Category: Myths

“Up to 34% of neuroscience papers and 24% of medical papers published in 2020 were probably fake.”

A new preprint warns of nearly doubling the number of fake scientific papers in neuroscience and medicine since 2010. Do note this is before the release of e.g. ChatCPT. How did the researchers check this? In Study 1, n=215 neurology articles were manually inspected by an experienced editor; 20.5% (n=44) were deemed suspicious. A questionnaire… Read More “Up to 34% of neuroscience papers and 24% of medical papers published in 2020 were probably fake.”

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Another way of dealing with misinformation instead of debunking: bypassing it

This is a new and interesting approach to dealing with misinformation: redirecting an individual’s attention away from misinformation and toward other beliefs can be just as effective as debunking it. From the press release: It’s tempting to argue with someone who is misinformed by showing them studies and articles that prove they’re wrong. But new… Read More Another way of dealing with misinformation instead of debunking: bypassing it

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Just because you’re one of the wealthiest people on earth doesn’t mean you know your science (Bill Gates, learning styles and more)

Bill Gates just wrote 7 pages worth of predictions about how AI will change our lives. I’m not an expert on AI, but if his predictions are as good as his educational knowledge, I’m not sure if all of this will happen. No, I’m not talking about all the failures of the Gates foundation in… Read More Just because you’re one of the wealthiest people on earth doesn’t mean you know your science (Bill Gates, learning styles and more)

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Check this podcast about why a lot of children can’t read: Sold a Story

This is a must-hear podcast about learning how to read – or better how not to learn how to read. There’s an idea about how children learn to read that’s held sway in schools for more than a generation — even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on… Read More Check this podcast about why a lot of children can’t read: Sold a Story

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“Word and face recognition can be adequately supported with half a brain”

This is the kind of study that leaves you a bit baffled: Can one brain hemisphere perform the functions of the typical two hemispheres? Typically, in adults, there are right and left hemispheric biases for face and word recognition, respectively, a division of labor that emerges over development. Here, face and word recognition were examined… Read More “Word and face recognition can be adequately supported with half a brain”

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New meta-analysis has strong critiques on studies on mindset interventions (Jeroen Janssen)

A guest post by Jeroen Janssen from Universiteit Utrecht: According to mindset theory, pupils who have a growth mindset perform better than those with a fixed mindset. Students with a growth mindset believe that their qualities and abilities are not fixed but can improve through practice and effort, for example. This theory has led to… Read More New meta-analysis has strong critiques on studies on mindset interventions (Jeroen Janssen)

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Who can you convince with scientific evidence? And who not?

This new study aims to predict which people will change their minds about contentious scientific issues when presented with evidence-based information. Quite relevant lately… From the press release: A study in Science Advances presents a framework to accurately predict if a person will change their opinion about a certain topic. The approach estimates the amount of dissonance,… Read More Who can you convince with scientific evidence? And who not?

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