How to Do Things with Pictures: Imagery in Visual Media as Workspace

Abstract

Some imagery in visual media permits readers to extend their minds, reducing the processing demands of a given task. Six kinds of pictures are identified that provide information as a space for external cognition. Computational imagery promotes the quantitative comparison of entities. Distinctive imagery promotes qualitative comparison. Categorical imagery suggests a category with a set of similar entities. Integrative imagery presents related entities that can be combined into one mental model. Procedural imagery describes a system’s function through cause-effect relationships among entities or components. Narrative imagery, with six distinct strategies, shows an entity changing over time. A corresponding structural framework of imagery permits a careful deconstruction of pictures into units of meaning: concepts, entities, components, attributes, adjuncts, and configurations.