Programs That Teach Visual Expertise The Image Quiz Project

1. Programs That Teach Visual ExpertiseThe Image Quiz Project Dr. Bruce Kirchoff University of North Carolina at Greensboro

2. Outline • Visual Learning • Cognitive Psychology of Visual Perception • Woody Plants of the Southeastern US • General Principles • Using the program • Other applications • Chemistry: Amino Acids • Mathematics: Basic equations • Some consequences • Visual Keys, a new approach

3. Cognitive Psychology of Visual Perception Analytic Perception may be our earliest perceptual mode used by non-experts dog owners students is part based is reportable Holistic Perception used to perceive faces used by experts in their domain of expertise dog show judges systematists is configuration based is non-reportable Gauthier et al. 1998. Vision Research 38: 2401-2428

4. Expertise-related activity, right Fusiform Face Area Faces Cars Birds car exp bird exp Car experts show activation in the right FFA for faces and for cars, but not for birds. Bird experts show activation for faces and birds, but not for cars. Bukach, C. M. et al. 2006. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 10:159-166.

5. Electrophysical measurement: Geodesic Sensor Net • Used for recording Event Related Potentials (ERP) http://whyfiles.org/

6. Effects of active studying training; active identification no training; passive viewing Rhodes, G. et al. (2004) J. Cognitive Neuroscience 16:189–203

7. Outline • Visual Learning • Cognitive Psychology of Visual Perception • Woody Plants of the Southeastern US • General Principles • Using the program • Other applications • Chemistry: Amino Acids • Mathematics: Basic equations • Some consequences • Visual Keys, a new approach

8. Botanical Experts • A good field botanist can identify plants from • fragments • moving vehicles • non-typical specimen • A taxonomic specialist can identify species that stump even good field botanists • Cannot always explain how they know what they know

9. Field Botany • Observation and naming of species • Repetition! • “That is Acer rubrum” ; “That is Acer rubrum” again; “That is Acer rubrum, but it is not a very typical specimen” • quizzes • Variation! • see more than one specimen of A. rubrum • plants learned based on vegetative and floral “characters” • Relatively little emphasis on traditional characters

10. Woody plants of the Southeastern US CD • Created to simulate a field botany course • Two main types of study modules • Introducing the taxa • images of the plant presented with their names • familiarize students with the plants • Quizzes • Four kinds of image drills http://www.mbgpress.info/index.php?task=id&id=08025

11. Woody plants of the Southeast CD • Design Goal: Create image quizzes of sufficient difficulty to actively engage the user • Quiz design adapted from the cognitive psychology literature • 1: Image naming with prompt • 2: Image naming without prompt • 3: Image comparison • 4: Image verification • TEST module incorporates routines 2- 4 • Display time is user definable, from 0.1 to 4 seconds

12. Woody Plants of the SE CD - Images • Images are standardized • The work of my co-author, Steve Baskauf • e. g., front and back of leaves shown together • The images are the hidden heart of the program

13. Let’s learn some plants! • Demonstrate the WPSEUS Program

14. Outline • Visual Learning • Cognitive Psychology of Visual Perception • Woody Plants of the Southeastern US • General Principles • Using the program • Other applications • Chemistry: Amino Acids • Mathematics: Basic equations • Some consequences • Visual Keys, a new approach

15. Learning chemistry through the amino acids • Demonstrate Amino prototype

16. Other applications • Chemistry: Amino Acids histidine ionic phenylalanine nonpolar

18. Outline • Visual Learning • Cognitive Psychology of Visual Perception • Woody Plants of the Southeastern US • General Principles • Using the program • Other applications • Chemistry: Amino Acids • Mathematics: Basic equations • Some consequences • Visual Keys, a new approach

19. Teaching Math through Visualization Mathematicians read equations holistically

20. How many types of equations?

21. Are these associations correct?

22. Outline • Visual Learning • Cognitive Psychology of Visual Perception • Woody Plants of the Southeastern US • General Principles • Using the program • Other applications • Chemistry: Amino Acids • Mathematics: Basic equations • Some consequences • Visual Keys, a new approach

23. What are we teaching? • Analytic view • Image recognition • Holistic view • Scientific intuition • Intuition • “an intuitive judgment, based upon professional experience, as to where the data is pointing and where new discoveries are likely to be made.” Denis Lamoureux • Experience is necessary for scientific intuition http://www.asa3.org/archive/evolution/199604/0247.html

24. Small, Cheap, and Out of Control • Small • Quick to develop and easy to deploy • Cheap • Inexpensive to develop and maintain • Low cost • Low human overhead • Out of Control • Can be used effectively without training or supervision • Wide distribution of effective learning at low cost Brooks, R. 1989. Fast, cheep and out of control. J Brit. Interplanetary Soc. 42: 478-485

25. Collaborators and Acknowledgements • Woody Plants of the Southeast • Steve Baskauf http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/ • Alexander Krings, Herbarium, NCSU • Ben Purcell and John Cox (programmers) • Woody Plants of the SE is published by Missouri Botanical Garden Press • Cognitive Psychology Consultation • Isabel Gauthier, Vanderbilt • Mathematics • Dr. Raymond Lee, UNC Pembroke • Keys • Dr. David Remington, UNCG