The exploration of nonverbal forms of culture and communication has led to the development of visual anthropology courses within the anthropology department at Temple University. Visual anthropology is conceptualized as the study of human nonlinguistic forms of communication involving film making for data collecting and analysis. Several areas of…

This paper argues that visual aids should be used in teaching and testing language. It has been scientifically demonstrated that visuals allow for greater cognitive mapping and navigating in an environment. Visuals are a good and useful tool for examination purposes, because they lead the learner to draw out language from their own knowledge and…

Digital Chisel is a user-friendly multimedia authoring tool for helping students and teachers to tutor/teach the computer. It can be used as a visual presentation tool, as a tool to provide individualized instruction and as a tool to help students learn using a variety of visual and auditory modes. Interactive presentations can be designed without…

The purpose of this paper is to sensitize instructional message designers to the stereotypical signals which may be inherent in computer clip-art selections. A rationale is presented for the power of message design, and the differences between gender equality and gender equity are discussed. Several computer clip-art libraries were analyzed, and…

The interactive multimedia application described here attempts to provide learners and teachers with a common frame of reference for communicating about visual media. The system is based on a list of concepts related to composition, and illustrates those concepts with photographs, paintings, graphic designs, and motion picture scenes. The ability…

The purpose of this in-progress study is to try to find commonalities between visual proficiency and artistic performance. In order to assess visual proficiency, a test of spatial ability is being developed and pilot tested. Student performance on the test will be recorded and examined in relation to two traditional measures of student art…

Several current television series for preschool children convey stories, not through meaningful dialogue, but through visual information and intonational cues embedded within nonsensical dialogue. This study examined young children's ability to construct meaning from such materials. Participating were 135 preschoolers, 3 to 5 years old. Subjects…

A study was conducted to (1) examine children's visual and auditory attention to, and comprehension of, narrated and nonnarrated versions of two television programs, and (2) test a measure of auditory attention in relation to visual attention and to comprehension of information presented with or without narration. Subjects, 117 five- and…

Preplays (critical material presented before a televised program) were inserted before three sections of a televised story to determine if they would improve children's attention and comprehension by providing overall plot structure for selecting and integrating important story events. The preplays varied on two orthogonal dimensions: presence or…

To determine whether high school students can be trained to use maps more effectively, a study examined linkage of feature and event information, the role of individual differences, and the roles of reading ability and preference for dealing with visual information. Subjects were 31 16- to 17-year-old high school students. Experimental and control…

Four elements of clinical programming must be considered during development in order for a software program to be truly useful in rehabilitation: presentation of a useful task; treatment parameters selectable by clinicians; data collection/analysis; and authoring capability. These criteria govern the development of all Brain-Link Software…

A study investigated the learning impact of audio, visual, and audiovisual information channels in televised messages among preschool children. The messages consisted of a half-hour videotape of "Sesame Street" episodes (presented to 48 subjects), and a videotape of an intact "Mister Roger's Neighborhood" program (presented to…

A study examined hierarchical relationships among three developmental components of reading ability in grades 1 through 3. It was predicted that semantic skills develop initially, followed by letter identification skills, phonological skills, and visual skills. Reading ability was assessed with a word identification task. The semantic components…

The program of systematic evaluation of variables associated with visual learning was initiated in 1965 to investigate the impact of variables linked to effective, efficient use of instructional visual materials. A prototype experimental package, containing a specific unit of cognitive content, learner achievement objectives, four individual…

An intelligent videodisc system on which comprehensive instructional development research can be conducted has been developed. This integrated learning system combines all other existing media, except objects, using a videodisc, microcomputer, printer, single monitor, hard disc storage with CPU for random access digitized audio, and headphones.…