Humans are visual animals:
Half of the human brain is directly or indirectly dedicated to visual information processing. The retina of the eye contains 150 million rods and cones, and it is actually a product of the brain. There are hundreds of millions of neurons dedicated to visual processing in the brain, occupying about 30% of the cortex, of which 8% are responsible for visual processing when touching and only 3% when listening. Each of the two optic nerves that transmit signals from the retina to the brain consists of one million fibers, while each auditory nerve has only 30,000 fibers. The primary visual cortex cooperates with other parts of the brain to process different components of visual information, such as vertical or horizontal orientation, color, size, shape, movement, and the distinction between overlapping objects.
The brain can recognize images that can be seen in just 13 milliseconds
Recognizing images that can be seen in such a short period of time, this ability may help the brain determine the focus position of the eye, and this short action will be fixed from point to point at a rate of about three times per second. It may take 100 to 140 milliseconds to decide where to move the eyes, so very high-speed understanding must be performed before that.
Humans can process visual images 60,000 times faster than text
In fact, our brain finds that the process of reading text is very complicated. First, the brain must decode it word by word to match the shape stored in our memory. After that, the brain must connect words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs. For us, reading text is a long and complicated process. When we look at pictures, our brain can process several pieces of information at the same time. If images are added to text, our brains will be easier to process text information. The graphic elements contained in the text can help our brain decode the text, thereby improving our understanding, memory and retention. The picture also adds stronger emotional processing, which stimulates our imagination and creative thinking.
At least 65% of people are "visual learners"
This estimate comes from a study conducted by Dr. Richard Felder on engineering students in the 1980s, which later became the basis for the standardized test "Learning Style Index (ILS)". ILS classifies learners based on several different frequency spectra, including visual language. Subsequent research estimates that the proportion of visual learners in other learning methods is even higher, some even as high as 80%, depending on the type of learning method and research method used.
Humans have excellent memory
Within a few days, even if the presentation time is short during the learning process, people can remember 2000 pictures, and the accuracy rate of more than 2000 pictures is at least 90%. This excellent picture memory has always surpassed our ability to remember words. The reason why the image memory is excellent may be that the image automatically carries out multiple representations and is associated with other knowledge of the world, which makes the encoding more complicated than the word (source).
Found that statements with visual aids are 43% more convincing than statements without aids
As early as 1986, researchers at the University of Minnesota studied how visual support can improve presentation effects. The research tried to convince people to invest time and money in time management seminars. The study also compared presentations supported by various visual supports (using color vs. black and white; using plain text visual effects and visual support enhanced by "clipart" and graphics) with presentations without visual support. In general, presentations using visual support are more convincing. In particular, visual support affects the speaker's perception because it is more concise, clearer, better uses supporting data, more professional, more persuasive, and more interesting.
