Memory of Instruction Manual Warnings: Effects of Pictorial Icons and Conspicuous Print

Abstract

The present research sought to determine whether the salience of warning messages would improve the memory of warnings in proceduralized instructions. Subjects studied one of four instruction manuals for a gas-powered electric generator under the guise that they would later operate the generator. In the manual, the appearance of eight different warning messages were altered in two ways: 1) The verbal messages were printed in either conspicuous print (larger with color highlighting) or in plain print (same as the other text). 2) The verbal warning messages were either accompanied by meaningfully-related icons or the icons were absent. Three kinds of memory tests were given to subjects. The results showed that subjects who received the manual containing Conspicuous Print, Icons Present warnings recalled the verbal warning content and the semantic meaning of the icons significantly better than subjects who received one of the other three manuals. Implications for the design of instruction manual warnings are discussed.