This paper outlines several "tricks" that aid students in improving their memories. The distinctions between operational and figural thought processes are noted. Operational memory is described as something that allows adults to make generalizations about numbers and the rules by which they may be combined, thus leading to easier memorization.…

These lessons are designed to familiarize students with political and legal terminology through memorization and testing. Students are required to take notes on the terms and definitions given in class on 3 by 5 cards to file alphabetically at home. They are also instructed to keep a notebook of the terms to bring to class and memorize. After one…

While mnemonic systems have been taught and used for hundreds of years, virtually all of the experimental research into such systems has been conducted since 1965. This paper describes four mnemonic systems, all of which rely heavily on visual imagery, and summarizes research conducted on the performance values of each system. The link system, the…

Three experiments were conducted to assess the effects of nonbizarre vs. bizarre pictorial elaboration on the paired-associate retention of noun pairs. Five and seven year old children served as subjects in the first two experiments and learned a list of common noun pairs by the study-test paired-associate method. Experiment 1 provided a…

The present study was conducted in order to evaluate pictorial elaboration effects in children's incidental paired-associate memory. The design of the experiment consisted of a 2 x 2 x 2 x 5 factorial with (1) grade level (kindergarten vs. second), (2) pictorial presentation (standard vs. elaborated), (3) list (two 14-pair lists of common noun…

A study was conducted to determine if Navy authors of instructional material could create effective memory aids for use in rote learning of material. A guidebook published by the Training Analysis and Evaluation Group was used in creating the memory aids. Navy school personnel used the guidebook to develop two training booklets incorporating…

Two hundred sixty-five subjects learned a mixed list of paired associates in an AB, AD and AB, CD transfer paradigm. Two levels of semantic processing were factorially varied across original and interpolated pairs. Recall of original pairs was shown to be directly related to the processing depth of original pairs in both paradigms and inversely…

Individual differences in the ordered recall of list of digits are examined experimentally. The resulting evidence argues that neither differences in rehearsal strategies nor differences in the tendency to group and chunk the digits are major determinants of differences in digit span size. Further experiments attempt to pinpoint the source of…

The comprehension and recall of instructional text is heavily dependent upon the contexts in which information input and retrieval occur. College students (N=44) recalled the contents of a hierarchically structured text immediately after study and again six weeks later. Total meaningful recall was better when the superordinate concepts, or cues,…

This paper describes an experimental course in which the author taught students to improve their learning skills. It is a first step toward constructing a systematic body of knowledge about learning strategies. The course covered four topics, chosen because they were complex enough to require several weeks to make progress, but simple enough that…

Outlines leadership capabilities that effective principals can exert to improve the teaching of higher level thinking skills to students. An important initial step is to make the development of student thinking skills a building priority at the school. (MD)

The effects of pictorial illustrations on memory for text were studied in 144 college students. Two experiments indicated that illustrations serve a supplementary function; adjunct pictures alone, without special processing instructions, do not help learners encode information that is not normally encoded in the first place. (SLD)

Two experiments were conducted to determine whether children remembered information more efficiently if they were provided with an explicit purpose for learning. In the first experiment, 96 5-year-old children watched a simple science demonstration and were told either to remember the names of the depicted items from pictures for a memory test…

Through the years teachers have developed a systematic approach to teaching logic, order, and structure. This approach has put to use the capabilities of only the left side of the brain, neglecting the right-brain activities of visual literacy and visual clustering. To help students organize information efficiently, teachers should provide…

Multiple regression was used to examine the relationship between the serial position and the rated importance of a proposition in a text and the probability of its appearance in free recall protocols. Eight passages were used in the study--four from a standard social studies textbook and four written for the study. Each passage was divided into…