PURPOSE: To allow the device to facilitate the retrieval by devising the device such that number of plural picture patterns subject to grouping is grasped on a screen in a sensual way.

CONSTITUTION: A picture processing processor reads plural grouped picture (such as pictures grouped in the unit of patients) from a picture disk, and displays the pictures overlappingly in a perspective direction so that each picture is displayed in a smaller size than that of its preceding picture sequentially. Then a send picture on the screen is displayed as its image itself and only a frame is displayed for pictures of 3rd and succeeding orders. When the operator depresses a prescribed key, a retrieval picture in the middle such as a picture IM1 moves toward the lower side of the screen while being gradually increased and disappears from the screen. When the operator depresses the key succeedingly, a picture IM2 located in a frontmost position in the center moves this side.