Untutored Lay Knowledge of the Principles of Psychology: Do We Know Anything They Don't?

Abstract

50 volunteer subjects without psychological training were paid $5 to answer 21 multiple-choice questions, each of which embodied one principle of learning or memory. 76% of the questions were answered correctly more often than chance. Number of questions answered correctly correlated positively with subjects' ages when the effect of education was partialed out. Number correct also correlated positively with education when age was partialed out. Taken together with Houston's 1983 findings, these results suggest that the general population has a good grasp of the essentials of psychology even without exposure to formal training in psychology.