Oral Directions: Remembering What to Do When

Abstract

Five experiments were conducted in an attempt to determine if students' memory for oral directions could be enhanced. Experiment 1 contrasted a mnemonic (one is a bun) condition with a control condition in student learning of a set of directions they carried out. A free-recall posttest indicated significantly greater overall recall and recall of directions in correct order in the mnemonic condition. Ex periment 2 replicated Experiment 1 with a briefer set of direc tions. The results supported those of Experiment 1. Experi ment 3 contrasted a paraphrase condition (in which students paraphrased directions as they performed them) with a control condition in the learning of a long set of directions. The results revealed significantly superior recall and recall in correct order in the paraphrase condition. Experiment 4 contrasted mnemonic and paraphrase conditions with a control condition in terms of how well students could actually follow a brief set of directions from memory in the completion of a task. The results indicated no significant difference in overall recall of directions between the mnemonic and paraphrase conditions. Each, however, resulted in significantly greater levels of recall than did the control condition. In addition, subjects in the mnemonic condition recalled significantly more directions in correct order than did subjects in the paraphrase or control conditions. Further, subjects in the paraphrase condition re called significantly more directions in correct order than did subjects in the control condition. Experiment 5 replicated Ex periment 3 but had students follow a long list of directions from memory in the completion of a task. The results in dicated significantly greater overall recall in the paraphrase condition. However, no significant differences were observed in recall in correct order.