Miriam Bassok

Research

I conduct research that examines human learning, problem solving, and reasoning. Most of my work aims to understand how children and adults use mathematical notations to solve real-life problems. I argue and show that people draw analogies between real-world and mathematical concepts. For example, people readily add objects from the same category (e.g., tulips + daisies) and readily divide functionally related objects (e.g., tulips ÷ vases), but they refrain from adding tulips and vases or from dividing tulips among daisies. Such analogical alignments are very fast and unconscious. They can explain how people learn new mathematical concepts and how they apply what they have learned to novel problems. One important conceptual distinction people make is between discrete and continuous quantities (e.g., 3 apples and 3kg, respectively). This distinction affects how people use mathematical equations and mathematical symbols. For example, my recent studies show that people use fractions to represent relations between discrete quantities (3/4 apples), and use decimals to represent magnitudes of continuous quantities (.75kg). As in other cases of alignment, people’s reasoning is faster and more accurate when the discreteness/continuity of the quantities corresponds to the of the discreteness/continuity mathematical symbols.