What are theories for? Concept use throughout the continuum of dinosaur expertise [An article from: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology]

This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Although it is now well established that object concepts are situated within broader systems of theoretical knowledge, it is less clear how theories influence the use of object concepts at various points throughout the continuum of expertise. Two studies were conducted to investigate the impact of specific theories (concerning dinosaurs) and overarching framework theories (of biology) on children's and adults' performance on categorization tasks involving familiar and less familiar concepts. Although expertise increased the quantity of deep feature knowledge possessed by children and increased their understanding of biologically adaptive relations among features, few aspects of children's performance generalized beyond highly familiar dinosaurs. Children's specific theories related to dinosaurs were empirically constrained and relatively dissociated from other types of biological knowledge. The interaction of specific concept knowledge with broader framework theories of biology throughout the continuum of expertise is considered.