Elaborative encoding

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Elaborative encoding is a mnemonic system which uses some form of elaboration, such as an emotional cue, to assist in the retention of memories and knowledge. [1] In this system one attaches an additional piece of information to a memory task which makes it easier to recall. For instance, one may recognize a face easier if character traits are also imparted about the person at the same time.

Contents

Practitioners use multiple techniques, such as the method of loci, the link system, the peg-word method, PAO (person, action, object), etc., to store information in long-term memory and to make it easier to recall this information in the future. One can make such connections visually, spatially, semantically or acoustically.

Types

Method of loci

The method of loci (MOL) relies on spatial relationships between "loci" (e.g., locations on a familiar route or rooms in a familiar building) to arrange and recollect memorial content. [2] An example of MOL would be to remember a grocery list by mentally placing items needed in well known places in one's bedroom. To recall the list one would mentally revisit the bedroom and pick up the items.

In a study published in 2007, Jerome Yesavage and Terrence Rose added another step in using the method of loci which proved to help recall. They instructed their test group "to make a personal judgment of the pleasantness of each visual image association. As predicted, subjects in the Loci Plus Judgment group showed greater improvement in their recall following instruction in the mnemonic." [3]

The point of the link system is to link each successive pair of items in an interacting image or story so that recall of one item in the list should cue recall of the next. [4] These stories or images have to be significant in order to remember the assigned information associated with it. For instance, to remember the following words: chicken, orange, shoe, and school, one creates a narrative, such as: "A chicken ran down the hill in orange shoes to get to school." This process of creating a story attempts to make it easier for a person to recall words that had little to no correlation beforehand. The link system can also be used when learning a new language. [5]

Peg-word method

The peg-word method is based on principles like those embodied in the method of loci. The main difference is that instead of a series of places to be used as storage "locations", one memorizes a set of pegs or hooks on which one can then "hang" the information to be memorized. [4] As with the MOL instead of placing grocery items in a room, imagine that room has "pegs" on which are the items desired to be remembered.

A 1986 experiment tested 73 fifth graders on minerals. For one group they just had free study these minerals, for another group they studied using the Peg-word Method. These were their findings: "In all repetition conditions, mnemonic subjects significantly and substantially outperformed students who were given free study." [6]

PAO (Person, Action, Object)

In this method, one assigns a person, action or object to each item one desires to memorize and creates a storyline out of these items to make them easier to recall. For example, when creating a grocery list, one could assign eggs to Arnold Schwarzenegger, assign apples to "slicing", and potatoes could be assigned to potatoes, resulting in a story of Arnold Schwarzenegger slicing potatoes. The more distinguishable the relationship the easier it will be to retrieve.

Explanation

New information and stimuli tend to be better remembered when they can be associated with old memories and experiences. The efficiency and success of encoding (and subsequent retrieval) is largely dependent upon the type of associations you choose to make. It is generally accepted that the more unusual and meaningful these elaborately encoded memories are, the more successful one will be in trying to retrieve them; this process is referred to as elaborative encoding. [7] This type of encoding helps learning, as it constructs a rich set of integrated memories.

Several theories[ which? ] suggest that the ability to recall information is heightened when physical and mental conditions match those experienced when the information was first encoded. [8] For example, one will often be more successful in recalling a stimulus while chewing bubble gum if one were also chewing gum when one originally encoded the new stimulus. This has also been found to encompass drug and alcohol-induced recollection; people who encoded memories in an intoxicated state were more successful at recalling them when in a similar state later on. [9] Verbal elaboration has also been shown to strengthen mental connections and boost retrieval (see also rehearsal). [10] Because the intensity and effectiveness of encoded connections varies from person to person, it is often difficult to study with consistent results. [11]

Experiments

Age differences

Jennifer Coane (2013) sought to determine whether difference in age can influence the effectiveness of elaborative encoding. [12] She hypothesized that older adults do not normally use elaborative encoding and younger adults are constantly studying and learning new things through semantic processes, so younger people would have a much easier time recalling elaborated information. She also theorized that applying the study methods of young adults to older adults may have a similar effect on the participants' ability to encode information.

Coane tested a young group and an older group using 44 unique word pairs. Coane used three different sub-categories to test both groups: Deep Processing, Study-Study, and Study-Test. Participants in the Study-Study group were allowed to study each of the word pairs in any way they chose for both sessions. The Study-Test group worked similarly except that instead of simply memorizing, they were tested during the second session. Elaborative encoding was truly tested on the participants in the Deep Processing group, where the participants were asked in the first session to create similarities between the word pairs. In the second session they were asked to create a mental image that combined the word pairs. The results of the experiment showed that age overall did not significantly affect the performance of the older group as compared to the young adults, even if the young adults did slightly better.

Elaboration as form of encoding

To test the effectiveness of elaboration as a form of encoding, Bradshaw and Anderson (1982) asked two groups of participants to memorize obscure bits of information about a famous person. [7] In the first group, the participants memorized one single fact, such as "Mozart made a long journey from Munich to Paris." The second group was given two additional facts that were linked to the target sentence, such as "Mozart wanted to leave Munich to avoid a romantic entanglement," or "Mozart was intrigued by musical developments coming out of Paris."

The two additional sentences served as verbal elaborations on the original target sentence and were theorized to strengthen the connections between the three facts. After a week, the participants underwent a cued recall test and were asked to provide the target sentence after hearing the word "Mozart". The study found that the group that was given the two additional sentences had a far easier time recalling the target sentence than those who weren't given the additional facts, indicating that verbal elaborations provided additional connections to the stimulus memory that improved the ability of participants to recall the original target sentence. [13]

Mnemonics

In a study performed by Karpicke and Smith (2012), four experiments were conducted with elaborative study conditions based around mnemonics. [14] The experiments consisted of using imagery-based keyword method for Experiments 1 and 2, a verbal elaboration method for Experiment 3, and identical word pairs in Experiment 4.

In Experiment 1, participants learned uncommon English words paired with their definition and were divided into three groups: repeated retrieval, repeated study, and drop. After each correct recall in the drop group the pair of words were removed from future study and retrieval tasks. After each correct recall of the repeated study group, the word pairs were removed from the study groups but not recall groups. After each correct recall of the retrieval group the words were removed from the recall groups but not the study groups. Subjects were asked to recall the word pairings one week later. Experiment 2 had the same design as the first, but two differences and had the same results as the first experiment. Experiment 3 had similar procedure with Swahili-English word pairs but had a fourth group: repeated elaborations. The results of Experiment 3 showed that long term retention was more effective with repeated retrieval than repeated verbal elaborations. Experiment 4 the subjects were asked to learn word pairs and had different cues for target words or cues that would act as the target word.

Results showed that repeated retrieval enhanced long term memory and mnemonics do not stem from elaborations, unless it was for the first recall. The experimenters do not undermine the effects that elaboration has on a person's ability to learn, it just did not apply in this experiment.

Memory of faces

Eugene Winograd (1981) of Emory University conducted a study to find a correlation between elaborative encoding and the memory of faces. [15] Winograd's theory was that it was easier to remember a person's face based on perceived judgment of honesty, friendliness, or intelligence rather than physical traits like a big nose or bushy eyebrows. Within this study he held two experiments which slightly differed.

In experiment one, he took a lecture hall full of college students and chose them to be his test subjects. These students were shown 72 black and white 35-mm pictures of adult males of varying ages. The pictures only showed the head and shoulders of the men, and were particularly picked so that the faces would not be familiar to the students. Each face was presented for 8 seconds. The subjects were asked one of three questions pertaining to the physical appearance of the pictured men; Does he have a big nose? Does he have straight hair? or does he have a square jaw. Later in the study they were asked one of three questions pertaining to judgments of the men; Does he look friendly? Does he look honest? or does he look intelligent? Later the subjects were shown the faces again and had to say if they remembered the faces or not.

In experiment two, the same steps were followed as in one, but only with 56 faces this time. This time for each picture the subjects were shown, they were asked a series of the same questions. One set of questions pertained to physical traits, such as big ears, thin lips, and bushy eyebrows. All questions were asked in the form of "Does he have..." The other set of questions pertained to characteristic traits, such as friendly, snobbish, and intelligent. These questions were asked in the form of "Does he look..." Again they were asked if they recognized the faces or not.

The findings of Experiments 1 and 2 support the hypothesis that memory for faces is a function of the number of features encoded. It was proposed that the reason why this was so effective was because when the human brain encodes, it is highly informative. The research has shown that the way facial recognition and memory work is by increasing the probability of encoding a distinctive trait.

Applications

Elaborative encoding is a beneficial tool to save and recall information. Since connections can be made whenever any new stimulus enters our perception, the scope of things that can be encoded is nearly limitless. In a practical sense, actively relating new information back to previous knowledge expands and intensifies the web of memories and mental connections.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mnemonic</span> Learning technique that aids remembering

A mnemonic device or memory device is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory, often by associating the information with something that is easier to remember.

Recall in memory refers to the mental process of retrieval of information from the past. Along with encoding and storage, it is one of the three core processes of memory. There are three main types of recall: free recall, cued recall and serial recall. Psychologists test these forms of recall as a way to study the memory processes of humans and animals. Two main theories of the process of recall are the two-stage theory and the theory of encoding specificity.

Memorization is the process of committing something to memory. It is a mental process undertaken in order to store in memory for later recall visual, auditory, or tactical information.

The interference theory is a theory regarding human memory. Interference occurs in learning. The notion is that memories encoded in long-term memory (LTM) are forgotten and cannot be retrieved into short-term memory (STM) because either memory could interfere with the other. There is an immense number of encoded memories within the storage of LTM. The challenge for memory retrieval is recalling the specific memory and working in the temporary workspace provided in STM. Retaining information regarding the relevant time of encoding memories into LTM influences interference strength. There are two types of interference effects: proactive and retroactive interference.

In cognitive psychology, chunking is a process by which small individual pieces of a set of information are bound together to create a meaningful whole later on in memory. The chunks, by which the information is grouped, are meant to improve short-term retention of the material, thus bypassing the limited capacity of working memory and allowing the working memory to be more efficient. A chunk is a collection of basic units that are strongly associated with one another, and have been grouped together and stored in a person's memory. These chunks can be retrieved easily due to their coherent grouping. It is believed that individuals create higher-order cognitive representations of the items within the chunk. The items are more easily remembered as a group than as the individual items themselves. These chunks can be highly subjective because they rely on an individual's perceptions and past experiences, which are linked to the information set. The size of the chunks generally ranges from two to six items but often differs based on language and culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Method of loci</span> Memory techniques adopted in ancient Roman and Greek rhetorical treatises

The method of loci is a strategy for memory enhancement, which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information. The method of loci is also known as the memory journey, memory palace, journey method, memory spaces, or mind palace technique. This method is a mnemonic device adopted in ancient Roman and Greek rhetorical treatises. Many memory contest champions report using this technique to recall faces, digits, and lists of words.

The Levels of Processing model, created by Fergus I. M. Craik and Robert S. Lockhart in 1972, describes memory recall of stimuli as a function of the depth of mental processing. More analysis produce more elaborate and stronger memory than lower levels of processing. Depth of processing falls on a shallow to deep continuum. Shallow processing leads to a fragile memory trace that is susceptible to rapid decay. Conversely, deep processing results in a more durable memory trace. There are three levels of processing in this model. Structural processing, or visual, is when we remember only the physical quality of the word E.g how the word is spelled and how letters look. Phonemic processing includes remembering the word by the way it sounds. E.G the word tall rhymes with fall. Lastly, we have semantic processing in which we encode the meaning of the word with another word that is similar or has similar meaning. Once the word is perceived, the brain allows for a deeper processing.

The title mnemonist refers to an individual with the ability to remember and recall unusually long lists of data, such as unfamiliar names, lists of numbers, entries in books, etc. Some mnemonists also memorize texts such as long poems, speeches, or even entire books of fiction or non-fiction. The term is derived from the term mnemonic, which refers to a strategy to support remembering, but not all mnemonists report using mnemonics. Mnemonists may have superior innate ability to recall or remember, in addition to relying on techniques.

Self-referential encoding is a method of organizing information in one's memory in which one interprets incoming information in relation to oneself, using one's self-concept as a background. Examples include being able to attribute personality traits to oneself or to identify recollected episodes as being personal memories of the past. The implications of self-referential processing are evident in many psychological phenomena. For example, the "cocktail party effect" notes that people attend to the sound of their names even during other conversation or more prominent, distracting noise. Also, people tend to evaluate things related to themselves more positively. For example, people tend to prefer their own initials over other letters. The self-reference effect (SRE) has received the most attention through investigations into memory. The concepts of self-referential encoding and the SRE rely on the notion that relating information to the self during the process of encoding it in memory facilitates recall, hence the effect of self-reference on memory. In essence, researchers have investigated the potential mnemonic properties of self-reference.

Memory has the ability to encode, store and recall information. Memories give an organism the capability to learn and adapt from previous experiences as well as build relationships. Encoding allows a perceived item of use or interest to be converted into a construct that can be stored within the brain and recalled later from long-term memory. Working memory stores information for immediate use or manipulation, which is aided through hooking onto previously archived items already present in the long-term memory of an individual.

The generation effect is a phenomenon whereby information is better remembered if it is generated from one's own mind rather than simply read. Researchers have struggled to account for why the generated information is better recalled than read information, but no single explanation has been sufficient to explain everything.

Articulatory suppression is the process of inhibiting memory performance by speaking while being presented with an item to remember. Most research demonstrates articulatory suppression by requiring an individual to repeatedly say an irrelevant speech sound out loud while being presented with a list of words to recall shortly after. The individual experiences four stages when repeating the irrelevant sound: the intention to speak, programming the speech, articulating the sound or word, and receiving auditory feedback.

Metamemory or Socratic awareness, a type of metacognition, is both the introspective knowledge of one's own memory capabilities and the processes involved in memory self-monitoring. This self-awareness of memory has important implications for how people learn and use memories. When studying, for example, students make judgments of whether they have successfully learned the assigned material and use these decisions, known as "judgments of learning", to allocate study time.

Exceptional memory is the ability to have accurate and detailed recall in a variety of ways, including hyperthymesia, eidetic memory, synesthesia, and emotional memory. Exceptional memory is also prevalent in those with savant syndrome and mnemonists.

In cognitive psychology, a recall test is a test of memory of mind in which participants are presented with stimuli and then, after a delay, are asked to remember as many of the stimuli as possible. Memory performance can be indicated by measuring the percentage of stimuli the participant was able to recall. An example of this would be studying a list of 10 words and later recalling 5 of them. This is a 50 percent recall. Participants' responses also may be analyzed to determine if there is a pattern in the way items are being recalled from memory. For example, if participants are given a list consisting of types of vegetables and types of fruit, their recall can be assessed to determine whether they grouped vegetables together and fruits together. Recall is also involved when a person is asked to recollect life events, such as graduating high school, or to recall facts they have learned, such as the capital of Florida.

Difference due to memory (Dm) indexes differences in neural activity during the study phase of an experiment for items that subsequently are remembered compared to items that are later forgotten. It is mainly discussed as an event-related potential (ERP) effect that appears in studies employing a subsequent memory paradigm, in which ERPs are recorded when a participant is studying a list of materials and trials are sorted as a function of whether they go on to be remembered or not in the test phase. For meaningful study material, such as words or line drawings, items that are subsequently remembered typically elicit a more positive waveform during the study phase. This difference typically occurs in the range of 400–800 milliseconds (ms) and is generally greatest over centro-parietal recording sites, although these characteristics are modulated by many factors.

The encoding specificity principle is the general principle that matching the encoding contexts of information at recall assists in the retrieval of episodic memories. It provides a framework for understanding how the conditions present while encoding information relate to memory and recall of that information.

The enactment effect, also called self-performed task effect is a term that was created in the early 80's to describe the fact that verb phrases are memorized better if a learner performs the described action during learning, compared to just getting the verbal information or seeing someone else perform the action. The use of gestures improves the quantity of phrases that can be recalled, the phrases can be recalled for a longer amount of time, and they can be accessed easier. Knowing that enacting improves memory performance can be useful in education and treatment of patients with memory disorders.

The forward testing effect, also known as test potentiated new learning, is a psychological learning theory which suggests that testing old information can improve learning of new information. Unlike traditional learning theories in educational psychology which have established the positive effect testing has when later attempting to retrieve the same information, the forward testing effect instead suggests that the testing experience itself possesses unique benefits which enhance the learning of new information. This memory effect is also distinct from the 'practice effect' which typically refers to an observed improvement which results from repetition and restudy, as the testing itself is considered as the catalyst for improved recall. Instead, this theory suggests that testing serves not only as a tool for assessment but as a learning tool which can aid in memory recall. The forward testing effect indicates that educators should encourage students to study using testing techniques rather than restudying information repeatedly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Associative interference</span>

Associative interference is a cognitive theory established on the concept of associative learning, which suggests that the brain links related elements. When one element is stimulated, its associates can also be activated. The most known study demonstrating the credibility of this concept was Pavlov's experiment in 1927 which was later developed into the learning procedure known as classical conditioning.

References

  1. ↑ Compare: Groome, David (1999). "6: Long-term memory". In Groome, David (ed.). An Introduction to Cognitive Psychology: Processes and disorders (3 ed.). Hove, East Sussex: Psychology Press (published 2013). p. 168. ISBN   9781317976097 . Retrieved 2017-08-09. Elaborative encoding refers to the formation of associative connections with other memory traces, and this occurs most effectively where meaningful associations can be found.
  2. ↑ Qureshi, Ayisha; Rizvi, Farwa; Syed, Anjum; Shahid, Aqueel; Manzoor, Hana (June 2014). "The method of loci as a mnemonic device to facilitate learning in endocrinology leads to improvement in student performance as measured by assessments". Advances in Physiology Education. 38 (2): 140–144. doi:10.1152/advan.00092.2013. ISSN   1043-4046. PMC   4056179 . PMID   25039085.
  3. ↑ Yesavage, J. A.; Rose, T. L. (1984). "Semantic elaboration and the method of loci: a new trip for older learners". Experimental Aging Research. 10 (3): 155–159. doi:10.1080/03610738408258560. ISSN   0361-073X. PMID   6519145.
  4. 1 2 Roediger III, Henry (1980). "The Effectiveness of Four Mnemonics in Ordering Recall". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory. 6 (5): 558–567. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.6.5.558. S2CID   39395905.
  5. ↑ Hulstijn, Jan (1996-12-28), "Mnemonic methods in foreign language vocabulary learning: Theoretical considerations and pedagogical implications", Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition, Cambridge University Press, pp. 203–224, doi:10.1017/cbo9781139524643.015, ISBN   9780521561327 , retrieved 2022-06-24
  6. ↑ Scruggs, Thomas E.; Mastropieri, Margo A.; Levin, Joel R. (1986-06-01). "Can children effectively reuse the same mnemonic pegwords?". ECTJ. 34 (2): 83–88. doi:10.1007/BF02802580. ISSN   1556-6501. S2CID   59816413.
  7. 1 2 Anderson, J. R.; Gary L. Bradshaw (1982). "Elaborative Encoding as an Explanation of Levels" (PDF). Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 21 (2): 165–174. doi:10.1016/s0022-5371(82)90531-x.
  8. ↑ Najjar, Lawrence J. (1996), The Effects of Multimedia and Elaborative Encoding on Learning (PDF), hdl:1853/3491
  9. ↑ Brown, Scott C.; Craik, Fergus I. M. (2000). "Encoding and Retrieval of Information". In E. Tulving; F. I. M. Craik (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Memory. Oxford University Press. pp. 93–107.
  10. ↑ Bahrick, H. P.; Clark, S.; & Bahrick, P. (1967). "Generalization gradients as indicants of learning and retention of a recognition task". Journal of Experimental Psychology. 75 (4): 464–471. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.599.7638 . doi:10.1037/h0025131.
  11. ↑ Karpicke, Jeffrey D.; Smith, Megan A. (2012-07-01). "Separate mnemonic effects of retrieval practice and elaborative encoding". Journal of Memory and Language. 67 (1): 17–29. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2012.02.004. ISSN   0749-596X.
  12. ↑ Jennifer H. Coane (2013). "Retrieval practice and elaborative encoding benefit memory in younger and older adults". Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. 2 (2): 95–100. doi:10.1016/j.jarmac.2013.04.001.
  13. ↑ Anderson, J. R. (1994). Learning and memory: An integrated approach. New York: Wiley.
  14. ↑ Karpicke, J. D. & Smith, M. A. (2012). "Separate mnemonic effects of retrieval practice and elaborative encoding" (PDF). Journal of Memory and Language. 67 (1): 17–29. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2012.02.004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2016-02-21.
  15. ↑ Winograd, E. (1981). "Elaboration and distinctiveness in memory for faces". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory. 7 (3): 181–190. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.7.3.181. PMID   7241060.
  16. ↑ Knopman DS, Ryberg S (1989). "A Verbal Memory Test With High Predictive Accuracy for Dementia of the Alzheimer". Arch. Neurol. 46 (2): 141–145. doi:10.1001/archneur.1989.00520380041011. PMID   2916953.
  17. ↑ Anschutz, Lucy; Camp, Cameron J.; Markley, Robert P. & Jack J. Kramer (2007). "Remembering mnemonics: A three-year follow-up on the effects of mnemonics training in elderly adults". Experimental Aging Research. 13 (3): 141–143. doi:10.1080/03610738708259315. PMID   3691584.
  18. ↑ Dansereau, Donald F.; Holley, Charles D. (1982-01-01), Flammer, August; Kintsch, Walter (eds.), "Development and Evaluation of a Text Mapping Strategy", Advances in Psychology, Discourse Processing, North-Holland, vol. 8, pp. 536–554, doi:10.1016/s0166-4115(08)62718-1, ISBN   9780444865151 , retrieved 2022-06-24
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