Pictures, words, and sounds: from which format are we best able to reason?
The effect of presentation format on reasoning was studied with a sentence verification task. Background information was presented in single-format and combined conditions that included pictured, printed, or spoken versions of the stimulus items. In Experiment 1, a test sentence appeared together with the background at varied stimulus onset asynchronies, to study how format influences the acquisition of the stimulus information. In Experiments 2 and 3, however, the test sentence followed the presentation of the background, to test the effect of format on memory. Reaction time responses to the test sentences showed a consistent picture advantage. However, when participants responded to materials stored in memory, both pictured and spoken formats provided quicker responses in comparison to printed words, and the format difference was smaller than when materials were readily available on the screen. Multimedia presentations, when compared with single-format conditions, did not provide additional benefits.
Goolkasian
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Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte 28223, USA. pagoolka@email.uncc.edu
D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011897:Random Allocation; D011930:Reaction Time; D013016:Sound; D014825:Vocabulary