Information and communication technologies in schools: a ...

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ICT IN SCHOOLS
A HANDBOOK FOR TEACHERS
Visual cognition and creative thinking
Visualization of inner mental imagery and the outer graphic presentation of reality
in pictures, drawings, diagrams, lists, and charts is a fundamental part of creativity,
discovery, invention, and problem solving. The vital importance of visualization is
affirmed by the fact that a surprisingly large proportion of the human cortex is
devoted to vision and visual analysis, and that the bandwidth of the visual channel
is greater than that of any other sense. In many instances, the eye, and those parts
of the brain that process visual information, lay the foundation for enhancing conscious
thinking, which in turn, grows from our preconscious mental activity.
To take full advantage of the capabilities of the eye, the goal of visualization
should be objectification. This means that a phenomenon, inherently visual or
not, should be represented as having form, colour, texture, motion and other
qualities of objects.
Inductive thinking relies to a great extent upon the human ability to visualize
on this preconscious level. Major portions of the visual system including the
retina, the structures ascending to the visual cortex, and parts of the visual cortex
itself fall into the preconscious category. More powerful than a supercomputer,
these functional entities relentlessly perform information-processing miracles,
creating a three-dimensional, coloured visual environment that our conscious
self exploits in a logical way to serve definite practical purposes. Our conceptual
images are constantly being analyzed at a preconscious level, and produce
useful data for establishing spatial relations, making conscious representations
and building plans. In other words, the outcomes of these subliminal mental
activities become the elements, tools, and procedures of rational thinking.
This is where computers make an enormous difference. When we visualize
with the help of computers, video camcorders, and big-screen high-resolution
projection, we restructure a problem situation so that more of it can be processed
by the preconscious part of our brain – the visual system that is our silent partner.
In this way, consciousness can be devoted to higher levels of critical analysis
and synthesis. Especially interesting, are virtual worlds that model nothing but
themselves, as do many games, chess among them. Nevertheless, by representing
spatially the system of abstract relations between chessmen on a chessboard,
a professional chess player can think in images. Similarly, it is also possible to
visualize on a computer screen the spatial interrelations of elementary predicates
and, consequently, to represent complex formulas of predicate logic (Bederson
and Shneiderman 2003; Card, MacKinlay, and Shneiderman 1990; Friedhoff and
Benzon 1989; Rieber 1995).