Poster #20 - Epistemic Competence in the Post-Truth Era: Does Evidence Evaluation Transfer?

• In Event: 75.043 - MTCC Poster Session 17
  In Poster Session: 75.043-5 - Epistemic and Generative Interventions Promoting Learning Outcomes

Abstract

Learning increasingly happens in complex digital environments, requiring epistemic competence—effectively discerning truth from falsehood—and transfer of this competence to new problems. Using qualitative analysis of think-aloud data from experts from three backgrounds: psychology (no transfer), other social sciences (near transfer), and hard sciences (far transfer) as they investigated a complex topic in psychology, we identified three themes. First, despite similar backgrounds, psychologists displayed variance in quality and types of epistemic cognition. Second, positive transfer occurred in near and far transfer groups as participants employed expertise from their fields to achieve a new, complex understanding. Finally, negative transfer—adaptive practices from one discipline hindering learning in another—appeared in near and far transfer groups.

Authors

• Victor Deekens, United States Military Academy

• Jeff A. Greene, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Clark A. Chinn, Rutgers University

• Sneha Jain, Rutgers University