COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN, HISTORY OF SCIENCE and THEORY CHANGE IN SCIENCE.

Conceptual change is a significant component of all major changes of theory in science. The process of scientific concepts and of theory development in science seems similar in nature to the knowledge acquisition of biological concepts during childhood. Susan Carey has developed several information-processing methods of investigating knowledge acquisition of biological concepts in children. According to Carey, knowledge acquisition of biological concepts is a transitory process characterized by differentiation, coalescence and a shift from property to relation among concepts between 4 and 10 years of age. By comparing these models and one of the major methods of investigating conceptual change in science, called a cognitive-historical method which combines imagistic and analogical reasoning which has been developed by Nancy Nerssesian, it is plausible to argue that Carey' s methods are better in explaining the nature and the process of conceptual change in scientific theories.