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SUMMARY:What can Cognitive Science tell us about Chemistry? - Dr. Michelle
  Ellefson (University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20140506T200000Z
DTEND:20140506T203000Z
UID:TALK52861@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Paulina Rowicka
DESCRIPTION:In the everyday world\, we rarely see substances reacting with
  each other. Most reactions occur through hidden mechanisms explainable on
 ly with specialized knowledge (e.g.\, processing of petrol by cars)\, or i
 n protracted timelines (e.g.\, metal rusting\, fossilization). Naive chemi
 stry knowledge seems neither available nor necessary to function well in e
 veryday life. People engage in activities relying on chemical knowledge 
 – baking\, cleaning\, lighting fires\, but explain them using non- chemi
 cal mechanisms. When children (and adults) encounter chemical phenomena\, 
 they often evoke hidden chemical mechanisms without deep understanding\, u
 sing prior knowledge from mostly everyday domains. In this talk\, I’ll d
 iscuss some recent experiments designed to investigate how humans reason a
 bout chemical phenomena. These experiments use a variety of cognitive psyc
 hology paradigms to better understand whether the way chemistry informatio
 n is presented might influence understanding and what types of information
  humans use to make predictions about how different materials might intera
 ct (or event react) with each other. For example\, one study looks at how 
 using anthropomorphism (i.e.\, talking about atoms as having desires) cons
 trains our chemistry reasoning abilities. Another study looks at how the v
 arious cues like physical appearance or naming used for different material
 s influences predictions young children and adults make about how that mat
 erial might mix with other materials.
LOCATION:Senior Parlour\, Gonville &amp\; Caius College
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