Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/42669

JaLCDOI : 10.14943/43275

KEYWORDS : neuroscience literacy;components of neuroscience literacy;evaluation of instruction;test construction;university student

What do people know about the state-of-the-art neuroscience research and developments promoted by it? Recently it is empathized that to be educated consumers, people need to acquire neuroscience literacy (NL). What is the NL? This study investigated its components and constructed its scale. In a preliminary study, we created the NL inventory, and 274 subjects (35 working people and 239 university students) completed the NL questionnaire. An exploratory factorial analysis was conducted, and after that the questionnaire was revised for the next studies. In the first study, 240 university students completed the questionnaire. Exploratory factorial analyses extracted four factors which could be called (1) "denial of naïve knowledge," (2) "perspective on neuroscience," (3) "allowance of neuroscience research," and (4) "allowance of practical applications of neuroscience research." In the second study, we used the NL inventory and examined the effect of the NL education on 210 subjects (113 subjects had the NL education). After the NL education, the scores of (1), (2), and (3) increased, but that of (4) decreased. These results suggest that the NL education promotes neuroscientific knowledge, the allowance of neuroscience research, and attentiveness to allowing practical applications of neuroscience research.