Abstract
Memory is limited in capacity, to aid memory, peg word mnemonics are used. However this particular mnemonic is usually displayed in printed form. This study was thus aimed at testing whether presentations of peg words affect memory. Audio and Visual presentation were used with the contrast of a control group to test this. It was hypothesised that Visual group will out-perform both audio and control group where control group will perform the worst. A Tukey HSD test showed that there was no significance between the groups. It was concluded that presentation method has no effect on memory, though many issues throughout the experiment may have also affected the results.
Introduction
Memory is the process of encoding, storing, and retrieving information (G.Martin, N.Carlson & W.Buskist, 1997) and the three types of memory are - the sensory, short term and long term memory. Short term memory as suggested by G.Martin et al. (1997) is limited in space and will be overwritten when its capacity is attained. To aid memorising, several mnemonic systems were developed. Baddeley (1976) described mnemonic as “schemes for helping to ensure the retention of material which would otherwise be forgotten”. A symbolic example is the peg word mnemonic, which was developed by Miller et al., (1960). This mnemonic system works by using visual images as peg words and relating them to words that need to be remembered. Each peg word needs to rhyme with a corresponding number to form a list. Like other memory aids, the peg word mnemonic helps improve one’s short term memory. As found by Mastropieri and Scruggs (1991) Peg word mnemonics help individuals remember the reasons for the distinction of dinosaurs easily. Furthermore, Mastropieri et al., (1997) discovered that it aids children with learning disabilities in remembering names of the US presidents. However Krinsky and Krinsky (1994) demonstrated that fifth graders tended to forget more with long-term memory when using the...