Involvement of inhibitory control mechanisms in overcoming intuitive interference

Abstract

Many students encounter difficulties in science and mathematics that may stem from intuitive interference of salient irrelevant variables. We focused on the comparison of perimeters task, in which area is the irrelevant salient variable. In congruent trials (no interference), accuracy is higher and reaction time is shorter than in incongruent trials (area variable interference). A brain-imaging study related to this task indicated that correctly answering the incongruent condition is associated with activation in prefrontal brain regions known for their executive inhibitory control. In the current study we explored the relationship between inhibitory control mechanisms and the ability to overcome intuitive interference. Participants in the study were 90 ninth graders. The efficiency of their inhibitory control mechanisms was assessed and accuracy and reaction time of correct responses in the comparison of perimeters task were recorded. The findings indicate that students with efficient inhibitory control mechanisms scored significantly better in the incongruent conditions than did those with inefficient ones. In addition, the findings indicate that the higher the efficiency of inhibitory control mechanisms, the better students were in overcoming the intuitive interference. These findings indicate the importance of inhibitory control mechanisms in overcoming interference in science and mathematics. They point to the possibility of improving students' ability to overcome intuitive interference by strengthening their inhibitory control mechanisms. We also demonstrate that applying cognitive psychology and neuroscience methodologies in science and mathematics education research contributes to both fields.

The Levels of Students’ Feeling of Rightness (FOR) in Solving Polygon Perimeter Problems

“…However, the researcher finds data showing the opposite condition. Similar findings have also been revealed in previous research, including Babai, Younis, & Stavy (2014), Musser, Burger, & Peterson (2011), Kow & Yeo (2008), and Mulligan et al, (2005). However, the research that has been done only focuses on the answers generated by students (the number of correct answers and the number of incorrect answers) and not on the mental process of producing those answers.…”

“…Therefore, re-involvement of system 2 is very important (Prawita et al, 2019). For this reason, there is a need for in-depth research on the factors that trigger the active system 2 (Babai et al, 2015;Babai et al, 2014;Dujmović & Valerjev, 2018).…”

The role of executive function in the construction and employment of scientific and mathematical concepts that require conceptual change learning

“…Inhibitory control has been specifically related to conceptual change in science and mathematics learning because the construction of new representations and new ontological categories in these areas often requires overcoming the strong pull of initial belief systems (Babai, Younis, & Stavy, 2014;Masson et al, 2014;Van Dooren & Inglis, 2015). Preliminary results coming from neuroimaging studies indicate that there might be differences in brain activation between novices and experts when they must evaluate counter-intuitive scientific stimuli.…”

Entrainement au contrôle inhibiteur et apprentissage en chimie dans le secondaire supérieur : Favoriser un changement de prévalence conceptuelle

“…Ainsi, les recherches en neurosciences ont permis de proposer un nouveau modèle : il ne s'agirait pas de changer les conceptions, autrement dit « d'effacer » ou de restructurer de façon approfondie les réseaux neuronaux en place, mais plutôt d'apprendre à « inhiber » ceux menant à la formulation de réponses inappropriées et d'activer ceux conduisant à la conception experte (Babai, Younis et Stavy, 2014 ;Brault Foisy et al, 2015 ;Houdé, 2016a ;Masson, 2012 ;Potvin, Riopel et Masson, 2007).…”