It is said that our species use mnemonics -- that "magic of memorization" -- to engrave an enormous amount of information in the brain. Yet, it is unclear how mnemonics affect memory and what the neural underpinnings are. In this electroencephalography study, we examined the hypotheses whether mnemonic training improved…

Over the last century many individuals with exceptional memory have been studied and tested in the laboratory. This article studies Chao Lu, who set a Guinness World Record by memorizing 67,890 decimals of pi. Chao Lu's superior self-paced memorization of digits is shown through analyses of study times and verbal reports to be mediated by mnemonic…

We examined associative and item recognition using the maintenance rehearsal paradigm. Our intent was to control for mnemonic strategies; to produce a low, graded level of learning; and to provide evidence of the role of attention in long-term memory. An advantage for low-frequency words emerged in both associative and item recognition at very low…

The levels of processing framework for understanding memory development has generated little empirical or theoretical work that furthers an understanding of the developmental memory system. Although empirical studies by those testing the levels of processing framework have demonstrated that mnemonic strategies employed by children are the critical…

Explored the range and effectiveness of mnemonics employed by untrained older adults in two studies (N=73) and (N=33) involving predicting and reporting memory strategies. Results showed predicted memory performance and actual memory performance were not strongly related and point out possible interpretive problems associated with "do-nothing"…

This study examined first graders' use of strategic behavior (looking more during study and categorizing during study) in response to perceiving instructions versus remembering instructions. (BRT)

A few empirical studies of mnemonic techniques were conducted in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Then, until the 1960s, very little research was done on mnemonics. A revival of research interest in mnemonics, in the late 1960s, accompanied the general acceptability of cognitive processes as a legitimate area of research. Now we're back where we…

A mnemonic procedure, a method of loci, was used with men and women over 60 years old in two studies of free recall. The learners take a mental trip through their residences stopping in order at 16 places. Experimental subjects were able to master the mnemonic and apply it effectively. (Author)

Investigated developmental differences in implicit memory performance. Subjects ranged in age from second grade to college level. Results suggested that there are two different components in implicit memory, one that shows no developmental difference and relies heavily on perceptual processing and one that shows an age-related or…

The Keyword Method (KWM) of vocabulary learning is a mnemonic method designed to help students learn foreign vocabulary. It has been shown to be effective over several other memorization strategies. The present experiment was designed to explore the cognition underlying the effectiveness of the KWM. Specifically, both the degree of cognitive…

Explanations for memory development have tended to focus on acquistion of general strategies and metaknowledge. Recently, emphasis has been given to the knowledge base as a whole, including general world-knowledge and domain-specific knowledge and procedures. Evidence is presented from the memory development literature showing why strategies and…

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…

In addition to the important role of memory strategies in mediating age changes in recall performance, it is clear that the permanent memory system (or information available in the knowledge base) exerts a significant influence on the acquisition and retention of information. Age changes in memory performance will be fully understood only through…

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…

Two experiments evaluated the effects of mnemonic training upon 5- and 10-year-old children's learning and retention of patterns at varying intervals. Subjects were 172 middle class children evenly distributed across the two age groups. Experiment I investigated the effects of individual strategies (perceptual exploration, organization of…