INTRODUCION OF THE CONCEPT OF ADAPTIVE MEMORY TO SCIENCE EDUCATION: DOES SURVIVAL THREAT INFLUENCE OUR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ANIMALS?

摘要

Cognitive abilities, namely memory mechanisms, are energy consuming and, thus, sensitive to survival-relevant information. Dangerous events are expected to receive greater attention than non-dangerous events because information processing about them and consequent behaviour ultimately increases the individual fitness. Biology textbooks provide a rich source of potentially dangerous and harmless animals. Here, we investigated whether potential danger from some animals influences school children memory about information relevant to survival. As predicted, participants scored better in information about dangerousness of animals relative to survival-irrelevant information (food and habitat requirement). Emotions (perceived disgust and fear) negatively correlated with participant willingness to protect them and there were some correlations (both positive and negative) between emotions and animal knowledge scores. Visual exposure to colour photographs of animals positively influenced willingness to protect them. Overall, science educators should pay attention when teaching about harmful animals because evolved memory systems may influence the learner perception of these animals.