Testing the independent effects of refutations and summaries on understanding

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present experiment explored the independent effects of refutations and summaries to prevent student misunderstandings when learning from an introductory psychology text on cognitive dissonance. Explicitly presenting and refuting a common misconception about cognitive dissonance did not improve performance on comprehension questions that required understanding of the topic, but adding a final summary paragraph did. The present findings suggest that explanations that aid the integration of correct ideas within a student’s mental model of a phenomenon are more important for supporting conceptual understanding than just the co-activation and recognition of correct and incorrect conceptions.