Last Wednesday, I had a meeting with two professors, one from the mathematics department and one from the psychology department. The psychology professor had a lot to say in regards to doing a research project/experiment and what considerations I will have to take into account when preparing this project. After talking with both professors, I believe that my best experimental group would be elementary students because it is a homogeneous group with little to no specialization yet. We discussed the option of elderly people, but the variability of test subjects is too vast, especially when it comes to differences in memory disorders. We also discussed and experiment with college students, but the psychology professor didn't seem too keen on that because college students are specialized, so their brain already has specific functions and actions.
After this meeting, I felt a little more comfortable about working with elementary students as my test subjects. They asked me to do a little bit of research before our next meeting, which I have been doing this morning. As I was browsing through some of the sources, I realized that there is a lot more information on adolescents than young adults, so the elementary group may just be the way to go. I found a few articles and purchased a book for a bit of"light reading" over the summer. Out of four sources I found in PsychInfo EBSCO Search, I was able to find three of them. One book is called "The Learning Brain: Memory and Brain Development in Children." This book talks about the neuroscience of the brain and focuses on working memory and its correlation to math and reading skills. I also found an article entitled "The Role of Mathematical Homework and Prior Knowledge on the Relationship Between Students' Mathematical Performance, Cognitive Style and Working Memory Capacity," and a dissertation discussing gender differences in math performance. Needless to say, I've got a lot of reading ahead of me, but these few works will get me a jump-start on where I want to be heading.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Friday, April 12, 2013
Thinking on Paper
So last class I made a plan to do some word vomiting to figure out where my project is headed, and I think it worked. I didn't know where to start writing, so I looked at my application for independent study. There is a section for the proposal and in the directions it tells you what needs to be included in the proposal. Those parts include rationale, scope, plan of study, procedure of evaluation, and plan for conferences with faculty instructor. I'm not sure about those last two parts yet, but the first three helped my organize my thinking process.
I had been torn between two paths - looking at thinking process through college students or memory capabilities and elderly people with memory disabilities, such as Alzheimer's and dementia. For each of these ideas, I started jotting down notes that would correspond to each of the sections of the proposal. At first I had only done it for the college pool because it seemed like the more reasonable option being on a college campus. However, this morning I realized that that's not what I want to do. After having it sit in my brain for a few days, I realized that I am more interested in the long-term effects and memory loss.
My only concern right now with this path is that there is not enough math involved. I want to look at mathematical procedures to maybe see if there is any relation to the way we process information into our memory. Math is repetitious and is always building on previous knowledge, so I thought that could play a role in the way we remember things, too. I also want to see what parts of the brain are working when we "use math" and then compare it to the parts of the brain where memory loss occurs.
My project is going to be very different from other math projects done in the past. Most projects use mathematical concepts in order to derive a solution to a particular, mathematical involved problem. However, mine is looking at the impact of mathematics and the long-term effects it can have on memory capabilities. I'm just worried that this isn't the type of project that the department is looking for, but it is something I have been dreaming of doing.
I had been torn between two paths - looking at thinking process through college students or memory capabilities and elderly people with memory disabilities, such as Alzheimer's and dementia. For each of these ideas, I started jotting down notes that would correspond to each of the sections of the proposal. At first I had only done it for the college pool because it seemed like the more reasonable option being on a college campus. However, this morning I realized that that's not what I want to do. After having it sit in my brain for a few days, I realized that I am more interested in the long-term effects and memory loss.
My only concern right now with this path is that there is not enough math involved. I want to look at mathematical procedures to maybe see if there is any relation to the way we process information into our memory. Math is repetitious and is always building on previous knowledge, so I thought that could play a role in the way we remember things, too. I also want to see what parts of the brain are working when we "use math" and then compare it to the parts of the brain where memory loss occurs.
My project is going to be very different from other math projects done in the past. Most projects use mathematical concepts in order to derive a solution to a particular, mathematical involved problem. However, mine is looking at the impact of mathematics and the long-term effects it can have on memory capabilities. I'm just worried that this isn't the type of project that the department is looking for, but it is something I have been dreaming of doing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)