Representation And Decision-making Of Chemical Problem Solving From The Perspective Of Neuroeducation

Problem representation plays a vital role in the process of problem solving.The first step to successfully solve a problem is to properly represent the problem.As chemistry is a natural science based on experiments,Chemical symbols are the intermediaries for students to understand the properties of macroscopic substances and the composition of microstructures,which are the intermediaries and carriers to promote students’ thinking.Therefore,students learn from abstract symbols to concrete chemical substances with the help of chemical symbols can not only provide support for students’ abstract knowledge of chemistry,but also promote the cultivation of their thinking of chemistry.In this study,event-related potential and time-frequency analysis is used to investigate the neural mechanisms of solving different representational forms,which can explore the temporal differences of EEG signals when individuals solve chemical problems in different representational forms,and then to determine the EEG characteristic quantities in different representational forms,so as to reveal the processing time process of different cognitive processes.The first study examines the characteristics of neuro-electrophysiological activity and its effect on decision making in the process of recognition of two representations: words and chemical symbols;And the second study investigates the differences in brain cognitive processes and activity routines when solving chemical problems with different representational forms of words and chemical symbols.In the first experiment,The results showed that the problem of verbal representation induced greater N2 and N400 negative components than chemical symbols,and triggered greater θ synchronization.Compared with the verbal form,chemical symbols induced greater LPP component,α and low-β desynchronization.At the same time,the cognitive responses of different decisions were different in the early stage of θ activity and the late stage of α and low-β desynchronization.The second experiment found that verbal representation induced higher P2,N2 and N400 negative components,and is accordingly induced greater θ synchronization;While chemical symbols was reflected in late LPP component,α and low-β band desynchronization.The results showed that:(1)The recognition of verbal representations was directly mismatched with the relevant knowledge model in long-term memory.Therefore,more cognitive efforts were needed to process the verbal form.(2)Individuals are accustomed to cognitive processing of current problems according to existing chemical learning experience and knowledge,which can actively adopt cognitive processing strategies based on existing mental models and relevant knowledge and experience;(3)Since verbal representations cannot effectively match the information extracted from memory,more cognitive processing of the current information is needed to complete the problem solving,while the reasoning strategies of chemical symbols was based on knowledge and experience,which was reflected in shorter response time and higher accuracy in behavioral results.This study combines the technique of ERP and time-frequency analysis with neuroeducation perspective to explore cognitive process of words and chemical symbol from neural electrophysiological activity level,deeply reflecting the individual’s cognitive process and regularity of brain activities in dealing with different chemical problems.And it further enriches the role of chemical symbols in solving chemical problems,which further opens up a new horizon and provides a theoretical basis for the design and implementation of chemistry teaching based on chemical symbols from the brain processing mechanism.