How Children's Cognitive Reflection Shapes Their Science Understanding

Frontiers in Psychology
Andrew G Young, Andrew Shtulman

Abstract

Learning science requires contending with intuitions that are incompatible with scientific principles, such as the intuition that animals are alive but plants are not or the intuition that solids are composed of matter but gases are not. Here, we explore the tension between science and intuition in elementary school-aged children and whether that tension is moderated by children's tendency to reflect on their intuitions. Our participants were children between the ages of 5 and 12 years (n = 142). They were administered a statement-verification task, in which they judged statements about life and matter as true or false, as well as a children's Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT-D), in which they answered "brain teasers" designed to elicit an intuitive, yet inaccurate, response that could be corrected upon further reflection. Participants also received a tutorial on the scientific properties of life or matter, sandwiched between two blocks of the statement-verification task. We found that performance on the statement-verification task, which pitted scientific conceptions against intuitive conceptions (e.g., "cactuses are alive"), was predicted by performance on the CRT-D, independent of age. Children with higher levels of cognitive ...Continue Reading

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Oct 6, 2020·Psychological Science·Andrew G Young, Andrew Shtulman

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Citations

Oct 6, 2020·Psychological Science·Andrew G Young, Andrew Shtulman
Apr 20, 2021·Cognitive Science·Tianwei GongAndrew Shtulman

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