Resource-Adaptive Design of Visualizations for Supporting the Comprehension of Complex Dynamics in the Natural Sciences

The content of this page is displayed in standardized format to serve as quick reference; and facilitate its use during preparation of new applications. Do not change the content of this page without consulting with the project coordinator. For encyclopedic details about the project, please refer to its main page. Research Plan The basic idea of the research project was that a successful knowledge acquisition with dynamic visualizations is a resource intensive process which requires simultaneous and optimized availability of different learning resources. This particularly comprises different processing capabilities of the cognitive system, functionalities of the applied computer technology and didactically substantiated contents and representations. Accordingly, the instructional potential of dynamic visualizations can only effectively evolve if these different learning resources are available in a coordinated way for a concrete knowledge acquisition scenario. This hypothesis was investigated in formal learning settings (e.g. school, university) as well as in informal learning settings (e.g. aquarium, diving excursion) for a natural sciences domain, the locomotion of fish.

Formal Project Description Contract Title Resource-Adaptive Design of Visualizations for Supporting the Comprehension of Complex Dynamics in the Natural Sciences Project Acronym Dynamic Visualizations in Learning Donor Leibniz Association Lead Partner Knowledge Media Research Center Call/Action Pact for Research and Innovation of the Competition Fund 2006 of the Leibniz-Association Link to the Call http://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/en/about-us/history/ Partners OTEC: Onderwijstechnologisch Expertise-centrum der Open University of the Netherlands LSRI: Learning Sciences Research Institute TECFA: Technologies de Formation et Appre-ntissage LEAD (CNRS): Laboratoire D’etude del’ apprentissage et du developpement CNTI: Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute Cost of Action €782,200 Grant €782,200 Cost for FWC ca €30,000 Grant for FWC ca €30,000 Dates 01/01/2007 - 31/12/2009 Short Description Pact for Research and Innovation of the Competition Fund 2006 of the Leibniz-Association About Project Dynamic Visualizations in Instruction

Specific objective(s) -To support the understanding of complex dynamic processes in the Natural Sciences. Thereby we draw attention to conducive design of dynamic visualizations while considering and developing findings from cognitive and media psychology. -To study the following topics: mental resources processing capacity working memory attention modality- and codality-based processing channels learner requirements domain specific knowledge structures within long-term memory expertise regarding cognitive and metacognitive processing strategies spatial ability, visual literacy