Applying functional near-infrared spectroscopy and eye-tracking in a naturalistic educational environment to investigate physiological aspects that underlie the cognitive effort of children during mental rotation tests.

ABSTRACT: Spatial cognition is related to academic achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains. Neuroimaging studies suggest that brain regions' activation might be related to the general cognitive effort while solving mental rotation tasks (MRT). In this study, we evaluate the mental effort of children performing MRT tasks by measuring brain activation and pupil dilation. We use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) concurrently to collect brain hemodynamic responses from children's prefrontal cortex (PFC) and an Eye-tracking system to measure pupil dilation during MRT. Thirty-two healthy students aged 9-11 participated in this experiment. Behavioral measurements such as task performance on geometry problem-solving tests and MRT scores were also collected

SUBMITTER: da Silva Soares R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9442578 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature