Qualitative changes in intuitive biology

Recent studies on children's intuitive biology have indicated that a form of autonomous biology is acquired early in childhood and that later qualitative changes occur within the domain. In this article we focus on two of such changes: (a) In predicting behaviors and attributing properties to an animate object, young children rely on the target's similarity to people, whereas older children and adults use its category membership and category-behavior (or property) associations; and (b) The modes of explanation change from vitalistic to mechanistic. Whereas young children prefer vitalistic explanations, older children and adults like mechanistic explanations better. We present some experimental findings for these changes. We also indicate how social contexts induce or enhance conceptual change. We discuss three theoretical issues: implications for conceptual change in biology, for conceptual change in general, and for biology instruction.