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How Scientists Develop Competence in Visual Communication Marilyn Ostergren

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How Scientists Develop Competence in Visual Communication Marilyn Ostergren How scientists develop competence in visual communication Marilyn Ostergren A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: David M. Levy, Chair Andrew J. Ko Jennifer A. Turns Allyson Carlyle Program Authorized to Offer Degree: The Information School ©Copyright 2013 Marilyn Ostergren University of Washington Abstract How scientists develop competence in visual communication Marilyn Ostergren Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Dr. David M. Levy Information School Visuals (maps, charts, diagrams and illustrations) are an important tool for communication in most scientific disciplines, which means that scientists benefit from having strong visual communication skills. This dissertation examines the nature of competence in visual communication and the means by which scientists acquire this competence. This examination takes the form of an extensive multi- disciplinary integrative literature review and a series of interviews with graduate-level science students. The results are presented as a conceptual framework that lays out the components of competence in visual communication, including the communicative goals of science visuals, the characteristics of effective visuals, the skills and knowledge needed to create effective visuals and the learning experiences that promote the acquisition of these forms of skill and knowledge. This conceptual framework can be used to inform pedagogy and thus help graduate students achieve a higher level of competency in this area; it can also be used to identify aspects of acquiring competence in visual communication that need further study. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To the chair of my committee, David Levy: I am deeply grateful for your mentorship, support and guidance. To my other committee members Jennifer Turns & Andrew Ko: Stellar committee members who gave me valuable insights and fresh perspectives. To Allyson Carlyle: For taking on the role of my reader and pushing me that much farther. To Sarah Kriz: For inviting me to participate in your research project and guiding me through setting up my empirical study. To Karen Cheng: For teaching me about design and facilitating my efforts to learn from the design students. To Marco Rolandi: For taking up the research project for its second year when I feared I would lose funding. To Yeechi Chen for being my sounding board whenever I had new theories to try out. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 Visual Communication as a form of professional competence ....................................................... 1 The Nature of Competence in visual communication ...................................................................... 3 The Research questions .......................................................................................................................... 3 Why an information science topic ........................................................................................................ 4 Structure of this dissertation .................................................................................................................. 4 CHAPTER 2: Relevant literature ................................................................................................ 6 The Effective Visuals literature ............................................................................................................. 6 The Visuals in Science literature ........................................................................................................... 7 The Design Expertise & Education literature .................................................................................... 8 Visual Literacy literature ......................................................................................................................... 8 The gap in our knowledge ..................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 3: Additional background knowledge-vision & visual cognition ...................... 9 Visual perception ................................................................................................................................... 10 Working memory .................................................................................................................................. 11 Long-term memory ............................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 4: Research design and methodology .................................................................. 13 Research Component I: Empirical study of graduate-level scientists ........................................... 14 Course description ............................................................................................................................ 14 The course as a “probe” .................................................................................................................. 15 Influence of my participation in the course .................................................................................. 15 Participants ........................................................................................................................................ 15 Interview procedure ......................................................................................................................... 16 Course materials data ....................................................................................................................... 17 Analysis ............................................................................................................................................... 18 Research Component II: Integrative review of the literature ......................................................... 20 Review procedures ........................................................................................................................... 20 Analysis ............................................................................................................................................... 22 Trustworthiness in this work ............................................................................................................... 23 Experience and background ........................................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 5: How scientists learn to create visuals ............................................................. 25 Question a: How are graduate science students currently learning to create visuals? ................ 26 Question B: Is their education giving them the skills they need? .................................................. 28 Question C: Is instruction in visual communication valuable to science students? ................... 28 Question D: How do science students respond to formal instruction using design pedagogy strategies? ....................................................................................................................................................... 30 How this overview relates to the following chapters ...................................................................... 31 CHAPTER 6: What are the desired impacts of science visuals? .......................................... 33 Literature reviewed ........................................................................................................................... 33 Findings from this literature review (with corroboration from the empirical study) ................. 36 CATEGORY 1. Improve comprehension ................................................................................... 37 Theme A1: A desired impact of many scientific visuals is to enhance understanding by providing access to concepts that are inherently spatial .................................................................... 37 Theme A2: A desired impact of scientific visuals is to enhance understanding by making scientific concepts accessible in different ways ................................................................................... 38 Theme A3: A desired impact of science visuals is to enhance understanding by making complex information more comprehensible ........................................................................................ 39 CATEGORY 2. Enhance cognition ............................................................................................. 40 Theme A4: A desired impact of science visuals is to provoke a type of thinking that differs from the thinking provoked by verbal or mathematical representations ........................................ 40 Theme A5: A desired impact of science visuals is to enable more sophisticated thinking ... 42 Theme A6: A desired impact of creating and using science visuals is to build visual spatial thinking skills ............................................................................................................................................ 42 CATEGORY 3. Facilitate communication .................................................................................. 43 Theme A7: A desired impact of science visuals is to persuade the viewer (i.e. visuals have a rhetorical function) .................................................................................................................................
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