A Bump on a Bump? Emerging Intuitions Concerning the Relative Difficulty of the Sciences

Autor/inn/en	Keil, Frank C.; Lockhart, Kristi L.; Schlegel, Esther
Titel	A Bump on a Bump? Emerging Intuitions Concerning the Relative Difficulty of the Sciences
Quelle	In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139 (2010) 1, S.1-15 (15 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0096-3445
DOI	10.1037/a0018319
Schlagwörter	Psychology; Experience; Natural Sciences; Social Psychology; Cognitive Psychology; Grade 2; Cognitive Development; Grade 4; Grade 6; Grade 8; College Students; Elementary School Students; Secondary School Students; Scientific Principles; Physics; Chemistry; Biology; Economics; Adults; Kindergarten; Age Differences; Developmental Stages; Intuition; Developmental Psychology + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Psychologie; Erfahrung; Naturwissenschaften; Sozialpsychologie; Kognitive Psychologie; School year 02; 2. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 02; Kognitive Entwicklung; School year 04; 4. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 04; School year 06; 6. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 06; School year 08; 8. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 08; Collegestudent; Sekundarschüler; Physik; Chemie; Biologie; Volkswirtschaftslehre; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Entwicklungspsychologie
Abstract	In 4 studies, the authors examined how intuitions about the relative difficulties of the sciences develop. In Study 1, familiar everyday phenomena in physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, and economics were pretested in adults, so as to be equally difficult to explain. When participants in kindergarten, Grades 2, 4, 6, and 8, and college were asked to rate the difficulty of understanding these phenomena, children revealed a strong bias to see natural science phenomena as more difficult than those in psychology. The perceived relative difficulty of economics dropped dramatically in late childhood. In Study 2, children saw neuroscience phenomena as much more difficult than cognitive psychology phenomena, which were seen as more difficult than social psychology phenomena, even though all phenomena were again equated for difficulty in adults. In Study 3, we explored the basis for these results in intuitions about common knowledge and firsthand experience. Study 4 showed that the intuitions about the differences between the disciplines were based on intuitions about difficulty of understanding and not on the basis of more general intuitions about the feasibility or truth of the phenomena in question. Taken together, in the studies, the authors find an early emerging basis for judgments that some sciences are intrinsically more difficult than others, a bias that may persevere in adults in subtler forms in such settings as the courtroom. (Contains 2 tables and 5 figures.) (As Provided).
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Update	2017/4/10