The Impact of Visuals on Short-Term Memory Recall

Overview

The purpose of this study was to assess how visual information impacts the accuracy of short-term memory recall. As memory is an essential human function, the project aimed to examine how to optimize the recall of memory by investigating the relationship between visuals and short-term memory recall accuracy with auditory information. It was hypothesized that the presence of auditory information with accompanying visuals would correlate with more accurate recall of short-term memory compared to the accuracy of questions without accompanying visuals (only auditory information). There were 39 participants in this study who completed a four question short-term memory test with auditory information either with or without accompanying visual pictures of the scenario. A significant positive correlation was found between short-term memory recall accuracy and the presence of visual information with a 23.9% difference in average recall accuracy of questions with visuals (75.3% accuracy) versus without (51.5% accuracy). The findings in this study show the importance of visuals in short-term memory recall and could be used to improve educational environments and everyday processes.

Competition history

• ISEF 2025 Behavioral and Social Sciences · Entry BEHA042

Resources

• ISEF abstract page ↗

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