Transfer Appropriate Processing
• Morris, Bransford, & Franks, 1977
Visual Images
• “image” – mental representation that is
very similar in nature to the actual object
or idea that is being represented
• E.g., forming an image of the front door of
your home (visual image)
• E.g., imagine the sound of nails scraping
on the chalkboard (auditory image)
Use of visual images
• People naturally use visual images to
perform mental tasks
• Example on p. 176 (fig. 7.1) shows a task
in which people naturally use a visual
image to complete the task
Visual Images and Memory
• Principles of Remembering (Higbee, 1988)
– Tricks or rules for having items “stick” in LTM
– Attention
– Association
– Meaningfulness
– Organization
– Visualization
Attention
• Must first pay attention to something to
remember it (or focus)
– Things we don’t remember well because we
never pay attention
• Red light on traffic signal – top or bottom?
• Lincoln’s image on a penny – left or right?
• Toilet flush – circle clockwise or counterclockwise?
Association
• Find connections between target material
(what you’re trying to learn) and what is
already in memory
– E.g., measure association value of a stimulus
– CARICATURE (list items from memory
related)
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•
•
•
Cartoon
Exaggeration
Street vendors
humorists
Using association
• Find information in memory that is related
to (i.e., associated with) the target material
• Help improve memory
meaningfulness
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Seek meaning in target material
Goal is memorize a list of letters
S W G F B I P A
Can become
S W G FBI PAW
Reduced to 5 items instead of nine
Aids memory
W
organization
• Arranging or rearranging target material to
find patterns
• E.g., arranging your flashcards into piles
based on similar concepts
•  aid your memory
• Look for tables of contents, lists, hierarchy,
groups, etc.
visualization
• Form a visual image
– CHAIR  forming a visual image will improve
your memory for that word
– MATH 
– EMOTION 
– ABSTRACT  harder to visualize
– RANDOM  harder to visualize
Concrete vs. abstract words
• Concrete words are easier to form images
of
• Abstract words are harder
• The “concrete-abstract dimension” (Paivio,
1969)
• Imageability  your ability to form an
image of a particular word or object
• Concrete words remembered better than
abstract words
Interactive image
• Compound image that is comprised of two
or more images interacting with each other
• Interactive images lead to superior
memory
– BUN
– SHIRT
– E.g., hamburger bun with ketchup dripping off
onto a shirt; animated hot dog wearing a shirt
Mnemonic (memory trick)
• System that combines as many of the
principles for memorizing some target
material
• Prefix “mne” = memory