Properties of Maps that Improve Recall of Associated Text

Abstract

To test how maps improve memory for related text facts, undergraduates studied a map of a Roman city and listened to a text describing facts about map features. Recall of text facts was dependent on how well subjects encoded the structural relations of the map. Adding color to map features during study had no important effect on memory for text. The results were interpreted in terms of a dual-coding model, where map images that retain structural relationships have a cuing advantage during text retrieval.