Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1975, 40, 255-260. @ Perceptual and Motor Skills 1975
EFFECTS OF AUDITORY AND VISUAL MODALITIES IN RECALL OF WORDS1 BERNADETTE M. GADZELLA A N D DEBORAH A. WHITEHEAD East Texas State University Summrry.-Ten experimental conditions were used to study the effects of auditory and visual (printed words, uncolored and colored pictures) modalities and their various combinations with college students. A recall paradigm was employed in which subjects responded in a written rest. Analysis of data showed the auditory modality was superior to visual (pictures) ones but was not significantly different From visual (printed words) modality. In visual modalities, printed words were superior to colored pictures. Generally, conditions with multiple modes of representation of stimuli were significantly higher than for conditions with single modes. Multiple modalities, consisting of two or three modes, did not differ significantly from each other. It was concluded that any two modalicies of the stimuli presented simultaneously were just as effective as three in recall of stimulus words.
A number of investigators have reported that in sensory modalities, auditory and visual (printed words and pictures), stimuli function differently in verbal learning and concept formation. But these findings are unclear as to which modality is superior and which is just as effective at different age levels. T o understand these findings it is necessary to consider not only the variations of the sensory modes but also the mode by which the subjects had to respond. Several theories were developed suggesting that effects of modalities represent differences in storage in the memory (Murdock, 1968) and that differences in test results may be due to the different modalities used in retrieving the data (Jenkins, Neale, & Deno, 1967). In using visual (words and pictures of words) representations of stimuli, Paivio, Rogers, and Smythe (1968) reported that pictures were retrieved better than words from short-term memory by college students in a written test. Superior performances with pictures over performances with words were also reported by Standing, Conezio, and Haber (1970) and Jenkins, et al. (1967) in recognition tests. The superiority of printed words over pictures was reported by Runquist and Hutt (1961) with high school students in a written test. In studying differences between visual and aural learning, Williams, Williams, and Blumberg (1973), using oral tests, reported that generally for all grade levels ( 2 , 4 , 6 , 8, and 10) visual (printed words) was superior to auditory presentations. However, the auditory modality was more effective than visual (printed words) with high school students on a written test (Cooper & Gaeth, 1967) and with college students for a Yes-No response (Murdock, 1968). Other researchers (Bousfield, Esterson, & Whitmarsh, 1957), using visual 'This research was partly funded to the first author by Organized Research at East Texas State University, Commerce, Texas. Grant Project No. is 1501-9032.
2 56
B. M. GADZELLA & D. A. WHITEHEAD
(printed words and pictures) representations of stimuli, studied the effects of multiple modalities. [Multiple modalities are here referred to as more than one sensory modality, auditory or visual (printed words and/or pictures), used simultaneously in presenting stimuli.] With data collected from college students' responses, Bousfield, et al. (1957) reported that the largest number of words recalled occurred with printed words and colored pictures, next with printed words and uncolored pictures, and least with printed words. One cannot make a statement concerning the superiority of one modality over another which would meet all conditions and types of subjects. Data from .specific experimental studies are needed to indicate which modality is superior to, or is as good as, another for specific groups of subjects when the same mode and when various modes for responding are used. In addition, verbal learning and concept formation do not occur only through auditory or visual modalities but often through various combinations of these modalities. Therefore, there is a need to study the effects of the specific combinations of these modalities, how they differ from each other in effectiveness and whether any are superior to others at different age levels. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of auditory (spoken words) and visual (printed words, uncolored and colored pictures) modes of representations of stimuli and their various combinations in one experimental setting. The subjects were college students who recalled stimuli in a written test. The modes of representation and their combinations provided for 10 experimental conditions (Table 1 ) . Several hypotheses were made: ( 1) subjects given multiple modalities would score significantly higher means than subjects given a single modality (Bousfield, et al., 1957); ( 2 ) subjects in conditions with three modalities would have significantly higher means than subjects in conditions with only two modalities. This hypothesis was made on the basis that added cues would aid recall of words; ( 3 ) subjects hearing words of stimuli would earn a significantly higher mean than those seeing words (Cooper, et al., 1967; Murdock, 1968) ; (4) subjects seeing words as stimuli would score significantly higher than those seeing colored and uncolored pictures (Runquist, et al., 1961). It has been suggested (Jenkins, et al., 1967) that retrieval of words was easier from printed words than from pictures when responses were written. METHOD
Subjects Two hundred volunteers from introductory, educational, adolescent and physiological psychology classes in a large state university served as subjects. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of the 10 experimental conditions with 20 subjects in each group. The proportion of males to females in each group was 1:3.
MODALITY A N D RECALL OF STIMULI
Materials The 25 simple nouns selected as stimulus words were similar to those used by Bousfield, et al. (1957). The nouns were selected so that they fell into five categories of meaning. The categories and words were: ( 1 ) FLOWERSdaisy, rose, violet, dandelion, and fern; ( 2 ) FRUIT-pear, apple, grapes, banana, and lime; ( 3 ) VEGETABLES--onion, radish, eggplant, corn, and lettuce; (4) BIRDS-seagull, cardinal, peacock, canary, and parrot; and ( 5 ) NATUREclouds, sun, mountains, star, and trees. Subjects who recorded an object of a similar shape, e.g., a lemon or an avocado instead of a lime, received credit for it. Six sets of materials were prepared with the 25 stimulus words, one tape and five sets of 35-mm slides. The words were recorded in random order at 5-sec. intervals on a Cassette tape. The slides consisted of one set of each: printed words, uncolored (black and white) pictures, colored pictures, uncolored pictures and printed words, and colored pictures and printed words. The uncolored pictures were simple outline drawings of the objects. Colored pictures were the same outline drawings of the objects, colored. A Kodak Carousel projector, set to expose one slide every 5 sec., was used in conditions comprising visual representations (pictures and/or printed words) of the stimuli and a Cassette tape recorder was used to present the conditions with auditory representations. Procedure The experimental conditions were administered to groups of 2 to 7 subjects. The experimenter first gave each subject a sheet of paper and instructed the group that they would be exposed to a list of words and/or pictures according to the experimental group they were assigned to. The subjects were also told that they should try to remember the words as they would be asked to write them on the sheet of paper. Each of the experimental groups was given similar instructions and exposed to the same randomized order of words with the appropriate set of slides, tape, or combination of slides and tape. For instance, in the condition with uncolored pictures and printed and spoken words, subjects saw the slides and listened to the tape recordings simultaneously. After the presentation of the words, subjects were given 10 min. to write all the words they could recall.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The number for words recalled correctly was analyzed for the groups. The means and standard deviations for each of the experimental and modality groups are shown in Table 1. (Experimental conditions were grouped by one, two, and three modalities for analysis.) A 1 X 10 analysis of variance produced a significant F ratio of 4.29 (df = 9/190, p < .05) for the experimental groups. To determine between which groups the means were significantly different, the critical differences at the .05 level were computed for equal ns (Lindquist, 1956).
2 58
B. M. GADZELLA & D. A. WHITEHEAD
TABLE 1 DEVIATIONS FOR NUMBER OF WORDSRECALLEDCORRECTLY MEANSAND STANDARD FOR 10 EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS AND GROUPS WITHONE,TWOAND THREEMODALITIES Condition Experimental Groups Printed word Uncolored picture, printed word Colored picture, printed word Uncolored picture, printed and spoken words Colored picture, printed and spoken words Uncolored picture Colored picture Uncolored picture, spoken word Colored picture, spoken word Spoken word Modality Groups One modality Two modalities Three modalities
N
M
SD
20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
15.75 16.90 18.10 17.45 17.30 13.90 13.60 16.05 17.95 16.10
2.86 1.87 3.45 3.72 3.26 3.96 4.03 3.31 2.62 3.33
80 80
14.84 17.25 17.36
3.74 2.99 3.49
40
The data indicated that there were 17 significant mean differences between the groups. These differences can be summarized as follows: ( 1) The condition with uncolored pictures produced a significantly lower mean than the following conditions: uncolored pictures and printed words; colored pictures and printed words; uncolored pictures and printed and spoken words; colored picmres and printed and spoken words; uncolored pictures and spoken words; colored pictures and spoken words; and spoken words. ( 2 ) The condition with colored pictures produced a significantly lower mean than printed words, uncolored pictures and printed words, colored pictures and printed words, uncolored pictures and printed and spoken words, colored pictures and printed and spoken words, uncolored picmres and spoken words, colored pictures and spoken words, and spoken words. ( 3 ) The condition with printed words produced a significantly lower mean than colored pictures and printed words, and colored pictures and spoken words. Three of the 17 significant differences were between conditions with single modalities: uncolored pictures and spoken words, colored pictures and spoken words, and colored pictures and printed words. Of the 17 significant mean differences 14 were between conditions with a muItiple and a single modality and, in each case, the conditions with the multiple modalities produced significantly higher means. To determine whether there were significant differences between single and multiple modalities, the conditions were grouped by one, two, and three modalities. A 1 X 3 analysis of variance produced a significant F ratio of 12.24 (df = 2/197, p < .05). The critical difference set at .05 level (Lindquist, 1956) indicated that conditions with two and three modalities each produced
MODALITY AND RECALL OF STIMULI
259
significantly higher means than the condition with the one modality but the conditions with two modalities did not differ significantly from the conditions with three modalities. It was hypothesized that subjects in condicions with multiple modalities would score significantly higher means chan subjects in conditions with single modalities. The data showed that conditions with multiple modalities (two and three modes) produced higher means than the conditions with single ones. Therefore, hypothesis 1 was accepted that generally multiple modalities produced higher means than single modalities. One datum was consistent with that reported by Bousfield, et al. (1957) that colored pictures with printed words were more effective chan printed words. However, the condition with uncolored pictures and printed words did not differ significantly from that with printed words and, thus, did not concur with Bousfield, et al.'s (1957) finding. It was hypothesized that conditions with three modalities would have a higher mean than conditions with two modalities. This hypothesis was rejected because the analysis showed that conditions with two and three modalities did not differ significantly from each other. In addition, conditions with uncolored pictures and printed words did differ significantly from colored pictures and printed words and, thus, this datum did not concur with that reported by BOUSfield, et 01. (1957). From these data, it could be stated that the compounding of cues, as suggested by Bousfield, et al. ( 1957), or simply adding sensory modalities to the stimuli does not enhance significantly the number of words recalled. It was hypothesized that subjects hearing the words would score significantly higher than subjects seeing the printed words but the condition with spoken words did not differ significantly from that with printed words. Thus, hypothesis 3 was rejected. In addition, the datum did not concur with the findings reported by Cooper, et al. (1957) and Murdock (1968). From this finding, it could be stated that auditory presentations of stimuli are just as effective as visual (printed words) for college students on an immediate recall test when the responses are written. One reason for the similarity of the results in the two conditions may be that college students are exposed to many printed words (readings) and auditory (lectures) presentations. They are conditioned to look and to listen carefully for cues which assist in the recall of information. The results also indicated that subjects in the condition with spoken words had a significantly higher mean than subjects in conditions with the uncolored and the colored pictures. Auditory presentations of stimuli (spoken words) are more effective than uncolored or colored pictures (presented alone) for college students. Perhaps the auditory modality (lectures) provides definite cues which assist in the recall of data whereas visual viewing of pictures does not. It was hypothesized that subjects seeing words would earn a significantly higher mean than subjects seeing uncolored or colored pictures. There was a higher mean for seeing words than for colored pictures but this was not sig-
260
B. M. GADZELLA & D. A. WHITEHEAD
nificantly different from seeing uncolored pictures. This datum is like that reported by Runquist, et al. (1961) but is contrary to that reported by Paivio, et al. (1968) and Jenkins, et al. ( 1967). In reference to Jenkins, et al.'s (1967) study, it was reported that recognition of words was higher when the same modality was used in storing and retrieving data than when different modalities were used in the two processes. Subjects wrote the words they recalled and those who saw words had a significantly higher mean than those who saw colored pictures. Thus, this finding concurred with that of Jenkins, et al. (1967). However, had retrieval involved a pictorial form (recognition of pictures), as was employed by Standing, et al. ( 1970), the scores with colored and uncolored pictures might have been higher. The present findings are limited to the effects of auditory and visual sensory modalities on immediate recall submitted in written tests for college students. They can be interpreted as follows. ( 1 ) The recall from lectures is superior to that from viewing pictures but not from the recall of printed words read. ( 2 ) The recall from printed materials is greater than the recall from colored pictures. ( 3 ) The recall from any three modes of representation of stimuli presented concurrently does not enhance significantly the recall from any two modes. ( 4 ) The recall from multiple modes of representation, generally, produces higher scores than the recall from a single mode. These results concurred with other reports that sensory modalities of stimuli differ in their functional roles in the recall of stimulus words. The significance of this study is that the comprehensive data derived from the one experimental setting are comparable and, thus, facilitate determination of which sensory modality is superior and which modalities are just as effective as others with college students. REFERENCES BOUSFIELD, W. A,, ESTERSON, J., & WHITMARSH, G. A. The effects of concomitant colored and uncolored pictorial representations on the learning of stimulus words. journal of Applied Psychology, 1957, 41. 165-168. COOPER, J. C., 81 GAETH,J. H. Interactions of modality with age and with meaningfulness in verbal learning. Journal o f Educational Psychology, 1967, 58, 41-44. JENKINS,J. R., NEALE,D. C., & DENO,S. L. Differential memory for picture and word stimuli. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1967, 58, 303-307. LINDQUIST, E. F. Design and analysij o f experiments i n psychology and education. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1956. MURDOCK. B. B. Modality effects in short-term memory: storage or retrieval? Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1968, 77, 79-86. PAIVIO,A., ROGERS,T. B.. & SMYTHE,P. C. Why are pictures easier to recall than words? Psychononic Science, 1968, 11, 137-138. RUNQUIST, W. N., & H u n , V. H. Verbal concept learning in high school students with pictorial and verbal representation of stimuli. Journal o f Educational Psychology, 1961, 5 2 , 108-111. STANDING, L., CONEZIO,J., & HABER,R. N. Perception and memory for pictures: single-trial learning of 2500 visual stimuli. Prychonomic Science, 1970. 19, 73-74. WILLIAMS, J., WILLIAMS, D. V.. & BLUMBERG, E. L. Visual and aural learning in urban children. JournaL of Educational Psychology, 1973, 64, 353-359. Accepted November I S , 1974.
EFFECTS OF AUDITORY AND VISUAL MODALITIES IN RECALL OF WORDS1 BERNADETTE M. GADZELLA A N D DEBORAH A. WHITEHEAD East Texas State University Summrry.-Ten experimental conditions were used to study the effects of auditory and visual (printed words, uncolored and colored pictures) modalities and their various combinations with college students. A recall paradigm was employed in which subjects responded in a written rest. Analysis of data showed the auditory modality was superior to visual (pictures) ones but was not significantly different From visual (printed words) modality. In visual modalities, printed words were superior to colored pictures. Generally, conditions with multiple modes of representation of stimuli were significantly higher than for conditions with single modes. Multiple modalities, consisting of two or three modes, did not differ significantly from each other. It was concluded that any two modalicies of the stimuli presented simultaneously were just as effective as three in recall of stimulus words.
A number of investigators have reported that in sensory modalities, auditory and visual (printed words and pictures), stimuli function differently in verbal learning and concept formation. But these findings are unclear as to which modality is superior and which is just as effective at different age levels. T o understand these findings it is necessary to consider not only the variations of the sensory modes but also the mode by which the subjects had to respond. Several theories were developed suggesting that effects of modalities represent differences in storage in the memory (Murdock, 1968) and that differences in test results may be due to the different modalities used in retrieving the data (Jenkins, Neale, & Deno, 1967). In using visual (words and pictures of words) representations of stimuli, Paivio, Rogers, and Smythe (1968) reported that pictures were retrieved better than words from short-term memory by college students in a written test. Superior performances with pictures over performances with words were also reported by Standing, Conezio, and Haber (1970) and Jenkins, et al. (1967) in recognition tests. The superiority of printed words over pictures was reported by Runquist and Hutt (1961) with high school students in a written test. In studying differences between visual and aural learning, Williams, Williams, and Blumberg (1973), using oral tests, reported that generally for all grade levels ( 2 , 4 , 6 , 8, and 10) visual (printed words) was superior to auditory presentations. However, the auditory modality was more effective than visual (printed words) with high school students on a written test (Cooper & Gaeth, 1967) and with college students for a Yes-No response (Murdock, 1968). Other researchers (Bousfield, Esterson, & Whitmarsh, 1957), using visual 'This research was partly funded to the first author by Organized Research at East Texas State University, Commerce, Texas. Grant Project No. is 1501-9032.
2 56
B. M. GADZELLA & D. A. WHITEHEAD
(printed words and pictures) representations of stimuli, studied the effects of multiple modalities. [Multiple modalities are here referred to as more than one sensory modality, auditory or visual (printed words and/or pictures), used simultaneously in presenting stimuli.] With data collected from college students' responses, Bousfield, et al. (1957) reported that the largest number of words recalled occurred with printed words and colored pictures, next with printed words and uncolored pictures, and least with printed words. One cannot make a statement concerning the superiority of one modality over another which would meet all conditions and types of subjects. Data from .specific experimental studies are needed to indicate which modality is superior to, or is as good as, another for specific groups of subjects when the same mode and when various modes for responding are used. In addition, verbal learning and concept formation do not occur only through auditory or visual modalities but often through various combinations of these modalities. Therefore, there is a need to study the effects of the specific combinations of these modalities, how they differ from each other in effectiveness and whether any are superior to others at different age levels. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of auditory (spoken words) and visual (printed words, uncolored and colored pictures) modes of representations of stimuli and their various combinations in one experimental setting. The subjects were college students who recalled stimuli in a written test. The modes of representation and their combinations provided for 10 experimental conditions (Table 1 ) . Several hypotheses were made: ( 1) subjects given multiple modalities would score significantly higher means than subjects given a single modality (Bousfield, et al., 1957); ( 2 ) subjects in conditions with three modalities would have significantly higher means than subjects in conditions with only two modalities. This hypothesis was made on the basis that added cues would aid recall of words; ( 3 ) subjects hearing words of stimuli would earn a significantly higher mean than those seeing words (Cooper, et al., 1967; Murdock, 1968) ; (4) subjects seeing words as stimuli would score significantly higher than those seeing colored and uncolored pictures (Runquist, et al., 1961). It has been suggested (Jenkins, et al., 1967) that retrieval of words was easier from printed words than from pictures when responses were written. METHOD
Subjects Two hundred volunteers from introductory, educational, adolescent and physiological psychology classes in a large state university served as subjects. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of the 10 experimental conditions with 20 subjects in each group. The proportion of males to females in each group was 1:3.
MODALITY A N D RECALL OF STIMULI
Materials The 25 simple nouns selected as stimulus words were similar to those used by Bousfield, et al. (1957). The nouns were selected so that they fell into five categories of meaning. The categories and words were: ( 1 ) FLOWERSdaisy, rose, violet, dandelion, and fern; ( 2 ) FRUIT-pear, apple, grapes, banana, and lime; ( 3 ) VEGETABLES--onion, radish, eggplant, corn, and lettuce; (4) BIRDS-seagull, cardinal, peacock, canary, and parrot; and ( 5 ) NATUREclouds, sun, mountains, star, and trees. Subjects who recorded an object of a similar shape, e.g., a lemon or an avocado instead of a lime, received credit for it. Six sets of materials were prepared with the 25 stimulus words, one tape and five sets of 35-mm slides. The words were recorded in random order at 5-sec. intervals on a Cassette tape. The slides consisted of one set of each: printed words, uncolored (black and white) pictures, colored pictures, uncolored pictures and printed words, and colored pictures and printed words. The uncolored pictures were simple outline drawings of the objects. Colored pictures were the same outline drawings of the objects, colored. A Kodak Carousel projector, set to expose one slide every 5 sec., was used in conditions comprising visual representations (pictures and/or printed words) of the stimuli and a Cassette tape recorder was used to present the conditions with auditory representations. Procedure The experimental conditions were administered to groups of 2 to 7 subjects. The experimenter first gave each subject a sheet of paper and instructed the group that they would be exposed to a list of words and/or pictures according to the experimental group they were assigned to. The subjects were also told that they should try to remember the words as they would be asked to write them on the sheet of paper. Each of the experimental groups was given similar instructions and exposed to the same randomized order of words with the appropriate set of slides, tape, or combination of slides and tape. For instance, in the condition with uncolored pictures and printed and spoken words, subjects saw the slides and listened to the tape recordings simultaneously. After the presentation of the words, subjects were given 10 min. to write all the words they could recall.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The number for words recalled correctly was analyzed for the groups. The means and standard deviations for each of the experimental and modality groups are shown in Table 1. (Experimental conditions were grouped by one, two, and three modalities for analysis.) A 1 X 10 analysis of variance produced a significant F ratio of 4.29 (df = 9/190, p < .05) for the experimental groups. To determine between which groups the means were significantly different, the critical differences at the .05 level were computed for equal ns (Lindquist, 1956).
2 58
B. M. GADZELLA & D. A. WHITEHEAD
TABLE 1 DEVIATIONS FOR NUMBER OF WORDSRECALLEDCORRECTLY MEANSAND STANDARD FOR 10 EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS AND GROUPS WITHONE,TWOAND THREEMODALITIES Condition Experimental Groups Printed word Uncolored picture, printed word Colored picture, printed word Uncolored picture, printed and spoken words Colored picture, printed and spoken words Uncolored picture Colored picture Uncolored picture, spoken word Colored picture, spoken word Spoken word Modality Groups One modality Two modalities Three modalities
N
M
SD
20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
15.75 16.90 18.10 17.45 17.30 13.90 13.60 16.05 17.95 16.10
2.86 1.87 3.45 3.72 3.26 3.96 4.03 3.31 2.62 3.33
80 80
14.84 17.25 17.36
3.74 2.99 3.49
40
The data indicated that there were 17 significant mean differences between the groups. These differences can be summarized as follows: ( 1) The condition with uncolored pictures produced a significantly lower mean than the following conditions: uncolored pictures and printed words; colored pictures and printed words; uncolored pictures and printed and spoken words; colored picmres and printed and spoken words; uncolored pictures and spoken words; colored pictures and spoken words; and spoken words. ( 2 ) The condition with colored pictures produced a significantly lower mean than printed words, uncolored pictures and printed words, colored pictures and printed words, uncolored pictures and printed and spoken words, colored pictures and printed and spoken words, uncolored picmres and spoken words, colored pictures and spoken words, and spoken words. ( 3 ) The condition with printed words produced a significantly lower mean than colored pictures and printed words, and colored pictures and spoken words. Three of the 17 significant differences were between conditions with single modalities: uncolored pictures and spoken words, colored pictures and spoken words, and colored pictures and printed words. Of the 17 significant mean differences 14 were between conditions with a muItiple and a single modality and, in each case, the conditions with the multiple modalities produced significantly higher means. To determine whether there were significant differences between single and multiple modalities, the conditions were grouped by one, two, and three modalities. A 1 X 3 analysis of variance produced a significant F ratio of 12.24 (df = 2/197, p < .05). The critical difference set at .05 level (Lindquist, 1956) indicated that conditions with two and three modalities each produced
MODALITY AND RECALL OF STIMULI
259
significantly higher means than the condition with the one modality but the conditions with two modalities did not differ significantly from the conditions with three modalities. It was hypothesized that subjects in condicions with multiple modalities would score significantly higher means chan subjects in conditions with single modalities. The data showed that conditions with multiple modalities (two and three modes) produced higher means than the conditions with single ones. Therefore, hypothesis 1 was accepted that generally multiple modalities produced higher means than single modalities. One datum was consistent with that reported by Bousfield, et al. (1957) that colored pictures with printed words were more effective chan printed words. However, the condition with uncolored pictures and printed words did not differ significantly from that with printed words and, thus, did not concur with Bousfield, et al.'s (1957) finding. It was hypothesized that conditions with three modalities would have a higher mean than conditions with two modalities. This hypothesis was rejected because the analysis showed that conditions with two and three modalities did not differ significantly from each other. In addition, conditions with uncolored pictures and printed words did differ significantly from colored pictures and printed words and, thus, this datum did not concur with that reported by BOUSfield, et 01. (1957). From these data, it could be stated that the compounding of cues, as suggested by Bousfield, et al. ( 1957), or simply adding sensory modalities to the stimuli does not enhance significantly the number of words recalled. It was hypothesized that subjects hearing the words would score significantly higher than subjects seeing the printed words but the condition with spoken words did not differ significantly from that with printed words. Thus, hypothesis 3 was rejected. In addition, the datum did not concur with the findings reported by Cooper, et al. (1957) and Murdock (1968). From this finding, it could be stated that auditory presentations of stimuli are just as effective as visual (printed words) for college students on an immediate recall test when the responses are written. One reason for the similarity of the results in the two conditions may be that college students are exposed to many printed words (readings) and auditory (lectures) presentations. They are conditioned to look and to listen carefully for cues which assist in the recall of information. The results also indicated that subjects in the condition with spoken words had a significantly higher mean than subjects in conditions with the uncolored and the colored pictures. Auditory presentations of stimuli (spoken words) are more effective than uncolored or colored pictures (presented alone) for college students. Perhaps the auditory modality (lectures) provides definite cues which assist in the recall of data whereas visual viewing of pictures does not. It was hypothesized that subjects seeing words would earn a significantly higher mean than subjects seeing uncolored or colored pictures. There was a higher mean for seeing words than for colored pictures but this was not sig-
260
B. M. GADZELLA & D. A. WHITEHEAD
nificantly different from seeing uncolored pictures. This datum is like that reported by Runquist, et al. (1961) but is contrary to that reported by Paivio, et al. (1968) and Jenkins, et al. ( 1967). In reference to Jenkins, et al.'s (1967) study, it was reported that recognition of words was higher when the same modality was used in storing and retrieving data than when different modalities were used in the two processes. Subjects wrote the words they recalled and those who saw words had a significantly higher mean than those who saw colored pictures. Thus, this finding concurred with that of Jenkins, et al. (1967). However, had retrieval involved a pictorial form (recognition of pictures), as was employed by Standing, et al. ( 1970), the scores with colored and uncolored pictures might have been higher. The present findings are limited to the effects of auditory and visual sensory modalities on immediate recall submitted in written tests for college students. They can be interpreted as follows. ( 1 ) The recall from lectures is superior to that from viewing pictures but not from the recall of printed words read. ( 2 ) The recall from printed materials is greater than the recall from colored pictures. ( 3 ) The recall from any three modes of representation of stimuli presented concurrently does not enhance significantly the recall from any two modes. ( 4 ) The recall from multiple modes of representation, generally, produces higher scores than the recall from a single mode. These results concurred with other reports that sensory modalities of stimuli differ in their functional roles in the recall of stimulus words. The significance of this study is that the comprehensive data derived from the one experimental setting are comparable and, thus, facilitate determination of which sensory modality is superior and which modalities are just as effective as others with college students. REFERENCES BOUSFIELD, W. A,, ESTERSON, J., & WHITMARSH, G. A. The effects of concomitant colored and uncolored pictorial representations on the learning of stimulus words. journal of Applied Psychology, 1957, 41. 165-168. COOPER, J. C., 81 GAETH,J. H. Interactions of modality with age and with meaningfulness in verbal learning. Journal o f Educational Psychology, 1967, 58, 41-44. JENKINS,J. R., NEALE,D. C., & DENO,S. L. Differential memory for picture and word stimuli. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1967, 58, 303-307. LINDQUIST, E. F. Design and analysij o f experiments i n psychology and education. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1956. MURDOCK. B. B. Modality effects in short-term memory: storage or retrieval? Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1968, 77, 79-86. PAIVIO,A., ROGERS,T. B.. & SMYTHE,P. C. Why are pictures easier to recall than words? Psychononic Science, 1968, 11, 137-138. RUNQUIST, W. N., & H u n , V. H. Verbal concept learning in high school students with pictorial and verbal representation of stimuli. Journal o f Educational Psychology, 1961, 5 2 , 108-111. STANDING, L., CONEZIO,J., & HABER,R. N. Perception and memory for pictures: single-trial learning of 2500 visual stimuli. Prychonomic Science, 1970. 19, 73-74. WILLIAMS, J., WILLIAMS, D. V.. & BLUMBERG, E. L. Visual and aural learning in urban children. JournaL of Educational Psychology, 1973, 64, 353-359. Accepted November I S , 1974.
