BADGE – Becoming a Digital Global Engineer
Intellectual Output
BADGE – Becoming a Digital Global Engineer
Project 2019-1-FR01-KA203-063010 (167 512 512)
Topic outline
Objectives
After studying this unit, you will …
- understand the importance of visual communication;
- know what visual perception is;
- use visuals effectively when delivering apresentation;
- know how the brain interprets what it sees;
- identify the cognitive and emotional influence of graphics on our perception.
Warm up questions
- Verbal or visual information – which one is more powerful and easier to remember in the contemporary world?
- Why do advertisements and commercials use graphics as the basic and primary element of the message?
Did you know?
- Did you know that visual information is transferred and processed much more easily than text? This is because visuals are processed simultaneously and affect us both cognitively and visually (optically), and in many cases,emotionally, too.
- Have you ever wondered why you can process visuals much faster than text? This is because visuals are processed simultaneously whereas words are processed sequentially.
- Did you know that visual imagery is more powerful than words alone when used to communicate a message to an audience?
Reading
Human beings have lived in a visual reality since the dawn of time. A good example of this are the drawings in caves from the Stone Age. Therefore, the general trend for visuals in science, business, marketing, advertisements, commercials, and many others in recent years are omnipresent. However, a number ofquestions arise: how do we perceive images and how do our brains interpret what they see? When comparing visuals to texts – what are their strong and weak points? What are their advantages and disadvantages? When does the receiver get the message faster? In which case does he/she understand it better? Are these just rhetorical questions?
It is indisputable that text will never be able to compete with images and vice versa. These two are different in their speed, precision, and form,as well as the cognitive processes they use. Human cognitive processes oscillate around images from the moment of birth. A child understands and recognizes his/her mother's image before he/she really understands the word “mother”. The power of graphics comes from the way the human brain receives and transmits information, which we call visual perception, and the processing of visual information, based on visual reasoning skills. Thanks to this ability, a receiver processes and interprets the meaning of visual information provided by eyesight.
In the 1970s, the American psychologist Albert Mahrabian concluded that the interpretation of a message is 7% verbal (the words spoken – the vocabulary and grammar), 38% vocal (this includes voice qualities such as intonation, volume, pace, and accent),and 55% visual (body language, setting and context),respectively. His conclusion was that 93% of communication is nonverbal. The brain processes itmuch faster than text because the brain is used to processing images. People remember 80% of what they see and only 20% of what they read. Moreover, a team of neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that the brain is able to process entire images that the human eye sees for as little as 13 milliseconds. According to Mary Potter, part of the MIT research team, a human is able to identify a dozen or so flashing images linked by a specific concept in a fraction of a second. On the other hand, a team of scientists from the University of Toronto, in their research on the Neural correlates of the episodic encoding of pictures and words, proved that people are able to remember 2000 photos with an accuracy of at least 90% over a period of several days, even with a very short presentation time while learning. Therefore, research indicates that we have a much better memory for visual content than written text, which may be due to the fact that images automatically make connections in our brains with other knowledge about the world, i.e.which involvesmore complicated coding than in the case of words. This does not mean, of course, that we do not understand and do not remember the written text - however, it involves other cognitive processes.
Another interesting aspect of the effectiveness of visuals is presentations which are so popular in many different areas of life, starting from science, via business and finance, and ending with product commercials and fairs. In 1986, a research team from the University of Minnesota investigated how an audience is affected by presentations with and without images. The scientists found that presentations using visual tools were 43% more convincing than those without visual aids. The perception of the presenter also changed – he/she was perceived as more professional, convincing, and interesting, and as making better use of auxiliary data. These results were confirmed by a study commissioned by 3M Corporation. It discovered that you can be 43% more effective when using visual aids as a presenter. Similarly, unless words, concepts, and ideas are linked to an image, they “go in one ear, and out the other”. It happens because words are mostly processed by our short-term memory in which the average man can only store, simultaneously, about seven pieces of digital information (written numbers). Images, however, go directly into our long-term memory, where they are permanently etched. Thus, on seeing the graphical representation of data, we can remember simultaneously more numbers and their interrelations.
A graphical form of information can increase the attractiveness of not only the presentation, but also of a TV advertisement, commercial or website design. The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab asked 2440 participants how they evaluated the credibility of a website they were shown. Almost half (46.1%) answered that the look of the website was the number one criterion for discerning the credibility of the presented material.
Graphics can do what text alone cannot. According to Michael Parkinson, a British journalist and investigator of powerful visual communication, graphical information quickly affects us both cognitively and emotionally, so having the right visuals is incredibly powerful.
1) Cognitively: “Graphics expedite and increase our level of communication. They increase comprehension, recollection, and retention. Visual clues help us decode text and attract attention to information or direct attention, increasing the likelihood that the audience will remember”.
2) Emotionally: “Pictures enhance or affect emotions and attitudes. Graphics engage our imagination and heighten our creative thinking by stimulating other areas of our brain (which in turn leads to a more profound and accurate understanding of the presented material). It is no secret that emotions influence decision-making.”
“(Emotions) play an essential role in decision making, perception, learning, and more … they influence the very mechanisms of rational thinking”.
(Mike Parkinson’s “The Power of Visual Communication”)
Bibliography and references
Burmark, L. (2002). Visual Literacy: Learn to See, See to Learn. Sunnyvale, California.
Mahrabian, A., (1971). Silent Messages. Wadsworth Pub. Co.
Potter, M. C., Wyble, B., Hagmann, C.E., McCourt, E.S. (2014). Detecting meaning in RSVP at 13 ms per picture. Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, 76(2):270-9. doi: 10.3758/s13414-013-0605-z.
Rop, G., Schüler, A., Verkoeijen, P.P.J.L., Scheiter, K., van Gog, T. (2018). Effects of task experience and layout on learning from text and pictures with or without unnecessary picture descriptions. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning; Volume 34, Issue 4 p. 458-470. doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12287.
https://blog.mindmanager.com/blog/2011/11/18/powerful-facts-about-visual-communication/