The Polemics of Visual Thinking:

Gestalt Psychology 3

Gestalt psychology offers a very different approach which comes to the basic conclusion that language is simply employed in describing the inner visual world. Undoubtedly this is true for some. But many individuals rely on language for their inner dialogues. A study of the general population showed that 13% of the population relies on language for their internal cognitive dialogues, the same percentage relies on imagery - and the majority of the remaing population relies on a mixture of the two. A small percent even said that they couldn't identify any distinct sensory mode used in their internal dialogues.

To return to the question of scientific imagery momentarily, Anne Roe, in a study entitled The Making of a Scientist found that the majority of hard scientist, such as biologists and physicists, used visual modes for cognitive representation, whereas social scientists seemed to prefer language-based modes. Still others, interestingly, stated that their thought processes could not be described in terms of "any sensory modality". (John-Steiner: p.85) ". . .[N]o single, universal hierarchy exists in the modalities of thought which characterizes all human beings." This is enormously imporatant to remember when attempting to shape a curriculum for universal education.

Abilities and preferences vary from individual to individial - it would be an error to attempt to force every one into a visual mode of thinking. visual thinkers in thsi society, however, are not allowed the same priveledge, in terms of being forced into labgauge-based thinking, if they want to be considered competant members of their society. they are not allowed to remain illerate members of the society - they cannot function without labguage. the language-based individual can ignore any serious decoding of imagery and without pause, state simply: "I can't draw". it is not necessary to prove the dominence of one mode over the other - but to instruct our children in both, to make them both visually and lingually "literate".

As Gyorgy Kepes states in the The Language of Vision:

"Before one begins to use the visual for the communication of a concrete message, [s]he should learn the greatest variety of spatial sensations inherent in the realtionships of these forces acting on the picture surface. The stroing up of such varied experience is the most important part of the training for visual expression." (Kepes: p.23)

I would empasize that a competant level of visual expression, as well as varbal literacy, should be the goal for very individual - not simply the budding artist. Once again, I stress literacy, in multiple mediums, not an attempt to force everyone into expressing themselves through a highly complex visual mode. It is merely the choice between various mediums that I propose - that each medium will be considered on par with each other. This will not be an easy task, since ". . the shaping of a visual langiage of communication is a slow, developmental process." (John-Steiner: p.91), but then who ever claimed the aquistion of reading and writing language was anything else besides a "slow, developmental process"?