The ability to rotate visual mental images is a complex cognitive skill. It requires the building of graphical libraries of information through short or long term memory systems and the subsequent retrieval and manipulation of these towards a specified goal. The development of mental rotation skill is of critical importance within engineering…

Memory for the position of a moving target is often displaced in the direction of anticipated motion, and this has been referred to as "representational momentum". Such displacement might aid spatial localization by bridging the gap between perception and action, and might reflect a second-order isomorphism between subjective consequences of…

Empirical studies that focus on the impact of three-dimensional (3D) visualizations on learning are to date rare and inconsistent. According to the ability-as-enhancer hypothesis, high spatial ability learners should benefit particularly as they have enough cognitive capacity left for mental model construction. In contrast, the…

This paper takes a cognitive perspective in an attempt to analyze mental mechanisms involved in contextual learning. In the following, it is suggested that contextualized environments evoke mental mechanisms that support reasoning about "what if", imaginary situations--utilizing a powerful mental mechanism known from the history of physics as…

Translates Oskar Pfister's 1930 article proposing that persons faced with extreme danger exclude reality from their perceptions and lapse into pleasurable fantasies that constitute a form of psychic protection against the threat of death. Notes that depersonalization takes place and prevents the conscious experience of fear. (Author/RC)

The four sections of this paper provide an analysis of the structure of human memory. The first section, intended to provide a clear example of personal memory, examines a hypothetical episode in the life of an undergraduate student, and shows how one episode can give rise to three different forms of memory: personal, semantic, and rote…

Describes research with college students that investigated commercial game types and game elements to determine what would be suitable for education. Students rated logic, memory, visualization, and problem solving as important game elements that are used to develop a model that links pedagogical issues with game elements. (Author/LRW)

Describes an inservice writing course for elementary and secondary school teachers that is based in part on writing from memories and commenting on the writing process. (MM)

The patient's body is an image that medical students and residents use to process information. The classic use of images using the patient is qualitative and personal. The contemporary use of images is quantitative and impersonal. The contemporary use of imaging includes radiographic, nuclear, scintigraphic, and nuclear magnetic resonance…

A program for teaching children and adults the thinking skills most important in everyday life is described. This program, which has been tried out and evaluated in the United States, France, Germany, England, Australia, Japan, and Israel, is needed in every school and community as a "gymnasium for the mind," to help people fully use their natural…

Contemporary trends in education reflect a shift from traditional teacher-centered approaches to more student-centered approaches to learning. Empowering students in their own learning is facilitated by teaching them effective meaning-making strategies that support active participation in their own learning. Making this happen requires using…

Maintains that region familiarity is an important prerequisite in the instructional use of cartograms. Cartograms are value-by-area maps that increase or decrease areas in order to illustrate various data (e.g. book reading in the western United States). Discusses necessary cognitive processes for the visualization of data. (MJP)

Describes a ninth-grade class project where students were asked to recall a specific sense memory involving smell and foods. They wrote a brief narrative reflecting on the experience and created a recipe card for the food. These were combined with a pictorial representation of the food for a final project. (MJP)