Human Memory and the New Science of Learning - New Science of Learning - page 98

Table 5.2 Types and examples of mnemonic devices

Mnemonic Description Example

Method of
loci

Learner combines imagery with
specific locations in a familiar
environment, such as the chair, sofa,
lamp, end table, and footstool, in a
living room

Student wanting to remember the first
five elements of the periodic table
visualizes hydrogen at the chair,
helium at the sofa, lithium at the
lamp, and so on

Peg-word
method

Learner memorizes a series of
“pegs”—such as “one is bun” and
“two is shoe”—on which
to-be-remembered information is
hung

A person wanting to get pickles and
carrots at the grocery store
visualizes a pickle in a bun and a
carrot stuck in a shoe

Link method Individual visually links items to be

remembered

A student visualizes homework stuck
in a notebook , which is bound to
his/her textbook , pencil ,and pen
with a rubber band to remember to
take the (italicized) items to class

Key-word
method

Learner uses imagery and rhyming
words to remember unfamiliar
words

A learner remembers that trigo, which
rhymes with tree, is the Spanish
word for wheat by visualizing a
sheaf of wheat sticking out of a tree

First-letter
method

An individual creates a word out of the
first letters of the items to be
remembered

A student creates the word Wajmma to
remember the first six presidents in
order: Washington, Adams,
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and
Adams

Forgetting

Forgetting is the loss of, or inability to retrieve, information from long-term mem-
ory, and it is both a real part of people's everyday lives and an important factor in
learning.
Look again at the model first presented in Fig. 5.1. There we see that information
lost from both sensory memory and working memory is unrecoverable. However,
information in long-term memory has been encoded. Why can't we find it?

Forgetting as Interference

Some experts explain forgetting with the concept interference , the loss of informa-
tion because something learned either before or after detracts from understanding
(Howe, 2004). For example, students learn that the rule for forming singular posses-
sives states that an apostrophe s is added to the singular noun. If their understanding
of the rule for forming singular possessives later interferes with learning the rules for
forming plural possessives and contractions, proactive interference , prior learning
interfering with new understanding, has occurred. On the other hand, if the rules for