Episodic memory for ordinal size relations was investigated addressing the question whether the speed of access to such information is influenced by the stimulus modality employed during acquisition and test. Pictorial material was contrasted with verbal material. Congruent and incongruent study and test conditions were realized. Subjects had to encode six-term series with size as the relevant dimension. They were tested by a comparative judgement task after a five-second retention interval. Experiment 1 and 2 showed a distinct picture superiority effect with the presentation of pictorial test stimuli. Study modality did not affect the response times. In addition, the test modality effect and the ordinal distance effect proved to be additive. A third experiment was set up to demonstrate the test modality effect with a forced choice recognition task. Although the recognition task did not involve a dimensional comparison, a distinct test modality effect emerged, indicating that access to dimensional information is not the decisive variable for the pattern of results obtained in the first two experiments. The implications of the results for theories hypothesizing specific memory codes are discussed.