By Cierra Crady
Introduction
As you can see, we see pictures with words and pictures 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 times a year. We visualize what we see and/or imagine. For example, if we see words and can imagine what we read in a book or magazine, this is called the Dual Coding Theory.
Read more: Why Your Brain Loves Words and Pictures: Dual Coding TheoryHow that works is that we have two brain systems:
- Verbal System – Words, language, and/or written or spoken information
- Non-verbal System – Images, mental pictures, and sensory pictures
How Students Actually Use This Theory In This New Generation
Students nowadays use social media to make visualizations and imagery of what they are looking at. So, for example, you are on TikTok and see photo slides of a meme from a movie, with captions explaining the story and words that explain what is going on. This example shows Dual Coding Theory. We use it every day without everyone realizing it. This is what makes our brain feel engaged in a topic if we “doomscroll” every night on our phones.
With our brains feeling engaged by what we look at on our cellular devices, we get so fixated and are occupied with what we look at. Some students and the youth tend to look at memes as well to imagine and relate what the topic is about (the meme image above is an example).
Not only do we scroll daily on our phones, but mostly students read stories on their phones and/or books. If the story comes in with words, they imagine what’s happening in their minds. They do this just so they can get their brain working by using their visual system.