Visual information is processed by the brain in a large number of functional sites across a network of anatomically separate areas. In order to guide coherent behaviour, visual attention is required to select and integrate information regarding the spatial and perceptual attributes of separate objects from the numerous areas involved in their representation. The empirical work reported in this thesis investigates the role of spatial information in guiding this process and considers the different types of representation that may be involved. Using an experimental paradigm designed to disambiguate priming in egocentric and allocentric coordinates, the thesis contrasts the predictions of location and object-based models of attention across a series of experiments that manipulate the way attention is oriented to the location or identity of objects in the visual scene. Initial chapters investigate the distinction between exogenous and endogenous attention and its implication for the coordinate frame in which selection occurs. Subsequent chapters investigate the role of non-spatial attributes such as colour differentiation and grouping in determining the nature of spatial representation underlying shifts of attention as well as spatial-temporal constraints on object-based priming. The results across the thesis are inconsistent with the distinction imposed by space and object-based models of attention and instead support a more flexible account in which attentional mechanisms activate representations that combine non-spatial and spatial information about localised objects at a number of levels of spatial description.

No / The marriage of computation, visual representation, and interactive thinking supports intensive analysis. The goal is not only to permit users to detect expected events, such as might be predicted by models, but also to help users discover the unexpected—the surprising anomalies, changes, patterns, and relationships that are then examined and assessed to develop new insight. The Guest Editors discuss the key issues and challenges associated with discovering the unexpected, as well as introduce the articles that make up this Special Issue.

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The importance of digital information collections is growing. Collections are typically represented with text-only, in a linear list format, which turns out to be a weak representation for cognition. We learned this from empirical research in cognitive psychology, and by conducting a study to develop an understanding of current practices and resulting breakdowns in human experiences of building and utilizing collections. Because of limited human attention and memory, participants had trouble finding specific elements in their collections, resulting in low levels of collection utilization. To address these issues, this research develops new collection representations for visual cognition. First, we present the image+text surrogate, a concise representation for a document, or portion thereof, which is easy to understand and think about. An information extraction algorithm is developed to automatically transform a document into a small set of image+text surrogates. After refinement, the average accuracy performance of the algorithm was 90%. Then, we introduce the composition space to represent collections, which helps people connect elements visually in a spatial format. To ensure diverse information from multiple sources to be presented evenly in the composition space, we developed a new control structure, the ResultDis- tributor. A user study has demonstrated that the participants were able to browse more diverse information using the ResultDistributor-enhanced composition space. Participants also found it easier and more entertaining to browse information in this representation. This research is applicable to represent the information resources in contexts such as search engines or digital libraries. The better representation will enhance the cognitive efficacy and enjoyment of people’s everyday tasks of information searching, browsing, collecting, and discovering.

This thesis argues that a performer’s relationship with a musical score is an interaction largely defined by social and cultural parameters, but also examines whether disparate musical traditions show any common underlying tendencies regarding the perceived relationship between musical sound and visual representation. The research brings a novel, cross-cultural perspective to bear on the topic, combining a systematic, empirical study with qualitative fieldwork. Data were collected at five sites in three countries, involving: classically-trained musicians based in the UK; traditional Japanese musicians both familiar and unfamiliar with western standard notation; literate Eastern Highlanders from Port- Moresby, Papua New Guinea; and members of the BenaBena tribe, a non-literate community in Papua New Guinea. Participants heard short musical stimuli that varied on three musical parameters (pitch, duration and attack rate) and were instructed to represent these visually so that if another community member saw the marks they should be able to connect them with the sounds. Secondly, a forced-choice design required participants to select the best shape to describe a sound from a database. Interviews and fieldwork observations recorded how musicians engaged with the visual representation of music, considering in particular the effects of literacy and cultural parameters such as the social context of music performance traditions. Similarities between certain aspects of the participants’ responses suggest that there are indeed some underlying commonalities among literate participants of any cultural background. Meanwhile, the overall variety of responses suggests that the association between music and its visual representation (when it takes place) is strongly affected by ever-altering socio-cultural parameters.

This paper explores artistic interpretation of a script's theme to its visual, estetic representation and meaning. The purpose is to reflect on the topic, and to enhance our understanding of how an interpretation from written intention to visual representation can form. The aritstic production used in this artistic research is an animated feature film for children 10+ and the character design of its lead female character.

Visual representation is the most important element of a design registration in terms of scope of protection. This study examines national, regional and international design registration systems in terms of legal texts and guidelines related to visual representation, investigates problematic issues concerning the features and qualities of visual representation in industrial design registration applications in Turkey through the interviews conducted with the Turkish Patent Institute examiners, and proposes a guideline for Turkey which would assist applicants and attorneys in preparing visual representations.

This thesis aims to investigate students’ qualitative experiences of assessment in art and design higher education using storytelling and visual representations. It aims to investigate whether collaborative storytelling can encourage students to reflect on, and learn from, each others’ experiences of assessment. In order to examine these aims, an on-line tool, ‘StoriesAbout… Assessment’ was designed and developed, based on an adapted model of storytelling as a reflective tool in higher education. Visual representations of students’ experiences were also used to identify the affective aspects of the assessment experience. In using these novel methods, the research aimed to highlight the whole student learning experience and how assessment affects that experience. Traditional methods of surveying and evaluation do not usually focus on this, nor do they provide a reflective, learning process for students. The analysis of stories led to a greater understanding of students’ experiences of assessment in art and design by identifying a number of key issues: the impact of negative experiences, the need for greater clarity of assessment criteria due to the subjective nature of the discipline, the tension students perceive between their role as creative practitioners in an educational setting and their role in the wider art world, the value of peer support and appropriate feedback. The storytelling model enabled students to view stories from different perspectives and to consider changes to their practice, and the model has demonstrated its efficacy in supporting reflective thinking and transformative learning. The emotional aspect to students’ experiences was particularly evident in their visual representations which often used strong imagery to depict how the stress of assessment affected them. The drawings also showed stereotypes of assessment, such as images of exams, indicating that these previous experiences had become synonymous with assessment, despite there being few formal exams in art and design. In summary, this thesis contributes two new methods for understanding and enhancing the student learning experience, which have been proven in the context of art and design higher education.

It is a truism that the amount of information being generated in the modern digital world is increasing at an exponential rate. This is influencing engineering as it is in other forms of business, as well as everyday life. Engineering has a significant visual dimension to it: drawings, diagrams, sketches, photographs, graphs are the everyday language of the engineer. Despite the prevalence of such visual information, the role that such information plays and how it affects, for example, how documents can be reused is an under-researched area. This thesis thus proposes the important role of visual representations and images for supporting informed decisions, in particular for complex domains such as Engineering Design. The particular context for this research is associated with in-service design knowledge and information requirements. The increasing number of actual products in-service, the requirement to create safe design solutions quickly, the amassment of service data and the importance of product services to organisational competitiveness are all increasing the information pressures upon Design teams. The pervasive nature of visual representations in Engineering Design and prevalent document information suggests that they are an important asset within document information resources. This research focusses upon the purpose of Engineering Design image utilisation for information processing, and hence supporting efficient decision making. Some of the additional challenges identified throughout this research are the immaturity of current image recognition technologies and thus limitations of automated media extraction tools for supporting Design Engineers. This is significantly contributed to by the complexity of the information media and formats that constitute design engineering information and the current knowledge management trend to capture information without clear “reuse” purpose. The methods used to conduct this research demonstrate the merits of underused techniques in design engineering such as storyboarding. This storyboarding method is used for investigating the facets of tacit knowledge and the underpinning cognitive processing of document information resources for critical Design Engineering informative content. The innovative research method developed provides a useful framework for the collection of rich data using simulated tasks. The data collection is a rich multi-stream recording of design engineers in industry conducting work based scenarios. In particular the focus is upon conducting efficient research in industrial working practices with minimal facing research time with design engineers and the rich data that can be collected from them in situ. This thesis illustrates that there are a number of pressing difficulties in reusing image media, both technical process related in nature. This is currently limiting the usefulness of valuable information resources in practice, but also significantly raises the information burden for design engineer. This thesis has attributed the value of reusing visual representations due to their important role in design engineering decisions. It has provided evidence of the intuitive and important human need for visual information to provide mental stimulation in particular for making confident design decisions. The storyboard research method has outlined an industrial data collection and decision coding framework that is reproducible and can be used to better understand human information processing, and thus supports the development of document information systems. Additional rich information utilisation patterns for design engineering document information have also been evidenced in the empirical research results provided. This thesis also provides practical industrial examples to suggest techniques that could overcome the current technological shortfalls limiting the “reuse” of visual information in documents for Design Engineers.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Katie (Mary Catherine) Kingery-Page / Landscape architecture lacks evidence-based theory for the communicative effectiveness of graphics used in representing design ideas to stakeholders. For the purpose of this study, communicative effectiveness is operationalized as visual communication that expresses accurately the design in a way that the receiver understands the intentions — programmatic, experiential or otherwise — of the design. People need graphic representation to grasp abstract concepts, and drawings can help one imagine what a place can look like years down the road (Hester 2007). Graphics inform the viewer about essential elements of the design and the broader impact that design has on future experiences (Coe 1981). Knowing how people perceive and understand design graphics is key to communicating effectively to clients and other stakeholders. Graphic communication is complex, and no formula exists for communication in landscape architecture (Kingery-Page and Hahn 2012; Ware 2014). The questions guiding this study are: What graphic representation styles increase the non-designers’ understanding of design proposals? Do degrees of abstraction or realism affect understanding of the design drawing? I identified three research phases to adequately answer the questions: Phase One: Site Design Development — I designed a site plan for the Manhattan Arts Center (MAC), a community arts center in Manhattan, Kansas. Design intentions were carefully outlined based on stakeholder input. Phase Two: Graphics Production — Visual representations of the site design were developed in styles ranging from formal abstract to more realistic, based on review of precedent images in academic and professional architectural publications. Phase Three: Evaluation of Graphics Through Focus Groups— The communicative effectiveness of the representations were tested through three focus groups of stakeholders. Content analysis of the recorded focus group sessions revealed patterns of understanding the graphics. Overall, participants revealed that the more real the abstraction, the less understanding takes place. Formal Abstraction communicates the physical dimensions of the design most effectively, and Formal Abstraction has relatively the same communicative effectiveness regarding experience of place. Quantitative and qualitative data informed the creation of theories and a framework practitioners may use for selecting the most effective graphic communication options appropriate to project and audience. Key Words: Effective visual representation, visual communication, graphic style, Formal Abstraction, Semi-Realistic Abstraction, Realistic Abstraction, drawings, design intent, design ideas, accurate, perception, understanding, stakeholders, non-designer, landscape architecture.