El cambio de perspectiva conceptual en las teorías implícitas sobre el medio ambiente

Resumen

Este estudio analiza la influencia del contexto de activación de creencias cuando se verifica la perspectiva conceptual de dos personajes sobre el medio ambiente. Se manipuló el contexto de activación de creencias, de una teoría o de dos teorías. En el contexto de una teoría, los dos personajes compartían el mismo punto de vista (ecologista o desarrollista), mientras que en el contexto de dos teorías, los personajes sostenían creencias contrarias entre sí (ecologista vs desarrollista). Participaron 60 estudiantes universitarios partidarios de la creencia ecologista. Después de escuchar una cinta en la que se presentaba las creencias de los dos personajes en un determinado contexto de activación, los participantes realizaron una tarea de cambio de perspectiva en la que se solicitaba que verificaran una serie de frases conteniendo ideas ecologistas o desarrollistas, teniendo en cuenta la creencia de los personajes. Se registraron el tiempo de verificación y el porcentaje de juicios correctos. Los resultados en ambas tareas indican que el contexto de activación de dos teorías es el que permite modelar con mayor rapidez y precisión la perspectiva de los personajes, posibilitando la elaboración de representaciones más distintivas y ricas de sus creencias, que indican una discriminación conceptual más fina. Estos resultados apoyan el diseño de situaciones instruccionales para el aprendizaje de conceptos complejos en los que los participantes tengan que activar una teoría teniendo otra de contraste. En la discusión se describen las implicaciones de este estudio para promover el cambio representacional.

Abstract

This study analyses the influence of belief activation contexts when the conceptual perspective of two persons about environmental problems is verified. 60 university students with ecologist beliefs heard a recorded dialogue between two characters who: 1) shared the same environmental view on either Sustainable Growth or Unlimited Growth; or 2) held two different views, Sustainable vs. Unlimited Growth. Then, subjects had to complete a verification task in which they had to identify ideas consistent with each character's views; verification times and percentage of correct answers were registered. The results of the two tasks indicate that it is the activation context of two views which allows a quicker and more precise modelling of the participant's perspective. It enables subjects to elaborate richer and clearer representations of their beliefs, indicating a finer conceptual discrimination. These results help in designing instructional situations aimed at learning complex concepts, in which participants activate a viewpoint by contrasting it with another one. In the discussion, implications for promoting representational change are discussed

Extended Summary

In this study we analyse people's capacity to model the conceptual perspective of others. Adopting different points of view is a dimension of conceptual change related to representational changes in a knowledge domain. It reflects progress both from a realistic view (as a copy of reality) and a perspectivistic view of knowledge (as a subjective and plural construction of reality). A perspectivistic view of reality models the conceptual perspective of others by constructing multiple representations of a certain domain.

Prior knowledge is a fundamental requisite to attain conceptual perspectivism. However, it is also necessary to analyse contextual and task related factors that influence this capacity. In this sense, we need to know more about how people integrate information arising from their prior knowledge and from the context. We consider that people construct a mental model of situations in which the beliefs of others are represented, based both on prior knowledge about such beliefs and specific details of the situation.

The study therefore analyses the activation of complex knowledge domains, such as beliefs about the environment, by manipulating the context of belief activation. This involves a single context with one viewpoint, and multiple contexts with two viewpoints. In the one-theory context, subjects have to activate a single view about the environment which is shared by two characters. In the two-theory context, subjects have to activate the views put across by two characters with different opinions (Sustainable Growth and Unlimited Growth; herein Environmentalist and Economist). We analyse how the activation context determines the representation of each character's beliefs. It is expected that in the two-theory context non-shared aspects of beliefs will be more salient. Presumably these would involve those characteristics that may help to distinguish one viewpoint from the other. In the one-theory context this would not be possible.

Within the one-theory context, we manipulated two conditions: the shared and the non-shared view. In the shared view, the two characters in the discussion and the subjects have the same Environmentalist belief. In the non-shared view, the two characters endorse an Economist viewpoint, while the participants are environmentalists. This allowed us to study how a person's self-scheme affects the representation of the beliefs of others. A further objective is to attempt to separate the characters' influence from that of the content in the process of adopting a perspective. Perspective shifts usually involve changing characters and also content, but it is not clear which one influences the perspective taking process more. It is expected that changing characters is more difficult than changing content, as characters have a more relevant role in mental models.

Initially, 225 students participated in the study, a subgroup of 60 students were selected for their adherence to ecologist beliefs. Subjects had to hear a recorded dialogue on an environmental problem. There were three belief comparison contexts: a) a two-view context where the dialogue was between two characters with different opinions; and b) two single-view contexts, where both characters maintained the same viewpoints, either environmentalist or economist. A perspective-taking task was presented which included a list of sentences representing both environmental and anti-environmentalist ideas. Subjects needed to verify if the ideas contained in the sentences were in agreement with each characters' point of view. The dependent measures were: the percentage of correct verifications and the time needed to carry out these verifications. An analysis of variance between the three comparison contexts variables was performed.

Results showed that in two-view contexts subjects construct the perspective of others with greater speed and accuracy than in single-view contexts. This indicates that in two-view contexts subjects elaborate richer and clearer belief representations, with better concept discrimination. The self-schema is activated selectively, depending on the belief context in which the verification is taking place. With respect to the role of the characters and the content, the role of the characters is fundamental when ideas are represented, since subjects are sensitive to changes in the characters (i.e., the one presenting the idea) that may take place in the course of the task.

In the discussion, implications for promoting representational change are described. These results help us approach the design of instructional situations to learn complex concepts in which the participants activate one belief by contrasting it with another one.

Palabras clave:

• Contexto de activación de creencias
• creencias sobre el medio ambiente
• toma de perspectiva conceptual
• cambio representacional

Keywords:

• Belief activation context
• environmental belief
• conceptual perspective-taking
• representational change