Schedule of Events | Symposia

Sketchpad Series

What role does depth of processing play in the picture superiority effect?

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Anne T Gilman¹ (anne.gilman@gmail.com), Abigail Noyce²; ¹University at Albany, ²Carnegie Mellon University

Pictures are remembered more successfully than written words (Shepard, 1967; Standing, 1973), unless retrieval demands are extensively manipulated to prioritize graphemes (see Weldon and colleagues, 1987, 1989, 1992). Ally & Budson (2007) documented the time course of the picture superiority effect using electroencephalography (EEG) and distinguished contributions of study-test congruency from this pictorial advantage. In a surprising finding from replication work in progress, some photos were recalled less successfully than written words (Gilman, Norbert, & Noyce, 2024). The specific photos had been well remembered as image stimuli (Brady, Konkle, Alvarez, & Oliva, 2008) but had not all been previously used in picture naming studies. Behavioral results with naming-tested photographs (Souza, Garrido, Saraiva, et al., 2021) did show a picture superiority effect (Gilman, Norbert, & Noyce, 2024). This juxtaposition suggests that the picture superiority effect does not solely rest on image memorability as defined by Bainbridge, Dilks, & Oliva (2017). Other EEG studies of differences in processing between words and images have shown image advantages even with monochrome line drawings that lack the perceptual richness of face and scene photographs (Curran & Doyle, 2011; Watson, Azizian, Berry, & Squires, 2005). The picture superiority effect may differ from image memorability because of the role of conceptual as well as perceptual characteristics. We are currently piloting another behavioral replication of the picture superiority effect while omitting liking ratings typically used to boost depth of processing, and we solicit input on the potential impact of this change on our upcoming EEG replication.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Other