Drawings and words show a recall advantage over object photos

People demonstrate an enormous recall capacity for photographs they have seen only once (Brady et al., 2008; Shepard, 1967; Standing, 1973). Using mostly drawings, Ally & Budson (2007) found a recall advantage for images over words in their groundbreaking EEG study of the picture superiority effect. Curran & Doyle (2011) replicated their findings also using line drawings, which were better recalled than words when using only words as test stimuli as well as when testing with images. Working memory research has shown bias differences in memory responses between line drawings and photographs (Gilman, Ware, & Limber, 2010). The present study used words at test, following the behavioral portion of Curran & Doyle (2011)’s Experiment 1, and contrasted photo, drawing, and word stimuli as study items. Forty-three undergraduates completed the study for course credit, with 40 providing responses. Stimuli consisted of IMABASE (Bonin et al., 2020) drawings of objects with naming agreement over 88%, related photos primarily from Konkle and colleagues’ sets (2012, 2013), and the English name for each item. Roughly half of the stimulus items were randomly selected to be “new” items. Participants engaged in three randomized blocks of 36 study and 60 test trials. At study, stimuli were shown for 2000ms followed by a liking question; at test, words for items were shown for 1500ms to elicit recall ratings. Recall accuracy decreased by block (94%, 91%, 85%) and showed a significant advantage by TukeyHSD for drawings (94%) and words (91%) over photos (86%), F(3,461) = 6.82, p<.001. Neither sensitivity nor bias differed significantly by stimulus study format. The overall recall advantage for studied words and drawings over photographs conflicts with Curran & Doyle’s 2011 behavioral findings. Image nameability may confer a recall advantage, similar to the memory advantage of nameable category differences found by Olsson & Poom (2005).