Children's Acquisition of Counterintuitive Concepts

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的研究探讨了儿童如何获得反直觉的概念-他们如何学习和相信违背他们对世界如何运作的直觉的想法。能够整理和有选择地接受某些违反直觉的信息，对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，第一次学习生物进化的孩子们必须超越他们的想法，即物种不会随着世代而改变，为了让孩子们理解日心说，他们必须超越他们的第一手感知（每天，太阳似乎都围绕地球旋转）。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肉眼无法感知的强大实体。因此，反直觉概念在许多思想领域中扮演着关键角色。虽然最近的研究已经研究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。拟议的实验研究的目的是解决三个具体的目标，关于儿童如何来相信反直觉的概念：目标1：评估如何各个方面的情况下-包括直接学习的背景和更广泛的文化背景-影响儿童的意愿，接受反直觉的想法。 目标二：确定孩子在学习违反直觉的信息时信任什么类型的人;特别是，检查孩子是否以及何时考虑线人的特征和他们的专业知识目标3：确定信息本身的质量（例如，解释的深度），影响儿童的意愿，接受反直觉的信息是真实的。 为了实现这些目标，在波士顿地区的学校和博物馆上学的儿童（4至8岁）将参与任务，在这些任务中，他们从不同类型的人和不同的环境中学习违反直觉的信息。研究结果有望为基础科学和儿童的正规和非正规教育做出贡献。研究结果将为科学教育研究提供信息和启发，教室）和非正式环境（例如，科学博物馆和教育媒体）。研究结果还将为研究儿童精神和宗教信仰中嵌入的反直觉概念的传播、普遍性和发展提供信息，这些信仰有助于培养意义感和心理健康。此外，这些结果对儿童的身体健康有影响-了解如何最好地向儿童传达反直觉的想法，教育工作者和家长可以更好地教孩子有关重要的健康相关实体，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：拟议的研究旨在研究儿童如何学习和接受反直觉的概念，包括科学和健康相关的概念。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反直觉的想法;教育工作者和父母可以更好地教孩子有关重要的健康相关实体，如细菌和病毒。调查结果将吸引几个观众，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.