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.
