Learning about Mushrooms Is Influenced by Survival Processing

Abstract

The human brain is limited by its capacity and incapable of memorizing all information. The memory system evolved to give preference to memory information related to maintaining and increasing individual fitness. We have chosen fungi, a heavily neglected area in science education research, to investigate which kind of information about mushrooms will be better retained by secondary school students. Furthermore, we investigated whether information about mushroom toxicity is better retained when presented only orally or in combination with a written text. The research sample consisted of 160 secondary school students from Slovakia. Pretest/posttest experimental between-subject and within-subject design was used to examine research questions. Data were collected through questionnaires (using a Likert response scale). We found that survival-relevant information (i.e., mushroom toxicity) was retained significantly better than survival-irrelevant information (i.e., mushroom naming and occurrence), but there were no differences in recall between the presentation conditions. Unexpectedly, male students retained information about mushroom toxicity significantly better than female students. Our results suggest that information retention by secondary school students in regard to mushrooms that cause serious poisoning is in accordance with evolutionary predictions and can be utilized by science teachers.

COVID-19 and Memory: A Novel Contamination Effect in Memory

“…Importantly, disgusting stimuli are also potential vectors of contaminating agents. Related to the aim of the present research, certain studies have also shown that we have better memory for contaminated things in our environment, such as poisonous mushrooms (Fančovičová et al, 2020), toxic fruits (Prokop & Fančovičová, 2014), or objects touched by a contagious person (Bonin, Thiebaut, Prokop, et al, 2019;Fernandes et al, 2017Fernandes et al, , 2021Gretz & Huff, 2019). Contamination effects in memory represent a relatively new line of evidence in favor of the adaptive view of memory.…”

“…In humans, social learning is also very important in order to avoid sources of contamination. For instance, to eat mushrooms safely, it is necessary to learn whether or not they are toxic (Fančovičová et al, 2020) and the same holds true for various plants (Wertz, 2019). Thus, the BIS involves memory.…”

Adaptive Education: Learning and Remembering with a Stone-Age Brain

“…Fančovičová et al ( 2020 ) explored how well secondary school students could learn information about mushrooms, particularly their toxicity. People often have trouble discriminating between edible and poisonous mushrooms from appearance, so toxicity information is clearly adaptive to learn about.…”

Pseudo-Contamination and Memory: Is There a Memory Advantage for Objects Touched by “Morphologically Deviant People”?

“…In favor of this view, it has been shown that information about dangerous animals is retained better than information about non-dangerous animals (Barrett & Broesch, 2012 ; Prokop & Fančovičová, 2017 ). Toxic mushrooms are recognized better than edible mushrooms (Fančovičová et al, 2020 ). Of direct relevance to the current issue is the fact that contaminated things are remembered better than non-contaminated things (Bonin et al, 2019 ; Fernandes et al, 2017 , 2021 ; Gretz & Huff, 2019 ).…”