Learning science concepts through metaphor comprehension, production, and conversation: Behavioral, neural and artificial intelligence measures

科学教师经常使用隐喻来教授科学概念。 这个项目调查了隐喻学习如何在头脑和大脑中工作，当使用专家创建的，自我生成的或人工智能引导的隐喻时，这种学习效果如何比较，以及隐喻学习是否以及如何提高所学概念的记忆力。这项研究将促进我们对人们如何更有效地学习以及个体差异如何影响学习过程的理解。 这项研究的结果将为干预措施提供信息，以加强整个生命周期的学习和教育，其包括来自拉丁美洲和其他背景的高中学生将扩大参与和培训的不同学生从代表性不足的少数民族在科学。研究人员将解决上述问题的行为措施，人工智能，脑电波（EEG），和脑成像（fMRI）技术。研究一将使用行为范式来评估隐喻推理在几天内对科学概念的学习和记忆的影响。研究2将对比隐喻的被动与主动学习（专家教学与计算机辅助的自我生成），其中语义联想将由人工智能提供。研究1和2都通过多方面的前测和后测来评估学习成果，这些测试是关于学生对目标概念的知识（例如，分子），并通过将测量前即刻学习的概念与测量前一天学习的概念进行比较来测试学习知识的保持。研究3和4测试有关概念学习的认知神经机制的假设，使用fMRI（研究3）和EEG（研究4）在实时导师-学生对话中比较隐喻和文字指令之前和之后的科学概念的神经表征。研究3和4将在神经和行为数据之间进行跨水平分析。除了这四项研究之外，该项目还将通过为大学生举办的EEG靴子训练营，以及通过七次访问培训高中生进行研究，并最终获得科学博览会的机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Science teachers often use metaphors to teach science concepts. This project investigates how metaphoric learning works in the mind and in the brain, how such learning effects compare when using expert-created, self-generated, or artificial intelligence guided metaphors, and whether and how metaphoric learning improves memory retention of the learned concepts. This research will advance our understanding of how people learn more effectively, and how individual differences affect the learning process. The findings from this study will inform interventions to enhance learning and education throughout the lifespan, and its inclusion of high school students from Latinx and other backgrounds will broaden participation and training of diverse students from underrepresented minorities in science.The investigators will address the above mentioned questions with behavioral measures, artificial intelligence, brainwave (EEG), and brain imaging (fMRI) techniques. Study 1 will use behavioral paradigms to assess the effect of metaphoric reasoning on the learning and retention of science concepts over several days. Study 2 will contrast passive vs active learning of metaphor (expert-taught vs computer-aided self-generation), where semantic associates will be provided by artificial intelligence. Both study 1 and 2 assess learning outcomes with multi-faceted pre- and post- tests on student knowledge of target concepts (e.g., molecule) and test retention of learned knowledge by comparing concepts learned immediately before measurement vs. a day prior. Study 3 and 4 test hypotheses about the cognitive-neural mechanisms underlying concept learning, comparing the neural representations of science concepts before and after metaphoric and literal instructions using fMRI (Study 3) and in real-time tutor-student conversation using EEG (Study 4). Both study 3 and 4 will conduct cross-level analyses between neural and behavioral data. Alongside these four studies, the project will educate learners in research methodology through an EEG boot camp for university students, and training of high-school students to conduct research through seven visits that end with a science fair opportunity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.