The most common tools individuals use to articulate complex and abstract concepts are writing and spoken language, long privileged as primary forms of communication. However, our, explanations of these concepts may be more aptly communicated through visual means, such as drawings. Interpreting and analyzing abstract graphic representations is…

This paper proposes that three properties of graphic materials can be manipulated by instructional designers to model cognitive processes and thus help students learn. These properties are: the distance of elements in the graphic display from each other, the orientation of the elements to each other, and the sequence in which the elements are…