What Are the Most-Believed Myths About Our Brains?

and learning. For instance, many of the research participants believed that students brains shrink without sufficient water and the kids are less attentive after devouring sugary treats. Both of these

statements are totally false, by the way. The brains behind the study, published in the journal Frontiers of Psychology, gave a survey featuring thirty two true or false brain related statements to three different groups of people, educators, the general public, and people with high neuroscience exposure, that is, those who

had taken many college level neuroscience courses. Of those thirty two statements, the researchers focused on seven common myths that stem from what they call single explanatory factors, that's ones that reduce the complexity of human behavior to a single explanation. Those seven myths are the following, and note these are total myths one that individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style. Two that children have

learning styles that are dominated by particular senses. Three that a common sign of dyslexia is seeing letters backwards. Four that listening to classical music increases children's reasoning ability. Five that children are less attentive after consuming sugary drinks and or snacks. Six that some of us are left brained and some are right brained, and that this helps explain differences in learning, and seven that we only use ten

percent of our brain. Of the three thousand and forty five general public respondents, an average of sixty percent believed these brain myths. Fifty of the five hundred and ninety educators surveyed believed in them, and forty six percent of the two hundred and thirty four neuroscience exposed group believed that they were true. Some of the most commonly held misconceptions among these seven or those about learning styles, dyslexia,

and classical music's affect on reasoning. Let's unpack a couple of those. There's a theory about learning styles called vac visual, auditory and kinesthetic a k A. Tactile. The vac theory suggests that students have a primary way of grasping information visually, auditorially, or kinesthetically. The myth is that some students may not

learn as effectively if their style is not emphasized. Of public respondents believed this myth, in addition to seventy percent of teachers and seventy eight percent of people educated in neuroscience, and of the participating educators believed in the Mozart effect, the idea that kids spatial reasoning skills improve when they tune into classical music. However, these myths both hit sour

notes research does not corroborate these beliefs. The researchers did find that having a graduate degree, taking neuroscience courses, having exposure to peer reviewed science, and being younger all helped when it came to telling neuroscience fact from fiction, but those factors didn't completely help. Lead study author Lauren McGrath

said in a press release. The myths that respondence with neuroscience experience believed were related to learning and behavior and not the brain, so their training in neuroscience doesn't necessarily translate to topics in psychology or education. Since many school districts put time and resources towards pegogical techniques based on

these myths. The researchers suggest that this study may help neuroscientists and educators work together to come up with cross disciplinary training modules that provide more accurate information and thus better education for our students and better understanding of ourselves. Today's episode was written by Shelley Danzy and produced by Tyler Clang with kind engineering assistance I Ramsey Youngt. For more on this and lots of other brainy topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com