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A picture is worth a thousand words : A study about the impact of presentation format on memory retention and perception of an environmental issue
Roters, Paulina (2025) A picture is worth a thousand words : A study about the impact of presentation format on memory retention and perception of an environmental issue.
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| Abstract: | “A picture is worth a thousand words”, but does it truly lead to a better understanding in terms of plastic pollution? Plastic pollution campaigns often default to powerful imagery, however, little evidence specifies whether the visual or textual presentation format of an advertisement is more effective in communicating environmental issues, specifically plastic pollution. This study aims to explore to which visual imagery, compared with text only billboard testimonials, enhances recall of advertisements on plastic pollution. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this study combines a qualitative preliminary study and a quantitative online experiment. The qualitative data were collected through 5 lay participants, narrating a Greenpeace campaign picture into a word testimonial that preserved salient visuals and served as the text stimulus. The quantitative data was gathered through an online experiment where participants were randomly assigned to either the text or the image stimuli condition. In sum, 58 participants imagined a five minute bus-shelter wait before viewing one stimulus and completing pre/post measures of environmental concern, attitude towards the advertisement, and recall. The analyses revealed no significant group differences in environmental concern, attitude towards the advertisement, and recall. Accordingly, there was even a decline in environmental concern in both groups. This study has limitations due to its small sample size as well as the quantitative online design, which limits the generalizability of the findings. Future research should therefore study a broader, field-based sample to further explore visual and textual efficacy in environmental campaigning. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 05 communication studies |
| Programme: | Communication Science BSc (56615) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/107077 |
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