Dual Coding and Conjoint Retention: Past, Present, and Future

Educators and psychologists have researched theoretical models of text or image representation and recall for decades (Anderson 1976; Klatsky 1980; Mclleland, Rumelhart & PDP Research Group 1986; Paivio 1971). In the early 1980's, Raymond W. Kulhavy and his colleagues (Dean & Kulhavy 1981; Kulhavy, Lee & Caterino 1985) embarked on a research agenda concerning whether the use of organized spatial displays in conjunction with textual information increases recall. The purpose of this paper is to review the theoretical framework of Kulhavy's Conjoint Retention hypothesis (CR) and provide a review of the research based on this hypothesis over Ole past two decades. Finally, a discussion of current and future directions of the research is provided.