Browsing by Author "Huang, Li-Yu"

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Brain oscillation and connectivity during a chemistry visual working memory task
(2013-11-01)
Huang, Li-Yu
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She, Hsiao-Ching
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Chou, Wen-Chi
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Chuang, Ming-Hua
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Duann, Jeng-Ren
Many studies have reported that frontal theta and posterior alpha activities are associated with working memory tasks. However, fewer studies have focused on examining whether or not the frontal alpha or posterior theta can play a role in the working memory task. This study investigates electroencephalography (EEG) dynamics and connectivity among different brain regions' theta and alpha oscillations. The EEG was collected from undergraduate students (n = 64) while they were performing a Sternberg-like working memory task involving chemistry concepts. The results showed that the frontal midline cluster exhibited sustained theta augmentation across the periods of stimulus presentations, maintenance, and probe presentation, suggesting that the frontal midline theta might associate with facilitating the central execute function to maintain information in the working memory. Study of the central parietal and the occipital clusters revealed a sequence of theta augmentation followed by alpha suppression at constant intervals after the onset of stimulus and probe presentations, suggesting that the posterior theta might be associated with sensory processing, theta gating, or stimulus selection. It further suggests that the posterior alpha event-related de-synchronization (ERD) might be linked to direct information flow into and out of the long-term memory (LTM) and precede stimulus recognition. An alternating phasic alpha event-related synchronization (ERS) and ERD following the 1st stimulus and probe presentations were observed at the occipital cluster, in which alpha ERS might be linked to the inhibition of irrelevant information. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
EEG Dynamics Reflect the Distinct Cognitive Process of Optic Problem Solving
(1970-01-01)
She, Hsiao-Ching
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Jung, Tzyy-Ping
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Chou, Wen-Chi
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Huang, Li-Yu
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Wang, Chia-Yu
"This study explores the changes in electroencephalographic (EEG) activity associated with the performance of solving an optics maze problem. College students (N = 37) were instructed to construct three solutions to the optical maze in a Web-based learning environment, which required some knowledge of physics. The subjects put forth their best effort to minimize the number of convexes and mirrors needed to guide the image of an object from the entrance to the exit of the maze. This study examines EEG changes in different frequency bands accompanying varying demands on the cognitive process of providing solutions. Results showed that the mean power of theta, alpha 1, alpha 2, and beta 1 significantly increased as the number of convexes and mirrors used by the students decreased from solution 1 to 3. Moreover, the mean power of theta and alpha 1 significantly increased when the participants constructed their personal optimal solution (the least total number of mirrors and lens used by students) compared to their non-personal optimal solution. In conclusion, the spectral power of frontal, frontal midline and posterior theta, posterior alpha, and temporal beta increased predominantly as the task demands and task performance increased."
Encoding of Physics Concepts: Concreteness and Presentation Modality Reflected by Human Brain Dynamics
(2012-07-27)
Lai, Kevin
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She, Hsiao-Ching
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Chen, Sheng-Chang
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Chou, Wen-Chi
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Huang, Li-Yu
Previous research into working memory has focused on activations in different brain areas accompanying either different presentation modalities (verbal vs. non-verbal) or concreteness (abstract vs. concrete) of non-science concepts. Less research has been conducted investigating how scientific concepts are learned and further processed in working memory. To bridge this gap, the present study investigated human brain dynamics associated with encoding of physics concepts, taking both presentation modality and concreteness into account. Results of this study revealed greater theta and low-beta synchronization in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during encoding of concrete pictures as compared to the encoding of both high and low imageable words. In visual brain areas, greater theta activity accompanying stimulus onsets was observed for words as compared to pictures while stronger alpha suppression was observed in responses to pictures as compared to words. In general, the EEG oscillation patterns for encoding words of different levels of abstractness were comparable but differed significantly from encoding of pictures. These results provide insights into the effects of modality of presentation on human encoding of scientific concepts and thus might help in developing new ways to better teach scientific concepts in class.
Explore the Functional Connectivity between Brain Regions during a Chemistry Working Memory Task
(2015-06-03)
Chou, Wen-Chi
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Duann, Jeng-Ren
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She, Hsiao-Ching
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Huang, Li-Yu
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Jung, Tzyy-Ping
Previous studies have rarely examined how temporal dynamic patterns, event-related coherence, and phase-locking are related to each other. This study assessed reaction-time-sorted spectral perturbation and event-related spectral perturbation in order to examine the temporal dynamic patterns in the frontal midline (F), central parietal (CP), and occipital (O) regions during a chemistry working memory task at theta, alpha, and beta frequencies. Furthermore, the functional connectivity between F-CP, CP-O, and F-O were assessed by component event-related coherence (ERCoh) and component phase-locking (PL) at different frequency bands. In addition, this study examined whether the temporal dynamic patterns are consistent with the functional connectivity patterns across different frequencies and time courses. Component ERCoh/PL measured the interactions between different independent components decomposed from the scalp EEG, mixtures of time courses of activities arising from different brain, and artifactual sources. The results indicate that the O and CP regions' temporal dynamic patterns are similar to each other. Furthermore, pronounced component ERCoh/PL patterns were found to exist between the O and CP regions across each stimulus and probe presentation, in both theta and alpha frequencies. The consistent theta component ERCoh/PL between the F and O regions was found at the first stimulus and after probe presentation. These findings demonstrate that temporal dynamic patterns at different regions are in accordance with the functional connectivity patterns. Such coordinated and robust EEG temporal dynamics and component ERCoh/PL patterns suggest that these brain regions' neurons work together both to induce similar event-related spectral perturbation and to synchronize or desynchronize simultaneously in order to swiftly accomplish a particular goal. The possible mechanisms for such distinct component phase-locking and coherence patterns were also further discussed.
Eye fixation-related fronto-parietal neural network correlates of memory retrieval
(2019-04-01)
Tsai, Pei-Yi
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She, Hsiao-Ching
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Chen, Sheng-Chang
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Huang, Li-Yu
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Chou, Wen-Chi
Eye movements are considered to be informative with regard to the underlying cognitive processes of human beings. Previous studies have reported that eye movements are associated with which scientific concepts are retrieved correctly. Moreover, other studies have also suggested that eye movements involve the cooperative activity of the human brain's fronto-parietal circuits. Less research has been conducted to investigate whether fronto-parietal EEG oscillations are associated with the retrieval processing of scientific concepts. Our findings in this study demonstrated that the fronto-parietal network is indeed crucial for successful memory retrieval. In short, significantly lower theta augmentation in the frontal midline and lower alpha suppression in the right parietal region were observed at the 5th eye fixation for physics concepts that were correctly retrieved than for those that were incorrectly retrieved. Moreover, the visual cortex in the occipital lobe exhibits a significantly greater theta augmentation followed by an alpha suppression following each eye fixation, while a right frontoparietal asymmetry was also found for the successful retrieval of presentations of physics concepts. In particular, the study results showed that eye fixation-related frontal midline theta power and right parietal alpha power at the 5th eye fixation have the greatest predictive power regarding the correctness of the retrieval of physics concepts.
Neural Oscillation Correlates Chemistry Decision-Making
(2018-04-01)
Huang, Li-Yu
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She, Hsiao-Ching
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Jung, Tzyy-Ping
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教育研究所
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Institute of Education
This study explored the electroencephalography (EEG) dynamics during a chemistry-related decision-making task and further examined whether the correctness of the decision-making performance could be reflected by EEG activity. A total of 66 undergraduate students' EEG were collected while they participated in a chemistry-related decision-making task in which they had to retrieve the relevant chemistry concepts in order to make correct decisions for each task item. The results showed that it was only in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) cluster that distinct patterns in EEG dynamics were displayed for the correct and incorrect responses. The logistic regression results indicated that ACC theta power from 300 ms to 250 ms before stimulus onset was the most informative factor for estimating the likelihood of making correct decisions in the chemistry-related decision-making task, while it was the ACC low beta power from 150 ms to 250 ms after stimulus onset. The results suggested that the ACC theta augmentation before the stimulus onset serves to actively maintain the relevant information for retrieval from long-term memory, while the ACC low beta augmentation after the stimulus onset may serve the function of mapping the encoded stimulus onto the relevant criteria that the given participant has held within his or her mind to guide the decision-making responses.
Reflections on and implications of the Programme for International Student Assessment 2015 (PISA 2015) performance of students in Taiwan: The role of epistemic beliefs about science in scientific literacy
(2019-12-01)
She, Hsiao-Ching
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Lin, Huann-shyang
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Huang, Li-Yu
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教育研究所
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Institute of Education
The 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has drawn a substantial amount of attention from science educators and educational policymakers because it marked the first time that PISA assessed students' ability to evaluate and design scientific inquiry using computer-based simulations. We undertook a secondary analysis of the PISA 2015 Taiwan dataset of 7,973 students from 214 schools to identify critical issues of student learning and potentially reshape our educational system and policies. Thus, this study sought to identify potential latent clusters of students' scientific literacy performance according to a set of focus variables selected from the PISA student questionnaires. In addition, significant determinants of students' scientific literacy and resiliency were analyzed. Cluster analysis results demonstrated the presence of four clusters of high, medium, low, and inferior scientific literacy/epistemology/affective dispositions. Specifically, students in cluster 1 compared with other clusters showed that the higher the scientific literacy scores are, the more positive epistemic beliefs about science, achievement motivation, enjoyment of science, interests in broad science, science self-efficacy, information and communications technology (ICT) interest, ICT autonomy, more learning time, more teacher supports and teacher-directed instructions are. Regression results indicated that the most robust predictor of students' scientific literacy performance is epistemic beliefs about science, followed by learning time, interest in broad science topics, achievement motivation, inquiry-based science teaching and learning practice, and science self-efficacy. Decision tree model results showed that the descending order of the variables in terms of their importance in differentiating students as high- versus low-performing were epistemic beliefs about science, learning time, self-efficacy, interest in broad science, and scientific inquiry, respectively. A similar decision tree model to determine students as resilient versus non-resilient also was found. Various interpretations of these results are discussed, as are their implications for science education research, science teaching, and science education policy.
The Impact of Problem-Solving Instruction on Middle School Students' Physical Science Learning: Interplays of Knowledge, Reasoning, and Problem Solving
(2018-01-01)
Cheng, Shu-Chuan
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She, Hsiao-Ching
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Huang, Li-Yu
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教育研究所
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Institute of Education
The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of problem solving instruction on 126 middle school students' learning of physical science in terms of their scientific knowledge, scientific concept dependent reasoning and problem solving ability. This study used a quasi-experiment with one factorial design of instructional approaches (problem solving and traditional hands-on learning). Sixty-one students participated in problem solving while sixty-five students participated in traditional hands-on learning. Results indicate that the problem solving group significantly outperformed the traditional hands-on learning group for both immediate and retaining effect, regardless of scientific knowledge, scientific concept dependent reasoning and scientific problem solving abilities. The regression results also indicated that the scientific concept dependent reasoning test is the best predictor for scientific problem solving ability, followed by scientific knowledge itself. Our study demonstrates that students' scientific knowledge, reasoning and problem solving all are successfully improved after receiving six weeks scientific problem solving.