Delahunty, T., & Seery, N., & Lynch, R., & Lane, D. (2013, June), An exploratory study of students’ approaches to generating, maintaining and communicating visual-mental images  Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--19183

\bibitem{asee_peer_19183}
  Delahunty, T., \& Seery, N., \& Lynch, R., \& Lane, D. (2013, June), \emph{An exploratory study of students’ approaches to generating, maintaining and communicating visual-mental images}
  Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia.
  10.18260/1-2--19183

Thomas Delahunty, Niall Seery, Raymond Lynch Dr., and Diarmaid Lane.  "An exploratory study of students’ approaches to generating, maintaining and communicating visual-mental images".  2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia, 2013, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2013.  https://peer.asee.org/19183 Internet.  18 May, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_19183}
  Thomas Delahunty, Niall Seery, Raymond Lynch Dr., and Diarmaid Lane.
  "An exploratory study of students’ approaches to generating, maintaining and communicating visual-mental images".
  \emph{2013 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia, 2013, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2013.
  https://peer.asee.org/19183 Internet.  18 May, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_19183
author = "Thomas Delahunty, Niall Seery, Raymond Lynch Dr., and Diarmaid Lane"
title = "An exploratory study of students’ approaches to generating, maintaining and communicating visual-mental images"
booktitle = "2013 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2013"
month = "June"
address = "Atlanta, Georgia"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/19183}
number = {10.18260/1-2--19183}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -   An investigation of students’ approaches to building, manipulating and                    representing visual-mental imagesThe ability to synthesise and manipulate graphical information is a core cognitive aptitudewithin design and technology education. Visual-mental images are crucial to the designprocess and the ability to manipulate and communicate perceptual and conceptualinformation graphically often leads to creative discovery and aids mental synthesis. Therepresentation of these mental images using physical media allows students to refine theircognitive processing and solve abstract problems. Graphical education in _______________,supports the development of these ‘concept driven competencies’1 through the study of planeand descriptive geometry and through engagement with design problems.Previous research by Delahunty et al.2 has highlighted a worrying issue of mechanisticconditioning within graphical education in Ireland. This conditioning may be occurringwithin the teaching and learning process as a result of external influences such asexamination requirements. The effects of such conditioning may restrict students’ ability toutilise a wider variety of visuo-spatial processes such as the ability to build and representvisual-mental images, which are critical for creative problem solving and design solutions.This research used a case study approach where students participating in a graphicaleducation module at the ________________ were tasked with building and representingvisual-mental images. The task involved the building of mental images of regulargeometrical configurations and subsequent communication this by means of a graphicalsketches. Solutions were collected and analysed with the objective of determining the fluencyof communication of the visual-mental image.Analysis of the qualitative data highlighted a number of interesting findings. The geometricconfigurations, which students were required to observe and build a visual-mental image of,were originally presented to participants in a random orientation. However, the solutionspresented by the majority of participants, were represented using standard engineeringprojection systems such as isometric, diametric and trimetric projection. This highlights anissue with students’ ability to fluidly build and manipulate regular geometry as a visual-mental image and to then graphically present them in the orientation provided.The findings illustrate a possible conditioned approach to building and representing visual-mental images. Students may have become predominately conditioned by overly technicalapproaches to graphical instruction resulting in difficulty within visuo-spatial cognition. Thisconditioning may have the overall effect of negating students’ ability to synthesise,manipulate and communicate both perceptual and conceptual graphical information. Thesefindings raise a number of questions relating to the style of cognitive activity that students areengaging in as part of contemporary graphical education in Ireland.
AU  - Thomas Delahunty
AU  - Niall Seery
AU  - Raymond Lynch Dr.
AU  - Diarmaid Lane
CY  - Atlanta, Georgia
DA  - 2013/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - An exploratory study of students’ approaches to generating, maintaining and communicating visual-mental images
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/19183
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--19183
ER  -