{"pk":29554,"title":"Experiential Explanations in Iterated Learning","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Explanations can be divided into two categories: those that appeal to general principles (abstractive) and those that tella concrete story (experiential) (Aronowitz & Lombrozo, 2019). Most psychological research has focused on abstractiveexplanations, identifying the benefits of abstraction for transfer (Ratterman, Genter & DeLoache, 1987;1989), prediction(Pacer & Lombrozo, 2017), and even cooperation (Burgoon, Henders & Markman, 2013). So why do we sometimesexplain in a less abstract, more narrative mode? Study 1 (N = 195) and Study 2 (N = 843) explore scientific explanationsand find that abstractive and experiential explanations (matched for quality) are transmitted along a chain of people withcomparable fidelity. However, over repeated transmission, experiential explanations become significantly more abstract -whereas abstractive explanations do not drift. Study 3 turns from science to human behavior to test the hypothesis thatexperiential explanations have mnemonic and other cognitive advantages in more narrative domains.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[],"section":"Poster Session 1","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4nf8w8zf","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Sara","middle_name":"","last_name":"Aronowitz","name_suffix":"","institution":"Princeton University","department":""},{"first_name":"Casey","middle_name":"","last_name":"Lewry","name_suffix":"","institution":"Princeton University","department":""},{"first_name":"Tania","middle_name":"","last_name":"Lombrozo","name_suffix":"","institution":"Princeton University","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2020-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/29554/galley/19414/download/"}]}