Hypermnesia for pictures and for words: The role of recall modality (pictures vs. words)

Abstract

Hypermnesia (an increment in recall over multiple recall attempts) typically is obtained when a to-be-remembered list is presented as pictures, but not when the list is presented as words. All previous studies have involved a verbal recall format. To evaluate the role of recall modality in producing the picture-word difference, subjects received either a picture list or a word list and were asked to recall the list two or three times (in Experiments 2 and 1, respectively) either as words or as drawings. Focusing on the dependent variable of cumulative responses per trial, all (both picture and word) groups developed hypermnesia. Recall format produced no differential effects on performance. © 1980, The Psychonomic Society. All rights reserved.