Drawing benefits memory and comprehension by establishing and strengthening the link between verbal and visual percepts

Abstract

Researchers have long been interested in identifying ways to enhance both the quantity and quality of human memory, and the mechanisms underlying their benefit. The use of drawing as an encoding technique has been shown to reliably improve memory for lists of words, definitions of terms, and autobiographical events. What remains unexplored is how the magnitude of the benefit from drawing compares to that from other encoding techniques, and its mechanism of action. In Experiment 1, I showed that drawing, writing, and reading aloud as encoding techniques yielded better memory than silently reading words, with drawing leading to the largest boost. Importantly, age differences in memory emerged only when drawing was used as the encoding strategy, in line with previously reported age-related deficits in generating imagery, or integrating it with motoric processes. Despite this, concrete relative to abstract words that were drawn during encoding were better retained, demonstrating a stable benefit of visuo-spatial representation, regardless of age. In Experiment 2, I assessed the extent to which personally generating one’s own production was critical to the observed memory benefit. Replicating Experiment 1, drawing at encoding benefitted memory more than writing or reading words. This occurred regardless of whether it was performed or observed in-person or online. In line with common-coding-theory this finding suggests that perceiving an action activates the same motoric processes in the brain as performing it. However, the magnitude of the drawing benefit was greatest when performed rather than observed, suggesting an additional role of personal relevance in modulating the drawing benefit. In Experiment 3, I examined whether repetition by tracing one’s initial drawing, or generating multiple novel related ones, differentially benefitted memory. The former enhanced free recall of target words more than the latter. This suggests that establishing a strong visual percept underlies drawing’s benefit to memory. Finally, in Experiment 4, I assessed the utility of drawing as a cognitive tool in educational contexts. Drawing and paraphrasing of definitions of novel academic terms, during encoding, resulted in better performance on a multiple-choice test of concept comprehension, relative to silently reading. Results suggest that techniques that invoke re-representation of the to-be-remembered text into another format, be it into a picture (drawing) or personally relevant summary (paraphrasing), are particularly effective at improving cognitive task performance. The experiments in this dissertation suggest that a critical component of how drawing improves memory and comprehension is the linking of verbal information to concrete visual referents, which results in more easily retrievable representations.