Mental Fluid Transformation: Thinking Beyond Mental Rigid and Non-Rigid Transformation

Building on previous work to understand mental transformation of solid objects, our work aims to contribute to theory on how individuals visualize fluid transformation. Working at the intersection of discipline-based research in fluid-Earth sciences (oceanography and atmospheric science) and cognitive science, we began by characterizing students’ mental models of fluids in solid body rotation. Using a common pedagogical tool of oceanography and atmospheric science instructors—large water filled rotating tanks—we conducted semi-structured, interactive interviews in conjunction with demonstrations of solid body fluid rotation to elicit participants’ sketched predictions and explanations of their reasoning. We used emergent coding to analyze the data and found that participants confidently predicted fluid behavior; however, their predictions were highly inaccurate, much to the participants’ surprise. These results suggest that the behavior of rotating fluids is unintuitive, and that the mind adopts prior experiences with fluids to fill the gap. We suggest that a better understanding of how humans reason about fluids can inform the cognitive science of event processing and suggest that framing mental transformation using an event perspective may be a productive approach.