Nervous Mnemonics: The Study of the Utility of Memory Enhancing Devices

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Nervous Mnemonics The Study of the Utility of
Memory Enhancing Devices

• Kristi Helmkamp
• Michele Neal
• Danelle Pattison
• Hanover College

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Mnemonic Research

• Students did not create memory enhancing images
  on their own- suggests mnemonics only work if
  explicitly given to the student (Hwang Levin,
  2002)
• Keyword method less effective than rote learning
  and hindered recall (Campos, Gonzalez, Amor,
  2003)
• Keyword method was effective in increasing
  learning-other methods resulted in fewer recalled
  words(Uberti, Scruggs, Mastropieri, 2003)

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Research Objective

• To determine the importance of created and given
  mnemonic devices on a persons recall abilities.

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Hypothesis

• We hypothesized that individuals who created
  their own mnemonic device in recalling a list of
  words would be more likely to recall more words
  than those who were provided a specific mnemonic
  device or those who were not provided with a
  mnemonic device at all.

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Procedure

• Sign-up sheets posted and e-mails eliciting
  participants sent- participants could receive
  extra credit for their introductory psychology
  courses
• 21 participants 7 per condition
• 3 males, 18 females

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Procedure cont.

• Created 3 separate conditions with Microsoft
  Power Point presentations
• No mnemonic at all
• Explanatory example mnemonic/irrelevant
• Given specific mnemonic

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What Did They Memorize?

• Two different groups of recall words
• Functions of Blood Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, Food,
  Heat, Waste, Hormones, Disease, Clotting
• Mnemonic Old Charlie Foster Hates Women Having
  Dull Clothes
• Order of Superior Orbital Nerves Lacrinal,
  Frontal, Trochlear, Lateral, Nosocillary,
  Internal, Abduceir
• Mnemonic Lazy French Tarts Lie Naked In
  Anticipation

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Example of Power Point Presentation

• Oxygen

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Proceeding On

• Between each memorization task, participants
  completed a visual task
• Stroop Effect
• First time for meaning
• Blue
• Second time for color
• Red

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Worksheet Given to Participants

•  Code _____________
• Functions of Blood
•  Did you use a mnemonic for recalling the
  information?
• If so, describe the mnemonic.
• If no, please describe how you remembered the
  information.
• If you used a mnemonic, mark how meaningful it
  was in recalling the information.
•  
• 1 2 3 4
  5 6 7
  
  
•   not meaningful very meaningful
• at all
•  
•  

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Findings
Word mnemonic Method of Locii Repetition Mean Wds. Recalled (7.5)
Condition 1 4 2 8 7.3
Condition 2 3 1 11 6.6
Condition 3 12 0 2 6.8
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More Findings

• One-Way ANOVA
• meaning of the mnemonic had significant effects
  on the nerve condition with p.012, but not for
  blood p.71
• no significance was found for the number of
  recalled words and reaction time, however, for
  blood it approached significance with p.085

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Pearsons r Correlation

• A significant correlation was found between the
  of recalled blood words and the meaningfulness of
  the blood mnemonic with r.788, and plt.05
•  

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Limitations

• Small number of participants
• Visual task possibly not long/distracting enough
• Difference in difficulty levels of the stimuli

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Future Directions

• Create more of a time difference between
  memorization and recall
• Use a different variety of words
• Look at a more diverse population