Transcript Visual Cognition in Undergraduate Biology Labs; Can it be Connected to Conceptual Change and Other Learning Theories? Robert Day The Ohio State University College of Education [email protected].

Visual Cognition in Undergraduate
Biology Labs; Can it be Connected to
Conceptual Change and Other Learning
Theories?
Robert Day
The Ohio State University
College of Education
[email protected]
"I passed all the other courses that I took at my
university, but I could never pass botany. This was
because all botany students had to spend several
hours a week in a laboratory looking through a
microscope at plant cells, and I could never see
through the microscope. I never once saw a cell
through a microscope.”
"My Life and Hard Times" James Thurber, former
student of the OSU Plant Science Department.
Some visual processing problems
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Visual agnosia (Oliver Sacks)
Pareidolia
Perceptual scotoma
Ambiguous images and perceptual flip
Pareidolia links
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Definition and earliest citation
Some examples
More examples
Fossil on the moon?
I
love
Paris in the
the spring time
I
love
Paris in the
the spring time
Dissertation Objectives
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Document the visual difficulties that can be a barrier to
learning in undergraduate biology students.
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Find out what students see, what they think they see, how
they go about making sense of their observations and why
they sometimes can’t see anything at all.
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Try to connect the phenomenon to established learning
theory.
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Suggest teaching and learning strategies that will help to
efficiently transform novice biological observers into
experts.
Possible Influencing Factors
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Eyesight (resolution / acuity)
Language and semantics
Direct and indirect content knowledge
Innate visual cognitive abilities
Multiple intelligences (Gardener)
Learning style
Teaching approach (constructivist, behaviorist
etc)
Possible Influencing Factors (2)
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Socio-cultural factors
Gender, biological / social
Motivation
Lifestyle and previous visual environment
Neurological issues
Metacognition
Other factors
What is conceptual change?
For review of Posner’s (1982) model go
here.
What is a concept?
For psychologists / philosophers,
a concept is how the human mind
constructs a category.
Yeah but…..
What is a category?
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Classical category:
E.g. even numbers > divisible by 2
Defined by rule(s) that are entirely
necessary and sufficient for membership
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Family resemblance category
E.g. “chair”
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Not easily defined by rules
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Problem with F.R category:
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No necessary and sufficient conditions
Infinite way they could be organized
Especially problematic for biologists
because of nested, indistinct hierarchy.
Fallacy of dichotomous keys.
Do “conceptual change” educators
use the word “concept” in the same
way as philosophers and
psychologists?
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Probably not.
Suspect educators are talking about webs
of concepts connected by relationships and
processes > schemas or conceptual ecology
According to Posner et. al. conceptual
schemas change by accommodation or
assimilation
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Assimilation: This occurs when you fit some new
information into an existing structure or
conceptual understanding.
Accommodation: This occurs new information
cannot easily be fit into an existing structure or
conceptual understanding. Instead, the new
information requires a transformation and
reorganization of the conceptual ecology.
Is perceptual flip the same as
Posner’s conceptual change?
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Probably not exactly……but……
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Perceptual change is similar and it often
leads to conceptual change.
Example 1 “seal donkey”
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in ocean
moving, swimming?
splashing
making a noise (bark?)
therefore alive?
seals bark & swim
seals live in ocean
Seal donkey anomalies:
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Not swimming gracefully
Appears to rising out of water > illogical
Noise not like a seal
Rear fins out of water – illogical
Eyes seem to be releasing steam
“Fins” don’t look right
Post perceptual flip seal >donkey
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fins > ears > must be concave not flat
swimming > drowning
barking > braying
natural event > unusual
happy animal > animal in distress
no further action necessary > action may
be required to save drowning donkey
Example 2 “sponge squirt”
Interesting things to note….
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Many optical illusions involve images of living
things.
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Cognitive scientists often describe perceptual
categorization problems involving living things.
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A special part of the brain is implicated in the
process of recognizing living things.
And yet…..
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Biological science educators appear not to
have studied the pedagogic implications of
the unique cognitive challenges found only
in their discipline?
Rationale for this Research
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Alert biology instructors to the problem
Increase student performance and practical skills
Alert biological researchers and medical imagers
to issues related to reliability of graphical data
Expedite postgraduate novice-expert
transformation
Integration of neurology and psychology with
educational science
Expand conceptual change theory
Implications for societal scientific literacy and
environmental awareness