Modality effect: what it is and how it explains memorization

This psychological effect explains how we memorize and learn in an easy way.

If we talk about the modality effect, it is very likely that few people know what we are referring to.. On the other hand, if we were to ask which is easier to remember, a piece of text or a picture that someone is describing orally, it is quite likely that people would answer the second option.

The modality effect is a phenomenon that occurs when the information presented involves two types of stimulus pathways, influencing its ability to be remembered. This phenomenon has its importance in the educational field, an aspect that we are going to explain in this article.

Modality effect: what exactly is it?

In experimental psychology, the modality effect is a phenomenon that occurs when, depending on how information is presented, it is better remembered.. In essence, information is better remembered when it is presented in the form of an image and, in turn, is described orally, as opposed to if the same image is presented but accompanied by written text.

Normally this phenomenon occurs in situations in which a certain content has to be learned, i.e., it is a very recurrent effect, This is a very recurrent effect in educational and student contexts.s.

For example, according to the model behind this effect, if a student is preparing for exams with images and saying aloud explanations of what he is reviewing or simply saying what he is observing, it is more likely that during the exam he will remember more content than if he simply looks at those same images and reads, mentally, the text that accompanies them.

Psychological models that explain this

One of the models that has been used to explain this phenomenon is that of Baddeley and Hitch's cognitive load theory. Baddeley and Hitch's cognitive load theory.. According to this theory, the modality effect is due to the characteristics of working memory. This type of memory, according to Baddeley's model, is made up of two systems that have a limited capacity: the phonological loop and the visuospatial agenda.

The phonological loop, according to Baddeley and Hitch's model, would be in charge of processing information that is given in auditory form. On the other hand, the visuospatial agenda is in charge of processing visual information, such as images, and spatial information, such as the location of a certain object.

This multicomponent model indicates that auditory and visuospatial information are processed separately in these two systems.. Because of this, learning solely by visuospatial means (e.g., reading or seeing pictures) is more likely to cause the system responsible for this type of information (the phonological loop) to be overloaded.

On the other hand, if the information comes via two pathways, visuospatial and auditory, both systems will share approximately the same cognitive load, which will make both systems less overloaded in capacity and learning more feasible.

The modality effect would occur when one of the systems, because it is the only one that is making the effort during learning, does not have sufficient capacity to cope with the information to be learned, compared to when it is given in such a way that two systems are involved.

The classical effect

The classical modality effect has been observed by seeing how people were able to remember words that were presented either verbally or in spoken form. Regardless of whether the subject then had to remember the words in the same order in which they had read or heard them, or whether they had to remember them randomly, the modality effect was present.

The modality effect is closely related to two other effects related to memory.. On the one hand, we have the recency effect, which is that the last words or last piece of information in a set is more easily remembered than the previous one. The other effect, suffix effect, is that if in a list of items there is one with another modality, it is better remembered.

Its importance in the educational field

Having seen what this effect consists of and the models that try to explain it, a couple of notes can be made and related to the study.

Given that information that is presented visually and aurally simultaneously seems to be remembered more easily than information that is simply read or "learned" by visual means alone, it is worth mentioning some aspects that are useful in the educational setting, as well as a couple of indications of how content should be delivered in the classroom to strengthen meaningful learning.

First, the narrated explanation of a given topic is almost more important than the images that can be presented of it.This is something that can be used to motivate teachers in their explanations. The oral explanation given by the teacher in class, as long as it is fluent and does not abuse the written text on slides or in the book, allows the information to be better assimilated in the minds of the students.

This is especially important at the university level. Despite the high standard of this type of education, it is very common for professors to limit themselves to reading slides or even, when they do not have time, to tell students to read X chapters of a book which, as a general rule, is usually really boring and not very digestible. This means that, if the university content is already difficult, the degree of difficulty is increased by the boredom of the whole educational process in this area.

Teachers must make an effort so that the presentations are not slides full of text, but transform them into convenient images.They should transform them into images conveniently related to the content being explained. Explaining them orally emphasizes what should be learned, as well as allowing students to remember the material given when the exam or even on the day they have to work.

As far as the students are concerned, it would not be a bad thing if, once at home or in the library, they could go deeper into the content that has been explained in the classroom, looking for documentaries related to what they have to learn. Normally, this kind of multimedia entertainment does not contain long paragraphs of boring text, but consists of videos and images that are accompanied by the voice of the narrator, an ideal strategy as we have seen throughout this article.

Otras formas de asegurarse de adquirir el conocimiento es, primero, transformar el contenido del libro o de la fuente de información que sea en un esquema y, de forma oral, ir haciendo una explicación de ese mismo contenido para ver si se han adquirido estos contenidos.

Referencias bibliográficas:

• Beaman, C. P., and Morton, J. (2000). The separate but related origins of the recency effect and the modality effect in free recall. Cognition 77, B59-B65.
• Conway, M. A., and Gathercole, S. E. (1987). Modality and long-term memory. Journal of Memory and Language 26, 341-361.
• Gardiner, J. M. (1983). On recency and echoic memory. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B302, 267-282.
• Glenberg, A. M., and Swanson, N. G. (1986). A temporal distinctiveness theory of recency and modality effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 12, 3-15.
• Kellogg, R. T. (2001). Presentation modality and mode of recall in verbal false memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 27, 913-919