There is much excitement about the educational potential of interactive computer visualizations. Despite such optimism, however, we know relatively little about how learners interact with 3-D computer visualizations. Initial studies in medical education suggest that rather than augmenting cognition for all learners, 3-D interactive models may actually be disadvantageous to individuals with low spatial abilities.
This project will examine the effects of individual spatial abilities and visualization design factors on students' spatial comprehension, and use those results to improve the effectiveness of 3-D visualizations in medical education. The first objective of the project relates to the spatial abilities that have been shown to be important for developing 3-D mental models of human anatomy. We will explore the correlation between spatial ability and anatomy learning, and examine how this correlation is modulated by use of interactive computer visualizations and by domain knowledge. The second objective is to test the effectiveness of different aspects of computer visualizations (stereoscopic vs. monoscopic displays, active vs. passive control and haptic vs traditional interfaces) for learning anatomy. The third objective is to apply the resulting findings to medical education by developing and testing training programs that use the types of simulations that are shown to be most effective. The studies will use a combination of correlational and experimental methods to explore the relationships between individual differences and anatomy learning, and the effectiveness of different aspects of computer visualizations. Basic studies will initially be conducted with naive undergraduate students and later generalized to medical students.
