Mnemonic Systems in Free Recall

Abstract

A variety of mnemonic instructions were compared in a final recall of 6 lists of 10 words each. Various types of imagery instruction were contrasted with verbal mnemonic techniques on both abstract and concrete words. None of the instructions influenced recall of abstract word lists. On concrete lists both imagery and story construction instructions led to improved recall. An analysis of clustering indicated a significant degree of organization on the basis of E-contrived lists which was directly related to recall performance. The several “peg-word” techniques did not produce strong recall effects even on concrete word lists. A possible explanation was offered in terms of potential conflict of retrieval strategies for the “peg-word” conditions. Arguments implicate imagery in all effective mnemonic techniques.