DHB-Understanding Conceptual and Cultural Change: The Role of Expertise and Flexibility in Folk Medicine

HSD-DHBS 05理解概念和文化的变化：民间医学的专业知识和灵活性的作用（诺伯特O。Ross，托马斯J. Palmeri，大卫Noelle）这个项目探讨了个体在概念知识、概念学习和概念变化方面的文化和专业差异，并探讨了概念知识背后的计算机制。我们汇集了工具，技术和认知心理学，人类学和计算机科学的见解，以调查概念知识的动态。智力优势。该项目的中心是探索民间医学概念知识的多方面动态。主要研究地点是恰帕斯高地，研究人员将研究Tzotzil Maya和Ladinos之间概念知识的内部和跨文化差异。本研究探讨如何民俗医学概念的代表和使用的新手和各种专家和相关模式的概念协议的社会和专家网络的结构。由于他们的社区与世隔绝，玛雅人和拉迪诺人的民间医学概念之间存在文化差异。研究人员将通过赞助一个由当地非政府组织和一位范德比尔特医生提供的医学研讨会来探索概念变化的短期动态。通过研究民间医学知识的变化，在Pichataro，一个Purepecha社区，见证了显着的变化超过三十年以来，加罗的原始研究的专家和新手群体的长期动态的概念变化进行了探讨。研究人员还探索了纳什维尔地区西班牙裔人的民俗医学概念知识，为Pitchataro（许多美国移民的起源地）提供了一个关键的比较组。 该项目旨在更好地了解概念知识是如何表现的，它在专家和新手之间有何不同，它是如何从教学，观察和干预中获得的，以及它如何随着新的经验而变化。计算建模在数学和计算形式主义中奠定了心理机制的基础，为我们的理论增加了严谨性，并允许在模拟中探索概念变化的复杂动态。建模的新进展研究了如何从新的经验中逐步调整概念知识，如何将因果知识与基于规则的知识和统计知识相结合，以及如何将概念模型和基于代理的模型相结合。最终，该项目将连接多个层次的分析，以了解文化过程如何约束个人认知，认知机制如何促进文化变革，以及如何在计算模型中正式描述这些机制。更广泛的影响。这种合作将增强人类学，心理学和计算机科学研究人员的跨学科视角，影响未来的研究，教学和公共宣传。它培养新一代的科学家结合联合收割机的方法，观点和理论方法，从不同的领域。它促进了与墨西哥研究人员的国际联系。虽然重点是概念知识的动态，但对民间医学概念知识的具体理解有助于教育公众-特别是我们不断增长的移民人口-关于科学的医疗方法。此外，该项目包括范德比尔特医学院的人员，并将帮助培训新一代医务人员，以应对照顾越来越多来自不同文化背景的病人的挑战。

HSD-DHBS05 Understanding Conceptual and Cultural Change: The Role of Expertise and Flexibility in Folk Medicine (Norbert O. Ross, Thomas J. Palmeri, David Noelle)This project explores cultural and expertise differences in conceptual knowledge, conceptual learning, and conceptual change in individuals, and explores the computational mechanisms that underlie conceptual knowledge. We bring together tools, techniques, and insights from cognitive psychology, anthropology, and computer science to investigate the dynamics of conceptual knowledge. Intellectual Merit. At the center of the project is an exploration of the multifaceted dynamics of conceptual knowledge about folk medicine. The primary research site is the Highlands of Chiapas, where the researchers will study within- and cross-cultural differences in conceptual knowledge among Tzotzil Maya and Ladinos. This study examines how folkmedical concepts are represented and used by novices and various experts and relate patterns of conceptual agreement to the structure of social and expert networks. Given the isolation of their community, cultural differences are expected between folkmedical concepts of Maya and Ladinos. The researchers will explore short-term dynamics of conceptual change by sponsoring a medical workshop provided by a local NGO and a Vanderbilt physician, consultants on this proposal. Long-term dynamics of conceptual change are explored by examining changes in folkmedical knowledge by expert and novice groups in Pichataro, a Purepecha community that has witnessed significant change over the thirty years since Garro's original research. Thre researchers also explore conceptual knowledge of folkmedicine for Hispanics in the Nashville area, providing a key comparison group to Pitchataro (an area where many US immigrants originate). The project aims to better understand how conceptual knowledge is represented, how it differs among experts and novices, how it is acquired from instruction, observation, and intervention, and how it changes with new experiences. Computational modeling grounds psychological mechanisms in mathematical and computational formalisms, adding rigor to our theories and allowing the complex dynamics of conceptual change to be explored in simulation. New advances in modeling investigate how conceptual knowledge can be incrementally adjusted from new experiences, how causal knowledge is integrated with rule-based and statistical knowledge, and how conceptual models and agent-based models can be integrated. Ultimately,this project will bridge multiple levels of analysis in order to develop an understanding of how cultural processes constrain individual cognition, how cognitive mechanisms contribute to cultural change, and how these mechanisms can be formally characterized in computational models.Broader Impacts. This collaboration will enhances the interdisciplinary perspective of investigators from anthropology, psychology, and computer science, influencing future research, teaching, and public outreach. It trains a new generation of scientists to combine methods, perspectives, and theoretical approaches from different fields. It fosters international ties with researchers in Mexico.While the focus is on the dynamics of conceptual knowledge, a specific understanding of conceptual knowledge about folk medicine could contribute toward educating the public - especially our growing immigrant population - about scientific medical treatments. Furthermore, the project includes Vanderbilt Medical School personnel and will help train a new generation of medical staff to deal with the challenges of attending to an increasing number of patients from different cultural settings.