The essence of understanding visual literacy lies in the visually literate exploration of issues process. This understanding must deal with both the processes involved in the creation and interpretation of concrete visual communication. Visual discourses's greatest contribution to human knowledge and thought is not the sequential, linear,…

This booklet describes only a glimpse of what is known about the nervous system, brain disorders, and the exciting avenues of research that promise new therapies for many of the most devastating neurological and psychiatric diseases. The neuron, brain development, sensation and perception, learning and memory, movement, advances and challenges in…

The 4MAT system (an eight-step cycle of instruction that combines four learning style types and students' preferences for right-brain or left-brain modes of learning) can guide instructors in planning teaching strategies to meet students' diverse learning needs. Each of the eight steps of the system emphasizes one of the learning types and…

For 15 years an ongoing research project at the University of Pittsburgh has focused on the effects of variations in visual complexity and color on the storage and retrieval of visual information by learners. Research has shown that visual materials facilitate instruction, but has not fully delineated the interactions of visual complexity and…

A study compared the performance of congenitally deaf signers (N=39) and hearing individuals (N=39) on a bilateral tachistoscopic task. Subjects were exposed to pretested linguistic and nonlinguistic stimuli during the task. Analysis of response time indicated that deaf subjects were slower to respond than were hearing subjects across all…

Professors need to stimulate both sides of students' brain to allow for efficient increase of information absorption. As an alternative to linear outlines, mind maps can provide for more effective comprehension as related ideas are conceptualized from the center out to supporting details, as well as from top to bottom or left to right. The mind…

Spelling performance was compared for 50 children who had hemiplegia sustained either prenatally (N=32) or postnatally (N=18) and for four children with hemispherectomies. The group study of subjects with hemiplegia divided the children into four groups based on hemispheric side and age at injury. This approach sought to investigate quantitative…

Mind mapping, which challenges the right side of the brain, is recommended as a technique for designing classroom work and stimulating more effective and efficient comprehension. (MSE)

Effects of stimulant medication on word processing were assessed in 31 attention-deficit-disordered children (ages 6-16). Results suggested that methylphenidate may selectively improve the phonological level of word processing, and that favorable effects are produced through inhibition of excessive right hemisphere activity in response to task…

Two groups of right-handed young adults with and without Down Syndrome (N=24) performed a rapid unimanual finger-tapping task under two conditions: alone and while sound-shadowing (repeating) single-syllable, high frequency words. Results provided no evidence for reverse (right hemisphere) lateralization of speech in individuals with Down…

Investigation of the language-spatial lateralization of 76 intermediate grade right-handed regular education students found that "good" students had normal left hemisphere language and right hemisphere spatial lateralization but "poor" students had nonnormal lateralization. Academic problems and behavior problems were correlated with nonnormal…

Discusses importance of the ability to visualize images evoked by the written word in the development of children's skills in both reading and creative writing. Specific skills involved are noted, examples from picture books are given, and 48 picture books that would be useful to developing such skills are listed. (EM)

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of using the principle of "superposition of states" (commonly illustrated by Schrodinger's Cat experiment) to understand the process of using standardized testing to measure a student's learning. Comparisons from literature, neuroscience, and Schema Theory will be used to expound upon the…

This paper explores the role of one cognitive style, spatial visualization, which research suggests correlates highly with student achievement. The study focuses on: whether students with high, average, and low spatial visualization ability differ in their preferred learning modes (concrete experience, abstract conceptualization, reflective…

The concurrent and postdictive validity of two newly-devised tests of contrasting hemispheric function (Test of Right Hemisphere Ability, Test of Left Hemisphere Ability) was investigated relative to scores earned on the reading and mathematics portions of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills. (Author/PN)