The Mirror Neuron System and Observational Learning: Implications for the Effectiveness of Dynamic Visualizations

By Tamara van Gog, Fred Paas, Nadine Marcus, Paul Ayres, John Sweller. 2009

242 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Learning by observing and imitating others has long been recognized as constituting a powerful learning strategy for humans. Recent findings from neuroscience research, more specifically on the mirror neuron system, begin to provide insight into the neural bases of learning by observation and imitation. These findings are discussed here, along with their potential consequences for the design of instruction, focusing in particular on the effectiveness of dynamic vs. static visualizations.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fe92c0c078f5f905b6e828583d1941d4ae85aa7a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

1. Fred Paas
2. Tamara van Gog
3. Richard E. Mayer
4. John Sweller
5. Logan Fiorella
6. Huib K. Tabbers
7. Paul Ginns
8. J. V. van Merriënboer

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

1. Fred Paas
2. Richard E. Mayer
3. Tamara van Gog
4. John Sweller
5. Logan Fiorella
6. J. V. van Merriënboer
7. Paul Ginns
8. Huib K. Tabbers

In Social Psychology

1. Paul Ginns
2. John Sweller
3. Richard E. Mayer
4. Logan Fiorella
5. Fred Paas
6. Tamara van Gog
7. Wayne Leahy
8. D. Ste-Marie

Citations in the corpus

• Giving Learning a Helping Hand: Finger Tracing of Temperature Graphs on an iPad (2015, background): “Likewise, the human movement effect (Van Gog et al. 2009; Wong et al. 2009) occurs when learners studying materials incorporating hand movements benefit more from animations than transient animations than static graphics; Paas and Sweller interpret these findings in terms of the survival value of…”
• Facilitating Understanding of Movements in Dynamic Visualizations: an Embodied Perspective (2011, result): “In line with these findings, Van Gog et al. (2009) argued that dynamic visualizations are most effective for tasks that involve human movements such as surgical procedures or sports but much less for tasks that involve nonhuman movements such as mechanical or chemical processes.”
• Observation interventions for motor skill learning and performance: an applied model for the use of observation (2012, background): “Readers are encouraged to read the varied reviews that link the mirror neuron system and observation with such topics as education (van Gog, Paas, Marcus, Ayres, & Sweller, 2009 ), cognitive science (Obhi & Hogeveen, 2010 ) and sport (Holmes & Calmels, 2008 ).”
• Effects of Observing the Instructor Draw Diagrams on Learning from Multimedia Messages. (2016, background): “…researchers have expounded further on this embodied account of learning from dynamic visuals and implicate activation of a human “mirror neuron” system, for which observing the actions of others presumably involves similar brain activation as performing the same task oneself (van Gog et al., 2009).”
• Cognitive Load Theory: Advances in Research on Worked Examples, Animations, and Cognitive Load Measurement (2010, background): “The question of how much instructional guidance or assistance should be provided is also addressed by Wittwer and Renkl (2010), though they focus on the amount of guidance provided within worked examples.”