Haptic Experiences Afford a Durable Understanding of Complex Systems

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  In Roundtable Session: Roundtable: Higher Education and the Learning Sciences

Abstract

When mechanistically reasoning about complex systems, students must coordinate multiple influences. This study illustrates how integrating haptic technologies with interactive visualizations enhances students’ learning about complex systems. Ninety undergraduate students were recruited and randomly assigned to learn from a visualization paired with gesture-control and haptics (HGV) or only gesture-control (GV). In Study 1, both groups showed significant learning gains from pre- to posttest, with no significant group differences. In Study 2, however, a learning durability design demonstrated the students who experienced haptic feedback in study 1 later generated verbal explanations that revealed more sophisticated mechanistic reasoning. These findings suggest that although haptic feedback may not immediately boost test scores, it supports students in constructing more durable understandings of complex systems.

Authors

• Xiaoyu Tang, University of Iowa

• Robb Lindgren, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Aishwari Talhan, University at Albany - SUNY

• Matthew E. Lira, University of Iowa