Collaborative Research: Visual Training in the Geosciences by Training Visual Working Memory

合作研究：通过训练视觉工作记忆进行地球科学中的视觉训练

• 批准号: 1915874
• 负责人: Christopher Sims
• 金额: $ 60.81万
• 依托单位: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2022-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1915874&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Visual; Training; Geosciences

This project identify ways to improve education and training in the geosciences, building on fundamental research in cognitive science. Geoscience is a STEM discipline that is of growing importance to several national and global issues, including climate change, energy resources, and understanding earthquake activity. Expertise in geoscience depends heavily upon unconscious perceptual skills that are difficult or impossible to impart through traditional classroom education. Consequently there is a great need to improve or develop new methods for perceptual training (i.e., training students to visually detect, identify, and interpret geologic processes) and to study how educational practices in this area may be optimized. This project will apply a cognitive science approach to meet this goal, by conducting behavioral experiments involving geoscience students, and developing computational models of human cognition. This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field.The proposed research will focus on the role of visual working memory (VWM) in perceptual learning and perceptual expertise in the geosciences. VWM is a cognitive system that is critical to the geosciences. For example, when a geologist views or studies a landscape, he or she acquires visual information from multiple points in the scene by making numerous eye movements. The geologist can then (unconsciously) use his or her VWM to integrate information across eye movements to develop a coherent representation of the landscape. While there is much existing research on VWM, very little is known about the relationship between visual working memory on the one hand, and fundamental changes in perceptual ability in specific domains such as geoscience on the other hand. The proposed research will build upon, and extend a recently developed model of human perception that has the potential to connect these two domains. This model is based upon information theory, or the mathematical study of how physical systems can efficiently communicate information. This model suggests that training and expertise fundamentally change a person?s perceptual system in a way that leads to more efficient use of cognitive resources. In order to test this model, a series of behavioral experiments will be conducted involving novice and experienced students in the geosciences. These experiments and computational modeling efforts will contribute fundamental knowledge that can be used to improve geoscience and education.

该项目确定了基于认知科学基础研究的基础研究，以改善地球科学的教育和培训。地球科学是一门STEM学科，对几个国家和全球问题，包括气候变化，能源和了解地震活动的重要性越来越重要。地球科学方面的专业知识在很大程度上取决于无意识的感知技能，这些技能难以或不可能通过传统的课堂教育传授。因此，非常需要改善或开发知觉培训的新方法（即培训学生以视觉检测，识别和解释地质过程），并研究如何优化该领域的教育实践。该项目将采用认知科学方法来实现这一目标，通过进行涉及地球科学学生的行为实验以及开发人类认知的计算模型。该项目得到了NSF的EHR核心研究（ECR）计划的支持。 ECR计划强调了基本的STEM教育研究，该研究在该领域中产生了基础知识。拟议的研究将重点关注视觉工作记忆（VWM）在听觉学习和地球科学中感知专业知识中的作用。 VWM是对地球科学至关重要的认知系统。例如，当地质学家观看或研究景观时，他或她通过进行大量眼部动作从现场的多个点获取视觉信息。然后，地质学家可以（不自觉地）使用他或她的VWM来整合跨眼动的信息，以发展景观的连贯代表。尽管对VWM有很多现有的研究，但一方面，视觉工作记忆与特定领域（例如地球科学）的感知能力的根本变化知之甚少。拟议的研究将基于并扩展了最近开发的人类感知模型，该模型有可能连接这两个领域。该模型基于信息理论或关于物理系统如何有效传达信息的数学研究。 该模型表明，培训和专业知识从根本上改变了一个人的感知系统，从而可以更有效地利用认知资源。为了测试该模型，将进行一系列涉及新手和经验丰富的学生的行为实验。这些实验和计算建模工作将有助于基本知识，可用于改善地球科学和教育。