Specific Misconceptions Research Articles

Knowledge and behaviour related to oral health among secondary school students in Khartoum Province, Sudan

This study explores secondary school students in the Khartoum Province, Sudan, with respect to frequency and quality of use and the socio-demographic distribution of oral health knowledge and behaviour. Six secondary schools were selected at random and 10% of the students enrolled in each class (3 grades) were randomly selected to participate. A total of 400 students (207 boys) (mean age 15.3 years) were selected, of which 396 completed questionnaires at school. 44.3% boys and 42.5% girls scored highly on knowledge of caries. The corresponding rates regarding knowledge of gingivitis were 39.2% and 47.0%, respectively. Tooth brushing and use of miswak > or = 2 times a day was confirmed by 67.2% boys and 75.5% girls and by 64.3% boys and 52% girls, respectively. Living in a town, having received oral health information and having a mother of medium education were associated with higher odds for being knowledgeable about tooth decay. There is gender equality in knowledge and practise of oral hygiene among secondary school students in Khartoum Province. Awareness of oral health issues is high, but specific misconceptions exist. Mother's education might be used as a social marker in oral health risk group evaluations.

Evaporation in different liquids: secondary students’ conceptions

This study explores secondary school students’ understanding of evaporation and investigates whether students associate the concept of evaporation with only water as a liquid. An open‐ended written test was developed using three different words (water, liquid or alcohol) to state the question phrases. The test was implemented on a sample of 313 students at different levels of schooling. Clinical interviews, in which ethyl alcohol was used as an example of liquids, were also undertaken with 12 students, either individually or as a group. From the collected data, it was found that most of the students at different levels lack understanding of the concept and have several misconceptions. Various misconceptions of the evaporation concept that differ from those cited in the related literature were determined. The most important result was that students’ written responses showed some specific misconceptions when they were presented with the questions using three different words; liquid, water and alcohol.

The role of misconceptions on Latino women's acceptance of emergency contraceptive pills

The goal of this study was to assess factors associated with hormonal emergency contraception (EC) awareness and acceptability among a sample of low-income Latino women receiving care in two university reproductive health clinics. A total of 297 Latino women, 18–43 years of age, completed a survey about EC awareness during a clinic visit, between January and May 2003. Those women with some degree of awareness (n = 73) also completed questions related to their acceptance of EC. Factors examined included language preference, demographic characteristics, pregnancy history, contraceptive use history and knowledge and concerns about EC usage. We found that only 41% of English-speaking and 17% of Spanish-speaking women had ever heard of EC [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 2.9, confidence interval (CI): 1.3, 6.4]. Among those aware of EC, unwillingness to use this method was associated with low levels of knowledge about the EC mechanism of action, but not about the EC regimen (adjusted OR = 0.5; CI: 0.3, 0.9). Specific misconceptions underlying their objections included the belief that women are more likely to get pregnant in the beginning of their cycle compared to the middle (unadjusted OR = 6.3; CI: 1.8, 22.6), and a belief that EC prevents implantation rather than ovulation (unadjusted OR = 5.7; CI: 1.2, 28.1). The extent to which the women considered EC to be morally wrong depended on their misconceptions about the EC mechanism, not on their religious background. The link between expressed moral concerns and incorrect knowledge coupled with its lack of association to religiosity suggests that enhanced education can help to alleviate moral objections, thereby increasing potential usage of EC to prevent unintended pregnancy.

Predictors of misconceptions of Alzheimer's disease among community dwelling elderly

Although discussion of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is increasing in the popular media, knowledge about AD has not been extensively examined. This study analyzes factors associated with knowledge about AD in an elderly sample. Data from a mail survey was sent to a random sample (N=527) of subjects aged 60 and older in the Northwest Indiana metropolitan area. We performed a multiple regression analysis to determine the effect of demographic characteristics, knowledge about services for the elderly, and health information scanning on knowledge about AD. Results indicate that misconceptions of AD are widespread among the elderly population. Race and general knowledge about services for the elderly is associated with specific misconceptions of AD. In addition, a higher education level is associated with fewer misconceptions of AD, while health information scanning is not. These findings suggest that there is a need for accurate information about both AD and community services for older people. Results of these analyses indicate the importance of addressing race and education level when disseminating information about services and AD.

Factors That Influence Personal Perceptions of the Risk of an Acute Myocardial Infarction

Personal risk perceptions of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) affect people's preventive health behaviors as well as their beliefs during a heart attack episode. The authors investigated factors that are associated with personal risk perceptions of having an AMI. A random-digit-dial survey was conducted among 1294 respondents, aged 18 years or older, in 20 communities across the nation as part of the Rapid Early Action for Coronary Treatment (REACT) trial. Results of two mixed-model linear regression analyses suggested that worse perceived general health, more risk factors, and greater knowledge were associated with greater perception of AMI risk. The results also showed that women who answered, incorrectly, that heart disease is not the most common cause of death for women in the United States reported significantly lower risk perceptions than women who answered this question correctly. The findings in this study suggest that interventions need to target specific misconceptions regarding AMI risk.

THE INFLUENCE OF COGNITIVE STYLES ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A MULTIMEDIA TUTOR

The use of multimedia tutors for learning abstract concepts is one means by which students can experience difficult‐to‐simulate situations, often as adjuncts to other forms of instruction. This is particularly useful for developing mental models of phenomena. Another advantage to the use of such tutors is that a student can participate in individually tailored instruction that responds to his or her specific error patterns, misconceptions and learning styles. However, in designing tutorials that respond to individual learning styles, an examination of the relationship between learning styles and performance on tutorials in various scientific disciplines and for different levels of students is needed. This step precedes the development of intelligent tutors that actually respond to individual learning styles (i.e., strategies responsive to particular learning styles are built into the program).

Prospective chemistry teachers' conceptions of the conservation of matter and related concepts

This study investigated the quality and extent of understanding of certain well-known theoretical concepts which prospective teachers of chemistry in Yemen possess. In addition to the concepts of the conservation of atoms and mass, and the mole, the concepts of atomic mass and balancing chemical equations were chosen for this study. An instrument was built first, then administered to 173 junior and senior prospective chemistry teachers. The results showed that the prospective teachers' understandings of most of the concepts ranged from a partial understanding with specific misconception to no understanding. Only on balancing chemical equations did the prospective teachers show good understanding. The results showed that most prospective teachers depended on mere memorization of the concepts without meaningful understanding. It also found that the prospective teachers' knowledge about the concepts was fragmented and not correlated. The study attributed the prospective teachers' misconceptions to defective instruction. Finally, the study concluded that more effective teaching methods are needed to ensure a sound understanding of these concepts. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 181–197, 1997.

Improving the engineering of model tracing based intelligent program diagnosis

The model tracing based approach to intelligent program diagnosis and tutoring emphasises the fact that the student's design decisions are traced as the student develops the program. A system based on this model monitors the user's actions as he/she moves along the solution path, automatically analyses partial solutions for semantic errors and misconceptions, and offers guidance whenever he/she deviates from the correct solution path. In this way, the system always checks to see if the student is following the design path of an ideal model. Buggy paths are pruned as soon as they are discovered. Through this approach to automatic diagnosis and tutoring, a model tracing system can firstly diagnose very specific errors and misconceptions and provide clear advice and explanations within a proper and immediate context; secondly, explicitly guide the user in the process of organising different programming concepts and statements; and thirdly, simplify the engineering of automatic diagnosis by preventing multiple bugs and errors. However, this approach is very directive and interventionist. The user is highly constrained in the solutions that can be developed, as he/she must conform to the task decomposition and coding sequence enforced by model tracing systems. To bypass these pitfalls associated with the traditional model tracing approach, solutions and guidelines are suggested for improving the engineering of model tracing based diagnosis.

At issue: genes, experience, and chance in schizophrenia--positioning for the 21st century.

Genetic factors make important contributions to the etiologies of schizophrenia. The mode of familial inheritance remains unknown, but it is highly likely that multiple genes and idiosyncratic environmental factors are involved. Rapidly evolving genetic technologies have been applied in the genetic analysis of schizophrenia, and several genomic regions have been posited as harboring susceptibility genes. Currently, the strongest evidence implicates chromosomes 6 and 8, but these linkages are not yet confirmed. In this article we discuss genetic risk factors, gene-environment interaction, the feasibility of genetic testing, psychiatric genetic counseling, and the dangers of genetic discrimination as they apply to schizophrenia. We also address and correct specific misconceptions about the genetics of schizophrenia held by many in the scientific community and in the media, and discuss a blueprint for future genetic research and informed dissemination of findings to the public and to lawmakers.

A prospective survey of knowledge and perceptions of ondansetron: what do health care workers know about this drug?

Ondansetron is a relatively new drug whose optimal use is dependent on an understanding of its characteristics and role relative to traditional antiemetics. To assess perceptions and knowledge regarding ondansetron, we conducted a prospective written survey involving 56 physicians, pharmacists, and nurses at this hospital. Pharmacists claimed to be exposed to ondansetron promotion by industry more than the other groups. Apart from industry, pharmacists were considered to be the most common source of drug information. Nurses were less aware of dosage form equivalence than the other groups (p = 0.042). Physicians were more aware of twice daily dosing efficacy than other respondents (p = 0.0006). Nurses were able to better identify the relative duration of antiemetic benefit over metoclopramide (p = 0.008); however, most participants tended to be misinformed on this issue. Pharmacists were more familiar with the side effect profile while physicians were more cognizant of oral (p = 0.001) and parenteral (p = 0.018) drug costs than other groups. Overall, survey scores for physicians and pharmacists were higher than those for nurses (p = 0.007). There is an apparent difference across health care profession disciplines in the perceptions and knowledge about ondansetron. Specific misconceptions could lead to suboptimal drug use and warrant efforts to ensure a good understanding of the attributes and relative role of this agent.

Schizophrenia in popular periodicals

To examine what the general public is learning about schizophrenia, all articles on schizophrenia listed in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature for all even-numbered years between 1964 and 1992 were read and rated. Hallucinations and delusions were the most commonly mentioned symptoms in the articles reviewed, biochemical dysfunction and heredity the most noted causes, and drugs the most cited treatment. The average yearly number of articles was relatively small, however (9.1), and only a minority of those appeared in general circulation magazines. In addition, community support was seldom included in discussions of treatment and specific misconceptions about schizophrenia were rarely addressed.

Understandings and misunderstandings of eighth graders of five chemistry concepts found in textbooks

AbstractThe research reported in this study was designed to answer three questions: (a) What misconceptions do eighth grade students have concerning the chemistry concepts from their textbooks. (b) How is reasoning ability related to misconceptions concerning chemistry concepts. (c) How effective are textbooks in teaching an understanding of chemistry concepts? Five chemistry concepts were used in the study: chemical change, dissolution, conservation of atoms, periodicity, and phase change. Problems concerning the five concepts were given to 247 eighth‐grade students in order to assess the students' degree of understanding of chemistry concepts and to identify specific misconceptions. Two pencil‐and‐paper Piaget‐type tasks were used to assess intellectual level. A comparison of intellectual level and scores on the chemistry concepts showed moderate correlations. However, the small number of formal operational students in the sample makes these results inconclusive. A study of the level of understanding of the five chemistry concepts and the nature of the misconceptions held by students indicate a general failure of textbooks to teach a reasonable understanding of chemistry concepts.

Ethnic Differences in Knowledge of AIDS Transmission and Attitudes towards Gays and People with AIDS

Epidemiological studies have shown disproportionately elevated risk rates of AIDS among Hispanics and blacks, particularly among the heterosexual population. Intense preventive education has resulted in dramatic infection reduction among the gay population. Yet these educational efforts aimed at the gay population failed to reach many of the minority population at risk. This study looked at some structural and cultural factors that might be preventing beneficial effects generated from existing educational programs designed to prevent AIDS. The same variables were compared among whites and Hispanics. The research showed that while all groups had a high level of knowledge regarding AIDS transmission, Hispanics had many misconceptions about the way AIDS is transmitted. In this study, Hispanics were not more intolerant toward homosexuals than whites; nor were they more intolerant towards people with AIDS. Thus AIDS education campaigns directed towards Hispanics need to be designed to address specific misconceptions regarding AIDs transmission. Homophobia does not appear to be an insurmountable barrier preventing Hispanics from dealing with this topic.

A survey of common misconceptions about head injury and recovery

A survey questionnaire composed of 25 statements about head injury and recovery was administered to 221 individuals at a large regional shopping mall. Survey items were categorized into domains pertaining to the use of seatbelts, the nature of unconsciousness, the nature of amnesia, characteristics associated with brain injury, and recovery from brain injury. An additional 8 survey items inquired about the sources from which people obtained their knowledge, extent of personal experience with brain injury, occupational status, educational status, residential status, and their use of seatbelts. Results indicate substantial levels of misconception about the nature of unconsciousness, amnesia, and recovery, but surprisingly few misconceptions about seatbelts and the effects of brain damage. These findings corroborate clinical observations of gross misconceptions reported in the literature. Specific misconceptions appeared with comparable frequencies across the age groups studied, which indicates that family education for patients in rehabilitation needs to target all members of a family, rather than a designated primary caregiver.

DIAGNOSING STUDENTS' ERRORS FROM THEIR RESPONSE SELECTIONS IN LANGUAGE ARTS

This set of studies examined the consistency of student response patterns on a test of language arts, as a first step toward designing a computerized adaptive test to diagnose errors. A diagnostic domain‐referenced language arts test was designed so that the choice of response would immediately point to a specific misconception in pronoun usage. This direct correspondence between error and diagnosis was designed to facilitate classroom instruction and remediation. Analysis of students' response choices on matched items and analysis of students' rationales for selecting their responses showed that student behavior was not always consistent and could be used to diagnose some errors but not others.

High school students' understanding of food webs: Identification of a learning hierarchy and related misconceptions

AbstractDeveloping an understanding of the nature of food webs is an important topic in today's biology curricula. The relationships represented in a food web are rule‐like in nature. Hence, it should be possible to construct a learning hierarchy for this concept. A hierarchy leading to the ability to determine how a change in the size of one population can affect another population in the same web but not on the same chain was hypothesized. Data from 200 subjects were extremely consistent with the hierarchy. A second major focus related to the identification of specific misconceptions held by subjects for food webs. The need to identify students' misconceptions of important concepts has been expressed widely in the recent science education literature. In the present article, an argument is presented for the usefulness of learning hierarchies in this work. Specific misconceptions and the frequencies of their occurrence are reported.

Cognitive therapy: Nature and relation to behavior therapy

Recent innovations in behavior modification have, for the most part, detoured around the role of cognitive processes in the production and alleviation of symptomatology. Although self-reports of private experiences are not verifiable by other observers, these introspective data provide a wealth of testable hypotheses Repeated correlations of measures of inferred constructs with observable behaviors have yielded consistent findings in the predicted direction. Systematic study of self-reports suggests that an individual's belief systems, expectancies, and assumptions exert a strong influence on his state of well-being, as well as on his directly observable behavior. Applying a cognitive model, the clinician may usefully construe neurotic behavior in terms of the patient's idiosyncratic concepts of himself and of his animate and inanimate environment. The individual's belief systems may be grossly contradictory; i.e., he may simultaneously attach credence to both realistic and unrealistic conceptualizations of the same event or object. This inconsistency in beliefs may explain, for example, why an individual may react with fear to an innocuous situation even though he may concomitantly acknowledge that this fear is unrealistic. Cognitive therapy, based on cognitive theory, is designed to modify the individual's idiosyncratic, maladaptive ideation. The basic cognitive technique consists of delineating the individual's specific misconceptions, distortions, and maladaptive assumptions, and of testing their validity and reasonableness. By loosening the grip of his perseverative, distorted ideation, the patient is enabled to formulate his experiences more realistically. Clinical experience, as well as some experimental studies, indicate that such cognitive restructuring leads to symptom relief.

Psychosomatic Aspects of Pain

Recent innovations in behavior modification have, for the most part, detoured around the role of cognitive processes in the production and alleviation of symptomatology. Although self-reports of private experiences are not verifiable by other observers, these introspective data provide a wealth of testable hypotheses. Repeated correlations of measures of inferred constructs with observable behaviors have yielded consistent findings in the predicted direction.Systematic study of self-reports suggests that an individual’s belief systems, expectancies, and assumptions exert a strong influence on his state of well-being, as well as on his directly observable behavior. Applying a cognitive model, the clinician may usefully construe neurotic behavior in terms of the patient’s idiosyncratic concepts of himself and of his animate and inanimate environment. The individual’s belief systems may be grossly contradictory; i.e., he may simultaneously attach credence to both realistic and unrealistic conceptualizations of the same event or object. This inconsistency in beliefs may explain, for example, why an individual may react with fear to an innocuous situation even though he may concomitantly acknowledge that this fear is unrealistic.Cognitive therapy, based on cognitive theory, is designed to modify the individual’s idiosyncratic, maladaptive ideation. The basic cognitive technique consists of delineating the individual’s specific misconceptions, distortions, and maladaptive assumptions, and of testing their validity and reasonableness. By loosening the grip of his perseverative, distorted ideation, the patient is enabled to formulate his experiences more realistically. Clinical experience, as well as some experimental studies, indicate that such cognitive restructuring leads to symptom relief.