Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
computer games that simulate 3D worlds (Lengler,
2006). In education, the level of digital art literacy
depends on the balance between the components
of traditional art education (theory, art history,
critique and studio work) and the software and
technological literacy. Visualizations such as
animations improve understanding of systems and
processes that change over time.
The visual and cognitive development of the
students may be an important factor in the effec-
tiveness of the computer art treatment. The Piaget's
model of cognitive development delineated the
formation of logical, mathematical, and scientific
thought but not the growth of creative activity
as related to cognitive development. Computer
graphics have usually been applied to further
students' comprehension of spatial relations,
their symbolic development, and their response to
computer-generated feedback (Wohlwill, 1988).
They also allow for facilitating the creative pro-
cess in which the students choose and define the
problem. McWhinnie (1989) discussed the use
of computers in developing visual literacy and
stressed the importance of the right brain in vari-
ous areas of creative behavior and in developing
drawing skills. Wohlwill found that the computer
permits one to capture the creative process of
constructing one's own imagination, so “this
medium may shed light on the basis of the al-
leged decline in children's imaginative and artistic
productivity during the school years” (Wohlwill,
1988, p.130), a decline which may be caused by
their concern for realism and objective literalism
at the expense of expression and free imagina-
tion. The lack of control that students can exert
in their artistic freehand drawings may be another
reason for discomfort. The medium of computer
graphics may offer a strategy to counteract this
decline. With its precision and clear definition,
it may provide a balance between the figurative
and operative, or between the analytical and the
intuitive. The process of creating computer art
graphics is more determinate in its form than the
freehand drawing that is analogically structured.
Drawing on the computer provides the students
with cognitive control over their creations.
Visual Intelligence Tests
The understanding of visual intelligence is essen-
tial to advance visual science. Non-verbal intelli-
gence tests that tell about visual abilities have been
applied for more than 80 years with high reliability
and internal consistency (Rezaei and Katz, 2004).
Raven's Progressive Matrices (Raven, 1981) is a
widely used non-verbal, multiple-choice test of
reasoning. In each test item, one is asked to find
the missing part required to complete a pattern.
Each set of items, designed as progressively more
complicated matrices, require greater cognitive
capacity to encode and analyze. According to the
Berlin model (BIS-4, Bucik and Neubauer, 1996),
a structure of the measurable general intelligence
factor G measures working memory capacity.
The model includes four Operations components
(processing speed, memory, creativity, processing
capacity), and three Contents components (verbal,
numerical, spatial-figurative ability). The model
was constructed with the use of cluster and factor
analysis out of 2,000 tests. Visual competencies
can be evaluated with relevant tests, such as pro-
cessing speed, memorization, figural analogy,
continuation, image rotation, pictorial reasoning,
and other tests.
Multiple Intelligences
In the early eighties Howard Gardner (1993,
1993/2006, 1993/2011) defined intelligence as
the capacity to solve problems or make things
that are valued in a culture (at least one cultural
setting or community). For him, it is more im-
portant to discover areas of strength and to build
upon them than it is to fret too much about areas
of weakness. In the eighties, Gardner developed
a theory of multiple intelligences - a system of
classifying human abilities, and posed suggestions
about how to encourage learning in ways that
