What was the main finding of the experiments conducted by McCabe and Castel?

1) Students rated the quality of scientific reasoning higher when a brain image was present.
2) Students rated the quality of scientific reasoning lower when a brain image was present.
3) The presence of a brain image had no effect on students' perception of the quality of scientific reasoning.
4) The experiments conducted by McCabe and Castel did not yield any conclusive results.

Students were found to perceive scientific articles as having higher quality reasoning when they included brain images, indicating that visual elements can influence cognitive biases and judgement.

Explanation:

The main finding of the experiments conducted by McCabe and Castel was that students rated the quality of scientific reasoning higher when a brain image was present. This suggests that the presence of brain images in scientific articles may influence readers' perceptions of the content's credibility. Understanding the brain as an inference machine can shed light on why such visual elements could impact our judgement. The brain continuously processes information and can be swayed by cognitive biases, leading us to assign greater value to articles that include brain images, perhaps perceiving them as more legitimate or scientifically rigorous. Therefore, students' perception of the quality of scientific reasoning was not just based on the written content but also on the accompanying visual elements.