memory improvement

memory improvement

1. organisation

   • Shuell - words are remembered better when they are placed into categories
     • participants recalled words category by category
     • they would try and categorise them
     • those who categorically clustered remembered more words
   • storage or recall?
     • Weist
       • found they were categorising as they went. organisation at storage
     • Tulving & Pearlstone
       • when given category names as retrieval cues this helped. suggests organisation at recall
   • the bad bits
     • schemas could result in errors in encoding
     • intuitive prediction - saying a word that wasn't listed as it is in the same schema
     • children are better - schemas haven't developed

2. visual mnemonics

   • method of Loci
     • placing to be remembered information at points alone a known route
     • Bower - gave participants a 20 word list to remember
       • 72% memory loci method
       • 28% memory no method
     • Cornoldi et al = got participants to learn a 2000 word text- only a difference in oral recall, not written
     • evalutation
       • hard to use with abstract terms
       • a good visual image ability is needed
       • hard to do with rapid presentation of information
   • pegword method
     • a technique in which each word on a to-be-learned list is associated with those from a previously learned list; an interactive image is formed between the two
     • Morris & Reid - found twice as many words recalled using the peg word method
     • limitations
       • need practice
       • not good for abstract terms
       • different peg words can be confusing

3. verbal mnemonics

   • the story method
     • create a story around the words. this imposes meaning on the to-be-remembered words
     • Bower & Clark
       • 93% vs 13% correct word list with story method vs control method
     • limitations
       • difficult to do with rapid presentation of information
       • you would have to work your way through the whole story to get to the bit of information that you need

4. mind maps

   • Buzan & Buzan - a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea
   • Farrand et al - 10% more remembered in medical students learning 600 words using mind maps vs not
   • Better than just notes ...
     • active involvement in information rather than just copying information
     • makes use of visual memory
     • can visually see association between topics
     • allows more effective organisation