Learning Three-Dimensional Anatomical Structures with Animation: Effect of Orientation References and Learners’ Spatial Ability

Abstract

This chapter discusses how design factors of animations as well as individual factors impact cognitive processing of complex information, such as three-dimensional objects. Functional anatomy provides an ideal instructional domain to investigate the use of animated 3D models and its relationship with learners’ spatial ability. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of anatomy, learners have to perform mental manipulations, transformations, and/or reorganizations on three-dimensional anatomical components. Because these mental transformations need to take the 3D body space into account, the spatial reasoning and mental imagery involved are challenging. In an experimental study, we investigated the effectiveness of orientation references on the mental transformations and memorization of 3D anatomical structures. Providing orientation references as scaffolds supports learning anatomy, specifically by enabling participants to perform spatial tasks with respect to anatomical structures more quickly. Interestingly, mental rotation and perspective-taking abilities play a different role when processing animations of 3D models, suggesting an enhancing effect and a compensatory effect respectively. Our findings highlight the intricate interplay between individual factors, here learners’ spatial ability, and design factors and their impacts on mental transformations and memorization.