Test
Test yourself. Look at the image below.
And ask yourself: ‘Which one are you most likely to remember in a few days’ time? Image A or Image B?”
If you answered A, you’ve slipped up. 😉
And we are not the ones saying it: research has proven it.
The director of the Washington Post, Kat Downs, in a recent interview stated that she is very aware of how easily readers can be distracted by the outside world, and how much effort is needed to make sure they don’t immediately turn the page. To solve this problem, she therefore bases her work on the principle that:
[…] people are more likely to remember images than words, a phenomenon called the image superiority effect.
Let’s clarify.
Definition
The “Image Superiority Effect” refers to the fact that images are more likely to be remembered than words. The assumption on which this notion is based is that human memory is extremely sensitive to a symbolic mode of information presentation.
Using the words of John Medina in Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School:
When it comes to both recognizability and memory, images and texts follow very different rules. Put simply, the more visual the input, the more likely it is to be recognized and remembered.
There are various explanations for the origin of this effect, and thus it remains a major open debate. However, many experiments have been conducted on the matter and its existence has now been accepted by the scientific community.
The data speaks volumes. In the medium term, the probability that you will be able to recall image A is more than six times less than image B.
To help you remember, here is an image. 😉
Theory
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Okay, but why does this happen?”
Many have tried to provide an answer. The most encompassing theory about the image superiority effect is the Dual Coding Theory.
During the ’80s, Allan Urho Paivio, a psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario at the time, developed a theory of cognition according to which there are two independent but interconnected systems: one verbal, specialized for interacting with language, and one non-verbal, suitable for images.
Evolutionarily speaking, the non-verbal system developed first and relies on a different area of the brain. Paivio presented evidence that images are processed more efficiently and are more memorable than words. In addition, the two systems are not exclusive, but additive.
In other words, if you use both systems, you increase memorability.
Tips
Carmine Gallo in his lecture Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds indeed talks about a “multimedia principle”:
Memory is enhanced if images and words are used together. This has huge implications in designing presentations that aim to inspire and persuade.
Based on this principle, the art of making presentations finds great cues for best practices:
1. The power of images and color – To increase the memorability of information you want to communicate, it is always good to associate text with large, brightly colored images.
2. The charm of movement – Memory also benefits from text animations and transitions between slides, if used sparingly and at particularly relevant moments.
3. Presentations with few words – Carmine Gallo recommends never using more than 40 words in the first 10 slides. Better to use a few impactful words, and leave the rest to the image.
4. Pictures, but not at random – Obviously, images are crucial, but they must be consistent and, instead of being didactic, they must represent an interpretation of what the words express.
5. Infographics for more complex concepts – Avoid tables with endless rows and columns. When it is necessary to explain statistical or mathematical concepts, it is better to resort to infographic tools.
Example
An interesting example of how an image can truly be stronger and more memorable than many words was an infographic by Kyle Kim and Thomas Suh Lauder for the Los Angeles Times in October 2014. The news was about the progressive drought that was affecting California in those years.
It was a crisis that began in 2012 and came to cover 84% of the state’s surface over the next two years. To put this into words or show it with 147 images of California put in sequence, coloured yellow, orange or red according to gravity was profoundly different.
Even the overall effect of the composition itself was strong: it went from a yellow in the upper left to a dark red in the lower right. This communicated the tragedy emotionally, making it more impactful and memorable.
Sources
- Kat Downs, The Elevator Pitch: Graphics That Connect with Your Audience
- John Medina, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School
- Carmine Gallo, Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds
- Rick Melnyck, The Picture Superiority Effect: This is Why and How to Use It, 14 maggio 2019, Prime Your Pump,
- Kyle Kim, Thomas Suh Lauder, The Evolution of California’s Drought, october 2014, The Los Angeles Times
- Picture superiority effect, Wikipedia,
- Dual process theory, Wikipedia,
