In stock-flow relationships inflows and outflows of a stock accumulate over time. Previous studies have shown people’s poor understanding of accumulation. This study examines the relationship between performance in a stock-flow experiment and depth of information processing. Half of the participants read a text about the dangers of climate change to prompt deeper processing (and understanding) of the following stock-flow task. Then they were given one of two scenarios in which the atmospheric carbon dioxide level rose/fell from year 2000 and stabilized at a higher/lower level until the year 2100. They had to choose the correct carbon dioxide emissions and uptake trajectory in order to realize the development of the carbon dioxide level in their scenario. Performance was low. More than half of the participants chose emission trajecto-ries similar to the shape of the atmospheric carbon dioxide curve which is an indication for pattern matching. Giving participants information about the dangers of climate change did not increase their performance.
Contents
Abstract
1 Introduction
2 Theoretical background
2.1 The carbon cycle
2.2 The climate system
2.3 Climate change
2.4 Public beliefs about climate change
2.5 Stock-flow processes
2.6 Aim of this study and hypotheses
3 Method
3.1 Participants
3.2 Task description
4 Results
4.1 Preliminary analyses
4.2 Results regarding demographic variables
4.2.1 Ordinal data
4.2.2 Binary data
4.3 Results regarding the hypotheses
4.4 Qualitative analysis
5 Discussion
6 Conclusion
7 List of figures
8 References
- Quote paper
- Marie-Rose Degg (Author), 2017, Depth of information processing as a moderator to mental models of climate change, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/448864
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