"What does that animal eat?": The role of overhypotheses in how children and adults learn and reason about real-world categories

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Concepts (i.e., mental representations of categories) are the fundamental building blocks of thought and people use them in a number of ways, including when they learn and when they reason. Surprisingly, children are able to form concepts from experience with a single member of a category (e.g., after seeing just one squirrel eat nuts, they expect that squirrels, in general, will eat nuts). Learning in these situations is challenging, yet children seem to do it with ease. As a result, philosophers have proposed that there must be constraints that guide learning. In my research program, I examine one of these constraints - overhypotheses, which are higher-order generalizations. Learners may use overhypotheses about the characteristic features of general categories (e.g., different kinds of animals have a characteristic diet) to guide expectations when learning about specific categories (e.g., squirrels eat nuts). I address three questions related to the use and acquisition of overhypotheses for real-world categories. In each proposed study, I examine 4- to 8-year-olds' and adults' responses to investigate the developmental trajectory of how people learn and use overhypotheses. 1) In which ways do overhypotheses guide how people reason? I will systematically examine the scope of overhypothesis use. Specifically, I will explore whether they guide (1) the types of information that participants want to learn about an unfamiliar category, (2) the information that people remember about members of a category, and (3) which features people generalize from a single category member to category members at large. 2) How do learners of different ages form overhypotheses? In these studies, I explore whether participants' likelihood of forming an overhypothesis is influenced by the content of the samples provided and the language used to describe features of category members. 3) Do overhypotheses help learners to revise incorrect beliefs? These studies examine how easily people modify information that is incorrect if it is linked to an overhypothesis (e.g., if a person first sees a squirrel eating pizza, do they revise their concept when presented with accurate information about what squirrels eat?). This research program will contribute to the field of cognitive science by significantly advancing our foundational knowledge about concepts. The results will place Canada at the forefront of research on many fundamental cognitive processes by providing insight into how people learn and reason. The findings will also have implications for other fields, including artificial intelligence - by understanding how people acquire and use concepts, it will be possible to create cutting-edge technology based on what is known about the human conceptual system. Finally, the results may guide applied intervention in educational settings. Researchers could use the findings to design pedagogical practices that are tailored to support how people of different ages learn.