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Abstract

The aim of this study is to obtain more knowledge regarding learning methods in order to

determine which is more efficient: visual or auditory learning. We hypothesized that visual

learners will have a higher rate of recall in the visual condition than in the auditory condition and

that auditory learners will perform better in the auditory condition. Our other hypothesis was that

visual learners will recall information at a higher rate. The participants for this study were (n=18)

undergraduate college students. Before the experiment the subjects were asked to fill out a 5 item

pre-questionnaire. The study included two conditions: visual and auditory learning. In the visual

condition, the participants were presented with 20 images. In the audio condition, the

participants were verbally read a list of 20 words by one of the researchers. Results demonstrated

that students performed better on the visual condition than on the auditory condition.

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Efforts have focused on investigating various components of learning and memory. In

this paper, the attention will be directed at aspects of short-term memory. As defined by

Eichenbaum (2008), short term memory refers to the ability to store information without the use

of rehearsal in a short amount of time before it disappears. A well-known researcher on this topic

is Baddeley (2012) who developed a multicomponent theoretical model for short term memory.

This model consists of three main parts: the central executive, the visuo-spatial sketchpad, and

the phonological loop. As will be explained shortly, both images and auditions play an important

role in short term memory, so we chose to explore whether images or auditions were more

effective as learning methods.

The central executive is in charge of manipulating information in working memory and

using other systems in order to distribute information that has already been processed

(Eichenbaum, 2008) and perhaps the most complicated component of this model. Since the

central executive’s function is to distribute the information that has been processed and control

information in working memory it basically needs to multi-task. The visuo-spatial sketch pad

refers to the ability to form a mental image of something and store it in our short term memory

system. Another subsystem besides the visuo-spatial sketch pad is the phonological loop. As can

be assumed from the prefix from the word phonological, it means it’s related to the auditory

system. The phonological loop is a storage space for short-term memory which uses sub vocal

speech or in other words the voice inside our heads. When trying to understand this concept

think of when you talk to yourself when you think of what you are going to do the rest of your

day. However, it is not simply talking to ourselves but verbalizing words without saying them

out load (Eichenbaum, 2008).

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Rattat, & Picard, (2012) explored the length of time in which participants compared two

different stimuli every 8 seconds. The authors mention that previous studies have revealed that

auditory tasks are longer than visual tasks. During that time frame, the participants were asked to

do different tasks. They could either do an articulatory suppression task, a visuo-spatial task, or

nothing at all which was the control group. Participants were presented with three types of

temporal stimuli. For example the visual section was a 4.5 x 4.5 cm blue square on a white

background, auditory a 500 Hz tone and the audio visual combined the visual and audio so it was

a 4.5 x 4.5 cm blue square on a white background with a 500 Hz tone. The stimuli was shown on

a computer screen and played on the speakers of the computer for the audio. The letters S and L

on the computer’s keyboard were used to respond. The results showed that the first task

decreased the participants’ ability for recognition only for audition and not for either of the other

two tasks. This was also true for the second task where there was a decrease in visual durations

but not in the other two. The researchers found that the selective interference effects on short

term memory for auditory and visual durations were between 400 to 600 ms. According to

Rattat, & Picard, (2012) their findings show that maintaining short-term memory of auditory and

visual durations involves the components of working memory including the phonological loop

and the visuospatial sketchpad.

Wearden, Todd, & Jones (2006) also investigated the duration between auditory and

visual differences in which they were deciding whether the auditory or visual stimuli were

longer. They could answer by using the letters S and L on the computer’s keyboard. The

researchers conducted four experiments on undergraduate college students. The first two

experiments used a bisection method and the last two used verbal estimation. Basically, the

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authors were investigating a previous experiment that was conducted by Penney, Gibbon, &

Meck (2000) who ran an experiment on something they termed “memory mixing” in auditory &

visual differences in regards to judgements. The authors concluded, their experiments supported

some but not all of hypothesis of the previous researchers. They found that sounds are judged

longer than lights.

Similarly with our second hypothesis, Cohen, Horowitz, Wolfe, & Treisman (2009)

established that visual memory is more efficient than auditory memory. Using four experiments

the experimenters had subjects listen to different sounds varying from music to a dog barking.

They were being tested on their ability to distinguish between old and new sounds. In the first

experiment the participants were presented with different sounds that were 5 seconds in length.

Twelve participants had to listen to 64 sounds during the study phase. After the study phase, the

subjects were tested on another group of 64 sounds half were from the study phase and half were

new. There was a poor performance rate of the auditory memory task. Then, in experiment two

there were 5 conditions where 12 participants were tested the same as in the first experiment.

Also, there were two different conditions added. In the first condition, the sounds were paired

with images and in the second condition they were paired with verbal descriptions. Memory for

pictures was better than for all other stimuli. Experiment 3 was basically a replication the first

two with the exception of two new stimuli: language and music (Horowitz, Wolfe, & Treisman,

2009). In this experiment there were 2 groups of twelve participants who were all native English

speakers. This experiment also demonstrated that there is poor auditory memory but it also

demonstrated it is not due poor stimuli. Finally, experiment four followed the same procedure as

all the other experiments but used images. As with the other experiments there were two

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conditions. One of the conditions had 12 participants to name each of the tainted images from a

list of 102 descriptions. All this resulted in evidenced inferiority of individuals’ ability to

recognize auditory information as opposed to visual information. In general, the study found that

people perform better on visual recognition memory than on auditory recognition memory in the

task that was performed.

Pioneers of this present area of study include, Winnick, & Brody (1984) who investigated

auditory and visual imagery in free recall. In three experiments four kinds of words were used.

The authors used words with little imagery, with both visual and auditory imagery, visual

imagery alone, and auditory imagery alone. The first experiment consisted of 48 college students

who were given two lists of 32 words. Then, on a scale from 1 to 7 they had to rate each word in

terms of its’ meaningfulness, degree of visual imagery, and degree of auditory imagery

(Winnick, & Brody, 1984). The results showed no underlying differences between auditory or

visual imagery. In other words, the participants did not recall better with one or the other form of

imagery. Then, for the second experiment the authors had the 64 college students separated into

groups and each was given different instructions. For example, one group was instructed to form

both visual and auditory images and another to form either visual or auditory images from the

two word lists given to them. Here there were no differences in recall between the groups told to

form both images, as compared to those told to form only one kind of imagery. Finally, the third

experiment the subjects were allowed to draw a picture of the visual images and vocalized a

sound related to the auditory image. In conclusion, these experiments revealed that auditory

imagery has the same impact that visual imagery has whether the words are heard or by being

instructed to form auditory imagery.

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Methods

Participants

Of the 22 Elmhurst College students that signed up 18 were able to come participate in

the study. We were trying to obtain an equal amount of female and male participants in our

study. However, there was a higher amount of female (n=10) participants than male (n=8)

participants. The age range of the participants was between 18 and 26 years of age. The average

age of the group was 19.8. Also, the group of students consisted of 8 freshmen, 5 sophmores, 2

juniors, and 3 seniors. We also had a mixture of majors. The majors students had were business,

art, criminal justice, exercise science, chemistry, speech pathology, music education, education,

biology, and psychology. Basically, we were able to obtain a pretty diverse group of participants.

Materials

They were given a 5 item pre-test to determine if they were visual or auditory learners.

We wanted to examine whether the students performed better depending on what type of learners

they believed they were. For example, if a student said he was a visual learner we could verify if

they performed better on that portion of the study. Also, two lists were presented both visually

and orally. For the visual portion of the study the each group of participants viewed 20 images

via Powerpoint slides and each item was presented for 60 seconds. For the auditory condition the

participants heard a list of 20 words read by one of the researchers.

Research Design

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The primary hypothesis was that the students who stated they were visual learners would

have a higher rate of recall in the visual condition and the auditory learners would perform at a

higher rate in the auditory condition. Secondly, we hypothesized that visual learners would be

able to recall the information at a higher rate than the auditory learners. The basis for this

hypothesis came from the studies conducted by Cohen, Horowitz, Wolfe, & Treisman (2009) and

we had one group take the audio test first and the other group took the visual test first. Then, they

switched so the first group took the audio test and then the visual test and the second group took

the visual test first and then the audio test. We conducted a between subjects design and used a

paired samples t test to analyze our results. The paired samples t test was used to compare the

means of the visual and audio conditions. Results will be discussed shortly.

Procedure

First, students filled out the sign-up sheet posted in the science center in Schaible. On the

testing day the students read and signed an informed consent form and handed them back to us

(Please see appendix). Once they were finished we gave them instructions that if they were

sitting at an even number they had to follow one of the researchers out in the hallway. The odd

numbered students were then given a 5 item pre-questionnaire. After the pre-questionnaires were

completed, we passed out blank sheets which were numbered. The blank sheets each had a

number corresponding with the odd numbered students. The first group of participants took the

audio test. A researcher read a 20 item word list to them and the students wrote down as many

words as they could remember. Then, they were instructed to go out in the hallway.

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The second group of students entered the room and answered the pre-questionnaire as

well. Each student was given a blank sheet of paper with their corresponding number. This group

took the visual test first. The visual test consisted of 20 images that appeared for 60 seconds on a

Powerpoint presentation. Anything longer than that may not allow the image to last in their

memory system as was shown in Wearden, Todd, & Jones (2006). After the visual test, they

wrote down as many images as they could on their sheet. Then, the second group left the room a

second time and the first group of students came and took the visual test. The first filled out the

demographics sheet and then they left. Once again, we passed out the numbered sheets to the

second group who now took the audio test. They wrote down all the words they could remember.

After the test they were given a demographics sheet to fill out and then they left too.

Results

Using SPSS, we conducted a paired samples t test to compare recall in the visual and

auditory condition. As was shown from the t test there was a significant difference between

condition means. In the visual condition (M=13.2, SD=2.20) and on the auditory condition

(M=8.5, SD=2.40); t (17)=-8.61, p=.000. Therefore, we rejected the null hypothesis. Specifically,

our results show that students performed at a higher rate in the visual condition. Scores of both

tests can be seen in Figure 1(Appendix). The difference between visual and auditory was 4.7 as

an average (t(17)=-8.61, p < .005) which can be seen in

Discussion

We conducted a paired samples t test because we could use a single group and compare

the means of two variables. Since the paired samples t test is an example of a repeated measure

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design it has the advantage of being powerful. We get a smaller error as was shown in the visual

(SD error =.52) and audio conditions (SD error = .57). Also, the overall standard deviation error

was (SD=.54). We were also able to get away with a smaller sample size (n=18) and we got a

larger t value t(17)= -8.61. Unfortunately, there are disadvantages of using this design which

include carry over effects like boredom, fatigue, and practice effects. Another disadvantage is

that there is a loss in the degrees of freedom which in turn allows for a larger t value. We can say

that visual representations of words were more useful to our participants than if they were to

listen to a list of words. We were also able to obtain a diverse group of participants which is

something we were interested in obtaining. As was described earlier, participants’ ages ranged

from 18 to 26. In regards to field study we had a mixture of majors.

Some limitations in our study included the following: all participants are Elmhurst

College students, lack of ethnic diversity, and lack of participants. Another limitation is that we

had originally planned to give the participants a 2 minute interval after each test. Unfortunately,

we failed to explain this when we gave the instructions. Either way we had not written it in the

procedure we wrote for ourselves to follow during the experiment. In the case of the audio word

list presented, many students thought one of the words was pitcher instead of the word picture.

Perhaps, obtaining a more diverse group of participants may alter the results. For

example, in the future researchers may want to consider how learning disabilities can impact the

study. Taking into account different ethnic backgrounds would be useful to study because

different cultures may have different ways of learning. Also, studying another group of people

outside of academic setting should be attempted because students might have become

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accustomed to Powerpoint presentations. Another idea to consider is that reliability could have

possibly been stronger if we had more trials.