Related Experiment Videos
Children's Mental Models of Prenatal Development
Tessa J P van Schijndel1, Sara E van Es2, Rooske K Franse3,4
1Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Insights
Children develop coherent theories about fetal development, but not bodily functions. Their mental models improve with generative tasks, showing structured knowledge rather than fragmented ideas about prenatal growth.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Naïve Biology
Background:
- Children's understanding of unobservable processes like prenatal development is complex.
- Investigating whether children possess coherent mental models or fragmented knowledge is crucial.
- Prior research highlights reasoning about natural transformations and representational flexibility.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore children's mental models of prenatal development.
- To determine if children's knowledge is coherent or fragmented.
- To examine the impact of different methodologies on assessing children's understanding.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Forced-choice questionnaire (N=317, ages 6-13) on prenatal development.
- Experiment 2: Open-question interview (N=38, ages 6-12) on the same topic.
- Analysis of coherence and grade-relatedness of children's responses.
Main Results:
- Children demonstrated coherent, grade-related theories about early fetal shape, but not bodily functions.
- A preceding generative task enhanced the coherence of children's mental models.
- Responses in the interview (Experiment 2) were incoherent and not grade-related.
Conclusions:
- Children appear to possess structured mental models of certain aspects of prenatal development.
- Methodology significantly influences the observed coherence of children's knowledge.
- Findings contribute to understanding naïve biology and mental model research.
Abstract:
Children's thinking about prenatal development requires reasoning about change that cannot be observed directly. How do children gain knowledge about this topic? Do children have mental models or is their knowledge fragmented? In Experiment 1, results of a forced-choice questionnaire about prenatal development (6- to 13-year-olds; N = 317) indicated that children do have a variety of coherent, grade-related, theories about early shape of the fetus, but not about bodily functions. Coherence of the mental models was enhanced by a preceding generative task. Children's mental models were in agreement with reasoning about natural transformations (Rosengren et al., 1991) and constraints in representational flexibility (Karmiloff-Smith, 1992). In Experiment 2, an open-question interview was administered (6- to 12-year-old children; N = 38). The interview resulted in grade-unrelated, incoherent responses. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of naïve biology and to the effects of different methodologies being used in the area of mental models.