USING PICTOGRAPHS TO ENHANCE RECALL OF SPOKEN MEDICAL INSTRUCTIONS

Pictographs have been used in nonliterate societies to help people rem ember spoken instructions and, today, they could be used to help nonli terate people remember spoken medical instructions. This study tested the hypothesis that pictographs can improve recall of spoken medical i nstructions, Twenty-one junior college subjects listened to lists of 3 8 actions for managing fever and 50 actions for managing sore mouth. O ne of the action lists was accompanied by pictographs during both list ening and recall while the other was not. Subjects did not see any wri tten words during the intervention and, therefore, relied entirely on memory of what they heard. Mean correct recall was 85% with pictograph s and 14% without (P < 0.0001) indicating that pictographs can enhance memory of spoken medical instructions - often to a very high level. F or this technique to be clinically useful, further research is needed on how to achieve accurate recall of large amounts of medical informat ion for long periods of rime by nonliterate patients, By viewing illit eracy as a memory problem, the large body of research on learning and memory can be utilized in designing education materials for this group . (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.