Reasoning and critical thinking are two of the six learning goals WSU has set forth for its baccalaureate students. But efforts to implement these goals are too often blind to the importance of their visual aspect, says Jayme Jacobson, a graphic designer in the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) who holds a master’s degree in experimental psychology.
Jacobson believes all reasoning is inherently visual, and many times people are not taught how to do it.
“Visual reasoning is a vital part of critical thinking,” she said. “Translating ideas into a visual format requires reasoning that is as complex as translating ideas into mathematical or linguistic formats.
“Consider scientific fields, where results are often communicated through poster sessions,” she said. “If scientists aren’t well versed in how to get their message across, it can really have an impact. Many disciplines offer little, if any, training in visual media. That needs to change.
“We have been discussing how the CTLT might facilitate an interdisciplinary dialogue about improving not only visual communication skills but also visual reasoning,” she said.
Last summer, she spent a week in France studying the cognitive basis of scientific images. Many of the attendees were philosophers of science or had an interdisciplinary focus. Jacobson approaches image research from a different angle.
“Most of the people who study the relationship between art and visual perception are scientists who are interested in art,” she said. “But I’m coming from the other direction.”
Jacobson, who has worked for CTLT for five years, hopes to bring some of the cutting-edge imagery discussion from the seminar back to the Palouse.
“My goal is to encourage a cross-disciplinary discussion about visual communication at WSU similar to what I experienced in France,” Jacobson said.
She plans to conduct visual perception experiments in a lab and to collaborate with some of the European researchers she met.
“I would like to see a change in the concept of images as primarily decorative,” she said. “The ability to communicate with visual media requires exercising the kind of multidimensional reasoning that is becoming important in many disciplines outside the traditional ‘art’ fields.”
