Images Can Be More Powerful Than Memories

There appear to be circumstances under which images are more powerful than memories. Research indicates that people who rate how easily concrete words (e.g., FLOWER) arouse images—rather than memories—give higher ratings and also subsequently show better word recall. The present study extended the above findings by having college students answer a variety of questions rating either images or memories (e.g., “How easily can you image [or remember] a FLOWER?”). The results consistently showed the superiority of imagery over memory ratings, and also that imagery superiority was not due to the self-reference effect, wherein students related information to themselves. Two alternative interpretations were proposed. First, imagery ratings may be special because they enhance processing, perhaps as suggested by the coding redundancy hypothesis. Alternatively, memory ratings may limit processing by contributing more to maintenance than elaborative rehearsal.