Scott, I may be completely off-base here but it seems to me that you might want to look at the "child as scientist" literature. I believe that Deanna Kuhn's work might be relevant and I did a quick Google search which turned up the following article by Brewer that might be relevant to you:
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:FT3Jcg_FmnQJ:www.ruf.rice.edu/~rgrandy/BrewerR.doc+deanna+children+theories+explanation&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1 or http://tinyurl.com/r2fy4 I hope this helps. -Mike Palij New York University [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 12:07:56 -0700, Scott Lilienfeld wrote: Hi TIPS: I'm writing with a brain pick of sorts. I'm always reluctant to post to listservs with these kinds of requests. But I've been rather stymied in my searches, and am hoping that I can benefit from the remarkable collective knowledge of this list. Specifically, I'm wondering if anyone is aware of much good research on the development over time of individuals' (children, adolescents, college students, etc.) understanding of multiple levels of explanation. By this, I mean the understanding that psychological phenomenon X can co-exist simultaneously at several different levels - e.g., that depression can simultaneously be viewed at the molecular level, physiological level, psychological level, social level, and so on. I know that as educators, most of us have discovered that some of our students "get" this concept, whereas others never seem to be able to do so. That is, some of our students eventually move beyond asking "Is depression biological, or it is psychological?" and come to understand that it can be conceptualized profitably at both (and other) levels of understanding, whereas others don't. Just to be clear, here I'm talking about "vertical" explanation (explanations at differing levels in Comte's hierarchy of the sciences), not "horizontal" explanation (explanations invoking multiple causal factors at the same level of explanation). Is there any literature on the time course of this understanding, its domain generality vs. specificity, its psychological correlates (e.g., IQ, Piagetian stage status), etc.? I've found some research bearing obliquely on the development of this understanding over time (e.g., Frank Kiel's work), but not a whole lot that addresses it explicitly (PsycInfo searches using "levels of explanation" and "development of" and similar terms have been only modestly helpful). In any case, any pointers, leads, etc. would be immensely appreciated. Thanks much in advance...Scott Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Psychology, Room 206 Emory University 532 N. Kilgo Circle Atlanta, Georgia 30322 --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
