Learning From Visualizations: Principles from Learning Science

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Learning From Visualizations Principles from
Learning Science

• David N. Rapp
• University of Minnesota

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• What is a visualization?
• Novel presentation of data
• Can detail dynamic, salient relationships
• Can provide experience with the unobservable
• Teach, organize, simulate

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• How can visualizations influence learning
  processes?

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• Learning
• The acquisition and application of knowledge.

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The goal of an educational experience is for
students to develop an understanding of some
principle or concept, and to be able to apply
that information to resolve an extended range of
problems in a variety of situations. (Rapp, in
press)
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• Mental Models

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• a memory-based representation of some event or
  situation (Johnson-Laird, 1983)
• mental simulations
  (Kahneman Tversky, 1982)
• integrates background knowledge with immediate
  experience
• incomplete and reconstructive (Tversky,
  1993)

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• Theory and research supports the use of mental
  models in learning and comprehension
• Text
  (van Dijk
  Kintsch, 1978)
• Film
  (Magliano, Dijkstra,
  Zwaan, 1996)
• Maps
  (Taylor Tversky,
  1996)
• Scientific models and principles
  (Gentner Stevens, 1983)

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• Animation of mechanical systems
  (Hegarty, Just, Morrison, 1988)
• Educational television programs
  (van den Broek, Pugzles-Lorch,
  Thurlow, 1996)
• Health Advertisements
  (Southwell, 2002)
• Multimedia presentations
  (Mayer, 2001)
• Hypermedia-based software tools
  (Rapp, Taylor, Crane, 2003)

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Learning across these diverse situations involves
similar mental processes

• Encoding
• Retrieval/Activation of background knowledge
• Integration and simulation

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• What are some qualities of educational
  situations that facilitate the construction of
  mental models?

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• Cognitive Engagement
• Participants active focus and attention to
  material
• Increased motivation and involvement
  (Cordova Lepper, 1996)
• Deeper cognitive processing of information
  (Craik Lockhart, 1972 Craik
  Tulving, 1975)

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• Interactivity
• Control over the pace of the learning situation
• Increased motivation and involvement
  (Cordova Lepper, 1996)
• Permits personalization of the learning
  experience in accord with instructor and student
  goals
• Iterative learning

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• Multimedia Presentation
• Dual-coding of material (Paivio, 1969)
• Effectiveness as a function of modality,
  redundancy, individual differences (Mayer, 2001)
• Congruence Principle
  (Morrison, Tversky, Betrancourt, 2000)
• Engaging, motivating, novel

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• All of these principles align
  with constructivist views of learning.

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• But to what degree can
  visualizations influence learning?
• Can visualization experiences facilitate the
  construction of mental models?

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• Engaging
• -must pair with guided activities

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• Interactive
• -must be interactive with respect to
  specific learning goals

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• Multimedia Presentation
• -must carefully align with effective
  presentation principles

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Future Challenges

• Additional study of effective educational
  features
• Collaboration to improve the use of
  visualizations in educational situations
• Empirical assessment of visualizations and
  educational outcomes
• Designing visualizations for specific purposes
  and populations

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Conclusions

• Visualizations have the potential to influence
  learning
• The Learning Sciences have assessed some of the
  effective components of learning situations
• Combining content-driven visualizations with
  principles of learning will lead to effective
  educational experiences

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• For reference information
• rappx009_at_umn.edu