COMPREHENSION AND RETENTION OF SAFETY PICTORIALS

The use of pictorials to communicate safety-related information has be en widely offered as a way of reaching diverse users owing to the pict orials' assumed universal information transmission potential. The pres ent study examined comprehensibility of a set of safety pictorials, an d then employed a training procedure (providing short verbal descripti ons of the pictorials) to enhance comprehension and retention. Compreh ension was tested for all participants prior to training, and after 1 week. Additionally, comprehension was also tested for some participant s immediately following training, and 6 months after training. Also ma nipulated was the content of instruction (supplying either the pictori al's associated verbal label or verbal label plus a more detailed expl anatory statement), and difficulty level ('easy' versus 'difficult' to understand pictorials, as determined by prior research). The results showed that training led to a significant increase in pictorial compre hension. Easy pictorials were comprehended (both initially and followi ng training) better than difficult pictorials, with the latter showing a more dramatic improvement in comprehension following training. Post -training pictorial comprehension was also relatively stable over time . The additional explanatory content statement had no effect on compre hension and recall. The substantial gains in understanding the more di fficult pictorials suggest that brief training can substantially facil itate comprehension for pictorials that would otherwise not be readily understood.