Dr. Cléa Formaz

was a doctoral researcher at the Professorship for Learning Sciences and Higher Education of ETH Zürich and earned her PhD in March 2023. In her doctoral research, she investigated the neural and physiological signatures of learning mathematics. In her first research project, she analyzed neural differences between math experts and novices while being exposed to mathematical demonstrations. This study allowed for novel insights on the processes of advanced cognition through a detailed neural analysis. Her second research study was an investigation of the neural and physiological signatures of learning through problem-solving followed by instruction (PS-I). Study results may reveal an explanatory basis for learning through PS-I and may illustrate neurocognitive benefits of this design.

Cléa earned a MSc with a specialization in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Maastricht University. For her Master’s thesis, she investigated heartbeat-evoked potentials and heartbeat perception in decision-making. After her Master’s degree, she earned a PhD at ETH Zürich at the intersection of neuroscience and education and is involved in research and writing projects in the field of neurocognition.