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Graphicacy is an important skill in today’s society; however, the interpretation of graphs proofs to be more difficult than it might seem. In this study, we focus on one specific misinterpretation, the area misinterpretation of box plots, which is caused by incorrect heuristic processing of salient features of the box plot. In this study, we tried to eradicate the area misinterpretation by the use of refutational text. We tested whether participants exposed to refutational text solved items on the area misinterpretation better than participants in a control condition and also whether, when correct answers were given, the heuristic processing was completely eradicated. Both reaction time and accuracy rate patterns showed that, although not completely eradicated, participants in the refutation condition scored significantly better than participants in the control condition. On top of that, there were more participants with (near) perfect performance in the refutation than in the control condition. We conclude that refutational text can help in remediating the area misinterpretation. However, it did not completely eradicate this incorrect heuristic processing.
