Individual differences in brain function related to physics education
Sex differences in the brain correlates of STEM anxiety
Abstract
Anxiety is known to dysregulate the salience, default mode, and central executive networks of the human brain, yet this phenomenon has not been fully explored across the STEM learning experience, where anxiety can impact negatively academic performance. Here, we evaluated anxiety and large-scale brain connectivity in 101 undergraduate physics students. We found sex differences in STEM-related and clinical anxiety, with longitudinal increases in science anxiety observed for both female and male students. Sex-specific relationships between STEM anxiety and brain connectivity emerged, with male students exhibiting distinct inter-network connectivity for STEM and clinical anxiety, and female students demonstrating no significant within-sex correlations. Anxiety was negatively correlated with academic performance in sex-specific ways at both pre- and post-instruction. Moreover, math anxiety in male students mediated the relation between default mode-salience connectivity and course grade. Together, these results reveal complex sex differences in the neural mechanisms driving how anxiety is related to STEM learning. Code NeuroVault
Manuscripts
Large-scale brain networks underlying physics-related cognition and cognitive abilities
Abstract
Academic performance is believed to rely, in part, on intelligence. This phenomena has been studied at length, but findings concerning the neural substrates of intelligence in intrinsic brain organization have been mixed, and little attention has been paid to how the relationships between intelligence and brain organization vary between sexes. Here, we investigate the role of cognitive abilities in domain-specific learning in a historically male-dominated domain. We further probe how the intrinsic organization of large-scale brain networks reflects individual differences in cognitive abilities, their role in student achievement, and how this relationship differs with respect to sex.
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Presentations
Neural mechanisms of physics learning
Abstract
University instruction in physics represents a unique experience for many individuals and STEM education best practices are increasingly important. Introductory physics courses are a gateway top many STEM majors and, thus, a pivotal node in the "leaky pipeline" leading to gender gap in STEM careers and higher education. This project assesses factors contributing to student success in introductory physics and the roles of pedagogy, gender, and behavior therein.
- Uncovering the neural correlates of problem solving
- Assessing brain function during science reasoning
- Linking differences in brain function during science reasoning to conceptions of Newtonian mechanics
- Studying the pedagogical approaches to university physics instruction and how they might differentially engage neural systems
- Applying psychological theories to better understand the neural correlates of physics-related cognition and impacts of STEM-related anxiety thereon.