Roberts Brady R T, Tran Sophia H N, Fernandes Myra A
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5848 S University Ave, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.
Institute for Mind and Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 Feb 4;15(1):4278. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-87612-5.
Recent work demonstrates that symbols (e.g., $) are reliably better remembered than their word counterparts (e.g., 'dollar'). It remains an open question whether the memory benefit observed for symbols is due to their unique visual form, or because they offer a symbolic representation of to-be-remembered information. Here, we assessed memory for symbols on the periodic table of elements, which could be presented in symbol format (e.g., H) or word format (e.g., Hydrogen), and compared both to memory for meaningless letters (e.g., J). These stimuli were selected because they all share the same visual features and the former two share the same meaning. Memory was compared across individuals with and without a background in chemistry. In non-experts, memory was highest for words relative to symbols and meaningless letters. In experts (students who had passed an introductory chemistry course), however, memory for words and symbols was equivalent, with both higher than for meaningless letters. Results suggest that prior knowledge of what a symbol means is necessary to gain a memory benefit over semantically-void information, but is not enough to boost memory relative to words. We suggest that using a concrete visual symbol to represent an abstract concept is not enough to confer a memory advantage relative to words; a meaningful and visually distinctive symbol may be necessary.
近期研究表明，符号（如$）相比其对应的文字（如“美元”），在记忆方面表现得更为可靠。目前尚不清楚，观察到的符号记忆优势是源于其独特的视觉形式，还是因为它们为待记忆信息提供了一种符号化的表征。在此，我们评估了元素周期表中符号的记忆情况，这些符号可以以符号形式呈现（如H）或文字形式呈现（如氢），并将二者与无意义字母（如J）的记忆情况进行比较。选择这些刺激材料是因为它们都具有相同的视觉特征，且前两者具有相同的含义。我们比较了有化学背景和无化学背景的个体的记忆情况。在非专业人士中，对文字的记忆高于对符号和无意义字母的记忆。然而，在专业人士（通过基础化学课程的学生）中，对文字和符号的记忆相当，且两者都高于对无意义字母的记忆。结果表明，要获得相对于语义空洞信息的记忆优势，对符号含义的先验知识是必要的，但相对于文字而言，这并不足以提高记忆。我们认为，使用具体的视觉符号来表示抽象概念，相对于文字而言，并不足以赋予记忆优势；可能需要一个有意义且视觉上独特的符号。
