Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? Using Images to Create a Concreteness Effect for Abstract Words: Evidence from Beginning L2 Learners of Spanish

This study examines the lexical representation and recall of abstract words by beginning L2 learners of Spanish in the light of the predictions of the dual coding theory (Paivio 1971; Paivio and Desrochers 1980). Ninety-seven learners (forty-four males and fifty-three females) were randomly placed in the picture or non-picture group and taught twelve concrete and twelve abstract words they did not previously know. Subjects performed a recall task on an immediate and a delayed posttest. The results showed that associating abstract words with pictures had a significant effect on their recall on the immediate posttest, but no such effect was found on the delayed posttest. The results suggest that associating abstract lexical items with pictures has a significant effect on memory representation and recall in the short term. The findings also support the predictions of the dual coding theory and show that a concreteness effect can be created for abstract words by associating them with visual images.