An Active Vision Approach to Understanding and Improving Visual Training in the Geosciences

实地经验是培养学生地质学家的一个基本部分，但是实际的考虑限制了能够参加广泛实地项目的学生的数量。此外，人们对地质学家新手如何获得专家的视觉技能知之甚少，这就提出了如何最好地开展教学干预的问题。这个为期5年的项目调查了专家和新手地球科学家在实地和虚拟半沉浸式显示环境中的差异。该研究团队由科学家和教育工作者组成，他们在感知学习、地质学和地球物理学、眼球运动的记录和分析以及自然环境的大视场图像捕捉方面具有专业知识。他们假设专家和新手的眼球运动序列存在很大差异，而新手在实地考察中会表现出进步。研究人员将在虚拟环境中研究相似的群体，希望通过比较两种环境中收集的数据来获得更多关于学习的见解。他们的最终目标是设计一个虚拟的半沉浸式环境，复制现场学习体验的突出方面。

Field experience is a fundamental part of the training of student geologists, but practical considerations limit the numbers of students who can take part in extensive field programs. Moreover, little is known about how novice geologists acquire the visual skills of experts, raising questions about how best to develop teaching interventions. The 5-year project investigates differences between expert and novice geoscientists in the field and in a virtual semi-immersive display environment. The research team is composed of scientists and educators with expertise in perceptual learning, geology and geophysics, the recording and analyzing of eye movements, and large-field-of-view image capture of natural environments. They hypothesize that there are large differences between the eye-movement sequences of experts and novices, and that novices will show improvement during a field trip. The researchers will study similar groups in a virtual environment, hoping to gain additional insight into learning through comparisons of the data collected in the two environments. Their ultimate goal is to design a virtual semi-immersive environment that replicates the salient aspects of the field learning experience.