Advances in the Use of Neuroscience Methods in Research on Learning and Instruction

Cognitive neuroscience offers a series of tools and methodologies that allow researchers in the field of learning and instruction to complement and extend the knowledge they have accumulated through decades of behavioral research. The appropriateness of these methods depends on the research question at hand. Cognitive neuroscience methods allow researchers to investigate specific cognitive processes in a very detailed way, a goal in some but not all fields of the learning sciences. This value added will be illustrated in three ways, with examples in field of mathematics learning. Firstly, cognitive neuroscience methods allow one to understand learning at the biological level. Secondly, these methods can help to measure processes that are difficult to access by means of behavioral techniques. Finally, and more indirectly, neuroimaging data can be used as an input for research on learning and instruction. I will end this contribution by highlighting the challenges of applying neuroscience methods to research on learning and instruction

Matemáticas y neurociencias: una aproximación al desarrollo del pensamiento matemático desde una perspectiva biológica

En el presente artículo se realiza una revisión sobre la investigación que desde las neurociencias se realiza para entender cómo se desarrolla el pensamiento matemático. Se muestra las dos formas de pensamiento matemático: uno antiguo y común a muchas especies animales: la estimación y otro propio de la especie humana y relacionado con el lenguaje: el pensamiento matemático formal. Ambas son fundamentales para un adecuado pensamiento matemático. Para su desarrollo se requiere de la educación, pero alteraciones en el desarrollo cerebral presentes en autismo y síndrome de Turner producen incapacidad para desarrollar un pensamiento matemático adecuado

Habilidades en lecto-escritura matemática en estudiantes del área ciencias de la salud: prueba de sondeo

Este trabajo presenta los resultados de una prueba de sondeo realizada a dos grupos diferentes de estudiantes del curso de farmacología, del área de la salud. Aquí se intenta evaluar las habilidades y debilidades en matemática básicas. A pesar de la importancia de las matemáticas en el área de la salud se observan deficiencias en la manipulación de la información matemática, que probablemente está relacionado con deficiencias tempranas en la formación. Con este trabajo se llama la atención sobre el impacto de la educación matemática temprana en la vida de estudiantes avanzados y en su éxito profesional

Edukacja oparta na neurofaktach – wstępna analiza nowego protokołu badawczego opartego na metodologii pedagogiki i medycyny

Recent years have brought with them an increase in the interest of educators in research in the field of neuroscience. Among the publications – including scientific ones – there were various proposals that referred to brain research. Neuropedagogy, neuroeducation and neurodidactics have become an attractive field of interdisciplinary discussions. Unfortunately, a significant impact on their quality was the fact that evidence-based education is still a little-known approach among educators. This article presents the procedure based on brain imaging and pedagogical methodology. Preliminary results of the analysis have shown that the information obtained in this way can be the basis for individualizing the education of children with developmental disorders.Ostatnie lata przyniosły wzrost zainteresowania pedagogów badaniami z zakresu neurobiologii. Wśród publikacji – także naukowych – pojawiły się różnego rodzaju propozycje, które odwoływały się do badań nad mózgiem. Neuropedagogika, neuroedukacja i neurodydaktyka stały się atrakcyjnym polem dyskusji interdyscyplinarnych. Niestety istotny wpływ na ich jakość miał fakt, że edukacja oparta na dowodach jest wciąż podejściem mało znanym wśród pedagogów. Niniejszy artykuł zawiera prezentację procedury opartej na neurobrazowaniu mózgu oraz metodologii pedagogicznej. Wstępne wyniki analiz wykazały, że uzyskane w ten sposób informacje mogą stanowić podstawę do indywidualizacji edukacji dzieci z zaburzeniami rozwojowymi

Distinguishing between cognitive explanations of the problem size effect in mental arithmetic via representational similarity analysis of fMRI data

Not all researchers interested in human behavior remain convinced that modern neuroimaging techniques have much to contribute to distinguishing between competing cognitive models for explaining human behavior, especially if one removes reverse inference from the table. Here, we took up this challenge in an attempt to distinguish between two competing accounts of the problem size effect (PSE), a robust finding in investigations of mathematical cognition. The PSE occurs when people solve arithmetic problems and indicates that numerically large problems are solved more slowly and erroneously than small problems. Neurocognitive explanations for the PSE can be categorized into representation-based and process-based views. Behavioral and traditional univariate neural measures have struggled to distinguish between these accounts. By contrast, a representational similarity analysis (RSA) approach with fMRI data provides competing hypotheses that can distinguish between accounts without recourse to reverse inference. To that end, our RSA (but not univariate) results provided clear evidence in favor of the representation-based over the process-based account of the PSE in multiplication; for addition, the results were less clear. Post-hoc similarity analysis distinguished still further between competing representation-based theoretical accounts. Namely, data favored the notion that individual multiplication problems are stored as individual memory traces sensitive to input frequency over a strictly magnitude-based account of memory encoding. Together, these results provide an example of how human neuroimaging evidence can directly inform cognitive-level explanations of a common behavioral phenomenon, the problem size effect. More broadly, these data may expand our understanding of calculation and memory systems in general

The underlying neural bases of the reversal error while solving algebraic word problems

Problem solving is a core element in mathematical learning. The reversal error in problem solving occurs when students are able to recognize the information in the statement of comparison word problems, but they reverse the relationship between two variables when building the equations. Functional magnetic resonance images were acquired to identify for the first time the neural bases associated with the reversal error. The neuronal bases linked to this error have been used as inputs in 13 classifiers to discriminate between reversal error and non-reversal error groups. We found brain activation in bilateral fronto-parietal areas in the participants who committed reversal errors, and only left fronto-parietal activation in those who did not, suggesting that the reversal error group needed a greater cognitive demand. Instead, the non-reversal error group seems to show that they have developed solid algebraic knowledge. Additionally, the results showed brain activation in the right middle temporal gyrus when comparing the reversal error vs non-reversal error groups. This activation would be associated with the semantic processing which is required to understand the statement and build the equation. Finally, the classifier results show that the brain areas activated could be considered good biomarkers to help us identify competent solvers

Age-related changes in children’s strategies for solving two-digit addition problems

The present study investigated how elementary-school children solve two-digit addition problems (e.g., 34+68). To achieve this end, we examined age-related differences in children’s strategy use and strategy performance. Results showed that (a) both third and fifth graders used a set of 9 strategies, (b) fifth-grade individuals used more strategies than third-grade individuals, (c) age-related differences in the size of strategy repertoire was partially explained by age-related differences in basic arithmetic fluency, (d) how often children used each available strategy changed with problem difficulty and children’s age, as younger children tended to focus more on one or two strategies and older children used a wider range of strategies, (e) increased arithmetic performance with age varied with problem difficulty both when overall performance was analyzed and when analyses of performance was restricted to children’s favorite strategy. The present findings have important implications for our understanding of how complex arithmetic performance changes with children’s age and change mechanisms underlying improved performance with age in complex arithmetic

Mapping subcomponents of numerical cognition in relation to functional and anatomical landmarks of human parietal cortex

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The Functional Architectures of Addition and Subtraction: Network Discovery Using fMRI and DCM

The neuronal mechanisms underlying arithmetic calculations are not well understood but the differences between mental addition and subtraction could be particularly revealing. Using fMRI and dynamic causal modeling (DCM), this study aimed to identify the distinct neuronal architectures engaged by the cognitive processes of simple addition and subtraction. Our results revealed significantly greater activation during subtraction in regions along the dorsal pathway, including the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), middle portion of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (mDLPFC), and supplementary motor area (SMA), compared with addition. Subsequent analysis of the underlying changes in connectivity – with DCM – revealed a common circuit processing basic (numeric) attributes and the retrieval of arithmetic facts. However, DCM showed that addition was more likely to engage (numeric) retrieval‐based circuits in the left hemisphere, while subtraction tended to draw on (magnitude) processing in bilateral parietal cortex, especially the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS). Our findings endorse previous hypotheses about the differences in strategic implementation, dominant hemisphere, and the neuronal circuits underlying addition and subtraction. Moreover, for simple arithmetic, our connectivity results suggest that subtraction calls on more complex processing than addition: auxiliary phonological, visual, and motor processes, for representing numbers, were engaged by subtraction, relative to addition. Hum Brain Mapp 38:3210–3225, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc