Megan, Ben, and Solaire’s paper, Developing expertise in 1H NMR spectral interpretation, is now available in the Journal of Organic Chemistry. For this investigation, they used eye tracking and retrospective think-aloud interviewing to investigate undergraduate and doctoral chemistry students’ understanding and information processing during 1H NMR spectral interpretation. Their findings suggest that five areas of understanding are necessary for interpreting spectra, where progress in understanding corresponds to increasing knowledge of experimental and implicit chemical variables. Further, participants with more sophisticated understanding were able to efficiently focus their visual attention on information relevant for decision making, whereas those with limited understanding worked to process all information. These results imply that instruction should cultivate understanding across these five areas, as well as encourage a selective focus on spectral features using this understanding. Check out the paper here!
