When the Lightbulb Turns On: Motivation and Collaboration Spark the Creation of Ideas for Theoretical Physicists

In this project, we sought to uncover the cognitive processes and skills that are involved in completing a theoretical physics project. We drew upon the foundations of Cognitive Task Analysis and completed semi-structured interviews with eleven theoretical physics faculty members from five different research institutions, in subfields including quantum optics, biophysics, computational astrophysics, and string theory. We analyzed the processes and skills of these physicists, starting with a priori codes for idea origin, collaboration, and motivation. With these excerpts, we next did initial coding and second-round focused coding. Finally, we used concept maps to organize these codes and portray the factors that influence the creation of project ideas. We found that motivation and collaboration are fundamental determinants of project ideas and their origins, which contradicts the “lone genius” stereotype. These findings on cognitive processes and skills will be compared to what undergraduate students are learning in their physics classes in an attempt to determine how we can better prepare students to do physics theory. Finally, the information gathered during this project can be used to improve public understanding of theoretical physics and make it accessible to more students.