“How do fish breathe underwater?”: Young children’s ability to evaluate and remember different types of explanations regarding biological phenomena

Abstract

Four experiments (N = 239) examined the types of explanations children accept for how questions about biological processes and what children learn from these explanations. In Study 1, 4- to 6-year-olds rated mechanistic, teleological, circular, and non-explanations about biology. Only 6-year-olds rated mechanistic explanations as better and non-explanations as worse at answering questions. To simplify the study design for younger children, Study 2 asked 4- and 5-year-olds to sort non-explanations as well as mechanistic explanations into “helpful” and “not helpful” boxes. Studies 3 and 4 examined what children remembered from explanations they sorted. Studies 2 and 3 found that 4- and 5-year-olds recognized that mechanistic explanations were helpful, but they struggled to consistently sort non-explanations as “not helpful” and they remembered little from the explanations. In contrast, Study 4 found that 6- to 8-year-olds were effective at sorting both types of explanations and remembered more information from mechanistic explanations than non-explanations. Individual differences for each study are discussed.