Trends in Neuroscience and Education最新文献

Purpose

Attentional control theory (ACT) posits that elevated anxiety increases the probability of re-allocating cognitive resources needed to complete a task to processing anxiety-related stimuli. This process impairs processing efficiency and can lead to reduced performance effectiveness. Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students frequently experience anxiety about their coursework, which can interfere with learning and performance and negatively impact student retention and graduation rates. The objective of this study was to extend the ACT framework to investigate the neurobiological associations between science and math anxiety and cognitive performance among 123 physics undergraduate students.

Procedures

Latent profile analysis (LPA) identified four profiles of science and math anxiety among STEM students, including two profiles that represented the majority of the sample (Low Science and Math Anxiety; 59.3% and High Math Anxiety; 21.9%) and two additional profiles that were not well represented (High Science and Math Anxiety; 6.5% and High Science Anxiety; 4.1%). Students underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session in which they performed two tasks involving physics cognition: the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) task and the Physics Knowledge (PK) task.

Findings

No significant differences were observed in FCI or PK task performance between High Math Anxiety and Low Science and Math Anxiety students. During the three phases of the FCI task, we found no significant brain connectivity differences during scenario and question presentation, yet we observed significant differences during answer selection within and between the dorsal attention network (DAN), ventral attention network (VAN), and default mode network (DMN). Further, we found significant group differences during the PK task were limited to the DAN, including DAN-VAN and within-DAN connectivity.

Conclusions

These results highlight the different cognitive processes required for physics conceptual reasoning compared to physics knowledge retrieval, provide new insight into the underlying brain dynamics associated with anxiety and physics cognition, and confirm the relevance of ACT theory for science and math anxiety.

Purpose

This study assessed the relationship between neuroelectric indices of attention and inhibition and academic skills in children 4–6 years-old. We hypothesized that modulation of the P3 and N2 components would be related to academic skills.

Methods

Participants (N = 27, 16 female) completed The Woodcock Johnson Early Cognitive and Academic Development Test to assess general intellectual abilities (GIA) and early academic skills (EAS). Electroencephalography was recorded during an auditory oddball task to elicit P3 and N2 components. Two-step linear regressions including age, sex, income, and GIA assessed relationships between P3 and N2 modulations and EAS.

Results

P3 peak amplitude (R²=0.765, β=0.379, p = 0.030) and N2 mean (R²=0.759, β=0.302, p = 0.039) and peak (R²=0.759, β=0.303, p = 0.038) amplitude modulation were positively related to EAS.

Conclusion

Upregulation of P3 and N2 components was associated with EAS independent of GIA. Therefore, neuroelectric assessments of attention and inhibition may a biomarker of academic achievement in early childhood.

Background

Interest in research on the Science of Learning continues to grow. However, ambiguity about what this field is can negatively impact communication and collaboration and may inadequately inform educational training programs or funding initiatives that are not sufficiently inclusive in focus.

Methods

The present scoping review aimed to synthesize a working definition of the Science of Learning using Web of Science and ProQuest database searches.

Results

In total, 43 unique definitions were identified across 50 documents including journal articles, theses, conference papers, and book chapters. Definitions of the Science of Learning differed considerably when describing the fields thought to contribute to research on this topic.

Conclusions

Based on findings, we propose a working definition of the Science of Learning for discussion and further refinement: the scientific study of the underlying bases of learning with the goal of describing, understanding, or improving learning across developmental stages and diverse contexts.

Background

In 2020, school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic forced students all over the world to promptly alter their learning routines from in-person to distance learning. However, so far, only a limited number of studies from a few countries investigated whether school closures affected students’ performance within intelligent tutoring system—such as intelligent tutoring systems.

Method

In this study, we investigated the effect of school closures in Austria by evaluating data (n = 168 students) derived from an intelligent tutoring system for learning mathematics, which students used before and during the first period of school closures.

Results

We found that students’ performance increased in mathematics in the intelligent tutoring system during the period of school closures compared to the same period in previous years.

Conclusion

Our results indicate that intelligent tutoring systems were a valuable tool for continuing education and maintaining student learning during school closures in Austria.

Background

What, exactly, do number line estimation (NLE) tasks measure? Different versions of the task were observed to have different effects on performance.

Method

We investigated associations between the production (indicating the location) and perception version (indicating the number) of the bounded and unbounded NLE task and their relationship to arithmetic.

Results

A stronger correlation was observed between the production and perception version of the unbounded than the bounded NLE task, indicating that both versions of the unbounded—but not the bounded—NLE task measure the same construct. Moreover, overall low but significant associations between NLE performance and arithmetic were only observed for the production version of the bounded NLE task.

Conclusion

These results substantiate that the production version of bounded NLE seems to rely on proportion judgment strategies, whereas both unbounded versions and the perception version of the bounded NLE task may rely more on magnitude estimation.

Executive functions and play have been researched separately over the last few decades. Only recently has the association between the two constructs received more attention. Thus, a Special Issue on this association is timely. The six empirical studies of the Special Issue applied various types of play (e.g., dramatic play or physical play) in their research. Children's executive functions were also measured with a variety of tasks. The wide variability of the studies was a learning point, especially given the cultural connotation of executive function measures. All the studies of the Special Issue were conducted in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) countries raising the issue of generalizability. We discuss future directions of the research on executive functions and play hoping for longitudinal studies on the association between these constructs in the future.

To counteract declining interest in science, contextualizing course material has been suggested, despite little evidence supporting this strategy. We assessed how reading physics problems in different contexts–none, technical, or humanistic–impacted performance and implicit cognitive and affective situational interest (SI) among undergraduate men and women (n = 60). We hypothesized that contextualized problems would increase cognitive SI, boosting performance. We also investigated existing hypotheses that this influence would be stronger when contexts matched stereotypical gender interests. Pupillometric and electroencephalographic data served to indicate cognitive SI, while electrodermal activity (EDA) and valence were measures of affective SI. Significantly higher valence was observed in decontextualized than humanistic problems (p = 0.003) specifically among men (p < 0.001). Greater EDA (p = 0.019) and decontextualized problems (p < 0.001) yielded greater performance than contextualized problems for all participants. Results emphasize the importance of affective SI and of avoiding gender biases in curricular development. This study encourages caution if implementing contextualization.

Background

This study aimed at investigating the interaction between genetic and environmental factors in predicting executive function in children aged four to six years.

Methods

Response inhibition as index of EF was assessed in 197 children using a go/nogo task. A cumulative dopamine (DA) genetic score was calculated, indexing predisposition of low DA activity. Dimensions of parenting behavior and parental education were assessed.

Results

Parental education was positively related to accuracy in nogo trials. An interaction between the cumulative genetic score and the parenting dimension Responsiveness predicted go RT indicating that children with a high cumulative genetic score and high parental responsiveness exhibited a careful response mode.

Conclusion

The development of EF in kindergarten children is related to parental education as well as to an interaction between the molecular-genetics of the DA system and parenting behavior.

Background

A hallmark of the approximate number system (ANS) is ratio dependence. Previous work identified specific event-related potentials (ERPs) that are modulated by numerical ratio throughout the lifespan. In adults, ERP ratio dependence was correlated with the precision of the numerical judgments with individuals who make more precise judgments showing larger ratio-dependent ERP effects. The current study evaluated if this relationship generalizes to preschoolers.

Method

ERPs were recorded from 56 4.5 to 5.5-year-olds while they compared the numerosity of two sequentially presented dot arrays. Nonverbal numerical precision, often called ANS acuity, was assessed using a similar behavioral task.

Results

Only children with high ANS acuity exhibited a P2p ratio-dependent effect onsetting ∼250 ms after the presentation of the comparison dot array. Furthermore, P2p amplitude positively correlated with ANS acuity across tasks.

Conclusion

Results demonstrate developmental continuity between preschool years and adulthood in the neural basis of the ANS.

Background

Several studies have revealed a common high prevalence of educational neuromyths among teachers from different countries. However, only one intervention aimed at reducing these beliefs among in-service teachers has been reported to date, and it was conducted in a non-naturalistic setting.

Procedure

In the present study, we administered a survey to measure the prevalence of common neuromyths in a large sample (n = 807) of primary and secondary teachers from 203 schools across Catalonia (Spain), and then we evaluated the impact that a 15-hour online course on neuroscience had on a sample of them as compared to a control group.

Main findings

Results showed an initial distribution of neuromyth beliefs similar to those of previous studies and a large effect of the intervention on reducing their prevalence shortly after the training and in the long term.

Conclusions

These findings provide evidence that an intervention addressed to in-service teachers that is low-cost and easy to implement can cast corrective effects that persist over time in neuromyth beliefs.