Visual understanding of divergence and curl : Visual cues promote better learning

Prior research has shown that students struggle to indicate whether vector field plots have zero or non-zero curl or divergence. In an instruction-based eye-tracking study, we investigated whether visual cues (VC) provided in the vector field plot can foster students’ understanding of these concepts. The VC were only present during instruction and highlighted conceptual information about vector decomposition and partial derivatives. Thirty-two physics majors were assigned to two groups, one was instructed with VC about the problemsolving strategy, and one without. The results show that students in VC-condition performed better, responded with higher confidence, experienced less mental effort, and rated the instructional quality better than students instructed without cues. All results were statistically significant. Furthermore, VC-students performed better on a transfer task about the curl concept. The superior performance of students in VC-condition can be attributed to saccadic eye-movements which are in line by correct application of the visual strategy and which were supported by the visual cues. The outcomes strongly confirm multimedia design principles and reveal a direct link between processing explicit instructions and its application in subsequent tasks in the domain of problem solving.