Psychology Higher Level Internal Assessment
The effect of high imagery and low imagery words on recall
Word count: 2112
, Table of Contents
Introduction .............................................................................................2
Exploration ..............................................................................................4
Design .............................................................................................. 4
Participants ......................................................................................4
Materials ..........................................................................................5
Procedure ........................................................................................5
Analysis ...................................................................................................6
Descriptive .......................................................................................6
Inferential .........................................................................................7
Evaluation ...............................................................................................7
Bibliography ............................................................................................9
Appendices ............................................................................................11
1
, Introduction
One of the strongest cognitive abilities of the human brain is the capability of storing
various kinds of information and retrieving it when needed. Nevertheless, what turns this
significant ability into a controversial debate within psychology is how information is stored
in the brain—which can be equally put in words as how it is represented. The English
idiom, ’A picture is worth a thousand words’ often takes on a psychological aspect which
emphasizes the powerful role of mental imagery in the human mind. The reason why
imagery is significant in retrieving information extends to the Dual Coding Theory (DCT)
suggested by Allan Paivio in 1971. (Reed 155) The theory presumes two independent but
connected cognitive systems that create a verbal code for language and a non-verbal code
for mental imagery (Sadoski 2005) which explains the two different kinds of formation of
memories and processing information.
According to DCT, higher level of concreteness leads to an easier access to mental
imagery which brings in a notable difference between abstract and concrete language.
Considering concrete words are often directly connected with images, and abstract words
solely own concepts or verbal associations that are rather arbitrary perhaps render
concrete words easier to recall. The use of images as a recall strategy in the research of
memory has been discussed and tested in various experiments by many researchers to
the present day. For example, Gordon H. Bower investigated the effect of using images to
aid verbal recall in 1972. In one of his experiments where the participants were given
many pairs of words, each being unrelated to each other, participants who tried to
memorize the pair could only remember 45% of it during the cued recall test while
participants who created a visual scene linking the two words to each other managed to
remember 80% of the words at the end of the test (Bower 65). The findings of the
experiment, participants performing better in recall using mental imagery, support the
2
The effect of high imagery and low imagery words on recall
Word count: 2112
, Table of Contents
Introduction .............................................................................................2
Exploration ..............................................................................................4
Design .............................................................................................. 4
Participants ......................................................................................4
Materials ..........................................................................................5
Procedure ........................................................................................5
Analysis ...................................................................................................6
Descriptive .......................................................................................6
Inferential .........................................................................................7
Evaluation ...............................................................................................7
Bibliography ............................................................................................9
Appendices ............................................................................................11
1
, Introduction
One of the strongest cognitive abilities of the human brain is the capability of storing
various kinds of information and retrieving it when needed. Nevertheless, what turns this
significant ability into a controversial debate within psychology is how information is stored
in the brain—which can be equally put in words as how it is represented. The English
idiom, ’A picture is worth a thousand words’ often takes on a psychological aspect which
emphasizes the powerful role of mental imagery in the human mind. The reason why
imagery is significant in retrieving information extends to the Dual Coding Theory (DCT)
suggested by Allan Paivio in 1971. (Reed 155) The theory presumes two independent but
connected cognitive systems that create a verbal code for language and a non-verbal code
for mental imagery (Sadoski 2005) which explains the two different kinds of formation of
memories and processing information.
According to DCT, higher level of concreteness leads to an easier access to mental
imagery which brings in a notable difference between abstract and concrete language.
Considering concrete words are often directly connected with images, and abstract words
solely own concepts or verbal associations that are rather arbitrary perhaps render
concrete words easier to recall. The use of images as a recall strategy in the research of
memory has been discussed and tested in various experiments by many researchers to
the present day. For example, Gordon H. Bower investigated the effect of using images to
aid verbal recall in 1972. In one of his experiments where the participants were given
many pairs of words, each being unrelated to each other, participants who tried to
memorize the pair could only remember 45% of it during the cued recall test while
participants who created a visual scene linking the two words to each other managed to
remember 80% of the words at the end of the test (Bower 65). The findings of the
experiment, participants performing better in recall using mental imagery, support the
2
