Alan Urho Paivio

This blog is about Alan Urho Paivio and his Dual Coding Theory.

Allan Urho Paivio:

• He was born March 29th, 1925 in Thunder Bay, Ontario.


• In 1948 he won the title "Mr. Canada."


• Between 1949 and 1959 he earned three degrees including a Ph.D is Psychology.


• From 1963 till he retired he taught at the University of Western Ontario.

Dual Coding Theory:

In brief, the core ideas of dual coding theory can be stated:
The theory assumes that cognition involves the activity of two qualitatively different mental codes, a verbal code specialized for dealing with language in all its forms and a nonverbal code specialized for dealing with nonlinguistic objects and events in the form of mental images. These coding systems are separate but interconnected so that they can operate independently, in parallel, or through their interconnections.

This is a brief animation explaining Allan Paivio's Dual Code Theory.