Mental imagery and learning in a community college: a study to determine if the ability to image mentally affects learning from pictorial or verbal presentations

This was a study to determine the effects of varying imaging abilities and differing formats of slide programs (pictorial and verbal) in promoting recall of paired-associates presented to community college students (N = 103) in introductory psychology classes.

The students were divided into High and Low Imagers on the basis of their scores on the shortened Betts' Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery. To control for the effect of intelligence on learning, students within each imagery group were ranked according to their School and College Ability Test (SCAT) verbal aptitude score. Within each imagery group, subjects with the highest SCAT score were randomly assigned to each treatment group. The next two highest scores were then assigned. After all students were assigned to a group, the treatment, pictorial or verbal, was randomly assigned.

The paired-associate categories in each presentation were concrete-concrete, concrete-abstract, abstract-concrete and abstract-abstract.

The slides in both presentations were shown for 7 seconds each. The pictorial presentation was a series of 28 slides of the paired-associates and an interactive cartoon drawing of the items named. The verbal presentation was a series of 28 slides of the paired associates only, with the students being instructed to image mentally the items named in an interacting situation. The same paired-associates were used in each presentation.

The presentations were followed by an immediate recall test and, two weeks later, by a delayed recall test. Both tests listed the 28 words shown first on each slide. The students were to write the word which had appeared with the word given. The students were directed to image mentally to facilitate recall.

Results of the Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (on SCAT) on the immediate recall test scores indicated no significant difference in recall due to imagery ability, type of presentation or interaction between them. Results of the Univariate Analyses of Covariance (on SCAT) with repeated measures on each of the four categories of paired-associates indicated significant differences due to time of testing (immediate and two-week delayed) in all categories; significant interaction of imagery ability and treatment in the concrete-concrete category; and in the concrete-abstract and abstract-concrete categories, significant interactions between treatment and time of testing.

There was no correlation between imagery ability and academic aptitude.