Misconceptions about scientific concepts often prevail even if learners are confronted with conflicting evidence. This study tested the facilitative role of surprise in children’s revision of misconceptions regarding water displacement in a sample of German children (N = 94, aged 6–9 years, 46% female). Surprise was measured via the pupil dilation response. It was induced by letting children generate predictions before presenting them with outcomes that conflicted with their misconception. Compared to a control condition, generating predictions boosted children’s surprise and led to a greater revision of misconceptions (d = 0.56). Surprise further predicted successful belief revision during the learning phase. These results suggest that surprise increases the salience of a cognitive conflict, thereby facilitating the revision of misconceptions.

中文翻译：

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解决科学误解：惊喜元素

即使学习者面临相互矛盾的证据，对科学概念的误解也经常盛行。本研究在德国儿童样本（N  = 94，年龄 6-9 岁，46% 女性）中测试了惊喜在儿童修正关于水置换的误解中的促进作用。惊喜是通过瞳孔扩张反应来衡量的。它是通过让孩子们在向他们展示与他们的误解相冲突的结果之前做出预测而引起的。与控制条件相比，生成预测增加了孩子们的惊喜，并导致对错误观念的更大修正（d = 0.56）。Surprise 进一步预测了在学习阶段成功的信念修正。这些结果表明，惊讶会增加认知冲突的显着性，从而促进错误观念的修正。