The source of misconceptions in physics: When event-related potential components N400 and P600 disagree
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1
University of Pittsburgh, ISB, United States
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2
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, ISB, Israel
In this study, we used neuroscientific methods to answer a question that long occupied both education and cognitive researchers. A revisited view—based on novel measures and knowledge—aimed to identify the mental processes that underlie misconceptions in physics (misconceptions of motion of objects, in particular). An animated version of the spiral tube problem [1] was used in a virtual environment. Behavioral and electroencephalogram (EEG) responses to correct and incorrect motion (linear and curved, respectively) with and without a possible conflict (spiral and straight tube, respectively) were tested in a classification task and in a catching task. Participants were divided into three groups, according to their explicit knowledge of the spiral tube problem. Behavioral results showed a greater effect of motion-correctness for the straight tube than for the spiral tube, but showed no difference between the groups. In the N400 time-window, larger negativity was associated with incorrect motion in both straight and spiral tubes for all groups, suggesting that correct implicit knowledge about motion of objects exists for all subjects, regardless of their explicit responses in a classification task. In the P600 time-window, larger positivity was associated with incorrect motion only for the straight tube. In the spiral tube condition, the incorrect (curved) motion was associated with less positivity than the correct (linear) motion. The P600 effect was significant only for the misconception group. We concluded that the mental process that underlies the P600 effect is responsible for the misconception of motion of objects. This mental process might be a structural judgment of continuity. The explicit response of subjects was directed by the process (implicit knowledge or structural judgment) that “won” the competition. The study shows how imaging techniques can be used to pinpoint the source of a misconception that impairs the study of physics by students.
References
1. McCloskey, M., Caramazza, A., & Green, B. (1980). Curvilinear motion in the absence of external forces: Naive beliefs about the motion of objects. Science, 210, 1139-1141.
Conference:
EARLI SIG22 - Neuroscience and Education, Zurich, Switzerland, 3 Jun - 5 Jun, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Science learning
Citation:
Kallai
AY and
Reiner
M
(2010). The source of misconceptions in physics: When event-related potential components N400 and P600 disagree.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
EARLI SIG22 - Neuroscience and Education.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.11.00065
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Received:
31 May 2010;
Published Online:
31 May 2010.
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Correspondence:
Miriam Reiner, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, ISB, Haifa, Israel, miriamr@technion.ac.il