The art of thinking · 4 · Comprehension and mental representation

Dual coding theory

Also known as: DCT, Dual-coding theory

German: Theorie der dualen Kodierung

In cognitive psychology, dual coding theory is Allan Paivio’s theory that cognition uses two separate but interconnected systems — a verbal system for language and a nonverbal system for imagery — and that information coded in both systems is remembered better than information coded in one.

Cognitive psychology
Memory
Learning

In one sentence

Dual coding theory holds that verbal and imagery systems work together; information coded in both is remembered better (Paivio, 1971).

Example

“Turn the selector to the position marked with a padlock” together with a photo of the selector is remembered better than either the sentence or the photo alone.

What the research shows

Allan Paivio (1971) explained why concrete words, which easily evoke images, are remembered better than abstract words, and why pictures are remembered better than words (the picture superiority effect): concrete material can be coded both verbally and as an image, and two codes give two routes to retrieval. Paivio (1991) reviewed two decades of evidence for the theory. James M. Clark and Allan Paivio (1991) applied it to education, for example to concreteness in texts, imagery in learning and the combination of words and pictures. The theory is one of the foundations of Richard E. Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning.

Evidence status

Concreteness and picture superiority effects are well replicated. Whether they require two separate representational systems is disputed: Zenon W. Pylyshyn (1973) argued in the imagery debate that mental images can be explained by propositional representations, and alternative accounts explain concreteness effects by context availability. Dual coding theory does not support the idea of “learning styles” — that some people are “visual learners” who learn better from pictures and others “verbal learners”: it assumes both systems in everyone, and Harold Pashler and colleagues (2008) found no adequate evidence that matching instruction to a preferred style improves learning.

How it applies

Text and image together can support remembering, if both carry the relevant information and the reader can relate them. The glossary “Applied cognitive psychology for information use” treats the design side, for example the cognitive theory of multimedia learning and the redundancy principle. Adding an image does not by itself make a warning message or a safety sign understood; that is checked with readers, for example in symbol comprehension tests.

External references

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