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Behavioral equivalence, but not neural equivalence—neural evidence of alternative strategies in mathematical thinking

Nature Neuroscience volume 7, pages 1193–1194 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated how people solve mathematically equivalent problems presented in two alternative formats: verbal, story format or symbolic, equation format. Although representation format had no effect on behavior, anterior prefrontal activation was greater in the story condition and posterior parietal activation was greater in the equation condition. These results show that there exist alternative neural pathways that implement different and yet equally efficient problem-solving strategies.

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Figure 1: Activation changes in each representation format condition.
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Acknowledgements

This research is supported by US National Science Foundation grant BCS-9975220 (to J.R.A., K.R.K. and C.S.C.) and National Institute of Mental Health Independent Scientist Award MH64190 (to C.S.C.). We thank Y. Qin for his technical help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Myeong-Ho Sohn, Adam Goode & John R Anderson

  2. Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Kenneth R Koedinger

  3. Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    V Andrew Stenger

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Kate Fissell

  5. Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of California, Davis, California, USA

    Cameron S Carter

Authors
  1. Myeong-Ho Sohn
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  2. Adam Goode
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  3. Kenneth R Koedinger
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  7. John R Anderson
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Correspondence to Myeong-Ho Sohn.

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Sohn, MH., Goode, A., Koedinger, K. et al. Behavioral equivalence, but not neural equivalence—neural evidence of alternative strategies in mathematical thinking. Nat Neurosci 7, 1193–1194 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1337

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