In order to understand the construction schedule, students have to read drawings, visualize the structures in mind, and link these structures with the schedule information depicted in the bar chart or CPM network. Since this is not a simple process, students studying construction scheduling sometimes hardly integrate the bar chart and the two-dimensional (2D) drawings to visualize the construction sequence in their mind. Four-dimensional (4D) visualization, which shows visually the sequence of

more »

... uilding the structures over time using three-dimensional (3D) computer graphics, is expected to be one of the innovative methods that improve our cognitive process of understanding the construction schedule. This paper introduces an experiment to test whether the students would better understand the construction schedule if 4D visualization is provided. For this experiment, students studying construction management at Texas A&M University were recruited and then asked to detect logical errors in the construction schedule using different levels of graphical representation. One group conducted the experiment using 4D visualization of the construction sequence, and the other group used 3D model of the constructed structure. For the experiment, an Internet instrument was developed to provide graphical representation of the construction schedule and measure the elapsed time for the students to detect logical errors in the schedule. The experiment showed that students who used 4D visualization detected more logic errors within less time than those who used 3D visualization.