Musical Mnemonic Devices or Method of Loci: Which Promotes Higher Recall of Concrete and Abstract Words?

Mnemonic devices are excellent learning tools to aid in the recall of information. Literature has shown that musical mnemonic devices and the method of loci are two particularly useful mnemonic devices. The literature has also shown that there seems to be some discrepancy as to which one aids in the higher recall of information. This study investigated which learning device— musical mnemonic devices, the method of loci, or rote memorization— promotes a higher recollection of concrete or abstract words after immediate and 5 min recall tasks. The study consisted of 86 participants who were Central Washington University students, ages 18 to 59 years old. The participants were randomly assigned to one of six conditions: the musical mnemonic device condition with concrete words, the musical mnemonic device condition with abstract words, the method of loci with concrete words, the method of loci with abstract words, rote memorization with concrete words or rote memorization with abstract words. The researcher hypothesized that 1) method of loci using concrete words during the immediate recall will result in more words recalled compared to other methods of memorization for concrete and abstract words and times, 2) more concrete words will be recalled than abstract words during the immediate recall, 3) method of loci during the immediate recall will result in the most words recalled, 4) participants using method of loci to recall concrete words will result in the most words recalled compared to other methods of memorization of concrete and abstract words, 5) the method of loci will yield the most words recalled, 6) more concrete words will be recalled than abstract words, and 7) more words will be recalled during the immediate recall than the 5 min delay recall. The results suggested that there was a main effect of time, suggesting that the scores differed between the immediate recall and the 5 min recall task. No significant results were found for the other hypotheses. Future research should include the investigation of a long term delayed recall task and multiple scoring methods.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Experimental Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Corby, Sky M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Mary Radeke
• Susan Lonborg
• Tonya Buchanan

• Mnemonic devices
• method of loci
• musical mnemonic devices
• concreteness
• recall
• Cognitive Psychology
• Psychology
• Social and Behavioral Sciences

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/730

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.cwu.edu:etd-1733