Three types of video surrogates - visual (keyframes), verbal (keywords/phrases), and combination of the two - were designed and studied in a qualitative investigation of user cognitive processes. The results favor the combined surrogates in which verbal information and images reinforce each other, lead to better comprehension, and may actually require less processing time. The results also highlight image features users found most helpful. These findings will inform the interface design and video representation for video retrieval and browsing.