MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS OF MAPS AND VERBAL DESCRIPTIONS - EVIDENCE THEY MAY AFFECT TEXT MEMORY DIFFERENTLY

Two studies examined the effect that mental representations derived fr om maps and verbal descriptions have on the recall of facts from a tex t. In Experiment 1, subjects studied a map of Tasmania, a control map of Ceylon, or comparable verbal descriptions and then listened to a te xt containing facts about Tasmania. Fact recall was higher and map dra wings were more accurate for the group that studied the Tasmania map. In Experiment 2, subjects studied a map of Tasmania, or one of two ver bal descriptions (using different sequences of landmarks) of Tasmania. The results replicated those of Experiment 1. These findings suggest that there may be fundamental differences between visual and verbal re presentations of the same space. (C) 1995 Academic Press. Inc.