Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

In three experiments, we investigated the effect of repeated exposure and social interaction on adults' tendency to make sense of novel events. Specifically, we examined whether, across trials, participants' observations shifted from descriptive to explanatory, from specific to generic, became more inclined to reference causes, and more evaluative. We found that while there was an effect of repeated exposure on generalization and of social interaction on both explanation and generalization, the intervention that was most likely to shift adults' sense-making behavior was a communicative context of small groups in which each participant had partial and different knowledge. We suggest that this is because social contexts inherently motivate individuals to integrate new information, reconcile discrepancies, and forge efficient, generalizable concepts.