Folio 09Make ideas stick by seeing them

Words and pictures together

Pair what you read with something you can see: a mind map, a labeled diagram, your own sketch. It helps everyone remember.

Evidence recordWell supported

At a glance

The useful move

Pair the words with a picture you can see in your mind.

Why two ways in beat one

When an idea is held as words and as a picture, you have two ways back to it; that is the idea behind dual coding theory. In experiments, students given words with a matching diagram learned more deeply than students given the words alone, and a map of how ideas connect lets you see a whole topic at once.

Make the picture yourself

Make the picture yourself when you can. Drawing a word or idea as you study it can help you recall it better than writing it out, even when the drawing is quick, and so can mapping how the ideas connect. The picture has to show the idea, not decorate it: a labeled sketch of the nephron, not a doodle in the margin.

Do it in Sumichi

Every lecture in Sumichi can become a mind map, your notebooks take sketches and diagrams, and the STEM lessons come with figures you can explore. Pair each picture with the words: say what it shows, then check it against your notes.

Practice in Sumichi

Move from reading to doing

Draw your own mind mapRequires sign in · Sumichi destination /maps

Research record

Sources behind this method

Follow the published work behind the evidence assessment and see why each source matters here.

  1. Dual coding theory and education

    James M. Clark and Allan Paivio · 1991 · Educational Psychology Review

    Sets out dual coding theory, in which words and mental images are two linked ways of holding an idea, and applies it to how students learn.

  2. Multimedia Learning

    Richard E. Mayer · 2009 · Cambridge University Press (2nd edition)

    Reports experiments in which students given words with matching pictures learned more deeply than students given the words alone.

  3. Learning With Concept and Knowledge Maps: A Meta-Analysis

    John C. Nesbit and Olusola O. Adesope · 2006 · Review of Educational Research

    Across 55 studies, using concept maps was associated with better knowledge retention than comparison treatments, with effects from small to large depending on how the maps were used.

  4. The drawing effect: Evidence for reliable and robust memory benefits in free recall

    Jeffrey D. Wammes, Melissa E. Meade, and Myra A. Fernandes · 2016 · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

    Across several experiments, people who drew words later recalled more of them than people who wrote them out; the tests used single words, not whole topics.