Short term retention for picture and word triads, in relation to type of distraction tasks and length of R.I., was examined in a Brown-Peterson paradigm. Pictures were found superior to words, in recall performance. Auditory distraction produced poorer recall for both stimulus types. Dual distraction reduced recall performance substantially (almost to zero) for both stimulus types. Recall for both pictures and words was found inversely related with length of R.I., however, more decay effect was noticed for words than for pictures. The results were interpreted in terms of dual coding model and an evidence for the existence of separate visual and acoustic storage systems was found.