Do college students notice errors in evidence when critically evaluating research findings? created by Fernando Rodriguez,, Ng Annalyn and Priti Shah

The authors examined college students' ability to critically evaluate scientific evidence, specifically, whether first- and second-year students noticed when poor interpretations were drawn from research evidence. Fifty students evaluated a set of eight psychological studies, first in an informal context, then again in a critical-thinking context. Half of the studies drew poor interpretations of the results--specifically, over-interpreting findings with small effects and inferring causal conclusions from correlational findings. Across both contexts, students noticed when studies over-interpreted small effects, but they were not able to notice when studies contained correlation-not-causation errors. Activities for helping students identify interpretive errors are suggested.