Pictures and words in visual search

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Abstract
Ss in three experiments searched through an array of pictures or words for a target item that had been presented as a picture or a word. In Experiments I and II, the pictures were line drawings of familiar objects and the words were their printed labels; in Experiment III, the stimuli were photographs of the faces of famous people and their corresponding printed names. Search times in Experiments I and II were consistently faster when the array items were pictures than when they were words, regardless of the mode of the target items. Search was also faster with pictures than with words as targets when the search array also consisted of pictures, but target mode had no consistent effect with words as array items. Experiment III yielded a completely different pattern of results: Search time with names as targets and faces as search array items was significantly slower than in the other three conditions, which did not differ from each other. Considered in relation to several theories, the results are most consistent with a dual-coding interpretation. That is, items that are cognitively represented both verbally and as nonverbal images can be searched and compared in either mode, depending on the demands of the task. The mode actually used depends on whether the search must be conducted through an array of pictures or words.

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