Work

From Play to Understanding: Large Language Models in Logic and Spatial Reasoning Coloring Activities for Children

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Visual thinking leverages spatial mechanisms in animals for navigation and reasoning. Therefore, given the challenge of abstract mathematics and logic, spatial reasoning-based teaching strategies can be highly effective. Our previous research verified that innovative box-and-ball coloring activities help teach elementary school students complex notions like quantifiers, logical connectors, and dynamic systems. However, given the richness of the activities, correction is slow, error-prone, and demands high attention and cognitive load from the teacher. Moreover, feedback to the teacher should be immediate. Thus, we propose to provide the teacher with real-time help with LLMs. We explored various prompting techniques with and without context—Zero-Shot, Few-Shot, Chain of Thought, Visualization of Thought, Self-Consistency, logicLM, and emotional —to test GPT-4o’s visual, logical, and correction capabilities. We obtained that Visualization of Thought and Self-Consistency techniques enabled GPT-4o to correctly evaluate 90% of the logical–spatial problems that we tested. Additionally, we propose a novel prompt combining some of these techniques that achieved 100% accuracy on a testing sample, excelling in spatial problems and enhancing logical reasoning.

Source: AI

DOI: 10.3390/ai5040093

Authors: Sebastián Tapia-Mandiola, Roberto Araya

Institution: University of Chile

Language: English

Topic: Artificial Intelligence in Education

Subfield: Information Systems

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,819