Representation and Manipulation of Knowledge - Essay Example

There is no right or wrong in choosing which coding you prefer. What is important is how you make use of the coding style that you use. With the style of coding you choose, learning and memory can be improved; knowledge can widen; and perception may be altered in a positive and resourceful manner.

Visual and verbal coding are the styles of coding that each individual uses for him to get back to his memory when needed. However, choosing one of these types is under one’s own will. Though there is no right or wrong in choosing one’s desired style, it would still be up to that individual on how he makes use of what he has chosen. With whatever style he chooses, this should positively help him by making him a better person in several ways; not to make him dysfunctional that may lead to making him a lesser person.

Visual coding is a lot more practical for the right-brain thinkers. A right-brain thinker is usually random, intuitive, synthesizes holistically, is subjective, and looks at wholes (McCarthy, 2008). In the manner that they possess, visual coding styles like drawings, charts, and graphical representations of things might look more appealing. An example is when a person who falls under this thinking mechanism is asked regarding the shape of an egg, he might as well draw an egg rather than explain its shape (Sternberg, 2009). I believe that having its graphical representation seems better for right-brain thinkers because I am a right-brain thinker myself. Explaining things verbally and looking into the smallest, yet vital details of an object do exhaust me. Having them on words makes it a little too complicated for me.

Left brain thinkers on the other hand prefer verbal coding for they are logical, sequential, rational, analytical, objective, and can look into the parts of a whole (McCarthy, 2008). With this, explaining different phenomena in detail is more helpful to them for they can say what they want without any details missed. For example, when asked what is “justice”, they will rather explain it than make concrete examples and the like (Sternberg, 2009). 

I am not saying that right-brain thinkers are stuck in visual coding. But this style of memory-coding makes it a lot easier for them to express what they want people to know. If examples are to be interchanged, “justice”, though can be explained through words, may be explained by right-brain thinkers as a weighing scale, rather than having it verbally. The same goes with left-brain thinkers. When asked what an egg is, though drawn, they will rather explain it as “what it is”.

These two codes can help improve one’s knowledge if used effectively. Each of these codes is functional according to how they should be used. An individual cannot withstand a single code alone. Though one coding style is often used, the other should never be neglected. A concrete example of this is eating. Of course, we use a fork in eating spaghetti, and a spoon in sipping our soup. But sometimes, even if we are comfortable in using a spoon or a fork alone, when the time comes that we are to eat at a fine dining restaurant which serves lots of varieties of food, we are “obliged” to use the spoon-and-fork simultaneously; and most of the time, with the spoon, the fork, and the steak knife altogether.

For learning and knowledge improvement, visual is to verbal as to verbal is to visual. They are like mechanical gears; one cannot work without the other.