2020 Volume 68 Issue 3 Pages 279-294
The present study examined effects of presenting a rule showing demarcation that informed learners of the validity of both their past experiences and scientific information, with conditions attached. The participants in the research were junior college and university students. It was hypothesized that the rule model would be more effective than presenting only scientific information in inhibiting from rebounding participants' prior responses that had been based on misconceptions. In addition, continuing to assert the misconceptions before the learning session was hypothesized to be more effective than accepting the scientific information in advance, because doing so was hypothesized to control rebound that otherwise might have occurred because of cognitive conflict in the learning session. However, in the first experiment, neither of these hypotheses was supported. Thus, the procedures were changed for the second experiment as follows: (a) information about the learners' past experiences was presented at the beginning, and (b) a picture was used to emphasize the validity of the scientific information. The results of the second experiment identified effects of the rule showing demarcation for controlling rebound and for rectifying the participants' misconceptions. Maintaining the misconceptions before the learning session also appeared to control rebound.
