Neuroscience Engagement: The Influences of Chemistry Education on Affective Dimensions - Affective Dimensions in Chemistry Education - page 230

regarding the assessment of the affective dimension such as STAI always have high
reliability and validity, self-reporting has been argued to be a subjective method-
ology. In recent years, many studies have suggested that researchers should inves-
tigate the affective dimension of learning by engaging neuroscience methodologies
since the data from such methodologies are widely regarded as providing highly
objective evidence (Huang & Liu, 2012 ; Liu et al., 2013 a; Wang et al., 2010 ).

4 Neuroscience Technologies as Assessment Tools
for the Affective Dimension

Three kinds of neuroscience technologies are most commonly adopted in exploring
students learning. First is the electroencephalogram (EEG). EEG is a procedure to

measure the electrical activity of the brain through the skull and scalp (Coles &
Rugg, 1995 ). The participants need to wear an electrode cap (commercial electro-
cap, Electro-Cap International, Eaton, OH) on their head before performing a set
task (Fig. 1 ).
When students recognize or apply specific affective reflections, the
corresponding electrical activities in the brain (EEG raw data) are induced (Fig. 2 ).
Figure 2 shows the EEG data when the participants recognize or apply specific
cognitive processing. As has already been mentioned, EEG data is a procedure for
measuring the electrical activity of the brain through the skull and scalp (Coles &
Rugg, 1995 ). The HEOR (horizontal electrooculogram right) and HEOL (horizon-
tal electrooculogram left) data indicate the horizontal electrooculogram (EOG), and
the VEOU (vertical electrooculogram up) and VEOL (vertical electrooculogram
low) data record the vertical EOG. The reason why recording of these four
electrodes is necessary is because the participants must pull and drag the muscles

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Fig. 1 A participant
wearing an electrode cap