Daily animal exposure and children’s biological concepts

Parent–Child Conversations About Animals in Informal Learning Environments

“…Previous work has focused heavily on the content and sophistication of children's biological reasoning (e.g., Carey, 1985Carey, , 1995Inagaki & Hatano, 2002;Wellman et al, 1997) with comparatively little attention to characterizing the content of specific experiences that may contribute to the acquisition of biological knowledge (e.g., Crowley et al, 2001;Geerdts et al, 2015; …”

“…Importantly, recent research with young children suggests that anthropocentrism, instead of providing an earlydeveloping foundation for the development of biological knowledge, may be learned by older urban children because of their lack of experience with real animals and increased exposure to fictional, anthropomorphic animals (Ganea, Canfield, Simons, & Chou, 2014;Hermann, Waxman, & Medin, 2010;Waxman, Herrmann, Woodring, & Medin, 2014). Furthermore, differences in animal exposure within cultural groups is associated with differences in biological knowledge; pet ownership, which affords daily opportunities to observe and interact with animals, relates to increased factual and conceptual biological knowledge (Geerdts et al, 2015;Inagaki, 1990;Melson & Fogel, 1989;Prokop et al, 2008;Williams & Smith, 2006). Overall, this growing body of research highlights the significant role that early exposure to animals and cultural discourse plays in understanding the development of anthropomorphic and biological reasoning over the course of early childhood.…”

Anthropocentric by Default? Attribution of Familiar and Novel Properties to Living Things

“…Likewise, Inagaki and Hatano (1991) found that 5-and 6-year-old children frequently used humans as a reference point when making predictions about non-human living things (e.g., when estimating the effects of overeating on a grasshopper). From this perspective, anthropocentric thinking decreases as knowledge about living things is gathered and organized into a coherent framework (Carey, 1985;Geerdts, de Walle, Gretchen, & LoBue, 2015;Inagaki & Sugiyama, 1988).…”

The reliance on inclusive living thing in inductive inference among 5-year-olds: the role of access to nature and the size of receptive vocabulary

“…The patterns of inductive inference within animates are related to living environment (urban vs rural), culture (western vs. indigenous) (Medin et al, 2010;Ross et al, 2003;Tarlowski, 2006), and specific experiences with raising animals (Inagaki, 1990;Geerdts, Van de Walle, & LoBue, 2015). Raising animals is related to concrete biological knowledge (Prokop, Prokop, & Tunnicliffe, 2008).…”