Mazzuca Claudia, Arcovito Marta, Falcinelli Ilenia, Fini Chiara, Borghi Anna M
Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome.
Department of Ancient and Modern Civilisations, University of Messina.
Cogn Sci. 2025 Aug;49(8):e70094. doi: 10.1111/cogs.70094.
Conceptual representations can be shaped by multiple factors, including expertise. In this study, we tested whether the concept of water is represented differently across laypeople and chemists, focusing on psychological essentialism. Essentialized categories are thought to be determined by internal factors (e.g., chemical composition). Previous research suggests laypeople do not essentialize "water." Here, we sought to verify whether extensive experience with chemicals might lead to more essentialist conceptions. In the first two experiments, participants provided HO estimates, typicality, centrality, and frequency ratings for water examples, which showed that chemists partially incorporate HO in their conceptual representation of "water." Experiment 3 underlined qualitative differences in the semantic organization of "water" across the two groups using similarity ratings. Experiment 4 consolidated these results with a sentence acceptability task, underlying the importance of chemical composition in determining what counts as "water" for chemists. Finally, Experiment 5 showed that laypeople consider both "HO" and "water" as more abstract compared to chemists. Our results provide evidence on the variability of both psychological essentialism and conceptual representation overall, which can vary as a function of expertise.
概念表征可能受到多种因素的影响，包括专业知识。在本研究中，我们测试了外行和化学家对“水”的概念表征是否不同，重点关注心理本质主义。本质化类别被认为是由内部因素（如化学成分）决定的。先前的研究表明外行不会将“水”本质化。在此，我们试图验证对化学物质的丰富经验是否可能导致更本质主义的概念。在前两个实验中，参与者对水的例子提供了化学式估计、典型性、中心性和频率评级，结果表明化学家在其“水”的概念表征中部分纳入了化学式。实验3使用相似性评级强调了两组之间“水”的语义组织的质性差异。实验4通过句子可接受性任务巩固了这些结果，突显了化学成分在确定对化学家而言什么算作“水”方面的重要性。最后，实验5表明，与化学家相比，外行认为“化学式”和“水”都更抽象。我们的结果提供了关于心理本质主义和总体概念表征的变异性的证据，其可能因专业知识而异。
