Vocabulary:photons embedded in rainbow

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sg2019
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Vocabulary:photons embedded in rainbow

Postby sg2019 » Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:26 pm

I really feel :oops: asking another "visual referents" question . . .
My participants watched videos where I expect them to incidentally learn the meaning of the word "photon". It occurred 32 times, for each occurrence, I have to check whether the contiguous image on screen corresponds/represents/facilitates the meaning of that word.

One of the segments shows a rainbow while the speaker is explaining photons and their colours. If a participant has no idea what photon means, can I count the rainbow image as a visual referent in which photon meaning is embedded? :idea: I.e. does rainbow help, even in the slightest way, the student to learn/reinforce/recall the meaning of photons.
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Re: Vocabulary:photons embedded in rainbow

Postby DaraghM » Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:41 pm

No.
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Re: Vocabulary:photons embedded in rainbow

Postby 白田龍 » Wed Jan 16, 2019 2:06 pm

Methinks not. You will need to theach them physics or they'll never get it.
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sg2019
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Re: Vocabulary:photons embedded in rainbow

Postby sg2019 » Wed Jan 16, 2019 5:20 pm

白田龍 wrote:Methinks not. You will need to theach them physics or they'll never get it.


The text in the video is teaching them physics and what photon means. Does the rainbow reinforce this understanding?
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Re: Vocabulary:photons embedded in rainbow

Postby Iversen » Wed Jan 16, 2019 6:14 pm

If you want people to understand what a rainbow is you have first to tell (or show) them how light is split up according to its wawelength when it passes a prism, and with a bit of luck they can then see the similarity between water droplets and tiny prisms. It will be easier to see the behaviour of light (both as a wawe as a stream of photons with different energy) when you show the simpler case first. However I doubt that they will think "photon" even if shown a prism (or rainbow) if they hadn't heard about photons already. Maybe you should start with pictures of Bohr's model of the hydrogen atom first, and then proceed to prisms and rainbows from there.
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Re: Vocabulary:photons embedded in rainbow

Postby sg2019 » Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:30 am

Iversen wrote:However I doubt that they will think "photon" even if shown a prism (or rainbow) if they hadn't heard about photons already. Maybe you should start with pictures of Bohr's model of the hydrogen atom first, and then proceed to prisms and rainbows from there.


The material was 8 hours exposure to L2 subtitled videos of documentary series. I have no control over the videos (Students are exposed to full-length episodes). I only have to analyse the visual referents of every target word. Yes, the participants did not know the word photon prior to the experiment. But once the video started, photon occurred 32 times, in the text there is explanation to photons prior to seeing the rainbow. It's just that I am not sure whether rainbow also reinforces this meaning to count it as a visual referent as well.
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Re: Vocabulary:photons embedded in rainbow

Postby Cainntear » Thu Jan 17, 2019 7:14 pm

sg2019 wrote:It's just that I am not sure whether rainbow also reinforces this meaning to count it as a visual referent as well.

Well, put it this way... does a picture of a glass of water reinforce the meaning of atom?

If not, how can a picture of a rainbow reinforce photon?
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Re: Vocabulary:photons embedded in rainbow

Postby sg2019 » Thu Jan 17, 2019 7:52 pm

Cainntear wrote:If not, how can a picture of a rainbow reinforce photon?

Because photon is a particle of light?
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Re: Vocabulary:photons embedded in rainbow

Postby Cainntear » Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:39 pm

sg2019 wrote:
Cainntear wrote:If not, how can a picture of a rainbow reinforce photon?

Because photon is a particle of light?

A rainbow is made of light, a photon is a particle of light.
Water is made of molecules, an atom is a part of a molecule.

So a glass of water is as much a picture of "atom" as a rainbow is a picture of "photon". But you wouldn't use a glass of water to represent "atom".
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Re: Vocabulary:photons embedded in rainbow

Postby Random Review » Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:28 pm

Cainntear wrote:
sg2019 wrote:
Cainntear wrote:If not, how can a picture of a rainbow reinforce photon?

Because photon is a particle of light?

A rainbow is made of light, a photon is a particle of light.
Water is made of molecules, an atom is a part of a molecule.

So a glass of water is as much a picture of "atom" as a rainbow is a picture of "photon". But you wouldn't use a glass of water to represent "atom".


While I would broadly agree with everyone saying that it doesn't count, I have to say that personally "photon" is definitely closer to "rainbow" in my mental network of concepts than "water" is to "atom". What counts is presumably not that the relationship is formally (almost) the same but how closely (or not) the two concepts are connected in most people's minds. For just one example example both "photon" and "rainbow" are directly linked to school Physics class in my mind. As another example, both also make me think of a book called The Rainbow and the Worm.* Two personally significant examples of a few short links I can think of.
In contrast I can only think of quite tenuous, distant links between my concept of "water" and my concept of "atom". The very closest I can think of all have 3 (not very personal) links:

Water --> 4 elements --> Greek philosophy--> atom
Water --> 4 elements --> modern scientific concept of elements ---> atom

Of course this will vary from person to person; but I don't think I'm that atypical.

I doubt it's close enough to significantly reinforce the word "photon"; but the OP does say "even in the slightest way".

* Sadly, I never read it. It was just high up on my list.
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