Poster #26 - Getting a Grasp of Psychological Evidence: Examining Students' Evaluative Practices and Meta-Epistemic Understanding

• In Event: 15.062 - MTCC Poster Session One
  In Poster Session: 15.062-2 - Contemporary Issues in Motivation Research Models of Motivation: Theoretical and Applied Advances

Abstract

The spread of disinformation in the “post-truth” era has highlighted the importance of cultivating citizens’ competency to critically evaluate popular accounts of scientific evidence. Our study extended research on evidence evaluation from the natural sciences to psychological research. We examined students’ capacity to evaluate psychological evidence, and investigated how an undergraduate introductory course to psychology can be designed to support students’ evidence evaluation competence. Students participated in three collaborative online tasks, centered on critically evaluating psychological evidence from popular sources and planning scientific studies. Analyses of pre and post evidence evaluation assessments revealed a growing tendency to evaluate evidence according to scientific norms and a narrowing gap between participants’ evaluative practices and their understandings of the nature of psychological research.

Authors

• Gideon Dishon, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Sarit Barzilai, University of Haifa