Previous studies have revealed that "neuromyths," which are misconceptions about the brain, show a high prevalence among teachers in different countries. However, little is known about the origin of these ideas; that is to say, the sources that may influence their presence among teachers. This research aims to identify the prevalence of…

Base-rate neglect refers to the tendency for people to underweight base-rate probabilities in favor of diagnostic information. It is commonly held that base-rate neglect occurs because effortful (Type 2) reasoning is required to process base-rate information, whereas diagnostic information is accessible to fast, intuitive (Type 1) processing…

We examined short-term changes in younger and older adults' control beliefs. Participants completed measures of general and memory-specific competence and locus of control on 10 bi-monthly occasions. At each occasion, participants rated their control beliefs prior to and following completion of a battery of cognitive tasks. Exposure to the set of…

Reports on a study of 198 Canadian children, ages 4-8, on their understanding of the role of evidence on the formation of beliefs. Finds that younger children evaluate opinions based on their own beliefs about the situation; older children tend to ascribe knowledge to others on the basis of evidence available to those others. (CFR)

This exploratory study was aimed at uncovering children's beliefs and ideas about the human circulatory system. Thirty-two subjects, aged 7 to 14 years, were interviewed using a modification of Piaget's clinical method. The data were analyzed by developing a conceptual inventory of beliefs for each of five research questions. It was found that the…