Elsevier

Cognitive Psychology

Volume 5, Issue 2, September 1973, Pages 176-206
Cognitive Psychology

Picture superiority in free recall: Imagery or dual coding?

https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(73)90032-7Get rights and content

Abstract

Free verbal recall is generally higher for items presented as pictures than for items presented as words. Possible interpretations of this effect include differential verbal elaboration, superiority of nonverbal imagery as a memory code, and dual encoding favoring pictures. A series of experiments investigated the relative contributions of imaginal and verbal memory codes using incidental recall tasks in which the orienting task was designed to control the way items are encoded during input. Three experiments required subjects to encode words and pictures verbally, by writing or pronouncing the words or picture labels; or imaginally, by drawing or imaging the picture or object suggested by the word. Two further experiments involved a probability learning task which required no encoding reaction to pictures or words, but an analogue of imaginal and verbal coding was provided in one experiment using picture-picture, picture-word (or word-picture) and word-word repetitions. Recall tests following these manipulations consistently yielded much higher recall for pictures than for words under all conditions except when subjects imaged to words. Strong support was also found for the hypothesis that image and verbal memory codes are independent and additive in their effect on recall. In addition, the contribution of imagery appeared to be substantially higher than that of the verbal code. Thus the usual superiority of pictures in free recall is best explained by dual encoding, or a combination of image superiority and dual coding, both of which are ordinarily favored when items are presented as pictures.

References (47)

  • H.P. Bahrick et al.

    Retention of visual and verbal codes of the same stimuli

    Journal of Experimental Psychology

    (1968)
  • W. Bevan et al.

    Free recall and abstractness of stimuli

    Science

    (1971)
  • W.A. Bousfield et al.

    The effects of concomitant colored and uncolored pictorial representations on the learning of stimulus words

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1957)
  • G.H. Bower

    A multicomponent theory of the memory trace

  • G.H. Bower

    Mental imagery and associative learning

  • J. Deese

    Influence of inter-item associative strength upon immediate free recall

    Psychological Reports

    (1959)
  • C.H. Ernest et al.

    Imagery and verbal associative latencies as a function of imagery ability

    Canadian Journal of Psychology

    (1971)
  • P. Fraisse

    Motor and verbal reaction times to words and drawings

    Psychonomic Science

    (1968)
  • T. Gupton et al.

    Imagery, mediational instructions, and noun position in free recall of noun-verb pairs

    Journal of Experimental Psychology

    (1970)
  • D.L. Hintzman et al.

    Repetition and memory: Evidence for a multipletrace hypothesis

    Journal of Experimental Psychology

    (1971)
  • E.A. Kirkpatrick

    An experimental study of memory

    Psychological Review

    (1894)
  • K.H. Kurtz et al.

    The effect of verbalization during observation of stimulus objects upon accuracy of recognition and recall

    Journal of Experimental Psychology

    (1953)
  • W.A. Matthews

    Continued word associations and free recall

    The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

    (1966)
  • Cited by (493)

    • The informational role of imagery in financial decision making: A new approach

      2023, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance
    View all citing articles on Scopus

    This research was supported by grants to the first author from the National Research Council of Canada (A0087) and from the University of Western Ontario Research Fund.

    2

    Address: (c/o Mrs. Anas), Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London 72, Canada.

    View full text