Investigating the nature of conceptual representations using tools from cognitive, developmental, and educational psychology
Members of the Thinking Lab at Occidental College study the building blocks of human thought: concepts. Concepts are the mental structures that allow us to organize and interpret our perceptual experience. They are also the constituents of our beliefs, attitudes, and theories. The average adult possesses over 50,000 concepts, and we in the Thinking Lab are interested in determining how such structures are acquired, represented, and utilized.
