Programs That Teach Visual
Expertise
The Image Quiz Project
Dr. Bruce Kirchoff
University of North Carolina at
Greensboro
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
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
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.
Electrophysical measurement: Geodesic Sensor Net
• Used for recording Event Related
Potentials (ERP)
http://whyfiles.org/
Effects of active studying
no
training;
passive
viewing
training;
active
identification
Rhodes, G. et al. (2004) J. Cognitive Neuroscience 16:189–203
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
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
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
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
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
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
Let’s learn some plants!
• Demonstrate the WPSEUS Program
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
Learning chemistry through the amino acids
• Demonstrate Amino prototype
Other applications
• Chemistry: Amino Acids
histidine
phenylalanine
ionic
nonpolar
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
Teaching Math through Visualization
Mathematicians read equations
holistically
How many types of equations?
Are these associations correct?
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
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
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
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