Our work in science and mathematics education has led us to observe that students react similarly to a wide variety of conceptually unrelated situations. Our work suggests that many responses that literature describes as alternative conceptions are interpreted as if they evolved from a small number of intuitive rules. Two such rules are manifested in comparison tasks. The first, more A-more B, is reflected in students' responses to tasks in which 2 objects that differ in a certain, salient quantity A are described (A1 > A2). Students are then asked to compare the 2 objects with respect to another quantity B (B1 = B2 or B1 < B2). In these cases, a substantial number of students responded inadequately according to the more A (the salient quantity)-more B (the quantity in question) rule. The second, same amount of A-same amount of B, is activated in situations in which A1 = A2, but B1 ≠ B2. In such situations, students often incorrectly claim that B1 = B2 because A1 = A2. In this article, we demonstrate the explanatory and predictive power of these intuitive rules.
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