Analysis of Three Dimensional Computer Graphics Animation to Teach Spatial Skills to Interior Design Students

Spatial skills necessary to design and analyze orthographic drawings are sometimes lacking in interior design students. It was hypothesized that viewing computer generated and animated graphics could be useful in the instruction of such skills by replicating mental images of object rotation and dimensional transformation. The major purpose of this study was to investigate this effect and additionally to determine if particular types of visual presentations were more effective than others. Changes in scores on the Vandenburg/Kuse Mental Rotations Test, and an orthographic views identification test were used to determine these effects. The treatments consisted of viewing films of three architectural type graphic representations, in both color and wire frame form, rotating to top and side views, and changing from three to two dimensions. Statistical analysis consisted of a multivariate analysis of variance and Fishers' LSD post hoc. Results indicated that viewing the animated images did have a significant effect on increasing scores on the orthographic view identification test, but not the mental rotation tests. The order in which subjects viewed the films significantly affected their orthographic scores but viewing wire frame images first had a significant negative effect on subjects first mental rotation score.