The Effects of Colour in Teaching the Visualisation of Rotations in Diagrams of Three‐dimensional Structures

Abstract

Two different experiments were carried out to compare the effectiveness of instructional programmes containing different degrees of colouring in diagrams. In Experiment I, the programmes were administered to students at different ages over the range 13‐17 years. In Experiment II, where the programmes also varied in terms of the numbers of diagrams used, they were administered only to 17‐year olds. In both experiments, the effectiveness of the programmes was found to vary with the degree of colouring in an inverted‐U relationship. There were also significant interactions for degree of colouring with chronological age, and with the number of diagrams used.