0000000000002450
AUTHOR
Richard Lowe
Self-generated Drawing: A Help or Hindrance to Learning from Animation?
The considerable potential of animations to aid learning about dynamic systems too often remains unfulfilled when the targeted subject matter is complex and unfamiliar. Various approaches designed to support learning from animation in such cases have met with limited success. Recent studies on learning from demanding texts indicate that educational outcomes can be improved if learners are required to self-generate drawings during their study of a text. This improvement has been attributed to the role of drawing in fostering deeper learner processing of the presented information and superior self-regulation as learning proceeds. It is possible that learner self-generation of drawings during …
Learning from Animated Diagrams: How Are Mental Models Built?
Current approaches to the design of educational animations too often appear to be largely founded upon intuition rather than research-based principles. Animated diagrams designed to be behaviourally realistic run the risk of learners overlooking vital high relevance information that has low intrinsic perceptual salience. The information that learners extract from such representations is a poor basis upon which to build high quality dynamic mental models. For animated diagrams to be effective as tools for learning, their design should be based upon explicit and principled modeling of the way learners process such depictions. This paper synthesizes recent research to propose a theoretical fra…
Looking Across Instead of Back and Forth: How the Simultaneous Presentation of Multiple Animation Episodes Facilitates Learning
Many learning tasks require students to induce higher-order relationships from the learning material. Compare and contrast processes play a pivotal role in solving such inductive tasks. Different presentations of animation episodes offer affordances to students that can either impede or facilitate compare and contrast processes. While conventional behaviorally realistic animations typically present multiple episodes one after the other, i.e. sequentially, simultaneous presentation offers a feasible alternative. We investigated how the sequential and simultaneous presentation of multiple animation episodes affects students’ perceptual interrogation of the animation as well as their learning …
‘Acting-out’ dynamics : Can physical manipulation foster building of mental models from animation?
International audience; The effects of (i) learner demonstration (using a manipulable model) and (ii) writing for understanding on learning from an animation of a Scotch Yoke mechanism were compared in a time-controlled investigation. Post-tests assessed the quality of the Scotch Yoke mental model acquired in the two learning conditions. On the basis of the Animation Processing Model (Lowe & Boucheix, 2008), we hypothesized that participants in the demonstration condition should outperform those in the writing condition because having to demonstrate the behaviors of the Scotch Yoke would result in deeper processing of crucial dynamic information in the animation. Results of the investigatio…
A Composition Approach to Design of Educational Animations
International audience; The educational effectiveness of conventionally designed animations that portray complex, unfamiliar subject matter in a behaviorally realistic fashion too often falls well short of expectations. Previous research indicates that the veridical dynamic properties of these comprehensive animations make a major contribution to their lack of effectiveness. Due to these dynamics, there is a substantial mismatch between the processing demands these animations impose on learners and the characteristics of the human information processing system. As a result, the quality of the mental models that learners are able to construct is compromised. Interventions intended to improve…
Principled animation design improves comprehension of complex dynamics
International audience; Learners can have difficulty in decomposing conventionally designed animations to obtain raw material suitable for building high quality mental models. A composition approach to designing animations based on the Animation Processing Model was developed as a principled alternative to prevailing approaches. Outcomes from studying novel and conventional animation designs (independent variable) were compared with respect to mental model quality, knowledge of local kinematics, and capacity to transfer (dependent variables). Study of a compositional animation that presented material in a contiguous fashion resulted in higher quality mental models of a piano mechanism than …
Supporting Relational Processing in Complex Animated Diagrams
The psychological utility of different approaches to cueing key information within complex animated diagrams remains relatively unexplored. Because of the varied processing demands required to comprehend such representations, it is likely that providing a range of different cue types would be best for supporting effective user information extraction. Traditional cueing approaches used with static diagrams may need to be reconsidered in order to meet the new design challenges associated with their animated counterparts.
Demonstration as an aid to learning from animation
Communication donnée le 1er septembre 2017 lors du symposium : Learning with dynamic media in formal and informal contexts (session K 26); International audience; The effectiveness of requiring learners to generate operational demonstrations while viewing an animation of a working mechanism was explored as a means of improving their animation processing. We assumed that the demonstration requirement would enhance learner extraction of key dynamic information needed for building a high quality mental model. It is expected that compared with note-taking controls, those in the demonstration group will give more attention to the spatiotemporal relationships amongst the mechanism’s components. T…
Cueing animations: Dynamic signaling aids information extraction and comprehension
The effectiveness of animations containing two novel forms of animation cueing that target relations between event units rather than individual entities was compared with that of animations containing conventional entity-based cueing or no cues. These relational event unit cues (progressive path and local coordinated cues) were specifically designed to support key learning processes posited by the Animation Processing Model (Lowe & Boucheix, 2008). Four groups of undergraduates (N ¼ 84) studied a usercontrollable animation of a piano mechanism and then were assessed for mental model quality (via a written comprehension test) and knowledge of the mechanism’s dynamics (via a novel non-verbal …
Towards more Valid Assessment of Learning from Animations
Animated explanations have become an ubiquitous feature of modern educational practice. They provide a distinctive, non-verbal means of presenting information that is particularly appropriate for dynamic subject matter. However, the prevailing approaches used to assess learning from educational animations are almost exclusively verbal. There is thus a clear disconnect between the form of representation students encounter during their learning activity and the very different form of representation used to assess the resulting learning outcomes. This fundamental inconsistency undermines the validity of current assessment approaches and signals the need for a fresh look at how learning from an…
Manipulatable Models for Investigating Processing of Dynamic Diagrams
Existing approaches for collecting process data on human diagram comprehension have limited effectiveness. Analogue models that allow participants to manipulate diagram components offer powerful ways to capture the non-verbal and dynamic aspects of processing that are not available with some other approaches. Examples drawn from a variety of different domains illustrate the utility of model manipulation for revealing otherwise inaccessible aspects of how people process animated diagrams of complex content.
Demonstration Tasks for Assessment
International audience; Learning from animations is conventionally measured using static assessment tools such as multiple choice tests or extended answer questions. These tools tend to rely heavily on textual information both for presenting the assessment items and as the medium for learner response. However, such assessments are not well aligned with the defining dynamic, pictorial characteristics of animated learning materials. This chapter considers the potential of demonstration tasks to offer more appropriate assessments of learning from animation. In these tasks, learners interact with a manipulable model of the animation’s subject matter to provide an explanatory account of how it c…
How Do Viewers Spontaneously Segment Animated Diagrams of Mechanical and Biological Subject Matter?
A challenges for learning from animated diagrams is to first parse the continuous flow of information into discrete event units. Inadequacies in this parsing process can prejudice the quality of the mental model constructed from the depiction. One approach that has been proposed for ameliorating such problems is for the designer to pre-segment the animation. However, the pre-segmentation techniques used tend to be either intuitive or based on an expert's understanding of the subject matter. Neither of these approaches takes proper account of the psychological processing that must occur for an external animation to be properly internalized. This poster reports a study of the processes that l…
Cueing complex animations: Does direction of attention foster learning processes?
Abstract The time course of learners’ processing of a complex animation was studied using a dynamic diagram of a piano mechanism. Over successive repetitions of the material, two forms of cueing (standard colour cueing and anti-cueing) were administered either before or during the animated segment of the presentation. An uncued group and two other control conditions were also employed. Development of an internal representation of the movements depicted in the animation was evaluated through participant demonstrations of the mechanism’s operation on a replica piano mechanism. Eye tracking (fixation lengths) indicated that overall, conventional visuospatially-based cueing was largely ineffect…
Attention Direction in Static and Animated Diagrams
Two key requirements for comprehending a diagram are to parse it into appropriate components and to establish relevant relationships between those components. These requirements can be particularly demanding when the diagram is complex and the viewers are novices in the depicted domain. Lack of domain-specific knowledge for top-down guidance of visual attention prejudices novices' extraction of task-relevant information. Static diagrams designed for novices often include visual cues intended to improve such information extraction. However, because current approaches to cueing tend to be largely intuitive, their effectiveness can be questionable. Further, animated diagrams with their percept…
The effectiveness of compositional animation design: Evidence from eye tracking
Communication donnée le 1er septembre 2017 lors du symposium : Eye tracking as a method in learning and testing with different representations(session L 8); International audience; Learners have difficulty in decomposing conventionally designed animations to obtain raw material suitable for building high quality mental models. A composition approach to designing animations based on the Animation Processing Model was developed as a principled alternative to prevailing approaches. It provides learners with pre-decomposed material that is structured and sequenced to facilitate the relation building required for effective mental model construction. Study of a compositional animation that presen…
Dynamic Diagrams: A Composition Alternative
A major problem that learners face in comprehending animated diagrams is in decomposing the presented information into a form that furnishes appropriate raw material for building high quality mental models. This paper proposes an alternative to existing design approaches that shifts the prime focus from the nature of the external representation to the internal composition activity learners engage in during mental model construction.
Age Differences in Learning from Instructional Animations
Summary: The present study tests the effects of the decline of executive functions and spatial abilities with aging on the comprehension of a complex instructional animation. An animation of a piano mechanism was presented individually to 33 young adults and 31 elderly participants. Two presentation speeds of the animation (normal and slow) were compared in a 2×2 experimental design. Eye movements were recorded during the learning time. Then, four executive function tests (inhibition, shifting, updating, and processing speed) and a spatial ability test (differential aptitude test) were undertaken by each participant. Results showed that the comprehension of animations was significantly affe…
An eye tracking comparison of external pointing cues and internal continuous cues in learning with complex animations
Abstract Two experiments used eye tracking to investigate a novel cueing approach for directing learner attention to low salience, high relevance aspects of a complex animation. In the first experiment, comprehension of a piano mechanism animation containing spreading-colour cues was compared with comprehension obtained with arrow cues or no cues. Eye tracking data revealed differences in learner attention patterns between the different experimental conditions. The second experiment used eye tracking with synchronized and non-synchronized cues to investigate the role of dynamic direction of attention in cueing effectiveness. Results of Experiment 1 showed that spreading-colour cues resulted…
Don’t miss your train! Just follow the computer screen animation: Comprehension of animated public information graphics
Computer graphic animated information displays have the potential to communicate public information in situations where normal announcement types are ineffective. This study used eye tracking techniques to analyze comprehension mechanism of event-related information on railway traffic disruptions presented via different graphic formats presented on computer screen. 86 participants were asked to understand series of traffic disruption messages delivered via four purely visual formats: Static simultaneous, Static sequential, Animated simultaneous and Animated sequential. Across these four conditions, and contrary to the most common materials used in the studies on animation comprehension, the…
Perceptual Processing and the Comprehension of Relational Information in Dynamic Diagrams
International audience; To date, research on the processing involved in comprehending and learning from animated diagrams has accorded a minor role only to perceptual operations in general and peripheral processing in particular. For those aspects where the role of perception is acknowledged, it is foveal rather than peripheral processing that is regarded as the main player. In this paper, we use the results from additional finer grained analysis of data collected in a recent empirical study to suggest that information from a viewer’s peripheral field can play a much more central role in animation processing than has previously been recognized. It appears that if the dynamic information com…