When do children learn? The relationship between existing knowledge and learning

Cognitive psychologists have devoted far more attention to examining people's existing knowledge than their ability to acquire new knowledge. However, methods that were originally developed to study problem solving, elementary information processes, and semantic memory are beginning to be extended to the study of learning. The research described in this article uses one recently developed method, the rule‐assessment approach, to examine the relationship between existing knowledge and the ability to learn. The rule‐assessment approach is shown to be useful in characterizing children's initial knowledge, in classifying incoming information in relation to that knowledge, and in identifying the precise difficulties that prevent children from acquiring more advanced knowledge. The findings suggest that techniques from cognitive psychology can be applied profitably to the study of acquisition processes and that the topic of learning soon will assume its rightful role as a central concern of cognitive psychologists.