The Benefits of Drawing and Describing for Recognizing Object Images

ABSTRACT Drawing is beneficial for learning verbal materials, potentially because it allows for a secondary representation (visual). When learning visual materials, describing would create a secondary representation (verbal). This project investigated the relative benefits of drawing and describing when learning visual materials for a recognition memory test. In Experiment 1, participants learned images through drawing, describing, or viewing followed by an old/new recognition test. Drawing and describing both led to considerably better recognition accuracy compared with simply viewing. In Experiment 2, participants learned images through drawing, describing, tracing, or viewing and then had a three‐alternative forced‐choice task to test detailed aspects of their object memory. Drawing, describing, and tracing led to considerably better recognition accuracy than viewing, with drawing and describing leading to superior performance compared with tracing. Overall, both drawing and describing are excellent strategies for subsequent object recognition.