How does it swim?

In biology education a crucial skill that needs to be acquired is classifying natural objects according to complex and dynamic visual information. However, due to the absence of suitable instructional material these skills are trained with static pictures instead of dynamic visualizations. A basis for developing such appropriate dynamic instructional material is the comprehension of the underlying processes of novices and experts. Therefore, this study analyzes the cognitive processes underlying a classification task in different expertise levels. This was done by comparing eye movements and verbal data of fourteen novices and seven experts obtained during their classification of fish locomotion patterns. Results show that experts performed faster and more accurately compared to novices due to their use of knowledge-based shortcuts. Implications of these findings for instructional design are discussed.