The relationship between computational thinking and mental rotation ability: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the correlation between computational thinking (CT) skills and mental rotation ability, utilizing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to assess neural efficiency as a potential underlying factor. We divided 38 participants into groups with high and low CT skills to perform mental rotation tasks. Prefrontal brain activity was monitored via a 48-channel fNIRS system. The experimental results suggested that participants possessing superior CT skills exhibited enhanced performance on the mental rotation test, accompanied by a higher neural efficiency index in the specified cerebral regions, as denoted by reduced oxygen consumption. This implies that individuals endowed with advanced CT capabilities can process information with greater efficacy, thereby attaining superior performance utilising lesser cognitive exertion. Our study offers some of the first empirical evidence regarding the neural basis underlying the relationship between CT skills and mental rotation ability in undergraduate students.

KEYWORDS:

• Computational thinking
• mental rotation ability
• fNIRS
• hemodynamic responses

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets analysed for the present study can be found at the https://github.com/gx1989mao/HBO_rotation.

CRediT author statement

Yang Liu: Conceptualisation, Supervision, Writing – Reviewing and Editing Xiang Guo: Methodology, Software, Investigation, Writing – Original draft preparation Yuzhong Zhang: Software, Investigation, Visualisation.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the ethics committee of the School of Information and Electronic Engineering, ZUST.