The research, plainly
Roger Shepard tested recognition memory with hundreds of images — people identified previously seen pictures with near-perfect accuracy, wildly outperforming word memory. Paivio's dual-coding theory explained it: images get stored twice, as picture and as label.
The receipt: Shepard, 1967
What it means for events
If they must remember it, show it. One strong image per idea beats six bullets per slide by the only metric that matters at Day 30 — and the event moments people photograph become the event they remember, because the picture files itself twice.
Where to run it
Slide doctrine
One image, one idea, minimal text. The bullet list is a teleprompter for the speaker and a memory sieve for the room.
Concept visualization
Turn the framework into a picture — the drawn 2×2 travels into meetings the written paragraph never attends.
Designed moments
Build the scene people photograph: their camera roll is your retention program.
Seen in the wild
Related concepts
Now use it
Score your own event against principles like this one — or make the whole vocabulary official.
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