(highlight:: Why Visual Explanations of Ideas Are Better Than Verbal Representations
Key takeaways:
• The group that created visual explanations outperformed the group that created verbal explanations.
• Visual explanations included more structural, functional, and causal information.
• Making a diagram allows for inference and provides a check for completeness and coherence.
• Visual explanations encourage abstraction and identifying essential information.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
But what interested and excited us was that the group that had made visual explanations did far better than the group that had done verbal explanations. And we expected this for the structural information. We divided the information into information about the structure of the molecules and the function, the action, the causation. And we thought making a visual explanation requires you to put down the structure. Surely students will put more of that information into the visual explanation than the verbal. And we found that. But to our surprise, we also found better representations of the behavior, of the function, of the causality in the system, in the visual explanations than the verbal. So we started thinking, why does this happen? And one reason we think is that making a diagram gives you a platform for inference. You can make inferences about the behavior from the structure. So you've got the structure you can make inferences. Another is that it gives you a check for completion. You know all the parts are there because if they weren't, it wouldn't be coherent, it wouldn't make sense. So having the diagrammatic representation gives you a check for the coherence and the completeness of the information. One word after another doesn't do that as easily. The check for coherence and completeness. So we thought those were the reasons that the visual explanations did so well. There are check for coherence, a check for completeness, and a platform for inference. They also force you to abstract, to find the essentials and put those down. Now in some sense, language can do that too, but it apparently doesn't do it as well. That getting things in this diagrammatic form really does force you to be more abstract.)
- Time 0:27:51
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(highlight:: The Use of Visuals in Writing to Summarize and Reinforce Concepts
Key takeaways:
• Truth tables in logic were developed by the ancient Greeks and are useful for visualizing relationships in a clear way.
• Using visual devices such as chapter headings and parallel structure in paragraphs can enhance the reader's understanding.
• Graphic books integrate various forms of text and visuals seamlessly, highlighting their potential for effective communication.
• Integrating tables and captions into textual content can enhance the overall design and artistry of a piece.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
But he pointed out that truth tables in logic, which were developed by the ancient Greeks, are tables, that things are lined up in columns and rows, and that that enables you to see the Relationships much more clearly than if they were in continuous text. So does that mean that when we're writing in continuous text, or we're writing a book or a document that we should use some sort of visual to summarize or reinforce what we've written, Not only allowing the reader to sort of scan and find the relationship and then reinforce that with maybe more detail and nuance in the writing, but also to allow a bit of space repetition Between what we just told them in words and allowing them to see it visually. Oh, yes. And again, it's there anyway. Chapter headings are usually lower. And paragraphs have some sort of parallel structure in them, or we're taught to use paragraphs in that way. So the visual devices are there anyway, but using them more to advantage is probably a good idea. I've become a huge fan of graphic books, exactly because they integrate so beautifully, it texts of various forms, not just words. There are all kinds of textual components to comics that aren't traditional words, but also visuals of many types, and they can be integrated seamlessly. And I've tried to do that when I write articles to not have table one, table two, each with a caption, but to have it integrated into the text, and editors never let me do it. So it's going to happen soon, because there are more and more graphic books, and I think people are seeing how beautifully they can be designed, and what artistry, both conceptual and Visual go into it.)
- Time 0:35:53
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(highlight:: The Illusion of Knowledge: Consuming Abstractions v.s. Having Firsthand Knowledge
Key takeaways:
• When consuming information, we often consume abstractions.
• Abstractions are one person's idea of the salient points.
• Consuming other people's abstractions can create an illusion of knowledge.
• There is a difference between an earned abstraction and a learned abstraction.
• When things go wrong, the creator of the abstraction can instantly identify the problem.
• To understand an abstraction, it is important to decompose it and ask for firsthand knowledge.
• Getting close to the person who created the abstraction is ideal for understanding it.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
When we consume information, a lot of the times we're consuming the abstraction. These diagrams are the abstraction. They're the salient points, but they're one person's idea of what the salient points are. That's not my encoding of it. That's their encoding of it. I think of consuming other people's abstractions as the illusion of knowledge. I'm the line cook, not the chef, to use an example from a friend of mine, Tim Urban, which is when things go right, I look like a genius. I follow the recipe and everything works out. And because I've consumed the abstraction, the recipe in this example, everything turned out right. I know what I'm doing, but when things go wrong, the chef who has distilled the experience, the reflection to create the recipe that has gone through the thousands of trial and errors, Will taste it and be like, oh, this needs more salt. You used too high of heat. And instantly, they will know what the problem is because they've got the abstraction, but it's almost like an earned abstraction versus a learned abstraction. And that's really interesting because it changes when we're consuming information, we're consuming a lot of these abstractions. We assume their knowledge and we assume there are knowledge and we put them into practice. And when they don't work, we don't know why. And the way to go back up this chain is to actually decompose it and ask people, well, how did you come to these conclusions? What variables were important to you? And you need firsthand knowledge, not second, third or fourth. And so you want to get as close to the person who had the original experience or created the abstraction.)
- Time 1:02:00
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(highlight:: Consuming Abstractions is Necessary: Learned v.s. Earned Knowledge
Key takeaways:
• Abstractions are necessary.
• Consuming other people's abstractions is important.
• Earned knowledge involves learning through experience and diving into details.
• Decisions should consider the cost of failure.
• When the cost of failure is low, learned knowledge is appropriate.
• When the cost of failure is high, earned knowledge should be used.
• Strive towards earned knowledge for higher cost decisions.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
Abstractions are necessary. We need to consume other people's abstractions. We would get overwhelmed in the detail. And a different way to think about that is earned versus learned knowledge. So this is learned knowledge versus earned knowledge. Earn knowledge involves, you know, you can't necessarily be taught all the details. You have to sort of do it or embrace, you know, dive into the details. And I think where this becomes important in life is to think of decisions, for example, and cost of failure. So when the cost of failure is low, it's okay to use learned knowledge. And when the cost of failure is high, you want to make sure that you're not using learned knowledge and you're using earned knowledge. Or at least if you think of those things on a continuum, you want to be more towards earned knowledge, the more the higher cost of failure.)
- Time 1:09:09
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(highlight:: The Physical Environment Has A Heavy Influence on Our Cognition
Key takeaways:
• The physical environment can influence how we think.
• Designing the physical environment can improve our thinking.
• Externalizing the mind through diagrams, written text, and lists can improve thinking.
• The design of the world can communicate intentions without verbal communication.
• The organized and designed world can influence the minds of children.
• The environment can be used to organize behavior and determine what to approach or avoid.
• The design of the world is changing cognition.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
How does the physical environment influence how we think and if the physical environment does influence how we think, how can we design that to improve our thinking? So diagrams are one way to improve our thinking in the small. There's certainly one and even written text is a way of improving our thinking, making lists. We have so many, all those ways of externalizing mind can help bring it into the mind and improve it, especially if it's well designed. When you think about the world, you know, I can go into a supermarket in any country by food and put it on the counter. And that's a communication to the to the person at the cash register that I want to purchase those items. I don't have to talk. It's it's the way the world is designed and it's universal. Now I have to go to the automatic cash registers and find the barcode and scan it. And I can do that now in any country except China because I can't pay because I don't have the right app on my on my phone. It does change our actions in many ways that makes it more efficient. I can't help with things that babies growing up in a world where their homes are organized by thieves and where books are on a shelf in an order where toys are kept in different categories And so forth that that can't help but influence their minds. And I wish someone would study that. You know, I remember my own children and if they're in the living room, everyone's talking and playing and I'd pick up a child and walk toward the bedroom, they'd scream because they Knew they were being taken away from the social environment and put to bed. And so they knew from the organization of the house what was going to happen. If they were brought to the kitchen, they would calm down because they knew they were going to be fed. Children going up with that kind of organized designed world are certainly using the way the spaces design, the way that hunters and gatherers used the natural design of the world. And people use the environment as a way of organizing their behavior or what to approach and what to avoid. But the design world now seems to communicate so much more. Where's the door to a building? Where do you put your car, your bike or your stroller? And where is the food and so forth? So all of that, it seems to me, is changing the or is affecting the cognition of everyone around.)
- Time 1:29:59
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(highlight:: Leonardo Da Vinci Used Visual Thinking to Make Sense of Things
Transcript:
Speaker 1
Now I haven't seen sketches of other creators at the same time, but da Vinci was unique and being a creator of art and a creator of architecture, a creator of implements and so forth. So he was an engineer and an artist and he created events. He was the talent was explosive. So and similarly the use of sketches to inform him because they were for him, not for show. Although in many cases there is beautiful as the paintings because of his way of understanding. Exactly. Thank you. Yeah, it's his way of making sense and you can certainly see that today many people making sketches is their way of making sense of things of data. You display it in different ways to make sense of it.)
- Time 1:36:42
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(highlight:: Combining Disparate Information and the Importance of Perspective Taking
Transcript:
Speaker 1
We were mixing all that information in coming up with a judgment of how far things are, what directions things are, how long it will take me to get there which is confounded by means of transportation. So any of those judgments were pulling together disparate information. How do we combine it? And it's not going to be combined in a two-dimensional or even three-dimensional map nor do we have them stored in our ads. We have partial information stored in our heads and making it coherent is by no means easy. And so I called it, I said the analogy is probably to a collage. It's multi-modal. It isn't coherent in a metric sense but maybe more beautiful than a map. I want to explore one final topic today which is the importance of perspective taking in terms of how we interpret things. I know you've done some work where you get people to think creatively and one of the ways that you get them to think creatively was to ask them to think about different roles of people. So like how would a doctor use this? How would a gardener use this?)
- Time 1:42:13
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(highlight:: The Power of Roles/Perspective-Taking in Generating New Ideas
Key takeaways:
• Roles capture a significant amount of information that people know from their everyday lives.
• Thinking about different roles can greatly enhance creativity and generate more unique and rare ideas.
• Compared to mind wandering or having no specific instructions, thinking about roles resulted in the highest effectiveness in generating new uses for objects.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
So roles capture a huge amount of information that we know about just from living. Children are asked from an early age, what do you want to be when you grow up? So then their books are filled with firemen and policemen and doctors. Roles they might encounter. So we know people knew a lot about roles. So we gave people different objects, asked them to think of new uses. There were things again like umbrellas and ping pong balls. We pre-tested them to make sure that people could think easily of new uses. And one group we said just let your mind go, we use the instructions from the previous work. Another group we just told think of new uses. We didn't give them any particular instructions. That's the normal task. And the third group we said think of different roles, think of what an artist might do with it. Think of what a gardener might do with it. Think of what a policeman might. So we gave them a list of roles and said use these, think of new uses, think of their roles. And then we looked at what we got. We ran this on mechanical Turks several times and that gives us a broader range of humanity than college students and we did get a broader range. And the most effective strategy was roles by far. In fact, the mind wandering didn't differ from the no instruction group. And when we ask people how did you do it, the no instruction group said, well, I just let my mind go. But the roles group came up with far more new uses. They came up with far more new uses that were unique or rare.)
- Time 1:49:12
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(highlight:: Eliminate Decision-Making Blindspots by Changing Your Frame of Reference
Transcript:
Speaker 1
I choose to think that on the whole perspective taking enlarges the mind and increases possibilities. If you think about a lot of the cognitive biases, they come down to frame of reference. And we only have our own frame of reference. And the example that comes to mind is standing on a train and holding a ball. And the train is moving at 60 miles an hour. And relative to you, the ball is not moving because you're standing on the train. But relative to somebody watching the train go by, the ball is moving at 60 miles an hour. And we have so many blind spots because all we see is what we see in front of us. And we think that's all there is to the world. And one of the advantages to perspective taking or changing your frame of reference into a problem is that without any additional sort of information that you're coming across, you Can put yourself in somebody else's shoes, and you can change your lens into the situation. And that will reveal a little bit of your blind spots that you have from your own perspective, if you let it. And by walking around a problem almost in a three dimensional way, if you want to conceptualize it, you can sort of begin to eliminate the blind spots. And if you think of decision making, the source of all bad decision making is blind spots, because you're only acting on things that you feel are rational. So you're blind to some piece of information or some implication or some sort of future that you can't see. And by walking around and changing your frame of reference or taking a different perspective, you can learn to reduce those blind spots quite a bit.)
- Time 1:55:28
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