Lesson Content - Expository Literature

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Converting WordsInto Pictures

Visualize the word you want to spell

The human brain is divided into two hemispheres; left andright. Each hemisphere has specialized capabilities and eachprocesses different types of information. The left hemisphereoperates in a rational, analytical manner. It processes verbalinformation. It is the seat of language and logical thinking. Itorganizes and categorizes information. The right hemisphereoperates in an intuitive, holistic manner. It processes visualand spatial information. It is the seat of creativity andimagination. It combines separate elements to form coherentwholes.Note taking, lecturing, reading, and analytical thought areleft-brain skills. Recognizing patterns, configurations, shapes,and forms; intuitive thought; and visualization are right-brainskills. Students spend most of their time developing left-brain(verbal) skills. Those students who are also thinkingpictorially, focusing on the whole instead of on separateparts, and trusting intuition, are taking advantage of both of the ways in which the brain makes learning possible.According to Allan Paivio of the University of WesternOntario, who has done a great deal of research on memory,if you commit facts and ideas to memory through words only,you are using only half of your brainpower.1 When a fact oridea that you memorized through words (and stored in theleft hemisphere of your brain) is also memorized through apicture or sketch (and is stored in the right hemisphere of your brain), you set up a powerful combination in yourmemory. You can draw on this combination later when youneed to recall the fact or idea.For holistic learning to take place, the left side of your brainmust cooperate and harmonize with the right side. Thiscooperation is easy to gain if you make it a habit to convertwords into actual pictures or diagrams in your notes, or toconvert words into mental pictures or images on the

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