Humans are visual creatures and therefore a picture is worth a thousand words. David Williams, Director of the University of Rochester Center for Visual Science, says ‘more than 50% of the cortex, the surface of the brain, is devoted to processing visual information’ (Hagen, 2012). The brain processes visual information faster than most other kinds. According to neuroscientist Mary C. Potter, it takes as little as 13 milliseconds to process and understand an image in the brain (Potter, Wyble, Hagmann and McCourt, 2013). This is an adaptation that has helped the species to both survive and thrive. Human intake of visual information is enormous. The speed with which we can identify the meaning of visual information can help us to know where to look next and how to react, if necessary.

Processing visuals

Complex visual information can take additional time to process, but it still happens very quickly. Changes in the visual from one moment to the next may need to be analyzed to understand what has changed and how that change might dictate a reaction. Small changes in our visual landscape can equate to life-changing threats. This is what makes the processing of visual information a matter of survival in some cases.

Visuals seen once, very quickly, without context, tend to be held for only a short time in the short-term memory. As more brain time is given to the analysis of an image, more links are forged with already stored information. The new image and its associated links are eventually given space in long-term memory, where they can be called on when needed.

Visual literacy is a big part of media literacy because much of the information we receive is visual in format. Pictures supply information that can enhance text and or stand alone. We often translate data and text into pictures of various kinds to take advantage of the human brain's ability to grasp information in visual formats. ‘For people around the world, the photograph is a document that conveys truth and reality, while preserving history … While photography can be an important instrument to record reality and document our present and past, it is also a device that can mislead and be misused’ (Kellner and Share, 2019, 47).

Visual phenomena are seen differently in various situations and by different onlookers. This is both the strength and weakness of images.