Delayed mnemonic benefits for a combined pegword–keyword strategy, time after time, rhyme after rhyme?

摘要

The pegword method is an organizational mnemonic strategy that is often recommended for remembering ordered lists. However, are memorial benefits maintained over time when students learn several consecutive lists using the same 10 standard pegwords? Questions such as this have been raised about the delayed benefits of the technique, particularly when the pegword method is combined with elements of the familiar mnemonic keyword method. In two experiments in which we compared a combined pegword–keyword strategy with an own-best-method control condition after equating students' initial learning, we found consistent 2- and 5-day-delayed memory advantages for students reusing the combined mnemonic strategy with the same 10 pegwords. Our findings suggest that repeated use of this combined mnemonic approach benefits students' delayed memory for ordered lists of unfamiliar items. Copyright ? 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.