This educational psychology research project was initiated by the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University. The principal investigator, Dr. Anthony Levinson, with his associate co-investigators, Dr. Geoff Norman and Dr. Amit Garg are investigating how students learn spatial relationships, in particular how the presentation of anatomical images using virtual reality methods and active control of images influences mastery of 3D anatomy.

Based on earlier research indicating that students' spatial abilities interacted with different modes of presenting 2D images of human anatomy, the investigators wanted to study the effect of variety of modes of presenting 3D images. Specifically the objectives were:

1. To determine whether study of the Key Views (KV) (superior, inferior, lateral, mid-sagittal) of the brain is as effective as studying Multiple Views (MV).
2. To demonstrate that spatial ability strongly influences learning of 3D anatomy.
3. To determine whether spatial ability interacts with presentation mode (KV or MV) to influence learning.
4. To determine whether active learning (control of movement) (AMV) results in better learning of brain anatomy than passive presentation of the multiple views (PMV).

VDI's role in this project was to develop an on-line test of the students' spatial abilities and the four different 3D versions of the human brain.