This paper presents a spreading-activation theory of human semantic processing, which can be applied to a wide range of recent experimental results. The theory is based on Quillian's theory of semantic memory search and semantic preparation, or priming. In conjunction with this, several of the miscondeptions concerning Qullian's theory are discussed. A number of additional assumptions are proposed for his theory in order to apply it to recent experiments. The present paper shows how the extended theory can account for results of several production experiments by Loftus, Juola and Atkinson's multiple-category experiment, Conrad's sentence-verification experiments, and several categorization experiments on the effect of semantic relatedness and typicality by Holyoak and Glass, Rips, Shoben, and Smith, and Rosch. The paper also provides a critique of the Smith, Shoben, and Rips model for categorization judgments.

Many teaching methods implicitly assume that conceptual knowledge is independent of the situations in which it is learned and used. The authors examine one such method and argue that its lack of success is a direct result of this assumption. Drawing on recent research into learning in everyday activity and not just in the highly specialized conditions of schooling, they claim that knowledge is not independent but, rather, fundamentally "situated," being in part a product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is developed. Teaching, however, often overlooks the central, but restrictive, contribution made by the activities, context, and culture of schools to what is learned there. A theory of situated knowledge, by contrast, calls for learning and teaching methods that take these into account. As an alternative to conventional, didactic methods, therefore, the authors propose teaching through "cognitive apprenticeship" (Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989). They examine two examples of mathematics teaching that exhibit important features of this approach.Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning -2

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Many teaching methods implicitly assume that conceptual knowledge is independent of the situations in which it is learned and used. The authors examine one such method and argue that its lack of success is a direct result of this assumption. Drawing on recent research into learning in everyday activity and not just in the highly specialized conditions of schooling, they claim that knowledge is not independent but, rather, fundamentally "situated," being in part a product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is developed. Teaching, however, often overlooks the central, but restrictive, contribution made by the activities, context, and culture of schools to what is learned there. A theory of situated knowledge, by contrast, calls for learning and teaching methods that take these into account. As an alternative to conventional, didactic methods, therefore, the authors propose teaching through "cognitive apprenticeship" (Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989). They examine two examples of mathematics teaching that exhibit important features of this approach.Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning -2

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