Effect of Mnemonic Technique on Serial Recall free essay sample

The aim of the present study was to observe the effectiveness of mnemonic technique on serial recall. Pegword rhyme is the independent variable and number of correct response is the dependent variable. The Hypotheses were that the serial recall will be better in the group using pegword technique than in the group who do not. There will also be a significant difference in List A and B in terms of number of correct responses and the reaction time. 104 undergraduate have been conveniently taken from different departments of University of Karachi. Independent participants have been taken for four different conditions, in which two were experimental and two controls. In experimental condition two different lists were provided and asked for serial recall by using pegword method. By using mean we found out that average correct response were higher for experimental group than control, and there was not any significant difference between responses of list A and B. Hence it has been concluded that pegword method has positive effect on serial recall and the type of words do not have any effect on response. Keywords: Mnemonic technique, pegword, serial recall Memory is the term given to the structures and processes involved in the storage and subsequent retrieval of information (McLeod, 2007). It is broken down into two types: short term and long term. Short-term memory is that brief period of time where you can recall information you were just exposed to. Long-term memory encompasses memories that range from a few days to decades. In order for successful learning to take place, information has to move from the sensory or the short-term memory to the long-term memory. Long-term memory is, obviously enough, intended for storage of information over a long period of time. Despite our everyday impressions of forgetting, it seems likely that long-term memory actually decays very little over time, and can store a seemingly unlimited amount of information almost indefinitely. Indeed, there is some debate as to whether we actually ever â€Å"forget† anything at all, or whether it just becomes increasingly difficult to access or retrieve certain items from memory (Mastin, 2010). Bahrick et al (1975) investigated what they called very long term memory (VLTM). Nearly 400 participants aged 17 – 74 were tested. There were various tests including: A free recall test, where participants tried to remember names of people in a graduate class, a photo recognition test, consisting of 50 pictures, a name recognition test for ex-school friends. Participants who were tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in identifying names and faces. After 48 years they were accurate 80% for verbal and 70% visual. Free recall was worse. After 15 years it was 60% and after 48 years it was 30% accurate. Long-term memory can be improved by using Mnemonic Techniques. Mnemonics, or mnemonic devices, are encoding strategies used to organize and/or chunk to-be-learned material, in order to make it more meaningful and easier to remember. Though mnemonics may be perceived as â€Å"shallow† learning techniques, they can provide effective scaffolding for more complex knowledge by allowing the acquisition of basic terms and definitions (Bellezza, 1996) Self-generated (and often, as a natural consequence, self-referential) mnemonics may have an advantage over instructor-provided mnemonics (e. g. , Bloom Lamkin, 2006, for acrostics; McCabe, 2011, for keywords), though possibly less so when the material is particularly difficult to learn and accurate mnemonics are challenging to create (Bellezza, 1996). Types of mnemonics include first-letter mnemonics (e. g. , acronyms, acrostics), keyword mnemonics, pegword and method of loci mnemonics. Among the first-letter mnemonics, the two most common are acronyms and acrostics. Acronyms are created by combining the first letters of to-be-learned words into a new word (or word-like) unit, such as using the mnemonic dabda for the five stages of death and dying (Carney et al. , 1994). The other first-letter mnemonic method is the acrostic, which most commonly involves using the first letters of a list of to-be-learned items to create a meaningful and/or odd sentence. Keyword mnemonics involve making a phonetic link connecting a to-be-learned word with a similar-sounding keyword, and then making an interactive image that links the keyword to the meaning of the to-be-learned word (e. . , Bellezza, 1996; Levin, 1983). The method of loci mnemonic is typically used for remembering an ordered list of items; the method utilizes a series of spatial places to which the learner visually associates each to-be-learned item. At the retrieval stage, the learner takes a mental walk along the route established in the first phase, and â€Å"picks up† an item at each des tination along the way. Pegword mnemonic technique is similar to loci method, both aid memory for an ordered list of items; also, once learned, both can be used repeatedly to remember multiple lists. Instead of places, however, the method uses pegwords and rhyme; It involves two stages, first, the learner memorizes a rhyming scheme for the numbers 1 to 10, which can be used multiple times: One is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree, four is a door, five is a hive, six is bricks, seven is heaven, eight is a plate, nine is wine, ten is a hen. Next, the learner creates a mental image of each item on the to-be-learned list interacting with the word that rhymes with the appropriate number. The pegword mnemonic has been specifically applied to psychology learning in the case of Erikson? s eight stages of psychosocial development. For example, for the trust stage, one could imagine â€Å"an infant lying in a perfectly „trusting’ position while mommy powders his little behind (buns)† (Carney et al. , 1994, Table 2, p. 173). The learning of any set of ordered items can potentially benefit from the use of pegwords. Empirical research on the effectiveness of the pegword mnemonic as applied to psychology education is lacking. However, Carney and Levin (2011) demonstrated that, using a combined pegword-keyword mnemonic for word list learning, and using the same 10 pegwords repeatedly, the mnemonic condition consistently outperformed an â€Å"own best method† control condition. On the basis of this literature review, we aim to study the effect of pegword technique on serial recall. Method Participants 104 male/female undergraduate students were taken voluntarily from university of Karachi. Independent sample technique was used. Material Two lists of words were created. Two lists of words were created. List A was names of Gadgets and List B names of Politicians (Appendix A). Then flash cards of the words on these lists were made. A rhyme was used for pegword technique. Stopwatch was also used to measure the time Procedure Students were approached at the university campus and asked if they would be willing to volunteer for a psychology study. The willing ones were than taken to the testing lab in psychology department and randomly chosen as experimental or control participants. The experimental participants were given a rhyme (see Appendix B) and asked to read it out loud twice. They were the then explained that the words in bold were known as pegwords e. g. bun, shoe, tree etc. and they were supposed to imagine an association between the word shown to them on flash cards and the pegwords in sequence. This was further explained by giving an example association of the word building and first pegword bun as a building made of bun. Also they were encouraged to make funny, weird and interesting imagination. After that they were shown flash cards in a sequence and then were asked to recall them in the order that was shown to them. The number of correct response and time that took them to recall the words was then noted. The control participants on the other hand were not shown the rhyme, only the flash card and they were asked to familiarise themselves with them. Their correct number of response and time taken for recall were also noted Results The data recorded was tabulated (appendix C) and the mean results were derived by dividing the responses with the number of participants. The average number of correct responses were more in the experimental condition in List A= 6. 85 compared to the control condition=3. 56. Similar results were also found for List B where the average number of response were higher for the experimental condition i. e. 6. 58 than control i. e. 4. 27. However, no significant difference in the number of correct response was found between List A and B in either experimental or control condition. Moreover, no significant time difference was recorded in any of the conditions and it occurred only due to an error of chance. ExperimentalControl List AList BList AList B Average correct response6. 856. 583. 564. 27 Average reaction time (sec)109. 1 94. 9 97. 496 Discussion The results approved our hypothesis which was that the serial recall was better in the group that used the pegword technique than the group which did not. nemonics could bolster memory due to at least three factors. First, they typically involve deliberate, or effortful, learning (Bellezza, 1996); the focused attention the learner pays to the material while using and/or creating mnemonics supports encoding to long-term memory. Second, they connect new knowledge with established schemas in long-term memory, a process also called elaboration, which enhances encoding and supports successful retrieval (Balch, 2005; Bellezza, 1996). Third, many mnemonic devices require the integration of two or more information codes (e. g. , verbal, visual) which, consistent with Paivio? (1986) dual-coding theory, enhances memory by providing multiple routes to retrieval. In fact, the use of mental imagery may be particularly important; some researchers recommend using interactive, dynamic, distinctive, and possibly even bizarre images (McDaniel Einstein, 1986; McDaniel, Einstein, DeLosh, May, Brady, 1995) and spending at least 6 seconds on each visual association (Bugelski, 1974). The use of rhyme might have furt her assisted the encoding. VanVoorhis (2002) argues that music inherently increases chunking, which in turn aids in the transfer from short-term/working memory to long-term memory. The experimenter group participants also reported that the task was fun and creative which might have helped them learn the words (McCabe, 2009). However, our second hypothesis that stated a difference in response with reference to the nature of task and reaction time was disapproved as there were no significant differences found between them. Limitation Our research was not without any limitation. First, convenient sample was taken, so only Students University of Karachi were participants of the study. Hence we cannot generalize the result to everyone. Second the list of words used were familiar common, so might have been easy to remember, also no survey was conducted to determine its familiarity. Thirdly, the sample was not controlled with reference to fatigue and exhaustion. Participant should have been pre-tested for relaxation or relaxation techniques should have been used prior to experiment. No gender differences were followed either.