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

Tereza Vlasáková

doi:10.2478/acc-2026-0003

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

ACC JOURNAL

Volume 32 (2026): Issue 3 (March 2026)

By: Tereza Vlasáková

Open Access

|Mar 2026

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.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/acc-2026-0003 | Journal eISSN: 2571-0613 | Journal ISSN: 1803-9782

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Language: English

Page range: 35 - 49

Published on: Mar 10, 2026

Published by: Technical University of Liberec

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 3 issues per year

Keywords:

Mental imagery,

Drawing processes,

Translation thresholds,

Externalization,

Educational design

Related subjects:

Business and economics,

Business management,

Business management, other,

Engineering,

Mechanical engineering,

Materials engineering,

Linguistics and semiotics,

Applied linguistics,

Applied linguistics, other,

Social sciences,

Education,

Education, other

© 2026 Tereza Vlasáková, published by Technical University of Liberec
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License.

Volume 32 (2026): Issue 3 (March 2026)