Visual Perception

"The really cool advance with functional imaging happened when scientists figured out how to make pictures that show not just anatomy but activity where neurons are firing."
-Nancy Kanwisher

In her Ted Talk, Nancy Kanwisher talks about the ability to use functional MRI scans to see internal anatomy.  These brain images allow doctors to determine activity through pictures.  Kanwisher used scans of her own brain to drive her research about the brain's ability to recognize visual stimulus like faces and objects. She proved that the brain has a specialized region of the brain solely for facial recognition.  This means that our brains, the thinking organ as we call it in 6th grade, has developed to include areas that are necessary when asked to identify a visual prompt.  

Not only was her talk highly interesting, but a great example of a multimodal presentation. She used pictures videos, interactive diagrams, audio clips, but no printed text.  "A good presentation is the result of a great deal of writing that never shows up on the slides but become part of the words spoken by the writer" (Hicks, 2013, p. 67).  Kanwisher never "reads" what is written on a slide or references a page in a printed handout.  She focuses "nearly as much on [her] speaking as on the slides" (Hicks, 2013, p. 64).  The slides are used when a image is more powerful than words.  The video of a man responding to changes in the doctor's face is ten times more powerful that if she had described it.  The use of the brain diagram and the various colors used to highlight where specific functions occurred gave the audience the same lens with which she conducted her research.  However, her "judicious use of images, videos…and other effects" engaged the audience without turning them off (Hicks, 2013, p. 77).  

This visualization of data and ideas creates limitless possibilities for student expression.  "While writing is very important, such an assignment only asks students to preform one cognitive skill - summarization" (Gura, 2014, p. 34).  But the world our students live in and the future that they will direct requires more than summary.  It will require critical thinkers to solve global issues and understanding of concepts yet to be created.  Therefore, while in school, we can provide students the opportunity to relate and present information in ways that will develop these skills.  "The 20-Shot Short Story" asks students to analyze literacy through "the language of film, gesture color and material" (Gura, 2014, p. 37).  Students are given a chance to create images that transfer the literary features from print to text.  This meaningful application extends learning not regurgitation (Gura, 2014, p. 40). In similar form, moviemaking taps into the analysis as students have to plan what features are important and what needs to be left out.  (Gura, 2014, p. 44). Recently, I visited a school and sat in on a digital design class.  Students were using various online platforms to present information about key figures in the history of technology.  When asked, a student said the hardest part wasn't the iMovie platform, but deciding what was important.  I asked if she felt the same would have been true if she had been given the option to write an essay. I think her response is very telling.  Paraphrasing, "Oh no! Than creates a whole new set of problems for me because I don't think in words, but in pictures!" (Side note: She was dyslexic like Albert Einstein who stated that he saw in concepts in 3D before ever being able to put them in words!)

Creating a picture! That’s what it is about in neural science and education.