Investigating Strengths People with Learning Differences Bring to STEM

调查有学习差异的人给STEM带来的优势项目将促进对阅读障碍本科生相关神经差异的了解，这些差异可能会导致STEM的视觉处理和学习优势。这一示范性研究项目将产生中试实验和干预措施，为更深入、更有力地研究阅读困难本科生的特征奠定基础，从而为STEM的视觉处理和学习带来优势。将进行三项初步研究：1.第一项可行性研究将调查以前在患有阅读障碍的天体物理学家中观察到的空间学习和外围处理优势的技术，是否可以应用于研究患有阅读障碍的中学后学生的STEM学习和STEM处理技能。第二项先导性研究将使用一组正在学习STEM的患有阅读障碍的大专学生样本来调查干预模式。第三个实验将使用凝视跟踪技术来映射患有阅读障碍的大学生在执行STEM任务时使用的策略。这项实验将通过改变任务中呈现的记忆负荷来操纵工作记忆需求；通过调整掩盖工作的视觉噪音水平来改变视觉注意力需求。哈佛大学物理系副研究员Gerhard Sonnert将担任该项目的外部评估员。桑纳特？S博士的出版物包括科学生涯中的性别差异、科学与社会的联系以及爱因斯坦等主题。

The Investigating Strengths People with Learning Differences Bring to STEM project will advance knowledge about the neurological differences associated with undergraduate students with dyslexia that can lead to advantages for visual processing and learning in STEM. This demonstration research project will result in pilot-tested experiments and interventions, which will serve as the basis for more advanced, robust investigations about the characteristics of undergraduate students with dyslexia that can lead to advantages for visual processing and learning in STEM. Three pilot studies will be conducted:1. The first feasibility study will investigate whether the techniques used to investigate advantages for spatial learning and peripheral processing, previously observed in astrophysicists with dyslexia, can be applied to investigate STEM learning and STEM processing skills in pos-secondary students with dyslexia.2. The second pilot study will investigate an intervention model using a sample of post-secondary students with dyslexia who are studying STEM.3. The third experiment will employ gaze tracking techniques to map strategies used by college students with dyslexia when performing STEM tasks. This experiment will manipulate working memory demands by varying memory loads presented during the tasks; demands for visual attention will be varied by adjusting levels of visual noise masking the work.Dr. Gerhard Sonnert, a Research Associate in the Department of Physics at Harvard University, will serve as the external evaluator for this project. Dr. Sonnert?s publications include topics on gender differences in science careers, connecting science and society, and Einstein.