Visual Skills Research Articles

Comparison of visual diagnostic accuracy of dermatologists practicing in Germany in patients with light skin and skin of color.

Visual clinical diagnosis of dermatoses in people of color (PoC) is a considerable challenge in daily clinical practice and a potential cause of misdiagnosis in this patient cohort. The study aimed to determine the difference in visual diagnostic skills of dermatologists practicing in Germany in patients with light skin (Ls) and patients with skin of color (SoC) to identify a potential need for further education. From April to June 2023, German dermatologists were invited to complete an online survey with 24 patient photographs depicting 12 skin diseases on both Ls and SoC. The study's primary outcomes were the number of correctly rated photographs and the participants' self-assessed certainty about the suspected visual diagnosis in Ls compared to SoC. The final analysis included surveys from a total of 129 dermatologists (47.8% female, mean age: 39.5years). Participants were significantly more likely to correctly identify skin diseases by visual diagnostics in patients with Ls than in patients with SoC (72.1% vs. 52.8%, p ≤ 0.001, OR 2.28). Additionally, they expressed higher confidence in their diagnoses for Ls than for SoC (73.9 vs. 61.7, p ≤ 0.001). Therefore, further specialized training seems necessary to improve clinical care of dermatologic patients with SoC.

The effect of special exercises on developing some visual abilities and the most important basic skills in youth football

The problem is determined by the fact that there is a discrepancy in the level of visual abilities between players, which resulted in many errors in skills during changing situations in the match. The researcher was not satisfied with the observation and resorted to using testing and measurement on a reconnaissance sample outside the main sample. The results showed weakness in some visual abilities and the most important basic skills for football. For young people, so the researcher wanted to conduct this study. The research aims to prepare special exercises to develop some visual abilities and the most important basic skills in football. The experimental method was used with two control and experimental groups, and the sample was chosen randomly. The most important conclusions are that special exercises have a positive effect in developing some visual abilities and skills. The basics for youth football. As for the recommendations, it is necessary to pay attention to activating the role of visual exercises in developing football skills in general.

Transformative pedagogy and visual Literacy: reframing art and design student perspectives on sustainability with illustrated infographics

This study explores the integration of key Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) principles into design education to foster Visual Literacy (VL) and promote awareness of environmental issues among undergraduate students. Through thematic analysis of 22 illustrated infographics, ideation sketches and supporting textual data created by art and design students, the study examines patterns and insights related to perspective transformation, critical reflection, and visual writing skills. Findings reveal pedagogical efficacy when prompting students to explore counter-narratives to the prevailing negative zeitgeist, resulting in perspective transformation and critical reflection of the design process. In turn, this perspective shift and critical reflection fostered the development of students’ abilities to convey complex ideas visually, thus broadening their visual vocabulary to advocate for positive change. Three main categories were considered: Critical Reflection, Perspective Transformation, and Visual Writing Skills, and six sub-categories were identified: Implicit Reflection, Paradigm Shift, Alternative Narratives, Rhetorical Concepts, Intentional Visual-Verbal Communication, and Emotional Visual Language. Implications for scholars include insights into curriculum development and the promotion of ethical and sustainable design practices, while pragmatic applications for faculty offer actionable recommendations for enhancing teaching practices. The study underscores the importance of ethical considerations, diverse perspectives, and real-world applications in nurturing students’ growth as innovative, ethical and sustainable designers.

Combinatorial approach on the recurrence sequences: An evolutionary historical discussion about numerical sequences and the notion of the board

The tradition of studies involving the combinatorial approach to recurring numerical sequences has accumulated a few decades of tradition, and several problems continue to attract the interest of mathematicians in several countries. This work specifically discusses the Fibonacci, Pell, and Jacobsthal sequences, focusing on Mersenne sequences. The often-used definition of board involves considering how to fill a specific regular surface -the board- with a limited quantity of regularly shaped tiles. On the other hand, an analogous problem can be generalized and exemplifies current research developments. Finally, the examples covered constitute unexpected ways of exploring visualization and other skills in mathematics teachers’ learning, consequently inspiring them for their teaching context.

Learning to Draw is Learning to See : A Comprehensive Review of Art and Design Practices in Higher Education

Practises related to learning to draw and learning to see are valuable knowledge in higher education. The drawing process can lead to improvements in visual perception, cognitive skills, and creative thinking abilities. This research presents a case for the integration of drawing practises in higher education, arguing that it can enhance students' ability to think creatively and visually, both in academic and professional pursuits. Through a comprehensive contextual analysis of the literature review from 2019 until 2023, this research examines the evidence that drawing is produced from observation and considers the wide potential implications of learning in higher education. As a result, a conceptual model is presented to explain the relationship between drawing elements and learning to see. This research concludes with a discussion of the potential benefits of incorporating drawing practises into higher education and the challenges and opportunities involved. Overall, this research contributes to supporting comprehensive art and design practises for learning to draw and learning to see and highlights the potential value of drawing in higher education.

ANALISIS KEMAMPUAN REPRESENTASI MATEMATIS SISWA SMA DALAM MENYELESAIKAN SOAL CERITA BERBASIS MASALAH

This research aims to determine students' mathematical representation abilities in solving problem-based story problems. The research method applied is a qualitative approach with a descriptive design. The population of this study was 24 students of class X MIPA 1 at SMA Negeri 1 Telukjambe Barat, and the sample taken was 3 students selected using a purposive sampling technique. The subject selection process is carried out to ensure that the sample reflects special characteristics or traits that are relevant to the research objectives. As a result, subjects were selected to represent categories of high, medium, and low mathematical representation ability. The data collection technique is in the form of a written test designed to measure students' mathematical representation abilities, with the test material focusing on sequences and series. The mathematical representation ability indicators measured involve visual, symbolic and verbal representations. The results show that students' ability to solve story problems is still moderate, with the potential to improve visual, symbolic and verbal skills; students in the high category can fulfill all representation indicators, while students in the low category require intervention to improve their understanding of mathematical word problems. The conclusion are the percentage of student achievement in visual and verbal aspects still being low, indicating the need for a learning approach that is more focused on developing visual representation abilities and verbally in the context of story problems to enrich students' experiences.

The Effects of Applied Behavior Analysis on Verbal Behavior With Autistic Individuals Using the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VBMAPP) and the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS).

Introduction Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is a fundamental practice-based intervention for treating autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Few studies have directly measured and evaluated the effects of ABA on verbal behaviors, mainly using the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VBMAPP) and the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS) as outcome measures. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the relationship between ABA interventions and the enhancement of verbal skills, as measured by the VBMAPP and the ABLLS, in a convenience sample of individuals with ASD. Materials and methods At The Oxford Centers (TOCs) in Brighton and Troy, Michigan, USA, 33 individuals with autism received treatment from January 2018 to July 2021, spanning 43 months. A pretest-posttest design was employed to retrospectively examine any impacts between ABA interventions and alterations in verbal scores among individuals with ASD. Depending on developmental age, all subjects underwent two verbal assessments with a six-month interval in-between. Twelve children were administered the VBMAPP, while 21 were given the ABLLS. Results Paired t-tests for pretest and posttest VBMAPP subscales resulted in statistically significant effects (p<0.05) for (VBMAPP - Mand), (VBMAPP - Tact), (VBMAPP - Listener Responding), (VBMAPP - Visual Perceptual Skills and Matching-to-Sample), (VBMAPP -Independent Play), (VBMAPP - Social Play), (VBMAPP - Motor Imitation), (VBMAPP - Spontaneous Vocalization), (VBMAPP - Intraverbal), (VBMAPP - Group Behavior), and (VBMAPP - Linguistic Structure). As measured by Cohen's d, effect sizes were moderate to mostly high (-0.623to -1.688). There were non-significant results (p>0.05) for (VBMAPP - Listener Responding by Feature, Function, and Class) and (VBMAPP - Echoic). Paired t-tests for pretest and posttest ABLLS subscales resulted in statistically significant effects (p<.05) for all ABLLS scales: (ABLLS - Receptive Language), (ABLLS - Requests), (ABLLS - Labeling), (ABLLS - Intraverbals), (ABLLS - Spontaneous Vocalizations), (ABLLS - Syntax Grammar), (ABLLS - Social Interactions), and (ABLLS - Generalized Responding).As measured by Cohen's d, effect sizes were moderate to mostly high (-0.656 to -1.372). Conclusions The administration of ABA treatments had a noteworthy influence, with statistically significant impacts on improving verbal behaviors on 11 of the 13 VBMAPP scales and all of the ABLLS scales. As measured by Cohen's d, effect sizes were moderate to high for both scales. These findings underscore the importance and effectiveness of ABA interventions in enhancing verbal skills in children with ASD. However, it's crucial to note that further confirmatory studies are required to verify the reliability of these original findings, emphasizing the ongoing need for research in this field.

Learning from an Infant’s Visual Experience

Infants see a selective view of the world: they see some objects with high frequency and from a wide range of viewpoints (e.g., their toys during playing) while a much larger set of objects are seen much more rarely and from limited viewpoints (e.g., objects they see outdoors). Extensive, repeated visual experiences with a small number of objects during infancy plays a big role in the development of human visual skills. Internet-style datasets that are commonly used in computer vision research do not contain the regularities that result from such repeated, structured experiences with a few objects. This has led to a dearth of models that learn by exploiting these regularities. In my PhD dissertation, I use deep learning models to investigate how regularities in an infant's visual experience can be leveraged for visual representation learning.

SkillCLIP: Skill Aware Modality Fusion Visual Question Answering (Student Abstract)

When humans are posed with a difficult problem, they often approach it by identifying key skills, honing them, and finally effectively combining them. We propose a novel method and apply it for the VizWiz VQA task to predict the visual skills needed to answer a question, and leverage expert modules to produce intermediary outputs and fuse them in a skill-aware manner. Unlike prior works in visual question-answering (VQA) that use intermediate outputs such as detected objects and Optical Character Recognition (OCR), our approach explicitly guides the model with a skill embedding on what to focus on. While our results show that using skill-aware fusion outperforms skill-unaware models for only a subset of questions, we believe our results provide interesting directions for future work. We also release our code, model, and illustrative demonstrations for future research purposes.

Visual inspection problem-solving strategies at different experience levels

Airport security screening is a visual inspection task comprising search and decision. Problem solving is used to support decision making. However, it is not well understood. This study investigated how airport security screeners employ problem solving during x-ray screening, and how strategies change with experience. Thirty-nine professional security screeners were observed performing x-ray screening in the field at an Australian International Airport. Video and eye-tracking data were collected and analysed to explore activity phases and problem-solving strategies. Less-experienced screeners performed more problem solving and preferred problem-solving strategies that rely on visual examination without decision support or that defer decision making, compared to more-experienced screeners, who performed efficient and independent strategies. Findings also show that screeners need more time to develop problem-solving skills than visual scanning skills. Screeners would benefit from problem-solving support tools and intensified training and mentorship within the first six months of experience to advance problem-solving competencies.

The role of perception-action coupling in badminton-specific vision training: A narrative review

Background and Study Aim. Badminton is a sport characterized by intense competition and rapid pace, necessitating exceptional hand-eye coordination, mental sharpness, and visual acuity from its players. Rapid interchanges and complex shot combinations highlight the imperative for players to maintain heightened concentration and exhibit quick decision-making capabilities. Given these demands, visual training has emerged as an indispensable tool for enhancing athletic ability in badminton. Aim. The study aims to examine the underlying theories of perception-action coupling, investigates various vision training methods for badminton, and evaluates research on their effects on players’ perception-action coupling. Material and Methods. This study employs a narrative review methodology. We conducted an extensive literature search across diverse sources, using keywords like “badminton,” “perception-action coupling,” and “vision training.” The selection of studies was based on relevance to our research objectives, encompassing various study designs, including primary research, reviews, and expert opinions, facilitating a flexible and coherent synthesis of findings, enabling the exploration of context, significance, and implications within the area of the review while highlighting key insights and emerging trends. Results. Several factors can influence a player’s perception-action coupling abilities in badminton, such as their level of expertise and training background. Expert players exhibit better perception-action coupling abilities than their less skilled counterparts. Additionally, several studies have investigated the impact of vision training techniques on perception-action coupling in badminton, revealing improvements in various visual skills crucial for performance. Conclusions. The study explored the pivotal role of perception-action coupling in the context of vision training tailored for badminton players.

Enhancing students’ critical thinking and visualisation skills through mobile augmented reality

Augmented Reality (AR) has emerged in our educational paradigm as a new tool to accelerate change in the teaching and learning process. This technology can improve students’ visualisation skills, which helps them understand abstract concepts, especially in Chemistry. Furthermore, visualisation skills help improve students’ critical thinking. This study was conducted with 16 secondary students. Before and after the intervention, students were required to complete a Purdue Spatial Visualisation Test to measure their visualisation skills. During four weeks of intervention, students explored the content using a mobile augmented reality application for learning chemical bonds (called CBOND) and completed critical thinking tasks each week. This study employed data mining using a decision tree to predict the path to improving students’ visualisation and critical thinking skills in learning chemical bonds. The results revealed that CBOND had a significant effect on students’ visualisation and critical thinking development. Therefore, this study proved that augmented reality technology could help students to visualise abstract concepts, especially in Chemistry, and in turn, foster their higher level of critical thinking.

Early diagnosis of skin oncologic diseases using artificial intelligence technologies

The last decade has seen significant progress in computer-aided image analysis and recognition, with modern computer-aided diagnostic algorithms not only catching up with, but in many aspects surpassing human abilities. At the heart of this breakthrough is the development of deep convolutional neural networks, which have given a new impetus to medical diagnosis, particularly of skin cancers. In this paper, we analyzed photo-based skin disease classification systems developed using algorithms based on deep learning convolutional neural networks. Such methods have been variously reported to enable automated diagnosis of skin neoplasms with high sensitivity and specificity. A disease that requires more detailed analysis of graphic images — skin melanoma — was chosen as the main object of study. Early diagnosis of melanoma is of great socio-economic importance, as in this case the prognosis of patients is significantly improved. The aim of this work is to analyze the results of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in dermatology, especially in the context of early detection of skin melanoma. Scientific articles were searched in PubMed, Scopus and eLIBRARY databases using the keywords “convolutional neural networks”, “skin cancer” and “artificial intelligence”. The depth of the search was 10 years. The final analysis included 38 sources where the results of our own research were presented. The advantages of artificial intelligence methods for dermatologists were analyzed. Artificial intelligence can significantly assist dermatologists in developing visual neoplasm diagnosis skills and improve diagnostic accuracy. The use of AI to process dermatoscopic data in conjunction with the analysis of anamnestic and clinical information from medical records will reduce the burden on the healthcare system through correctly diagnosed benign skin tumors. All of this promises to have a significant impact on the future development of dermatovenerology.

The relevance of motor sequence and visual perception skills in learning Chinese handwriting

ABSTRACT This study explored visual perception skills and the ability to write according to standard stroke order and their links to the learning of Chinese handwriting. Thirty-seven children (aged 6–8) (15 boys and 22 girls) participated in a handwriting test and visual perception evaluation (Test of Visual Perceptual Skills-3rd Edition, TVPS-3). A computerized system was used to evaluate the stroke order accuracy, legibility, and automation of stroke movements. The stroke order accuracy was found to positively correlate with the scores of TVPS-3 (r = .498, p < .05) and to significantly correlate with handwriting legibility (r = .435, p < .05) as well as the automation of stroke movements (r = .494, p < .01). This study revealed that visual perception skill is related to stroke order accuracy and provides directions to assist students who encounter difficulties in learning Chinese handwriting.

The effects of visualisation literacy and data storytelling dashboards on teachers’ cognitive load

Learning analytics (LA) dashboards are becoming increasingly available in various learning settings. However, teachers may face challenges in understanding and interpreting the data visualisations presented on those dashboards. In response to this, some LA researchers are incorporating visual cueing techniques, like data storytelling (DS), into LA dashboard design to reduce the data visualisation skills – often referred to as visualisation literacy (VL) – and cognitive effort required by teachers to effectively use dashboards. However, despite the potential of DS principles in simplifying data visualisations, there is limited evidence supporting their effectiveness in actually reducing teachers’ cognitive load. The study presented in this paper addresses this gap by investigating the potential impact of LA dashboards, with and without DS elements, on teachers with varying VL levels. Through a quasi-experimental study involving 23 teachers, we analysed changes in pupil dilation – a proxy for cognitive load – as they examined LA dashboards featuring student data captured while participating in synchronous, online collaborative learning tasks. Our findings suggest DS can reduce cognitive load, particularly for teachers with lower VL. These results provide insight into the effects of DS and VL on teachers’ cognitive load, thereby informing the design of LA dashboards. Implications for practice or policy:• Developers of LA dashboards need to pay more attention to incorporating visual and narrative elements that are easily comprehensible and target-oriented, based on users’ visualisation literacy levels.• Educational providers and LA designers can recommend dashboards with DS elements to teachers with low VL to enhance their work efficiency.

Seeing like police: Surveillant practices and scopic skills in Recife, Brazil

AbstractDrawing on public–private circuits for urban surveillance in Recife, Brazil, this article unpacks how camera operators and ordinary residents are sensorially attuned to what constitutes a threat to urban order, from the perspective of state security governance. Through the notion of sensory enskilment, the piece delves into how surveillant civilians learn to distinguish such threats in digitally mediated urban sightings. By attending to the development of scopic skills in everyday surveillance contexts, I shed light on how security events become visible and legible across communities of practice, contributing to the formation of policing subjectivities and the maintenance of broader regimes of vigilance. The analysis draws on qualitative research on two sets of sites that cultivate civilians' visual skills around urban security: video‐surveillance control rooms managed by the security secretariats of Recife and Pernambuco, and WhatsApp groups dedicated to the policing of specific territories. This article seeks to deepen recent debates on how vertical and lateral forms of surveillance shape political communities and sociospatial divides.

The Visual Science Communication Toolkit: Responding to the Need for Visual Science Communication Training in Undergraduate Life Sciences Education

Visual representations are essential to scientific research and teaching, playing a role in conceptual understanding, knowledge generation, and the communication of discovery and change. Undergraduate students are expected to interpret, use, and create visual representations so they can make their thinking explicit when engaging in discourse with the scientific community. Despite the importance of visualization in the biosciences, students often learn visualization skills in an ad hoc fashion without a clear framework. We used a mixed-methods sequential explanatory study design to explore and assess the pedagogical needs of undergraduate biology students (n = 53), instructors (n = 13), and teaching assistants (n = 8) in visual science communication education. Key themes were identified using inductive grounded theory methods. We found that extrinsic motivations, namely time, financial resources, and grading practices, contribute to a lack of guidance, support, and structure as well as ambiguous expectations and standards perceived by students and instructors. Biology and science visualization instructors cite visual communication assessments as a way of developing and evaluating students’ higher-order thinking skills in addition to their communication competencies. An output of this research, the development of a learning module, the Visual Science Communication Toolkit, is discussed along with design considerations for developing resources for visual science communication education.

Number sense predicts arithmetic competence in young Chinese children: the role of visual spatial skills and inhibitory control

ABSTRACT To examine the relationship between early number sense and later symbolic arithmetic competence and how they are connected in young Chinese children. The present study utilized a longitudinal sample of 115 Chinese children aged 3 to 6. Young children completed measures to assess number sense, visual spatial skills (in the fall of their second kindergarten year, K2), arithmetic competence (in the spring of their second kindergarten year, K3), working memory, verbal comprehension, and inhibitory control (in the fall of their first kindergarten year, K1). The results showed that number sense predicted arithmetic competence six months later. Meanwhile, visual spatial skills played a mediating role in this association, but it became non-significant when working memory, verbal comprehension, and inhibitory control were added as covariates. These longitudinal findings confirm the close association between number sense and arithmetic competence in young Chinese children.

Spatial visualization skills present in items of the Brazilian high school national exam

This article aims to analyze, categorize, and quantify the Brazilian high school national exam (ENEM) questions that require spatial visualization skills (SVS) for their resolution. This is a documentary research with a qualitative-quantitative approach whose corpus of analysis is ENEM exams carried out from 2009 to 2022, in the subject of mathematics and its technologies. There are four main results of this research: (1) spatial geometry (SG) questions that require SVS for their resolution (39.7%) are proportionally more frequent in ENEM than in four most used textbooks in Brazil (&amp;lt;20.0%), (2) some categories of SVS are much more frequent than others in ENEM questions, (3) the proportion of geometry questions in ENEM mathematics exam (23.0%) is considerably higher than the corresponding proportion of geometry-related skills in ENEM skills framework (13.0%), and (4) approximately half of ENEM geometry questions address SG.

Characterization of Fine Motor and Visual Motor Skills in Aicardi-Goutières Syndrome.

Aicardi-Goutières syndrome is a genetic inflammatory disorder resulting in dispersed neurologic dysfunction. Despite a recognition of overall motor impairment, fine and visual motor skills are undercharacterized. We hypothesize that there is a spectrum of fine and visual motor skills in the Aicardi-Goutières syndrome population as captured by a standard outcome measure, the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (PDMS-2), which will be proportional to overall disease severity.In a cohort of 74 subjects, the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2 grasping and visual-motor integration subtests were administered concurrently with the Aicardi-Goutières syndrome Severity Scale (severe [range 0-3], moderate [range 4-8], and attenuated [range 9-11]). The cohort was also compared by genotype and performance as defined by raw scores. The distribution of Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2 scores within a genotype was assessed by interquartile ranges (IQRs).Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2 grasping and visual-motor integration performance was the least variable in the TREX1-cohort (IQR: 10.00-12.00) versus the SAMHD1 and IFIH1 cohorts (IQR: 51.00-132.00 and 48.50-134.00, respectively). Neurologic severity highly correlated with both fine and visual motor skills (Spearman correlation: r = 0.87, 0.91, respectively). A floor effect (lowest 10% of possible scores) was observed within the severe cohort (n = 32/35), whereas a ceiling effect (top 10%) was observed in the attenuated cohort (n = 13/17).This study characterized the spectrum of fine and visual motor function in the Aicardi-Goutières syndrome population, which correlated with overall neurologic dysfunction. The Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2 grasping and visual-motor integration showed promise as potential assessment tools in moderate and attenuated Aicardi-Goutières syndrome cohorts. A better understanding of fine and visual motor function in this population will benefit clinical care and clinical trial design.