ABSTRACT
A physiological distinction between the storage of words and pictures probably proves to be more intractable problem than the case with the issue of short-term versus long-term memory storage differences. This chapter suggests that words and pictures differ from each other in at least three ways: name variability, image variability, and naming latency. It suggests that there is probably high and approximately equal intersubject and intrasubject consistency in images produced to pictures and in names produced to words, that is, when the response mode is similar in form to the stimulus mode. Differences between pictures and words were identified: name variability, naming latency, image variability, stimulus iconicity or specificity, stimulus frequency, and stimulus discriminability. The chapter suggests that the representation of an item in memory has two components, contextual information and central defining information. It manipulated item type on both the stimulus side and the response side and measured both acquisition and retention.
