Comprehension and retention of safety pictorials

Abstract

The use of pictorials to communicate safety-related information has been widely offered as a way of reaching diverse users owing to the pictorials' assumed universal information transmission potential. The present study examined comprehensibility of a set of safety pictorials, and then employed a training procedure (providing short verbal descriptions of the pictorials) to enhance comprehension and retention. Comprehension was tested for all participants prior to training, and after 1 week. Additionally, comprehension was also tested for some participants immediately following training, and 6 months after training. Also manipulated was the content of instruction (supplying either the pictorial's associated verbal label or verbal label plus a more detailed explanatory statement), and difficulty level (‘easy’ versus ‘difficult’ to understand pictorials, as determined by prior research). The results showed that training led to a significant increase in pictorial comprehension. Easy pictorials were comprehended (both initially and following training) better than difficult pictorials, with the latter showing a more dramatic improvement in comprehension following training. Post-training pictorial comprehension was also relatively stable over time. The additional explanatory content statement had no effect on comprehension and recall. The substantial gains in understanding the more difficult pictorials suggest that brief training can substantially facilitate comprehension for pictorials that would otherwise not be readily understood.

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