# Developmental change and continuity in biological reasoning

> **NIH NIH F31** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $15,032

## Abstract

Project Summary
This research project will develop new strategies for facilitating efficient scientific reasoning about biological
concepts during childhood, by identifying what accounts for developmental changes in biological reasoning that
my and my sponsor's previous research has discovered. Limitations in young children's biological reasoning
can lead them to fundamentally misunderstand scientific concepts and, if not corrected, can result in long-term
problems in people's abilities to learn and understand scientific information and to reason about the natural
world, health, and medicine. To address these issues, we need to know (a) the nature of developmental
changes in biological reasoning, (b) the cognitive and developmental mechanisms that underlie these changes,
and (c) how to capitalize on this knowledge to devise new strategies for facilitating efficient conceptual change
in the biological domain.
Young children (ages 5-6) often appear to think of biological categories in terms of single idealized examples,
and to neglect the statistical distribution of properties within and across categories, which can interfere with the
acquisition of scientific knowledge and the development of scientific reasoning. Aim 1 will document
developmental changes in how children represent biological categories across childhood. Aim 2 will examine
the mechanisms underlying developmental changes in these representations. Aim 3 will capitalize on the
knowledge produced in Aims 1 and 2 to develop a new strategy for facilitating change in scientific reasoning by
targeting representations of biological variation. By partnering with a major informal educational institution (The
American Museum of Natural History), we maximize the opportunities for this work to lead to rapid changes in
educational practices that will benefit children.
 .

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9949742
- **Project number:** 5F31HD093431-03
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Emily Foster-Hanson
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $15,032
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-06-01 → 2020-09-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9949742

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9949742, Developmental change and continuity in biological reasoning (5F31HD093431-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9949742. Licensed CC0.

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