Pictures vs. WordsBy Emmy Heyser and Whitney Burke

Project of Kristin L. Mills and Heather K. McMullan

A study was done by Kristin L. Mills and Heather K. McMullan at Missouri Western State University. The test was done to see if the subjects had a better memory of a series of words or a series of pictures. One group of 10 was shown a list of 18 words while the other group of 10 was shown 18 pictures. Each group was only given 1 minute to study their list. There was then a 30 second delay. They then had 1 minute to recall all of the items in the list. There was a small difference between the amount of pictures recalled then the number of words. The group shown pictures could recall about 25% more of their items.

Modifications

We let our subjects study our “list” of pictures and words for 5 seconds

We did a matching game so that the subjects would have the same amount of meaning to each word or picture.

By allowing the subjects to look at the cards for 5 seconds, we were testing if the subject would remember the placement of the pairs of cards better if they were pictures, allowing them to pair up the cards faster.

Hypothesis

If we have flash cards of pictures and words then the subjects will be able to match up the pictures better due to the fact that the pictures are organized as both a picture and the word it symbolizes as it is stored in the brain while a word is just stored as a word in the brain for later use. This allows the picture to have more meaning, helping the subject to remember where the cards are better.

Procedure

There will be 10 subjects in total, 5 for the pictures and 5 for the words.

The subject will be seated and will get the chance to memorize the placement of the cards face-up for 5 seconds only.

Then the subject will close their eyes as the cards are turned over face-down.

The subject will then open their eyes once the supervisor speaks go and they will try to match the cards as fast as they can, one pair at a time.

Words

Pictures

Graph: Pictures

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Graph: Words

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Data Tables Words

Pictures