Picture superiority effect

Visual storytelling by Suhani Gowan[1]

The picture superiority effect refers to the phenomenon in which pictures and images are more likely to be remembered than are words.[2][3][4][5][6][7] This effect has been demonstrated in numerous experiments using different methods. It is based on the notion that "human memory is extremely sensitive to the symbolic modality of presentation of event information".[8] Explanations for the picture superiority effect are not concrete and are still being debated, however an evolutionary explanation is that sight has a long history stretching back millions of years and was crucial to survival in the past, whereas reading is a relatively recent invention, and requires specific cognitive processes, such as decoding symbols and linking them to meaning.

  1. ^ Asch, Solomon E.; Ebenholtz, Sheldon M. (1962). "The Principle of Associative Symmetry". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 106 (2): 135–163. JSTOR 985378.
  2. ^ Curran, T.; Doyle, J. (2011). "Picture superiority doubly dissociates the ERP correlates of recollection and familiarity". Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 23 (5): 1247–1262. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.708.3705. doi:10.1162/jocn.2010.21464. PMID 20350169. S2CID 6568038.
  3. ^ Shepard, R.N. (1967). "Recognition memory for words, sentences, and pictures". Journal of Learning and Verbal Behavior. 6: 156–163. doi:10.1016/s0022-5371(67)80067-7.
  4. ^ McBride, D. M.; Dosher, B.A. (2002). "A comparison of conscious and automatic memory processes for picture and word stimuli: a process dissociation analysis". Consciousness and Cognition. 11 (3): 423–460. doi:10.1016/s1053-8100(02)00007-7. PMID 12435377. S2CID 2813053.
  5. ^ Defetyer, M. A.; Russo, R.; McPartlin, P. L. (2009). "The picture superiority effect in recognition memory: a developmental study using the response signal procedure". Cognitive Development. 24 (3): 265–273. doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2009.05.002.
  6. ^ Whitehouse, A. J.; Maybery, M.T.; Durkin, K. (2006). "The development of the picture-superiority effect". British Journal of Developmental Psychology. 24 (4): 767–773. doi:10.1348/026151005X74153.
  7. ^ Ally, B. A.; Gold, C. A.; Budson, A. E. (2009). "The picture superiority effect in patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment". Neuropsychologia. 47 (2): 595–598. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.10.010. PMC 2763351. PMID 18992266.
  8. ^ Yuille, John C. (2014-05-09). Imagery, Memory and Cognition (PLE: Memory): Essays in Honor of Allan Paivio. Psychology Press. ISBN 9781317685470.