Research

Student reasoning and visual attention when translating between dash-wedge diagrams and chair conformations

In chemistry, there are many types of representations that can be used to depict the same molecule. Therefore, learners often struggle to understand the context in which they should use specific representations, and how the different representations are related to each other. Previous work in our group used interviews to investigate the learning strategies used by students when translating between a variety of representations. These data suggest that some students may focus only on the surface-level similarity of two representations, rather than engaging in normative reasoning strategies to determine whether two representations depict the same molecule. While this preliminary interview data has given some insight, the study design was limited by its lack of specificity; the focus was on a variety of structure types and an assortment of reasoning strategies. Therefore, we are expanding upon this observation by using a combination of eye-tracking and think-aloud interviews to further elucidate the cognitive processes behind organic chemistry students’ reasoning when translating between dash-wedge diagrams and chair conformations. Based on our previous results, we expect that surface feature similarity will be positively associated with the frequency with which students indicate that two structures are the same molecules, regardless of whether the two representations actually show the same molecule. Additionally, we will characterize the association between translation accuracy and eye-gaze data. By triangulating the eye-tracking and interview data, we will unpack how features of the representations influence student visual-processing behavior and reasoning. Additionally, we will identify the association between student accuracy and confidence when translating between dash-wedge diagrams and chair conformations.

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