• Open Access

Specificity, transfer, and the development of expertise

David T. Brookes, Brian H. Ross, and José P. Mestre
Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 7, 010105 – Published 7 April 2011

Abstract

In this paper we present the results of two experiments designed to understand how physics students’ learning of the concept of refraction is influenced by the cognitive phenomenon of “specificity.” In both experiments participants learned why light bends as it travels from one optical medium to another with an analogy made to a car driving from paved road into mud and vice versa. They then learned how to qualitatively draw the direction of refracted light rays with an example of a glass prism. One group learned with a rectangular prism example while a second group learned with a triangular prism example. In a transfer test, the participants revealed how, even when they seemed able to implement the refraction concept, their responses were biased by the example they had seen. Participants frequently violated the refraction principle they had just learned (reversing the bend direction) in order to make sure their response matched the surface features of their learning example. This tended to happen when their test question looked superficially similar to their learning example. We discuss the implications of these results for physics instruction.

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  • Received 7 August 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.7.010105

This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

© 2011 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

David T. Brookes

  • Department of Physics, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street CP 204, Miami, Florida 33199, USA

Brian H. Ross

  • Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, Illinois 61820, USA

José P. Mestre

  • Department of Physics and Educational Psychology, Loomis Laboratory of Physics, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801-3080, USA

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Issue

Vol. 7, Iss. 1 — January - June 2011

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