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What is the mental representation?
Matematical mental representation
Recording interview: René Thom, Dominique, Rosine...
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INTERACTIVE QUESTIONNAIRE

on the ATTITUDE toward MATHEMATICS

 

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This questionnaire sums up a survey carried out on pupils of 15 to 18 years of age to study the relations existing between mathematics and affectivity.

This work has been carried out according to a clinical method based on 60 recorded interviews and also according to an experimental method based on 2300 sets of questions. Its objective was to show in which way mathematics can be considered as a support for libidinal cathexis used by the unconscious through various mechanisms.

This research work has been published. Look at: Biblio

 FOUR STAGES

 

 STAGE 1: Fill out the following questionnaire

 

 

I - Could you tell what you feel when trying to solve a maths problem ? (For each statement, please check the answer that best expresses your feelings): F= false; PF= partly false; NK= Idon't know; PT= partly true; T= true

 

1. I feel there is something that keeps me from getting at the problem, a sort of barrier I can't get across.

F PF NK PT T

2. I feel that I am creating something when I am solving a problem.

F PF NK PT T

3. When I start, I feel completely in the dark.

F PF NK PT T

4. If I can't find the solution, I feel defeated.

F PF NK PT T

5. When I discover an approach, I feel like a void is being filled.

F PF NK PT T

6. When confronted with a problem, I want to give up right away.

F PF NK PT T

7. If I find the solution right away, I feel really at peace.

F PF NK PT T

 

II - Could you tell what doing mathematics means to you ? (For each statement, please check the answer that best expresses your feelings)

 

8. It means doing something basic which is the key to everything else.

F PF NK PT T

9. It does not mean anything, it is nonsense.

F PF NK PT T

10. It is doing something that you are told to do and that you have to keep doing over and over, like a machine.

F PF NK PT T

11. It is doing something which I think I just can't do.

F PF NK PT T

12. It is constantly discovering something new.

F PF NK PT T

13. It is doing something compulsory, something you have to do.

F PF NK PT T

14. It is a way of training my mind.

F PF NK PT T

15. It is trying to find connections between different things.

F PF NK PT T

 

III - Now please indicate what you think of the following sentences ? (For each statement, please check the answer that best expresses your feelings)

16. When you do mathematics, there is no room for personality. Everything you do has been done before, everything has been planned.

F PF NK PT T

17. Mathematics builds a strong personality.

F PF NK PT T

18. Mathematics may, on occasion, cause destruction: just think of the atomic bomb.

F PF NK PT T

19. Mathematics gives you the pleasure of creating something.

F PF NK PT T

20.Mathematics means another world in which I feel at home.

F PF NK PT T

21. Working with mathematics allows you to acquire a well-balanced personality.

F PF NK PT T

22. Mathematics allows you to develop good reasoning.

F PF NK PT T

23. When one is deeply involved in maths work, one has trouble quitting. Therefore one must not get too involved in it.

F PF NK PT T

24. Doing mathematics oversimplifies everything, takes away the poetry of things.

F PF NK PT T

25. Those who do too much mathematics risk losing touch with reality.

F PF NK PT T


Stage 2: Your results

9 tendencies were defined and called :AP; RP; IN; NA; AG; RE; PR; RF; AN.

soit 9 tendencies.

The computer will count the number of your answers in each tendency. It will as follows post in a POP window your results:

AP=15;

then while clicking again on ¦OK¦ in the POP window, one will have : RP=10; IN= 16....

As these results are posted NOTE the 9 RESULTS on a paper because you will have to defer them in a grid to compare them with those of the other participants in this questionnaire.

Pass at stage 3

- Click on this bond to know the significance of the tendencies and compare your results with those of the others

significance of the tendencies