Children's Acquisition of Counterintuitive Concepts

描述(由申请者提供)：拟议的研究考察了儿童如何获得违反直觉的概念--他们如何学习并相信违反他们对世界运行方式的直觉的想法。能够梳理和有选择地接受某些违反直觉的信息，对于儿童获得从科学到精神的一系列文化传播的思想，包括与儿童健康有关的思想，具有深远的影响。例如，首先学习生物进化的孩子必须推翻他们认为物种不会世代变化的想法，而要让孩子们理解日心说，他们必须推翻他们的第一手看法(每天，太阳似乎都绕着地球转)。此外，为了让孩子们理解细菌和病毒的重要性，他们必须相信存在着用肉眼无法察觉的强大实体。因此，反直觉的概念在许多思维领域扮演着关键角色。尽管最近的研究考察了儿童如何代表违反直觉的概念，以及儿童在多大程度上信任他人提供的信息，但这两条研究路线尚未合并。拟议的实验研究旨在解决儿童如何开始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--包括直接的学习背景和更广泛的文化背景--如何影响儿童接受反直觉概念的意愿。目标2：确定儿童在学习反直觉信息时信任的人类型；特别是，检查儿童是否以及何时考虑告密者的特征和他们的专业知识目标3：确定信息本身的性质(例如，解释深度)，这些特征影响儿童接受反直觉信息的意愿。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)将参与任务，从不同类型的人和不同的环境中学习违反直觉的信息。这些成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。结果将为正式环境(即课堂)和非正式环境(如科学博物馆和教育媒体)的科学教育研究提供信息和启发。研究结果还将为关于儿童精神和宗教信仰中嵌入的反直觉概念的传播、普及和发展的研究提供信息-这些信仰可以促进意义和心理健康。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，教育工作者和父母可以更好地向儿童传授与健康有关的重要实体，如细菌和病毒。然后，干预研究可以利用被确定为最能促进儿童获得和接受反直觉概念的因素。 公共卫生相关性：拟议的研究旨在检查儿童如何学习和接受违反直觉的概念，包括科学和与健康相关的概念。这项研究的发现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；教育工作者和父母可以更好地向儿童传授与健康有关的重要实体，如细菌和病毒。研究结果将吸引几个受众，包括在课堂上介绍反直觉科学概念的教师，参与设计科学博物馆展览的个人，参与创造教育媒体(电视节目、视频和电脑游戏)的个人，以及对学习如何最好地向孩子介绍反直觉概念感兴趣的父母。

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.