Associating map features and related prose in memory

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the conjoint retention of spatial and linguistic information in an instructional context. We presented learners with a prose passage that included 20 general nouns as target concepts (from the Battig & Montague, 1969, category norms). Reference maps supporting this passage contained 10 high-frequency specific nouns as exemplars of 10 of the 20 general concepts, and 10 exemplars that learners generated for depiction on the map. Results from measures of map and prose memory indicated that subjects producing idiosyncratic exemplars of the general prose concepts and placing them logically within the map space retained the most perceptual map information and conceptual passage information. Data on order of recall suggested that subjects who viewed intact maps as they processed the prose were able to rely on both the map structure and the serial order of the original passage for free recall. However, subjects viewing lists of identical map features showed a deficiency in image-based processing, relying almost exclusively on passage structure for organization of free recall. Finally, when subjects generated map features and their spatial locations they exhibited superior locational accuracy at map reconstruction. This study supports the conjoint retention hypothesis which states that the probability of recalling information from maps and related prose is predictable directly from the trace strength of jointly encoded imaginal and verbal memory representations.