Cognitive differences among first-year and senior engineering students when generating design solutions with and without additional dimensions of sustainability

Abstract

The research presented in this paper explores how engineering students cognitively manage concept generation and measures the effects of additional dimensions of sustainability on design cognition. Twelve first-year and eight senior engineering students generated solutions to 10 design problems. Half of the problems included additional dimensions of sustainability. The number of unique design solutions students developed and their neurocognitive activation were measured. Without additional requirements for sustainability, first-year students generated significantly more solutions than senior engineering students. First-year students recruited higher cortical activation in the brain region generally associated with cognitive flexibility, and divergent and convergent thinking. Senior engineering students recruited higher activation in the brain region generally associated with uncertainty processing and self-reflection. When additional dimensions of sustainability were present, first-year students produced fewer solutions. Senior engineering students generated a similar number of solutions. Senior engineering students required less cortical activation to generate a similar number of solutions. The varying patterns of cortical activation and different number of solutions between first-year and senior engineering students begin to highlight cognitive differences in how students manage and retrieve information in their brain during design. Students’ ability to manage complex requirements like sustainability may improve with education.

Design Training and Creativity: Students Develop Stronger Divergent but Not Convergent Thinking

“…Several limitations to this study are worth mentioning. First, the cross-sectional design does not provide information about changes over time and does not allow conclusions about causality (e.g., Coleman et al, 2020 ; Hu et al, 2021 ). A longitudinal design would be helpful in identifying which junior design students went on to complete the design program.…”

“…First-year students scored significantly higher on the design thinking scale, while senior students performed significantly better on the integrative thinking scale ( Coleman et al, 2020 ). First-year students also generated significantly more solutions than seniors and showed higher activation in the brain region associated with cognitive flexibility and divergent thinking ( Hu et al, 2021 ).…”

Design Meets Neuroscience: A Preliminary Review of Design Research Using Neuroscience Tools

“…Such brain localization findings provide valuable insights into design thinking from the perspective of neuroscience. The knowledge contributes to generating and validating hypotheses about the nature of design, pertaining to the neural network underlying specific behaviors et al, 1997), visual and mental spatial exploration (Mellet et al, 1995), and visual attention (Corbetta, 1998) • Emotional responses to varying olfactory and auditory stimuli (Royet et al, 2000) Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) A non-invasive optical technology that enables functional imaging of brain activity and measures changes in the concentration of both oxy-hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) and deoxyhemoglobin (deoxy-Hb) (Villringer & Chance, 1997) • Flexibility and portability • No strict restrictions on motion • Low cost • Biochemical specificity (Schroeter et al, 2002) • More convenient and less expensive for studying brain function in practice and may be an appropriate substitute for MRI depending on the study topic and protocols (Cui et al, 2011) • Time delay compared to EEG methods • Practical difficulties including the quantification issue of NIRS data, the lack of standard methods for NIRS data analysis, and difficulties measuring deep brain structures (Hoshi, 2007) • Shealy and colleagues conducted studies with a specific focus on design (see Hu et al, 2021;Shealy et al, 2020;Shealy & Gero, 2019) recording changes in students' brain activation during engineering design. when addressing design tasks, which provides further evidence to differentiate design from nondesign cognitive functions.…”

Priming Engineers to Think About Sustainability: Cognitive and Neuro-Cognitive Evidence to Support the Adoption of Green Stormwater Design

“…For instance, additional brain regions like the ACC likely contribute to risk and reward processing ( Mulert et al, 2008 ; Fukunaga et al, 2012 ). This study was limited to the cortex of the PFC because of the instrumental approach ( Hu and Shealy, 2020 ; Hu et al, 2021 ). However, using fMRI presents its own unique limitations.…”