Picture superiority effect

It is based on the notion that "human memory is extremely sensitive to the symbolic modality of presentation of event information.

"[8] Explanations for the picture superiority effect are not concrete and are still being debated, however an evolutionary explanation is that sight has a long history stretching back millions of years and was crucial to survival in the past, whereas reading is a relatively recent invention, and requires specific cognitive processes, such as decoding symbols and linking them to meaning.

[5] Whether the picture superiority effect influences the familiarity and/or recollection processes, according to the dual-process models, thought to underlie recognition memory is not clear.

Moreover, pictures in pairs or group were better organized in our memory than words thus resulting in superiority in recall (Pavio & Csapo, 1973[13]).

When deadlines for the response were short, the process of familiarity was present, along with an increased tendency to recall words over pictures.

When response deadlines were longer, the process of recollection was being utilized, and a strong picture superiority effect was present.

[19] In addition, equivalent response time was reported for pictures and words for intelligence comparison (Paivio & Marschark, 1980[20]).

Some studies have shown that it appears to become more pronounced with age,[5][6] while others have found that this effect is also observed among younger children (Whitehouse, Mayber, Durkin, 2006[6]).

However, the major contribution in picture superiority in recognition memory among children was familiarity (Defeyter, Russo & McPartlin, 2009[5]).

In populations with Alzheimer's disease, and other mild cognitive impairments, the picture superiority effect remains evident.

[24] ERP activity indicates that patients with amnesic mild cognitive impairment utilized frontal-lobe based memory processes to support successful recognition for pictures, which was similar to healthy controls, but not for words.