Take what you've learned up to this point and apply it in this short exercise. The following paragraph has been adapted from: Kenneth L. Higbee and Samuel L. Clay. (1998). College students' beliefs in the ten-percent myth. The Journal of Psychology, Sep 1998 v132 n5 p469-476

In more than a dozen studies during the last twenty years, researchers have investigated college students' misconceptions about psychology (e.g., Brown, 1983; Gardner & Dalsing, 1986; Lamal, 1979, 1995; McCutcheon, Apperson, Hanson, & Wynn, 1992; Vaughan, 1977). Rather than surveying a number of different misconceptions, as was done in previous studies, in this study we focused on one misconception in some detail. The misconception, which we call the " ten-percent myth," is the claim that most people use only about 10 percent of their potential brain power. The ten-percent myth was not included in any of the previous studies, even though it appears to be quite widespread. In fact, in his introductory psychology textbook, Myers (1995) referred to it as “one of pop-psychology's most widespread myths” (p. 62). Data from our informal surveys of students in our memory and cognition classes are consistent with Myers's observation: Most of our students report that they have heard of the ten-percent claim.

On scratch paper, create sentences using quotes from the preceding passage which is located on page 469 in the journal. Remember that the article was published in 1998. Go back to documenting within the text if you need some extra help.

  1. In one sentence, briefly tell your audience what the researchers studied.
    • Example 1: The researchers studied the misconception of the “ten-percent myth” (Higbee & Clay, 1998).
  2. Tell your audience what the researchers discovered from informal surveys of students in memory and cognition classes.
    • Example 2: The researchers found in an informal survey that most of the students have heard of the ten-percent myth (Higbee & Clay, 1998).
  3. Use the Myer quote as a secondary source.
    • Example 3: Myer (as cited in Higbee & Clay, 1998, p. 469) claims that the ten-percent myth is “one of pop-psychology's most widespread myths.”