ABSTRACT
For decades now, the average I.Q. in industrialized nations has been increasing-and the increase is greatest in the areas of visual intelligence.1 One possible explanation of this phenomenon is the increasingly richer visual environment we all encounter every day.2 One hundred years ago, the visual stimuli encountered by most people included the natural physical world, paintings and sculpture, and perhaps an occasional map, diagram, or chart. Today, we spend many hours a day engaged with visual media, whether it be television, YouTube®* videos, the Internet, PowerPoint®† presentations, or podcasts. Most people today get their news via television or the Internet rather than from a newspaper. We have become increasingly adept at processing visual information. Yet many manuals contain far more textual material than visual.
