Lester C. Loschky, Ph.D. - US grants

Vision is a critically important medium of communication. Students are continuously bombarded with images on television, cell phones and during instruction. Although well-designed images can facilitate learning, poorly designed images can hinder learning. This project tests the hypothesis that appropriately designed visual cues provided on physics problems, can improve students physics problem solving skills. This project strengthens an existing partnership between a cognitive psychologist mentor and physics education researcher mentee to test the above hypothesis through a sequence of two studies with a total of 150 participants enrolled in introductory algebra-based physics courses. An expert panel of two cognitive psychologists and a physics education researcher serve as the Advisory Board and external evaluators.

The studies extend ongoing work over the past two years. The first study identifies differences in the eye movements of 20 experts and 50 novices enrolled in introductory algebra-based physics while solving physics problems with diagrams. Each participant solves 20 conceptual problems in introductory physics, each of which includes a diagram whose spatial structure is intimately connected to the problem's solution. The study will measure the total duration of eye-fixations in the areas of the diagram that are relevant to the solution as well as those that are irrelevant to the solution, but salient for other reasons. This tests the hypothesis that the experts will focus on the relevant areas and the novices will tend to focus on the irrelevant areas of the problem. The second study tests the hypothesis that appropriate visual cueing to change the eye movements of novices can improve their problem solving performance. One hundred participants with an appropriate level of physics knowledge are selected from students enrolled in algebra-based physics. Each participant is shown 10 physics problems on which largest expert novice differences are observed in the first study. First, each participant solves the problem, and if unable to do so correctly, she is given a practice problem which is similar to the initial problem. If she solves the practice problem correctly, she is shown a different problem. One half of the participants receive visual cues overlaid on the practice problem, while the other half do not. The study compares the problem solving performance of each group to test the hypothesis. Two graduate students whose dissertation research focuses on visual cueing will work on this project under the guidance of the principal investigators.

This project is one of the first of its kind to explore and exploit the link between cognition and eye movements in the context of physics problem solving. Although this project focuses on problem solving in physics, the results of the research have implications for learning in other STEM disciplines where the use of images is important. Beyond its immediate scope, the project will benefit the field of physics education research by infusing ideas from cognitive psychology regarding visual cueing into physics education research, It will also potentially change the ways visual media are used in physics and other STEM instruction to more effectively facilitate students' learning.

The Research on the Use of Visual Cueing and Feedback to Facilitate Problem Solving project uses a rigorous experimental design to expand understanding of the role of visual cues and correctness feedback on undergraduate problem solving, specifically mathematics and physics, as well as the interaction between cues and feedback. The project combines theoretical perspectives on problem solving (representational change theory) with theoretical perspectives on multimedia learning (cognitive theory of multimedia learning) as well as empirical research on visual cueing and feedback to develop and refine a conceptual model for STEM problem solving.

Representational change theory, used in this project, purports three mechanisms to break an impasse: (i) adding information to the problem to enrich the existing representation (i.e. elaboration); (ii) replacing the existing representation with a different, more productive representation (i.e. re-encoding); or (iii) removing unnecessary constraints often self-imposed by the problem solver (i.e. constraint relaxation). This project explores the use of visual cueing and feedback to harness two (elaboration and re-coding) of these three factors.

Cognitive theory of multimedia learning identifies three distinct stages involved in learning from multimodal information. Selection is attending to relevant pieces of sensory information from each modality. Organization is using the selected information to create a coherent internal representation. Integration is combining internal representations with activated prior knowledge. All three stages of multimedia learning are influenced by the learner's prior knowledge. They are all explored in this study.

The foundational questions addressed by this project are: What are the malleable factors (i.e. factors that we can control) that affect learners' use of visual information while solving STEM problems? How can we alter these factors to positively influence students' problem solving in STEM? What moderating factors influence the outcome?

To explore these questions, the researchers conduct two studies in introductory college mathematics and physics courses to investigate the effects of a) cueing, b) feedback, and c) their interaction, on 1) problem solving performance, and 2) eye movements of problem solving involving graphics. Furthermore, the study investigates these effects both i) during training and ii) at transfer. These studies control for students' prior domain knowledge, initial problem solving skills, and initial eye movements on the problems.

The broader significance of this project, which engages researchers in STEM education and visual cognitive psychology, is that it has the potential to impact the use of diagrams in STEM problem solving, initially in mathematics and physics, with implications for broader STEM disciplines. A benefit of the research emanating from this project is the infusion of approaches from cognitive psychology regarding visual cueing into STEM education instruction and research. Ultimately, the findings of this project have tangible applications to online instruction which is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in STEM education.

Online multimedia instruction is expected to grow. Yet, given the tendency for students’ minds to wander and to be distracted especially during online instruction, it is important for researchers and educators to understand how to help students to stay focused on the important information while ignoring the unimportant information. This project addresses two fundamental issues: How does the online Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) instructor or educational materials developer know when learners are effectively paying attention to the learning material? How can they use this information to improve the design of their online learning materials in STEM? Attention and learning outcomes will be collected for several hundred students as they use multiple online modules, over a semester-long of a university introductory physics course. These data will be used to predict students’ attention and how it relates to their learning outcomes. This information will then be used to help improve online multimedia instruction.

This project addresses a gap between the known effects of attention on learning and attempts to translate those theoretical constructs into pedagogical practice in rigorously, reliably, and validly measurable ways. This study is the first to bridge the theory and methods of studying attention in cognitive science with educational practice during a semester-long university online course. It points the way to making rapid, ecologically valid progress in understanding the connections between students' moment-to-moment attentional states and their long-term STEM learning. Such progress could be useful in advancing policy and practice surrounding improving STEM learning. In Phase 1(Basic Research), the Principal Investigators (PIs) propose a longitudinal, naturalistic study of attention and learning from online instruction. The PIs will study several hundred students' attention to online learning materials, and their learning, over a semester-long of a large university introductory physics course. In Phase 2 (Applied Research), using the above information, the PIs will identify generalizable targets of change in students' attentional states by alerting students at critical moments of attentional lapses, or cueing their attention to relevant information. For instructors and instructional designers, the project will provide meaningful, high impact data on students' varying attentional states over time, and will pinpoint attentional deficiencies. The proposed research will develop an Attentional Toolkit that takes a two-pronged approach to leveraging students' attentional states and improving their educational outcomes. The first prong ("demand side") addresses the learner by measuring their level of attentiveness and alerting/cueing their attention. The second prong ("supply side") addresses the instructor or online materials developer. To improve the broader impact of their research, the PIs will seek out a diverse pool of participants and take all measures necessary to improve fairness and reduce bias. Further, because the proposed methods are likely generalizable across numerous educational domains, the Attentional Toolkit could be broadly used across educational disciplines. In addition to publications and presentations, the Attentional Toolkit will be made available to faculty. The PIs will also provide workshops to faculty who are teaching multimedia online courses on how to use the Attentional Toolkit. This project is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.