Effects of Free Recall of Grouping Pictures, Picture Names, and Complete Picture Descriptions

Summary

The double-encoding hypothesis is one explanation for the superior free recall of picture stimuli compared to recall of the same stimuli in word form. This study attempted to describe fully in words the picture stimuli that were presented, because a picture's simple word label obviously is not equivalent in complexity to the picture itself. Pictures, their simple labels, and a series of words that completely described the pictures were presented to 90 Ss. Results indicated stimuli in the picture form were remembered better than both kinds of word stimuli. These results supported the double-encoding hypothesis.