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…

Students have misconceptions about many scientific topics they encounter in the classroom--such misconceptions are especially rife in subjects with counterintuitive concepts. Several studies have copiously documented students' misconceptions in different science domains. Research shows that students' misconceptions can be resistant to change and…