DMCA
Distance-dependent processing of pictures and words (2009)
| Venue: | Journal of Experimental Psychology: General |
| Citations: | 13 - 5 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Amit09distance-dependentprocessing,
author = {Elinor Amit and Daniel Algom and Yaacov Trope},
title = {Distance-dependent processing of pictures and words},
journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: General},
year = {2009},
pages = {400--415}
}
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Abstract
A series of 8 experiments investigated the association between pictorial and verbal representations and the psychological distance of the referent objects from the observer. The results showed that people better process pictures that represent proximal objects and words that represent distal objects than pictures that represent distal objects and words that represent proximal objects. These results were obtained with various psychological distance dimensions (spatial, temporal, and social), different tasks (classification and categorization), and different measures (speed of processing and selective attention). The authors argue that differences in the processing of pictures and words emanate from the physical similarity of pictures, but not words, to the referents. Consequently, perceptual analysis is commonly applied to pictures but not to words. Pictures thus impart a sense of closeness to the referent objects and are preferably used to represent such objects, whereas words do not convey proximity and are preferably used to represent distal objects in space, time, and social perspective.
Keyphrases
distance-dependent processing distal object proximal object referent object psychological distance social perspective verbal representation various psychological distance dimension selective attention physical similarity different measure whereas word different task process picture perceptual analysis
