Children's Acquisition of Counterintuitive Concepts

儿童习得反直觉概念

• 批准号: 8255035
• 负责人: Jonathan D. Lane
• 金额: $ 4.98万
• 依托单位: HARVARD UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-03-01 至 2015-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8255035
• 关键词: 8 year old; Accounting; Address; Adult; Affect; Area; Bacteria; Basic Science; Belief; Belief System; Biological; Biology; Boston; Child; Child Development; Child health care; Cognitive; Computers; Development; Education; Educational process of instructing; Evolution; Eye; Fibrinogen; Generations; Germ; Health; Individual; Intervention Studies; Intuition; Knowledge; Learning; Light; Literature; Modeling; Museums; Paint; Parents; Perception; Personal Satisfaction; Physics; Play; Process; Psyche structure; Religious Belief; Research; Research Design; Research Personnel; Role; Schools; Science; Solutions; Sorting - Cell Movement; Testing; The Sun; Time; Trust; Virus; Work; base; design; exhibitions; informant; interest; physical conditioning; psychologic; research study; science education; teacher; trait; transmission process; willingness

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed studies examine how children acquire counterintuitive concepts - how they learn and come to believe in ideas that defy their intuitions about how the world works. Being able to sort through and selectively accept certain counterintuitive information has profound implications for children's acquisition of a host of culturally-transmitted ideas, ranging from the scientific to the spiritual, including ideas relevant to children's health. For example, children who are first learning about biological evolution must override their idea that species do not change across generations, and for children to understand heliocentrism, they must override their first-hand perceptions (every day, the sun appears to revolve around the earth). Moreover, for children to understand the importance of bacteria and viruses, they must believe that powerful entities exist that cannot be perceived with the naked eye. Thus, counterintuitive concepts play pivotal roles in many domains of thought. Though recent research has examined how children represent counterintuitive concepts, and how much children trust information that others provide, these two lines of research have yet to be merged. The proposed experimental studies are designed to address three specific aims with regard to how children come to believe counterintuitive concepts: Aim 1: Assess how various aspects of the context--including the immediate learning context and the broader cultural context--influence children's willingness to accept counterintuitive ideas. Aim 2: Determine what types of people children trust when learning counterintuitive information; in particular, examine whether and when children consider informants' traits and their expertise Aim 3: Identify qualities of the information itself (e.g., explanatory depth) that affect children's willingness to accept the counterintuitive information as true. To address these aims, children (4- to 8-year-olds) attending schools and museums in the Boston area will engage in tasks in which they learn counterintuitive information from different types of people and in different contexts. Results promise to contribute both to basic science and to children's formal and informal education. Results will inform and inspire research on science education in both formal settings (i.e., the classroom) and informal settings (e.g., science museums and educational media). Results will also inform research on the transmission, pervasiveness, and development of counterintuitive concepts embedded in children's spiritual and religious beliefs - beliefs that can contribute to a sense of meaning and mental well- being. Moreover, these results have implications for children's physical health - understanding how best to convey counterintuitive ideas to children, educators and parents can better teach children about important health-related entities, such as bacteria and viruses. Intervention studies can then capitalize upon the factors that are identified as best promoting children's acquisition and acceptance of counterintuitive concepts. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed studies are designed to examine how children learn and come to accept counterintuitive concepts, including scientific and health-related concepts. Findings from this research would have important implications for children's physical health-understanding how best to convey counterintuitive ideas to children; educators and parents can better teach children about important health-related entities, such as bacteria and viruses. Findings will appeal to several audiences, including teachers who introduce counterintuitive scientific concepts in the classroom, individuals involved in designing science museum exhibitions, individuals involved in creating educational media (TV shows, videos, and computer games), as well as parents interested in learning how best to introduce their children to counterintuitive concepts.

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的研究考察了儿童如何获得反直觉的概念——他们如何学习并开始相信那些违背他们对世界如何运作的直觉的想法。能够整理并选择性地接受某些反直觉的信息，对于儿童获得一系列文化传播的思想（从科学到精神）具有深远的影响，包括与儿童健康相关的思想。例如，第一次学习生物进化的孩子必须推翻他们认为物种不会代代相传的想法，而要让孩子理解日心说，他们必须推翻他们的第一手感知（每天，太阳似乎都绕着地球旋转）。此外，为了让孩子们了解细菌和病毒的重要性，他们必须相信存在肉眼无法感知的强大实体。因此，反直觉的概念在许多思想领域发挥着关键作用。尽管最近的研究探讨了儿童如何表达违反直觉的概念，以及儿童对他人提供的信息的信任程度，但这两条研究路线尚未合并。拟议的实验研究旨在解决关于儿童如何相信反直觉概念的三个具体目标： 目标 1：评估背景的各个方面（包括直接学习背景和更广泛的文化背景）如何影响儿童接受反直觉想法的意愿。 目标 2：确定孩子在学习反直觉信息时信任什么类型的人；特别是，检查儿童是否以及何时考虑线人的特征及其专业知识。 目标 3：确定影响儿童接受反直觉信息为真实的意愿的信息本身的质量（例如解释深度）。 为了实现这些目标，波士顿地区学校和博物馆的儿童（4 至 8 岁）将参与从不同类型的人和不同背景下学习违反直觉的信息的任务。研究结果有望为基础科学以及儿童的正规和非正规教育做出贡献。研究结果将为正式环境（即课堂）和非正式环境（例如科学博物馆和教育媒体）中的科学教育研究提供信息和启发。结果还将为有关儿童精神和宗教信仰中反直觉概念的传播、普遍性和发展的研究提供信息——这些信仰有助于意义感和心理健康。此外，这些结果对儿童的身体健康也有影响——了解如何最好地向儿童传达违反直觉的想法，教育工作者和家长可以更好地向儿童传授与健康相关的重要实体，例如细菌和病毒。然后，干预研究可以利用被认为最能促进儿童习得和接受反直觉概念的因素。 公共健康相关性：拟议的研究旨在研究儿童如何学习和接受违反直觉的概念，包括科学和健康相关的概念。这项研究的结果将对儿童的身体健康产生重要影响——了解如何最好地向儿童传达违反直觉的想法；教育工作者和家长可以更好地向孩子传授与健康相关的重要实体，例如细菌和病毒。研究结果将吸引多个受众，包括在课堂上引入反直觉科学概念的教师、参与设计科学博物馆展览的个人、参与创建教育媒体（电视节目、视频和电脑游戏）的个人，以及有兴趣学习如何最好地向孩子介绍反直觉概念的家长。