Dual coding: How to remember more with words and pictures
Oct 26, 2026
You don't have to draw well to learn with pictures. A few boxes and arrows are plenty. Dual coding means you learn an idea from words and from a simple picture that shows the same thing. With both, your memory has two ways back to the idea. When dual coding, be sure to make the picture yourself because drawing it helps you remember. Then, cover the words and explain the idea from your picture to check what stuck.
Quick answer: What is dual coding?
Dual coding means learning an idea in both words and a simple picture of the same idea. Together, they give you two ways to recall it.
The picture can be a rough sketch you make yourself or a picture you hold in your head.
The best kind of picture depends on the idea. Steps in order get numbered boxes and arrows. An abstract word, like "success," gets one object that stands for it.
A picture that only decorates the page should be avoided, as it can make learning harder.
Dual coding works for everyone, not just for people who call themselves "visual learners."
Why do pictures help you remember?
Pictures help because they give your memory a second way back to an idea. That second way back is the core of dual coding theory, the psychologist Allan Paivio's explanation of why the method works. A 1991 review by Clark and Paivio puts it this way: "the additive effect of imagery and verbal codes is better than a verbal code alone." In plain terms, words plus a picture in your mind beat words alone.
Pictures help in other ways, too. Our article on how images affect the way we learn covers them.
Which picture should you make for what you're learning?
Match the picture to how the idea is built. A 2018 review of learning strategies says illustrations "can be particularly helpful when the described concept involves several parts or steps," especially for people who are new to the subject.
Abstract words need a little more thought. A word like "book" is more likely to bring a picture to mind on its own than a word like "success." For an abstract word, pick one solid object that stands for its meaning.
What you're learning | What kind of idea it is | Picture to make |
|---|---|---|
How to jump-start a car | Steps in order | Numbered boxes joined by arrows |
The parts of a bike's gears before your first repair | Parts of one thing | A rough outline with a label on each part |
Why bread dough rises | Cause and effect | A chain of arrows, one cause per arrow |
The difference between "affect" and "effect" | Two things you mix up | A small table with one column for each word |
The word "ephemeral" | An abstract idea | One object that stands for the word, like a soap bubble |
The name of a new coworker, Dev | A name | One feature you can see, like Dev's bright orange sneakers, pictured as you say the name |
Make one picture per idea. The same 2018 review warns that each extra version of the same information takes more mental effort and "can lead to over-saturation," which means too much to take in at once.
How do you use dual coding in 10 minutes?
Ten minutes is enough to learn one short list or page this way. Say your apartment building just posted new recycling rules, with a list of what goes in the blue bin and what goes in the green bin. Here's how you'd learn them with one quick sketch.
Read the list and decide what kind of idea it is. You're sorting items into two groups, so the picture to make is a small table with two columns, like the "affect" and "effect" row above.
Sketch the table in two or three minutes. Make one column for each bin, and add a tiny drawing and a word or two for each item. This is the step the Learning Scientists blog means when it suggests that you "draw your own visuals to go along with" the words.
Put your sketch next to the posted list, and check that every item landed in the right bin. Fix anything you missed or got wrong.
Cover the list and explain the rules out loud using only your sketch to see which rules you remember. Explaining from memory like this is called active recall.
How rough can your picture be?
Your picture can be as rough as you like, and nobody else has to see it. Researchers at the University of Waterloo have found that drawing helps people remember. According to an APS Observer summary of their work, the benefit "does not seem to depend on participants' artistic ability," and it showed up "even when they had only 4 seconds to draw."
The same summary reports that people who wrote a term's definition in their own words had "a similar advantage as drawing." People who copied the definition word for word remembered less. So the thing to avoid isn't messy drawing. It's copying.
Can you do dual coding without pen and paper?
Yes, you can picture the idea in your head instead of drawing it. In the research that Clark and Paivio reviewed, making a mental image "produces better recall" than repeating the words aloud or silently. Two other memory methods work by picturing things on purpose. In a memory palace, you picture each item at a spot in a place you know well, like your home. Image mnemonics tie what you want to remember to a vivid picture.
Remembering names is an everyday use for a picture in your head. Nobody pulls out a sketchbook in the middle of a handshake. A name is a word, and a face is a picture. To remember someone, you have to keep the name and the face together. Elevate, a brain training app, has a game for linking names to faces. Name Recall "presents you with names and faces," and you remember and recall them as the game goes on. The game's difficulty adapts to how you're doing. Name Recall is one of Elevate's five memory games. The memory games come with Elevate Premium, the app's paid plan. The app's 40+ games also cover reading, writing, speaking, and math. If names are the thing you forget most, practice names and faces in Elevate.
When does adding a picture get in the way?
A picture gets in the way when it doesn't show the idea. A striking photo or a fun fact that's beside the point can leave you learning less. Researchers call these extras "seductive details." Kripa Sundar's meta-analysis, which combined 72 comparisons from earlier studies, is summarized on the Learning Scientists blog. People who saw seductive details did worse on learning tests than people who didn't. The post adds that the harm was bigger for people who were new to the subject.
Swapping words for pictures isn't dual coding, either. Dual coding keeps the words and the picture side by side. The 2018 review notes that replacing individual words with pictures "has not been examined in the cognitive literature, presumably because no benefit would be expected."
Skip the picture when the material is already a picture, like a map, or when a fact is so small that drawing it takes longer than learning it.
Is dual coding only for visual learners?
No. Dual coding gives everyone a second form of the same idea, whatever kind of learner they think they are. The "learning styles" claim is different. That claim says lessons should match the one form each person prefers. A 2008 review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest found "virtually no evidence" that teaching to a person's learning style helps them learn. So even if you think of yourself as a words person, a quick sketch is worth a try.
For more practice beyond pictures, try these other ways to train your memory.
Frequently asked questions
Who came up with dual coding theory?
Allan Paivio, a psychologist, came up with dual coding theory. He proposed it in 1971 and wrote a book about it in 1986. His theory says people store what they know in two forms, as words and as mental images.
Is dual coding the same as dual process theory?
No. Dual process theory is a different idea in psychology. It's about two kinds of thinking, not two forms of memory. The names sound alike, but the two theories answer different questions.
Can you use dual coding for math?
Yes. Say you want to know whether 3/5 or 2/3 is bigger. Draw two bars of the same length. Cut the first bar into five equal parts and shade three of them. Cut the second bar into three equal parts and shade two of them. The shaded part of the second bar is longer, so 2/3 is bigger. In numbers, 3/5 is 0.6, and 2/3 is about 0.67.
Date: 10/26/2026
