Abstract
Color photographs and simple line drawings were compared with corresponding concrete nouns as stimulus items in paired-associate learning. Greater recall was found with pictorial stimuli, but a predicted difference between photographs and drawings was not significant. The two types of pictorial stimuli did differ, however, in proportion of intralist intrusion errors and in reported use of mediation. Both surpassed word stimuli whether rote learning or a mnemonic strategy was reported. These results do not support theories that attribute picture superiority to incidental cues or to implicit mediational strategies.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
DENO, S. L. Effects of words and pictures as stimuli in learning language equivalents. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1968, 59, 202–206.
DOMINOWSKI, R. L., & GADLIN, H. Imagery and paired-associate learning. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 1968, 22, 336–347.
JENKINS, J. R. Effects of incidental cues and encoding strategies on paired-associate learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1968, 59, 410–413.
KAPLIN, S., KAPLIN, R., & SAMPSON, J. R. Encoding and arousal factors in free recall of verbal and visual material. Psychonomie Science, 1968, 12, 73–74.
KOPSTEIN, F. F., & ROSHAL, S. M. Learning foreign vocabulary from pictures vs. words. American Psychologist, 1954, 9, 407–408.
PAIVIO, A., ROGERS, T. B., & SMYTHE, P. C. Why are pictures easier to recall than words? Psychonomie Science, 1968, 11, 137–138.
PAIVIO, A., & YARMEY, A. D. Pictures versus words as stimuli and responses in paired-associate learning. Psychonomie Science, 1966, 11, 137–138.
REESE, H. W. Imagery and contextual meaning. Psychological Bulletin, in press.
WICKER, F. W. On the locus of picture-word differences in paired-associate learning. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, in press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This study was conducted in the Laboratory for the Study of the Symbolic Processes, Pennsylvania State University. It was supported by Public Health Service Postdoctoral Research Fellowship MH-36970-01A2 and by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Training Grant HD-00151.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wicker, F.W. Photographs, drawings, and nouns as stimuli in paired-associate learning. Psychon Sci 18, 205–206 (1970). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335738
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335738