Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This paper analyzes two converging views of the architecture of intuition. A. diSessa and L. Talmy, working independently in different fields (physics education and linguistics), have formulated strikingly similar theories of intuition. Both view people's intuitions about forces as simple pieces of knowledge organized heterarchically. However, Talmy's force dynamic patterns have more system-wide structure than diSessa's phenomenological primitives. Using these primitives, people generate common sense explanations for a wide variety of situations. Moreover, people may build upon these intuitions while studying formal disciplines such as physics. However, several primitives directly conflict with physics concepts and may account for resilient misconceptions. Finally, intuitions may also provide the basis for understanding social and psychological phenomena.