Is a picture worth a thousand words?

Dave Gray at Communication Nation has boiled down a 1997 study in a post, Why You Need to Boil It Down, on his blog. His own conclusions from reviewing the study:

"1. People construct "mental models" when trying to understand how things work

2. Most mental models seem to be made up of 6-12 components

3. A diagram with more then 13 components will probably not become integrated into people's consciousness as a mental model

To me, that means that if you want your system to be understood and integrated into people's thinking as a mental model,

you had better boil it down to a simple picture."

I quickly scanned the study myself, and my primary observation is that its "Conclusions" section offers no conclusions. It states the questions the study was intended to investigate. Grumble, grumble.

The study -- Correction: A picture is worth 84.1 words -- was conducted by Cambridge researcher Alan F. Blackwell.

Participants in the study were asked to describe in words the chart they had produced. It took an average of 84.7 words.

Not to be unfair to Blackwell, I point out that he has done further research which may also be helpful on this subject.