Do You See What I See?

A Capstone Paper by Garrett Johns

Picture this—imagine if—think about it. The human brain is wired for thought. Sometimes without prompting, our minds race to a conclusion, make a previously unmade connection, or fill our imagination with creative visuals. Mental visualization is a powerful tool the mind can use and the discussion of it presents some unique challenges. To start, it is a completely individual experience. There’s no way for a person to show someone else what they see in their head. Additionally, everyone’s experience varies from hyperrealism to no mental imagery whatsoever. This range of experiences is fascinating and aids in the depth this research can explore.

Of course, the mind is not typically driven solely by visual thoughts. Humans learn language as they grow, and that foundation of language influences the kind of mental visualizations conjured. This paper will first establish a shared understanding of this ability and how it compares to other forms of thought like verbal and visual thinking. Following that, the capabilities of visualization will be explored in different tenses and those without the capability for visual imagery will be addressed. Now with an understanding of visualization, this research will then further examine how language plays an important role in shaping our thoughts from studies in cognitive science. Additionally, the workings of language through a lens of semiotics and the practical methods of studying mental visualization will be highlighted. Finally, with a better understanding of mental visualization and language, practical applications for mental imagery will be discussed.

Establishing an Understanding of Mental Visualization

Verbal Thinking vs. Visual Thinking

The complexities of thought have mystified humanity for centuries. That mystery has prompted us to come up with a number of different ways to categorize ourselves, seeking for comparison and companionship in the minds of others. We all want to know that there are other people who think the same way we do. Left and right brain people; type-A and type-B people; verbal and visual people. In the case of the last pairing, there may be some scientific merit. A better understanding of the differences between those who “think verbally” and those “think visually” can help us start to understand how mental visualization functions. It also presents an interesting problem in this discussion: how can the visual thinkers effectively describe verbally what they see in their heads when they are less inclined to think with words?

Our modern society has so heavily relied on verbal communication for millennia from small tribes sharing stories with one another down to the newspaper and radio. It seems that something that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom is our capacity for language. Language is thought of as the foundation for our memory and our understanding of the world. However, a recent study found that visual thinking may play a larger role in human’s capacity for memory than previously thought. Anisha Savarimuthu and R. Joseph Ponniah[1] recently found that the mind relies both on verbal as well as visual memory to develop a sense of language. They go on to describe how “visual memory turns into visual or mental imagery that acts as an offline perception in the absence of sensory input.”[2] In other words, using memory, the mind can create images that allow us to remember the past. This indicates that visual thinking is more deeply ingrained into human thought patterns and to language. Learning a language would thus be crucial in hacing a stronger memory.

Children are astonishingly good at picking up language without any structured learning. It comes naturally to them. This suggests that the human mind was wired for language from the get-go. However, other children struggle to grasp language or never come to speak at all. Those with autism are especially prone to a lack of language. It is hard to imagine the thoughts of someone who doesn’t have language as a structure, but Temple Grandin reports on her own experience growing up with autism. She describes how she thought only in pictures.

Grandin, a leading researcher in livestock and proponent of studying different ways of thinking, supports further research into visual thinking. She has written several books on the autistic mind which is helpful in understanding how the mind works. In her latest book, Visual Thinking, she discusses how as a young girl, she took a long time to develop language and was nonverbal for most of her childhood[3]. This challenge was overcome thanks to the help of her mother who was persistent in drilling her with phonics, reading, and practice in speaking. Grandin’s experience is informative in a different way of developing language. Throughout her book, she reiterates that she is first and foremost, a visual thinker. Though she has a strong capability for language, her thoughts come to her as a series of images rather than a string of words[4]. Much of her work in the field of autism advocacy and research is related to visual thinking and encouraging educational institutions to support students who think differently.

Research has also shown that the capacity for visual thinking stems from a larger, more interconnected brain tissue. Likewise, the human mind is a dense mass of interconnected nerves capable of forming complicated relationships easily. This creates a sense of consciousness and an active thinking mind[5]. Grandin discusses in her book that species with smaller mass of brain tissue likely have a more limited capacity to form complex relationships and think visually, yet we can see examples of visualization even in animals like birds. They are able to remember where their nest is, suggesting that they have some understanding of thinking in the visual space[6]. Humans with the power of language are able to comprehend larger and more complex things through the power of visualization. Combining both verbal and visual thinking, our mind can stretch into the past, explore the present, and shape the future.

Visualization in Past, Present, and Future

Understanding that the mind is both visual and verbal, we can begin to discuss the capabilities of visualization. Visualization, as previously discussed, is the capability of conjuring images in the mind without the need of a physical reference. Visualization can relate to many forms of thought such as daydreaming, imagination, dreams, problem solving, idea generation, and fantasizing. It can also function in different directions of time. Thinking toward the past, an individual can access their memory through mental imagery, reconstructing their vision of how it happened. In the present, one might imagine a scenario different from the now for a more desirable one or enhance your current surroundings with a more vivid visual. Looking forward, humans use visualization to create ideas and plans for a better future. Let’s analyze how these different processes function.

Multiple studies have recently found that memory is closely linked with a person’s ability to visualize. Stronger and more vivid memories are linked with a stronger visualization of those memories. Using an objective measuring system, a study at the University of New South Wales found that a stronger visual image in the individual’s mind is linked to the “specificity of remembered and imagined events.”[7] They were able to strongly predict the richness of an episodic memory based on the individual’s mental imagery ability.[8] From this study, we start to gain an understanding of how integral visualization is to our understanding of the world. Our own reconstruction of past events is enhanced when we have a stronger ability to see them in our heads.

On the contrary, it’s important to recognize that the mind is easily influenced. Our memory is only a reconstruction of those past events. Zenon Pylyshyn criticizes the notion that visualization is merely a mental picture appearing in the mind and likens it more to a description than an image.[9] While this criticism is meant to dismantle the idea of the mental image, it also supports the notion that language and visualization—the verbal and the visual—are closely intertwined. Perhaps it is more helpful to think of a mental visualization in this case as a recreation of something real using collected data. Say you were late to work this morning. Your mind collected data surrounding the bus’s early arrival so you can recreate the events and picture yourself running down the street as the light turns green. Visualization in these everyday situations helps your mind catalog and organize your thoughts.

In the present, daydreaming is a common way to use your imagination. This also brings to light an interesting distinction in the use of visualization. It can be both an active and a passive action. A person can choose to invoke their powers of creative imagination yet, while daydreaming, people are more likely to let their thoughts flow freely than create a specific constructed narrative. This spontaneous nature is unpredictable and subject to the stimuli surrounding the individual. A 1997 study found that in a sample group of undergraduate students, most found themselves experiencing mental imagery passively in situations like daydreaming. While they did experience visualization in more purposeful tasks, they reported that they didn’t use it much in regular daily scenarios.[10] Visualization is also present in common involuntary associations. Indeed, the way that we structure our minds is heavily subject to the way that we visualize our thoughts.

Take, for example, this innocuous question posed on social media. @shanhorandraws asked X (formerly Twitter) how other users mentally ‘picture’ the months/flow of the year?[11] The poster also included a drawing showing how they visualize the passage of time through the year (see fig. 1). For whatever reason, they orient themselves in the year as if the months spun in a counterclockwise direction. The replies to the original post are filled with other disparate, occasionally bizarre, ways of imagining the months of the year. Personally, I imagine a long, tall line of calendar pages with all the dates in rows of 7. In December, when we reach the end of the year, January’s page is just below, ready to start the next year (see fig. 2). It appears that both subconsciously and purposefully, our minds can use visualization to make sense of complex concepts. Since visualization can be used actively, that suggests that this is a skill. Could it be possible to practice visualization and improve it to help with other tasks?

Visualization used for the future, such as planning designs and projects demonstrates how mental imagery is a skill. In a study following architects, Zafer Bilda, an experience designer, explored the role of visualization in their design process[12]. The study compared the accuracy and effectiveness of creating sketches for projects both with access to a sketchbook and blindfolded, relying solely on their ability to conceptualize their plans. The study found that, after reviewing their designs with a panel, their designs were equally viable. Years of practice helped the expert architects who said they “were able to construct and maintain the design of a building without having access to sketching.[13]” In the case of architecture, it’s clear that an ability to visualize would greatly benefit the project and the architect to perform better. Unfortunately, engineering schools seeking to foster this visual ability have found a lack of spatial visualization skills in their classes, leading to a disparate demographic of students.

Mary Lord, a prolific writer in the space of engineering education, discusses new efforts to encourage visualization training in engineering programs so more students are admitted. They found that only about 26% of international female students from the Middle East passed a standardized spatial visualization test where 72% of their “domestic counterparts” passed and men consistently outscored women[14]. As a result, engineering programs that used a spatial-visual aptitude test to determine admissions were screening out potential candidates before giving them the opportunity to develop those skills. In an effort to remedy this, programs were provided to engineering departments to help students augment their own abilities by attending workshops on visualization. It's theorized that this lack of spatial ability comes from societal norms for how children are expected to play—boys with building blocks and girls with dolls, though this is a broad generalization. The results of this experiment showed that many individuals were capable of improving their abilities to visualize given the right time, exposure, and practice leading to an overall passing rate of 98% after participating in the workshop.

Whether learned through childhood practices or purposely honed through instruction, visualization is a valuable skill in many aspects. We reconstruct the past, categorize the present, and design for the future. The majority of readers at this point should be nodding their head in agreement as these examples seem like everyday functions of being human. A small percentage of the population, however, reports that they experience no form of fabricated mental stimuli.

Addressing Aphantasia

The term ‘aphantasia’ was first coined in 2015.[15] It refers to the small percentage of people that experience greatly reduced or no form of mental imagery. For those with typical amounts of imagery, it may be strange to imagine what it would be like. Does this type of person think only in words? Do they see whole sentences form in their head? What advantages or disadvantages are commonly found in those with aphantasia? Aphantasia is not the focus of this research, but it’s important to touch on how a lack of visualization can change a person’s experience.

Some of the main drawbacks of aphantasia are a weaker memory, a struggle to recognize faces, and a feeling of being stuck in the present. The same 2022 study from the University of New South Wales found that aphantasics had “less vivid autobiographical memories and imagined future scenarios”.[16] As discussed previously, a person’s sense of memory is enhanced when they can better recreate the scenario in their head, the visual supporting the data held together with language. It would follow that a lack of visual makes it more difficult to piece together the past. Another key researcher drew on the initial findings from when the term was coined in 2015 and found that many aphantasics struggled to recognize faces consistently and feel stuck “in the present.”[17] Without the ability to review the past or imagine the future, it would be easy to get stuck in the here and now.

The research shows, however, that aphantasics find success in other areas! While people with hyperphantasia, a higher capability to produce mental imagery akin to seeing, tend to work in creative fields, aphantasics are more likely to find success in the fields of computer science or mathematics.[18] These fields deal with highly complex logic problems that don’t necessarily rely on spatial reasoning. This isn’t to say that an aphantasic is incapable of working in the creative field, however. They would likely approach the problem a different way. In any case, arguably more so for those with aphantasia, language plays a critical role in granting the mind the ability to comprehend. The visuals in our head are directly influenced by words whether they are our own, from someone speaking, or on the page. Thanks to language, our verbal and visual understanding is enhanced.

How Language Shapes the
Way We Think

Visual Thinking is Rooted in Language

Language is a powerful tool that can affect our understanding of the world around us and how we visualize concepts in our head. As previously established, the mind is well equipped to handle both verbal and visual thinking. Some interesting cases help illuminate just how interconnected these two styles of thinking are. For example, the concept of blue in English is rather broad. It includes all the way from navy to cyan. In other languages like Russian, they have completely different words to describe light and dark blue. Researchers asked native Russian speakers to view different shades of blue and categorize them and they found that the brain showed a physiological difference upon viewing light and dark blue.[19] Similarly, in old English, there was no word for orange, only red and yellow. A sunset, for example, could be described as a mix of the two— more like a yellowish red. It wasn’t until oranges were brought to western Europe that the concept of the color orange was solidified.[20] With the object and its name in front of them, they could now attribute a word to the concept. For that reason, the color and the fruit share the same name. The mind didn’t have a way to describe the color orange until this had occurred. This is a strong example of how visual thinking is influenced by our use of language.

Lera Boroditsky, a leading cognitive scientist in the field of linguistics, provides further insight to how the mind conceptualizes abstract ideas like the flow of time, who’s to blame in an accident, and biases towards ethnic groups.[21] For example, she found that one aboriginal people, the Kuuk Thaayorre, lacks any words for left or right and only uses cardinal directions. Thus, speakers of their language have an innate ability to orient themselves. This extends to how they place time running from east to west, like it follows the sun, whereas in English we typically conceptualize it going left to right.[22] Another example is how Spanish describes accidents centered more around the event, and less about the individual. The translation is closer to ‘the vase was broken by him’ than ‘he broke the vase’. As such, Spanish speakers are more likely to remember what occurred rather than who did it.[23] All of these cognitive processes are influenced by the language we speak. Given this complexity, how should we express the appearance of our thoughts when we don’t have the proper language to share it? Without a proverbial orange to establish a shared understanding, it’s difficult to communicate the intangible nature of the mind. Luckily, as a primarily verbal culture, we frequently share ideas in very concrete ways. Language allows us to communicate the ideas in our heads with others, using words as a paintbrush on the canvas of others’ minds.

Language Expresses Meaning

Semiotics is the study of symbols and their meaning. Human culture is rich with symbols and signs that allow us to encapsulate larger ideas into more easily communicable packages. A key component of semiotics, though, is the understanding that meaning can be transferred. Indeed, that’s the purpose of a sign. A leader in the study of semiotics and language, Ludwig Wittgenstein discusses how we interpret visuals when we “see-as” something else.[24] I’m able to look at the clouds and “see” a cat or a mountain or a bird. This ability is useful in deconstructing the abstract into something communicable. Meaning can then be transferred almost as a sort of game between the communicators through language.[25]

When I discuss a day I had on the beach with a friend, I describe the weather with words like bright, warm, breezy, and clear. I have reconstructed the memory of my day in my own head and use words as a sort of code, each expressing a boundless amount of meaning on their own. My friend is then able to take my words and apply them to their own context, reconstructing my day through the lens of their mind. This ‘game’ between us allows fairly seamless communication. Poor communication happens when we misunderstand the game the other is playing. My friend expects words that are associated with weather, but if I described the day as green, whatever game I’m playing doesn’t match my friend’s expectations.

If language is a means of communicating between two individuals, Wittgenstein might argue that we are each creating visuals of information in the other person’s head. Recognizing this phenomenon, we are still at a loss for understanding another individual’s visual experience. From this view, the words I use will only ever create an image in someone else’s mind based on their context. The abstract, the ephemeral, and the visual thoughts that we have on our own don’t necessarily have the vocabulary to be communicated to others. Indeed, it seems like a difficult task because the experience is so individual. Psychologists have also struggled to explain this, leading to a different form of study: phenomenology.

Behaviorism and Phenomenology:
Studying the Mind

Visualization’s lack of observability has proven difficult to psychologists studying the mind for well over a century. Without an epistemic approach to observe the individual’s experience, it was thought that mental images were purely bodily reactions to external stimuli. Seeing the words ‘cold water’ directly causes the mind to fire off synapses that connect to images of ponds, lakes, ice, glasses of water, and more. This approach, called behaviorism, denied the originality of the mind’s ability or at least, lacked the manner to describe it.[26] An example of this might be found in a recent study regarding background music. Researchers found that the vividness and the content of their imagination could be directed by changing the music they listened to.[27] Logically, like the score in a movie, if I were listening to sad music, my inner thoughts and daydreams would likely take on some of those characteristics. I imagine that this same principle works with language, meaning that the words we choose to use, even the words we have available to us, influence the way that we visualize information.

Phenomenology is a first-person response to the tradition of behaviorism. In the context of mental visualization, it refutes the idea that the mind is merely a mechanism of cause and effect. A person experiences phenomena that are separate from anyone else and thus it can be considered something unique. Much of the study of phenomenology is related to intentionality and volition.[28] A person walks themselves through an exercise, focusing their attention to a single thought or action, and reports on what that experience was like for them. Contemporary research suggests that meditation is a way to improve one’s phenomenological abilities.[29] Phenomenology is not a finished work, though. It is only one of the ways we are beginning to understand the complexity of the mind. Fortunately, we don’t have to fully understand the mind in order to use it to our advantage. Research has shown a number of benefits to actively using visualization as a skill.

Applications of Visualization

Now with a robust understanding of visual thinking, mental imagery, and how it can be harnessed and studied, we can approach the application of these abilities. How can we utilize visualization for practical purposes? There is a large amount of research in areas of meditation, athletic performance, and creativity indicating that visualization is a powerful way to change our thoughts and actions.

Meditation is a centuries old practice that incorporates visualization as a way to center the mind. Practitioners might sit in silence and direct all their attention to a serene image of a beach with waves rolling on the shore. Another example might be envisioning a flower bloom, decay, and bloom again, reminding the practitioner of the cycle of life. These are sometimes directed by a leader who guides the group through this mindfulness exercise. The leader speaks aloud a description of the scene while the others reconstruct that image in their mind. This is perhaps the most direct form of communication from one person to another’s imagination. Visualization techniques like this have been shown to increase a sense of relaxation and help bring the body back to equilibrium.[30] Similarly, visualization can help individuals cope with past failures and trauma. In an example reported by Heather Ferguson, she explains how she directed a patient to visualize and abstract the patient’s childhood as a visualization.[31] Using directed visualization, the patient was able to reflect on her traumatic past in a useful, healthy way. It’s incredible to think that a person can experience a physiological change purely by imagining something. Visualization is a useful way for the mind to take the information that’s been stored and utilize it.

Where visualization in meditation is useful to slow the body down and relax, it can also be used to enhance one’s physical performance. Daniel Druckman’s book In the Mind’s Eye discusses how athletes can visualize themselves performing better thus encouraging their bodies to cooperate and act accordingly.[32] The archer imagines the arrow’s path before it’s released from the string. The basketball player pictures herself dribble up to the hoop to score the final point, winning the game. The runner crosses the finish line mentally before setting foot on the track. These practices help athletes to improve their performance. Even if we aren’t high-performing athletes, perhaps we can use this same approach to finding success in everyday tasks.

Another important use of visualization, perhaps the most obvious, is in visual creativity. Research has found that those with a higher aptitude for object-visualization find it easier to be artistically creative[33] and perform better in creative tasks like designing furniture.[34] This ability is distinct from verbal creativity, allowing a person to picture visual solutions in their head. From personal experience, I have found that at times, when I’m working on a project, the solution will appear in my mind, sometimes unprompted, even while doing other random tasks. While walking to work, I’ll see the way that I should solve a design without even being at my desk. In addition to this passive form of visual thought, actively forcing my mind to iterate is an excellent exercise in visualization. The mind is readily equipped to conceptualize, organize, and visualize. We need only use the tools we’ve been given and put it to the test. These profound effects on meditation, performance, and creativity are thanks to the relationship between verbal and visual thinking. When the mind is able to contextualize thought in a visual way, we see the power visualization has in our lives.

Concluding Thoughts

The way we understand our world is so strongly influenced by the language we are given; it evokes a humbling sense of borrowing. I am only capable of understanding the world as I do because my parents spoke English when I was a child. They were given English by their parents and so on and so on. The syntax, rules, and vocabulary of English established centuries ago have shaped the way that my mind processes and imagines the world. Perhaps even deeper than my understanding of the external world, language allows me to understand myself. Using words like ‘I am strong’ or ‘I am enough’, I can visualize who I want to be and change my inner narrative about myself. This broader perspective helps me appreciate my imagination, which brings my thoughts to life.

It’s imperative to discuss such a fundamental part of the human experience so we can better understand each other and ourselves. Imagination and visualization are powerful and beautiful. Indeed, Kant suggested that “when something strikes us as beautiful… we are perceiving it through the play of imagination.”[35] Do you see what I see? Maybe we’ll never be able to describe perfectly what goes on in our heads, but there is value in the effort.

Works Consulted

Arnheim, Rudolf. Visual Thinking. Germany: University of California Press, 2023.

Ayyildiz, Ceren. Effects of Background Music on the Quantity and Thematic Qualities of Mental Imagery. UNSW Sydney, 2023. https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/255582319.

Battista, Michael T. “Spatial Visualization and Gender Differences in High School Geometry.” Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 21, no. 1 (1990): 47–60. https://doi.org/10.2307/749456.

Bjorklund, David F. “The Evolution of Pretend Play and an Extended Juvenile Period and Their Implications for Early Education.” Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 164 (September 2024). doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105805.

Civaschi, Matteo. Minimal Film: The Cinematic World Reimagined Through Graphic Design. Skira Editore, 2019.

Davey, Graham. Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Psychology, 2005. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA78535076.

De Koning, Björn B., and Menno van der Schoot. “Becoming Part of the Story! Refueling the Interest in Visualization Strategies for Reading Comprehension.” Educational Psychology Review 25, no. 2 (2013): 261–87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43549775.

Di Simplicio, Martina, Josephine E. McInerney, Guy M. Goodwin, Mary-Jane Attenburrow, and Emily A. Holmes. Revealing the Mind’s Eye: Bringing (Mental) Images Into Psychiatry. American Journal of Psychiatry, AJP, 169, no. 12 (December 2012): 1245–46. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.12040499.

Horowitz, Mardi J. Visual Imagery and Cognitive Organization. American Journal of Psychiatry, AJP, 123, no. 8 (February 1967): 938–46. doi:10.1176/ajp.123.8.938.

Geniusas, Saulius. “Between Phenomenology and Hermeneutics: Paul Ricoeur’s Philosophy of Imagination.” Human Studies 38, no. 2 (2015): 223–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24757332.

Giannopulu, Brotto, Lee, Frangos, and To. “Synchronised Neural Signature of Creative Mental Imagery in Reality and Augmented Reality.” Heliyon 8, no. 3 (March 2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09017.

Kaftanski, Wojciech. “Mental Images and Imagination in Moral Education.” Journal of Moral Education 53, no. 1 (March 2024): 119–38. doi:10.1080/03057240.2023.2236801.

Katz, Jerrold J. “Mentalism in Linguistics.” Language 40, no. 2 (1964): 124–37. https://doi.org/10.2307/411571.

L’Abate, Luciano. “Guided Imagery and Visualization.” In Research on Pre-Para-Post-Therapeutic Activities in Mental Health: Prevention, Promotion, Psychotherapy, and Rehabilitation., 5–31. Mental Illnesses and Treatments. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Biomedical Books, 2013. https://search-ebscohost-com.byu.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=psyh&AN=2013-28824-001&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Lupyan, Gary, Rasha Abdel Rahman, Lera Boroditsky, and Andy Clark. “Effects of Language on Visual Perception.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 24, no. 11 (October 1, 2020): 930–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2020.08.005.

Lyons, Andrew L., McKenzie Andries, Ryan M. Ferstl, and Steven G. Greening. “Suffering More in Imagination than in Reality? Mental Imagery and Fear Generalization.” Behavioural Brain Research 472 (August 24, 2024): 1–10. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115146.

McLearen, Brady J. Thinking Cap. 2022. 24 x 22 x 24 in. https://jstor.org/stable/community.34032819.

Mick, David Glen. “Consumer Research and Semiotics: Exploring the Morphology of Signs, Symbols, and Significance.” Journal of Consumer Research 13, no. 2 (1986): 196–213. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489226.

Robinson, Leslie John. A Dictionary of Graphical Symbols, 1972.

Sha, Richard C. 2009. “Imagination as Inter‐science.” European Romantic Review 20 (5): 661–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509580903407803.

Taylor, Marjorie. “Imagination.” In The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Psychology, Vol. 1: Body and Mind, edited by Philip David Zelazo, 790–831, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199958450.013.0028.

Warnock, Mary. Imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.

Weisberg, Deena S. "Pretend Play." Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science 6, no. 3 (2015): 249-261. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1341.

Yellowfin Team. “Does Language Influence Data Analysis and Visualization.” Yellowfin (blog), July 27, 2010. https://www.yellowfinbi.com/blog/does-language-influence-data-analysis-and-visualization.