An awareness of negative effects of mind set is promoted, and ways to minimize harmful sets are suggested. Visual perception, Eistelung effect, and functional fixedness are discussed as categories of potentially negative mind sets, with several examples given of each. Fixation combinations are noted as well. (MP)

Describes two instructional activities to develop spatial imagery and the pupil's responses to these activities. Discusses how the classroom atmosphere contributed to the success of the activities. (YP)

A graph is an example of a symbol system which encodes information through the juxtaposition of marks in a two dimensional plane; decoding the meaning of a graph uses specific attributes of the human visual system. This study was undertaken to identify some variables critical to graph interpretation as a first step in designing better curriculum…

Presents examples of visual representations helpful in understanding number relationships and the algebraic statements of these relationships. Suggests that these representations can be used by teachers to aid students in discovering number relationships and in acquiring meaning for given mathematical statements. (PK)

Describes the Agam program, a 36-unit curriculum program to introduce students to basic visual concepts and that applies visual abilities and visual thinking to learning tasks. Describes two units at the third grade level, "Ratio and Proportion" and "Numerical Intuition," and makes observations of the students' learning. (MDH)