Classic studies found advantages of pictures over words in memory (picture superiority effect). This paper applied the picture superiority effect to road signs to examine whether people remembered picture road signs better than word road signs. People remembered picture road signs better than word road signs, as evidenced on a recognition test. However, in real driving situations drivers do not need to remember the meaning of one road sign for a long time; rather, they need to continuously update information from sequentially encountered road signs. Therefore, Experiment 2 explored the differences in updating memory between pictures and words. Memory for the most recently viewed road signs was different depending on the form (picture, word) of the previously encountered road sign. Previously encountered picture items impaired memory significantly more than previously encountered words. These findings demonstrate that superior picture memory sometimes can be detrimental, especially when remembering recent information.

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