For example, here’s some great visualization techniques and best practices: Visualization must not remain a mere exercise – it needs to be put into practice in order to improve the speed of understanding. Repeat the exercise, but change the environment (or change the season) for a different experience. To make the visualization even more real, allow all your senses to work to the fullest – concentrate not only on what is seen, but also on the sounds and even the smells in this particular environment. Concentrate on the details in your chosen environment. Place Exercise: Think of an environment and place yourself in it. Repeat the exercise a number of times, each time using a different person. For each location/situation, picture the person with a different facial expression. Try to picture them in the mind’s eye, in different locations/situations. Person Exercise: Choose a person you know well. Repeat this exercise with different objects, for optimal results. Zoom in (to focus on details) and zoom out (to observe its surroundings). Also, see the environment where the object is. Then, in your mind’s eye begin to rotate the object to visualize details from different angles. Close your eyes and mentally see the object. Object Exercise: Take an object and examine all its details. How does it compare to your visualization of it? Repeat this exercise until you get the hang of it. Try to remember colors, background, foreground, details. Then close your eyes and recreate the picture in your mind. Picture Exercise: Carefully study a picture. The ultimate result is highly effective visualization that may be used to understand complex concepts more quickly. These simple visualization exercises expand one’s ability to imagine and boost creativity significantly.

Not only is understanding enhanced, but recall will also be boosted. The more this skill is deliberately practiced, the more visualization becomes automatic. However, to the vast majority of us, visualization is an ability that can indeed be utilized and even perfected through practice. It is interesting to note that research into visual imagery suggests that people with Aphantasia (the inability to form images in the mind) experience difficulties with learning. Visualization improves the speed of understanding, possibly because of the dual coding that takes place when a concept is not only perceived in the form of a text, but also as an image. Research also shows that visualizing an action, even while your body is at rest, may stimulate the neural pathways in your brain just as though you were actually doing the action! It, therefore, comes as no surprise that mental imagery helps us to grasp abstract concepts and accelerates understanding. We also know that images play a vital role in memory retention – a phenomenon known as the Picture Superiority Effect. Visualization is powerful! Physiology experts are of the opinion that a healthy individual’s visual system processes about 70% of their total sensory input. Consequently, those who make use of visualization have an advanced ability to understand, learn, and remember. When words are consciously used to create mental images, understanding is accelerated. Visualization refers to our ability to create pictures in our heads based on what we read or hear.

Visualized learning