Rieber, 1995
From Eduwiki
Summary of the Article: “A Historical review of Visualization in Human Cognition” by Lloyd P. Rieber. By Bob Fiero
Lloyd Rieber in his rather preprescient paper of 1995 discussed the ever increased and potent use of multimedia tools in education as way of enabling students to make full use of visualization as a cognitive tool to improve the efficacy of learning progression. Visualization as used in the article “is defined as representations of information consisting of spatial, non-arbitrary (‘picture-like’) and continuous (complete pattern) characteristics… It includes both internal creative mental imagery) and external representations.” P.45.
The primary portion of the paper discusses the role visualization as plays a cognitive problem-solving tool for scientists and inventors throughout history. Many examples are given. The author notes the implications of the versatile efficacy of visualization in educational strategies and instructional design using computer applications.
The power of visualization is to make abstract phenomena or problems more concrete is repeatedly declared. It is a very natural and potent “cognitive strategy for all people, not just a select few” and is essential in solving or understanding complex problems. Often mainstream education “emphasizes verbal skills over visual skills and abstract reasoning over concrete reasoning. Using an historical perspective and examples Rieber explores for appropriate applications of visualization in education. He suggests that educators should exploit the human natural talent of pattern recognition (imagery or visualization) and teach students how to use the power of human perceptual system to learn and solve problems ‘without sacrificing formal education.’
Historical Examples of Visualization Used to Innovate or Problem-solve.
Many inventors place significant importance on the nonverbal act of creative imagination. For example, Albert Einstein had many “thought –experiments such as imagining riding on a beam of light for relativity theory; German chemist August Kekule’ would attempt to imagine atoms bonding; Michael Faraday described visualizing lines of magnetic fields; James Watson and the double helix to list a few examples. Rieber noted that many scientists worked in isolation and were all highly creative nonverbal thinkers using visual imagery.
Highlighted examples: The Cholrea Epidemic of London in the mid 1800s was solved by Dr. John Snow using a map of disease incidence and determining the contaminated well. Wilbur Wright’s Wing warping system on his invention of the motorized airplane. Plate tectonic theory validated by maps of magnetic layers of rock strata whose pattern was deciphered by Alfred Wegener. Armor Plating of World II Aircraft-interestingly planes that return they would examine where the bullet holes were and determined that those were NOT the vital parts of the plane and the other parts should be armored (because those planes did not make it back). In the article Rieber uses Christopher Columbus as an example of where visualizations can lead one to misconceptions such as he dramatically under estimating the proportion of the earth and ration of land to water. He says this illustrates the ‘top-down processing of how initial information (or misinformation) triggers an preconception or inference in which all subsequent observations will misguided by.
Lastly, the author discusses the science of chaotic or non-linear systems like the weather systems or fractal geometry and the study of them is heavily dependent on the use of computer simulations to visual it. Rieber sees computers as very helpful and primary to helping people use their skills (cognitive tool) of visualization to improve their learning and problem-solving in a more interactive and diverse manner—of course he is speaking of this in 1995. He mentions the use of Geometer’s Sketchpad and Interactive Physics as applications utilizing modeling in an effective way. He purports virtual reality technology as the ultimate visualization application of computers creates a phenomenon of telepresence (state of interacting in one location—even an imaginary one—while physically located in another. However, he warns that if virtual reality is applied too much or the wrong developmental stage can lead to reality confusion and be overwhelming and detrimental.
I particularly agree with his proposal that educators should focus their efforts on helping students help themselves in learning pursuits. Let them become ‘a true codesigner of learning environments’ personally tailored to their needs and set of cognitive tools. By “giving them opportunities to use design tools like computer programs (or not) for their own visualization to solve problems” it allows them to use meta-cognitive knowledge to gain content knowledge.
