On differentiation: A case study of the development of the concepts of size, weight, and density

Smith, Christopher; Carey, Susan; Wiser, Marianne

doi:10.1016/0010-0277(85)90025-3

Cited by 444 publications

(291 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Some of them suggest confusion between mass, volume, weight and density (Rowell & Dawson, 1977;Smith, Carey & Wiser, 1985, and others suggest that the depth of liquid or the presence of air within the floating objects plays a role. In his misconception directory, Thouin argues that the statement "light objects float and heavy objects sink" (Thouin, 2001, p. 37) is a "frequent conception".…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Persistence of the Intuitive Conception That Heavier Objects Sink More: A Reaction Time Study With Different Levels of Interference

Potvin

Masson

Lafortune

et al. 2014

Int J of Sci and Math Educ

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ABSTRACT. Recent research efforts have argued for the persistence of some of students' frequent scientific misconceptions, even after correct answers are produced. Some of these studies, based on the analysis of reaction times, have recorded latencies for counterintuitive or incongruent stimuli compared to intuitive or congruent ones. The proposed interpretations were that prior knowledge survives learning and still coexists with new closer-to-scientific knowledge, producing conflicts that delay correct answers. But these conclusions are based on the assumption that stimuli from different conditions only differ in the presence/absence of interfering misconceptions, which is sometimes, in our opinion, a rather fragile claim. Thus, we have designed a task in which it is possible to test different levels of interference and not only its effects in contrast to another condition. Then, we have used it to see if different intensities of interference produce different levels of conflict. The task tested the persistence of the misconception that "heavy objects sink more than lighter ones". One hundred twenty-eight 14-to 15-year-olds were asked to tell which of the 2 balls presented (3 different materials and 3 different sizes) would "sink more" than the other. Analysis verified the presence of latencies and negative priming. For the most part, results show that the intensity of interference does produce corresponding latencies, which suggests greater conflict and therefore supports the hypothesis of persistence and coexistence of conceptions, even after correct answers are produced, and beyond other plausible effects due to the used stimuli. Prescriptions for theory and teaching are proposed.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Persistence of the Intuitive Conception That Heavier Objects Sink More: A Reaction Time Study With Different Levels of Interference

Potvin

Masson

Lafortune

et al. 2014

Int J of Sci and Math Educ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…(2) Can children differentiate between theory and evidence? Other cognitive development researchers think of science inquiry as conceptual structures and theories about the natural world (e.g., Carey, 1985;Carey & Smith, 1993;Smith, Carey, & Wiser, 1985). This work highlights how knowledge is restructured in the course of its acquisition and focuses on the role of domain-specific knowledge in scientific thinking and inquiry.…”

Section: Different Views On Children's Abilities To Conduct Science Imentioning

confidence: 95%

Science inquiry and student diversity: Enhanced abilities and continuing difficulties after an instructional intervention

et al. 2006

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This study examines elementary students' abilities to conduct science inquiry through their participation in an instructional intervention over a school year. The study involved 25 third and fourth grade students from six elementary schools representing diverse linguistic and cultural groups. Prior to and at the completion of the intervention, the students participated in elicitation sessions as they conducted a semistructured inquiry task on evaporation. The results indicate that students demonstrated enhanced abilities with some aspects of the inquiry task, but continued to have difficulties with other aspects of the task even after instruction. Although students from all demographic subgroups showed substantial gains, students from non-mainstream and less privileged backgrounds in science showed greater gains in inquiry abilities than their more privileged counterparts. The results contribute to the emerging literature on designing learning environments that foster science inquiry of elementary students from diverse backgrounds. ß

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“…In every instance, the model tries to learn the most general category that is consistent with the data. This tendency can, for example, lead to the type of overgeneralization that is seen in young children until further learning leads to category re nement (Chapman et al, 1986;Clark, 1973;Smith et al, 1985;Smith and Kemler, 1978;Ward, 1983). Many benchmark studies of how A R T uses vigilance control to classify complex data bases have shown that the number of ART categories that is learned scales well with the complexity of the input data; see Carpenter and Grossberg (1994) for a list of illustrative benchmark studies.…”

Section: How D O E S a R T Stabilize Learning Of A Self-organizing Fementioning

confidence: 99%

The Link Between Brain Learning, Attention, and Consciousness

Grossberg

2009

Causality, Meaningful Complexity and Embodied Cognition

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On differentiation: A case study of the development of the concepts of size, weight, and density

Cited by 444 publications

References 9 publications

Persistence of the Intuitive Conception That Heavier Objects Sink More: A Reaction Time Study With Different Levels of Interference

Persistence of the Intuitive Conception That Heavier Objects Sink More: A Reaction Time Study With Different Levels of Interference

Science inquiry and student diversity: Enhanced abilities and continuing difficulties after an instructional intervention

The Link Between Brain Learning, Attention, and Consciousness

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