Ciccione Lorenzo, Caroti Denis, Liu Syalie, Giardino Valeria, Pasquinelli Elena, Dehaene Stanislas
Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, CEA, INSERM, Université Paris-Saclay, NeuroSpin Center, 91191, Gif/Yvette, France.
Department of Psychology, Université Paris 8, DysCo Lab, 93526, Saint-Denis, France.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2025 Oct;32(5):2322-2330. doi: 10.3758/s13423-025-02708-3. Epub 2025 May 8.
Graphical representations of data are pervasive in modern communication and are often used to convey socio-economic, scientific, and medical information. Despite their popularity, it is still unknown whether they can enhance the long-term retention of their content. We conducted a delayed-recall task with psychology undergraduates (N = 92), in which participants read about the evolution of a socio-economic phenomenon, with five to six datapoints presented as graphics, text, or table; recall was operationalized as correct reporting of the trend in the data, 2 h after the information was presented. We found that graphics facilitated the delayed recall of such trends. No advantage was found on immediate recall of trends or specific datapoints in another sample of participants (N = 80). Thus, even for equal initial encoding of data, and even for very concise materials, graphics facilitate long-term retention. Overall, the study reveals the potential of graphics as effective tools for enhancing memory retention and therefore highlights their valuable role in educational settings.
数据的图形表示在现代通信中无处不在，并且经常被用于传达社会经济、科学和医学信息。尽管它们很受欢迎，但它们是否能增强对其内容的长期记忆仍然未知。我们对心理学本科生（N = 92）进行了一项延迟回忆任务，其中参与者阅读了一种社会经济现象的演变，以图形、文本或表格形式呈现五到六个数据点；回忆被定义为在信息呈现2小时后正确报告数据趋势。我们发现图形有助于对这种趋势的延迟回忆。在另一组参与者（N = 80）中，未发现图形在即时回忆趋势或特定数据点方面有优势。因此，即使数据的初始编码相同，即使材料非常简洁，图形也有助于长期记忆。总体而言，该研究揭示了图形作为增强记忆保留的有效工具的潜力，因此突出了它们在教育环境中的宝贵作用。
