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 what 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 stimulation pathways, influencing their ability to be remembered. This phenomenon has its importance in the educational field, an aspect that we will explain in this article.

Mode effect: what exactly is it?

In experimental psychology, the modality effect is a phenomenon that occurs when, depending on how certain information is presented, it is best remembered .
In essence, it consists of the information being 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 where a certain content has to be learned, that is, it 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 pictures and saying aloud explanations of what he is reviewing or simply saying what he is observing, he is more likely to remember more content during the exam than if he simply looks at those same pictures and reads, in his mind, the text that accompanies them.

Psychological models that explain it

One of the models that has been used to explain this phenomenon is that of Baddeley and Hitch’s theory of cognitive load . According to this theory, the modality effect would occur due to the very 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 the information given in an auditory way. 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 only visuo-spatially (e.g. reading or viewing images) is more likely to cause the system in charge of this type of information (the phonological loop) to be overloaded.

On the other hand, if information comes in two directions, visuospatial and auditory, both systems will share approximately the same cognitive load, which will make both systems less overcapacitated and learning more viable.

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

The classic effect

The effect of the classic mode 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 later had to remember the words in the same order as they were read or heard, or whether they had to remember them at random, the modality effect was present.

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

Its importance in education

Once we have seen what this effect consists of and the models that try to explain it, we can make a couple of notes and relate them to the study.

Given that information that is presented simultaneously through visual and auditory means seems to be more easily remembered than that which is simply read or “learned” through visual means alone, it is worth mentioning some aspects that are useful in the educational field, in addition to making a couple of indications of how the content should be given in the classroom in order to strengthen meaningful learning.

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

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

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

As for the part that involves the students, it would not be bad if, once at home or in the library, they could go deeper into the content that has been explained to them in the classroom, looking for documentaries related to what they should 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.

Other ways to ensure that knowledge is acquired is to first transform the content of the book or information source into an outline and then to explain the content orally to see if it has been acquired.

Bibliographic references:

  • 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). Modalidad de presentación y modo de recuerdo en la falsa memoria verbal. Revista de Psicología Experimental: Aprendizaje, Memoria y Cognición 27, 913-919