So, right now my topic is a little broad. I need to figure out how to narrow it down to one specific idea that I can research. I talked to my advisor yesterday about my topic and how to narrow it down. Luckily, she knows a professor in the psychology department who might be able to help us and possibly be a co-advisor, partly because not a lot of math professors know much about the brain. My proposal and application for independent study are due soon, so hopefully I can figure it out by then. Next task is trying to figure out how to fill out my application.
Choosing between thinking process and memory capabilities, I feel like I am leaning more towards memory, but then again, the way we remember information depends on how we process it in the first place. There may not be a lot of mathematical equations involved in this study, more informative than comprehensive, but for some reason I am enjoying planning it out because I know it's something I am interested in discovering.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Friday, March 8, 2013
Spit It Out
I realize it's been a while since I've posted and I apologize. However, since the last time I was on here, I have finally cleared out what it it I will be doing for my Honors Project. In class, we wrote on giant sticky notes and filled in the blanks of a general sentence that we could specify to our own projects.
This is what I did in class and all of my classmates put in their input to help me clarify what I will be doing.
I am researching/studying...the impact/influence of mathematics on the thinking process and capacity of working/short/long-term memory...because I want to find out...how influential mathematics is on the brain (through the uses of patterns and sequences, abstract thinking, application of theories, rules, etc.)...in order to help my reader understand...the importance of mathematics and how it can help/hinder your mental capabilities.
By looking at the three base phrases and trying to complete the sentence, it helped me finally spit out in words exactly what it is I am looking to do for my project. Once I got it out on paper, my classmates started to comment on it to help me either clarify it more for the audience or give me ideas that I might want to look into once I start doing research.
A few people were commenting that I should look at different parts related to the brain. They suggested looking at fluid/crystallized intelligences and brain lateralization, looking into mental disorders such as Alzheimer's. This gave me the idea to visit an assisted living facility and maybe see if I can do mathematical activities with some of the Alzheimer's patients and see if the activities do anything to help their memory capabilities. This would involve solving logic problems and puzzles like Sudoku.
As far as the thinking process, I'm not sure exactly how I want to approach it yet, but i think it will involve doing an experiment in which I take students on campus from different majors, have them try to remember a series of numbers, patterns, etc, and see how well they are remembered and the strategy used to remember them.
It's a work in progress, but I am finally getting somewhere where I can start planning out where I want to go with my experiment and get helpful input/feedback from my classmates!
I am researching/studying...the impact/influence of mathematics on the thinking process and capacity of working/short/long-term memory...because I want to find out...how influential mathematics is on the brain (through the uses of patterns and sequences, abstract thinking, application of theories, rules, etc.)...in order to help my reader understand...the importance of mathematics and how it can help/hinder your mental capabilities.
By looking at the three base phrases and trying to complete the sentence, it helped me finally spit out in words exactly what it is I am looking to do for my project. Once I got it out on paper, my classmates started to comment on it to help me either clarify it more for the audience or give me ideas that I might want to look into once I start doing research.
A few people were commenting that I should look at different parts related to the brain. They suggested looking at fluid/crystallized intelligences and brain lateralization, looking into mental disorders such as Alzheimer's. This gave me the idea to visit an assisted living facility and maybe see if I can do mathematical activities with some of the Alzheimer's patients and see if the activities do anything to help their memory capabilities. This would involve solving logic problems and puzzles like Sudoku.
As far as the thinking process, I'm not sure exactly how I want to approach it yet, but i think it will involve doing an experiment in which I take students on campus from different majors, have them try to remember a series of numbers, patterns, etc, and see how well they are remembered and the strategy used to remember them.
It's a work in progress, but I am finally getting somewhere where I can start planning out where I want to go with my experiment and get helpful input/feedback from my classmates!
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