Perceptualand Motor Skillz, 1991, 7 3 , 689-690.
O Perceptual and Motor Skills 1991
VALIDATION OF A PICTORIAL RECALL TEST I N T H R E E VISUAL FORMATS ' LOUIS H. BERRY University of Pittsburgh
AND
ROMAINE JESKY-SMITH Gentua College
Summary.-This study describes the validation of a visual recall test which was constructed using three different levels of visual complexity, line drawing, monoduome photographic, and color photographic. For a sample of 111 college students, the test was significantly correlated (.42 and .92) with two recognized tests of visual memory.
Research reported by Salomon and Cohen (1977) described the development of an instrument for the measurement of v ~ s u a lrecall memory with children. This test, which used only simple line drawings, was unsuitable for the measurement of visual memory under differing degrees of visual complexity (line drawing, monochrome photographic, color photographic) with adult subjects because of the relatively unsophisticated, cartoon nature of the visuals. For this reason, the present researchers developed a three-part instrument which tested recall memory under the three visual formats. Three different collections of common household items (32 per set) were randomly arranged on a neutral photographic backdrop. Care was taken to ensure that no verbal labels, names, or symbols were visible. Each set was photographed on color slides and then recopied onto black and white slides. A line drawing of each scene was produced from the black and white slides and copied onto 35-mm slides. The resulting stimulus materials consisted of three sets of slides, each composed of three different visual treatment versions of the same image, one rendered in photographic color, another in a black and white photographic format, and the third in a line-drawing format. The sets were then counterbalanced using a Latin square for assignment. Each of 111 subjects (48 men and 63 women, undergraduate majors in education whose ages ranged from 19 to 28 years) was randomly assigned to one of three groups. Each group was then randomly assigned to a particular set of stimulus slides. I n a semidarkened room, each group viewed an individual slide for a period of 20 sec. after which they had four minutes to write down as many objects as they could recall. This procedure was repeated again with each of the other two slides assigned to the particular group of subjects. A rest of 5 rnin. was provided between slides. The correlations of two tests of visual memory, the Visual Memory Test (Salomon & Cohen, 1977) and the Continuous Visual Memory Test (Trahan 'Address requests for reprints to L. H. Berr Ph.D., School of Education, Program in Instructional Design and Technology, 4B20 ~ o r k e sQuadrangle, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.
690
L. H. BERRY & R. JESKY-SMITH
& Larrabee, 1988), to the scores on the three forms of the instrument across
all three complexity levels were assessed. The Pearson intercorrelations are shown in Table 1. Test data did not, however, correlate significantly with either the ages of the subjects or their gender. The correlation of scores on these two tests was significantly greater than the intercorrelations of these with the three visual formats, perhaps because both tests employ extremely simple line illustrations, either drawings of objects (Visual Memory Test) or geometric forms (Continuous Visual Memory Test), whereas the three visual formats developed by the present researchers were substantidy more detailed and consequently represented a more complex visual recall task. TABLE 1 PEARSON COKKELATIONS BETWEEN CONTINUOUS VISUAL MFNORYTEST, VISUALMEMORYTEST, AND TI-IREEVISUALFORMATS(N= 111)
1. Continuous Visual Memory Test 2. Visual Memory Test 3 . Line Drawing 4. Monochrome 5 . Color *p
O Perceptual and Motor Skills 1991
VALIDATION OF A PICTORIAL RECALL TEST I N T H R E E VISUAL FORMATS ' LOUIS H. BERRY University of Pittsburgh
AND
ROMAINE JESKY-SMITH Gentua College
Summary.-This study describes the validation of a visual recall test which was constructed using three different levels of visual complexity, line drawing, monoduome photographic, and color photographic. For a sample of 111 college students, the test was significantly correlated (.42 and .92) with two recognized tests of visual memory.
Research reported by Salomon and Cohen (1977) described the development of an instrument for the measurement of v ~ s u a lrecall memory with children. This test, which used only simple line drawings, was unsuitable for the measurement of visual memory under differing degrees of visual complexity (line drawing, monochrome photographic, color photographic) with adult subjects because of the relatively unsophisticated, cartoon nature of the visuals. For this reason, the present researchers developed a three-part instrument which tested recall memory under the three visual formats. Three different collections of common household items (32 per set) were randomly arranged on a neutral photographic backdrop. Care was taken to ensure that no verbal labels, names, or symbols were visible. Each set was photographed on color slides and then recopied onto black and white slides. A line drawing of each scene was produced from the black and white slides and copied onto 35-mm slides. The resulting stimulus materials consisted of three sets of slides, each composed of three different visual treatment versions of the same image, one rendered in photographic color, another in a black and white photographic format, and the third in a line-drawing format. The sets were then counterbalanced using a Latin square for assignment. Each of 111 subjects (48 men and 63 women, undergraduate majors in education whose ages ranged from 19 to 28 years) was randomly assigned to one of three groups. Each group was then randomly assigned to a particular set of stimulus slides. I n a semidarkened room, each group viewed an individual slide for a period of 20 sec. after which they had four minutes to write down as many objects as they could recall. This procedure was repeated again with each of the other two slides assigned to the particular group of subjects. A rest of 5 rnin. was provided between slides. The correlations of two tests of visual memory, the Visual Memory Test (Salomon & Cohen, 1977) and the Continuous Visual Memory Test (Trahan 'Address requests for reprints to L. H. Berr Ph.D., School of Education, Program in Instructional Design and Technology, 4B20 ~ o r k e sQuadrangle, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.
690
L. H. BERRY & R. JESKY-SMITH
& Larrabee, 1988), to the scores on the three forms of the instrument across
all three complexity levels were assessed. The Pearson intercorrelations are shown in Table 1. Test data did not, however, correlate significantly with either the ages of the subjects or their gender. The correlation of scores on these two tests was significantly greater than the intercorrelations of these with the three visual formats, perhaps because both tests employ extremely simple line illustrations, either drawings of objects (Visual Memory Test) or geometric forms (Continuous Visual Memory Test), whereas the three visual formats developed by the present researchers were substantidy more detailed and consequently represented a more complex visual recall task. TABLE 1 PEARSON COKKELATIONS BETWEEN CONTINUOUS VISUAL MFNORYTEST, VISUALMEMORYTEST, AND TI-IREEVISUALFORMATS(N= 111)
1. Continuous Visual Memory Test 2. Visual Memory Test 3 . Line Drawing 4. Monochrome 5 . Color *p
