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recall is a reconstructive process, where the brain constructs a coherent and sensible memory from the representations it can access – often memory traces activated only offer a partial account, and so 'filling-in' is needed. The term confabulation may refer to this normal filling-in process or may be used to refer to extreme examples where people recall fantastic or unlikely memories when filling-in during recall.

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the revisiting of previously studied material to support learning, and in particular the likelihood of later recall

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refers to how information represented in memory can be changed over time, in particular by becoming more strongly liked with other material represented (which tends to aid recall)

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Chunking refers to an aspect of how information is represented in memory and cognition. The units in which information is processed in human working memory are referred to as 'chunks'. Working memory has very small capacity, but this is measured in terms of chunks. Whilst unfamiliar material is perceived and processed as many discrete parts, familiar material may be 'chunked' into composite units that are in effect each treated as a single element of information.

Read about chunking and learning

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A term used in discussing information processing system to refer to the way a signal can becomes distorted/degraded when converted from one form to another.

The term has been applied in cognition, and it has been suggested that existing idea can influence how communication is understood in ways that what is represented in memory is distorted compared with the intended communication (e.g., teaching is misunderstood and so is remembered in a distorted way because of a learner's existing conceptions)

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Authorship is the state of being an author of some work. In everyday usage, an author is the person who wrote or dictated  work. However, in a research context an author of an academic study does not necessarily have to have been involved in the writing stage, but must have made a major contribution to the reported work. There are conventions about who is named an author of a scholarly work – and deliberate breaking of these convetions amy be seen as academic misconduct.

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The assumption of initial atomicity is a common alternative conception where it is assumed that chemical processes, such as reactions, begin with materials that are already in the form of discrete atoms. It is a common component of the 'octet framework', an alternative conceptual framework.

Read about 'the assumption of initial atomicity'

Read about the 'octet framework'