In resource-based learning scenarios, students are often overwhelmed by the complexity of task-relevant knowledge and information. Techniques for the external interactive representation of individual knowledge in graphical format may help them to cope with complex problem situations. Advanced computer-based concept-mapping tools have the potential…

The camera perspective from which a criminal confession is videotaped influences later assessments of its voluntariness and the suspect's guilt. Previous research has suggested that this camera perspective bias is rooted in perceptual rather than conceptual processes, but these data are strictly correlational. In 3 experiments, the authors…

A small class of functions is described that easily lend themselves to two-dimensional and three-dimensional visualizations at the basic calculus level. The intended audience is those educators involved in the instruction of elementary calculus. This note is an educational piece that begins with the question: "What happens if a function defined on…

Several studies have demonstrated that games have been effectively used as an instructional strategy to motivate and engage students. This paper presents the use of the process of game development as an instructional strategy to promote higher order thinking skills. An analysis of the various aspects of game development including graphics,…

This paper examines the place of manual technical drawing in the 21st century by discussing the perceived value and relevance of teaching school students how to draw using traditional instruments, in a world of computer aided drafting (CAD). Views were obtained through an e-survey, questionnaires and structured interviews. The sample groups…

This study assessed the effectiveness of computer-based biomolecular visualization activities on the development of high school biology students' representational competence as a means of understanding and visualizing protein structure/function relationships. Also assessed were students' attitudes toward these activities. Sixty-nine students…

Value-by-area maps, or cartograms, provide a curiosity-provoking method of depicting geographically related data. The use of cartograms for learning such data involves a learner's familiarity with the region depicted and the distortion of true, earth-centered scale. To examine the effects of region familiarity and region distortion on learning…

The effectiveness of mental imagery instructions and picture presentation was evaluated in first and fourth grade children and in adults. Results indicated that the visual mnemonics reliably facilitated cued recall and recognition (but not free recall) in children but facilitated only free recall in adults. (Author/GO)

This study attempted to verify an earlier finding that visual imagery does not desynchronize alpha rhythms, to determine if the revisualization of a nocturnal dream is desynchronizing beyond the expectation to request revisualization of a dream, and to demonstrate that hot images are produced by the repressed aims of drives. (Author/RK)

Describes the construction of unit cells using clear plastic cubes which can be disassembled, and one inch cork balls of various colors, which can be cut in halves, quarters, or eighths, and glued on the inside face of the cube, thus simulating a unit cell. (MLH)

This quantitative study of imagery in 96 undergraduates addresses the problem of individual differences in the characteristics of mental imagery workspaces. A 20-item questionnaire embodying nine characteristics of mental imagery workspaces was administered to 78 females and 18 males. Analysis of variance by gender disclosed significant higher…

The effect of a relevant analogy and of subject visualization on the amount of cognitive capacity needed to process unfamiliar information about science was investigated. The dependent measure was reaction time on a secondary task while listening to six tape recorded passages about chemistry and physics in a 2 x 2 x 6 mixed design. The analogy…

A graphical method is proposed which allows one to visualize a real matrix and its inverse. In this scheme, various special properties of the matrix are easily recognized. Up to 5x5 matrices can be graphed on an average page if the range of values does not exceed two orders of magnitude. (Author/LS)

Research supported in part by grants 1484-S and 198-T from U.S. Rehabilitation Services Administration.