Medillustrate
Anya Bhuyan
Founder
Hi! I'm Anya and I'm a high school junior from Westport, CT. I founded Medillustrate because I realized just how powerful visual learning can be. While taking an EMT course last spring, I discovered that drawing out medical concepts helped me understand and remember each topic in a way that reading alone could not. Medillustrate is designed to make science more approachable and to empower creators to share their creativity while helping others learn and succeed.
Some of my (non-scientific) art!
The Science of Visual Learning
Research indicates that creating visual representations of information significantly enhances understanding, retention, and recall. Drawing isn't just an artistic skill but a proven cognitive strategy for learning and memorization. Here are some key studies on the impact of drawing and visual learning:
Wammes, J. D., Meade, M. E., & Fernandes, M. A. (2016). The Surprisingly Powerful Influence of Drawing on Memory. Psychological Science, 27(6), 786-798.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418755385
Meade, M. E., & Wammes, J. D. (2016). The Drawing Effect: Evidence for Reliable and Robust Memory Benefits in Free Recall. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 30(3), 413–418.
https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3203
Zhou, S. S., Rowchan, K., McKeown, B., Smallwood, J., & Wammes, J. D. (2024). Drawing Behaviour Influences Ongoing Thought Patterns and Subsequent Memory. Consciousness and Cognition, 103, 103791.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2024.103791
Wammes, J. D., Meade, M. E., & Fernandes, M. A. (2024). Drawing as a Means to Characterize Memory and Cognition. Memory & Cognition, 52(3), 413–428. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-024-01618-4
Schoenherr, J., Strohmaier, A. R., & Schukajlow, S. (2024). Learning with Visualizations Helps: A Meta-Analysis of Visualization Interventions in Mathematics Education. Educational Research Review, 34, 100409.
Meade, M. E., & Wammes, J. D. (2017). Learning Terms and Definitions: Drawing and the Role of Elaborative Encoding. Acta Psychologica, 179, 104–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2017.07.004
DRAW
RETAIN
RECALL
