Long-term retention under conditions of intentional learning and the keyword mnemonic

Abstract

This study was designed to assess long-term retention following either keyword learning or rote rehearsal under conditions of intentional learning. A 2 condition (keyword vs. rote rehearsal) × time (immediate vs. delay) completely randomized design was used, with 24 Tagalog language nouns serving as the learning material. All subjects had uniformly high levels of retention on the immediate test of cued recall. However, on the delayed test of cued recall (2 days later), keyword learners had forgotten almost twice the number of items as had subjects who had rehearsed the same material by rote. Long-term forgetting was also greater for the keyword condition than for rote rehearsal when subjects were assessed by a test of associative matching. This pattern of results replicates earlier research that has revealed a detrimental long-term effect of the keyword mnemonic under conditions of incidental learning.