The study of explanation, while related to intuitive theories, concepts, and mental models, offers important new perspectives on high-level thought. Explanations sort themselves into several distinct types corresponding to patterns of causation, content domains, and explanatory stances, all of which have cognitive consequences. Although explanations are necessarily incomplete—often dramatically so in laypeople—those gaps are difficult to discern. Despite such gaps and the failure to recognize them fully, people do have skeletal explanatory senses, often implicit, of the causal structure of the world. They further leverage those skeletal understandings by knowing how to access additional explanatory knowledge in other minds and by being particularly adept at using situational support to build explanations on the fly in real time. Across development and cultures, there are differences in preferred explanatory schemes, but rarely are any kinds of schemes completely unavailable to a group.

Explanation and Understanding

https://www3.nd.edu/~ghaeffel/Resistance.pdf

Why many clinical psychologists are resistant to evidence-based practice: Root causes and constructive remedies☆

Students often come into the introductory psychology course with many misconceptions and leave with most of them intact. Borrowing from other disciplines, we set out to determine whether refutational lecture and text are effective in dispelling student misconceptions. These approaches first activate a misconception and then immediately counter it with correct information. We tested students' knowledge of 45 common misconceptions and then taught the course with lecture and readings of a refutational or standard format or did not cover the information at all. Students showed significant changes in their beliefs when we used refutational approaches, suggesting refutational pedagogies are best for changing students' misconceptions.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00986280902959986

The Effect of Refuting Misconceptions in the Introductory Psychology Class

The goal of perceptual systems is to allow organisms to adaptively respond to ecologically relevant stimuli. Because all perceptual inputs are ambiguous, perception needs to rely on prior knowledge accumulated over evolutionary and developmental time to turn sensory energy into information useful for guiding behavior. It remains controversial whether the guidance of perception extends to cognitive states or is locked up in a “cognitively impenetrable” part of perception. I argue that expectations, knowledge, and task demands can shape perception at multiple levels, leaving no part untouched. The position advocated here is broadly consistent with the notion that perceptual systems strive to minimize prediction error en route to globally optimal solutions (Clark Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36(3):181–204, 2013). On this view, penetrability should be expected whenever constraining lower-level processes by higher level knowledge is minimizes global prediction error. Just as Fodor feared (e.g., Fodor Philosophy of Science 51:23–43, 1984, Philosophy of Science 51:23–43, 1988) cognitive penetration of perception threatens theory-neutral observation and the distinction between observation and inference. However, because theories themselves are constrained by the task of minimizing prediction error, theory-laden observation turns out to be superior to theory-free observation in turning sensory energy into useful information.

/pdf/cognitive-penetrability-of-perception-in-the-age-of-4rd0sk7uam.pdf

Cognitive penetrability of perception in the age of prediction: Predictive systems are penetrable systems.

Studentsoftencomeintotheintroductorypsychologycourse with many misconceptions and leave with most of them intact. Borrowing from other disciplines, we set out to determine whether refutational lecture and text are effective in dispelling student misconceptions. These approaches first activate a misconception and then immediately counter it with correct information. We tested students’ knowledge of 45 common misconceptions and then taught the course with lecture and readings of a refutational or standard format or did not cover the information at all. Students showed significant changes in their beliefs when we used refutational approaches, suggesting refutational pedagogies are best for changing students’ misconceptions.

/pdf/topical-articles-the-effect-of-refuting-misconceptions-in-hjaxsvnj35.pdf

TOPICAL ARTICLES The Effect of Refuting Misconceptions in the Introductory Psychology Class

The authors reviewed research about a profound misconception that is present among college students, namely, the belief that the process of vision includes emanations from the eyes, an idea that is consistent with the extramission theory of perception, which was originally professed by early Greek philosophers and which persisted in scholarly circles for centuries. The authors document the strength and breadth of this phenomenon and the object failure of traditional educational techniques to overcome this belief, and they reveal that students are leaving psychology courses with a flawed understanding of one of the most studied processes in the history of psychology--visual perception. Some suggestions are offered for overcoming this misconception in traditional college classroom settings.

/pdf/fundamentally-misunderstanding-visual-perception-adults-2y2ji5be45.pdf

Lori A. Bica

Papers

Fundamentally misunderstanding visual perception. Adults' belief in visual emissions.

Do adults believe in visual emissions