Using a new method for examining parental explanations in a laboratory setting, the prompted explanation task, this study examines how characteristics of parental explanations about biology relate to children's knowledge. Parents (N = 148; M_age = 38; 84% female, 16% male; 67% having completed college) of children ages 7–10 (M_age = 8.92; 47% female, 53% male; 58% White, 9.5% Black, 9.5% Asian) provided answers to eight how and why questions about biology. Parents used a number of different approaches to address the questions, including providing more mechanistic responses to how questions and more teleological responses to why questions. The characteristics of parental explanations—most notably, how frequently parents provided correct responses—predicted children's performance on measures of verbal intelligence and biological knowledge. Additional exploratory analyses and implications for children's learning are discussed.

中文翻译：

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“为什么狗会喘气？”：父母对科学的解释特征预测孩子的知识

使用一种在实验室环境中检查父母解释的新方法，即提示解释任务，本研究检查了父母对生物学的解释的特征如何与儿童的知识相关。7-10 岁儿童的父母（N  = 148；M_年龄 = 38；84% 女性，16% 男性；67% 已完成大学教育）（M_年龄 = 8.92；47% 女性，53% 男性；58% 白人，9.5 % Black, 9.5% Asian) 提供了关于生物学的八个如何和为什么问题的答案。家长们使用了许多不同的方法来解决这些问题，包括对如何问题提供更机械的回答，以及对为什么提供更多目的论的回答问题。父母解释的特征——最值得注意的是，父母提供正确回答的频率——预测了孩子在言语智力和生物学知识方面的表现。讨论了额外的探索性分析和对儿童学习的影响。