The value of conceptual knowledge

Anirudh and I have a new paper. It explores the role that conceptual knowledge plays in human learning and decision-making. A motivating example Suppose a farmer wants to learn which fertilizers are most effective. He views them as black boxes: he knows that they help plants grow, but doesn’t know why. He doesn’t know how fertilizers’ effects relate and can’t extrapolate one from another. So when he tries different fertilizers to learn their effects, he has to try them one at a time. Now supp...