# Mind Mapping Training's Effects on Divergent Thinking Skills: Detection Based on EEG Data
## 3 Materials and Methods  
### Participants  
A total of 40 subjects participated in this experiment. All participants were junior English major students studying at a university in China. They had normal vision or corrected-to-normal vision, and no neurological or psychiatric disorders. The experiment received approval from the Research Ethics Committee of the university (Ethics Committee of Biology and Medicine in Dalian University of Technology (protocol code: DUTSICE12\(-\)03, 12 January 2024). All the students provided their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. The experimental group (20 students, 12% male) and the control group (20 students, 13% male) received a practical 10-week translation course that was carried out by their current teachers with the same teaching materials.  
The experimental group's translation teaching was integrated with mind mapping training, which focuses on activating students' divergent thinking in the translation process and applying it to specific translation practices. Students were encouraged to understand the original text from different perspectives and think about the best translation expression. In the process of translation, thinking and analysis from multiple perspectives is often required. Using mind maps to analyze and understand the original text from vocabulary, grammar, cultural background, and other angles can cultivate the ability to think in multiple dimensions. This ability is crucial for improving students' divergent thinking skills. In translation teaching, vocabulary serves as the foundation. In this study, mind maps are utilized to construct vocabulary networks, categorizing and associating related words. For example, synonyms, antonyms, and near-synonyms can be presented in the form of mind maps, aiding students in better understanding and memorizing vocabulary while also fostering their divergent thinking. Grammar structures are a pivotal part of translation. During the teaching process, mind maps are employed to analyze and organize complex grammar structures, helping students grasp the main trunk and branches of sentences, thereby facilitating better translations. Guided by mind maps, students can more intuitively see the relationships between grammar structures, which in turn enhances their translation accuracy and fluency. Moreover, language and culture are inseparable. In the translation process, understanding the cultural background of the original text is essential. Mind maps can be used to present the differences and similarities between different cultures, helping students better comprehend the cultural connotations of the original text and thus make more accurate expressions in their translations.  
On the other hand, the control group was taught using a regular curriculum, and the students learned in the traditional way. To assess the translation improvement for the two groups, we first administered a translation test with a maximum score of 100 before and after the intervention. The difficulty levels of the pre-test and post-test were similar but not identical. Two senior translation teachers scored their translations subjectively (out of 100 points, with scoring criteria including accuracy, fluency, etc.). The \(t\)-test results in Table 1 show that both groups received higher mean scores on the post-test, indicating an improvement in their translation competence. However, the experimental group received higher mean scores than the control group, and the difference between the pre-test and post-test was statistically significant (\(t=-7.78\), \(p<0.001\)). To analyze the significant difference in translation competence improvement between the two groups, an EEG experiment was conducted to compare the divergent thinking skills of the two groups during the divergent thinking tasks.