Jana Fančovičová

University of Trnava · Department of Biology

Plant awareness disparity (PAD, formerly plant blindness) is the human inability to notice plants in everyday life. It is suggested that the main underlying factors of PAD are: 1. the inability to recognize individual plants and 2. stronger preferences for animals, which prevents building positive attitudes toward them. The presentation of individu...

The emotion of disgust likely evolved to protect humans against oral contamination by pathogens. Accordingly, objects positioned in close proximity to body parts-where infection can easily invade the human body-should be perceived as more disgusting than objects positioned in more neutral places. In the present study, we experimentally altered the...

Degradation of biodiversity is one of the current problems of today, and scientists are increasingly concerned with identifying the key factors influencing people's willingness to protect (WTP) wild organisms. Using a within-subject design, we investigated the influence of aposematic signals along with the presence or absence of flowers on perceive...

The importance of plants for humans is unquestionable. Learning stations are a very useful tool for understanding the meaning of plants for people. The purpose of the study was to describe the effect of learning stations in practice, its use and whether or not it might help change misconceptions and build accurate content knowledge about toxic plan...

Interactions between ants and plants vary from being occasionally beneficial to neutral and negative. Ant-mediated dispersal of obligatory myrmecochorous plants is considered mutualistic interaction, providing benefits to plants in terms of seed dispersal. Ants are rewarded by providing elaiosome, sugar, lipid and protein-rich appendages attached t...

Anthropogenic disturbance causes biodiversity loss, and consequently the captive conser�vation (ex situ) of threatened animals may be an effective strategy in protecting species. We used estimated body mass, phylogenetic closeness with humans, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) conservation status, and species attractiveness scor...

Background Investigations of evolution knowledge and acceptance and their relation are central to evolution education research. Ambiguous results in this field of study demonstrate a variety of measuring issues, for instance differently theorized constructs, or a lack of standardized methods, especially for cross-country comparisons. In particular,...

In the article, the authors deal with the background and starting points for the preparation of the reconstruction of the educational area Man and Nature. The proposals represent a direction that is firmly rooted in several educational systems and represents a way out of the problematic situation concerning the low level of science literacy of our...

Flower opening and closure is a crucial process in pollinator attraction. The duration of flower lifespan, the time between flower opening and closure, represents a trade-off between pollinator attraction and the cost of flower maintenance caused by increased respiration and transpiration rates, particularly when ambient temperature is high. Moreov...

Disgust is a basic emotion which protects individuals from potential contamination. It is hypothesized that disgust evolved primarily as a mechanism against oral contamination or as a strategy against disease infections in general. We investigated visual attention to disgusting oral (rotten food) and non-oral (e.g., a tick) and control (e.g., a gul...

Animal Welfare Attitudes (AWA) can be defined as the attitudes of humans towards the welfare of animals. Although AWA has been previously associated with demographic factors as gender, one of the main limitations is that few studies applied robust psychometric questionnaire scales. Moreover, some evidence of cross-cultural variations in AWA have bee...

Plants are crucial parts of ecosystems but are traditionally considered boring and difficult by students. It is therefore not clear whether factual knowledge about plants contributes to building positive attitudes and interest in botany. We investigated whether factual knowledge about monocotyledonous plants is associated with secondary students' a...

The human brain is limited by its capacity and incapable of memorizing all information. The memory system evolved to give preference to memory information related to maintaining and increasing individual fitness. We have chosen fungi, a heavily neglected area in science education research, to investigate which kind of information about mushrooms wi...

Although snakes play key roles in the functioning of various ecosystems, they have been among the most persecuted groups of animals. To enhance conservation efforts, we employed research on perceptions about snakes differing in body coloration. We investigated the bright coloration hypothesis, which suggests that bright (aposematic) coloration trig...

The application of pyrogenic materials in immobilization processes of metalloids represents a burning issue in environmental and waste applications and management. The main objective of this study was to characterize the effect of biomass pretreatment by Cu, Fe and Mg blending and pyrolysis temperature on As sorption efficiency as a model of anioni...

Children’s concept of biological phenomena differs from scientific thought in many aspects. The revelation of wrong concepts contributes to better education, especially when that information is described in a specific field of science. Not only children, but also adults often use anthropomorphic and theological explanations to express their ideas,...

Students of various age groups manifest numerous explanations that differ from what is known to be scientifically correct. Misconceptions about the human body are one of the best studied areas of students’ understanding of scientific phenomena. To explore misconceptions, researchers have at their disposal various methods which can lead to different...

Human cognition is influenced by natural selection which results in better information retention related to survival and faster visual recognition of potential threat. Plants are excellent models for studying human preferences because of the long evolutionary connectedness of humans with plants as food sources, although research in this field is sc...

Laughter is a nonverbal vocalization occurring in every known culture, ubiquitous across all forms of human social interaction. Here, we examined whether listeners around the world, irrespective of their own native language and culture, can distinguish between spontaneous laughter and volitional laughter—laugh types likely generated by different vo...

Although hands-on activities significantly improve achievement and attitudes toward animals, the use of the aesthetically unpleasant is questionable. We investigated whether the use of woodlouse, as an example of an unpopular animal, alters children's conservation attitudes, disgust for and knowledge of woodlice. The experimental group (n = 116), b...

Snakes elicit a higher level of fear than other vertebrate animals, yet specific cues responsible for fear of snakes are equivocal. The bright colouration hypothesis suggests that fear responses to snakes are triggered by aposematic colouration, not by snakes per se. We investigated the role of aposematic colouration in fear of snakes in a sample o...

1799 prospective elementary and prospective science teachers from six countries (Croatia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey) participate in the study about the level of motivation toward science courses, pedagogy courses and self-efficacy. The most important findings were that choosing educational career as the first choice o...

ABSTRACT: Background: 1799 prospective elementary and prospective science teachers from six countries (Croatia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey) participate in the study about the level of motivation toward science courses, pedagogy courses and self-efficacy. Material and methods: The most important findings were that choos...

Animals are the most prevalent subjects for photographs in science textbooks. Many of them are potentially dangerous to humans, and visual exposure to potential threat can influence learning outcomes as well as emotional attachment to these animals. We experimentally investigated the influence of animal posture (aggressive-looking vs. neutral-l...

Chemistry is a school subject that is not viewed favorably among pupils. Before we can improve pupils' attitudes toward chemistry, it is important to find out the problem as to why the attitudes are relatively negative. The research was focused on Czech lower secondary and secondary grammar school pupils’ attitudes to the subject of chemistry. Also...

Laughter is a nonverbal vocal expression that often communicates positive affect and cooperative intent in humans. Temporally coincident laughter occurring within groups is a potentially rich cue of affiliation to overhearers. We examined listeners’ judgments of affiliation based on brief, decontextualized instances of colaughter between either est...

Research has shown that hands-on activities in biology/science education tend to improve children’s attitudes towards science. These hands-on activities can influence children’s interest in various ways, perhaps because they invoke varying emotions. We used a sample of 10–12-year-old children (n = 142) to examine the effect of hands-on activities w...

Laughter is a nonverbal vocal expression that often communicates positive affect and cooperative intent in humans. Temporally coincident laughter occurringwithin groups is a potentially rich cue of affiliation to overhearers. We examined listeners’ judgments of affiliation based on brief, decontextualized instances of colaughter between either esta...

Amphibians play an important role in the functioning of ecosystems and some of them inhabit human gardens where they can successfully reproduce. The decline of amphibian diversity worldwide suggests that people may play a crucial role in their survival. We conducted a Cross-Cultural study on high school students' tolerance of frogs in Chile, Slovak...

Disgust is a basic emotion which motivates avoidance of disease cues. Females consistently display higher disgust sensitivity than males, although the evolutionary origin of this difference remains unclear. We examined the parental investment hypothesis, which posits that higher disgust sensitivity amongst females is adaptive since mothers may be m...

Cross national study on opinions on science teaching was revealed on a sample of 1799 (596 males, 1203 females) pre-service elementary and science teachers' enrolled in various departments at selected universities in Croatia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey. Three factors explaining 43.4% of variance were extracted from a p...

Cross national study on opinions on science teaching was revealed on a sample of 1799 (596 males, 1203 females) pre-service elementary and science teachers' enrolled in various departments at selected universities in Croatia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey. Three factors explaining 43.4% of variance were extracted from a p...

Cross national study on opinions on science teaching was revealed on a sample of 1799 (596 males, 1203 females) pre-service elementary and science teachers’ enrolled in various departments at selected universities in Croatia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey. Three factors explaining 43.4% of variance were extracted from a p...

Záujem žiakov o prírodovedné predmety celosvetovo klesá a žiaci ako dôvody nezáujmu uvádzajú náročnosť a nedôležitosť daných predmetov pre ich život a budúce povolanie. Cieľom výskumného šetrenia bolo zistiť, aká oblasť z prírodovedných predmetov žiakov zaujíma najviac, a tiež vplyv premenných ako sú gender a vek na záujem o biologické vedy (predpo...

Birds are one of the most important species that can help protect biodiversity. Although birds are important beings for biodiversity and human existence, there is a relatively less quantity of research that has investigated the interest in and attitudes toward birds. This study aims to investigate the knowledge level of and attitudes toward birds a...

Children’s ideas concerning natural phenomena often differ from those of scientists, and these ideas are termed as alternative conceptions. The prevalence of alternative conceptions is highest among young children who possess less experience with the natural world as compared with adults. Children’s ideas about micro-organisms are of special import...

The decrease in the method of cadaveric dissection and its replacement with alternative methods has led to discussions about the significance of dissection in biology/anatomy lessons. Certain authors argue that the decline in anatomy knowledge in students is at least partially caused by these factors. An investigation was carried out on the effecti...

Self-grooming is a common behavioural strategy used by various animals to reduce parasite loads. We experimentally tested the adaptive significance of self-grooming model in a sample of Slovak participants. Propensity to self-grooming was activated by visual presence of parasites with verbal information about health risks caused by parasites sugges...

The purpose of this study was to measure the freshmen’s level of knowledge about genetics, evolution, human evolution, the nature of science, and opinions on evolution and the presence of non-scientific explanations among Czech, Slovakian, Slovenian and Turkish students. Determination of prior knowledge and pre-conceptions about these issues is imp...

Plants are characterised by a great diversity of easily observed features such as colours or shape, but children show low interest in learning about them. Here, we integrated modern theory of adaptive memory and evolutionary views of the function of fruit colouration on children’s retention of information. Survival-relevant (fruit toxicity) and sur...

The perceived popularity of animals plays a crucial role in their support by the general public and consequently in the success of conservation efforts. We experi- mentally investigated with Slovak schoolchildren the role of animal coloration and basic human emotions in the willingness to protect animals. Both unaltered and experimentally manipulat...

Animal dissections are essential parts of anatomy/zoology courses, but their effectiveness is influenced by student attitudes and emotions. Here we examined attitudes toward dissections in 397 prospective biology teachers enrolling two Slovak universities. Perceived disgust of dissections negatively correlated with other attitudes toward dissection...

Predators and pathogens are powerful natural selection tools that influence the evolution of two domain-specific management systems: self-protection and disease avoidance. Both systems are activated by specific ecological conditions and protect humans against physical harm or disease transmission. The perception of predators is associated with fear...

1799 prospective teachers (596 males, 1203 females), enrolled in various departments (elementary school teaching and science teaching) in selected universi- ties in Croatia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey, answered questionnaire on creativity styles. From the results of present study we can recognize that creativity...

Understanding preservice teachers’ memories of their education may aid towards articulating high-impact teaching practices. This study describes 246 preservice teachers’ perceptions of their secondary science education experiences through a questionnaire and 28-item survey. ANOVA was statistically significant about participants’ memories of science...

Humans are unique among primates due to a lack of typical thermally insulating fur. The ectoparasite avoidance mediated by the mate choice hypothesis suggests that the loss of body hair reduces the risk of infection by ectoparasites and that the movement toward nudity may have been enforced by parasite-mediated sexual selection. In this study, we i...

Although diversity of fruit/seed colouration has received a great amount of attention since Darwin, little is known about its role in eating preferences in humans. We have determined that humans prefer certain fruits/seeds over others and that their willingness to eat them has been significantly influenced by the perceived aesthetic of the presente...

Outdoor educational programmes are generally believed to be a suitable alternative to conventional biology settings that improve participants' environmental attitudes and knowledge. Here we examine whether outdoor educational programmes focused solely on practical work with plants influence participants' knowledge of and attitudes towards plants. I...

Children's ability to identify common plants is a necessary prerequisite for learning botany. However, recent work has shown that children lack positive attitudes toward plants and are unable to identify them. We examined children's (aged 10-17) ability to discriminate between common toxic and non-toxic plants and their mature fruits presented in a...

Children’s ability to identify common plants is a necessary prerequisite for learning botany. However, recent work has shown that children lack positive attitudes toward plants and are unable to identify them. We examined children’s (aged 10-17) ability to discriminate between common toxic and non-toxic plants and their mature fruits presented i...

Infectious diseases that influence human survival are responsible for the evolved emotional, cognitive and behavioural strategies that reduce the risk of disease transmission. The preference for spices in foods of contemporary humans was thought to be an anti-pathogen strategy that could reduce disease transmission. We investigated the possible ass...

Human perceives invertebrates less positively than vertebrates because they are small and behaviourally and morphologically unfamiliar. This cross-cultural research focused on Slovakian (n=150) and Turkish (n=164) students' fear, disgust and perceived danger regarding 25 invertebrates [including 5 disease relevant adult insects, 5 ectoparasites, 5...

The evolutionary history of humans has always been influenced by pathogens because of their ability to cause both morbidity and mortality. Natural selection should favor behavioral strategies that minimize disease transmission and consequently increase human survival. Collectively such strategies are referred to as the behavioral immune system, whi...

Plants are integral parts of ecosystems which determine life on Earth. People’s attitudes toward them are however, largely overlooked. Here we present initial psychometric assessment of self-constructed Plant Attitude Scale (PAS) that was administered to a sample of 310 Slovakian students living in rural areas aged 10–15years. The final version of...

Adaptationist view proposes that emotions were shaped by natural selection and their primary function is to protect humans against predators and/or disease threat. This study examined cross-cultural and inter-personal differences in behavioural immune system measured by disgust, fear and perceived danger in participants from high (Turkey) and low (...

Evolutionary arms races between humans and parasites resulted in a set of behavioral adaptations that serve as parasite-avoidance mechanisms. We investigated associations among reported health of the respondent, antiparasite behavior, and sensitivity to disgust and fear of disease-relevant and irrelevant animals. Ninety-seven participants (15–19 ye...

Evolutionary explanations of disgust propensity propose that disgust is an adaptation which helps us to decrease the likelihood of being infected by pathogens. To test this hypothesis, we examined human fear, disgust and self-perceived danger as a response on colourful pictures of disease-relevant and disease-irrelevant invertebrates. Furthermore,...

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of using website in biology education. We have explored the World Wide Web as a possible tool for education about health and nutrition. Th ewebsites were teaching tools for primary school students. Control groups used the traditional educational materials as books or worksheets,...

Natural selection affects emotional and behavioural patterns, such as anti-predator adaptations, that enhance human survival. Fear is a basic emotion that activates behavioural responses upon encountering a predator, being consistently higher in females than in males. In this study, we investigated associations between fear of a large carnivore pre...

Prispevok sa zaobera postojmi a nazormi žiakov zakladných skol na elektronicku formu vzdelavania na hodinach biologie. Experimentalne sme overovali tradicne prijimanie poznatkov s prijimanim poznatkov prostrednictvom informacno - komunikacných technologii. Z nazorov žiakov sme zistili, že sa im vyucovanie prostrednictvom web - stranky pacilo, ale n...

Research on children's ideas about biological phenomena showed that their interpretations of natural phenomena often diff er from those of scientists. The purpose of this study was to investigate children's ideas about animal breathing systems. This study was descriptive in nature and consisted of a cross age and cross cultural design involving the...

Some evolutionary explanations of cross-cultural differences propose that human personality is caused by pathogen stress. Both xenophobia and ethnocentrism evolved under conditions with high parasite prevalence. Further, inter-individual variation in disgust or fear of parasites is expected to be influenced by human health, where healthy people sho...

Animals that pose a threat of disease are often in conflict with human appreciation of them, despite that they may be endangered in nature. This study examined undergraduate students' knowledge of, attitudes to-ward, and belief in myths about, bats, controversial animals well known both from mythology and movies. Factor analysis was applied to 46 L...

Children's knowledge about human anatomy can be examined through several different ways. Making a drawing of the internal features of the human body has been frequently used in recent studies. However, there might be a serious difference in results obtained from a general instruction to students (What you think is inside your body) and specific (e....

As the world's biodiversity is being destroyed, costs for na-ture protection activities increase. One proposed way to increase peo-ple's pro-environmental attitudes is to increase their knowledge base. It has been suggested that knowledge and attitudes are related, but no consensus in this field yet exists. Thus, the investigation of the relationsh...

ICT has a very short history in Slovakia. A majority of Slovak schools accessed computers and internet only after 2000. Different financial support and schools' participation in various projects resulted in non-random distribution of computers across Slovakian elementary schools. We examined whether 1) attitudes toward computers could be affected b...

Research into students' concepts about the human body has focused on several organ systems, but the reproductive system has been largely overlooked. The few studies that addressed children's concepts of birth were conducted mainly among kindergarten or primary school children. However, no study has yet attempted to examine how adolescent students p...

Research into children's ideas showed that children's interpretations of natural phenomena often differ from those of scientists. The aim of our study was to identify children's ideas of various age classes (7/8–14/15) about birds. A questionnaire with 31 multiple choice and open ended questions and eight photographs were administered to 495 childr...