PROCEEDINGS OF THE 20TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2017
San Diego, California
CxN: Investigating the creative proving process using neuroscience methods
Page: 879
With this research, we seek to find theoretical constructs that correlate with participants’ neural activity that occurs as they are presented slides of mathematical proofs. We first asked three graduate student participants to complete two graduate level proofs (one each of abstract algebra and real analysis) using a LiveScribe pen. We then generated slides of their written work and researcher-generated proofs that we used during electroencephalography (EEG) trials. Having coded the slides along 22 theoretical categories, we used step-wise model selection to determine suitable models for variance in neural activity. Preliminary results indicate that the best code-based models at a given instant can account for between 25 and 50 percent of the variance in electrical activity near the EEG electrode for that model when participants observe their own proofs and between 33 and 75 percent during researchers’ proofs.