Mind'seye

The definition of Mind's Eye is the visual memory or the imagination: the human ability for visualization, for the experiencing of visual or mental imagery. The thesis paper Mind'sEye is an exhibition support paper outlining a series of paintings, photographs, and image transfers developed after a month long course in New York City with a Women and Gender studies class. The thesis discusses topics relating to art history, place, time, isolation and alienation, as well as the experience of being immersed in a large metropolitan city

Diagrammatic Reasoning and Modelling in the Imagination: The Secret Weapons of the Scientific Revolution

Just before the Scientific Revolution, there was a "Mathematical Revolution", heavily based on geometrical and machine diagrams. The "faculty of imagination" (now called scientific visualization) was developed to allow 3D understanding of planetary motion, human anatomy and the workings of machines. 1543 saw the publication of the heavily geometrical work of Copernicus and Vesalius, as well as the first Italian translation of Euclid

Visual analytics on eye movement data reveal search patterns on dynamic and interactive maps

In this paper the results of a visual analytics approach on eye movement data are described which allows detecting underlying patterns in the scanpaths of the user’s during a visual search on a map. These patterns give insights in the user his cognitive processes or his mental map while working with interactive maps

Analyzing eye movement patterns to improve map design

Recently, the use of eye tracking systems has been introduced in the field of cartography and GIS to support the evaluation of the quality of maps towards the user. The quantitative eye movement metrics are related to for example the duration or the number of the fixations which are subsequently (statistically) compared to detect significant differences in map designs or between different user groups. Hence, besides these standard eye movement metrics, other - more spatial - measurements and visual interpretations of the data are more suitable to investigate how users process, store and retrieve information from a (dynamic and/or) interactive map. This information is crucial to get insights in how users construct their cognitive map: e.g. is there a general search pattern on a map and which elements influence this search pattern, how do users orient a map, what is the influence of for example a pan operation. These insights are in turn crucial to be able to construct more effective maps towards the user, since the visualisation of the information on the map can be keyed to the user his cognitive processes. The study focuses on a qualitative and visual approach of the eye movement data resulting from a user study in which 14 participants were tested while working on 20 different dynamic and interactive demo-maps. Since maps are essentially spatial objects, the analysis of these eye movement data is directed towards the locations of the fixations, the visual representation of the scanpaths, clustering and aggregation of the scanpaths. The results from this study show interesting patterns in the search strategies of users on dynamic and interactive maps

Creativity Skills Applied to Earth Science Education: Examples from K-12 Teachers in a Graduate Creativity Class

NOTE: This is a large file, 10.7 mb in size! This article briefly explores different aspects of creativity, and then examines K-12 teachers' reactions to exercises applied to earth science concepts in a graduate creativity class. Different types of puzzle activities centering on geoscience content include a quiz game based on Odyssey of the Mind spontaneous problems, and other exercises related to embedded words, transformed cliches, remotely associated word sets, and wordsmithing. Teachers used visualization for an imaginary interview with a geoscientist, along with personal analogy of an earth science feature. As a culminating activity, teachers fashioned a geoscience curriculum material with a given set of items. Ideas for applying the activities to geoscience classes at various grade levels are included. Educational levels: Graduate or professional, Graduate or professional

Role of pattern recognition and search in expert decision making

Recently, proponents of the predominant role of search processes have collected data aiming at undermining the importance of pattern recognition. In particular, Chabris and Hearst (2003), using data from rapid chess and blindfold chess, have questioned Chase and Simon’s (1973) and Gobet and Simon’s (1996) account. In this talk, I’ll show that Chabris and Hearst’s (2003) data, far from invalidating theories based on pattern recognition and selective search, actually support them

Forward search, pattern recognition and visualization in expert chess: A reply to Chabris and Hearst (2003)

Chabris and Hearst (2003) produce new data on the question of the respective role of pattern recognition and forward search in expert behaviour. They argue that their data show that search is more important than claimed by Chase and Simon (1973). They also note that the role of mental imagery has been neglected in expertise research and propose that theories of expertise should integrate pattern recognition, search, and mental imagery. In this commentary, I show that their results are not clear-cut and can also be taken as supporting the predominant role of pattern recognition. Previous theories such as the chunking theory (Chase & Simon, 1973) and the template theory (Gobet & Simon, 1996a), as well as a computer model (SEARCH; Gobet, 1997) have already integrated mechanisms of pattern recognition, forward search and mental imagery. Methods for addressing the respective roles of pattern recognition and search are proposed

Can experts interpret a map's content more efficiently?

This paper describes the statistical comparison of the results from an experiment with a ‘between user’-design. The first group of participants consists out of novices whereas the second group consists out of experts which have experience in map use and have had training in cartography. The same stimuli (twenty screen maps) are presented in a random order to the participants who have to locate a number of labels on the map image. The participants are asked to indicate when they located a name by a button action, resulting in a time measurement. Furthermore, the participant’s eye movements are registered during the whole test. The combined information reveals a same trend in the time intervals needed to locate the subsequent labels in both user groups. However, the experts are significantly faster in locating the names on the map (P<0.010). The recorded eye movements further confirm and explain this finding: the expert’s fixations are significantly shorter (P<0.001) and can consequently have more fixations per second (P<0.001). This means that an expert can interpret the map content more efficiently and can thus search a larger part of the map in the same amount of time