Ontological knowledge structure of intuitive biology

Abstract

It has become increasingly important for individuals to understand infections disease, as there has been a tremendous rise in viral and bacterial disease. This research examines systematic misconceptions regarding the characteristics of viruses and bacteria present in individuals previously educated in biological sciences at a college level. 90 pre-nursing students were administered the Knowledge Acquisition Device (KAD) which consists of 100 True/False items that included statements about the possible attributes of four entities: bacteria, virus, amoeba, and protein. Thirty pre-nursing students, who incorrectly stated that viruses were alive, were randomly assigned to three conditions. (1) exposed to information about the ontological nature of viruses, (2) Information about viruses, (3) control. In the condition that addressed the ontological nature of a virus, all of those participants were able to classify viruses correctly as not alive; however any items that required inferences, such as viruses come in male and female forms or viruses breed with each other to make baby viruses were still incorrectly answered by all conditions in the posttest. It appears that functional knowledge, ex. If a virus is alive or dead, or how it is structured, is not enough for an individual to have a full and accurate understanding of viruses. Ontological knowledge information may alter the functional knowledge but underlying inferences remain systematically incorrect.