How Much We Remember...With and Without Visuals

As I consider how writers use their talents to help readers visualize (experience) ideas and information and how readers must pick up where writers leave off by envisioning what was written (see blog posts for Feb. 28^th, March 1^st, March 4^th, and March 9^th), I can’t help but recall John Medina’s wise words in his book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, a book I highly recommend if you’re at all interested in understanding how our brains impact learning. (Besides... the almost 132 amazon readers that gave the book a "five star" rating can't all be wrong.)

Medina writes: “We learn and remember best through pictures, not through written or spoken words.”

“Text and oral presentations are not just less effective than pictures for retaining certain types of information; they are way less efficient. If information is presented orally, people remember about 10 percent, tested 72 hours after exposure. That figure goes up to 65 percent if you add a picture.”

The implications for our teaching are staggering, and we’ll explore some of them in later posts. For now it’s enough to know that we must attend more to visuals—the pictures, charts, videos, etc., we use in our instruction and the images we help readers create in their minds. It’s a step in the right direction and, indeed, something to think about.