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      Creating visual explanations improves learning

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          Abstract

          Many topics in science are notoriously difficult for students to learn. Mechanisms and processes outside student experience present particular challenges. While instruction typically involves visualizations, students usually explain in words. Because visual explanations can show parts and processes of complex systems directly, creating them should have benefits beyond creating verbal explanations. We compared learning from creating visual or verbal explanations for two STEM domains, a mechanical system (bicycle pump) and a chemical system (bonding). Both kinds of explanations were analyzed for content and learning assess by a post-test. For the mechanical system, creating a visual explanation increased understanding particularly for participants of low spatial ability. For the chemical system, creating both visual and verbal explanations improved learning without new teaching. Creating a visual explanation was superior and benefitted participants of both high and low spatial ability. Visual explanations often included crucial yet invisible features. The greater effectiveness of visual explanations appears attributable to the checks they provide for completeness and coherence as well as to their roles as platforms for inference. The benefits should generalize to other domains like the social sciences, history, and archeology where important information can be visualized. Together, the findings provide support for the use of learner-generated visual explanations as a powerful learning tool.

          Electronic supplementary material

          The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s41235-016-0031-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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          Most cited references37

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          Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention.

          Taking a memory test not only assesses what one knows, but also enhances later retention, a phenomenon known as the testing effect. We studied this effect with educationally relevant materials and investigated whether testing facilitates learning only because tests offer an opportunity to restudy material. In two experiments, students studied prose passages and took one or three immediate free-recall tests, without feedback, or restudied the material the same number of times as the students who received tests. Students then took a final retention test 5 min, 2 days, or 1 week later. When the final test was given after 5 min, repeated studying improved recall relative to repeated testing. However, on the delayed tests, prior testing produced substantially greater retention than studying, even though repeated studying increased students' confidence in their ability to remember the material. Testing is a powerful means of improving learning, not just assessing it.
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            Magnitude of sex differences in spatial abilities: a meta-analysis and consideration of critical variables.

            In recent years, the magnitude, consistency, and stability across time of cognitive sex differences have been questioned. The present study examined these issues in the context of spatial abilities. A meta-analysis of 286 effect sizes from a variety of spatial ability measures was conducted. Effect sizes were partitioned by the specific test used and by a number of variables related to the experimental procedure in order to achieve homogeneity. Results showed that sex differences are significant in several tests but that some intertest differences exist. Partial support was found for the notion that the magnitude of sex differences has decreased in recent years. Finally, it was found that the age of emergence of sex differences depends on the test used. Results are discussed with regard to their implications for the study of sex differences in spatial abilities.
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              Mental rotations, a group test of three-dimensional spatial visualization.

              A new paper-and-pencil test of spatial visualization was constructed from the figures used in the chronometric study of Shepard and Metzler (1971). In large samples, the new test displayed substantial internal consistency (Kuder-Richardson 20 = .88), a test-retest reliability (.83), and consistent sex differences over the entire range of ages investigated. Correlations with other measures indicated strong association with tests of spatial visualization and virtually no association with tests of verbal ability.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Eliza_Bobek@uml.edu
                Journal
                Cogn Res
                Cogn Res
                Cognitive Research
                Springer International Publishing (Cham )
                2365-7464
                7 December 2016
                7 December 2016
                2016
                : 1
                : 1
                : 27
                Affiliations
                [1 ]University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA USA
                [2 ]Stanford University, Columbia University Teachers College, New York, NY USA
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2380-3108
                Article
                31
                10.1186/s41235-016-0031-6
                5256450
                28180152
                fcde0bdd-f8ed-4161-b4c3-81aa1394c663
                © The Author(s) 2016

                Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

                History
                : 12 January 2016
                : 15 November 2016
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001, National Science Foundation;
                Award ID: CHS-1513841
                Award ID: HHC 0905417
                Award ID: IIS-0725223
                Award ID: IIS-0855995
                Award ID: REC 0440103
                Award Recipient :
                Categories
                Original Article
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2016

                learning,visual communication,stem,spatial ability,dynamic system,diagrammatic reasoning,structure,process,complex system

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