Concept Acquisition

Question 1

What were early beliefs about the Earth? (Folk)

Answer 1

Many flat Earths- For example, Hindu and Hebrew Cosmology was a dome

Question 2

Why were there no spherical models until 350 BC?

Answer 2

There is only a flat horizon, not traveling far distances, lack of understanding of astronomical phenomena

Question 3

What was the popular reasoning for why the Earth is flat?

Answer 3

The ground is flat, so the Earth must be flat, and unsupported objects fall downward, so people could not live on the underside of the spherical Earth

Question 4

Are intuitions held by adults in premodern societies present now?

Answer 4

Yes, in modern-day intuition due to the intuition and evidence present

Question 5

Provide examples of children now being exposed that the Earth is round

Answer 5

Photos of the Earth, Globes

Question 6

Describe Vosniadu and Brewer explored elementary school’s mental model of the shape of the Earth

Answer 6

Each child was asked a series of question designed to differentiator spherical models from non-spherical ones. Wanted to research the nature and variety of children’s untutored model, and the consistency of their reasoning across tasks. Asked: What is the shape of the Earth, where do the stars and the moon go, where do people live, why does the Earth look flat here, what is below the Earth, walking in the straight line would lead you to? Most children understood the Earth is round, but often had misunderstandings on where people lived, suns and stars, etc.

Question 7

When children were asked to walk for many days in a straight line, what did they answer”?

Answer 7

They would walk right out of the earth and reach the “edge of the Earth”, thinking that the Earth is flat despite thinking the Earth is round

Question 8

When children are asked why Earth looks flat in the image?

Answer 8

Children claim that they live inside of the Earth, they believe they live inside of the Earth instead of the outside

Question 9

What models of children knowing of Earth were identified

Answer 9

Rectangular Earth, disc earth- initial models
Flattened sphere, children think they live on sphere with flat parts, hollow sphere, hollow at the sky, live in a flat plane, dual earth but don’t think children live on the Earth -synthetic theory

Question 10

What were the frequency of children understanding the frequency of models?

Answer 10

38% of children believed Earth was not flat, 40% believed in synthetic model, 4% rectangular/disc, 18% were confused

Question 11

First graders understood how the Earth was spherical how much?

Answer 11

15%, 5th graders 60%

Question 12

Do children’s mental model of the Earth influence their understanding of other astronoomical phenomena?

Answer 12

Yes, children’s mental model of the Earth constrain their beliefs about what causes day and night. Children who utilized non-spherical models believed in things such as the sun being occluded by clouds. Understanding that the Earth as a sphere believe the sun and moon alter places, or rotates around the Earth, or the Earth orbits the sun, or the Earth rotates

Question 13

How does culture shape what models you create? provide an example

Answer 13

We represent Earth as up and South as down, but is arbitrary. Indian children invent synthetic models but often incorporate elements of indigenous cosmologies (such as floating on the sea) Children in Australia learn the Earth is a sphere 2-3 years before UK because they live “down under”, but haven’t fallen off

Question 14

Provide an example about an intuitive theory with children about death

Answer 14

Children identify life with animacy and death with inanimacy. Don’t understand is death is inevitable, death is irrevesible, entails the cessation of bodily functions, all and only living things die

Question 15

Provide an example of an empirical task that observes children’s understanding of life

Answer 15

Judgementsa of what is and is not alive
Attribution of biological properties, lieke what eats, breathers and grows to non human identities

Question 16

How do children reason about what is alive or not?

Answer 16

Children agree animals are alive because they move, plants and flowers don’t move, think the sun and moon are alive because they move on their own. Across all ages, claimed that animals were alive, became better at understanding that plants are alive, and less likely to believe nonliving but moving artifacts are al,ive

Question 17

Children know how people eat, sleep, breathe, etc, but are ____ to attribute those properties to other animals

Answer 17

Reluctant, don’t think they eat or breathe. Attribute these traits less from mammals to fish to bugs. As similarity between humans and the target animal decreases, children become more reluctant to attribute biological properties

Question 18

Describe how children evolve understanding of life

Answer 18

Understand plants are life, understanding humans are alive

Question 19

What might be an effective means of teaching children the meanings of life and death?

Answer 19

Teaching children the inner workings of their body- helps children understand how biological processes sustain life, and why some entities are alive and others are not. Gave children organ aprons and what they do and how they interact- understood death more than a control group despite death not being part of the lesson

Question 20

Children who have learned more about the body allowed children to understand:

Answer 20

Bodies support life via internal organs, all and only entities with bodies are alive, death results from the breakdown of the body, all bodies eventually breakdown

Question 21

When adults were asked to judge whether plants were alive or not, did it take them longer than animals,

Answer 21

Yes, slower and less accurate for plants than animals (though it was as fast as possible. True even for biology professors

Question 22

What was the question of Shtulman 2012?

Answer 22

Do scientific theories overwrite intuitive theories?

Question 23

What were the alternatives of Shtulman

Answer 23

Yes,traditional models of conceptual change imply that earlier theories should be erased
No, childhood misconception have been shown to reemerge under cognitive load or cognitive impairment

Question 24

What is the Logic of Shtulman?

Answer 24

If scientific theories coexist with intuitive theories, then scientific statements should be verified more slowly and less accurately when inconsistent with intuitive theories

Question 25

What was the method of Shtulman

Answer 25

150 undergrads that took an average of 3 collegbe math science courses Verified 200 scientific statements of 10 domains Half were true, half were false, half were consistent with intuitive theories and half were not True on I and factual: Rocks are composed of matter Not intuitive or true: numbers are composed of matter Intuitievely true but false: fire is composed of matter Scientifically true but intuitively false: air is composed of matter

Question 26

What were the results of Shtulman

Answer 26

It took people longer to verify inconsistent statements (half a second more). Does imply that intuitive theory they remain and are suppressed with time to understand cognitive