The Role of Mechanistic Explanations in Learning about Science and Technology

该项目由耶鲁大学的一组研究人员领导，将重点关注因果机械解释在儿童和成人学习STEM内容中的作用，并将探讨与参与科学教育的关系。学习自然现象和装置的具体机械细节通常被认为是STEM学习的理想目标，但这种信息通常在儿童和成年人传授后不久就被忘记了。研究人员将继续提出这样的假设，即这样的机制仍然应该被教授，因为在具体细节被遗忘后，剩下的会促进持久的表征，并促进更高层次的学习。这种不同的观点强调，学习更贴近地反映了非正式科学(通常也包括正式科学)的实际运作方式。这个项目将建立在最新的认知科学发现的基础上，这些发现涉及民间科学和形式科学中最有说服力的知识种类。四组实验将探索机械性解释偏好的发展变化，从暴露中保留什么，不同学习目标对在学习STEM内容中使用机械性信息的影响，以及推断内部机械性结构的能力的发展。如果这一假设得到支持，结果将表明，接触因果机械论信息对早期科学教育至关重要，即使其细节已被遗忘，也不应省略这些内容。该项目由EHR核心研究计划资助，该计划支持基础研究，推动STEM学习的研究文献，并对正式和非正式环境下的教育产生影响。该项目将包括四组随机对照实验，主要针对K、2和4年级的儿童。研究1将探索儿童对涉及因果机制的解释偏好的认知基础和发展。研究人员将使用一种选择范式，将机械解释与其他形式的信息进行对比。孩子们将被问到，他们想要更多地了解关于给定对象的哪种解释。对机械性信息的强烈偏好在所有年龄段都有预测，但在总体复杂性、所涉及的领域和涉及的机制种类方面存在发展差异。学习集2将为孩子们提供关于设备和生物实体的机械解释。然后将评估儿童对机械性细节、功能特性、非机械性细节、判断的复杂性、广泛的因果模式(如因果中心性和效力)的保持情况，以及咨询两位专家中的哪一位以了解更多关于实体的信息。这些儿童将被与对照组儿童进行比较，后者也将学习相同的内部部分，但没有因果或功能语言来揭示机制。预计两组详细的机械性信息都会迅速衰退，但机制组应该对与复杂性、中心性和专业领域相关的信息表现出更持久的记忆。学习集3将重点放在制定目标上。研究人员将首先观察儿童和成年人在接触到因果机械论解释后关于什么被保留的直觉，预计会有强烈的显性偏见，倾向于保留生动的细节，而忽略实际持续和最常使用的东西。以后的研究将会问不同的学习目标与机制教学是如何相互作用的。学习目标强调更多认知上可行和有用的结果，预示着更大的快乐、参与感、成就感和对信息的保留。学习集4将侧重于复杂性直觉。研究人员将研究如何根据行为多样性来推断设备和动物的内部复杂性。他们还将探索机械复杂性是如何在不同的领域实例化的。

This project, led by a team of researchers from Yale University, will focus on the role of causal mechanistic explanations in children's and adults' learning of STEM content and will examine the relations to engagement with science education. Learning the specific mechanistic details of natural phenomena and devices is often envisioned as an ideal goal of STEM learning, yet such information is typically forgotten soon after instruction by children, as well as by adults. The researchers will pursue the hypothesis that such mechanisms should still be taught because, after the specific details have been forgotten, what remains promotes enduring representations and facilitates higher order learning. This alternative view emphasizes learning that much more closely mirrors how informal science (and often formal science as well) actually works. This project will build on recent cognitive science discoveries about the kinds of knowledge that are most robustly represented both in folk science and in formal science. Four sets of experiments will explore developmental changes in preferences for mechanistic explanations, what is retained from exposure, the effects of different learning goals on the use of mechanistic information in learning STEM content, and the development of abilities to infer internal mechanistic structures. If the hypothesis is supported, the results will suggest that exposure to causal mechanistic information is essential to early science education and that such content should not be omitted even though its details are forgotten. The project is funded by the EHR Core Research program, which supports fundamental research that advances the research literature on STEM learning, and has implications for education in both formal and informal settings. This project will involve four sets of randomized controlled experiments, primarily with children at grades K, 2, and 4. Study Set 1 will explore the cognitive basis and development of children's preference for explanations that involve a causal mechanism. The researchers will use a choice paradigm that contrasts mechanistic explanations with other forms of information. Children will be asked which explanation they would like to learn more about for a given object. Strong preferences for mechanistic information are predicted at all ages, but with developmental differences relating to overall complexity, the domains queried, and kinds of mechanism involved. Study Set 2 will present children with mechanistic explanations for devices and biological entities. Children will then be assessed for retention of mechanistic details, functional properties, non-mechanistic details, judged complexity, broad causal patterns such as causal centrality and potency, and which of two experts to consult to learn more about the entity. These children will be compared to control children who will also learn about the same internal parts but with no causal or functional language that reveals mechanism. Rapid decay of detailed mechanistic information is expected in both groups, but the mechanism group should show more enduring memories for information relating to complexity, centrality, and expertise domains. Study Set 3 will focus on goal framing. The researchers will first look at children's and adults' intuitions about what is retained after exposure to causal mechanistic explanations, expecting a strong explicit bias favoring retention of vivid details and a neglect of what actually endures and is most often used. Later studies will ask how different learning goals interact with mechanism instruction. Greater enjoyment, engagement, feelings of accomplishment and retention of information are predicted with learning goals stressing more cognitively feasible and useful outcomes. Study Set 4 will focus on complexity intuitions. The investigators will look at how internal complexity is inferred for devices and animals based on behavioral diversity. They will also explore how mechanistic complexity is instantiated in different domains.