Notes

Teach Me How to Study: How Can Memory Mnemonics Improve Your Abilities to Memorize?
• Question: Can you incorporate a list of words and a mnemonic to help you remember that list? If so, what is the best method to use?
• Hypothesis: According to my question, I hypothesize that I can use mnemonics to remember a list of words and can be more affective compared to without one.
• Variables: In my experiment, the independent variable is the amount of time given (in minutes) to memorize a list of words. My dependent variable is the amount of time (in minutes) that takes a volunteer to recite the list of words.
• Bibliography: http://www.sciencebuddies.org/, http://www.learningassistance.com/2006/january/mnemonics.html, http://www.mindtools.com/memory.html
• Background Research: Memory mnemonics are any techniques that would help you memorize a piece if information.

• Materials:
Paper (16 sheets)
Pencils
Volunteers (6)
Quiet room for testing
A timer that shows seconds
Lab notebook
• Procedure:
1. Develop two lists of words and a corresponding mnemonic for each list.
a. Make each list at least seven words long.
b. Your lists of words are only limited by your own imagination. You can come up with your own lists of words by taking inspiration from the world around you. For example, come up with a mnemonic that corresponds to your parents' grocery list. For more examples of lists you could use, look at the bottom of D. Congos' webpage 9 Types of Mnemonics for Better Memory.
c. When trying to come up with a mnemonic for each list of words, you can look at the mnemonic examples given in the Introduction.
i. For example, you could come up with an acronym that uses the first letter of each word on the list.
ii. Alternatively, you could make a list of words that are descriptive and think of a funny sentence or image that incorporates all of those words.
2. Split your volunteers into two groups; one will be the control group and one will be the experimental group.
3. Clearly write your first list on a sheet or scrap piece of paper. Do not include the mnemonic.
4. In a quiet room without distractions, have every member of the control group look at the list of words you just wrote. Explain what the list is and give them 5 minutes to study the list.
a. Note: If you see that they start to make a mnemonic to memorize the list, tell them not to!
5. After 5 minutes have elapsed, take away the sheet of paper with the list of words. Have the group leave the room and wait for 1 hour. They can watch TV, talk, listen to music, or do homework.
6. After the hour has elapsed, test each member of the control group individually.
a. Have one of the control group volunteers come into the room and recite the words from the list or write them on a blank piece of paper.
b. Make sure nobody else can hear them or see what they write.
c. Use the stopwatch to time how long it takes the volunteer to recall the list and record this in a data table in your lab notebook similar to Table 1, below. Also record in your lab notebook how many words he or she was able to recall correctly.
d. Repeat steps 6a–6c for each volunteer of the control group, always recording your data in your lab notebook.
Volunteer Control or Experimental How long did it take to recall this list? How many words did the volunteer recall correctly? Percentage of Words Recalled Correctly



Table 1. In your lab notebook, create a data table like this one to record your results in.
7. Now clearly write your first list on a sheet or scrap piece of paper but this time do include the mnemonic (if it is something that can be easily written down).
8. Now show the list of words to the volunteers in the experimental group; this time, along with the mnemonic. Explain the list of words to the group and show how the mnemonic works with the list. Let the group examine the list and the mnemonic for 5 minutes.
9. Then repeat steps 5–6 with the experimental group. Remember to always record your data in your lab notebook.
10. Repeat steps 3–9 using the second list and its corresponding mnemonic. This time, switch which group is the control group and which is the experimental group (in other words, if a person was in the control group before and did not receive the mnemonic for the list, they should now be in the experimental group and receive the mnemonic for the new list). Remember to record all of your data in your lab notebook.
11. Now look at the data that you have collected. Do the following calculations for each mnemonic you tested. Record all of your answers in your lab notebook.
a. Calculate the average time that the control group took to recall the list.
i. To calculate the average, add together the amount of time that each person in the control group took to recall the list, and then divide that number by the number of people in the control group.
ii. For example, if there were three people in the control group and they each took 30 seconds, 25 seconds, and 35 seconds to recall the list, the average time that the control group took would be 30 seconds (since the sum of these numbers divided by three is 30).
b. Calculate the average time taken by the experimental group to recall the list.
c. Calculate the percentage of words that each volunteer recalled correctly.
i. To do this, divide the number of words they recalled correctly by the total number of words on the list.
d. Then calculate the average percentage of words recalled correctly for each of the groups.
12. Plot the data you have on two bar graphs.
a. The first graph should show the average percentage of words recalled for the control group and the experimental group for each list used. Label the x-axis List and the y-axis Average Percent Words Recalled. (Make the bars for the control group and experimental group different colors.)
b. The second graph should show the average time taken to recall the list. Label the x-axis List and the y-axis Average Time to Recall List. Again, for each list, plot the results of both the control group and the experimental group.
c. If you would like help building your graphs or would like to make them online, try the following website: Create a Graph.
13. Analyze your results. Look at your graphs and try to draw some conclusions.
a. Is there a difference between the results of the control group and the experimental group?
b. Based on your results, does it look like using mnemonics helps a person remember a list of words accurately?
c. Did using mnemonics help with how fast the volunteers were able to recall the list?












Experiment: