I think part of the problem with the moon question was that it suggested two wrong answers first. How would you have answered the question if it was just “If a pen is dropped on the moon, what will happen? Explain in one sentence.”
I would have shrugged and said “It will fall down, slowly.” But when I saw “float away” and “float where it is”, those ideas wormed their way into my head for a few seconds before I could reject them. Just suggesting those ideas managed to mess me up, and I’m someone whose mental model of motion in space is so strong that I damn near cried with joy when I watched Planetes and saw people maneuvering in zero gravity exactly the way they’re supposed to. (And it turns out I’m not the only one to have this exact same reaction. Weird.)
So, I’m thinking that the wrong multiple-choice answers are responsible for a lot of the confusion, the same way most people wouldn’t interpret bumps in the night as angry ghosts unless they hear that the house is haunted.
I think part of the problem with the moon question was that it suggested two wrong answers first. How would you have answered the question if it was just “If a pen is dropped on the moon, what will happen? Explain in one sentence.”
I would have shrugged and said “It will fall down, slowly.” But when I saw “float away” and “float where it is”, those ideas wormed their way into my head for a few seconds before I could reject them. Just suggesting those ideas managed to mess me up, and I’m someone whose mental model of motion in space is so strong that I damn near cried with joy when I watched Planetes and saw people maneuvering in zero gravity exactly the way they’re supposed to. (And it turns out I’m not the only one to have this exact same reaction. Weird.)
So, I’m thinking that the wrong multiple-choice answers are responsible for a lot of the confusion, the same way most people wouldn’t interpret bumps in the night as angry ghosts unless they hear that the house is haunted.