Cognitive constraints influence an understanding of life-cycle change

Abstract

We investigated children's (n = 120; 3- to 11-year-olds) and adults' (n = 18) reasoning about life-cycle changes in biological organisms by examining their endorsements of four different patterns of life-span changes. Participants were presented with two separate tasks: (a) judging possible adult versions of a juvenile animal and (b) judging possible juvenile versions of an adult animal. The stimuli enabled us to examine the endorsement of four different patterns of change: identical growth, natural growth, dramatic change, and speciation. The results suggest that endorsement of the different patterns is influenced by age and familiarity. Young children and individuals confronted with unfamiliar organisms often endorsed an identical growth that emphasizes the stability of features over the life span and between parents and offspring. The results are interpreted as supporting the idea that cognitive constraints influence individuals' reasoning about biological change and that the influence of these constraints is most notable when individuals are young or are presented with unfamiliar biological organisms.

Do details bug you? Effects of perceptual richness in learning about biological change

“…For color change trials, the animals differed in size and color (we took the same picture, enlarged it, and changed the color). These trials have been used in prior research to examine how much an animal has to change for people to reject the change (French et al, 2018). Given that this was not the purpose of our study, the color change trials will not be discussed at length.…”

“…Previous research suggests that certain cognitive constraints may make it difficult to learn about drastic life cycle changes such as metamorphosis (French, Menendez, Herrmann, Evans, & Rosengren, 2018). We propose that an additional possible impediment to knowledge transfer about metamorphosis could be the instructional materials used when teaching this concept.…”

“…People tend to accept that animals can change in size over their lives, but they tend to reject more drastic types of change, especially for unfamiliar animals (French et al, 2018). This pattern of responses—termed the “growth bias”—appears to be strongest among three‐ and four‐year‐old children and to decrease with age.…”

“…This pattern of growth (in which the organism changes only in size) is biologically inaccurate, as the features and proportions of animals also differ in their juvenile and adult forms (Lorenz, 1971). French et al (2018) argue that this bias is the “default” means for reasoning about life cycle changes for unfamiliar species, because the rejection of drastic life cycle changes is most pronounced for unfamiliar animals. From this perspective, metamorphosis may be challenging to understand because it violates how people normally think of animal growth.…”

“…Prior knowledge also plays a critical role in learning new concepts (e.g., Kaplan & Murphy, 2000; Murphy & Allopenna, 1994), including learning about life cycle changes. For example, French et al (2018) found that adults were more likely to endorse changes other than growth for familiar animals than for unfamiliar animals. However, there is also evidence that intuitive theories of biology persist, regardless of level of expertise.…”