Novices improve more than engineering students across FBD task runs, eliminating the group difference by the final run¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r1 · q3
Currency · newest study 2020 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Across the four fMRI runs, novices improved significantly more than engineering students over time. → Joshua S. Cetron 2020 q3 i? By run 4, both groups demonstrated mastery of the FBD task and did not perform significantly differently from each other. → Joshua S. Cetron 2020 (2)

Evidence¶

Joshua S. Cetron 2020¶

Joshua S. Cetron, Andrew C. Connolly, Solomon G. Diamond, Vicki V. May, James V. Haxby and David J. M. Kraemer. (2020). Using the force: STEM knowledge and experience construct shared neural representations of engineering concepts. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-020-0065-x

q3 · i? · associational · r1

A linear mixed-effects model of FBD accuracy across runs in the same N = 31 sample found a "signi ficant two-way interaction" of run by group, with novices improving 23.61% versus 7.55% for engineering students. No standardized effect size is printed.

"There was also a signi ficant two-way interaction (β = 0.05, SE = 0.01, p = 0.0005) in which novices improved more than engineering students over time ( Δeng = 7.55%, Δnov = 23.61%, t(29) = 3.47, p = 0.002)."

Joshua S. Cetron 2020 (2)¶

Joshua S. Cetron, Andrew C. Connolly, Solomon G. Diamond, Vicki V. May, James V. Haxby and David J. M. Kraemer. (2020). Using the force: STEM knowledge and experience construct shared neural representations of engineering concepts. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-020-0065-x

q3 · i? · associational · r1

At the fourth and final fMRI run, "both groups demonstrated mastery of the FBD task"; the group difference was no longer statistically significant, t(29) = 1.34, p = 0.19. Equivalence was not tested.

"By run 4, both groups demonstrated mastery of the FBD task, and did not perform significantly differently from each other ( t(29) = 1.34, p = 0.19)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Engineering students significantly outperform novices on a naturalistic free body diagram task measuring Newtonian force knowledge — related
• By the final fMRI run, group differences in convergent neural representations shrink and are no longer strongly reflective of mechanical category information, consistent with task-specific rather than conceptual learning — related
• Engineering students and novices show distinct, group-specific patterns of convergent neural representations when evaluating real-world structures — related