Poster #14 - “It’s the Circle of Life”: Is Children’s Understanding of Life Cycles Influenced by Their Depiction?

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Children often learn about life cycles through educational resources, such as books. These cycles can be depicted in many ways; however, they are typically represented by a closed circle with a single generation of an organism (Menendez et al., 2020; see top of Figure 1). This kind of representation may influence children’s comprehension of a number of aspects of the process of growth. First, children may be misled by the use of arrows in these diagrams, because they suggest that the mature organism “grows into” the immature organism. Second, younger children may not consistently judge an organism to be living throughout its life cycle, because its ability to move can change and prior research has shown that motion is associated with judgments of life status (Leddin et al., 2008; Stavy & Wax, 1989). Third, children may have difficulty in attributing persisting individual identity to an organism over the life cycle, because young children expect organisms to stay the same shape, but get larger over time (Rosengren et al., 1991) and life cycle diagrams often violate these expectations. To examine these issues, we explored how 4- to 8-year-olds reasoned about various aspects of biological change depending on whether they were presented with circular or linear life cycle diagrams.

We presented children (median age = 6.93 years; n = 64 of a planned sample of 100) with diagrams of three life cycles: rabbit, butterfly, and oak tree. We manipulated whether the life cycle was presented in a circular or linear format between participants (see Figure 1). At each stage, we asked children about the life status (i.e., 'Is this a living thing?') and identity persistence (e.g., 'Is this Charlie?') of the organism. We additionally examined children’s understanding of generations by asking them whether the final stage of the life cycle could “grow into” the initial stage.

Preliminary results show that a life cycle’s depiction influenced children’s understanding of generations (see Figure 2): Older children (>6.93 years) were more likely to misunderstand the meaning of the arrow when the diagram was linear rather than circular. For life status judgments, we observed domain differences and ages differences. Younger children (<6.93 years) judged plants and certain stages of animal life cycles (e.g., a butterfly’s chrysalis) to not be living. Older children reliably judged all life cycle stages to be alive, except for a plant’s seed. These results may be due to the organism’s ability to move at these stages. For identity judgments, we observed age differences. For plant cycles, in particular, younger children were less likely than older children to attribute persisting identity across life cycle stages. These results may be due to changes in the organism’s shape across the life cycle. The presentation of a life cycle appears to influence children's reasoning about concepts such as growth, life status, and identity over time. Our findings may thus have applications for the creation of future educational resources that support children’s developing understanding of biological change.

Authors

• Erin Tetreau, University of Alberta
  Presenting Author

• Kristan Marchak, University of Alberta