Visual Thinking--Review Michael Mills Stanford Center for Innovation in Learning April 3, 2003.

Visual Thinking--Review

Michael MillsStanford Center for Innovation in Learning

April 3, 2003

Goals of the talk

1. Review Rudolf Arnheim’s Visual Thinking

2. Functions of Visualization

Visual thinking--Arnheim

What is the relationship between seeing and reasoning?

Is seeing itself a kind of problem-solving?

Are there close ties between art and science? Between sensory experience and abstract thought?

Does productive thought take place in the realm of imagery?

How can images support thinking and learning?

-Precursor of Information Visualization-Design Principles of for Informative Displays

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Gestalt approach to perception

Gestalt means pattern--whole more than sum of parts

Mind is NOT a Tabula Rasa formed by associationsWertheimer, Kohler, Arnheim

Mind imposes patterns on the visual field

Operates by organization principles

- “force fields” and dynamics

Aesthetics implicit in perceptual organization

What do you see?

Brain organizes visual field according to simplest possible organization

Gestalt laws win over experience and learning--Camouflage

What shape do you see?

Stroboscopic Motion (Phi)

See motion streak although not occurring in the visual field.

Proof that brain imposes organization.-“short circuit” in neurons

similarity

proximity

brightness

speed

size

orientation

continuity

common fate

Gestalt Grouping “Laws”

Structure from Motion

Gestalt Grouping “Laws”

Perception as Problem-Solving

Simplicity Rule:

Brain chooses simplest‘theory’ to fit the data.

Perception and behavior as a “composition” of ideals --Bregman

Closure

Figure and Ground

Importance of Context

Emmert’s LawPerceived size is a function of perceived distance

Pictures, Symbols and Signs

Images Abstract forces

PracticalThings

Images can be used to picture the way things appear in the real world…

…or symbolically to give visible shape to patterns of forces

Images regard the world in two opposite directions

3 Functions of Images

Not kinds of images, but FUNCTIONS they serve.

What is the communicative intent?

Picture, Symbol and Sign

SIGN of Danger

SYMBOL of Hierarchy

PICTURE of a mountain

SIGNS

Image used as a sign when it stands for specific content without trying to portray its appearance

Relation between image and referent is associative, arbitrary

Effective signs evoke underlying structural qualities and forces

“Danger”

SIGNSMaluma or Takete?

PICTURES

Images used as a picture when used to portray things at a lower level of abstraction than itself

Picture grasps relevant aspects of natural features of objects in the real world

A picture is not merely a replica -editing, selection

“Mountain”

PICTURES

Picture can exist at different levels of abstractness

Involves selection and interpretation -- not just realistic portrayalNot just asking perceiver to “fill in”

Pictorial interpretation concerned with generic qualities

Formal, structural qualities reinforce abstract forces

PICTURES

Icon design highlights the generic qualities.

SYMBOLS

“Hierarchy”

Referent is at a higher level of abstraction than the image itself

Gives visible shape to abstract forces, ideas…

SYMBOLS

Referent is at a higher level of abstraction than the image itself

Gives visible shape to abstract forces, ideas…

Two scales of abstraction

LOW

HIGH

Rich sensory record

Foregrounding relevant features

Describing, indexing, coding

Discovering formal

Relations

Formalisms

Powerful tool for analysis and visualization of human activity in real-world places

Visualization in DIVER

Cartoons and Caricatures

Mix symbolic and pictorial function

Tide Table for Navigation

Visual Thinking--Review Michael Mills Stanford Center for Innovation in Learning April 3, 2003.

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