By Cierra Crady
Introduction
As you can see, we see pictures with words and pictures 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 times a year. We visualize what we see and/or imagine. For example, if we see words and can imagine what we read in a book or magazine, this is called the Dual Coding Theory.
How that works is that we have two brain systems:
- Verbal System – Words, language, and/or written or spoken information
- Non-verbal System – Images, mental pictures, and sensory pictures
How Students Actually Use This Theory In This New Generation
Students nowadays use social media to make visualizations and imagery of what they are looking at. So, for example, you are on TikTok and see photo slides of a meme from a movie, with captions explaining the story and words that explain what is going on. This example shows Dual Coding Theory. We use it every day without everyone realizing it. This is what makes our brain feel engaged in a topic if we “doomscroll” every night on our phones.
With our brains feeling engaged by what we look at on our cellular devices, we get so fixated and are occupied with what we look at. Some students and the youth tend to look at memes as well to imagine and relate what the topic is about (the meme image above is an example).
Not only do we scroll daily on our phones, but mostly students read stories on their phones and/or books. If the story comes in with words, they imagine what’s happening in their minds. They do this just so they can get their brain working by using their visual system.
Why Does it Work
Why does it work, you ask? For example, if you’re studying and making flashcards for your human anatomy class, you are making flashcards for your exam. You write what you are studying into the flashcards. You also quiz yourself and have your friends quiz you. However, when you quiz yourself and your friends quiz you, your brain can remember what you are imagining after doing so many rounds of quizzing. Another reason why it works is that you can also add images with the words if you want to study by yourself; either way you choose, it works wonders.
Since the heading says, “Why It Works,” you’re really not relying on the system to make it all work. It makes multiple paths and promotes deeper processing in your brain. It is interpreted in more than one way, as it has more memory benefits with more organization.
How Dual Coding Improves Memory
How would you react if the Dual Coding Theory were developed during childhood? Insane, right? If I were to say it can be true, that’s because it is true. An article explains how it develops and how children’s brains can remember. From the article Jurnal INDRIA, it states that, “The research employs a descriptive qualitative approach, with data collected through interviews, observations, and documentation. The findings reveal that the Dual Coding Method for stimulating memory in young children at TK Asiyiyah Ngebel consists of three main stages: planning, execution, and evaluation (Susanti, D., Kristiana, D., & Rusdiani, N., 2025).”
Since Dual Coding improves your memory, it works like your brain is receiving information. As an example, you’re doing research for a group project. As you’re doing research, you’re reading the information online, which makes your brain receive the information you are reading from a laptop/desktop screen.
The Effects of Visual Imagery
We always wonder what the effects of visual imagery are. However, there are multiple effects. According to A Promise & McNair Scholars Undergraduate Journal, it states that, “We aimed to clarify whether visual mental imagery improves memory by forming both visual and verbal memory traces (dual coding) or by processing visually-imagined stimuli more deeply and effortfully (depth of processing) (A Promise & McNair Scholars Undergraduate Journal, 2025).”
The way that Visual Imagery works is that cognitive psychologists studied various strategies to understand the enhancement of memory and learning. Researchers began to examine how mental imagery improves memory in the brain. The research involves practical applications in education and healthcare, benefiting students in memorizing course material.
The research dug deep into the material. According to A Promise & McNair Scholars Undergraduate Journal, it states that, “McCauley et al. (1996) investigated how visual mental imagery, used as an elaborative study task, affected performance on ‘implicit and explicit tests of memory in both young and old adults.’ Participants studied a wordlist and completed the word-stems based on the previously studied words, and in the implicit condition, participants were told this was a filler task, and they should write the first word that came to mind (A Promise & McNair Scholars Undergraduate Journal, 2025).”
The tests were being studied for the participants’ mental imagery. It’s the experiment of studying words, and the results were fully dissociated.
Ways to Improve Your Memory
The ways to improve memory are what was said above, which is about the brain receiving and/or recalling information after reading. However, the two systems (verbal and imagery), are in two different processes. The verbal process in order is: words spark other words. The imagery system uses mental images to represent knowledge.
With Dual Coding can be seen with different information. I think that it depends on the information you are given and how it is being shown. According to NeuroLaunch, it states, “The real magic of dual coding lies in how these two systems interact and support each other. It’s not just about having two separate channels for information; it’s about how they work together to create a richer, more robust understanding of the world around us (NeuroLaunch, 2024).” Dual Coding can also be practiced as well. Said above, about the participants being tested on their practice and using their knowledge of imagery and words, it did not go as well as everyone had expected. According to Dual Coding Theory in Practice, it states that, “A study on the use of multimedia resources in teaching anatomy found that students who were taught using a combination of text, images, and videos performed better than those who were taught using text alone (Lee).”
Conclusion
Even though Dual Coding is being practiced daily, it is still encouraged to be educated, as well as starting from childhood. It is still being used for tests for participants. I do think it is really cool to look more into information that you may not know about.
Sources
Susanti, D., Kristiana, D., & Rusdiani, N. I. (2025). Dual coding method to stimulate memory in early childhood. Jurnal INDRIA (Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan Prasekolah Dan Sekolah Awal), 10(2), 127–144. https://doi.org/10.24269/jin.v10i2.9902
The effects of visual imagery on recall memory: dual coding or depth of processing? | Imagine: A Promise & McNair Scholars Undergraduate Journal. (n.d.). https://imagine.sa.ucsb.edu/issue/54/2025/effects-visual-imagery-recall-memory-dual-coding-or-depth-processing
Dual Coding: Why words and images together strengthen memory. (n.d.). https://www.structural-learning.com/post/dual-coding-a-teachers-guide
NeuroLaunch.com. (2024, September 15). Dual Coding Psychology: Enhancing memory and learning through visual and verbal information. https://neurolaunch.com/dual-coding-psychology-definition/
Lee, S. (n.d.-b). Dual coding Theory in practice. https://www.numberanalytics.com/blog/dual-coding-theory-in-practice