Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Sentences before and after pictures: How do verbal specifications influence picture recognition?

  • Published:
Psychological Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

Certain aspects of verbal influences on picture recognition were investigated. Subjects were presented with a series of sentence-picture units. Two sentences referred to each of two objects (A and B) which were shown on a picture. One visually perceptible dimension of object A was verbally specified. Object B was verbally labeled but not specified. The two sentences were presented either before or after the corresponding picture. The recognition test was applied either to objects A or to objects B. Verbal specifications of A led to recognition shifts both for objects A and B. The verbal influence was also present when the sentences had been presented after the corresponding pictures. Conclusions about the process of understanding are drawn.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson JR, Paulson R (1978) Interference in memory for pictorial information. Cog Psychol 10:178–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Bransford JD, Nitsch KE (1978) Coming to understand things we could not previously understand. In: Kavanagh JF, Strange WP (eds) Speech and language in the laboratory, school, and clinic. Mass: MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Carmichael L, Hogan HP, Walter AA (1932) An experimental study of the effect of language on the reproduction of visually perceived form. J Exp Psychol 15:73–86

    Google Scholar 

  • Chase WG, Clark HH (1972) Mental operations in the comparison of sentences and pictures. In: Gregg L (ed) Cognition in learning and memory. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen RL (1967) Interaction between a visually perceived simple figure and an appropriate verbal label in recall. Percept Mot Skills 24:287–292

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole WG, Loftus EF (1979) Incorporating new information into memory. Am J Psychol 92(3):413–425

    Google Scholar 

  • Craik FIM, Lockhart RS (1972) Levels of processing: a framework for memory research. J Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 11:671–684

    Google Scholar 

  • Daniel TC (1972) Nature of the effect of verbal label on recognition memory for form. J Exp Psychol 96:152–157

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanawalt NG, Demarest IH (1939) The effect of verbal suggestion in the recall period upon the reproduction of visually perceived forms. J Exp Psychol 25:159–174

    Google Scholar 

  • Irwin F, Seidenfeld M (1937) The application of the method of comparison to the problem of memory changes. J Exp Psychol 21(4):363–381

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins JR, Neale DC, Deno SL (1967) Differential memory for picture and word stimuli. J Ed Psychol 58:303–307

    Google Scholar 

  • Jörg S (1978) Der Einfluß sprachlicher Bezeichnungen auf das Wiedererkennen von Bildern. Hans Huber, Bern

    Google Scholar 

  • Jörg S, Hörmann H (1978) The influence of general and specific verbal labels on the recognition of labeled and unlabeled parts of pictures. J Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 17:445–454

    Google Scholar 

  • Jörg S, Hörmann H (1981) The influence of verbal specifications on ratings of relative properties of pictures. Psychol Res 43:361–374

    Google Scholar 

  • Loftus E (1979) The malleability of human memory. Am Sci 67:312–320

    Google Scholar 

  • Loftus EF, Miller DG, Burns HJ (1978) Semantic integration of verbal information into a visual memory. J Exp Psych, Hum Learn 4:19–31

    Google Scholar 

  • Loftus EF, Palmer JC (1974) Reconstruction of automobile destruction: an example of the interaction between language and memory. J Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 13:585–589

    Google Scholar 

  • Massad CM, Hubbard M, Newtson D (1979) Selective perception of events. J Exp Soc Psychol 5:513–532

    Google Scholar 

  • Massaro DW (1970) Perceptual processes and forgetting in memory tasks. Psychol Rev 77:557–567

    Google Scholar 

  • Neisser U (1976) Cognition and reality. Principles and implications of cognitive psychology. Freeman WH, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Pachella RG (1975) The effect of set on the tachistoscopic recognition of pictures. In: Rabbitt PMA, Dornic S (eds) Attention and Performance V. Academic Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Rips LJ, Turnbull W (1980) How big is big? Relative and absolute properties in memory. Cognition 8:145–174

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg S, Simon HA (1977) Modeling semantic memory: effects of presenting semantic information in different modalities. Cog Psychol 9(3):293–325

    Google Scholar 

  • Stern W (1902) Zur Psychologie der Aussage. Guttentag, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychologisches Institut der Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany

    Sabine Jörg & Hans Hörmann

Authors
  1. Sabine Jörg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hans Hörmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Deceased on May 28, 1983

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jörg, S., Hörmann, H. Sentences before and after pictures: How do verbal specifications influence picture recognition?. Psychol. Res 45, 255–266 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00308705

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00308705

Keywords

Search

Navigation