The blocked-random effect in pictures and words.
Picture and word recall was examined in conjunction with list organization. 60 subjects studied a list of 30 items, either words or their pictorial equivalents. The 30 words/pictures, members of five conceptual categories, each represented by six exemplars, were presented either blocked by category or in a random order. While pictures were recalled better than words and a standard blocked-random effect was observed, the interaction indicated that the recall advantage of a blocked presentation was restricted to the word lists. A similar pattern emerged for clustering. These findings are discussed in terms of limitations upon the pictorial superiority effect.
Toglia
M P
MP
State University of New York College at Cortland 13045, USA.
Hinman
P J
PJ
Dayton
B S
BS
Catalano
J F
JF
D000328:Adult; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D012691:Serial Learning; D014706:Verbal Learning