The role of refutation texts in the revision of ecuadorian psychology and nursing college students’ misconceptions about alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Misconceptions or inaccurate ideas about Alzheimer’s disease (AD) can be found in college students from health-related careers. Refutation texts explicitly introduce inaccurate information, refute it, and introduce alternative, more accurate information. This study examined the role of refutation texts in revising misconceptions about AD in Ecuadorian Psychology and Nursing college students. Eighty undergraduate students completed a questionnaire about misconceptions on AD before and after reading eight texts in one of two conditions: refutation (texts that corrected a misconception following a refutational structure) or control (texts that corrected the misconception with no refutational structure). As a result, participants read the spillover sentence (next to the refutation) faster and improved performance on a misconceptions’ posttest questionnaire in the refutation compared to the control condition. These results highlight the effectiveness of refutation texts in promoting the revision of inaccurate ideas about AD in college students during reading and 1 week later.