Cognitive differences among first-year and senior engineering students when generating design solutions with and without additional dimensions of sustainability

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dc.contributor.authorHu, Moen
dc.contributor.authorShealy, Trippen
dc.contributor.authorMilovanovic, Julieen
dc.contributor.departmentCivil and Environmental Engineeringen
dc.date.accessioned2021-05-20T12:08:16Zen
dc.date.available2021-05-20T12:08:16Zen
dc.date.issued2021-02-08en
dc.description.abstractThe research presented in this paper explores how engineering students cognitively manage concept generation and measures the effects of additional dimensions of sustainability on design cognition. Twelve first-year and eight senior engineering students generated solutions to 10 design problems. Half of the problems included additional dimensions of sustainability. The number of unique design solutions students developed and their neurocognitive activation were measured. Without additional requirements for sustainability, first-year students generated significantly more solutions than senior engineering students. First-year students recruited higher cortical activation in the brain region generally associated with cognitive flexibility, and divergent and convergent thinking. Senior engineering students recruited higher activation in the brain region generally associated with uncertainty processing and self-reflection. When additional dimensions of sustainability were present, first-year students produced fewer solutions. Senior engineering students generated a similar number of solutions. Senior engineering students required less cortical activation to generate a similar number of solutions. The varying patterns of cortical activation and different number of solutions between first-year and senior engineering students begin to highlight cognitive differences in how students manage and retrieve information in their brain during design. Students' ability to manage complex requirements like sustainability may improve with education.en
dc.description.notesThis material is based in part on work supported by The National Science Foundation, through Grant EEC-1929892. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.en
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [EEC-1929892]en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1017/dsj.2021.3en
dc.identifier.issn2053-4701en
dc.identifier.othere1en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/103396en
dc.identifier.volume7en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectdesign cognitionen
dc.subjectengineering educationen
dc.subjectSustainabilityen
dc.subjectfNIRSen
dc.subjectbrainstormingen
dc.titleCognitive differences among first-year and senior engineering students when generating design solutions with and without additional dimensions of sustainabilityen
dc.title.serialDesign Scienceen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.dcmitypeStillImageen

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Scholarly Works, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Destination Area: Adaptive Brain and Behavior (ABB)