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1. Brain and Behavior in Engineering Design: An Exploratory Study on Using Concept Mapping

   Hu, M. ; Shealy, T. ; Gero, J. ; Milovanovic, J. ; Ignacio, P. ( January 2023 , Design Computing and Cognition’22)

   Gero, J.S. (Ed.)

   To explore the connection between brain and behavior in engineering design, this study measured the change in neurocognition of engineering students while they developed concept maps. Concept maps help designers organize complex ideas by illustrating components and relationships. Student concept maps were graded using a pre-established scoring method and compared to their neurocognitive activation. Results show significant correlations between performance and neurocognition. Concept map scores were positively correlated with activation in students’ prefrontal cortex. A prominent sub-region was the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which is generally associated with divergent thinking and cognitive flexibility. Student scores were negatively correlated with measures of brain network density. The findings suggest a possible neurocognitive mechanism for better performance. More research is needed to connect brain activation to the cognitive activities that occur when designing but these results provide new evidence for the brain functions that support the development of complex ideas during design. 

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2. How the use of concept maps changes students’ minds and brains.

   Shealy, T. ; Gero, J. ; Ignacio Jr, P. ( July 2022 , ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   The research presented in this paper tested whether drawing concept maps changes how engineering students construct design problem statements and whether these differences are observable in their brains. The process of identifying and constructing problem statements is a critical step in engineering design. Concept mapping has the potential to expand the problem space that students explore through the attention given to the relationship between concepts. It helps integrate existing knowledge in new ways. Engineering students (n=66) were asked to construct a problem statement to improve mobility on campus. Half of these students were randomly chosen to first receive instructions about how to develop a concept map and were asked to draw a concept map about mobility systems on campus. The semantic similarity of concepts in the students’ problem statements, the length of their problem statements, and their neurocognition when developing their statements were measured. The results indicated that students who were asked to first draw concept maps produced a more diverse problem statement with less semantically similar words. The students who first developed concept maps also produce significantly longer problem statements. Concept mapping changed students’ neurocognition. The students who used concept mapping elicited less cognitive activation in their left prefrontal cortex (PFC) and more concentrated activation in their right PFC. The right PFC is generally associated with divergent thinking and the left PFC is generally associated with convergent and analytical thinking. These results provide new insight into how educational interventions, like concept mapping, can change students’ cognition and neurocognition. Better understanding how concept maps, and other tools, help students approach complex problems and the associated changes that occur in their brain can lay the groundwork for novel advances in engineering education that support new tools and pedagogy development for design. 

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3. Neurocognitive feedback: a prospective approach to sustain idea generation during design brainstorming

   https://doi.org/10.1080/21650349.2021.1976678  

   Hu, Mo ; Shealy, Tripp ; Milovanovic, Julie ; Gero, John ( July 2021 , International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation)

   Ideation is a key phase in engineering design and brainstorming is an established method for ideation. A limitation of the brainstorming process is idea production tends to peak at the beginning and quickly decreases with time. In this exploratory study, we tested an innovative technique to sustain ideation by providing designers feedback about their neurocognition. We used a neuroimaging technique (fNIRS) to monitor students’ neurocognitive activations during a brainstorming task. Half received real-time feedback about their neurocognitive activation in their prefrontal cortex, a brain region associated with working memory and cognitive flexibility. Students who received the neurocognitive feedback maintained higher cortical activation and longer sustained peak activation. Students receiving the neurocognitive feedback demonstrated a higher percentage of right-hemispheric dominance, a region associated to creative processing, compared to the students without neurocognitive feedback. The increase in right-hemispheric dominance positively correlated with an increase in the number of solutions during concept generation and a higher design idea fluency. These results demonstrate the prospective use of neurocognitive feedback to sustain the cognitive activations necessary for idea generation during brainstorming. Future research should explore the effect of neurocognitive feedback with a more robust sample of designers and compare neurocognitive feedback with other types of interventions to sustain ideation. 

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4. Concept Maps Decrease Students’ Neurocognitive Demand When Thinking about Engineering Problems

   https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483985.025  

   Manandhar, Ushma ; Hu, Mo ; Milovanovic, Julie ; Shealy, Tripp ; Gero, John ( March 2022 , Construction Research Congress 2022)

   Jazizadeh, F. ; Shealy, T. ; Garvin, M. (Ed.)

   The research presented in this paper explores the effect of concept maps on students’ neurocognition when constructing engineering problem statements. In total, 66 engineering students participated in the experiment. Half of the students were asked to create a concept map illustrating all of the systems and stakeholders represented in a building on campus. The other half of students were not asked to draw a concept map. Both groups were then asked to construct an engineering problem statement about improvements to the building. While performing the problem statement task, their neurocognitive activation in their prefrontal cortex (PFC) was measured using a non-intrusive neuroimaging technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The students that were asked to complete the concept mapping task required less cognitive effort to formulate and analyze their problem statements. The specific regions that were less activated were regions of the brain generally associated with working memory and problem evaluation. These results provide new insight into the changes in mental processing that occurs when using tools like concept maps and may provide helpful techniques for students to structure engineering problems. 

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5. Concept maps decrease neurocognitive demand on students when thinking about engineering problems,

   Manandhar, U. ; Hu, M. ; Milovanovic, J. ; Shealy, T. ; Gero, J.S. ( April 2022 , ASCE Construction Research Congress 2022)

   ASCE (Ed.)

   The research presented in this paper explores the effect of concept maps on students’ neurocognition when constructing engineering problem statements. In total, 66 engineering students participated in the experiment. Half of the students were asked to create a concept map illustrating all of the systems and stakeholders represented in a building on campus. The other half of students were not asked to draw a concept map. Both groups were then asked to construct an engineering problem statement about improvements to the building. While performing the problem statement task, their neurocognitive activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) was measured using a non-intrusive neuroimaging technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The students that were asked to complete the concept mapping task required less cognitive effort to formulate and analyze their problem statements. The specific regions that were less activated were regions of the brain generally associated with working memory and problem evaluation. These results provide new insight into the changes in mental processing that occurs when using tools like concept maps and may provide helpful techniques for students to structure engineering problems. 

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