L EARNING METHODS Kai Cabatu, Ayca Coskunpinar, and Cody Davis

I NTRODUCTION Factors that Enhance Memory Directing attentional resources to stimuli, encoding specificity, memory consolidating, and memory enhancing techniques History of techniques in enhancing memory Mnemonics techniques used by early Greek and Roman orators Prayer beads or wheels to remember prayers Vivid imagery used in oral folk history

M NEMONICS o Mnemonics help to enhance both encoding, storage, and aid in retrieval, or recall (Solso et al., 2008) Method of Loci (Bower, 1970a,1972) Associating certain objects with certain places By mentally visiting a place in one’s mind, an individual is able to recall those items Peg Word System One learns a set of words that serve as “pegs” on which items to be memorized are “hung” Then one imagines an interaction between the peg word and To Be Recalled words that are given

R ESEARCH Q UESTION Which type of mnemonic technique will render the highest recall?

H YPOTHESIS The researchers hypothesized that the Peg Word System would render the highest recall. This is based on the researchers’ beliefs that the Peg Word System requires a deeper interaction with the To Be Recalled words.

M ETHOD Participants % female, 40% male Mean Age: 20 Predominantly Caucasian Materials List of 10 words Peg-Word list Model E4300 Gateway computer and monitor

M ETHOD (C ONTINUED ) Procedure IV Group 1 (Control) Group 2 (Method of Loci) Group 3 (Peg-Word) SunTicks ShoeHeaven KneeSkate StoreVine DrivePen DV Recall Order

M ETHOD (C ONTINUED ) Distraction Task Informed Consent Debriefing Form

R ESULTS One-Way ANOVA No significant difference between the groups for recall or order The fact that Peg-Word had the smallest amount of words recalled may be due to a confusion between the researchers and the participants in explaining the method

R ECALL p =.23

O RDER p =.711

D ISCUSSION Implications of Results: The means between groups in number of words recalled correctly was different, with the Method of Loci having the most average amount of words recalled correctly The means between groups in number of correct words recalled in order was different, with the Peg Word having the most average amount of correct words recalled in order Supports that mnemonic methods do render higher recall and order

D ISCUSSION (C ONTINUED ) If indeed our results are correct: It shows that the use of mental imaging and mnemonic devices have no advantageous influence on recall Reason for no significance: Participants were not able to master the mnemonic methods Future research: Clear instructions More participants Longer amount of time for mastering of the mnemonic techniques

QUESTIONS?