Psychological Dimensions Involved in Image Communication: A Multidisciplinary Research Proposal for Analyzing Cognitive and Perceptual Processes in Visual Education

Image communication represents a fundamental domain of human experience that intersects cognitive neuroscience, educational psychology, and visual communication theory. The increasing digitalization of contemporary society has amplified the importance of visual literacy, defined as the ability to interpret, use, and create visual media. While neuroscientific research highlights the brain’s proficiency in processing visual information, significant gaps remain in understanding the underlying psychological mechanisms and their practical applications in educational contexts. This study proposes a multidisciplinary research design to systematically analyze these psychological dimensions. The research will integrate cognitive, perceptual, and pedagogical perspectives to understand how visual representations influence learning. The methodological design includes a multi-method approach combining experimental analysis, ethnographic observation, and psychometric evaluation on a stratified sample of 240 participants (aged 16–25) divided into three groups: high school students (n = 80), university students (n = 80), and young professionals (n = 80). The proposed methodology will utilize eye-tracking to analyze visual perception patterns, integrated with semantic differential methods to evaluate cognitive and affective associations with visual imagery. The expected results should clarify how the effectiveness of image communication depends on the coherence between technical and semantic aspects of visual imagery. The research aims to contribute to the theoretical framework of educational neuroscience, offering empirical evidence for optimizing teaching strategies based on multimodal visual communication.