Misconceptions about the brain (neuromyths) among educators have been found across different countries, but little has been done to dispel them. The present study assessed the effect of a one-year Science of Learning (SoL) course on neuroscience literacy and beliefs in neuromyths in a sample of Chilean pre-service teachers. An experimental group of pre-service teachers, who took the SoL course as part of their university training, and a control group were needed for the study. Participants in both groups completed an online survey three times during the year (beginning, middle and end of year). The results showed that participants in both groups responded correctly to most assertions but held major misconceptions about the brain (Time 1), in line with previous studies. Regarding neuroscience literacy, participants in the experimental and control groups did not differ significantly at Time 1, but the experimental group showed significantly better performance than the control group at Time 2 and Time 3. Unlike neuroscience literacy, the results in neuromyth beliefs did not differ significantly by group at Time 1 and Time 2; however, at Time 3, the experimental group showed a significant decline in neuromyth beliefs. Overall, these results suggest that the SoL course significantly improved overall neuroscience literacy and reduced neuromyth belief among pre-service teachers, but the effect of the intervention was small.

Research into attitudes towards chemistry in Latin America and indeed towards science in general is very limited. The present study aimed to adapt and validate a shortened version of Bauer's Attitude toward the Subject of Chemistry Inventory version 2 (ASCIv2) for use in a Latin American context. It also explored attitudes towards chemistry of Chilean secondary school students, and assessed the effect of school type, year group, gender, and chemistry achievement on both cognitive and affective dimensions. The participants were 523 secondary school students from public, private subsidised, and private schools in Chile. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were first carried out to validate ASCIv2. The results of CFA showed that ASCIv2 retained the two-factor structure and showed optimal model fit, but three items had to be removed from the original instrument. The research also showed that attitudes towards science were neither positive nor negative, a reality similar to that of other countries. The results of multivariate and univariate analyses of variance showed significant effects of year group and chemistry achievement on attitudes towards chemistry. No effects of school type, gender or interactions between factors were found. Follow-up analyses revealed that as students advance through school their attitudes decline, but that the higher their chemistry marks, the more positive their attitudes become. These findings are partially in line with previous data from other countries and are a starting point for more research into attitudes towards chemistry in Latin America.

Se desarrolló un programa computacional destinado a apoyar el análisis psicolingüístico de los términos elicitados mediante encuestas de léxico disponible. Utilizando un algoritmo basado fundamentalmente en las relaciones de secuencia de las palabras disponibles, nuestro programa, DispoGrafo, ingresa los términos elicitados y genera luego automáticamente grafos cuyos nodos representan palabras y cuyas aristas simbolizan las relaciones entre ellas. Los grafos se interpretan como redes semánticas cuya configuración expresa las relaciones semánticas subyacentes en el corpus. El software permite, además, eliminar las conexiones débiles (de menor peso) para así dejar sólo las relaciones más robustas y visualizar de este modo las relaciones más relevantes.

Reading familiar words differs from reading unfamiliar non-words in two ways. First, word reading is faster and more accurate than reading of unfamiliar non-words. Second, effects of letter length are reduced for words, particularly when they are presented in the right visual field in familiar formats. Two experiments are reported in which right-handed participants read aloud non-words presented briefly in their left and right visual fields before and after training on those items. The non-words were interleaved with familiar words in the naming tests. Before training, naming was slow and error prone, with marked effects of length in both visual fields. After training, fewer errors were made, naming was faster, and the effect of length was much reduced in the right visual field compared with the left. We propose that word learning creates orthographic word forms in the mid-fusiform gyrus of the left cerebral hemisphere. Those word forms allow words to access their phonological and semantic representations on a lexical basis. But orthographic word forms also interact with more posterior letter recognition systems in the middle/inferior occipital gyri, inducing more parallel processing of right visual field words than is possible for any left visual field stimulus, or for unfamiliar non-words presented in the right visual field.

El presente estudio investigó la prevalencia de neuromitos y el conocimiento general de neurociencia de profesores chilenos. Se encuestó a 91 profesores de enseñanza básica y media de diferentes establecimientos. En línea con las investigaciones previas, los resultados demostraron que los profesores poseen cierto conocimiento general de neurociencia, pero también tienen muchas concepciones erróneas o neuromitos como los referentes a las metodologías VAK, Brain Gym® y la dominancia hemisférica. Los profesores que mostraron un alto conocimiento general de neurociencia también evidenciaron una mayor prevalencia de neuromitos, lo que indica que a medida que aprenden información verídica sobre el cerebro, también adquieren información errónea. Los únicos predictores significativos de neuromitos fueron la Lectura de revistas científicas populares y la Autoevaluación del conocimiento general de neurociencia. Discutimos estos predictores y el origen de los neuromitos más populares desde una perspectiva neurocientífica, con el fin de revelar la evidencia que refuta estas creencias.