Evolutionary Ideas by Sam Tatam

Author:Sam Tatam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-22T07:56:29+00:00

Intuitively, we all know that our visual sense is powerful. Whether it’s a ballot paper that subtly guides our eyes where to vote, or a bee that’s drawn to the colour, size or contrast of a flower, salient signals capture our attention and aid decision making. We process visual stimulation at lightning speed, with images helping us to comprehend information efficiently. As we know from the cliché, a picture’s worth a thousand words. Once again, evolutionary processes can begin to explain our natural affinity for imagery and visual cues.

The ability to encode and remember various aspects of our visual environment must have been beneficial for survival. In fact, the processing of imagery has been so vital that, throughout human existence, our visual system has evolved to process multiple images simultaneously. In contrast, text – comprehension of which developed more recently in human history – must still be scanned one character at a time.

Simply put, our early ancestors didn’t sit around in caves writing sonnets; they drew pictures.

As Ravidat’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, an ancient story revealed itself. Painted throughout the honeycombed walls of the limestone cave was a collection instantly recognisable as bulls, horses and stags: a series of ancient artworks dating back long before Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza. The boys had discovered the Lascaux caves. Although the caves had been painted by Palaeolithic inhabitants, Ravidat’s instant comprehension helps us understand the transcendent power of imagery, not only enabling us to process information but aiding our decision making. Images make things concrete. Just as adding a decoy option can make it easier for us to compare relative choices, by increasing the concreteness of available options (particularly when faced with abstraction) we increase processing fluency, making comprehension and, ultimately, decision making, easier.

Concreteness increases processing fluency, making decisions quicker and easier.

The increased speed and ease of processing visual and concrete information has been explained by something known as dual-coding theory.149 Imagine visiting the Louvre and seeing the phenomenon that is the Mona Lisa. Because both visual and verbal information is used to code pictures, we not only recognise a smiling woman looking back at us (visual coding), we also recognise it as the Mona Lisa (verbal coding). This same processing advantage also occurs with more concrete words. For example, concrete words (like chair) activate image-based codes to a greater degree than abstract words (like equal), resulting in a processing advantage.150 Not only has providing concreteness helped to capture stories for many thousands of years, we’ll soon see it’s an adaptation that aids foreigners to safely select their sushi in Osaka. It can increase the effectiveness of modern-day safety communications, and can even help to guide appropriate decisions at recycling stations. When it comes to aiding decision making, the more concrete, the better.

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