Individual differences in conceptions of physical phenomena are frequently seen in
normal adolescents. The individual differences may be based on isolated conceptual
entities or deeper implicit theories. This study investigated whether there is an
implicit theory of gravity underlying adolescents’ performance on a local
gravity task, Piaget’s Water Level Task, and their understanding of
planetary gravity. These two tasks and three measures of intellectual ability were
administered to 80 adolescents between the 6th and 9th grade. The two gravity
concepts were highly correlated (r = .51, P .001) and the
correlation could not be explained by a common relation with intellectual abilities.
Furthermore, the pattern of correlation with abilities did not differ significantly
for the two tasks. The results are consistent with a notion of a general implicit
theory of gravity that may underlie quite divergent tasks.
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