An International Directory Of Spatial Tests

An International Directory of Spatial Tests

Spatial Visualization and Professional Competence

The computer graphics (CG) industry is an attractive field for undergraduate students, but employers often find that graduates of CG art programmes are not proficient. The result is that many positions are left vacant, despite large numbers of job applicants. This book investigates how student CG artists develop proficiency. The subject is important to the rapidly growing number of educators in this sector, employers of graduates, and students who intend to develop proficiency for the purpose of obtaining employment. Educators will see why teaching software-oriented knowledge to students does not lead to proficiency, but that the development of problem-solving and visualisation skills do. This book follows a narrow focus, as students develop proficiency in a cognitively challenging task known as ‘NURBS modelling’. This task was chosen due to an observed relationship between students who succeeded in the task, and students who successfully obtained employment after graduation. In the study this is based on, readers will be shown that knowledge-based explanations for the development of proficiency do not adequately account for proficiency or expertise in this field, where visualisation has been observed to develop suddenly rather than over an extended period of time. This is an unusual but not unique observation. Other studies have shown rapid development of proficiency and expertise in certain professions, such as among telegraph operators, composers and chess players. Based on these observations, the book argues that threshold concepts play a key role in the development of expertise among CG artists.

Intelligence and Cognition: Contemporary Frames of Reference

In Decembe,r, 1984 a NATO-sponsored Advanced Study Institute entitled "Human Asessment:Cognition and Motivation" took place in Athens. It succeeded in attracting a great many of the most eminent scholars and researchers in this area, both as lecturers and participants. The contributors to this book are mostly members of staff who taught at the Institute. The chapters they have written are designed to provide an introduction to the principal issues that arise in the study of the assessment of intelligence and cognition. Since most of the protagonists are represented in this book the student is provided with an excellent overview. Many different people are responsible for preparation of a book such as this. We would like to express particular thanks to Siobhan Breslin and Julie Coleman, who typed the text despite an unfriendly and unreliable word-processing system. Thanks are also due to Steve Gill who helped with the preparation of the figures. Finally, as a mark of respect for his achievements and leadership in the field of mental measurement, we dedicate this volume to Norman Frederiksen. Sidney H. Irvine Stephen E. Newstead Plymouth, September 1985. -VII- CONTENTS Preface VII Contributors to this volume XI Functions and constants in mental measurement: Chapter 1 A taxonomic approach. 1 Sidney H. Irvine Human cognition and intelligence: Towards an Chapter 2 integrated theoretical perspective. 27 John M. Verster Chapter 3 Synopsis of a triarchic theory of human intelligence.