HSD-DHBS05 Understanding Conceptual and Cultural Change: The Role of Expertise and Flexibility in Folk Medicine (Norbert O. Ross, Thomas J. Palmeri, David Noelle) This project explores cultural and expertise differences in conceptual knowledge, conceptual learning, and conceptual change in individuals, and explores the computational mechanisms that underlie conceptual knowledge. We bring together tools, techniques, and insights from cognitive psychology, anthropology, and computer science to investigate the dynamics of conceptual knowledge. Intellectual Merit. At the center of the project is an exploration of the multifaceted dynamics of conceptual knowledge about folk medicine. The primary research site is the Highlands of Chiapas, where the researchers will study within- and cross-cultural differences in conceptual knowledge among Tzotzil Maya and Ladinos. This study examines how folkmedical concepts are represented and used by novices and various experts and relate patterns of conceptual agreement to the structure of social and expert networks. Given the isolation of their community, cultural differences are expected between folkmedical concepts of Maya and Ladinos. The researchers will explore short-term dynamics of conceptual change by sponsoring a medical workshop provided by a local NGO and a Vanderbilt physician, consultants on this proposal. Long-term dynamics of conceptual change are explored by examining changes in folkmedical knowledge by expert and novice groups in Pichataro, a Purepecha community that has witnessed significant change over the thirty years since Garro's original research. Thre researchers also explore conceptual knowledge of folkmedicine for Hispanics in the Nashville area, providing a key comparison group to Pitchataro (an area where many US immigrants originate). The project aims to better understand how conceptual knowledge is represented, how it differs among experts and novices, how it is acquired from instruction, observation, and intervention, and how it changes with new experiences. Computational modeling grounds psychological mechanisms in mathematical and computational formalisms, adding rigor to our theories and allowing the complex dynamics of conceptual change to be explored in simulation. New advances in modeling investigate how conceptual knowledge can be incrementally adjusted from new experiences, how causal knowledge is integrated with rule-based and statistical knowledge, and how conceptual models and agent-based models can be integrated. Ultimately,this project will bridge multiple levels of analysis in order to develop an understanding of how cultural processes constrain individual cognition, how cognitive mechanisms contribute to cultural change, and how these mechanisms can be formally characterized in computational models. Broader Impacts. This collaboration will enhances the interdisciplinary perspective of investigators from anthropology, psychology, and computer science, influencing future research, teaching, and public outreach. It trains a new generation of scientists to combine methods, perspectives, and theoretical approaches from different fields. It fosters international ties with researchers in Mexico.While the focus is on the dynamics of conceptual knowledge, a specific understanding of conceptual knowledge about folk medicine could contribute toward educating the public - especially our growing immigrant population - about scientific medical treatments. Furthermore, the project includes Vanderbilt Medical School personnel and will help train a new generation of medical staff to deal with the challenges of attending to an increasing number of patients from different cultural settings.
