For the most part, the visual component has been ignored in programs developed to improve the general education of undergraduate students. At the University of Cincinnati (Ohio), however, a general education program has been developed that includes a visual literacy component. Faculty development workshops have been held to remind faculty members…

A developmental study investigated the pictorial and linguistic main idea identification skills of 104 students in second, fifth, and eighth grades. In the pictorial task, the subjects studied a complete picture story and ranked the effectiveness of four separate main idea alternatives at capturing the meaning of the story. Following the same…

Limits of graphic display design component variation based on cognitive tolerance for imprecision were investigated using compatibility functions. The compatibility function is an empirical definition of a perceptual category representing the grade of membership of an implied physical attribute into a corresponding conceptual category, measuring…

This book, describing the result of extended research on how charts/graphs convey information, develops a scheme for describing/analyzing information contained in graphs/charts. A psychological theory of knowledge of the reader and the mental events which occur in attempting to read a graphic display are the two focal points of the book. A…

To measure how the complexity of a television image affects the viewer's ability to identify or recognize visual details within the image, two coders rated the form complexity of 30 public service announcements, basing their evaluation on the familiarity of the images in the announcements, the rate at which they presented new information, and the…

Through the use of a visual literacy process of instruction as an initial stage in perceiving and creating, beginning college art students can acquire knowledge and skills for completing successful drawings. This process includes the following steps: selecting a simple and familiar subject; studying the entire form of the subject; looking for big…

The effects of black and white and color illustrations on student achievement were studied to investigate the relationships between cognitive styles and instructional design. Field dependence (FD) and field independence (FI) were chosen as the cognitive style variables. Subjects were 85 freshman students in the Iowa State University Psychology…

Piaget's theories concerning the child's development of spatial concepts are considered in comparison with related mathematical concepts. The analysis yielded discrepancies between Piagetian and mathematical use of terms. (SD)

Compared was the performance of 30 nonhandicapped controls and 30 partially sighted British children (6-to 10-years-old) without other handicaps on tests of shape and letter recognition, visual perception and visuomotor skill, and spelling or reading accuracy or comprehension. (LH)

The purpose of this study was to compare the knowledge about art acquired by students who went on site visits with that of students who experienced only the lecture method of teaching. A study was conducted at Boricua College (New York) with two groups of 25 students each, one participating as a control and one as an experimental group. The…

Reading, writing, and computing, which are interrelated and can thrive on each other for literacy and intellectual growth, are in the process of becoming linked in instructional practice. As reading and writing become more demanding, their task is eased with computer use. The computer seems to provide the connection between composing,…

This exploratory study investigated whether there are differences between males and females in the strategies used to construct mental representations from three-dimensional objects in a dimensional travel display. A Silicon Graphics IRIS computer was used to create the travel displays and mathematical models were created for each of the objects…

This instrument is a revision of the Texas Preschool Screening Inventory (TPSI). It is a screening test designed to identify children who may be at risk for learning problems as they enter kindergarten or first grade. The manual describes the directions for administration, scoring, rationale, and reference for each component of the instrument. The…

Perceptual-motor functioning is a cyclic process involving: (1) organizing incoming sensory stimuli with past or stored perceptual information; (2) making motor (internal) decisions based on the combination of sensory (present) and perceptual (past) information; (3) executing the actual movement (observable act) itself; and (4) evaluating the act…