Visual Literacy is an acquired skill!
I spent the morning looking at articles published in the Journal of Visual Literacy. One of the more surprising (and interesting) articles covered the results of a recent study of the visual literacy skills of Millennial learners. The article was entitled Visual Literacy and the Digital Native: Another Look.
The survey research, which was conducted by Emanuel and Challons-Lipton and published in 2013, examined whether 358 college students (Millennials) were able to correctly identify 5 well-known photographs (like the attack on the Twin Towers in 2001), 5 common symbols (like the Facebook logo), and 5 "famous" paintings (like Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh). The researchers were interested in exploring the students' ability to correctly identify common symbols, photos, and paintings because Millennials have been raised with a variety of digital media and consequently are considered to be more "visually aware" than prior generations. The study indicated that, in general, the students were not able to accurately identify the photos, symbols, or paintings. 27% of the respondents said that they recognized all 5 of the photographs, whereas 23% said they recognized all of the symbols, and 3% recognized all of the paintings. Unfortunately, the participants in the study were somewhat overconfident about their ability to identify visual images. The researchers found that only 14% of the respondents were able to correctly identify the photographs, only 4% were able to identify all of the symbols (correctly), and only 1% was able to correctly identify all of the paintings! So, basically, their confidence in their ability to correctly identify these images was somewhat inflated.
What are your thoughts about the results of this study? Do you think this was a fair assessment of visual literacy? If you participated in a similar study, do you think you would you be able to identify the images?
If you are interested in reading the complete study, you can access it through the JMU Libraries:
Emanuel, R. & Challons-Lipton, S. (2013) Visual Literacy and the Digital Native: Another Look. Journal of Visual Literacy, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 7-26.
That is really surprising to me! I wouldn't expect that all college students know famous paintings, but it seems like they used really iconic paintings and photographs. I wonder if some of the results can be attributed to the fact that students are exposed to so many more images now than when I was there age. Could some of it be simple "informational overload?" Also, from my interactions with students, it seems that there is an overall emphasis on less memorization. Most students now have the ability to look up most any fact on their phones, which are usually always handy. They might have learned of a famous painting in art class, however, might not feel compelled to memorize who painted it because it is so easy to look up. Very interesting study. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete**their** Sorry, should have done a better job of proofreading!
ReplyDeleteI'm actually not super surprised at the overconfidence in the responses. If I'm understanding correctly, 27% said they recognized all of the photos while only 14% actually identified them accurately. The assumption of the researchers is that because millennials have been exposed to more visual media they are more visually literate. I would think that since millennials are exposed to so much, they actually are less literate because of the overexposure- like what Ms. Creasy is saying above. The importance of teaching visual literacy becomes far more important- but is often overlooked.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amanda and Ms. Creasy with the "system overload" idea. There is so much information to be accessed, how do you know what pieces of information to record in your memory? On the other hand, with such easy access, why should you need to? With high speed internet accessibility on our mobile phones, do we not essentially have an external hard drive for our memory?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I believe there is a difference between recognizing a symbol, and having the schema and synapses to connect that symbol to it's correct text label.
I would be curious to see the exact images, logos, and painting to test myself. However, the results of this study don't surprise me.
ReplyDeleteThough the younger generations have access to such visual images, they also have unlimited access to a mound of images, logos, and paintings. They are probably running the risk of visual overload and therefore would find it more difficult to identify exactly where they recognize images or logos from. I doubt it was a fair assessment of the generation.
In my eyes, a fair assessment of the generation would be using visual paths that have been readily available and accessible to their age range. Sadly, the painting realm in general doesn't carry much weight nowadays until college art classes. I think using visual platforms that relate more closely to their daily lives would be more effective; such as app icons (powerpoint, amazon, google chrome, etc..)
I may have gotten 4/5 on the logo and picture areas, but I know I'm not painting savvy so I would have been lucky to get a Starry Night.
I too agree with a lot of what Ms. Creasy said, and I'm not really too surprised at the results of the study. Like Ms. Creasy had stated, it is likely millennials do not really feel urged to know what certain paintings, symbols, or photos are, because they can likely look it up quickly via their phone/laptop. In regards to not being really surprised at the results, I know for me, the only reason I know a few famous paintings is because I took art in high school and was exposed to them that way. Some courses in art history might have helped as well, but its likely that not all millennials have taken such courses. Like Leah said, I'd probably be lucky if I could guess "Starry Night" correctly.
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