Diagrams in the Mind and in the World: Relations between Internal and External Visualizations

Recent advances in computer technology and graphics have made it possible to produce powerful visualizations of scientific phenomena and more abstract information. There is currently much excitement about the potential of these computer visualizations, particularly in education and training in science, technology and medicine. This paper examines three possible relations that might exist between internal and external visualization. First, external visualizations might substitute for internal visualizations. Second their comprehension and use may depend on internal visualizations. Third, they might augment and be augmented by internal visualizations. By reviewing these possibilities, it is argued that the design of external visualizations should be informed by research on internal visualization skills, and that the development of technologies for external visualizations calls for more research on the nature of internal visualization abilities.

[1]  S. Runeson,et al.  Constant velocity — Not perceived as such , 1974, Psychological research.

[2]  M. Hegarty,et al.  Individual differences in mental animation during mechanical reasoning , 1994, Memory & cognition.

[3]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  Why a Diagram is (Sometimes) Worth Ten Thousand Words , 1987 .

[4]  M. Hegarty.  Mental animation: inferring motion from static displays of mechanical systems. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[5]  Daniel L. Schwartz,et al.  Shuttling Between Depictive Models and Abstract Rules: Induction and Fallback , 1996, Cogn. Sci..

[6]  G R Norman,et al.  Do virtual computer models hinder anatomy learning? , 1999, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[7]  Roy D. Pea,et al.  Prospects for Scientific Visualization as an Educational Technology , 1995 .

[8]  D. A. Duce,et al.  Visualization in Scientific Computing , 1994, Focus on Computer Graphics.

[9]  Stephen M. Kosslyn,et al.  Elements of graph design , 1993 .

[10]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes In The Age Of The Machine , 1993 .

[11]  Jiajie Zhang,et al.  Representations in Distributed Cognitive Tasks , 1994, Cogn. Sci..

[12]  Mary Hegarty,et al.  The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems , 2003 .

[13]  M A Just,et al.  Constraints on the processing of rolling motion: the curtate cycloid illusion. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[14]  Wilfried Brauer,et al.  Spatial Cognition III , 2003, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[15]  Jiajie Zhang,et al.  A representational analysis of relational information displays , 1996, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[16]  Mary Hegarty,et al.  Individual differences in use of diagrams as external memory in mechanical reasoning , 1997 .

[17]  Priti Shah,et al.  A Model of the Perceptual and Conceptual Processes in Graph Comprehension , 1998 .

[18]  Michael C. Pyryt.  Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor analytic studies , 1998 .

[19]  Steven Pinker,et al.  A theory of graph comprehension. , 1990 .

[20]  Barbara Tversky,et al.  Animation: can it facilitate? , 2002, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[21]  Susan Bell Trickett,et al.  The Instantiation and Use of Conceptual Simulations in Evaluating Hypotheses: Movies-in-the-Mind in Scientific Reasoning , 2019, Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.

[22]  E. Ferguson.  The Mind’s Eye: Nonverbal thought in Technology , 1977 .

[23]  J. Gregory Trafton,et al.  Understanding Static and Dynamic Visualizations , 2002, Diagrams.

[24]  John R. Anderson,et al.  Abstract Planning and Perceptual Chunks: Elements of Expertise in Geometry , 1990, Cogn. Sci..

[25]  Peter C.-H. Cheng,et al.  Electrifying diagrams for learning: principles for complex representational systems , 2002, Cogn. Sci..

[26]  Ben Shneiderman,et al.  Readings in information visualization - using vision to think , 1999 .

[27]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth 10, 000 word , 1987 .

[28]  Daniel R. Montello,et al.  Spatial Ability in the Representation of Cross Sections , 2003 .

[29]  R. Finke,et al.  Principles of mental imagery , 1989 .

[30]  William E. Coffman,et al.  Visual learning, thinking, and communication , 1978 .

[31]  J. Jastrow.  The Mind's Eye. , 1899 .

[32]  M Hegarty,et al.  Mental animation in the visuospatial sketchpad: Evidence from dual-task studies , 1997, Memory & cognition.

[33]  R. Shepard,et al.  Mental Rotation of Three-Dimensional Objects , 1971, Science.

[34]  P. Carpenter,et al.  Conceptual limitations in comprehending line graphs. , 1995 .

[35]  H. Simon,et al.  Perception in chess , 1973 .

[36]  Ganesh S. Oak.  Information Visualization Introduction , 2022 .

[37]  Yvonne Rogers,et al.  External cognition: how do graphical representations work? , 1996, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[38]  Roy O. Freedle,et al.  Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Testing , 1990 .

[39]  M. Hegarty,et al.  Individual Differences in Spatial Abilities , 2005 .

[40]  H. Harman,et al.  Kit of factor-referenced cognitive tests , 1976 .

[41]  Richard K. Lowe.  Extracting information from an animation during complex visual learning , 1999 .

[42]  M. Hegarty,et al.  Graphs as aids to knowledge construction: Signaling techniques for guiding the process of graph comprehension. , 1999 .

[43]  N. Nersessian.  Should Physicists Preach What They Practice , 1995 .

[44]  P. Cheng.  Electrifying diagrams for learning: principles for effective representational systems , 2002 .

[45]  N. Nersessian.  Should physicists preach what they practice? , 1995 .

[46]  Susan Bell Trickett,et al.  Connecting Internal and External Representations: Spatial Transformations of Scientific Visualizations , 2005 .

[47]  R. Mayer,et al.  For whom is a picture worth a thousand words? Extensions of a dual-coding theory of multimedia learning. , 1994 .

[48]  Daniel L. Schwartz,et al.  COORDINATING MULTIPLE REPRESENTATIONS FOR REASONING ABOUT MECHANICAL DEVICES , 1996 .