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

该项目在认知科学基础研究的基础上，确定改进地球科学教育和培训的方法。地球科学是一门STEM学科，对一些国家和全球问题越来越重要，包括气候变化，能源资源和了解地震活动。地球科学的专业知识在很大程度上取决于无意识的感知技能，这是很难或不可能通过传统的课堂教育传授。因此，非常需要改进或开发用于感知训练的新方法（即，培训学生直观地探测、识别和解释地质过程），并研究如何优化这一领域的教育实践。该项目将应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，并开发人类认知的计算模型。该项目由NSF的EHR核心研究（ECR）计划支持。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，产生该领域的基础知识。拟议的研究将集中在视觉工作记忆（VWM）在感知学习和感知专业知识在地球科学中的作用。VWM是一个对地球科学至关重要的认知系统。例如，当地质学家观察或研究景观时，他或她通过进行大量的眼球运动来从场景中的多个点获取视觉信息。然后，地质学家可以（无意识地）使用他或她的VWM来整合眼球运动的信息，以形成对景观的连贯表示。虽然有很多现有的研究VWM，很少有人知道一方面的视觉工作记忆之间的关系，并在特定领域的感知能力，如地球科学的根本变化。拟议的研究将建立在最近开发的人类感知模型的基础上，并扩展该模型，该模型有可能将这两个领域联系起来。这个模型是基于信息论，或者是物理系统如何有效地传递信息的数学研究。 这个模型表明，培训和专业知识从根本上改变了一个人？的感知系统的方式，导致更有效地利用认知资源。为了检验这一模型，将进行一系列的行为实验，涉及新手和有经验的学生在地球科学。这些实验和计算建模工作将有助于基础知识，可用于改善地球科学和教育。

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.