Dual-coding theory: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:53, 21 December 2006

Revision as of 19:54, 21 December 2006

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'''Dual-code theory''' a theory of cognition was first advanced by [[Allan Paivio]] of the University of Western Ontario. The theory posits that both visual and verbal information are processed differently and along distinct channels with the human mind creating separate representations for information processed in each channel. Both imagined and verbal codes for representing information is used to organize incoming information into knowledge that can be acted upon, stored, and retrieved for subsequent use.

According to Paivio, mental images are analogue codes, while the verbal representation of words are symbolic codes. '''Analogue codes''' represent the physical stimuli we observe in our environment, such as trees and rivers. These codes are a form of knowledge representation that retains the main perceptual features of what is being observed. '''Symbolic codes''', on the other hand, are a form of knowledge representation chosen to represent something arbitrarily, as opposed to perceptually. Similar to the way a watch may represent information in the form of numbers to display the time, symbolic codes representsrepresent information in our mind in the form of arbitrary symbols, like words and combinations of words, to represent several ideas. Each symbol (x, y, 1, 2, etc.) can arbitrarily represent something other than itself. For instance, the letter x is often used to represent more than just the concept of an x, the 24th letter of the alphabet. It can be used to represent a variable x in mathematics, or a multiplication symbol in an equation. Concepts like multiplication can be represented symbolically by a x because we arbitrarily assign it a deeper concept. Only when we use it to represent this deeper concept does the letter x carry this type of meaning.

== '''Support For This Theory''' ==