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Studies have shown that the neurobiological basis of mathematics cognition involves complicated and dynamic communication between different brain systems.
For example, researchers have found that the brain uses representations of fingers for mathematic tasks well beyond the time and age that people use their fingers to count. Neuroscientists found that when doing a calculations, even ones where we do not use our fingers, we “see” a representation of our fingers in our brains.
In young children (aged 4-7 years old), finger perception can predict performance on some math tasks such as number comparison and estimation.
Studies have also been conducted into improving finger perception and then testing for improvement in math understanding. These studies have found correlation between finger perception improvement and improvement in some areas of math.
With the aim of enabling researchers to further study the role of finger perception in math learning in young children, we designed a series of haptic buttons that can be programmed to give tactile haptic feedback in the form of vibration as a response to a finger press: HapCaps.
A HapCap uses a combination of a color sensor and the user wearing gloves to detect which finger is pressing the button, an eccentric mass vibration motor to play a vibration waveform and a spring, force sensor and extruded feature to act as a button.
In order to combine math learning and finger perception training, we designed a system using 10 HapCaps arranged in a number line where each HapCap corresponds to a finger in the hand as well as a number. In this way, students answer math questions on a computer connected to the HapCaps system using their fingers. We postulate that mapping a number line to the fingers could aid in both finger perception and math learning.
The HapCaps are connected in groups of 5 to two micro controllers through external circuitry. The micro controllers in turn connect to a computer, which runs the software, through two USB cables.
The biggest challenge for us designing these systems was designing them with production in mind but also making them robust enough not to be broken by 6 year olds. In order to do a longitudinal study in a classroom we would have to build around 30 systems and 300 buttons.
So we designed the systems in two parts— the HapCaps Buttons enclosure and the Circuit Enclosure, in order to distance the electronics from the kids and prevent the kids from touching the electronics. We used Ethernet cables to connect the two parts since they are very robust to pulling.
In the Fall of 2018 we ran a pilot study over four weeks in order to test the capabilities of our device. The purpose of the experiment was to evaluate our device in a classroom environment as well as understand the logistics of using the HapCaps system in a school setting. At the same time, we looked for any interesting educational results that would emerge from a short study. The pilot study revealed a correlation between HapCaps use and finger perception improvement.
We are currently running an eight week study with 120 first grade students in order to further understand the relationship between finger perception and mathematic understanding.
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