Effect of Two Different Mnemonic Strategies on Memory Recall
Effect of Two Different Mnemonic Strategies on Memory Recall
There is no such thing as perfect memory. What one remembers at a specific moment in time might be a difficult idea or fact to recover at another given time. The fallibility of human memory has caused the development of numerous techniques in order to aid the improvement of memory. These techniques involve the improvement not only of memory recall but also of memory storage and coding.
A particular set of strategies aimed at improving memory recall is called mnemonics or mnemonic strategies. One of the earliest mnemonic strategies to be developed includes the Imagery Method. Another mnemonic developed much later is the Method of Loci. Both mnemonics have the same goal of improving memory recall but are very much different in their approach.
The imagery method involves the formation of a mental image of the thing that needs to be recalled later on. The Methdod of Loci involves the utilization of a well-learned chain of places in which an image of the items to be recalled will be deposited at certain prominent points along the path (Roediger, 1980). The literature concerning the effectiveness of these two mnemonic strategies is vast and many have tried to determine the better way by which individuals can enhance memory recall. Roediger (1980) found that the Method of Loci and the Imagery Method, separately, were indeed effective strategies for recalling a serial list of items. However, his study was not able to compare the effectiveness of the two methods.
The practical applications of these methods are far-reaching. Massen and Vaterrodt Plunnecke (2006) found that the repetitive use of the Method of Loci yielded less interference effects when compared with other mnemonic devices. Despite the changing list of items to be recalled from the same category, participants were able to use the same set of locations without confusing items from one list with another. This indicates that the Method of Loci is a very potent tool for learning strategies and for list recall.
The Imagery Method can also be practically applied as exemplified by the learning of proper names. Recall of proper names was seen to yield better results when paired with semantic strategy techniques such as when individuals were asked to imagine actually meeting individuals with these names. Performance on prose recall was also seen to be enhanced with the use of keyword imagery, wherein participants were asked to draw up a mental image with each passage read (Dretzke, 1993). However, these results were seen to have effects only for young and middle-aged groups. Keyword illustration, wherein an illustration was given to participants who were tasked to associate the prose with images on that illustration, was what yielded desired increase in prose recall across age groups. This indicates that elaborated instruction may play a role in the effectiveness of a given mnemonic strategy.
A study conducted by Weinstein et al (2006), however, found that the effectiveness of both mnemonic strategies, Method of Loci and Imagery Method, was enhanced with training. It was training that was observed to contribute to better performance in participants serial recall. The use of more elaborate instructions on how to apply the strategies was not sufficient to improve performance. This indicated that there were, in fact, other factors which could contribute to the effectiveness of the two mnemonic strategies.
The present research aims to determine the effectiveness of two specific mnemonic strategies, Method of Loci and Imagery Method, on word recall. The main research problem is Which of the two types of mnemonics would be a better aid for memory and word recall It is hypothesized that the Method of Loci is a much more effective mnemonic strategy as opposed to the Imagery Method.
Method
Participants
The experiment involved the participation of a total of 500 university students. The participants were in an age range of 17 years old and above. All of the participants were first year Psychology students. During the class time of the students Psychology subject, the researchers verbally invited them to participate in the study. Twenty Psychology classrooms were invited to join the study. Out of the approximately 1000 students invited, 500 joined the study. Two hundred and fifty (250) participants were randomly assigned to the Imagery Method group while the remaining 250 participants were randomly assigned to the Method of Loci group.
The demographic distribution of the group was fairly limited. Forty-seven percent of the sample population were male while 53 were female. The age range of the population was from 21 to 24 years of age. The mode was 21 years of age while the mean age as 21.52 years of age. The racial demographic of the sample population showed that 41 were Caucasians, 36 were African Americans and 23 of the population were Asians, Latin Americans and other cultural minorities. Thus, the sample was representative of the average university student population.
Instrument
The experiment made use of two separate lists of 15 words which were to be read to the participants one list to be read to the Method of Loci group and the other to the Imagery Method group. Both lists were prepared and written on separate pieces of paper. A stopwatch was used to assure exact time intervals between the readings of each word. The stopwatch was also used to measure the time intervals during which participants were allowed to answer the recall test. Papers and pens were provided for all the participants.
Memory recall is operationally defined as the total number of correct words remembered from the original list read. The strength of either the Method of Loci or the Imagery Method is determined by the better memory recall of the participants in either of the two groups. Thus, the stronger strategy would be the one wherein participants were able to remember more number of correct words contained in the original list.
Design
The present study is an experimental between-subjects design. The independent variable is the memory recall strategy employed while the dependent variable is the effectiveness of memory recall as determined by the number of words correctly remembered from a list. The independent variable in this study has two levels the Method of Loci and the Imagery Method. The research is a between subjects design because the memory of recall of both sublevels are compared to ascertain which is a better tool for enhancement of memory recall.
Procedure
Method of Loci
Instructions were given to the participants prior to the start of the experiment. Instructions were read from an instruction sheet to all participants in order to ensure that everyone received the same type of instructions in like manner. The instruction sheet held the following statement Some words are going to be read to you. You need to remember the words by placing each word along different locations on a regular path that you take. For example, you can think of the path you take from home to the university and place the different items along the different spots in the path. Later, you will need to recall as many words as you can.
After reading the instruction sheet, the list of words prepared for the Method of Loci group were then read. Words were read at four second intervals. Time was measured by a standardized stopwatch. After the list of words was exhausted, participants were then instructed to use the pen and paper provided and to begin listing down all the words they could recall within a time interval of two minutes. After two minutes, the papers of the participants were collected and the total number of words correctly recalled by each participant were tallied.
Imagery Method
Instructions were given to all participants of the group at the start of the experiment and read from an instruction sheet. This was again to insure that all participants received instructions in a single manner and with similar wordings. The instruction sheet held the following statement Some words are going to be read to you. You need to remember the words by forming an image of each word. For example, if the word is apple, think of what an apple looks like and so on. Later, you will need to recall as many words as you can.
After instructions were given, the list of words prepared for the Imagery Method was read out loud to the participants. These were read with four-second intervals between each word as measured by a standardized stopwatch. After the list was exhausted, participants were instructed to use the pen and paper provided and to write down as many words as they could recall within the time interval of two minutes. After two minutes, the papers were collected and the number of correct words recalled was tallied per participant.
Results
The number of words correctly recalled by each participant was tallied. The total number of words remembered for all the participants in one group was also tallied. The total number of words between the two groups was then compared with each other as well as the mean number of words recalled.
GroupTotal scoreMeanMethod of Loci312012.48Imagery 23909.56Table 1. Tally of Scores.
The difference of 2.92 between the mean scores indicates the mean number of words correctly remembered between a representative participant from the Method of Loci group as opposed to a representative of the Imagery group. A t-test was performed to ascertain if the differences between the two groups were indeed statistically significant. The results of the t-test showed a two-tailed P value less than 0.0001. The 95 confidence interval was from 2.72 to 3.28. The difference between the two means of the two groupings is 2.92 indicating that it falls within the 95 confidence interval range. This indicates that there is a significant statistical difference between the two groups. The null hypothesis is therefore rejected.
Discussion
As hypothesized, the Method of Loci group showed better memory recall compared to the Imagery Method group. In the study conducted by Massen and Vaterrodt-Plnnecke (2006), it was shown that the Method of Loci was an effective memory-aid even if the list of words was changing. The study showed that the same pathway points were still utilized despite the change in words to be remembered. In the present study it was shown that not only are changing lists of words more easily recalled through the use of the Method of Loci, but completely unrelated words presented as a group are likewise remembered as easily as if they were a related list of words. The present study thus shows that the effectiveness of the Method of Loci is not decreased by the lack of logical relationship among the words introduced. The efficacy of the Method of Loci is therefore not determined by logical relationships between words and concepts in a list.
Also, Weinstein et al. (1981), noted that the lack of more specific instructions affected the effectiveness of recall exhibited by their participants. This was partly affirmed by the present study. The instructions given to the Method of Loci group were personal and easily associated with by the participants. The participants were asked to think of a path that they regularly take. The method was therefore very personal and as such was easy to comply with. However, for the Imagery Method group, they were asked to imagine the word. Apple was the given example. The method for them was therefore more formal and less personal. They had to rely on social constructs and physical representations of words.
Moreover, this study, unlike other studies before it, showed that emotional cues may play a part in improving the effectiveness of the Method of Loci or of the Imagery Method. When participants were asked to imagine a path that they regularly take, already they were imagining a construct imbued with emotional cues. These emotional cues may have contributed to the recall of the words being shown. On the other hand, the Imagery Method asked the participants to reflect on social constructs. There was therefore little to no emotional attachment or memory cues linked with these images. The additional aid in memory recall that emotional cues provide was absent in the group using the Imagery Method.
By giving parallel instructions to the experimental groups in future studies of this topic, researchers are ensuring a more equitable ground of comparison. Future research could also determine whether the Method of Loci is still more effective when what are to be recalled are details and not words projected as a set list. Further research can also be conducted to determine the effectiveness of the two mnemonic strategies against other mnemonic strategies.
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