THE BLOCKED-RANDOM EFFECT IN PICTURES AND WORDS

Picture and word recall was examined in conjunction with list organiza tion. 60 subjects studied a list of 30 items, either words or their pi ctorial equivalents. The 30 words/pictures, members of five conceptual categories, each represented by six exemplars, were presented either blocked by category or in a random order. While pictures were recalled better than words and a standard blocked-random effect was observed, the interaction indicated that the recall advantage of a blocked prese ntation was restricted to the word lists. A similar pattern emerged fo r clustering. These findings are discussed in terms of limitations upo n the pictorial superiority effect.