An auditory analog of the picture superiority effect in typically developing children

Grudzinska, Arleta (2018) An auditory analog of the picture superiority effect in typically developing children. University of West London. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

It has been established that the memory for pictures is superior than the memory for words. This empirical phenomenon is referred to as picture superiority effect (PSE) (Paivio & Caspo, 1973; Mazard et al., 2002). The dual coded theory (DCT) proposed that visual information is coded in the memory twice unlike verbal information which is only coded once, therefore, pictures are more likely to be remembered (Paivio,1969). Crutcher and Beer (2010) extended PSE to the auditory modality in the adult population, whilst finding that that the recall of sounds is superior than the recall of words (spoken). Nevertheless, the long term of sounds and words has not been previously researched. The current study examined the memory for sounds and words (spoken) in an opportunity sample of 34 typically developing children, aged 6-12. During the experimental protocol children listened to 10 sounds and 10 words, which were later reported in a delayed free recall task. In line with the assumption of the DCT the study predicted that children would recall more sounds than words. A 2x2 mixed model ANOVA was conducted and a significant main effect of stimulus type was found, (F (1,32) =33.80, p <0.001; d=1.47), with more sounds being recalled than words. An exploratory hypothesis was also investigated to compare the recall of the auditory stimuli in male (n=17) children and female (n=17) children. No significant interaction between the variables of stimulus type and gender was found, (F (1,32) =0.60, p=0.44).