Effects of Bizarre Imagery on Children's Memory

Two groups of preschool children (younger, 42.07 months; older, 55.29 months) were compared on their ability to recall Normal, Low Bizarre, and Highly Bizarre line-drawn interactive pictures of object pairs. The objects were first presented individually, then in an interaction condition (e.g., Normal condition, matches lighting a pipe; Low Bizarre condition, a pipe in a frying pan; High Bizarre condition, a fish smoking a pipe). The children were then told that one object (the stimulus member of the pair) would be presented and that they would later be asked to recall the object (the response member of the Pair) that went with it. The older children performed equally well on this paired-associate learning task in all three conditions. In contrast, the younger children had significantly fewer recalls for the response objects in the Low and High Bizarre conditions.

Picture Mediation in Abstract-Concrete Paired Associates

The present study investigated the hypothesis that pictures of abstract-concrete paired associates would serve to make the abstract stimulus member more concrete thereby enhancing the learning process. 60 subjects were equally divided into 6 groups, varying conditions of concreteness and abstractness of the stimulus items and pictures or no picture. The results supported the basic proposition that the picture mediation presented during the learning-testing condition facilitated the learning of the abstract paired associates.