Pictorial superiority during verbal learning tasks in moderate to severe closed head injury: additional evidence.

Evidence for picture superiority in verbal learning following moderate to severe closed head injury (CHI) was found in a study involving 31 participants with CHI and 31 noninjured participants. A multitrial free-recall paradigm was implemented incorporating three modalities: Auditory, visual, and simultaneous auditory plus visual. Participants with moderate to severe CHI learned fewer words and at a slower rate than the noninjured participants. The visual presentation of objects (with or without the simultaneous auditory presentation of names) resulted in better learning than the auditory presentation alone.