This paper presents a framework for studying design thinking. Three paradigmatic approaches are described to measure design cognitive processes: design cognition, design physiology and design neurocognition. Specific tools and methods serve each paradigmatic approach. Design cognition is explored through protocol analysis, black-box experiments, surveys and interviews. Design physiology is measured with eye tracking, electrodermal activity, heart rate and emotion tracking. Design neurocognition is measured using electroencephalography, functional near infrared spectroscopy and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Illustrative examples are presented to describe the types of results each method provides about the characteristics of design thinking, such as design patterns, design reasoning, design creativity, design collaboration, the co-evolution of the problem solution space, or design analysis and evaluation. The triangulation of results from the three paradigmatic approaches to studying design thinking provides a synergistic foundation for the understanding of design cognitive processes. Results from such studies generate a source of feedback to designers, design educators and researchers in design science. New models, new tools and new research questions emerge from the integrated approach proposed and lay down future challenges in studying design thinking.

The design studio pedagogy fosters a learning by designing model for students to develop designing skills. A methodology, based on protocol analysis and the FBS framework, is proposed to measure actors' design cognitive behavior and interaction throughout design critiques. Those metric measurements provide a quantitative understanding of their design activity during the critiques. A case study of four architectural critiques of a team of two students, across a semester, illustrates our methodology. The results point out differences in each actor's behavior, and their evolution across sessions.

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The research presented in this paper explores how engineering students cognitively manage concept generation and measures the effects of additional dimensions of sustainability on design cognition. Twelve first-year and eight senior engineering students generated solutions to 10 design problems. Half of the problems included additional dimensions of sustainability. The number of unique design solutions students developed and their neurocognitive activation were measured. Without additional requirements for sustainability, first-year students generated significantly more solutions than senior engineering students. First-year students recruited higher cortical activation in the brain region generally associated with cognitive flexibility, and divergent and convergent thinking. Senior engineering students recruited higher activation in the brain region generally associated with uncertainty processing and self-reflection. When additional dimensions of sustainability were present, first-year students produced fewer solutions. Senior engineering students generated a similar number of solutions. Senior engineering students required less cortical activation to generate a similar number of solutions. The varying patterns of cortical activation and different number of solutions between first-year and senior engineering students begin to highlight cognitive differences in how students manage and retrieve information in their brain during design. Students’ ability to manage complex requirements like sustainability may improve with education.

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This paper presents the results of studying the brain activations of 30 engineering students when using three different design concept generation techniques: brainstorming, morphological analysis, and TRIZ. Changes in students’ brain activation in the prefrontal cortex were measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The results are based on the area under the curve analysis of oxygenated hemodynamic response as well as an assessment of functional connectivity using Pearson’s correlation to compare students’ cognitive brain activations using these three different ideation techniques. The results indicate that brainstorming and morphological analysis demand more cognitive activation across the prefrontal cortex (PFC) compared to TRIZ. The highest cognitive activation when brainstorming and using morphological analysis is in the right dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) and ventrolateral PFC. These regions are associated with divergent thinking and ill-defined problem-solving. TRIZ produces more cognitive activation in the left DLPFC. This region is associated with convergent thinking and making judgments. Morphological analysis and TRIZ also enable greater coordination (i.e., synchronized activation) between brain regions. These findings offer new evidence that structured techniques like TRIZ reduce cognitive activation, change patterns of activation and increase coordination between regions in the brain.

Using digital tools like immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) reduce the carbon footprint by providing collocated and remote communication through virtual design studios. By providing a sense of presence in a digital display, iVR systems impact student-tutor communication during design critiques or crits. Research lacks studies articulating how iVRs change crits' communication to increase the ability to integrate iVRs as educational media and promote a quality education in inter-university studios. To this end, this study explores the cognitive structure of student-tutor communication during collocated architecture crits using iVR and non-immersive media. We employed protocol analysis to analyze divergent thinking by tracking the distribution of First Occurrences of design issues. Combining protocol analysis with Natural Language Processing, we explored the size of the design space generated during the crits. Results from a case study that includes twelve crits from three students show an increase in students' exploration of the design space and divergent thinking in the iVR crits, providing evidence that iVR enhances learners' communication. iVRs can be integrated to support remote design studios without the generation of carbon due to physical travel.

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