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The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems
Open accessAbstract
The effects of computer animations and mental animation on people's mental models of a mechanical system are examined. In 3 experiments, students learned how a mechanical system works from various instructional treatments including viewing a static diagram of the machine, predicting motion from static diagrams, viewing computer animations, and viewing static and animated diagrams accompanied by verbal commentaries. Although students' understanding of the system was improved by viewing both static and animated diagrams, there was no evidence that animated diagrams led to superior understanding of dynamic processes compared to static diagrams. Comprehension of diagrams was enhanced by asking students questions that required them to predict the behavior of the machine from static diagrams and by providing them with a verbal description of the dynamic processes. This article proposes that predicting motion from static diagrams engages students' mental animation processes, including spatial visualization, and provides them with information about what they do and do not understand about how the machine works. Verbal instruction provides information that is not easily communicated in graphics and directs students' attention to the relevant information in static and animated diagrams. The research suggests that an understanding of students' mental animation abilities is an important component of a theory of learning from external animations.
Overview
AI snapshot
Written from the paper’s full text.
TL;DR
Across three experiments, students learned about a flushing cistern from static diagrams, phase diagrams, animations, and verbal instruction, but animated diagrams were not superior to static diagrams for understanding dynamic processes. Prediction from static diagrams and verbal instruction improved comprehension, while spatial ability related to some outcomes without interacting with instructional condition.
Key findings
- Animated diagrams showed no advantage over static diagrams. In Experiment 2, static media produced marginally more complete causal descriptions than animated media (M = 14.48 vs. 13.26), F(1, 92) = 3.35, p = .07; in Experiment 3, animation and three phase diagrams did not differ, though both outperformed a single static diagram.
- Predicting system behavior from static phase diagrams improved causal understanding. In Experiment 1, predictors described more correct causal steps than non-predictors (M = 11.02 vs. 9.02), F(1, 92) = 10.97, p = .001; in Experiment 2, predictors also described more steps (M = 14.92 vs. 12.82), F(1, 92) = 10.70, p < .01.
- Verbal instruction substantially improved causal descriptions. Combined groups described: static diagrams only M = 7.09 steps; kinematic diagrams M = 9.51; diagrams plus verbal M = 13.27; diagrams plus verbal plus prediction M = 14.21, F(1, 244) = 73.26, p < .001.
- High-spatial students generally performed better on causal descriptions and troubleshooting in Experiments 1 and 2, but spatial ability did not interact significantly with instructional treatments; functional understanding was unaffected by experimental manipulations (Exp 1 M = 3.12, Exp 2 M = 3.28).
Methods
- Three experiments with University of California, Santa Barbara undergraduates: Experiment 1 (N = 100), Experiment 2 (N = 100), and Experiment 3 (N = 58). Participants learned how a flushing cistern works from combinations of a static labeled diagram, three phase diagrams, computer animation, verbal commentary/text, and prediction questions.
- Comprehension was measured by written or oral descriptions of the causal chain, scored against 19 steps; troubleshooting questions about possible faults; and function questions in Experiments 1 and 2. Spatial ability was measured with the Paper Folding test.
- Main analyses compared instructional conditions, prediction, animation/static media, and spatial ability, using ANOVA and post hoc comparisons.
Limitations
- The paper states that the animations may not have been optimal, that interactive animations allowing pace control might be more effective, that visual attention limits learning from simultaneous motions, and that viewing animation is passive. It also notes low variance in physics training and practical experience and that participants were novices.
- The paper states that one phase-diagram limitation is that participants may not have been able to interpolate between the two stages shown, though all stages were shown in the animation.
- Evident from the text: the prediction effect on troubleshooting was found in Experiment 1 but not replicated in Experiment 2; functional understanding showed no experimental effects; and direct evidence for internal visualization comes from a related eye-tracking study, not the reported experiments.
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Claims the paper makes
63 Own result · 50 Not checked yet · 39 Own interpretation · 12 Own method · 5 No basis given
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Participants who predicted how the system worked also included more steps in their descriptions of the causal chain (M = 11.02,SD = 3.55) than those who did not predict: M = 9.02, SD = 4.01; F(1, 92) = 10.97,p = .001.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Effects of Instructional Treatments on Learning Outcomes
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Spatial ability did not significantly affect these measures (F < 1).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Performance in the Prediction Phase of the Experiment
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Performance in the prediction phase of the experiment (for those in the prediction and combination conditions) indicated that participants could accurately infer some aspects of the behavior of a complex mechanical system from the three phase diagrams.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Performance in the Prediction Phase of the Experiment
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Rests on an assumption: The 19-step causal chain compiled by the authors is a correct and complete description of the flushing cistern's operation.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“There was no significant difference in these gain scores between those who received the static instruction (gain score = 6.32,SD = 3.59) and those who received the animated instruction (gain score = 5.60, SD = 3.17; F < 1).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Effects of Instructional Treatments on Learning Outcomes
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“There was no evidence for a negative effect of prediction of system behavior.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Discussion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Spatial ability did not significantly affect performance.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Causal Descriptions
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Prediction of system behavior from the three static diagrams was not significantly affected by spatial ability.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Performance in the Prediction Phase of the Experiment
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“As in Experiment 1, none of the experimental conditions affected performance on the function questions.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Troubleshooting.
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Again, the effects of spatial ability on this measure did not reach statistical significance.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Troubleshooting Performance
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“As shown in Figure 3, there was a significant difference between the experimental conditions in number of steps described: F(2, 55) = 7.37, MSE = 7.12, p = .002.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Causal Descriptions
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- It may state two separate claims as one. 40
- Probably not a substantial claim. 19
- The quote only partly states this claim. 1
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Comprehension of diagrams was enhanced by asking students questions that required them to predict the behavior of the machine from static diagrams and by providing them with a verbal description of the dynamic processes.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Abstract
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Although students' understanding of the system was improved by viewing both static and animated diagrams, there was no evidence that animated diagrams led to superior understanding of dynamic processes compared to static diagrams.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Abstract
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Participants rarely described incorrect steps in the causal chain (less than 1 incorrect step), and they almost always reported steps in the correct causal order.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Scoring
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The interaction between the experimental treatments was not significant (F < 1), indicating that the effects of the two manipulations were independent.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Effects of Instructional Treatments on Learning Outcomes
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In response to the first question, which asked them to explain the causal chain of events in the behavior of the system, they described 7.88 correct steps on average (SD = 2.45) and only 0.31 incorrect steps (SD = 0.57) in the causal chain, and they answered 3.00 of the other four prediction questions correctly (SD = 1.00).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Performance in the Prediction Phase of the Experiment
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: The 19-step causal chain compiled by the authors is a correct and complete description of the flushing cistern's operation.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In response to the first prediction question, participants in the prediction conditions described on average 8.1 correct steps in the causal chain (SD = 2.28), and they answered 2.76 (SD = 1.02) of the other four prediction questions correctly.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Performance in the Prediction Phase of the Experiment
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Post hoc (Scheffe) tests indicated that performance of students in the control condition was significantly worse than that of students who saw the three phase diagrams (p = .004)and that of students who saw the animation (p = .01),but the phase-diagrams and animation conditions did not differ.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Causal Descriptions
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Post hoc (Scheffe) tests indicated a marginally significant difference between performance of those who saw the three phase diagrams and those in the control condition (p = .087),but performance on the animation condition was not significantly different from the other conditions”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Troubleshooting Performance
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The difference between these groups was highly significant, F(1, 244) = 73.26,MSE 10.70, p < .001;post hoc (Scheffe) comparisons indicated that the groups were all significantly different from each other (p < .01).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > DETAILED ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS' MENTAL MODELS
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“As shown in Figure 3, there was no significant advantage of viewing the animation; in fact, there was a marginally significant trend for those who studied the static media (M = 14.48,SD = 3.35) to write more complete descriptions of the causal chain than those who studied the animated media: M = 13.26,MSE = 10.60,SD = 3.50; F(1, 92) = 3.35, p = .07.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Effects of Instructional Treatments on Learning Outcomes
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Using this classification, the static diagrams group described, on average, 7.09 (SD = 2.84, N = 43) steps in the causal chain; the kinematics diagrams group described 9.51 steps (SD = 2.62, N = 65); the diagrams plus verbal instruction group described 13.27 steps (SD = 3.93, N = 76); and the diagrams plus verbal plus prediction group described 14.21 steps (SD = 3.27, N = 75).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > DETAILED ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS' MENTAL MODELS
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Comparison of the three-diagrams condition of Experiment 3 with that of the prediction condition of Experiment 1 suggests that asking prediction questions in addition to showing the three phase diagrams may have an additional small effect on comprehension, but this difference did not reach statistical significance in our experiments.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > GENERAL DISCUSSION
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In contrast, the refilling mechanism, which students understood well even without verbal instruction, involved highly salient movements of the float and float arm, which are relatively large components.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > GENERAL DISCUSSION
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These differences were evident in students' ability to describe the causal chain of events from memory and in their ability to solve troubleshooting problems from memory.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Individual Differences
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In this study, we collected data on students' formal education in physics and informal practical experience with machines and found no significant effects of these variables.”
- Also stated in: § Conclusion · plain
“Physics training and practical experience were not significantly correlated with any of the dependent measures of the experiments.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Individual Differences
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Also stated in: § Conclusion · plain
In the paper
“Tversky et al. (2002) concluded that there was no evidence for an advantage of animations over static media.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > UNDERSTANDING MACHINES FROM COMPUTER ANIMATIONS AND OTHER MEDIA
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Tversky et al. (2002)
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This article proposes that predicting motion from static diagrams engages students' mental animation processes, including spatial visualization, and provides them with information about what they do and do not understand about how the machine works.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Abstract
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: The flushing cistern is a representative complex mechanical system for studying how people learn from animations and static diagrams.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Verbal instruction provides information that is not easily communicated in graphics and directs students' attention to the relevant information in static and animated diagrams.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Abstract
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Isaak and Just (1995) found that high-spatial individuals perceived animations of dynamic events more accurately, and they argued that these individuals had more spatial working memory resources available to mentally integrate different components of motion (i.e., translation and rotation) of objects in the animation.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > UNDERSTANDING MACHINES FROM COMPUTER ANIMATIONS AND OTHER MEDIA
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Isaak and Just (1995)
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The animation was designed to conform to the prescriptions of previous research on effective animations (Faraday & Sutcliffe, 1996, 1997;Mayer & Moreno, 1998;Mayer & Sims, 1994;Mousavi et al., 1995).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > EXPERIMENT 1
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Faraday & Sutcliffe, 1996, 1997
- Not checked yetcites Mayer & Moreno, 1998
- Not checked yetcites Mayer & Sims, 1994
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“Rozenblit and Keil (2002) found that people have false confidence with respect to understanding of causal systems.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > UNDERSTANDING MACHINES FROM COMPUTER ANIMATIONS AND OTHER MEDIA
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Rozenblit and Keil (2002)
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“There were no significant differences between the groups in spatial ability, physics background, or practical experience (F < 1 in all cases).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Method Participants
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Therefore, mental animation ability is highly related to spatial ability (Hegarty & Kozhevnikov, 1999;Hegarty & Sims, 1994;Hegarty & Steinhoff, 1997) but not verbal ability, and mental animation interferes more with a visual-spatial working memory load than with a verbal working memory load (Sims & Hegarty, 1997).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > UNDERSTANDING MACHINES FROM COMPUTER ANIMATIONS AND OTHER MEDIA
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Hegarty & Kozhevnikov, 1999
- Not checked yetcites Hegarty & Sims, 1994
- Not checked yetcites Hegarty & Steinhoff, 1997
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Two raters independently scored the responses of 20 participants and agreed on the scoring of 83% of the propositions.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Scoring
plainn = 20- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“Finally, students spontaneously describe the behavior of mechanical systems when they view static diagrams that are annotated with arrows showing the movement of parts of the system (Heiser & Tversky, 2002).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > UNDERSTANDING MACHINES FROM COMPUTER ANIMATIONS AND OTHER MEDIA
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Heiser & Tversky, 2002
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“For example, people may know that every other gear in a gear chain moves in the same direction, so they do not need to use visualization processes to infer this information (Schwartz & Black, 1996).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > UNDERSTANDING MACHINES FROM COMPUTER ANIMATIONS AND OTHER MEDIA
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Schwartz & Black, 1996
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“However, people can be quite successful in infer- ring the behavior of a machine from a static diagram when they are explicitly asked to predict how system components will move (e.g., Hegarty, 1992).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > UNDERSTANDING MACHINES FROM COMPUTER ANIMATIONS AND OTHER MEDIA
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Hegarty, 1992
plainconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
In the paper
“People also construct dynamic mental models of machines when they read an accompanying text describing the behavior of a machine (Hegarty & Just, 1993).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > UNDERSTANDING MACHINES FROM COMPUTER ANIMATIONS AND OTHER MEDIA
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Hegarty & Just, 1993
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The function questions measured participants' ability to infer the purpose of each component in the system, as opposed to its behavior.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > EXPERIMENT 1
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Two people independently scored 20 of the descriptions (chosen at random from the different experimental conditions); the correlations between their scores were .93 for number of correct steps, .78 for number of incorrect steps, and .94for number of correct steps in order.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Scoring
plaincorrelationaln = 2- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Two raters independently scored the responses of 30 participants on this measure and agreed on the scoring of 91% of responses.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Scoring
plainn = 30- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“Twenty-five participants were assigned to each of the four conditions on the basis of performance on the Paper Folding test (Ekstrom, French, Harman, & Derman, 1976) to ensure that the spatial abilities of participants in the four groups was about equal.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Method Participants
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Ekstrom et al., 1976
plainn = 5- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Describing the behavior of the system is a measure of whether the individual has inferred this behavior from the static diagrams (in the control and prediction conditions) or comprehended the animation and commentary (in the animation condition).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > EXPERIMENT 1
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In this experiment, we also controlled the amount of time for which the animations and the texts and diagrams were available, to equate exposure to the two sets of learning materials and to ensure that participants took time to study the materials thoroughly.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > EXPERIMENT 2
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This result indicates that both groups learned from the instruction, and the amount of learning did not depend on the format of instruction (whether the diagram was static or animated).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Effects of Instructional Treatments on Learning Outcomes
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“There were no significant differences between the groups in spatial ability, physics education, or practical experience.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Discussion
plainn = 3- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The groups did not differ significantly in spatial ability, physics training, or practical experience (F < 1 in all cases).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Method Participants
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“That is, asking students to generate a causal description and answer questions about device behavior while viewing phase diagrams improved comprehension of the device, as measured by the causal chain and troubleshooting questions, and the effects of this manipulation were independent of the effects of viewing an animation.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Discussion
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Students who received kinematic diagrams (either 3 phases or an animation) demonstrated more mechanistic understanding.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > DETAILED ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS' MENTAL MODELS
boosteddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
The quote only partly states this claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These three diagrams clearly provided more information about the behavior of the system than a single static diagram, although further inference is also necessary to generate a full causal description of the system from the static diagrams.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Discussion
boosteddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This suggests that students who received the static media were able to construct a dynamic mental model of the system on the basis of the verbal description of motion in the text and that viewing an external animation is not essential to students' learning.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Discussion
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“However, students who predicted how the system worked also saw diagrams of three critical phases in the flushing and refilling of the cistern, whereas students in the other conditions did not study these three diagrams.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Discussion
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Therefore, people can understand some aspects of the behavior of a mechanical system from an animation alone, without a verbal commentary, and it can be concluded that participants in Experiments 1 and 2 gained some understanding from the animations and did not learn exclusively from the verbal description of motion.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Discussion
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Therefore, it can be concluded that this group gained some understanding of the function of the two subsystems (or drew on their everyday knowledge of how toilets work), but did not gain a mechanistic understanding of these systems.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > DETAILED ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS' MENTAL MODELS
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“They attributed this partially to confusion between function and mechanism (i.e., people judged themselves as understanding a machine if they knew the functions of the different subcomponents).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > GENERAL DISCUSSION
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Rozenblit & Keil, 2002
plainconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“One possible reason for the misperception of animations and real events is that these events often occur very quickly.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Why Are Animations No Better Than Static Diagrams?
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“However, this result was confined to relatively simple mechanical events and did not scale up to more complex situations (Kaiser et al., 1992).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Why Are Animations No Better Than Static Diagrams?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Kaiser et al., 1992
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This mechanism involved relatively small movements of the siphon disks, which might not be easily noticed in an animation.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > GENERAL DISCUSSION
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“When a machine is in motion, many of its components move at once; therefore, a realistic animation of a machine shows these simultaneous motions.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Why Are Animations No Better Than Static Diagrams?
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Similarly, people learn more from information presentations if they first participate in activities that activate their knowledge relevant to the topic of the presentation (Britton & Graesser, 1996;Kintsch et al., 1993;McNamara et al., 1996) or generate the important distinctions relevant to understanding the topic (Schwartz & Bransford, 1998).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Why Are Animations No Better Than Static Diagrams?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Britton & Graesser, 1996
- Not checked yetcites Kintsch et al., 1993
- Not checked yetcites McNamara et al., 1996 source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Although diagrams can provide information about kinematics (i.e., the geometry of movement in a mechanical system), an animated or static diagram alone can only partially communicate the causal relations between events or the dynamic forces that underlie these causal relations (Oestermeier & Hesse, 2000).”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > GENERAL DISCUSSION
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Oestermeier & Hesse, 2000
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In complex machines, several components move at once.For example, in the case of the flushing cistern, there are two chains of events that overlap in time: one that flushes water out of the cistern and the other that refills the cistern.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Why Are Animations No Better Than Static Diagrams?
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Similarly, Rozenblit and Keil (2002) found that people overestimated their understanding of how everyday mechanical devices worked.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > GENERAL DISCUSSION
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Rozenblit & Keil, 2002
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“Kaiser, Proffitt, and Anderson (1985) found that people can sometimes recognize the correct trajectory of a moving object (such as a ball emerging from a curved tube) in an animation, although they cannot predict the correct trajectory.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Why Are Animations No Better Than Static Diagrams?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Kaiser, Proffitt, & Anderson, 1985
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Classifying individuals as low or high spatial on the basis of a median split involves converting a ratio scale to a categorical measure and, therefore, losing information.This was done for ease of exposition.We also conducted regression analyses using students' scores on the Paper Folding test, and the conclusions from these analyses did not differ from those reported for any of the experiments”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Conclusion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Therefore, high-and low-spatial individuals may not differ in their ability to interpolate motion from different phase diagrams, suggesting that this might be a particularly effective way to communicate the kinematics of a device for students of all ability levels.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Mental Animation
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“However, there was low variance in these measures, and our students were novices.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Individual Differences
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper relies on this without support.
The flushing cistern is a representative complex mechanical system for studying how people learn from animations and static diagrams.
“In this article, we examine the effects of computer animations and mental animation on people's comprehension of a relatively complex mechanical system, the flushing cistern (shown in Figure 1).”
The paper relies on this without support.
The 19-step causal chain compiled by the authors is a correct and complete description of the flushing cistern's operation.
“We compiled a list of 19 steps in the causal chain of events that results when the handle of the flushing cistern is pushed down.3 These were either explicitly stated or implied in the commentary that accompanied the animation, and each step was mentioned by at least one fifth of the participants.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The flushing cistern's operation involves two causal chains of events that occur in tandem but are temporarily dependent on each other, making it a challenging comprehension task.
“Understanding this mechanism is a challenging comprehension task because its operation involves two causal chains of events that occur in tandem but are also temporarily dependent on each other.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The number of steps in the causal chain is a valid measure of understanding of the mechanical system.
“we compared their answers to the first prediction question to their written causal descriptions of the system.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The troubleshooting questions measure the ability to apply causal understanding of the system to solve novel problems.
“Performance on the troubleshooting questions mirrored performance on the descriptions of system behavior, indicating that students could also apply their causal understanding of the system to solve novel problems.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Force is not a visible property.
“Force is not a visible property”
The paper relies on this without support.
Language can express all types of information relevant to understanding a mechanical system, including kinematics, causal relations, and dynamic forces.
“In contrast, language can express all of these types of information.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Reading of static diagrams and text is self-paced and interactive.
“In contrast, reading of static diagrams and text is self-paced and interactive in the sense that one can slow down or reread when one encounters a difficult passage.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Our visual attention is typically focused on only one location at a time.
“our visual attention is typically focused on only one location at a time”
The paper relies on this without support.
Viewing an animation is a passive process.
“Finally, viewing an animation is a passive process.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The three phase diagrams represent the main events in students' mental representations of how the machine functions.
“these three phases represent the main events in students' mental representations of how the machine functions”
The paper relies on this without support.
The flushing mechanism depends on an appreciation of the forces underlying the operation of a siphon.
“which depends on an appreciation of the forces underlying the operation of a siphon”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“The beneficial effect on learning of prompting learners to predict the next step in a process has been replicated in several multimedia studies (Hegarty et al. 2003;Mayer et al. 2003;Moreno et al. 2001).”
From Interactivity in Video-based Models (2007) · cites this paper as Hegarty et al. 2003
Statistics that don’t add up
Each reported p-value recomputed from its test statistic and degrees of freedom.
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
“F(1, 92) = 9.19, p < .001”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Effects of Instructional Treatments on Learning Outcomes
Reported p < .001 · recomputed p = .003
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
“F(1, 92) = 6.05, p = .01”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Effects of Instructional Treatments on Learning Outcomes
Reported p = .01 · recomputed p = .016
Statistics recomputed
Every reported test result, recomputed from its test statistic and degrees of freedom. A result shows as not adding up only once an independent check has confirmed it.
- Doesn’t add upF(1, 92) = 6.05reported p = .01 · recomputed p = .016
“F(1, 92) = 6.05, p = .01”
- Doesn’t add upF(1, 92) = 9.19reported p < .001 · recomputed p = .003
“F(1, 92) = 9.19, p < .001”
- ConsistentF(1, 92) = 10.97reported p = .001 · recomputed p = .001
“F(1, 92) = 10.97,p = .001”
- ConsistentF(1, 92) = 8.66reported p < .01 · recomputed p = .004
“F(1, 92) = 8.66, p < .01”
- ConsistentF(1, 92) = 3.35reported p = .07 · recomputed p = .070
“F(1, 92) = 3.35, p = .07”
- ConsistentF(1, 92) = 10.7reported p < .01 · recomputed p = .002
“F(1, 92) = 10.70,p < .01”
- ConsistentF(1, 92) = 5.03reported p < .05 · recomputed p = .027
“F(1, 92) = 5.03, p < .05”
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
Rated major: it would touch a result — a value a result rests on, reported and recomputed p-values on opposite sides of the significance level, two passages that conflict with no sign which is right, or a cited work retracted before this paper was published.
In the paper
“Fifty-eight undergraduate students at the University of California Santa Barbara participated in the study to fulfill an introductory psychology course requirement.Twenty participants were assigned to each of the four conditions.”
§ The Roles of Mental Animations and External Animations in Understanding Mechanical Systems > Discussion
Reported 58 · recomputed 80
Citations
Cites
Mental Representations: A Dual Coding Approach
Paivio, A. (1986) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 5,087
Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to Think
Card, S. K., Mackinlay, J. D., & Shneiderman, B. (1999) · Cited by 3,935
Why a Diagram is (Sometimes) Worth Ten Thousand Words
Larkin, J. H., & Simon, H. A. (1987) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/j.1551-6708.1987.tb00863.x · Cited by 3,855
Eliciting Self‐Explanations Improves Understanding
Michelene, T. H., Leeuw, N. D., Chiu, M., & Lavancher, C. (1994) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1016/0364-0213(94)90016-7 · Cited by 2,492
Tversky, B., Morrison, J. B., & Bétrancourt, M. (2002) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1006/ijhc.2002.1017 · Cited by 1,677
The generation effect: delineation of a phenomenon
Slamecka, N. J., & Graf, P. (1978) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory · doi:10.1037/0278-7393.4.6.592 · Cited by 1,659
Multimedia learning: Are we asking the right questions?
Mayer, R. E. (1997) · Educational Psychologist · doi:10.1207/s15326985ep3201_1 · Cited by 1,533
McNamara, D. S., Kintsch, E., Songer, N. B., & Kintsch, W. (1996) · Cognition and Instruction · doi:10.1207/s1532690xci1401_1 · Cited by 1,341
Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. (1998) · Journal of Educational Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-0663.90.2.312 · Cited by 1,315 · cited 8×
“The animation was designed to conform to the prescriptions of previous research on effective animations (Faraday & Sutcliffe, 1996, 1997; Mayer & Moreno, 1998; Mayer & Sims, 1994; Mousavi et al., 1995).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialEvent structure in perception and conception.
Zacks, J. M., & Tversky, B. (2001) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.127.1.3 · Cited by 1,208
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- Hegarty, M. & Kozhevnikov, M. (1999). Spatial abilities, working memory and mechanical reasoning. In J. Gero & B. Tversky (Eds.), Visual and spatial reasoning in design (pp. 221-239). Sydney, Australia: Key Centre of Design and Cognition.
- Hegarty M., 1999, Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 8, 119
- Kriz, S. & Hegarty, M. (2003, August). Staring into space: Evaluating mechanical motion, mental animation and eye movements. Paper presented at the Twelth European Conference on Eye Movements, Dundee, UK.
- Narayanan, N. H., Suwa, M. & Motoda, H. (1995). Diagram-based problem solving: The case of an impossible problem. In Cognitive Science Society (Ed.), Proceedings of the 17th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 206-211). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
- 10.1016/s0364-0213(99)80012-3 · DOI
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Belkhir, Y., Mhamdi, E., Jouira, G., Chen, Y., & Rekik, G. (2026) · Chronobiology International · doi:10.1080/07420528.2026.2731160
Effects of Cognitive Load in Acquisition of Assembly Skills
Urao, A., & Miwa, K. (2007) · International Conference on Computers in Education
Metadata
- Authors
- Hegarty, M., Kriz, S., & Cate, C.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hegarty, Mary
- ORCID
- Hegarty, Mary
- Venue
- Cognition and Instruction
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2003-12
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 209-249
- ISSN
- 0737-0008 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-690X
- OpenAlex
- W2156645509
- Semantic Scholar
- a7ef37ad5687fe2d6bd7e7a16d0d6dea8b3f1f8a
- Cited by
- 404
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 29 · 2013: 40 · 2012: 19
- FWCI
- 7.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Cognition and Instruction (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Office of Naval Research (N00014)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes
- Social Sciences › Education › Science Education and Pedagogy
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Spatial Cognition and Navigation
- Keywords
- computer animation, mechanical systems, mental models, verbal instructions, spatial visualization, science learning, instructional design
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-10, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).
A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-10 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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