Cognitive Power of Visual Images

Abstract

In the last century the development and transfer of knowledge had relied primarily on verbal language, a communication tool ideal for reflection, meditation, comprehension, analysis and the research of the know-why. No more than a dozen images are contained in the classical Course of Theoretical Physics by Lev Landau and Evgeny Lifshitz, a series of ten volumes used in the last century as a basic reference for three generations of physicists. Since the Eighties the development of technology has facilitated the production and dissemination of images. The visual language stimulates perception, promotes the acquisition of a synthesis and know-how, overcomes language barriers. And the communication by images facilitates the process of globalization, which in turn helps to stimulate it. Objective of this paper is to shed light on the cognitive power of the visual technical images. We’ll focus on two classes of images: the ambiguous images as tool for the transfer of knowledge, and the fractal images as source of knowledge.