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. 2023;5(1):8.
doi: 10.1186/s43031-023-00075-4. Epub 2023 Jun 1.

An understanding of falling bodies across schooling and experience based on the conceptual prevalence framework

Patrice Potvin  1 , Pierre Chastenay  1 , François Thibault  1 , Martin Riopel  1 , Emmanuel Ahr  1 , Lorie-Marlène Brault Foisy  1
Affiliations

An understanding of falling bodies across schooling and experience based on the conceptual prevalence framework

Patrice Potvin et al. Discip Interdscip Sci Educ Res. 2023.

Abstract

In this article, we describe a study conducted online with 953 participants of varying levels of education and, when applicable, science/physics teaching experience. These participants were asked to solve a cognitive task in which many different pairs of objects were presented and to identify which, if any, would touch the ground first when dropped (in atmospheric or non-atmospheric environments). Recorded accuracies and response times allowed us to conduct an analysis based on the conceptual prevalence framework, which posits that the coexistence of conceptual and/or misconceptual resources can produce interference in response production. The results show that the influence of some of them decreases or, more surprisingly, increases with training. In fact, secondary and college physics teachers seem to cultivate some of them, and most likely have contributed to their spread. The implications for teaching and research are discussed.

Keywords: Coexistence; Conceptual attractors; Falling bodies; Misconceptions; Physics; Response times.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

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Recomposition of the “overlapping waves model”, by Siegler (1996)
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A few important slides from the instructions
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A few more slides from the instructions
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An example of a trial (this time on Earth): Trial 40
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Stimuli 6 and 7
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General accuracies
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Adherence and interference for MASS
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Adherence and interference for SIMULTANEOUS
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Adherence and interference for PARACHUTE
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Adherence to GALILEO
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Adherence to MASS-DRAG
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Stimuli 56 and 64
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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