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Cognitive Broadband: When Visual Information Enhances Cognition

March 24, 2010 By Dr. Pamela Rutledge 1 Comment
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It would be no surprise to the Max Wertheimer and the other Gestalt psychologists that visual displays can deliver complex information so effectively.  I think of it as “cognitive broadband.” Journalist LaToya Egwuekwe created a progressive data display of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unemployment numbers that delivers a powerful message. (See “The Decline: The Geography of a Recession,”)  So powerful, in fact that it went viral from YouTube to CNN.  (The orginal site has  more impact than the YouTube version embedded below.)

Beyond the implications of the unemployment numbers, however staggering and moving, there is an underlying and very important message about education in the 21st Century.  I’m on board with all the STEM initiatives (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) but the missing ingredient in this push is synthesis.  As people either celebrate or lament, we have no shortage of data.  Finding out stuff is no longer a scarce resource.  Making sense of it all is.  The ability to think visually and spatially–not just linearly–is essential to understanding a world where facts are more plentiful than problems and where innovation is necessary for solutions and creating growth.  We are conditioned to accepting the process of education as the successful accumulation of facts.  Facts by themselves have no meaning until they are synthesized into a narrative. When was the last time a  BLS numbers release made it to YouTube?

Filed Under: Cognition, Psychology Tagged With: ,

Using Cell Phones and Video Games to Solve Social Problems

February 18, 2010 By Dr. Pamela Rutledge Leave a Comment
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I am always on the lookout for media technologies that are used in positive ways. Here are two examples coming from completely different angles.

Information Radically Improves Economic Viability

The Manobi foundation uses technology to provide rural farmers in Africa with current market prices. I have written about them before because what they are doing is so remarkably powerful. This video describes the Manobi foundation program that exponentially increased the earning power and transformed the lives of Senegalese farmers and their families.

Learning from Video Games

The following example comes from the 2010 TED conference, with game designer Jane McGonigal talking about the prosocial potential for video and online games.  While the prosocial game, Evoke, is a great application, more important are the positive cognitive shifts in perception that come from game playing.  All of the impacts are right out of the positive psychology handbook: increased problem-solving, engagement, persistence, resilience, and sense of self-efficacy.  All of these skills are essential for both a successful career and a fulfilling life.

Filed Under: Culture & Society, Psychology Tagged With: , , , ,

Using Cognitive Efficiency in Visual Data: Crisis Mapping in Haiti

January 15, 2010 By Dr. Pamela Rutledge Leave a Comment
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Crisis Mapping in HaitiThis is an example of a brilliant use of social media.  I learned about this from one of may favorites Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofit Organizations Can Use Social Media to Power Social Networks for Change. Ushahidi are mapping crisis information from Haiti. They have integrated various data input sources, SMS, email, or web, and visually translated it onto a map.  It’s extraordinarily impactful because 1) it visually translates data into a cognitively efficient communication form and 2) it’s interactive in both directions–you can get information and you can post new. If seeing  it moves you to take positive action, there are ways to donate on the site.  From Beth’s blog:

They [Ushahid] also have a list of charitable organizations/ngos doing work in Haiti that need  donations – like Partners in Health. If you want donate, make sure you keep your scam filter active … You can also text to give to the American Red Cross: Text HAITI to 90999 donate $10 to the Red Cross for Haiti efforts. You can donate $10 up to three times, and 100% of the donations will reach the Red Cross Foundation. This effort is run by Mobile Accord. $3 million has already been donated.  MobileActive has an aggregated list of places to donate or find additional information.

This is media psychology at its best!

Filed Under: Cognition, Psychology, Social Media & Networks

Five Things to Remember about Social Media

December 1, 2009 By Dr. Pamela Rutledge Leave a Comment
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2009-12-01-adage_skierIf you had any doubts about the impact social networking tools and social media have on the world as we know it, watch this Advertising Age video of Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz talk about the changes they’ve made in their approach to reaching skiers and snow enthusiasts. While this is a great example of responsive and proactive marketing, it reveals bigger trends about how social media technologies are changing the way people interact with information and how that impacts their behavior.

Five Things to Remember About Social Media

  1. A picture is worth a thousand words but a video says it all. Video is a powerful communication tool. That seems obvious, of course. Humans process information from images far more efficiently than words alone. Video is an image on speed-it engages different sensory inputs and delivers an image stream. Social media allows for the distribution of videos to be immediate, targeted, personal, and accessible on-demand through YouTube, emails, mobile devices, and websites. Websites, in fact, may be the distribution dinosaurs of the bunch because people have to go to the site to find stuff. New tools are making it easier and easier to bring information to us, not matter where we are.
  2. Honey we shrunk the time. The acceptable time lag for receiving information has radically shortened. Our expectations are now that we can (and should) get what we want to know right away. Decisions are made with real-time information. Who wants to book a ski vacation three months ahead and find out when you arrive that the snow’s no good? The implications of this for your customers is that if you can’t make good information easily and quickly available, they are going to be frustrated and it will reflect on their opinions about the competence and reliability of you, your product or your service. It doesn’t matter if you sell ski vacations or boob jobs.2009-12-01-timeclock
  3. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. The expectation to have real time information for our decision-making means we expect transparency, authenticity, and, heaven forbid, honesty. And we don’t just expect it about products we buy. We expect it from politicians, doctors, friends, and service institutions. If we don’t get it, we feel disrespected. There is no trust-and no business-where there is a perception of disrespect.
  4. Together again for the first t ime. This new environment has to be part of your strategy whether it’s for marketing or media literacy. You can’t separate social media from marketing and management and successfully run a business any more than you can separate content production and user-choice from critical thinking about message analysis in media literacy training.2009-12-01-network
  5. It’s the system, stupid. Social media is based on networks. If you hear the word “system,” and still think it’s a con or a n institution independent of you, you need to reorient. It is no longer possible to act in isolation. We are part of a system that all works together–for better or worse. Just like supply and demand, we are in this together. More importantly, systems have very different properties than unidirectional information flows. Messages travel across network hubs and nodes. This means that everytime information hits a hub, it automatically disseminates information to all its nodes. Imagine how germs spread in a room full of kindergartners and you’ll get the idea.

Rob Katz is a smart guy. By empowering his customers with current and accurate information about ski conditions, rates, and services, he is building a deeper, richer, and much more reciprocal relationship with them than he ever could have with ads in Condé Nast traveler. Using social media this way develops relationships based on trust and providing value rather than selling. Priceless.

Filed Under: Psychology, Social Media & Networks Tagged With:

What Courses Should I Take to Study Media Psychology?

November 4, 2009 By Dr. Pamela Rutledge 1 Comment
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Wondering what courses make up a media psychology curriculum is common particularly among people thinking about the next steps in their education.   Recently a young woman from Athlone High School for Girls in South Africa posed this  question, so I am sharing my response here.  It is exciting to hear that people all around the world are becoming aware of the importance of psychology in addressing media and technology in our daily lives.

Media psychology, while based in psychology, is transdisciplinary.  You will want a working understanding of several areas of psychology, sociology, and (surprise!) design.  You will also want good communication skills and actual (not theoretical) experience with media applications.  Each person develops their own interests that will involve more targeted learning.

Start with a broad view of psychology, including developmental, cognitive, and social. When you are thinking about how people use, develop or are impacted by media, developmental psychology helps you to understand how people develop, change, and mature and the differences that makes in how they perceive the world. Cognitive psychology looks at how people think–including the physical nature of processing information of all kinds (words, images, sounds) through the senses, how that gets our attention, and influences how we learn, are persuaded, and become engaged. It also looks at the qualitative side–how individuals interpret or make meaning out of all that information based on our individual experiences and culture.

Social psychology and sociology examine different aspects of the behavior of individuals as they connect with groups, group behaviors, networks and network behaviors, and the sense of self and place that are part of our social and personal identities. It also looks at broader social implications of society as groups, institutions, and nations. 

From there, two areas that I find particularly relevant are Narrative Psychology and Positive Psychology.  I find Narrative Psychology very useful because stories are how we connect the dots when we try to understand things.   Positive Psychology contributes to understanding how strengths, self-efficacy, hope, and resilience can be important factors in the development of prosocial media.

Good communication skills are very important so that you know how to get your message across. The best understanding of psychology and media in the world won’t help if you can’t communicate your thoughts.

As technology changes, we must be more innovative, intuitive, and creative. Design brings together disparate elements in new and exciting ways.

And finally, learning how media is produced, how technology tools work, and how the technology influences content and our interaction with it and each other is very important. The tools change often, but the fundamental issues of people and message construction will continue to apply.  Media psychology is an applied field, promoting the understanding of media technologies, their impact, and their potential.  Philosophically, the media psychologists I know are actively engaged in the positive development and use of media technologies for everything from education to social change.

Filed Under: Education, Psychology
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