This study investigated links between visual attention processes and conceptual problem solving. This was done by overlaying visual cues on conceptual physics problem diagrams to direct participants’ attention to relevant areas to facilitate problem solving. Participants (N = 80) individually worked through four problem sets, each containing a diagram, while their eye movements were recorded. Each diagram contained regions that were relevant to solving the problem correctly and separate regions related to common incorrect responses. Problem sets contained an initial problem, six isomorphic training problems, and a transfer problem. The cued condition saw visual cues overlaid on the training problems. Participants’ verbal responses were used to determine their accuracy. This study produced two major findings. First, short duration visual cues which draw attention to solution-relevant information and aid in the organizing and integrating of it, facilitate both immediate problem solving and generalization of that ability to new problems. Thus, visual cues can facilitate re-representing a problem and overcoming impasse, enabling a correct solution. Importantly, these cueing effects on problem solving did not involve the solvers’ attention necessarily embodying the solution to the problem, but were instead caused by solvers attending to and integrating relevant information in the problems into a solution path. Second, this study demonstrates that when such cues are used across multiple problems, solvers can automatize the extraction of problem-relevant information extraction. These results suggest that low-level attentional selection processes provide a necessary gateway for relevant information to be used in problem solving, but are generally not sufficient for correct problem solving. Instead, factors that lead a solver to an impasse and to organize and integrate problem information also greatly facilitate arriving at correct solutions.
Abstract. Research has demonstrated that attentional cues overlaid on diagrams and animations can help students attend to the relevant areas and facilitate problem solving. In this study we investigate the influence of visual cues and correctness feedback on students' reasoning as they solve conceptual physics problems containing a diagram. The participants (N=90) were enrolled in an algebra-based physics course and were individually interviewed. During each interview students solved four problem sets each containing an initial problem, six isomorphic training problems, and a transfer problem. The cued conditions saw visual cues on the training problems, and the feedback conditions were told if their responses (answer and explanation) were correct or incorrect. We found that visual cues and correctness feedback significantly improves students' abilities to solve the training and transfer problems.
Overlaying visual cues on diagrams and animations can help students attend to relevant areas and facilitate problem solving. In this study we investigated the effects of visual cues on students' eye movements as they solved conceptual physics problems. Students (N=80) enrolled in an introductory physics course individually worked through four sets of problems, each containing a diagram, while their eye movements were recorded. Each diagram contained regions that were alternatively relevant to solving the problem correctly or related to common incorrect responses. Each problem set contained an initial problem, six isomorphic training problems, and a transfer problem. Those in the cued condition saw visual cues overlaid on the training problems. Students provided verbal responses. The cued group more accurately answered the (uncued) transfer problems, and their eye movements showed they more efficiently extracted the necessary information from the relevant area than the uncued group.
Abstract. Transfer of learning is an important objective of education. However, students usually have difficulties in solving physics transfer tasks even after having solved similar problems previously. We investigated if instruction provided using videos containing detailed explanations of previously solved problems will improve students' performance in tackling near and far transfer tasks. We also investigated whether the combination of visual cues followed by video solutions yields further enhancement of students' performance. N=33 students in an algebra-based physics class participated in an interview containing two problem sets each with one initial task, a training session, and a near and far transfer task. For the training, students either received visual cues only, visual cues and a video or only videos, depending on the condition. We compare students' correctness rate on near and far transfer tasks in the three conditions.
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