Abstract
The research is concerned with the effectiveness of the peg method (mnemonic device). The aim of this research is to find out if the use of the peg method is effective in helping college students remember information easily as compared to the imagery method. It was to find out whether the subjects who used the peg method to recall information we’re able to recall more words than their counterparts who used the imagery method. The findings of this research support that, the peg method mnemonic strategy is effective in the recall. The research concludes that memorization by sequence plays a role in forgetting.
An enormous range of mnemonics devices has been developed since the ancient Greek period. Mnemonic devices are simply tools that help a person to remember a list (EzineArticles.co 2009) As observed by (Yates, 1926) in (Rodeiger 1980), mnemonic devices have been developed ever since time immemorial to assist in recall whenever it is impossible to use the retrieval cues from the immediate environment.
Since mnemonic devices aid in the recall of information, they have been extensively used by those people who have been exposed to academic training. According to Carlson, Kincaid, Lance, and Hodgson (1976) mnemonic devices are usually divided into two classes; the peg technique and the loci technique. Bower (1) in Carlson, Kincaid, Lance, Hodgson (1976) has demonstrated that the use of the loci method dates back to the ancient Greek period. Cicero, for instance, divided the Loci into two; the selection of the Loci and the construction of the Loci. The Peg method on the other hand has been considered to be a system where words to be learned are clipped onto the peg words. According to (How stuff works 2009), the peg system is the best of all the memory systems. According to Shirai 2007 the peg strategy operates like the keyword method where the target word is remembered by a picture or a scene. This strategy is said to have been developed by Henry Herdson in the mid-1600s. Unlike the other methods, the peg strategy is not dependent on the retrieval of items in progression. Rhyming pegs or visual pegs are the ones that are widely used. In this strategy, one is required to memorize the words that rhyme with the numbers from 1-10. In the“peg strategy,” an individual memorizes a set of hooks on which he will later hang the information to be memorized. For instance, the learning scheme could have two things; One, a bun, and two, a shoe. In this case, if the word chair is to link with two then we could have “chair” visualized with a shoe hanging from it.
Past research has demonstrated that personal differences in the learning and academic performance can be credited to different learning strategies. One of the best learning approaches involves the use of mnemonics. This is so because research that has been in the past reveals that mnemonic as a learning strategy has been linked to better-quality learning and recall or otherwise what is known as memory. Rodger (1980), demonstrated that mostly mnemonics are in form of memory aids that generally center on a given imagery instruction to a group of subjects. This group of the subject is encouraged to represent the material that is supposed to be remembered in the form of mental images. Apart from the most used and researched types of mnemonics the, Loci and the peg method, the other mnemonic technique that is relevant is the Link technique. (Roediger, 1980).
The aim of this technique is to link consecutive pairs of items in an interacting image. In this technique, the memorization of one item eventually leads to the recall of the next item. This technique has an advantage over the others for it is simple and easy to learn. The rationale for this study was to find out if the peg method (a mnemonic device) was effective in helping college students memorize information easily. Another purpose was to find out if the students that used the peg method to recall information were able to memorize more words than their counterparts who used the imagery technique.
Participants
The total number of participants in this study was seven hundred and eighty.
The Participants were grouped into two; the imagery group and the peg method group. Participants grouped under the imagery category were totaling up to three hundred and forty students. In addition, those grouped under the peg method category totaled up to four hundred and forty. The subjects were all first-year psychology students in college. The range of age for these students was seventeen years and above.
Apparatus
A number of apparatus’ were used in this study. The first apparatus was a list of fifteen words that was provided to the subjects. The second apparatus was a watch; and finally, a number of writing materials were provided to the subjects.
Procedure
Starting with the imagery group; participants in this category were given instructions to form flamboyant mental pictures. They were further told to create a mental image every time they saw a word; that is mental a clear mental image of the identified word balancing freely in space against a uniform background. In this process, the subjects were to form images not of the word itself but of the object that the word referred to. It was also made clear to the subjects that recollection of the words is very important. On the other hand, they were not instructed to follow the order of the words. To make the assignment fascinating the participants were ordered to make use of huge and bizarre images so as to make the task appealing.
The participants in the peg method group were given instructions that they were to present themselves in the laboratory every morning for three consecutive days. On their first appearance, the subjects were reminded that in order for them to receive full credit they were supposed to be in attendance in all the sessions. In their first task, they were to study a list of fifteen words that were presented to them. It was upon the participants to ensure that they memorize the fifteen words in their correct order; that is they should try to remember the position of each and every word. The participants were further provided with a sheet containing numbers from 1-15. This list was in column form; they were to recall each word with its exact number, for instance, if 1 was to represent a chair then the participants should be able to relate 1 to the word “chair”. It was not necessary that they remember the first word with its number first, but they could memorize in any order so long as their recall was correct. During this first session, the participants were made familiar with the task by being given a small practice and ordered to recall whatever they had seen and record it in a sheet that was provided to them. The reason for giving this practice in the first session is to help the experimenter identify if he is dealing with participants of similar abilities. To prepare the participants for the next session they were told that the same process would be repeated but this time making use of a different list.
During the third session, the participants were given a list containing numbers 1-15 with spaces beside them. In this session, the participants were instructed to try and remember as many words as possible from whatever they had seen the night before and make sure that they assign the right word to the right number. In case their memory failed them they were instructed to write the word anywhere or at the bottom of the list. The participants were given a maximum of fifteen minutes for this task to try and recall. The data collected from all the first-year psychology students were collated and the means for both the Imagery method and the peg method were calculated.
Results
Table 1. Mean Recall Scores for the Peg Method and Imagery Method Groups
Under this experiment, the participants were given credit for recalling and marching the correct word to the correct number on the list. The figures on the table showed that the result of the peg method was better than those of the Imagery method. The results do not give a statistical analysis of the two groups but reveal that one group (peg method group) appeared to be better than the Imagery method group.
Discussion
The aim of this study was to find out if the peg method (a mnemonic device) was effective in helping college students memorize information easily. In other words, the purpose was to find out whether the students that used the peg method to recall information we’re able to recall more words than their counterparts who used the imagery method. From this study, it is clear that both the peg method and the imagery method had an effect on the process of recalling information on the participants. Participants who were grouped under the imagery conditions were able to recall information but not like their counterparts who recalled more information under the peg method condition. Henry Roediger (1980) demonstrated that the peg method is the most effective in comparison to other mnemonic devices like the Loci, Link, and the Imagery method. He points out that the moment a person learns about the rhyme mnemonic he can be able to remember or memorize a sequence of items or words in their order. In this study, there was no statistical analysis to show whether there was any significant distinction between the two groups. It cannot, therefore, be ascertained if there is any real difference between the two mnemonic methods, but from the results of this study, it can be said that the peg method is better than the imagery method. This finding concurs with the findings done with the past researchers that indeed the peg method is better than any other mnemonic method in the recall of information. This study had a limitation for it did not into account the statistical analysis that was required to show the real difference between the two methods. It is therefore important for future research in this area to consider doing the statistical analysis so as to give accurate and complete research. From this research, it is clear that memorization of words following a particular pattern or sequence can easily lead to forgetting. This is so because forgetting one item that comes first in the list can lead to one forgetting the rest of the items that follow in the list. The peg method overcomes this limitation for it does not require one to follow a particular sequence in memorization.
Recommendation
One big problem with the peg system approach is that it is difficult to find good peg words to represent large numbers that are beyond ten. It is therefore important for people carrying out future research to try and come up with ways of representing numbers greater than ten with words.
References
- Carlson, Kincaid, Lance, 1976 Spontaneous use of Mnemonics and Grade Point Average. The journal of Psychology, (92), 117 -122.
- Daniel Idioine- Shirai. 2007. The Internet TESL Journal (2) Using Mnemonics in Vocabulary Tests. Web.
- Henry L. Roedger, 1980, The Effectiveness of Four Mnemonics in ordering Recall Journal of Experimental Psychology, 6(5), 558-567.
- Howstuffworks.2009. How to improve Your Memory: Peg Systems. Publications International Ltd. Web.
- Velislav Vodov.2009. How to Memorize Ordered Lists Quickly– The Peg Method EzineArticles.com. Web.