Welcome to the projects of the RISC Lab Group. Below are a few categories of projects we are currently working on or have previously worked on and a short summary of each category.
Sketching
Sketching is commonly used in STEM disciplines. We are looking to see if sketching can serve as a tool to facilitate spatial reasoning in STEM education.
Navigation
Navigation skills are critical in spatial cognition; for example, these skills allow accurate placement of field data in maps. More generally, navigation and map skills may be related and much geoscience data is presented in a structured form on a map.
Scaling
involves reasoning about spatial and temporal correspondence.Important cases are scaling, the use of space as a proxy for time, and the use of space as a proxy for many dimensions as in graphs.
Visualizing 3D and Transformations
The ability to visualize cross-sections of 3D objects and to reconstruct 3D objects from 2D cross sections is an important STEM skill that has received little attention in the research literature.
Development of Cognitive Maps
The development of navigation behavior extends from infancy through adolescence, but we
know relatively little about the neural processes underlying this behavior in humans. In
this new study, we aim to add a novel insight on how these processes form during
childhood and are modified into adulthood using behavioral and MRI methods.