Recent findings have shown that bizarre imagery can be an effective mnemonic aid when lengthy retention intervals are employed, and when the surrounding context contains more normal elements. Testing the hypothesis that an interaction exists between context and time of testing with bizarre images, a study paired 40 male and female undergraduates,…

The factors underlying memory performance in learning are shown to be affected by strategic processing and by automatic processing. Strategic processing is under the conscious control and effort of the learner while automatic processing is dependent on the strength of associations between new concepts and known concepts in a given domain.…

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…

The present study was designed to determine whether previous experience with categorically related items would facilitate third and sixth grade children's recall of subsequent unrelated materials. Subjects were 24 children at each grade level. An additional aim was to see if such experience with taxonomic material would influence both the manner…

This study is an attempt to partially confirm the hypothesis that first grade children, generally lacking the skills and/or capacities for efficiently organizing their memories for verbally-presented information, benefit from illustrations which provide a simple external memory. The sample consisted of 32 first grade (second semester) children,…

Based on the broader needs for long-term studies of the effects of instructional treatments, for behavioral objectives, and for learning hierarchies, this research investigated differences in the effect on learning and rate of forgetting when students are informed of the behavioral objectives and learning hierarchy. It was expected that students…

Thirty-two children each in grades 1-5 participated in an experiment designed to replicate and extend a study by Flavell and associates (1972) which hypothesized that "memorizing and perceiving are functionally undifferentiated for the young child, with deliberate memorization only gradually emerging as a separate and distinctive form of cognitive…

This paper summarizes two studies which examine children's free recall of letter sequences in an auditory presentation. In both studies, sequences of six or eight letters were presented to 80 third-grade and 80 eighth-grade pupils, at the rate of one item every other second or four items per second. In the first study, where recall was either…

A method is discussed for learning the multiplication tables that avoid repeating tables everyday or memorizing a large body of facts at the same time. (MN)

Half the subjects were trained to use a serial rehearsal strategy during target set storage and half were given no strategy training. The results indicate that the rate of memory search is IQ-related, and that serial rehearsal training facilitates memory search when rehearsal is covert. (Author/BW)

A theoretical explanation of the phenomenon of recognition failure and a presentation of seven experiments investigating performance. Recognition failure is reduced when a more stringent recognition criterion is used, essentially eliminated when the proper access test is used and significantly reduced when variability in recognition performance is…

The keyword method is a mnemonic device limited to teaching vocabulary items. It involves association of a bizarre image with the meaning of the word and can take on the attractive qualities of a game. Results indicate that motivation and interest are stimulated and vocabulary skills improved. (AMH)

The encoding specificity principle asserts that a retrieval cue will be effective if, and only if, the to-be-remembered item was specifically encoded with respect to that cue during input. Describes a classroom experiment that provides an opportunity to demonstrate the encoding specificity phenomenon, note its limitations, and discuss its cause…

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)

Proposes that a levels-of-processing analysis of encoding implies that (a) other things being equal, (e.g., task requirements), deeper information should be equally derivable from pictures and words; but (b) when picture-word differences do occur, they are encoding phenomena which result because task requirements generally favor more discriminable…