Year: 2011
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The goal of the present experiments was to explore the underlying cognitive processes that support individual belief revision. In three experiments the amount of relevant information pertaining to a misconception was systematically manipulated to assess the impact of text refuting a misconception and text explaining the correct information. Experiment I assessed the impact of the refutation. Experiment II assessed the joint impact of the refutation and the explanation. Finally, Experiment III assessed the impact of the explanation. Experiment I demonstrated that providing a refutation section that explicitly negated the misconception was sufficient to eliminate disruption when reading a sentence that contained the correct information. When the explanation was provided in Experiment II, the effect of the refutation increased significantly. Experiment III provided a close replication of effects found in Experiment II. The results of all three experiments support the use of text to enable the initial stages of belief revision.
Author: Erinn K. Walsh
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W561640903