Scientific knowledge suppresses but does not supplant earlier intuitions

Shtulman, Andrew; Valcarcel, Joshua

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2012.04.005

Cited by 424Science Education and PedagogyEvolution and Science EducationEducational Strategies and Epistemologies

Scientific knowledge suppresses but does not supplant earlier intuitions

Shtulman, Andrew, Valcarcel, Joshua·2012·Cognition

DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.04.005

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Abstract

When students learn scientific theories that conflict with their earlier, naïve theories, what happens to the earlier theories? Are they overwritten or merely suppressed? We investigated this question by devising and implementing a novel speeded-reasoning task. Adults with many years of science education verified two types of statements as quickly as possible: statements whose truth value was the same across both naïve and scientific theories of a particular phenomenon (e.g., "The moon revolves around the Earth") and statements involving the same conceptual relations but whose truth value differed across those theories (e.g., "The Earth revolves around the sun"). Participants verified the latter significantly more slowly and less accurately than the former across 10 domains of knowledge (astronomy, evolution, fractions, genetics, germs, matter, mechanics, physiology, thermodynamics, and waves), suggesting that naïve theories survive the acquisition of a mutually incompatible scientific theory, coexisting with that theory for many years to follow.

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Even for people who learned 'correlation is not causation' with classroom examples, it can still be challenging to apply their learning to new contexts.
“Even for people who learned 'correlation is not causation' with classroom examples, it could still be challenging to apply their learning to new contexts [46, 38].”
From Illusion of Causality in Visualized Data (2020) · cites this paper as [46]

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Authors: Shtulman, A., & Valcarcel, J.
Affiliations: Occidental College (US)
Corresponding author: Shtulman, Andrew
ORCID: Shtulman, Andrew
Venue: Cognition
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Published: 2012-08
Volume: 124
Issue: 2
Pages: 209-215
ISSN: 0010-0277 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.04.005
OpenAlex: W2140347507
Cited by: 418
References: 47
Citations by year: 2026: 17 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 55 · 2019: 68 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 4
FWCI: 83.64
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Licence: www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations: Cognition (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders: National Science Foundation (DRL-0953384)
Topics: Social Sciences › Education › Science Education and Pedagogy
Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Evolution and Science Education
Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Strategies and Epistemologies
Keywords: naive theories, scientific knowledge, intuitive theories, theory change, conceptual change, science education
MeSH terms: Analysis of Variance, Concept Formation, Female, Humans, Learning, Male, Science, Knowledge, Young Adult

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Scientific knowledge suppresses but does not supplant earlier intuitions

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