| The primary objective of this research was to characterize the nature of one important aspect of expertise in architecture, namely, the understanding of a building from its plans. This involved evaluating the knowledge acquisition processes employed in abstracting information from the plans, as well as evaluating subjects' resulting conceptual representations of the building.;Three types of protocol analyses were conducted on the think aloud protocols to investigate subjects' knowledge acquisition processes: (1) the types and frequencies of semantic information generated, (2) the frequency of systematic (versus haphazard) moves, and (3) the frequency of 3-dimensional search directed across the various plans. Four comprehension measures were developed to characterize subjects' resulting conceptual representations of the building: (1) 2-dimensional comprehension (information directly depicted in the plans), (2) 3-dimensional comprehension (how it appears in 3-dimensions), (3) building knowledge (conceptual knowledge reflecting the building's style, era, influencing architects, etc.) and, (4) modern design knowledge (conceptual knowledge reflecting aspects of modern architectural design which were used in the building).;Experts were found to differ from novices in that they were more systematic in the search processes they employed to acquire information from the plans. Experts' understanding of the plans used to depict the building (i.e., 2-dimensional comprehension) and their understanding of the building as a 3-dimensional entity were much richer than these representations for novices. In addition, experts understanding of the building's architectural genre was superior to that of novices, as reflected in better performance for both building knowledge and modern design knowledge.;The second objective of this research was to investigate whether the knowledge acquisition processes and resulting conceptual representations could be influenced by means of a text presenting a walk-through description of the building. The text, when presented before the plans, was beneficial to leaners in facilitating the acquisition of 3-dimensional information about the building across the various plans, such that rich, 3-dimensional representations resulted which were well retained over time. Additionally, the text, when presented after the plans, was beneficial in facilitating the reintegration of information about the building such that it led to better understanding of its architectural genre.;Although both experts and novices made good use of the text as reflected by the knowledge acquisition measures and resulting conceptual representations, protocol data were used to suggest that novices had difficulty developing representations of the building from the textual information source. Experts, on the other hand, were efficient at this process. It is suggested that one of the hallmarks of expertise in this domain is the ability to represent buildings as 3-dimensional entities from either graphics or text. |
