Dual-Coding interpretations of severe weather information: verbal and visual messaging

People receive and interpret weather warnings via their dual-channel system: ears and eyes. Generally theorists assume that risk decision making is a cognitive activity (Leiserowitz, A, 2006). Others, such as S. Epstein (1994), argue that experientially derived knowledge, such as through imagery, is often more compelling and more likely to influence behavior than abstract knowledge. Psychologist Alan Paivio posits that the combination natural dual-coding cognition mechanism of verbal associations and visual imagery enhances greater understanding and memory. Neuroscience indicates that the vision channel plays a very major role in perception: seeing is believing; is the threat real? Because surveys indicate that most Americans obtain severe weather warnings visually from their local television station and from the NWS graphics via smart phones/internet the imagery aspect of severe weather messaging is a very important component of the official National Weather Service warnings. People's lives depend on clear verbal and visual interpretations of the warnings. One highly regarded severe weather TV forecaster in tornado alley recently (at the AMS Weather Broadcasters Annual meeting, Nashville, June 2013), decried radar warning imagery used by TV forecasters, himself included, as “useless blotches of different colors of paint spilled on a floor” and called for a total rethinking of TV warning messages. The simultaneous complicated verbal and confusing visual messages are causing cognitive dissonance. But very little academic research has been done about the visual messaging of severe warnings. Broad, Leiserowitz, Weinkle and Stekettee (BAMS, 2007) reviewed the NHC's visual hurricane “cone” forecast and found that the imagery a complicate figure, with multiple messages which have contributed to public confusion during hurricane season. Meteorologist J. Trobec and Drost (2013) have experimented with eye tracking to look at attention and retention of weather information by viewers. Various geographers have investigated design aspects of persuasive maps. How can visual severe weather messages bring about desired public behavior response? I will explore the visual as a generator of the rhetorical. Discussion points: How can the language of emergency be presented as a dual-coded manner on website pages as well as on TV. Is R. Mayer's Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning a guide? Climate communication applicability? Limitations, possibilities, research needed?