THEMATIC MAPS IMPROVE MEMORY FOR FACTS AND INFERENCES - A TEST OF THESTIMULUS ORDER HYPOTHESIS

Undergraduates studied a thematic map of colonial Ceylon and read an e xpository text containing facts related to, or not related to, the map theme. Stimulus order (map-text vs. text-map) was varied between subj ects, and half of the learners in each stimulus order group received a verbal prime related to the map theme. Subjects in the map-first cond ition recalled more theme-related and unrelated text facts and made mo re correct inferences involving the theme displayed on the map. Verbal priming had no effect on memory for theme-related facts or inferences , but reduced recall of unrelated facts. These results were interprete d within the dual coding framework, where maps are encoded as structur ally coherent images. Such images are computationally efficient and ca n be used to retrieve associated text facts and to make the comparativ e judgments required for inferencing. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.