"Sailing"

Abstract

The use of the visual process for the perception and assimilation of ideas is well recognized by educators, psychologists, as well as computer scientists. The popularity of movies and television and the concomitant growth in visual literacy of the viewers of these media are two factors exploited by those who wish to communicate ideas using these media. The world which comes across on the movie or TV screen is the camera's eye view of the visual world (as opposed to our visual field, that which our eyesight and brain perceive of the visual world, or reality, see Gibson); and as such it is an image of reality. This can include images of beautiful scenery, complex human interactions, or of a printed page illustrating a lecture. Any ideas which are communicated by these devices, while relying upon imagery, tend to inform the viewer by creating the illusion that he is there, so how and why would he act, or they inform him by straightforward strings from some generally accepted language (as in the case of a screen full of text). Bruner, a cognitive theorist, feels that information acquisition proceeds through three stages:1. Enactive---using personal action2. Iconic---perceptual organization and integration of images3. Symbolic---using a language or accepted set of representations