Self-Referencing versus the Keyword Method in Learning Vocabulary Words

Abstract

Immediate and delayed retention for self-referencing and the keyword method were compared. 54 students were randomly assigned to one of four groups, Immediate-Self-reference, Immediate-keyword, Delayed-Self-reference, and Delayed-Keyword. The self-referencing groups were asked to use each of 20 foreign words in a sentence with the word “I” or “me,” and the keyword groups were asked to make an interactive image between the foreign word and its keyword. Each word was shown once for 45 sec. When recall of the English meanings was tested 2 min. or 1 wk. later, for the keyword technique recall was higher at 2 min. but not at 1 wk.