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ERIC Number: ED662100
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 49
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Deterministic or Probabilistic: U.S. Children's Beliefs about Genetic Inheritance
David Menendez; Andrea Marquardt Donovan; Olympia N. Mathiaparanam; Vienne Seitz; Nour F. Sabbagh; Rebecca E. Klapper; Charles W. Kalish; Karl S. Rosengren; Martha W. Alibali
Grantee Submission
Do children think of genetic inheritance as deterministic or probabilistic? In two novel tasks, children viewed the eye colors of animal parents and judged and selected possible phenotypes of offspring. Across three studies (N = 353, 162 girls, 172 boys, 2 non-binary; 17 did not report gender) with predominantly White U.S. participants collected in 2019-2021, 4- to 12-year-old children showed a probabilistic understanding of genetic inheritance, and they accepted and expected variability in the genetic inheritance of eye color. Children did not show a mother bias but they did show two novel biases: perceptual similarity and sex-matching. These results held for unfamiliar animals and several physical traits (e.g., eye color, ear size, and fin type), and persisted after a lesson. [This paper was published in "Child Development" v95 n3 2024.]
Related Records: EJ1424448
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305B150003; 1760940