DIPF, Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education.
Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk (IDeA).
Child Dev. 2021 Sep;92(5):2128-2141. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13582. Epub 2021 May 10.
Misconceptions about scientific concepts often prevail even if learners are confronted with conflicting evidence. This study tested the facilitative role of surprise in children's revision of misconceptions regarding water displacement in a sample of German children (N = 94, aged 6-9 years, 46% female). Surprise was measured via the pupil dilation response. It was induced by letting children generate predictions before presenting them with outcomes that conflicted with their misconception. Compared to a control condition, generating predictions boosted children's surprise and led to a greater revision of misconceptions (d = 0.56). Surprise further predicted successful belief revision during the learning phase. These results suggest that surprise increases the salience of a cognitive conflict, thereby facilitating the revision of misconceptions.
即使学习者面临相互矛盾的证据，他们对科学概念的误解也常常盛行。本研究在德国儿童样本中（N=94，年龄 6-9 岁，女性占 46%）测试了惊讶在儿童纠正关于水置换的误解方面的促进作用。惊讶是通过瞳孔扩张反应来衡量的。通过让孩子们在呈现与他们的误解相矛盾的结果之前进行预测来产生惊讶。与控制条件相比，生成预测会增加孩子的惊讶感，并导致更多误解的修正（d=0.56）。惊讶进一步预测了学习阶段中成功的信念修正。这些结果表明，惊讶增加了认知冲突的显著性，从而促进了误解的修正。
