Mental Visualization As Social Practice: Repertoires, Material Mediation, And Micro-Temporality

Tereza Vlasáková

doi:10.2478/acc-2026-0003

Abstract

This article reconceptualizes drawing from imagination as a distributed social practice and develops an empirically grounded triadic model that informs the design and assessment of visualization-literacy instruction. A mixed-methods pilot study with 30 Czech secondary-school graphic design students (March–June 2025) combines observation, questionnaires, and artifact analysis across three task regimes and age cohorts. The analysis identifies five repertoires and three recurring thresholds, interpreting difficulties as translation bottlenecks between modalities and between mental models and marks on paper. Visualization literacy is framed as a transferable material-discursive competence, and a triadic model is proposed as a portable script for assessing visualization-literacy activities.

References

Arnheim, R. (1969). Visual thinking. University of California Press. ISBN 978-05-200-1871-6.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Association of College and Research Libraries. (2012). Visual literacy competency standards for higher education: Approved by the ACRL Board of Directors, October 2011. College & Research Libraries News, 73(2), 97–104. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.73.2.8709
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
BERA. (2024). Ethical guidelines for educational research (5^th ed.). British Educational Research Association. https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-fifth-edition-2024-online
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Binali, T., Chang, C.-H., Chang, Y.-J., & Chang, H.-Y. (2024). High School and College Students’ Graph-Interpretation Competence in Scientific and Daily Contexts of Data Visualization. Science & Education, 33, 763–785. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-022-00406-3
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Börner, K., Bueckle, A., & Ginda, M. (2019). Data visualization literacy: Definitions, conceptual frameworks, exercises, and assessments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – PNAS, 116(6), 1857–1864. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807180116
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Boy, J., Rensink, R. A., Bertini, E., & Fekete, J.-D. (2014). A Principled Way of Assessing Visualization Literacy. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 20(12), 1963–1972. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2014.2346984
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. Sage. ISBN 978-14-739-5324-6. https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/thematic-analysis/book248481
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2022). Toward good practice in thematic analysis: Avoiding common problems and be(com)ing a knowing researcher. International Journal of Transgender Health, 24(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/26895269.2022.2129597
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Brockbank, E., Verma, A., Lloyd, H., Huey, H., Padilla, L., & Fan, J. E. (2025). Evaluating convergence between two data visualization literacy assessments. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 10, article 15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-025-00622-9
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Fiorella, L., & Zhang, Q. (2018). Drawing Boundary Conditions for Learning by Drawing. Educational Psychology Review, 30, 1115–1137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-018-9444-8
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Fransecky, R. B., & Debes, J. L. (1972). Visual Literacy: A Way to Learn — A Way to Teach. Association for Educational Communications and Technology. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED064884.pdf
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Fukuda, K., & Woodman, G. F. (2017). Visual working memory buffers information retrieved from visual long-term memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – PNAS, 114(20), 5306–5311. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1617874114
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Ge, L. W., Cui, Y., & Kay, M. (2023). CALVI: Critical Thinking Assessment for Literacy in Visualizations. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’ 23). (pp. 1–18). Association for Computing Machinery – ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581406
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Goldschmidt, G. (1991). The dialectics of sketching. Creativity Research Journal, 4(2), 123–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419109534381
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Hetland, L., Winner, E., Veenema, S., & Sheridan, K. M. (2013). Studio Thinking 2: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education (2^nd ed.). Teachers College. ISBN 978-0-8077-5435-1.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Jin, F., Hsu, S.-M., & Li, Y. (2024). A Systematic Review of Aphantasia: Concept, Measurement, Neural Basis, and Theory Development. Vision, 8(3), 56. https://doi.org/10.3390/vision8030056
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kirsh, D. (2010). Thinking with external representations. AI & Society, 25, 441–454. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-010-0272-8
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kosslyn, S. M. (1994). Image And Brain: The Resolution of the Imagery Debate. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-61124-4.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Paivio, A. (2014). Intelligence, dual coding theory, and the brain. Intelligence, 47, 141–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2014.09.002
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Pandey, S., & Ottley, A. (2023). Mini-VLAT: A Short and Effective Measure of Visualization Literacy. Computer Graphics Forum, 42(3), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.14809
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Pearson, J. (2019). The human imagination: the cognitive neuroscience of visual mental imagery. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 20, 624–634. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0202-9
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Schön, D. A. (1992). Designing as reflective conversation with the materials of a design situation. Research in Engineering Design, 3, 131–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01580516
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-57629-2. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjf9vz4
Search in Google Scholar Back to article

Mental Visualization As Social Practice: Repertoires, Material Mediation, And Micro-Temporality

Abstract

Paradigm

My account