Collaborative Research: Generics in context: Examining mental biases and resources in social and science communication and learning

合作研究：背景中的泛型：检查社会和科学传播和学习中的心理偏见和资源

• 批准号: 2315943
• 负责人: Ny Vasil
• 金额: $ 72.15万
• 依托单位: California State University, East Bay Foundation, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2315943&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Generics; context; Examining

Lack of diversity in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) stifles scientific, technological and social progress. This project tackles this issue from two angles. First, it generates new empirical findings on cognitive and linguistic barriers that stand in the way of eliminating achievement disparities, and second, it builds a collaborative interdisciplinary mentoring program benefitting undergraduate and graduate students at two Minority-Serving Institutions. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the project investigates ways to harness the mental and linguistic resources available to children and adults to facilitate science learning and effective science communication, scaffold deeper understanding of social inequities in the context of larger social structures (“structural thinking”), and foster the capacity to envision social change.Specifically, this project examines the developmental trajectory of how people learn, represent and communicate about generalizable regularities in the social, biological and physical world. Bridging methodology and theory from several Cognitive Science disciplines (psychology, philosophy and linguistics), five large-scale studies explore how generalization and generic language across development can (i) be affected by the stability of a regularity across times, places, and other circumstances, (ii) be flexible and restricted to a context (e.g., the US today), and (iii) affect (mis)communication in education and across political divides. Overall, the project elucidates several fundamental cognitive and communicative barriers to diversifying STEM and identifies psychologically feasible ways to counteract them, while offering advanced mentoring and intensive training in cutting-edge research methods to a diverse and inclusive group of students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

STEM 领域（科学、技术、工程和数学）缺乏多样性阻碍了科学、技术和社会的进步。该项目从两个角度解决了这一问题：首先，它对阻碍科学、技术和语言障碍的认知和语言障碍产生了新的实证结果。其次，它建立了一个跨学科协作指导计划，使两个少数族裔服务机构的本科生和研究生受益。该项目采用跨学科方法，研究如何利用儿童可用的心理和语言资源。和成年人促进科学学习和有效的科学传播，在更大的社会结构（“结构思维”）背景下加深对社会不平等的理解，并培养预见社会变革的能力。具体来说，该项目研究了如何人们学习、表达和交流社会、生物和物理世界中的普遍规律，五项大规模研究将多个认知科学学科（心理学、哲学和语言学）的方法论和理论探讨了如何在发展过程中进行概括和通用语言。 (i) 受到跨时间、地点和其他情况的规律性稳定性的影响，(ii) 灵活并限于特定环境（例如今天的美国），以及 (iii) 影响教育和教育领域的（错误）沟通总体而言，该项目阐明了 STEM 多元化的几个基本认知和沟通障碍，并确定了应对这些障碍的心理上可行的方法，同时为多元化和包容性的学生群体提供尖端研究方法的高级指导和强化培训。奖通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，NSF 的法定使命被认为值得支持。