Complex cognitive activities, such as analytical reasoning, problem solving, and sense making, are often performed through the mediation of interactive computational tools. Examples include visual analytics, decision support, and educational tools. Through interaction with visual representations of information at the visual interface of these tools, a joint, coordinated cognitive system is formed. This partnership results in a number of relational properties—those depending on both humans and tools—that researchers and designers must be aware of if such tools are to effectively support the performance of complex cognitive activities. This article presents 10 properties of interactive visual representations that are essential and relational and whose values can be adjusted through interaction. By adjusting the values of these properties, better coordination between humans and tools can be effected, leading to higher quality performance of complex cognitive activities. This article examines how the values of these properties affect cognitive processing and visual reasoning and demonstrates the necessity of making their values adjustable—all of which is situated within a broader theoretical framework concerned with human‐information interaction in complex cognitive activities. This framework can facilitate systematic research, design, and evaluation in numerous fields including information visualization, health informatics, visual analytics, and educational technology.

Complex visualization spaces are not easy to explore. This is especially true of exploring 4D mathematical structures due to occlusion and visual clutter. In this paper, we present preliminary results involving a usability study of two strategies for designing interaction strategies, namely, externalization and composite interactions, to aid in the exploration of 4D mathematical structures. Study results show the potential benefits of these two strategies for exploring complex mathematical structures, in particular, and other complex visualization spaces, in general.

We use, work, and think with information to be able to make decisions, solve problems, plan, analyze, forecast, and learn. These information-based activities can be classified as epistemic activities (EAs), as they all involve or are related to knowing. Often, we use computational tools in the form of Visual Cognitive Tools (VCTs) to help us carry out these EAs. VCTs maintain and display information in a digital, visual form to mediate our EAs. They sit at the interface between the mind and an information space and participate in the 'interplay' between the two. This paper presents a framework for a systematic exploration of the anatomical structure of the space between the mind and a given information space---that is, the space in which the interplay between the mind and information takes place. The motivation behind the creation of this framework is to facilitate the analysis and design of VCTs that can effectively support our EAs.

Journal Article Designing interfaces that support formation of cognitive maps of transitional processes: an empirical study Get access Kamran Sedig, Kamran Sedig ⁎ a Department of Computer Science and Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, Middlesex College, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada ⁎ Tel.: +1 519 661 2111x86612; fax: +1 519 661 3506. E-mail address:[email protected] (K. Sedig). Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sonja Rowhani, Sonja Rowhani b Department of Computer Science, The University of Western Ontario, Middlesex College, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Hai-Ning Liang Hai-Ning Liang b Department of Computer Science, The University of Western Ontario, Middlesex College, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Interacting with Computers, Volume 17, Issue 4, July 2005, Pages 419–452, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intcom.2005.02.002 Published: 27 April 2005 Article history Received: 09 March 2004 Revision received: 15 October 2004 Accepted: 21 February 2005 Published: 27 April 2005

The paper presents an interactive visualization tool, Archimedean Kaleidoscope (AK), aimed at supporting a learner's exploration of polyhedra. AK uses metamorphosis as a technique to help support the learner's mental construction of relationships among different polyhedra. AK uses the symmetric nature of the platonic solids as the foundation for exploring the way in which polyhedra are related. The high level of interactivity helps support the exploration of these relationships.

This research investigates the role of interface manipulation style on reflective cognition and concept learning through a comparison of the effectiveness of three verisons of a software application for learning two-dimensional transformation geometry. The three versions respectively utilize a Direct Object Manipulation (DOM) interface in which the user manipulates the visual representation of objects being transformed; a Direct Concept Manipulation (DCM) interface in which the user manipulates the visual representation of the transformation being applied to the object; and a Reflective Direct Concept Manipulation (RDCM) interface in which the DCM approach is extended with scaffolding. Empirical results of a study showed that grade-6 students using the RDCM version learned significantly more than those using the DCM version, who is turn learned significantly more than those using the DOM version. Students using the RDCM version had to process information consciously and think harder than those using the DCM and DOM versions. Despite the relative difficulty when using the RDCM interface style, all three groups expressed a similar (positive) level of liking for the software. This research suggests that some of the educational deficiencies of Direct Manipulation (DM) interfaces are not necessarily caused by their “directness,” but by what they are directed at—in this case directness toward objects rather than embedded educational concepts being learned. This paper furthers our understanding of how the DM metaphor can be used in learning- and knowledge-centered software (i.e., learnware) by proposing a new DM metaphor (i.e., DCM), and the incorporation of scaffolding to enhance the DCM approach to promote reflective cognition and deep learning.