Affective salience and context-sensitive knowledge use in spider-related science tasks

Affective responses can shape how learners engage with science tasks, especially when organisms are culturally associated with fear, disgust, or danger. This historical analytical case examines spider-related science tasks administered in Brazil in 2006 to 81 undergraduate biology students and 29 certified science teachers (N = 110). Using a convergent mixed-methods logic, the study integrated taxonomic responses, graphical representations, emotional descriptors, and brief written narratives at the aggregate level. Analyses showed low taxonomic accuracy, uneven identification of classificatory and diagnostic criteria, and a strong concentration of emotional responses in threat- and aversion-related categories. The descriptors fear, disgust, and scared accounted for 63.6% of responses (70/110). The findings do not support participant-level claims about emotional interference or causal mechanisms. They do, however, support a cautious aggregate interpretation: negatively charged spider framings co-occurred with uneven use of disciplinary criteria in science-task products. The study contributes to science education by showing why classificatory difficulty should not be read only as missing conceptual knowledge, and by clarifying how affectively salient task contexts may matter for the context-sensitive use of disciplinary criteria in biology learning and teacher mediation.