Comparison of the Memorability of Text and Visual (Background) Sounds During their Fade-In in Short Scenes With Subtitles

Abstract

To test memory performance between nonverbal stimuli in the form of moving images (GIFs) and verbal stimuli in the form of written-down words, three hypotheses were investigated.  Short scenes from the cult series The Simpsons were enriched with the above stimuli. The first hypothesis was based on the assumption that GIFs would score higher than words on free recall. This could not be proven. The same applies to the hypothesis that GIFs would be remembered better than words during serial recall. The last hypothesis to be investigated also proved not to be significant. This was based on the assumption, that words are inferior to moving images in terms of recognition. It is assumed that the superimposed scenes overwrote the GIFs during the memorization phase, since they were the same stimulus form. This meant that the attention of the subjects was distracted by the scenes. The high playback values of individual stimuli were also striking.  It was assumed that these stimuli were associated with emotions and that the subjects therefore focused their attention on them, as a result of which they were remembered more strongly.