title: Children's and adults' understanding of the impact of nutrition on biological and psychological processes.
abstract: Four studies examined children's and adults' beliefs about the impact of nutrition on growth and mood states. In Studies 1 and 2, 271 participants (preschoolers through adults) judged the impact of healthy and unhealthy nutrition on height and weight. In Studies 3 and 4, 267 participants judged the impact of healthy and unhealthy nutrition on positive and negative mood states. The results suggest that young children demonstrate a co-existence of an ontologically distinct theory of biology as well as a theory of cross-domain interaction when reasoning about the impact of food on biological and psychological processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Lakshmi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Raman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension; D003210:Concept Formation; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009752:Nutritional Status; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: causal reasoning; concept formation; naïve biological theories