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

HSD-DHBS05了解概念和文化变化：专业知识和灵活性在民间医学中的作用(Norbert O.Ross，Thomas J.Palmeri，David Noelle)这个项目探索文化和专业知识在个人概念知识、概念学习和概念变化方面的差异，并探索概念知识背后的计算机制。我们汇集了认知心理学、人类学和计算机科学的工具、技术和见解，以研究概念知识的动态。智力上的功绩。该项目的中心是探索民间医学概念知识的多方面动态。主要的研究地点是恰帕斯高地，研究人员将在那里研究佐齐尔·玛雅和拉迪诺人在概念知识方面的内部和跨文化差异。本研究考察民间医学概念如何被新手和不同的专家呈现和使用，并将概念一致的模式与社会和专家网络结构联系起来。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预计会有文化差异。研究人员将通过赞助由当地非政府组织和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，范德比尔特医生是这项提议的顾问。通过研究Pichataro的专家和新手团体在Pichataro的民间医学知识的变化来探索概念变化的长期动态。Pichataro是一个Purepeha社区，自Garro最初的研究以来的30年里见证了显著的变化。三名研究人员还为纳什维尔地区的拉美裔美国人探索民间医学的概念知识，提供了一个与Pitchataro(许多美国移民起源的地区)进行关键比较的群体。该项目旨在更好地理解概念性知识是如何表现的，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。计算建模以数学和计算形式中的心理机制为基础，增加了我们的理论的严谨性，并允许在模拟中探索概念变化的复杂动力学。建模方面的新进展研究了概念知识如何从新的经验中逐步调整，因果知识如何与基于规则和统计的知识集成，以及概念模型和基于代理的模型如何集成。最终，这个项目将跨越多个层次的分析，以发展对文化过程如何约束个人认知，认知机制如何促进文化变化，以及如何在计算模型中正式表征这些机制的理解。这一合作将加强人类学、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。它培养新一代科学家将不同领域的方法、观点和理论结合起来。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可能有助于教育公众-特别是我们不断增长的移民人口-关于科学医疗的知识。此外，该项目包括范德比尔特医学院的工作人员，并将帮助培训新一代医务人员，以应对治疗来自不同文化背景的越来越多的患者的挑战。

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.