More on imagery and the recall of adjectives and nouns from meaningful prose

Abstract

Following Morris & Reid (1972), two groups of Ss were each given a different version of the same passage to read for comprehension. Version H had high-imagery adjectives, Version L had low-imagery adjectives. Both groups were then tested for free recall of adjectives and adjective-cued recall of nouns. Significant differences were found in mean number of adjectives and mean number of nouns recalled. A direct function was implied between number of adjectives recalled and adjectives correctly recalled and then correctly paired with nouns.

Imagery and prose: A critical review of research on adults and children

“…In immediate recall, these versions elicit greater productivity (Kirchner, 1969), and a more speciflcally higher recall of nouns (free recall, Kirchner, 1969;cued recall, DeVito and Olson, 1973). Finally, high-imagery adjectives are themselves better recalled than low-imagery ones (free recall, DeVito and Olson, 1973;cued recall, Hiscock, 1976;Morris and Reid, 1972).…”

“…V). The other authors (DeVito and Olson, 1973;Hiscock, 1976;Morris and Reid, 1972) were more prone to emphasize imagery value äs a characteristic likely to increase the probability of imaginal encoding, which thus furnishes the individual with an extra opportunity to retrieve the corresponding Information during the recall phase. This Interpretation is clearly in line with the dual-coding theory developed by Paivio (1971).…”