|
|
|
|
|
Projects
In the Categorization and Reasoning Lab we take a developmental and comparative approach to investigating how the acquisition of knowledge influences basic processes of categorization and reasoning. Although a great deal of research has examined categorization and reasoning in select populations, we still know little about how differences between individuals or groups with respect to experience in a given domain relate to differences in how knowledge is organized or used in reasoning in that domain. Our research program seeks to address this gap via two complementary components: one looks at how experience leads to differences in conceptual structure and reasoning in adults, and the other focuses on how conceptual development may follow different trajectories in children as a function of differences in experience and cultural beliefs. Conceptual Structure and Reasoning in AdultsA central issue in our research concerns links between knowledge and inductive inference. An inductive inference is one made under some degree of uncertainty. Upon learning that you are allergic to peanuts, you may conclude that cashews are also to be avoided. Upon learning that elephants and oaks have a certain cellular structure, you might conclude that all living things have that structure. These are inductive inferences because the given information renders the conclusion more or less plausible, rather than guaranteeing its truth. The ubiquity of this process in everyday life makes it an important topic for exploration in cognitive psychology. Our ongoing research with adults is focused on what sorts of relations are used to guide inductive inferences, and how knowledge in a particular domain influences the salience of different relations. Knowledge and Inductive Inference Inductive Inferences Within Conceptual Hierarchies Conceptual Development The major developmental research program in the Categorization and Reasoning Lab concerns the role of taxonomic relations in conceptual development. This work has focused on the domain of folk biology-commonsense understanding of living things. Previous research suggests that taxonomic relations are extremely important for organizing knowledge and guiding inferences in this domain from early in development. For instance, two-year-old children expect members of plant and animal categories to share properties in addition to--or even in spite of--outward appearances (Gelman & Coley, 1990). Indeed, children's concepts of living things exhibit surprisingly rich structure; they encompass features beyond the readily perceptible, promote inductive inferences, and may entail the assumption of essence. An essence can be seen as the (possibly unspecified) intrinsic nature that people believe causes members of a category to exhibit the external observable characteristics that they do (see Gelman & Coley, 1991; Gelman, Coley & Gottfried, 1994, for further discussion). Moreover, parental speech to preschoolers is rich in references to taxonomic relations, and parents stress these relations more for living things than for human-made artifacts. In contrast, parental input almost never conveys information about non-obvious properties or essences; these aspects of children's concepts appear to be assumed, or constructed, by the child (Gelman, Coley, Rosengren, Hartman & Pappas, 1998). Much of the research on children's understanding of living things has focused on urban populations with relatively little exposure to the natural world. This focus ignores the important role that differential experience may play in the development of folk biological categorization and reasoning, and that it is therefore critical to examine the process of development in populations that differ with respect to relevant experience (Coley 2000). To explore the role of knowledge, several projects in the Categorization and Reasoning Lab examine the development of folk biological reasoning in populations which differ with respect to both richness of experience with plants and animals, and cultural beliefs about relations among humans and the natural world. Experience and the Development of Folk Biological Reasoning
|
|
|
|
|