Visuals and Learning Research

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/get-psyched/201207/learning-through-visuals
A large body of research indicates that visual cues help us to better retrieve and remember information. The research outcomes on visual learning make complete sense when you consider that our brain is mainly an image processor (much of our sensory cortex is devoted to vision), not a word processor. In fact, the part of the brain used to process words is quite small in comparison to the part that processes visual images.

So powerful is visual learning that I embrace it in my teaching and writing. Each page in the psychology textbooks I coauthor has been individually formatted to maximise visual learning.

- the books are still not aesthetically interesting despite being designed to optimise visual learning. 

https://elearningindustry.com/visual-learning-6-reasons-visuals-powerful-aspect-elearning

• Images are processed directly by the long term memory and are able to be stored for longer.
• Text is processed by the short term memory and can only hold around seven bits of info. 
• Visuals are processed 60,000 x faster than text.
• 40% of nerve fibres are linked to the retina

THE IDEA OF INCLUDING VISUALS INTO LEARNING

- could this be the way to go

- need to investigate this more

Visual aids can be defined in two ways: as a picture or a diagram you show learners to help their understanding, or in a broader sense as anything you show learners in a classroom to do this.

- what defines the classroom?

"A room in which students or pupils are taught."

Room

- area

- place

- capacity 

- expanse

- range

- vastness

A Place:

- neighborhood

- region

- situation

- town

- area

- community

- home

- spot

Very broad, a room is a place and a place is pretty much anywhere. So a classroom could be anywhere you have people learning. 

Study into whether creating visual explanations improves learning:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5256450/

We compared learning from creating visual or verbal explanations for two STEM domains, a mechanical system (bicycle pump) and a chemical system (bonding). Both kinds of explanations were analysed for content and learning assess by a post-test. For the mechanical system, creating a visual explanation increased understanding particularly for participants of low spatial ability. For the chemical system, creating both visual and verbal explanations improved learning without new teaching. Creating a visual explanation was superior and benefited participants of both high and low spatial ability.