The Effect of Ready-Made Illustrated Stories on Working Memory

Overview

Objectives/Goals It is well-known that you can remember a set of words or ideas better by making up a story around them. My objective was to test the hypothesis that illustrated stories help you remember word sequences better even if the stories are not yours. Methods/Materials I randomly picked two sets of 10 nouns and made illustrated stories using them. I made web-based tests showing words in one set for 3 seconds each, and the other set as a 30 second illustrated story. After seeing each set, subjects typed the words from memory. I also made control tests using just pictures from the story, or just sentences. 202 people took the tests. Results People (especially women and under-20-year-olds) remembered words as well as their sequences significantly better when they were shown illustrated stories instead of just text, pictures or sentences. There was an average improvement of 17% in remembering the words and 29% in remembering them in the right sequence. But the small number of people who did very well on the text-only tests actually did worse with the illustrated stories. Conclusions/Discussion I think people did better on the illustrated stories because you can enjoy a story and that helps you remember it. The story ties all the words together in one package and you can remember that one package instead of remembering all the words separately. The illustrated stories helped people remember the words in the right sequence because there is a logical order in the story.

Competition history

• CSEF 2004 Behavioral Sciences · Entry J0329

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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