Brain activity links performance in science reasoning with conceptual approach

Abstract

39 Modesto Maidique Campus 40 11200 SW 8 th Street 41 Miami, FL 33199 42 305.348.6737 (phone) 43 305.348.6700 (fax) 44 alaird@fiu.edu 45 1 ABSTRACT 47Understanding how students learn is crucial for helping them succeed. We examined brain function in 48 107 undergraduate students during a task known to be challenging for many students -physics problem 49 solving -to characterize underlying neural mechanisms and determine how these support 50 comprehension and proficiency. Further, we applied module analysis to response distributions, defining 51 groups of students who answered using similar physics conceptions, and probed for brain differences 52 linked with different conceptual approaches. We found integrated executive, attentional, visual motion, 53 and default mode brain systems cooperate to achieve sequential and sustained physics-related 54 cognition. While accuracy alone did not predict brain function, dissociable brain patterns were observed 55 when students solved problems using different physics conceptions, and increased success was linked to 56 conceptual coherence. Our analyses demonstrate that episodic associations and control processes 57 operate in tandem to support physics reasoning, offering potential insight to support student learning. 58 59 60 61

Sex and pedagogy influences in physics learning-related reorganization of brain activation

“…According to this model, shifting connectivity between the PCC and various whole-brain systems engenders adaptive monitoring and responses to behaviorally relevant stimuli occurring outside the cognitive task, thereby rapidly changing the cognitive state according to the task's needs 31 . In our previous sister paper focused on the FCI task 13 , we examined post-instruction physicsrelated brain dynamics and found joint FPC-DMN activity supported decision making, perhaps indicating physics thinking relies on mental exploration and episodic memory retrieval during solution generation 13,32,33 . Our current findings indicate these reasoning-related processes may also generalize to those that support physics content knowledge retrieval across learning.…”

“…Participants completed the Force Concept Inventory (FCI 50 ) physics reasoning task 13 , a physics knowledge (PK) task, and a content-general transitive inference (TI) task while in the MRI scanner (Figure 1). The FCI is a reliable 51 and widely used 52 test of conceptual understanding in Newtonian Physics 50 whose adaptation for and implementation in the MRI environment has been described in detail elsewhere 13 .…”

“…Participants completed the Force Concept Inventory (FCI 50 ) physics reasoning task 13 , a physics knowledge (PK) task, and a content-general transitive inference (TI) task while in the MRI scanner (Figure 1). The FCI is a reliable 51 and widely used 52 test of conceptual understanding in Newtonian Physics 50 whose adaptation for and implementation in the MRI environment has been described in detail elsewhere 13 . FCI questions asked students to reason through a set of causal physical scenarios by forcing them to choose between a single correct answer and multiple commonsense alternatives based on documented and persistent confusions introductory physics students commonly hold.…”

“…Images were then resampled into MNI152 space and spatially smoothed (5mm Gaussian kernel). TRs with excessive motion (including one frame before and two frames after 55 ) were scrubbed if they met or exceeded a threshold of 0.35mm FD 13 . Additionally, due to the relatively long trials of the FCI task, FCI runs containing excessive motion (≥33% of within-block motion) were discarded from the analysis, resulting in the omission of three runs from two individuals.…”

“…Characterizations of brain activity underlying how individuals conceptualize, reason with, and learn about physical systems indicate physics cognition engages multiple brain areas across a fronto-parietal network (FPN) similar to that of domain-general problem solving [10][11][12][13] . Furthermore, classroom learning interventions have been shown to increase functional connectivity within task-critical reasoning and retrieval-related brain systems following skill acquisition 14,15 , with evidence also pointing to enhanced cross-system autonomy accompanying learning 16 .…”