[Virtual Service] Science vs. Intuition: Why Scientific Ideas Elude the Human Mind

Due to the Annual Antiques and Modernism Show at the Community House, when we do not have access to Room 101, our service this week and next will be via Zoom.  You will receive the link in the weekly email.

Andrew Shtulman, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Occidental College in Los Angeles, will speak on the topic, Science vs. Intuition: Why Scientific Ideas Elude the Human Mind.  Scientific ideas are difficult to teach, difficult to learn, and difficult to accept as true because they frequently contradict our intuitive theories of how the world works.  Often these theories were constructed in childhood but retained across the lifespan, influencing our thinking even as adults. Shtulman will discuss what intuitive theories are, where they come from, and why they blind us to more accurate theories of the world.

Andrew Shtulman is a cognitive developmental psychologist who studies conceptual development and change, particularly as they relate to science education.  His research explores both the acquisition of domain-specific concepts and the development of domain-general inference strategies.  His work has appeared in such journals as Cognition, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Child Development, and Journal of Educational Psychology, and he is the recipient of an Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation and an Understanding Human Cognition Scholar Award from the James S. McDonnell Foundation.  Dr. Shtulman is also the author of Scienceblind: Why Our Intuitive Theories About the World Are So Often Wrong (Basic Books, 2017).

Click here to request the Zoom link.