Learning about evolution and rejecting a belief in special creation: Effects of reflective reasoning skill, prior knowledge, prior belief and religious commitment

Anton E. Lawson; William A. Worsnop

doi:10.1002/tea.3660290205

Learning about evolution and rejecting a belief in special creation: Effects of reflective reasoning skill, prior knowledge, prior belief and religious commitment

Journal of Research in Science Teaching ◽

10.1002/tea.3660290205 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 143-166 ◽

Cited By ~ 151

Author(s):

Anton E. Lawson ◽

William A. Worsnop

Keyword(s):

Prior Knowledge ◽

Religious Commitment ◽

Prior Belief ◽

Reflective Reasoning ◽

Reasoning Skill ◽

Special Creation

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Temporal-order Iconicity Bias in Narrative Event Understanding and Memory

10.31234/osf.io/etw7y ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Xinming Xu ◽

Sze Chai Kwok

Keyword(s):

Prior Knowledge ◽

Text Comprehension ◽

Temporal Order ◽

Bayesian Framework ◽

Prior Belief ◽

Chronological Order ◽

Event Sequences ◽

New Perspective ◽

Narrative Event

Incongruence between the narrated (encoded) order and the actual chronological order of events is ubiquitous in various kinds of narratives and information modalities. The iconicity assumption in text comprehension proposes that readers will by default assume the chronological order to match the narrated order. However, it is not clear whether this iconicity assumption would directly bias the inferred chronology of events and the memory of the narrated order. In the current study, using non-linearly narrated video narratives as encoding materials, we dissociated the narrated order and the underlying chronological order of events. In Experiment 1, we found that participants’ judgments of the chronological order of events were biased by the narrated order, but not vice versa. In Experiment 2, when the chronological positions of events were provided during encoding, participants’ judgments of the chronological order were not biased by the narrated order, rather, their memory of the narrated order of events was biased by the chronological order. Interpreting the bias under a descriptive Bayesian framework, we offer a new perspective on the role of the iconicity assumption as prior belief, apart from prior knowledge about event sequences, in event understanding as well as memory.

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Could probability be out of proportion? Self-explanation and example-based practice help students with lower proportional reasoning skills learn probability

Instructional Science ◽

10.1007/s11251-021-09550-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Kreshnik Nasi Begolli ◽

Ting Dai ◽

Kelly M. McGinn ◽

Julie L. Booth

Keyword(s):

Empirical Evidence ◽

Prior Knowledge ◽

Treatment Condition ◽

Probabilistic Reasoning ◽

Proportional Reasoning ◽

Minority Status ◽

Regular Classrooms ◽

Probabilistic Knowledge ◽

Reasoning Skills ◽

Reasoning Skill

AbstractProportional reasoning failures seem to constitute most errors in probabilistic reasoning, yet there is little empirical evidence about its role for attaining probabilistic knowledge and how to effectively intervene with students who have less proportional reasoning skills. We examined the contributions of students' proportional reasoning skill and example-based practice when learning about probabilities from a reformed seventh grade curriculum. Teachers in their regular classrooms were randomly assigned to instruct with a reformed textbook (control) or a version revised to incorporate correct and incorrect example problems with prompts to explain (treatment). Students' prior knowledge in proportional reasoning skill separately predicted probabilistic knowledge at posttest, regardless of their prior knowledge in probability or minority status. Overall, students in the treatment condition improved more in their probabilistic knowledge, if they started with less proportional reasoning skills. Our findings suggest that example-based practice is beneficial for students with less prior knowledge of proportions, likely a key concept for developing probabilistic knowledge.

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