E. Margaret Evans, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Scientist, CHGD;
Lecturer, Department of Psychology;
Adjunct Asst Research Scientist,
UM Exhibit Museum of Natural History
http://www.umich.edu/~evansem/

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Cognitive Development
Culture and Development
Science and Religion

Preschool and elementary-school children's acquisition of knowledge of the world around them is one of the most impressive achievements of conceptual development. Examples include psychological knowledge of self and others, biological knowledge of plants and animals, and mathematical knowledge. In recent years, I have examined this sort of knowledge acquisition in terms of a) the emergence of intuitive causal explanations or theories, and b) the influence of certain contexts, primarily those of culture, religious belief, and school. Children's causal intuitions provide the foundation for their understanding of the major domains of inquiry they encounter in school settings, from science to religion to literature. How such skeletal intuitions are elaborated and transformed over the elementary school years is the focus of my research.

Currently, Evans is Co-PI with the New York Hall of Science on a new NSF grant, which will determine whether informal museum-based exhibits, such as object theater, prepare children to accept the scientific basis of evolution, by targeting their intuitive pre-evolutionary concepts.

Margaret Evans has received grants from the Spencer Foundation and the National Science Foundation to study the cognitive and cultural factors influencing the early acquisition of evolutionary concepts.