Implicit Learning in Science: Activating and Suppressing Scientific Intuitions to Enhance Conceptual Change

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. February 2018. Major: Educational Psychology. Advisors: Keisha Varma, Mark Davison. 1 computer file (PDF); vii, 161 pages.This dissertation examines the thesis that implicit learning plays a role in learning about scientific phenomena, and subsequently, in conceptual change. Decades of research in learning science demonstrate that a primary challenge of science education is overcoming prior, naïve knowledge of natural phenomena in order to gain scientific understanding. Until recently, a key assumption of this research has been that to develop scientific understanding, learners must abandon their prior scientific intuitions and replace them with scientific concepts. However, a growing body of research shows that scientific intuitions persist, even among science experts. This suggests that naïve intuitions are suppressed, not supplanted, as learners gain scientific understanding. The current study examines two potential roles of implicit learning processes in the development of scientific knowledge. First, implicit learning is a source of cognitive structures that impede science learning. Second, tasks that engage implicit learning processes can be employed to activate and suppress prior intuitions, enhancing the likelihood that scientific concepts are adopted and applied. This second proposal is tested in two experiments that measure training-induced changes in intuitive and conceptual knowledge related to sinking and floating objects in water. In Experiment 1, an implicit learning task was developed to examine whether implicit learning can induce changes in performance on near and far transfer tasks. The results of this experiment provide evidence that implicit learning tasks activate and suppress scientific intuitions. Experiment 2 examined the effects of combining implicit learning with traditional, direct instruction to enhance explicit learning of science concepts. This experiment demonstrates that sequencing implicit learning task before and after direct instruction has different effects on intuitive and conceptual knowledge. Together, these results suggest a novel approach for enhancing learning for conceptual change in science education