Ecological Knowledge: Acquisition and Use in Problem Solving and in Decision Making

The acquisition of ecological knowledge is one of the central goals of environmental education. The cognitive skills underlying knowledge acquisition and the process of knowledge utilization are also interesting from a psychological view. Ecological knowledge refers to very complex, often dynamic and nontransparent phenomena [7, 8]. Moreover it is interrelated with emotions and values and of course with intentions and actions [11, 13, 25]. But, up to now, the process of knowledge acquisition and the manner in which this knowledge is represented in memory and how it is utilized in decision making have not been analyzed in enough detail.