Abstract:Explanation and causation are intimately related. Explanations often appeal to causes, and causal claims are often answers to implicit or explicit questions about why or how something occurred. This chapter considers what we can learn about causal reasoning from research on explanation. In particular, it reviews an emerging body of work suggesting that explanatory considerations—such as the simplicity or scope of a causal hypothesis—can systematically influence causal inference and learning. It also discusses … Show more
“…2 ). This looping effect produces an iterative, self-reinforcing dynamic in which initial assumptions about relevant causal relations, driven by material pragmatics as well as human goals and values, become naturalized as more real and/or cognitively salient than other possible alternatives ( Barad, 2007 ; Hacking, 1995 ; Lombrozo and Vasilyeva, 2017 ). Fig.…”
Research on the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) has traditionally focused on how maternal exposures around the time of pregnancy might influence offspring health and risk of disease. We acknowledge that for some exposures this is likely to be correct, but argue that the focus on maternal pregnancy effects also reflects implicit and deeply-held assumptions that 1) causal early life exposures are primarily transmitted via maternal traits or exposures, 2) maternal exposures around the time of pregnancy and early infancy are particularly important, and 3) other factors, such as paternal factors and postnatal exposures in later life, have relatively little impact in comparison. These implicit assumptions about the “causal primacy” of maternal pregnancy effects set the agenda for DOHaD research and, through a looping effect, are reinforced rather than tested. We propose practical strategies to redress this imbalance through maintaining a critical perspective about these assumptions.
“…2 ). This looping effect produces an iterative, self-reinforcing dynamic in which initial assumptions about relevant causal relations, driven by material pragmatics as well as human goals and values, become naturalized as more real and/or cognitively salient than other possible alternatives ( Barad, 2007 ; Hacking, 1995 ; Lombrozo and Vasilyeva, 2017 ). Fig.…”
Research on the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) has traditionally focused on how maternal exposures around the time of pregnancy might influence offspring health and risk of disease. We acknowledge that for some exposures this is likely to be correct, but argue that the focus on maternal pregnancy effects also reflects implicit and deeply-held assumptions that 1) causal early life exposures are primarily transmitted via maternal traits or exposures, 2) maternal exposures around the time of pregnancy and early infancy are particularly important, and 3) other factors, such as paternal factors and postnatal exposures in later life, have relatively little impact in comparison. These implicit assumptions about the “causal primacy” of maternal pregnancy effects set the agenda for DOHaD research and, through a looping effect, are reinforced rather than tested. We propose practical strategies to redress this imbalance through maintaining a critical perspective about these assumptions.
“…In fact, it has been argued that explanations referencing "need" or "function" for the existence of a biological phenomenon may be a shorthand intuitive understanding that the consequences of the need or function in the past would have brought about the phenomenon in the population, even if no explicit causal mechanism is given (Gouvea & Simon;2018;Lombrozo & Vasilyeva, 2017;Wright, 1976). This is in line with the point made by Evans & Rosengren (2018) that need-based explanations (as opposed to desire-based explanations) may provide a bridge towards biological explanations of evolutionary change by natural selection.…”
Section: Teleological Reasoning In Different Types Of Causal Explanationmentioning
Teleological reasoning is viewed as a major hurdle to evolution education, and yet, eliciting, interpreting, and reflecting upon teleological language presents an arguably greater challenge to the evolution educator and researcher. This article argues that making explicit the role of behavior as a causal factor in the evolution of particular traits may prove productive in helping students to link their everyday experience of behavior to evolutionary changes in populations in ways congruent with scientific perspectives. We present a teaching tool, used widely in other parts of science and science education, yet perhaps underutilized in human evolution education - the causal map - as a novel direction for driving conceptual change in the classroom about the nature of evolutionary change. After describing the scientific and conceptual basis for using such causal maps in human evolution education, we describe a classroom intervention within the context of a larger Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) project. An overview of the teacher-researcher collaborative design process and preliminary results from classroom interventions using causal maps within a human evolution unit are described. Initial results of the interventions indicate that causal maps allow students to make visible their causal reasoning about complex processes in human evolution, and can facilitate classroom reflection and conceptual change. Based on these insights, we offer considerations for future research and educational design.
“…In fact, it has been argued that explanations referencing "need" or "function" for the existence of a biological phenomenon may be a shorthand intuitive understanding that the consequences of the need or function in the past would have brought about the phenomenon in the population, even if no explicit causal mechanism is given (Gouvea and Simon 2018;Lombrozo and Vasilyeva 2017;Wright 1976). This is in line with the point made by Evans and Rosengren (2018) that needbased explanations (as opposed to desire-based explanations) may provide a bridge toward biological explanations of evolutionary change by natural selection.…”
Section: Teleological Reasoning In Different Types Of Causal Explanationmentioning
Teleological reasoning is viewed as a major hurdle to evolution education, and yet, eliciting, interpreting, and reflecting upon teleological language presents an arguably greater challenge to the evolution educator and researcher. This article argues that making explicit the role of behavior as a causal factor in the evolution of particular traits may prove productive in helping students to link their everyday experience of behavior to evolutionary changes in populations in ways congruent with scientific perspectives. We present a teaching tool, used widely in other parts of science and science education, yet perhaps underutilized in human evolution education—the causal map—as a novel direction for driving conceptual change in the classroom about the role of organism behavior and other factors in evolutionary change. We describe the scientific and conceptual basis for using such causal maps in human evolution education, as well as theoretical considerations for implementing the causal mapping tool in human evolution classrooms. Finally, we offer considerations for future research and educational design.
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