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Infographics use visual cues to convey information more clearly and readily than would be possible using text alone. In order for new information to be encoded in the brain, it must be incorporated into our existing mental models about how the world works. Adding visuals helps viewers both process and store new information. Researchers have not agreed on why this is the case. John Medina, in Brain Rules, posits that historically humans relied on vision for basic survival practices, from selecting a mate to identifying potential predators and food sources. Thus we’re hard-wired to respond to visual stimuli and are much more successful in absorbing and retaining information when it is, at least in part, visually enhanced. And so tracking the wooly mammoth leads us to the infographic.