HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW - EARLY CONCEPTUALIZATION OF SEEDS AND THEIR PLACE IN THE PLANT-GROWTH CYCLE

Although an increasing body of research supports the view that preschoolers hold theory-like conceptions in the biological domain, most studies concerned have focused exclusively on early conceptions of animals and humans. As a complement to such research, the present studies examined 4-year-olds' conceptualization of seeds, a key stage of plant growth, itself a critical biological process. Study 1 examined judgments about seed origins and growth preconditions, in order to tap early understanding of causal mechanisms pertaining to plant growth. Studies 2 and 3 examined specific understandings of the relations that hold among the distinct stages of growth (seed, plant, flower, fruit). Overall, children demonstrated an impressive grasp of seeds and their place in the growth cycle. By age 41/2 years, children realized that natural causal mechanisms and not other sorts (e.g., human intervention) underlie growth, appreciated the unique relation of seeds to the plant domain, and demonstrated an emerging grasp of growth's cyclical nature. Together, these findings suggest that preschoolers may hold theory-like understandings of plants similar to those they hold of animals and humans.